Fazle Umar
Public speaking and writing
T uition b y Ha dhrat M aulv i Nooru ddi n An important aspect of Hadhrat Musleh Mau’ood’s [ra] education was public speaking and writing. In this discipline it was again Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih I [ra], who by taking a keen interest in his training, became his teacher and counsellor. The strictness with which he assessed Hadhrat Sahibzada Sahib’s essays and speeches sometimes caused heartbreak even though the reason for this harshness was purely because Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih I [ra] had such high expectations. It was to fulfil the criteria upon which these high expectations were based that he scrutinised Hadhrat Mirza Bashiruddin Mahmud Ahmad sahib [ra]. In this connection Hadhrat Sahibzada Sahib states: “I remember it well. When I wrote the first article for the journal Tashheezul Azhan, it received a lot of praise. The Promised Messiah [as] also liked it. Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih I [ra] himself showed it to many people but he said to me, ‘Have you heard the saying – the camel is forty but the toda is forty-two? What does this mean?’ “I admitted that I did not know what a ‘toda’ was. He said that someone asked a camel owner how much he wanted for his camel. He replied, ‘I will take forty rupees for the camel and forty-two for the camel’s baby.’ He enquired why that was so. The camel owner replied, ‘this is because it is a camel as well as the baby of a camel.’ Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih I [ra] stated, ‘I am well versed with your father’s writing. This article is not up to Hadhrat sahib’s standards. I will only be happy
55
