Proceedings of the Prayer Meeting — Page 12
12 1 ْلَه ُءٓاَزَج ِناَسْحِاْلا اَّلِا ُناَسْحِاْلا Can the reward of goodness be anything but goodness? I now announce to my Jama’at and to the entire audience clearly and with great transparency that the British Government is our benefactor which has conferred great favours upon us. Anyone whose age is sixty or seventy years is well aware of how we endured life during the days of Sikh rule. The many hardships faced by the Muslims in those days are no secret; their recollection makes the body shudder and the heart tremble. During that period Muslims were prohibited from performing acts of worship and other reli- gious obligations, the observance of which being dearer to them than their own lives. Azan, which is prologue to Prayer, was for- bidden to be sounded aloud. If ever a muazzin 2 would mistakenly call out Allah-o-Akbar [Allah is the Greatest] aloud, he would be killed. Likewise, the matter of what is lawful and unlawful in Islam was needlessly interfered with. Once, in a case involving a cow [and its alleged slaughter], five thousand helpless Muslims were put to death. In Batala it so happened that a Sayyed, a resi- dent thereof, on returning home, found a herd of cows crowding his doorstep. He slightly pushed them with the tip of his sword and inadvertently pierced the skin of a cow. Upon this event, the poor fellow was apprehended and it was vociferously proposed that he be executed. In the end, his life was spared after many solicitations, but his hand was chopped off. 1. Surah ar-Rahmaan, 55:61 [Publisher] 2. A person who calls the azan at the appointed times of Prayers. [Publisher]