Fazl-e-Umar — Page 19
Fazle Umar 19 the Promised Messiah [as] sat writing. He had a box of matches in his hands and he was followed by a troop of young friends. They played about in the room for some time, talking and laughing and quarrelling among themselves. Then a bright idea occurred to Mahmud to contrive a new diversion. He secured a quantity of papers (pages of the valuable manuscript of a work the Promised Messiah [as] had in hand), struck a match and set them ablaze. They crackled and curled and in a moment there was nothing left of them but a heap of ashes, or a charred bit or two, which the wind blew away. This pleasant pastime over, the children trooped out of the room and busied themselves in other pursuits. The Promised Messiah [as] remained absorbed in writing, undisturbed, and unconscious of the noise and commotion that had occurred in the room. After some time he felt the necessity to consult some back page to get the sequence of ideas and he rose to get it. But the required page was nowhere to be seen and in the room was a heap of ashes. Inquiries having been made and the truth of the matter ascertained, the children were frightened and members of the household too were apprehensive in view of the valuable nature of the papers. The Promised Messiah [as] however, on being told only remarked smilingly, ‘that’s all right. It does not matter. The Almighty God it seems intends to give me the power to write to much better effect than I had done previously so by this means he has destroyed what I had written” 4 P A R E n TA L T R A I n I n G This tolerance and forbearance by no means meant that, God forbid, the Promised Messiah [as] did not appreciate how to bring up children, or was like such mothers who spoil their children out of unconditional love. In fact, Huzur’s training of children was very unique and subtle. As will become