First Grain of Sand — Page 176
160 FIRST GRAIN OF SAND وَاللهِ إِنِّي فَاعِزُ وَمُعَزَّر وَاللَّهِ يَأْ تِي وَقْتُ فَتَحْيِ وَ نُصْرَتِيْ God is my Witness, the time of my victory is near. O people, listen, God is my Witness that I will be successful. إِمَامُ الْأَنَامِ الْمُصْطَفَى الْمُتَخَيَّر وَاللهِ يُثْنِي فِي البِلَادِ إِمَامُنَا God is my Witness, songs of praise for Prophet Muhammadsas will be sung all over the world. That perfect Imam, who is the leader and chosen Messenger for the entire world. I remember very clearly that the Russian people would listen very well whenever they heard preaching in the prison. If anyone would unjustifiably respond to me with opposition or hatred, then at the same time other pious souls would consider my words care- fully and behave well. People in Moscow often asked me about India and took great interest in what I shared. They also asked many things about the British government. Based on these con- versations, I inferred that whatever Russians learned from their government about the British government was grossly exagger- ated propaganda—in the same way that the British government exaggerated its propaganda against the Soviet government. But it is a fact that the individual freedoms one gets in the Soviet Union [such as religious freedom] are almost nothing compared to the freedoms vouchsafed by the British government for its citizens. In fact, once during an interrogation, a Soviet officer asked me what I saw as the difference between the British government and the Soviet government. I told him that although I am not a political man who pays attention to these things because I am a