Fazl-e-Umar — Page 18
Fazle Umar 18 for his petulance. ‘I wish to go to that star!’ he now wailed over and over again. But the loving patience of the Promised Messiah [as] was in no way ruffled by this impossible demand. Instead, he was rather amused by it, and I heard him saying softly to himself, ‘I had tried to divert his attention, but he has discovered in that a new reason to continue crying. ’ The child fell asleep only when he was too tired to cry any more, however, throughout the whole episode there never was a harsh tone in the voice of the Promised Messiah. ” 3 Reflecting upon this child’s later life we learn that his longing wish to go to the stars was certainly pointing to his high aims that continued to spur him throughout his life on his inexhaustible power of effort and activity. Moreover, the incident sheds light upon the Promised Messiah’s love, kindness and tolerance towards children. He never thought himself too grand for any task even though his every moment was filled with a crushing workload. One must bear in mind that apart from writing over 85 books, he replied to around 90,000 letters. This amounts to 35 letters per day! He did this unaided without any secretaries or assistants. He also received around 60,000 visitors who gathered to hear his claim to be the Promised Messiah. Hence, during those few precious hours of rest, he nurses a crying child by cradling him in his loving arms until he falls asleep of his own will. This was an example of his very high moral standard. This episode is from very early childhood. There is another similar incident in later life that tested his patience and restraint still further. God Almighty had blessed the Promised Messiah [as] with a huge amount of patience and forbearance. Allah Almighty blessed him with an abundantly kind and affectionate heart making it difficult for him to lose patience with children. Whatever the reason may be Huzur’s patience and forbearance with this child was extraordinary as is manifest from the incident below, also related by Hadhrat Maulvi Abdul Kareem [ra] : “When in his fourth or fifth year, Mahmud one day came into the room where