Proceedings of the Prayer Meeting — Page 17
The Sermon 17 he has defiled us. ’ The official was aware that the government had changed and the old Sikh Regime no longer existed. Yet, he asked politely, ‘Why did you make the call to prayer out loud?’ The sol- dier stepped forward and said, ‘It was not he, but I who made the call to prayer. ’ The official said [addressing the crowd], ‘Wretches! Why do you raise an uproar? Cows are now openly slaughtered in Lahore without any restriction, and here you are fretting over the azan. Go quietly and hold your peace. ’ In short, the sincere truth that proceeds from our heart is that it would be utterly ungrateful and disloyal on our part if we did not acknowledge the favour of a people who have lifted us from the depths of oppression. Aside from this, great ignorance ran rampant in the Punjab. An old man, Kammay Shah, narrates that he had seen his mentor pray fervently to be able to see Sahih al-Bukhari even if for once. At times, thinking how impossible it was to have a look at it, he cried so much during the prayer that he almost choked on it. Now, that very Bukhari is available in Amritsar and Lahore for two to four rupees. There used to be one maulawi Sher Muhammad who somewhere happened upon a few pages of Ihyaa-ul-Uloom. For a long time he would show them with great delight and pride to the worshippers after each prayer, saying, ‘Look, this is Ihyaa- ul-Uloom. ’ He was so anxious to get a hold of the complete book from somewhere. Ihyaa-ul-Uloom is now available everywhere in published form. In short, through the blessing of the arrival of the British, the spiritual eye of the people has opened as well, and Almighty God is well aware of how much patronage was extended to religion through this Government which would not have even been possible in any other government. Through the blessing of