Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 199
181 suspicions about the jama’at. If you deem proper, you may clarify with me’. He said that the shop was not the right place for that. I suggested that we could move to the place of his choice. He started avoiding the issue but my friends prompted him. He stood up angrily, got hold of my arm and took me to an open space near the market. He started speaking with a loud voice. Within a few minutes hundreds of people gathered there. We started discussing in Arabic. His style was that of Pakistani maulvis which he had learnt in Saudi Arabia. We debated for about one hour. He spoke with anger, while before responding I recited darood every time. That impressed the audience very much. In that situation his anger was noteworthy. In view of gravity of the situation some people intervened to end the debate. The ustaz went away but I stood there. Several people came to me enquiring about the jama’at. One person standing there heard the debate. When everybody had left, he came to me and said that he would like to be an Ahmadi because listening to your debate I have concluded that you are on the right path. Although, the debate was conducted in Arabic and that man was just a farmer who probably never attended a school in his whole life. His village was near Nidofan. Thereafter, by the Grace of Allah, several persons performed bai’at in that village. After a few months, when Hadrat Khalifatul-Masih IV (ra) visited my area in the Gambia, he also came there and performed waqar-e- amal for several days and witnessed the blessings of true khilafat with his own eyes and always took pride in that. Maulana Sa’adi has narrated a beautiful anecdote of similar type: “A court of justice held its proceedings daily in a town. The two