First Grain of Sand — Page 18
2 FIRST GRAIN OF SAND hand deliver a letter he wrote addressed to Hazrat Khalifatul- Masih Ira stating that I am an orphan and humbly requesting him to instruct the principal to allow me to remain in the 5th grade so as not to lose an entire year of my education. When I approached Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih Ira with this letter in hand, Huzoorra read the letter, looked at me, and wrote the recommendation that I should be admitted into the Madrasah Ahmadiyyah [religious ministry school that would later be called Jamia that had recently been established]. (This was his way of advising me to devote my life to the acquisition of religious knowledge that this new class would be dedicated to. ) Because of my young age, I misunderstood that Huzoorra had recommended my admission to the 5th grade. Two days later, my brother clarified to me that Huzoorra had instructed me to be admitted into the school where Arabic is taught and that I would have to read large volumes of Arabic books, gesturing their size with his hand. Thus, he told me to return to Hazrat Khalifatul- Masihra and request again to be admitted into 5th grade in a nor- mal school. Doing as I was told, I went back to Hazrat Khalifatul- Masihra and innocently told him that I do not know Arabic, neither did my father, nor even my grandfather. I said that I was not even fluent in the recitation of the Holy Quran and asked how I would be able to read such large Arabic books. To this, Huzoorra looked at me and enthusiastically said: 'My dear, stud- ying at Madrasah Ahmadiyyah is indeed much better and more useful for you. I swear by God Almighty [as my Witness] that these words by the Khalifah had such a profound impact on me that my strong preconceived desire for high school dissipated. In its