The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 85
85 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN that it was his habit to keep his face bent down as if he was in contemplation. When anybody wanted to join the Movement, he would often warn them, "This is a very grave matter. You should consider it further, take time to reflect whether you would be able to carry the responsibilities, because the way is hard and you might meet many difficulties. " Now, here was a woman whose husband he knew slightly, and he knew he had not yet become a member of the Movement. As soon as he sat down mother said, "Sir, I want to take the covenant. " And he said, "Very good then. Repeat after me the words that I pronounce. " He said those words, and she repeated those after him, and then he prayed, and he left for the prayer service. My mother stayed a little while with his wife, and then we came home. When father came home he went at once to where she was and he enquired, "Did you go?" She said, "Yes, I went. " He asked, "What did you find?" She said, "It is the same person. " He said, "I hope you have made no decision. " She put her hand over her heart and said, "I have taken the covenant. " My father was very agitated and muttered, "That was not well done. " He then called his personal servant and told him, "Make my bed in the next room," whereupon mother said, "Make his bed in the men's guest room. " Father turned to her and asked, "Why?" She said, "Because I have seen and recognized God's light and you are still in the dark. " Now if anybody had told me, I never could have believed that mother could say anything of that kind to father, not because what she said was so grave and serious but because the two of them were truly two bodies and but one soul and it was unthinkable that any serious difference should rise between them. But when she felt it was a matter of her duty to God, nothing else could stand in the way. At that father smiled and turned to the servant, and said, "You can go. I know she will win in the end. " Sure enough, within a week, he too, and exactly in accord with a dream of hers, went and made his covenant. I was with him also at that time. We were brought up in an atmosphere of that kind. Three years later on the 16th of September, 1907, when I was fourteen and a half, and I happened to be at Qadian, the headquarters of the Movement, which is now in India, with my father during the courts' annual vacation, I too decided - my father had never said anything to me on the subject,