True Teachings Of Islam

Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem

   Chapter 19 – Son Abid’s Education

Teachers’ Dedication

Father had dedicated his life to raise his children to emulate the Holy Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessings of Allah on him) because God Almighty had made him the Best Exemplar.

La-qud-kaa-na-la-koom-fe-ra-soo-lil-laa-hay-oos-wa-toon-ha-sa-na-toon                                                                                                                                   سوۡرَةُ الاٴحزَاب  –  Ch: 033, Verse 022  Surely there has been for you in the Messenger of Allah the Best  Exemplar  –                                                                                                                                            033:022

Father sought for me the best educational institute that would continue what he had started. He was the Senior Civil Judge in 1950 in Lyallpur (now Faisal Abad). He went to Lahore High Court for an official business. Later he visited the Head of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, Khaleefatool Massih II r.a. There he met Hafiz Mirza Nasir Ahmad, the principal of T I College. He talked of his son, me, who had just matriculated, and the principal recommended his college.

Back home Father told me, 14, that he had decided to send me to Talim-ul-Islam College in Lahore. I can’t exactly recollect my fear or excitement of going to live in college dorm away from home. But what I later experienced was an entirely new kind of life I had never even imagined.

Firstly, the college imparted secular education like all other colleges. Like most first year college students away from home for the first time, I made my choices freely. I entered sports full steam. I pursued the bodybuilding in which Father had entered us since our childhood.

Secondly, Ahmadi professors provided dedicated attention to such Ahmadi students whose parents had permitted or requested for that. Father had ensured that I was one such student. I got a dozen professors acting as big-brothers, teaching, training, tutoring and mentoring me. They diligently contributed to what I became, and for which I remain ever so grateful to them all.

Thirdly, Ahmadi students who resided in the college dormitory Fazl-e-Omar Hostel were provided an additional layer of supervision, guidance and closeness with the Ahmadiyya culture.  Students naturally benefited from such personalized attention. But in my case, Father’s physical absence got substituted with the physical presence and eyes of dozens of dedicated Ahmadi educators who all watched their wards closely, around the clock, rendering whenever and whatever help was needed. I received this triple dose of supervision, education, tutoring and mentoring that Father had orchestrated. My unique situation left a massive treasure of wonderful memories.

Teachers’ Supervision

  Some may now interpret Father’s one pair of eyes substituted by dozens of others had practically extended Father’s supervision and that was tantamount to my living in a glass enclosure or large jail. But I admit that I liked all that focus. Why?

Perhaps because I took all that attention as the limelight to which I was used since my birth as the first son of Father who was the oldest of his siblings and the first son of my mother who was the oldest of her siblings.

Perhaps because I took all that affection as the continuation of love that I had received from relatives and was most aware of it as the oldest of the seven 1-to-13-year-old children who had lost their mother a short time before.

Perhaps because the reality is that the Arabic word كَ (ka) is a pronoun that means you. The Holy Qor-aan has innumerably used this word in its Commandments and Prohibitions. Invariably the initial addressee is the Holy Prophet s.a.w but the ultimate addressees are all human beings (002:005). Father taught that in reality the Holy Qor-aan was God’s letter addressed to each of us.

Perhaps because my perception was that the atmosphere around me advancing what Father had taught since our childhood was the norm. I subconsciously strove to become (as said by a saint Khaleefatool Massih II r.a) a little Mohammed because of an impact on my mind for continually heard the following since I was a child.

Wa-maa-ur-sul-naa-ka-il-laa-rah-ma-tun-lil-aa-la-meen  سُوۡرَةُ الاٴنبیَاء – Ch: 021, Verse 108 And We did not send you except as a blessing for the Worlds  –   021:108

Perhaps because I took T I College education as the next sequential step to what Father had started at home in rearing us all his children to play the leadership role in life. I experienced that phenomenon again some 30 years later in the American school system which right from the get-go cultivates in its students the qualities of independence, self-confidence, self-reliance, self-respect, leadership, reaching out to help others, and thrive in a fierce competition.

Whatever the reason, I loved the attention from everyone all around me in the T I college. I liked the reaffirmation I found of what Father had tutored that there was No God Other Than Allah and that nothing came or stood between me and my Creator, the Almighty God.

