Ahmadiyyat or The True Islam — Page 125
125 patw a r i (i. e. , a subordinate revenue official), and his statement is as follows: 'Before I became an Ahmadi, I used to be a patw a r i at Winjwan in the Gurdaspur District. Qazi Ni‘matullah of Batala, whom I used to see often used to talk to me of Hadrat Sahib (meaning the Promised Messiah as , but I never paid much heed to his talk. On one occasion when he was very persis- tent I told him that I would write to his Mirza ask- ing the latter to pray for me with respect to a cer- tain matter and that if his prayer was heard I would accept him. I then wrote to Hadrat Sahib, saying that as he claimed to be the Messiah as and a Wal i (i. e. , saint) his prayers ought to be heard, and I re- quested him to pray that God may vouchsafe to me a handsome and gifted male child by whichever of my wives I desired. At the end of my letter I wrote that I had had three wives for many years, but that no child had been born to any of them and that I desired to have a child from my eldest wife, (meaning that as she was growing old there was less hope of a son being born to her). I received a reply written by the late Maulaw i Abdul Kar i m Sahib (who was one of the leading members of the Ahmadiyya Movement and used to act as secretary to the Promised Messiah as ) saying that Hadrat Sa- hib had prayed for me and that God would vouch- safe to me a handsome, gifted and well-disposed son by whichever of my wives I had desired but that I must repent like Zachari as. I lived in those days a life of debauchery, was addicted to liquor