The next couple of hours were to be the final moments of Hazur’s tour to USA and for me personally they were extremely emotional.
Even whilst we were in Applebees I began to feel emotional as I reflected upon how fortunate I had been to travel with Hazur and to see Allah’s countless blessings first hand.
Whilst sat at the table I became conscious that a few tears were rolling from my eyes down my face and so I immediately wiped them away hoping nobody had noticed.
When we returned to our respective cars we soon passed a sign for ‘Albany’ in upstate New York. When I saw this suddenly the tears began to flow again from my eyes and were covered only by my sunglasses.
The reason that the sign for Albany affected me was that before his passing my father used to tell me how when he had just qualified as a doctor in Pakistan he moved to Albany in America for a period of one year for extra training.
When I was young I used to think that Albany was so far away, but in that moment I realised that Alhamdolillah I had been able to travel close to the city where my father worked more than 40 years ago and it was as part of the Qafila of Hazur‐Aqdas.
I prayed to Allah that may He pass on to my late parents the news that such a rare and wonderful blessing had been bestowed on their youngest child.
I remember vividly an incident a few days prior to my father’s passing. We were sat in a hospital waiting room and the doctor had just given my father some bad news about his health. And so at that time my father said to me that as I was young and he was very ill there would be many moments in my life where he would not be present. He said he would not be there for my marriage or for the birth of my children or for other important landmarks.
He told me to remember just one guiding principle and that was to always stay close to Khilafat. He said that if I followed this then he knew Allah would look after me and I would not suffer in any way.
And so in that moment I thanked Allah from the core of my heart that so far in my life I had been able to stay close to the Khalifa and live under his guidance and love and I prayed that this closeness forever remained and developed, Insha’Allah.