Teachers’ Contribution

Father wanted the best possible rounded education for all his children. I got that. For five years I received a state-of-the-art secular education and personal attention of selfless, sincere and devoted teachers.                                                                                                      Professor Soofi Busharat-ur-Rahman taught me Arabic.                                                            Professor Faiz-ur-Rahman taught me economics.                                                                    Professor Rana Maqbool Ilahi taught me math.                                                                    Professors Abbas bin Abdul Qadir and Rana Ehsan Ilahi taught me English.                          Maulvi Ghulam Ahmad Buddomullhi and Khan Arjmand Khan taught me theology.         Professor Mirza Majeed Ahmed taught me Moslem history.                                                        Professor Chaudhry Mohammed Ali hostel Superintendent watched boarders like a hawk.  Principal Hafiz Mirza Nasir Ahmad r.a. controlled sports that then was my sole interest.

Father was known by most of these educators, and I could hardly hide from them ever, anywhere, even if I wanted to. I was the fortunate one to learn from them all because of the decision that Abba Ji made in 1950 in Ratan Bagh, Lahore.

Father could have sent me to any college in the country, but he chose T I College. Looking in hindsight I can say that the whale of the time I had in T I College was not what I would have gotten anywhere else. Abb Ji chose and I became a life-long practitioner of my alma mater’s motto Ilm-O-Uml meaning Knowledge and Action and depicts the western philosophy to Learn and Earn.

These truly great men practically volunteered to render real service to Islam and sincerely shape the future of Ahmadi boys by receiving peanut-size salary that in today’s money barely equal to three dollars ($3.00) a month.

Thank God that I learnt so much there. If I can ever pass even a fraction of what I got there to any of my or other children, family, friends, clients and others, I will consider that my greatest honor and good fortune that I could repay part of that debt and gratitude to  society.

Teachings Unlimited

Besides the teachers there were others who taught us ever ready their crafts they knew.

Compounder Noor Mohammed ran the dispensary and ever so generously provided the medications I needed all the time with my tendency to fall victim to sore throat and colds.

Canteen Operator Mirza Sahib wooed my eating butter, drinking milk and other good stuff he sold. Later as the Lawyers Bar Room contractor he prepared for me the special veggie lunches.

College-orderly Shadi and hostel-orderly Maulvi Hasan Din were there to oblige whenever asked for a favor because I was the Judge’s Son.

Oarsman Bashir at the River Ravi coached me on rowing. I got soars on palms and he told me to harden them by heating them. He encouraged saying it was the first step to becoming a good rower. He called me Judge Sahib because of my Father. He became a friend for the next 25 years.

I rowed and rowed. My confidence was not shaken even when told that a relative had drowned in the treacherous river currents. I rowed on windy days upstream for miles and enjoyed the huge wavy fast floats back to the pavilion. I rowed in moonlight all night in College picnics.

The 1959 Annual Convocation of the Punjab University Oriental College was attended by students, parents and the Faculty. The Vice-Chancellor Bashir Hussain gave out prizes in the ceremony. While pursuing the master’s degree in Arabic, it was no big deal for me to have won prizes in academics, extra-curricular activities, sports and rowing. As the College Principal called me for the umpteenth time to step forward to receive my first prizes in all four rowing events as well, the Vice Chancellor whispered to me you should be ashamed for bagging all those prizes. The sensitive mike picked up the whisper and the lawn-full audience burst into roaring laughter. I was amused to hear a friend say, “Yar, a one-eyed man is the king among blinds.”

Learning Environment

Learning extended beyond college. Professor Chaudhry Mohammed Ali supervised our T I College students. In winter we visited Karachi and Pakistan Navy ships. In summer together with other colleges students we visited the historical site Haruppa and attended several 14-day UOTC camps in Bourban and Nathyagali. But our offering congregational prayers and other virtuous conduct always distinguished the TI college contingent from other student groups.

Outside the college premises even the milk-vendor loved my business. He was enthralled to hear the day I told him that for one week I was going to eat all I could, the special diet of drinking milk and lussi (buttermilk), and eating milk-products like yogurt, burfee and khoya.

The reason was that some fellow students opposed my view that milk by itself was a wholesome food, and that one could live on it healthily. They challenged me to prove my point.

