My Mother — Page 72
72 return we ascended to the roof of their house, and as I was about to step on to it, I drew back for I noticed that the roof had disap- peared leaving only a few bare rafters. I warned my companions that the roof had fallen, and expressed my surprise that when we were in the room below, the ceiling had appeared beautiful and well decorated, and now everything was ruined. Then I woke up. This evening when your temperature went up suddenly, I feared lest the second part of my dream was about to be fulfilled, and was distressed. Allah be praised for His reassurance. ’ Early next morning, January 17, 1932, a telegram arrived from Bihar that my father-in-law, Shamshad Ali Khan, had been acci - dentally shot dead and his body was being despatched by train to Qadian for burial. This reminded me of my own dream of twenty years earlier when I was a student in London. In the beginning of January 1912, I dreamt that someone gave me a piece of paper on which was written in Urdu: ‘Shamshad Ali Khan who was the centre of so many hopes passed away on the sixteenth of this month. Note this down; there are many signs in this. ’ On waking up I noted down the item in my notebook. Shamshad Ali Khan was then a student in Government College, Lahore. We were very good friends and corresponded with each other regularly. He was married and had a daughter, who was born in December 1910. At the time when I had this dream she was just over a year old. Shamshad Ali Khan wrote to me in one of his letters that he had seen me in his dream fondling his baby. was fond of Shamshad Ali Khan and loved him like a son. Thus, his house was in a sense adjacent to our house. Next day I went from Lahore to Amritsar and thence accom- panied his body to Qadian. That sad duty performed, I proceeded