Tadhkirah — Page 270
270 the audience was a maulav i whom I did not know and he did not believe in me. He was sitting among the gathering and did not belong to our Jam a‘ at [Community]. I took note of his features. He was slim and white bearded. He interrupted my discourse and said: These are matters relating to the nature of God’s Being and any discussion of them is prohibited. I admonished him: Foolish one, this has nothing to do with the nature of God’s Being. This is holy knowledge concerning Him. I was deeply distressed by his irrelevant interruption and tried to silence him; but he persisted in his mischief which made me angry and I said: The evil-minded divines of this age persist in their mischief, but God will expose them and added some more phrases of the same type, which I do not now recall. Then I called out: Is there anyone who would expel this maulav i from this gathering? Thereupon, I saw someone who looked like my servant Ha mid ‘Al i who seized the maulav i and pushed him out down the stairs. Then I looked up and saw the Holy Prophet, on whom be the peace and blessings of Allah, standing on a large terrace near our gathering as if he had been strolling there and was quite close when the maulav i was expelled. I had not noticed him before but on looking closely now I saw that he was holding the book A’i na-e-Kam ala t-e-Isl a m in his hand. At the place that I have mentioned, which appears to have been printed already, he had placed one of his blessed fingers at the spot where his praise was mentioned and his pure, effective, and high teachings were set out, and another finger at the place where the qualities and the truth and loyalty of his companions, may Allah be pleased with them, were set out. He was smiling and said: