My Mother — Page 26
26 direction the cradle swung the people on that side shouted joy- ously, ‘Hail, Messenger of Allah; Hail, Messenger of Allah. ’ The swing of the cradle in the end seemed to extend over the confines of the earth. This was a revealing spiritual experience of tremendous import. It presaged a multiplicity of events that were all mani- fested in due course. Some time later, she saw in a dream as if she was about to set out for Mecca in the small hours of the morning. She then felt that she was travelling by ekka, a springlass horse-driven hackney contriv ance in common use on dirt tracks in those days. About mid afternoon the driver brought the ekka to a halt close to a ban- yan tree. She told him she had desired to go to Mecca. He said that she had arrived at Mecca. She was surprised that the journey had been performed within the brief space of about twelve hours. She dis mounted, and passing through a street entered a lane in which she went into a house and ascended to the first floor. There she saw a wooden settee on which were placed a large register and a box which had an opening in its lid. She placed her hands around the opening and, bending close to it, supplicated three times in an audible voice, ‘Allah, do forgive my sins. ’ Then she enquired, ‘Will You forgive?’ and received the response clear and firm, ‘I am the Most Forgiving, I shall indeed forgive pro- vided your name is found inscribed in this register. ’ She imagined in her dream that the register contained a record of births and deaths, and wondered whether the village watchman, whose duty it had been, had reported her birth. Soon after she had occasion to visit Data Zaidka, and she mentioned her dream to her father who suggested that her dream