First Grain of Sand — Page 25
MISSIONARY CLASSES BEGIN IN QADIAN 9 with the thought of doing the same, while perhaps occasionally being able to eat a few chickpeas and filling myself with water. However, within a month of arriving at Jammu, I received a letter from our headquarters informing me that in support of my mis- sion, the Community will provide an allowance of 20 to 25 rupees [less than 2 British pounds sterling] per month plus additional as needed for travel expenses. I was overjoyed to read this, feeling as if I had become very rich for being given so much of a monthly allowance, and thanked God Almighty. At that time, Maulana Jalal-ud-Din Shams was appointed to Agra, where the Aryah Samaj [an aggressive reformist movement within the Hindu community] had created a rebellious move- ment against Islam, and he appropriately and successfully chal- lenged the Aryah movement in that city. The Aryah Samaj had also become very aggressive in those days in Jammu where I was appointed. To address the civil unrest being created by the Aryah, young men from various Muslim communities had already established a young men's association and requested the leaders of different Muslim communities to provide a scholar who could debate the Aryah and counter their false and malicious propaganda against Islam. I was sent to Jammu in response to this request from the youth association and, by the grace of God, was given such success that Muslims in that area would recall it for years to come. In fact, the head of the Aryah Samaj in that area himself admitted that their preachers were helpless when debating with Ahmadi Muslim missionaries. As a result of this success, two young recently trained Aryah preachers requested me to debate the question of reincarnation of the soul. While the debate took place in a private house, a large