My Mother — Page xvi
xvi Women are generally prone to superstition. Hindu women have beaten the record in that respect, but the Muslim women of India and Pakistan, under the influ- ence of their Hindu sisters do not lag far behind them in that respect. In their eagerness to win the crown of moth- erhood they have recourse freely to various types of idol - atrous practices like charms, amulets, circuitings of tombs of holy personages, burning butter in place of oil in lamps, sleeping on the bare floor etc. etc. In this booklet we read about the attitude of Zafrulla Khan’s mother towards a Hindu woman, Jai Devi, a self-styled witch, who claimed to have taken the lives of two of her babies, one after the other. Jai Devi made persistent attempts to blackmail her, but she was steadfast in rejecting every suggestion that savoured of superstition or lack of faith in the Unity of the Almighty. She was inspired by deep human sympathy. This is illustrated by her anxious concern for two Ahrars, a group well known for their hostility towards and persecu- tion of Ahmadis. In one case she severely rebuked Mian Jumman, a faithful family retainer, for seeking to restrain her benevolence towards the grandchildren of a hostile Ahrari Mullah. In another case in which a money-lender in execution of a court decree had attached the cattle of a hostile Ahrari peasant, she paid off the money-lender herself and had the cattle restored to the peasant. This is the type of attitude that distinguishes Islam from other world faiths. In short her genuine sympathy transcended