Seerat-i-Tayyiba — Page 11
11 For this, indeed, Is the Ka’ba of my heart! ( Qadian Ke Arya Aur Ham ) A man who accompanied Hazrat Ahmad on a journey related to me that on occasion the Promised Messiah went to Batala, riding in a palanquin. By this means of transport, the distance between Qadian and Batala would normally take about five hours. As soon as he was clear of the village habitations, Hazrat Ahmad took out his copy of the Holy Quran, from which he began to study the Surah Fatiha, the small opening Surah of the Holy Book, comprising only ten small verses, and all the time he was entirely lost in the contents, as if they were a wide and shoreless sea in the depths of which he continued to swim for pearls in the form of a great and greater understanding of the text. ( Seeratul Mahdi, Part II, pg. 106 ) 7 When the time of the demise of the Promised Messiah drew near, he received Revelations bearing on the event with such repetitions and persistence that another man in his place would have lost his nerve. But since his love of God was of the fullest and most vigorous kind, and his faith in the life to come so firm and unshakeable as though he were seeing it with his own physical eyes, so in spite of repeated tidings of this nature conveyed to him in regard to himself, he continued to work in the service of religion daily, with the usual singleness of purpose and complete absorption, as if nothing disturbing had happened. Feeling, in fact, that he was now soon to meet his Beloved, he redoubled his efforts to gather more and more flowers to be laid at His feet. ( Silsila Ahmadiyya ) This was the same kind of state of mind which we find in the case of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, (peace and blessings of Allah be on him) who in his last illness remarked with great love and ardor: “O my Lord, I am now soon returning to Thee, and I eagerly long for that nearness t o Thee which comes thereafter” ( Bukharee ) 8 Allah appreciated this love of the Promised Messiah in a manner which is quite characteristic of His mercy and graciousness, for addressing Ahmad in one of His Revelations He said: