"My Father, Hazrat Maulana Yahya Saheb"

It was never my intention to write a biography of any of these Elders. All I wanted to do was quote some examples of how their relationship with me constituted their favours upon me, for which it is my duty to speak about Allah's ni'mats on me. The incidents mentioned are examples of those favours.

My father was a very intelligent and perceptive person from his young days. Some of his qualities have been mentioned in Tazkira-e-Khaleel. I have heard him say many times as he reported on the authority of his mother, my grandmother, that when he was born, his mother had no milk to feed him and subsequently a midwife fed him, but if she would not have a bath and apply scents daily, he would not drink milk from her. At the time of his being taken off breast-feeding at the age of two, he was already a Hafiz of three quarter para. He completed Hifz at the age of seven years. (I mentioned this in the section where I dealt with my early education.)...

...Many people who saw how he treated me were under the impression that I was not his child but my mother's child from a previous marriage. This was not so, because my mother was for the first time in her life married to my father. He, however, had been previously married to my aunt, who was my mother's elder sister who had passed away soon after marriage.

My father used to tell me that after the death of my aunt, he had prayed to get married to my mother because he had seen the beauty and good character of her sister. After much effort, he succeeded. Thereafter, it was only natural that he should love me. But in my case, his love for me was hidden by the stern upbringing he gave me. That was in conformity with the Hadith:

"Never does a father give his son anything better than good character." (Mishkat)

"That a man shall teach his child good manners will be better for him than to give one saa' (three and a half sier) in charity." (Mishkat, Tirmidhi)

Because of these Hadith, my father believed that his love for me was to teach me proper behaviour, good manners and good character. No doubt at that time I was very dissatisfied as one would naturally expect from a child. But now, I only make lots of dua for him for his favours, because it was because of his harshness and stern attitude that I am now a human being. Had it not been this way, I wonder where I would have landed, despised and disgraced.

to be continued inshaa allah