Life of Ahmad — Page 51
as EARLY LIFE 51 Seeing the helpless and pitiable state of the vast number of uneducated people who could not defend their rights in the courts, Ahmad as thought of helping and serving them by becoming a lawyer, which was also the wish of his father. He, therefore, once read some books on law and appeared in the Mukht a r examination, but he did not succeed 7. His friend, L. Bh i m Sain, was the only candidate who came out successful in the examination, concerning which Ahmad as had seen a vision, which was fulfilled. Meanwhile, he went deeper into the question of legal work, realised the various defects and unworthy aspects of the work of a lawyer and gave up the idea. He was destined to do something far better. The Punjab University, which had been recently established, was in need of the services of a professor of Arabic, and Maulaw i Sayyid M i r Hasan suggested to Ahmad as that he should apply for the post, but Ahmad as had no wish to be a teacher in a worldly institution, feeling perhaps that God had ordained him for a far higher appointment in life. Ahmad as had inherited the traditional sense of self-respect and independence which characterised the family. The superintendent of the deputy commissioner’s office, where Ahmad as worked, was Pandit Sahj R a m, 8 and he was a bitter enemy of Islam. 7 There is another report on this point to the effect that he studied the course but changed his mind and did not sit for the examination. 8 Later he became clerk in the commissioner’s office at Amritsar. Ahmad as was one afternoon reading the Holy Quran and all of a sudden he