Perseverance — Page 177
PART III – My Return to the United States 177 never want to touch him. That young woman was now happily married and the mother of five of his children. My wife’s uncles could not present any further arguments nor evidence that a legal stipulation had been broken. When I was in the office of the Third Khal ī fah rta , his Private Secretary asked me how the case was going. I told him that we had not reached any conclusion. He then asked me how long did I plan to be in Pakistan, to which I responded that I would be leaving within the next week. Then he said that that must be the reason this case has become a stalemate. He said that they must be stalling until you leave. He suggested that I meet Muft i Saif-ur-Rahman and tell him that Khal ī fat-ul-Mas īh had ordered that this case be resolved within 7 days of the establishment of the committee. It had already been 10 days and nothing had been settled. As I left the Private Secretary’s office, I met Muft i Saif-ur- Rahman on the way. He told me that he was very sick and was going to Lahore for treatment. I told him that I was going to see Khal ī fat-ul-Mas ī h as-S ā lis 49 to inform him that the 7 days had elapsed and the committee still had not reached a conclusion. He told me not to do that and if I would show up the next morning there would be a decision. We met the next morning in the Am ū r-e-Amma’s office and all the committee members signed a paper stating that according to the Holy Qur’ ā n, A ha d ī th, and law of the land, a divorce had never 49 Meaning the Third in Urdu. This is the same as ath-Th a lith in Arabic. The “th” in this Arabic word is pronounced like the “th” in “thin” and is pronounced as an “s” in Urdu. [Writer]