Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 7
CHAPTER TWO We have available Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's own account of the arrangements made by his father for his education. He says: My elementary education was arranged at home. When I was six or seven years old a tutor was engaged for me who taught me the Holy Quran and a few Persian books. His name was Fazal Ilahi. When I was about ten years old another tutor was appointed for my instruction whose name was Fazal Ahmad. I conceive that as, by the grace of God Almighty, the purpose of my elementary education was to sow the seed of His grace (Fazal) in my mind, the names of both my tutors began with Fazal (Grace). Maulvi Fazal Ahmad Sahib, who was a pious and respectable gentleman, taught me with great attention and diligence. He instructed me in gram- mar and cognate subjects. When I was seventeen or eighteen I read with another Maulvi Sahib for some time whose name was Gul Ali Shah. He had also been appointed by my father for my tuition at Qadian. From him I acquired further knowledge of grammar and studied logic and philosophy with him according to the then current syllabus, as far as God Almighty so willed. My father was an expert physician and I read some books on medicine with him. By that time I had become very fond of reading books, so much so that I paid little attention to anything else. My father repeatedly admonished me to reduce my study of books as he was afraid that too much concentration on books might have an adverse effect on my health and also because he was desirous that, laying aside books, I should begin to take interest in his affairs and should become involved in the problems with which he was preoccupied. He was at that time engaged in litigation in the British courts for the recovery of some of our ancestral villages and he finally succeeded in employing me also in that pursuit. I was so occupied for a long period. I have always regretted that so much of my precious time was wasted in this useless pursuit. My father also committed the superintendence and management of our landed property to me. I had little interest in these matters and in conse- 7