Perseverance — Page 122
122 – the story of al-haj Rashid ahmad american salaam. In fact, it was hard not to express humility in his presence no matter who the person was. I also noticed several other officials who waved their hands as a salute to him from afar and said, “Sal a m S a hib,” as if they did not want to come close to him where they would be forced to publicly acknowledge his spiritual superiority by bowing their heads before him. In this way they could avoid the situation altogether. Hazrat S a hib responded to them with a hand or head gesture acknowledging their salute and returning their sal a m. The Second Khal ī fah ra told me that they wanted me to speak and introduce myself. However, he pointed out that these high government officials are very proud and they would not think very highly of me. These officials were arrogantly walking around showing off their medals and the Second Khal ī fah ra felt they were looking down upon me as an ordinary person of no significance, with no governmental office. The Second Khal ī fah ra asked me if I could speak, and I said yes. Then he asked me what I would say in the speech. I replied that I would talk about the present condition of the Blacks in America. He responded that they wouldn’t be interested in that. He then told me what to say. The way the Second Khal ī fah ra advised me to speak was to treat them as people of no importance. This gave me great insight to the profound mannerism with which the Second Khal ī fah ra would think. To paraphrase, this is what he had dictated to me as I wrote it down: