Perseverance — Page 155
PART III – My Return to the United States 155 I was told to go immediately to the mission house in New York because local Ahmadis were awaiting there to give me a reception. I was driven to the New York mission house where I found six or seven local Ahmadis waiting there with a cake. I knew all of them from before I left for Rabwah. I greeted them and made an impromptu speech of my experiences. Included in this group of Ahmadis was Mustafa Daleel of New York who was originally from North Carolina. The next morning, Khal i l Ahmad N as ir informed me that I must immediately go to St. Louis. He expressed a strong sense of urgency. I boarded a bus that second day and headed towards St. Louis. My wife and children stayed behind. I arrived in St. Louis and established my position there as the local missionary. Brother Ali Razaa was the president of the St. Louis Ahmadiyya Community. The mission house had two floors and an attic, and the St. Louis Jam ā ‘ah consisted of approximately 50 to 100 members. One member, Abdullah Ali, an older African-American brother, was residing in the mission house with his wife, Almas Ali. There was another family living upstairs on the second floor. The head of that family was Abdul Aziz. By the Grace of Allah, his son would later serve as a president of the St. Louis Jam ā ‘ah. I stayed in the attic of the mission house where there was room for one bed and my bags. It was a humble accommodation. We all shared one bathroom on the second floor. While I was in St. Louis, a misunderstanding resulted in my wife and children returning to Pakistan with Maul aw i Ghul a m Yas i n, who was her uncle. I would reunite with them twelve years later.