First Grain of Sand — Page 86
70 FIRST GRAIN OF SAND more people were appointed outside the window of my cell, who would take turns observing my activities from that vantage. They even placed two additional spies in the cell next to mine, which contained mostly Russian prisoners who had permission to visit my cell. Those two spies would come by every now and then and observe what I am doing. When it was my turn for a morning stroll, I would see two additional guards who scrutinized how I looked and walked. At all times, there were people near me on all sides in order to listen in on all my conversations and understand what I spend my time talking about. These activities were so clear and intense that I noticed a change in the behaviour of the inmates around me. The same inmates who would regularly offer me food, would sit by me and offer me tea, and would take my advice and ask questions, now suddenly stopped interacting with me. They distanced themselves from me-no longer offering me food or tea, no longer sitting with me to ask for advice. They no longer would even listen to what I said. This was because it was clear that the government was trying to determine which other inmates had accepted my thoughts and messages, for which reason the inmates were scared to even look in my direction out of the fear that it would incrim- inate them as well. The man who reported me to be a spy, Abdul Qadir, was not only a Muslim but also a trusted employee of the government who had previously praised me for many days. The officer himself doubted that such a great scholar and wise man could leave his relatives and country without reason and, thus, held the view that there must be a reason that I am not sharing. Due to all these cir- cumstances, many government officials turned staunchly against