Perseverance — Page 173
PART III – My Return to the United States 173 Attorney General’s office, walking with the mayor, the mayor looked at me and said, “You can go sell over there across those tracks [i. e. , where the Blacks live]. They’ll buy everything that you have for sale, but don’t come downtown to sell anything. ” I went to the Blacks’ part of town to begin selling. It appeared people didn’t know what to think of me as I was seen walking with the mayor. As I began to sell, it seemed that everyone wanted to buy whatever I had and started to pay me even before looking at the merchandise that I was selling. All of my inventory was sold within a week. CLARIFICATION OF JANAZAH PRAYER The wife of a missionary named Syyed Jawad Al i passed away in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I went there for the funeral. They brought the body inside of the mosque and were about to start the jan ā zah [i. e. , funeral ] prayer. I objected to this and refused to participate in the prayer. Some started to abuse me verbally with insults and one person even said that I should be lynched. Obviously, given the occasion of a funeral, emotions would be expected to run high. However, my responsibility as a missionary was to provide the proper Islamic guidance to the various communities in the United States. I decided to comply and performed the jan ā zah prayer in the mosque along with the congregation, but I wrote a letter requesting a verdict from the Wak ī l-ut-Tabsh ī r in Pakistan, who was S a hibzada Mirz ā Mub a rak Ahmad, the son of the Second Caliph ra. The Wak ī l-ut-Tabsh ī r sent my letter to Muft i Saif-ur-Ra h m a n. The following page has the letter I received in reply.