I agreed to the proposal to live on milk and milk products for one week and eat no other food or fruit, continue my aggressive participation in sports and not lose any weight. If I won, they were to (a) pay the milk-vendor the entire bill for the milk and milk-products I consumed that week and (b) pay me five rupees. If I lost, I had to pay for all that milk and pay them five rupees – which at that time for us T I College students was a big deal.

I had an additional army of my colleagues monitoring me every hour of the day for one week to watch and catch me eating anything anywhere besides the milk and milk products from only that milk-vendor. But they did not know my appetite for milk and how I love it.

I weighed going in the week and again at the end of the week. That week I did not eat a thing besides the agreed menu and worked at the sports as usual but gained about five pounds. And, yes, the milk-shop never got tired of asking me when I was next going on that special diet.

I did not have an iota of doubt in my mind in accepting the challenge because Father had raised us with milk as one constant, non-excusable and indispensable part of our daily food. He was following what the Holy Qor-aan had said.

Wa-in-na-la-koom-fil-un-aa-may-la-ib-ra-ton                                                                        Noos-qee-koom-mim-maa-fee-bo-too-nay-haa                                                                            Wa-la-koom-fe-haa-ma-naa-fay-o-ka-see-ra-toon                                                                      Wa-min-haa-tau-ko-loon                                             سُوۡرَةُ المؤمنون     –  Ch: 023, Verse 022

And most certainly you have a lesson for you in the cattle.                                          We provide you as drink what comes out of their bellies                                              And for you in that are lots of benefits                                                                          And from that you eat – 023:022

Some scientists may have different opinions on the consuming of cow or buffalo milk by humans, but I am talking of my father’s actions and beliefs in the early twentieth century.

The Final Step

Father had put me through and financed nine years of my college education all the way to get the Law (LLB) and Masters (Ma Arabic) degrees. Sending a child for higher education overseas in those days was the most coveted thing.

In 1957 Father was about 57-year-old when he retired from Judgeship. Soon he appeared to me like a fish out of water of his field of law. In 1963 when I decided to go to England for an LLM at my own expense, Father had to decide a new issue.

Father did the Istikhaarah as he did in all critical situations in life. He sought the guidance from the Almighty God with the prayer the Holy Prophet s.a.w used to make the right decision. After all God knows the future that is hidden from man whom he had created.

Kho-lay-qul-in-saa-no-dza-ee-faa                 سُوۡرَةُ النِّسَاء  –  Ch: 004, Verse 029                          Man was created weak –  004:029

Father said that he could not afford to send me abroad for higher education from his salary. So, he decided to do the next best thing he could. He announced to keep my law office open for me till my return. That is how Abba Jir took one more and the final step in my education.

Azam Ali, an Ahmadi Moslem

Chapter 20- Trainer 

Training remotely 

Father wanted to raise his children as practicing Moslems. He was left with no help or choice after the death of our mother Sakina Begum in 1948. Our days always began with his seating us all around him after the Fajr (morning) prayer and teaching us what he wanted.

He taught us Arabic, the Holy Qor-aan, Islamic literature and stories from his own past to inculcate in us good manners and morals. He took our child-reactions on issues he had to judge on family matters like losing wife, seeking second marriage and bringing home a stepmother. He took appropriate action on the complaints by the younger of us against others. He helped us with our school homework if requested, but most often whether asked for it or not. Teaching sessions were concluded before he got ready and went to court, always on time.

When I started my 9^th grade in 1948, I opted for Drawing as an elective. Next morning after the Prayer, Father told me to bring an Arabic Grammar Book to teach from there. I told him I need not study Arabic Grammar anymore since I had chosen Drawing as my elective. That day my school was told to take me out of the Drawing class and put me in the Arabic class.

Father learnt another time that I was going to play a part in a school Drama. The teacher in-charge was directed to take me out of it since Father didn’t want his son, me, “to be raised as an Actor.” Father enquired about our schools, teachers, and extended his instructive influence to train and raise us as he wanted, not as what the school or student wanted to do.

Teacher’s Comment

In 1950, I was 14, thin and light in weight when admitted to T I College and just turned 15 when went to live in the dormitory. Father had a reputation and professional status as a well-known figure, well-respected Judge and devoted Ahmadi. And the college staff was genuinely helpful. So, making my own decisions at that time was not considered good.

