Note 105 — Chapter IX · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN INDIA.

Mawlavī Ḥasan ʻAlī furnished me with these figures some years before his death in 1896. In an obituary notice published in “The Moslem Chronicle” (April 4, 1896), the following quaint account is given of his life: “In private and school life, he was marked as a very intelligent lad and made considerable progress in his scholastic career within a short time. He passed Entrance at a very early age and received scholarship with which he went up to the First Art, but shortly after his innate anxiety to seek truth prompted him to go abroad the world, and abandoning his studies he mixed with persons of different persuasions, Fakirs, Pandits, and Christians, entered churches, and roamed over wilderness and forests and cities with nothing to help him on except his sincere hopes and absolute reliance on the mercy of the Great Lord; for one year he wandered in various regions of religion until in 1874 he accepted the post of a head master in a Patna school.… As he was born to become a missionary of the Moslem faith, he felt an imperceptible craving to quit his post, from which he used to get Rs. 100 per mensem. He tendered his resignation, much to the reluctance of his friends, and maintained himself for some time by publishing a monthly journal, ‘Noorul Islam.’ He gave several lectures on Islam at Patna, and then went to Calcutta, where he delivered his lecture in English, which produced such effect on the audience that several European clergymen vouchsafed the truth of Islam, and a notable gentleman, Babu Bepin Chandra Pal, was about to become Musalman. He was invited by the people at Dacca, where his preachings and lectures left his name imbedded in the hearts of the citizens. His various books and pamphlets and successive lectures in Urdu and in English in the different cities and towns in India gave him a historic name in the world. Some one hundred men became Musalmans on hearing his lectures and reading his books.” His missionary zeal manifested itself up to the last hour of his life, when he was overheard to say, “Abjure your religion and become a Musalman.” On being questioned, he said he was talking to a Christian. ↑