Stories from Early Ahmadiyyat — Page 4
4 away. For several generations the family held offices of respectability and honour under the government, but when the Sikhs came into power, the family estate was reduced to a few villages. A noble Sikh leader, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, restored some of it back to the family; but during the British rule, the land was again confiscated and all its privileges forfeited, except for proprietary rights over Qadian and a few surrounding villages. It was in this remote village that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad grew up as a young boy. As he belonged to a well-to-do family, tutors were engaged for his education. They taught him to read the Holy Quran and gave him elementary instruction in Arabic and Persian, Logic, Philosophy, and Grammar. His father, Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Murtaza, was a renowned physician, and had his own library. Young Mirza Ghulam Ahmad would often go into the library and spend most of his time reading books. He loved reading books in seclusion. He loved the Holy Quran and the mosque. He would remain absorbed for hours in the Holy Book and passed most of his time in the mosque, engaged in deep thought and contemplation, offering prayers to Allah for the grant of a true under- standing of the Holy Quran. He had learned to swim and ride at an early age, but