The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 82
82 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN and join us, but he seemed to be utterly unconscious of anything outside of what he was engaged in. My mother, while she was careful of her duties in that respect, enjoyed deeply spiritual experiences through her dreams and visions and, was the recipient occasionally, even of verbal revelation, which guided and influenced her life, showed her the right way at a time of crisis and gave her the courage to follow it. Her life and her experiences were a constant lesson for us. We had not to look for much outside. I shall mention one or two of her experiences as illustrations. Long after my father's death - as a matter of fact, it was in 1935 when I was a Member of the Viceroy's Council and we had moved up to Simla only two or three weeks earlier. We were at The Retreat, which was my official residence. I received a telegram from Hyderabad, Deccan, that one of my very close and dear friends, who was like a brother to me and like a son to my mother - she was very fond of him - who had journeyed down to Hyderabad on some business of his own, was very seriously ill. I told mother and asked her to pray for his recovery. That night I left for Delhi and I was in Delhi just for a day on some business there and was back at Simla the following day. While I was in Delhi, I received a telegram redirected from Simla that my friend had died the previous night. When I got back to Simla, my mother came down immediately when she knew that I had arrived and asked, "What is the news about Inamullah?" - that was my friend's name. I said, "The news that was feared has arrived. " She was caught in the grip of emotion, but she controlled it, and asked, "When did it happen?" I said, "I received the telegram yesterday in Delhi redirected from Simla, and it said the previous night, so it happened the night before last. " She said, "At what time?" I said, "The time was not mentioned in the telegram. We shall know the time when the man whom we despatched immediately on the news of his illness to Hyderabad comes back. " She said, "It was about 3 O'clock. " I asked, "Had you any indication?" She said, "Yes. I had been saying my pre- dawn prayers and had been praying for his recovery and when I finished, I lay down in my bed but instead of snatching another period of sleep before the dawn prayers I thought to myself that I would keep awake and go on praying for his recovery even in bed. Suddenly, I heard, as if somebody was standing next to my bed, voice, 'His current has been cut off at the source. ' I got up immediately and went and