First Grain of Sand — Page 75
A KGB SPY ENTERS OUR MIDST 59 government in the guise of a prisoner, every day after Asr [late afternoon] Prayers he would be called by the government officers to report to them what he had learned about me. The very next day he told them that I am a great scholar and to provide me with two books of the Masnawi right away. Therefore, I began studying the Masnawi in prison. In Tashkent, it was very common to have regular lessons about the Masnawi, and anyone who could give a good lesson on this book was considered a major scholar. With my new book, I mem- orized a few of his [Rumi's] poems while in prison, but when my cellmates asked me some questions, I would oftentimes recite the Persian couplets of the Promised Messiahas, and they would rejoice. Certainly, the poetic expressions of Rumi in Masnawi are rather splendid, but the Persian poems of the Promised Messiahas in comparison are a much loftier manifestation of the love for God Almighty. The Promised Messiahas has so beautifully said about the Prophet Muhammadsas, ‘Those who have deep knowl- edge of God are they who recognize the pure face of the Prophet Muhammad sas, and those who are the true and sincere servants of God are they who possess firm love for the Prophet Muhammadsas. ' After that, Abdul Qadir began to approach those inmates who were political prisoners (including those prisoners who were wealthy businessmen) and tell them that I am a great scholar. In reality, this so-called compliment in fact made me a greater sus- pect in the eyes of the Russian leadership because it led them to think that such a great religious scholar could not have chosen to enter this country for no reason. They assumed the reason I came was to implement some sort of British mission to stir up agita- tion and animosity among the Muslims of Bukhara against the