Father visited me in College three months after my admission. He noticed that I was taller and healthier since he saw me last. He construed my growth as a healthy effect of college environment. He expressed his appreciation to Soofi Busharat-ur-Rehman, a selfless, sincere and saintly but a dedicated strict disciplinarian hostel warden. Out of humility wanting no credit Soofi Sahib deflected Father’s comment by saying, “Yes, because he (me) rows a lot at the river where there is lot of fresh air and oxygen – though he has taken up rowing against my wishes.”

Father gave me a look but spoke no word. He was quiet for a few seconds. I recall my impression of what I saw in my Father’s eyes and how he looked at me. Partly censoring, partly resignation to a young one just grown too old for a spoon-fed corrective training, and part satisfaction that I had stood up for myself and made my own decision. Father openly wished that my grades were higher but appreciated what the College was doing in my education.

In 1955, Soofi Sahib on the eve of my college graduation commented — based upon an Arabic poem he had taught — something like: “Years ago you came to us as a tiny toddler. Today you are going out as a giant.” He bid me farewell with more prayerful words. And the gleam in his eyes told me that he was mighty proud of what he had contributed in educating me.

Another Comment

In autumn of 1950, our college football (called soccer in USA) team was competing for the University Championship. The team lost a chance to win the championship due to injuries caused to the legs and ankles of some players shortly before the match by me. The entanglement occurred in college ground with the hockey stick of a first-year student already playing there.

The team members had kicked the football at me. I was the one who was hit and hurt. When the ball bounced off me, other players kept kicking it back. I was hit and hurt even more. They did that several times. Finally, I could not take it anymore. I started hitting at the ankles and legs of those players who were nearest to me. The opposing team won without playing.

Next day I was summoned to the Principal’s office. The team was there expecting my apologetic explanation and severe disciplinary action. Instead came out me a violent outburst charging the senior classes big bullies who beat up on new arrivals on the campus in a hazing process, openly shouting “How dare you first year fools stand in front of us and argue with us?”

No bully ever bothered me thereafter. The half-angry, half-amused Principal cooled me down and told me I could go. He must have remembered that 1950 incident in the college office when nearly a quarter of century later in 1974 as the Khaleefatool Massih III r.a, he remarked to my Father that all his sons had strong tempers.

Father must have felt a bit embarrassed that training his kids to exercise self-control and self-restraint did not work all the time. But I know he was also grateful that a large part of his training had borne fruits in making his children speak the truth fully, boldly, outspokenly, and not timidly or sheepishly, and that they took a firm stand on what they believed was right.

Teaching Technique

I adored our theology teacher Khan Arjmand Khan. He taught us the Holy Qor-aan, the Hadeeth and Ahmadiyya jurisprudence. He was a tremendous teacher who presented Iss-laam as the easiest and most natural way of life such as stated in the following verse.

Yo-ree-dol-laa-ho-bay-ko-mool-yoos-ra-wa-laa-yo-ree-do-bay-ko-mool-oos-r                                                                                         سُوۡرَةُ البَقَرَة – Ch: 002, Verse 186                           Allah intends ease for you. And He intends no hardship for you – 002:186

He knew that students felt good and learnt better if a teacher talked to them at their level of understanding, not necessarily on the academia’s high-flouted sophisticated level that often is beyond the comprehension of ordinary student. He explained to the class the then red-hot issue of birth-control by pointing out the following.

Wa-laa-tuq-to-loo-auo-laa-da-koom-min-im-laa-q     سُوۡرَةُ الاٴنعَام  –  Ch: 006, Verse 152        Do not kill your children due to poverty – 006:152

Wa-laa-tuq-to-loo-auo-laa-da-koom-khush-ya-ta-im-laaq                                                                                                                                       سُوۡرَةُ بنیٓ اسرآئیل /   الإسرَاء  –  Ch:017, Verse 032        Do not kill your children for fear of poverty – 017:032

Towards the end of my final year in college, after my persistently repeated requests and his dearly dodging denials due to knowing the limited budget of a student during college days, he finally accepted my invitation to have a cup of tea with me in the College canteen. He talked and sipped his tea but did not touch the pastries I had ordered and kept urging him to eat some.

