First Grain of Sand — Page 20
4 FIRST GRAIN OF SAND they served, I only ate bread with hot water twice a day, which made me very weak from lack of nutrition. But even in that state of peril, at just the right time, God Almighty would provide me with a nourishing meal such as rice or eggs within the jail. This happened in multiple Soviet prisons. All praise belongs to Allah. This generosity of Hazrat Khalifatul-Masihra left an indelible impression on me. I was very fortunate that the administration of the Madrasah Ahmadiyyah school was vested in the hands of Hazrat Mirza Bashir-ud-Deen Mahmood Ahmad, the venerable son of the Promised Messiahas, who later became the second Khalifah of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community [after the passing of Hazrat Khalifatul-Masih Ira in 1914]. Hazrat Mahmood treated the stu- dents of Madrassa Ahmadiyyah so fairly and with such sincerity and exceptional passion, love, and sympathy as one would not even expect from their own parents. He was very regular in vis- iting classes and inspecting the instruction, while teaching one or two classes himself, and summoning absent students to his office to question them. Once a week, he would join our class and have the students practice delivering speeches. And he would gener- ate a passion and spirit for preaching religion and the message of God in such a way that one could only learn by observing him. He also took particular interest in our extracurricular activities and visited our boarding house regularly to ensure the boarding arrangements and food were satisfactory. He even went so far as to ensure other requirements of the students, such as sports equip- ment, were being properly looked after. He was known to stay up late at night praying for the students and would explore creative ways of nurturing a passion for serving Islam in our hearts.