My Mother — Page 50
50 who gave expression to his delight by announcing, ‘So eager is Nasrullah Khan to win my love the better that he has seated my beloved in his heart. ’ Early during the Second Khilafat, Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih II suggested that he should dedicate himself to the service of the Faith. He responded that he had been eager to do so ever since joining the Movement, and arranged to wind up his affairs and presented himself at Qadian in April 1917. He was appointed Chief Secretary to Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih and also Secretary of the Department of Bahishti Maqbarah. He devoted his evenings to preparing indices for the works of the Promised Messiah. All this was labour of love; the only return he sought for it was Allah’s pleasure. In the summer of 1924, my parents went on pilgrimage to the House of Allah. They took with them Mian Jumman, the family steward. The sea voyage in both directions was made in the mon- soon season. My father suffered greatly from seasickness, but enjoyed every moment thoroughly. At Mina and Arafat there was great scarcity of drinking water that year, and the pil- grims experi enced acute suffering on that account. Thousands died of thirst. The news caused me grave anxiety, which was relieved only by their safe return. had taken with her the sheets that were to serve as shrouds for my father and her when their time came to depart this life, and washed them at Zam Zam, the perennial spring that runs close to the Ka’bah. My father’s were needed two years later and her own twelve years thereafter. The journey left my father in a reduced state of health. In August 1925, my parents and I decided to visit Kashmir.