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 fee ra-soo-lay il-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 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. Father talked of 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 Universal Rules, also called 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 the Holy Qor-aan really 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 having continually heard the following since I was a child.
Wa maa ur-sul naa ka il-laa rah-ma-ton lay il-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 from selfless, sincere and devoted teachers. Professor Soofi Busharat-ur-Rahman taught me Arabic. Professor Faiz-ur-Rahman Faizi 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.
Teaching Unlimited
Besides the teachers there were others who taught us every day 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 son of Judge.
Oarsman Bashir at the River Ravi coached me on rowing. He told me to heat my palms and harden them when they had soars. He encouraged me by saying it was the first step to becoming a good rower. He called me Judge Sahib due to my Father. 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 gathering of 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 a 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 later say, “Yar, a one-eyed man is the king among the 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 Harappa 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 with 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 anything 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 fee il-un-aa-may la ib-ra-ton Noos-qee koom min-maa fee bo-too-nay haa Wa la koom fee 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 there are lots of benefit in it from that you eat. 023:022
Some scientists may have different opinions on the consumptionn 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-qa ul-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 Ji took one more and the final step in my education.