He thanked me on each of my requests but did not touch any pastry. On my umpteenth request, he finally took a piece and thanked me profusely. I assured him that I was honored with the private meeting where I could request his wonderful prayers and that he need not embarrass me with his lavishly worded gratitude.

On leaving the cafeteria he asked me if I knew why he kept thanking me so much. I do not remember what I said. But speaking partly in good humor with a hearty giggle and partly in an earnest teaching mode, he quoted the following from the Holy Qor-aan.

La-in-sha-kur-toom-la-azee-dun-na-koom                 سُوۡرَةُ إبراهیم  –  Ch: 014, Verse 008            If you thank, I will give you more – 014:008

How can anyone forget such affectionate teachers who even in social environments taught valuable lessons of life from the Holy Qor-aan? How can I ever forget such teachings from the Holy Qor-aan taught in such friendly fashion, so casually and yet with a lasting permanency? How can anyone stop talking of my Father who by his intuition or inspiration had found for me such a miraculous life-changing team of dedicated educators of the T I College?

Arab Teachers

After my law in 1957, I got a master’s degree in Arabic in 1959. Algerian Ostaadz Mohammed Al-Arabi encouraged me to speak to him in Arabic. Egyptian Ostaadz Ar-Rohuyyum of the Jaa-me-a-tol-Azhar mandated that I talk to him in Arabic though he didn’t demand that from other students. I am glad they insisted that way.

One concrete benefit of that training reached me 41 years later in Cairo, Egypt. In the year 2000 AD, I went to Hajj like Abba Ji.  The Arab Mo-ullim (Coach) put on Ahraam for Hajj and instructed about 100 English-speaking Hajis in Arabic. A translator struggled to convey that info in broken English to the audience. After a few minutes of agonizingly inadequate translation, I got up and volunteered to do the job. Nearly half an hour later at the end of the meeting I was told by several people that they were glad that I told them in English, and they understood the rites and rituals of Hajj which the Arab Coach gave in Arabic.

My Father and Arabic

My grades in physics and chemistry were low in my first year. Father consulted with the college principal and my tutorial in-charge Soofi Busharat-ur-Rahman. I was transferred from science subject to arts and Arabic class. Some weeks later the trio met again and decided to hold me back from moving up to next class for (a) that would ‘make my foundations stronger,’ (b) I was ‘too fond of playing than studying’ and (c) I ‘was too young for college life anyway.’

Father loved to learn Arabic as the means to understand the Holy Qor-aan better.  AndAnd that goal was transferred over to me for my love of the Holy Qor-aan as a better part of my life.

• His love for Arabic led to teaching us that at home. He explained grammar rules and the effects of punctuation and vowels. He drilled us to pronounce words right because the meanings of Arabic words with the same alphabets changed when pronounced differently. (See Commentary Translations With Grammar Violated)
• His love for Arabic was shared by Hafiz Mirza Nasir Ahmed (a) who memorized the Holy Qor-aan before obtaining a master’s degree from the Oxford U, England.
• His love for Arabic led Soofi Sahib who taught Arabic to be my long-lasting tutor.
• His love for Arabic led to my dropping the Drawing as my elective in school. He often told of a student who exchanged Science for Arabic as his elective. The Arabic teacher always yelled at the student, “O Ghafoorya, sooran day soorya, Toon Arbi shareef chud key kootti scince lil laee; teri maan nay guddiyan they engine chalaanay nain” [O pig of pigs Ghafoor, you left noble Arabic and took … science].

Who knows what type of engineer or scientist or doctor I would have become by continuing with the subjects of drawing, physics and chemistry? But Father’s assertive choice, will and prayers led me to acquire the unbeatable quality of communications in two foreign and truly international languages, the English and the Arabic.

Most parents wish the best for their children. Those who do so by praying to God Almighty seeking guidance first usually make good choices. Their children also find that what might have appeared to be unattractive at inception produced excellent results in the long run.

Father’s whole life was filled with extensively praying and then making decisions in his life, in courts where he judged and in the matters of his children – from eating to dressing to education to marriage and even beyond. His decisions invariably proved fantastic in results even if they outwardly or in the beginning lacked appeal for some.

But for his guidance I would not have learnt Arabic which I feel is an absolute necessity for a Moslem to read the text, understand the meanings, practice the concepts, and share the teachings provided in the Holy Qor-aan.