Mohammad Hassan:

I was born in 1907 in the Barnala city district of India, part of the British empire. The year after, a plague swept across India and every member of my family succumbed to it except my father, sister and me. I was left without a mother at the age of one. The loss was especially great for my father, and in the following years he resigned from his job as a Police Inspector and decided to leave the country and travel to Makkah on Hajj with me. I was aged four at the time and my sister who was older than I stayed behind.

While we travelled across India to get to the port of Bombay, we stayed at an Inn on one stop. The Innkeeper noticed me playing in the yard and asked my father if I was his. He confirmed that I was, and the Innkeeper, noticing there were no women with us, asked my father who looked after me. I can still recall his answer: “Me on Earth, and Allah from the heavens.”

The Innkeeper then suggested that my father re-marry and that there was a widow who worked for him who wanted to go on Hajj too, so it would take care of two issues at the same time. My father agreed and after Maghrib prayer that very same day, they performed the marriage ceremony. That one incident was a great gift from Allah, as I would only learn later.

We then made our way to the port to the steam ship that was to take us all the way to Jeddah, in Arabia which was part of the Ottoman Empire. We were on that boat for approximately one month. Upon arrival at Jeddah, we travelled on camel back across the Arabian deserts all the way to Makkah. There were no roads at that time whatsoever. I recall passing by the grave of Hawwa (Eve) and my father offering prayers there. Each time I watch ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ it reminds me of that time.

We reached Makkah at the time of the afternoon prayer. It was such a simple place then, and the well of Zam-Zam was just that, a well. My father took me to it and drank some water and passed some to me. I drank it and being a boy of four, not understanding its significance, I spat it out because I didn’t like the taste. That earned me a smack from my father!

At that time, pilgrims were able to enter the sacred Ka’ba so we went inside. Before doing so, my father instructed me to keep my eyes lowered while we were in there (as a sign of respect). If you tell a child not to do something, they inevitably do just that, and I got a second smack for looking up as soon as we entered the Ka’ba!

We had arrived in Makkah two or three months before the hajj. My father never had the chance to perform it though, as he passed away days before it commenced. We missed it that year as we were burying him at the time. I now realise that if Allah had not sent my step-mother to us, I would have been a destitute orphan child on my own and most probably sold as a slave. My step-mother was offered money to sell me, and her response was, ‘his father told me his sister is in India. If you want the boy, take him from his sister in India’. Clearly, she felt that I belonged to my sister and she had a duty to return me to her. She did exactly that a year later after we had performed the Hajj. In those days, if you went to Makkah, you stayed there until you completed the Hajj, even if it meant waiting for an entire year.

Back in India, I lived with my sister and began my education in the Islamia School and completed all my studies in 1923. I then began learning about the hosiery  industry which was just taking off. I attended the Government Hosiery Institute in Ludhiana and passed in 1928. I was awarded 20 rupees by the governor of India during his visit to the Institute because I had produced a scarf that stated ‘welcome’ on it, quiet innovative at the time!

I spent the next few years touring India supplying machines and materials that had been developed in Nottingham in England, to the Indian Hosiery Industry. My business was called Diamond Hosiery and was a lot of hard work. I had my own factory, but unfortunately I had to give it up as at that time all businesses were family ventures, and I had no family to support me in it. It was too much for one person. It was during this time that I met Ghandi at the Taj Mahal. It was a fleeting meeting, if it can even be called that, but a tale worth telling nontheless!

The next stage of my life began when I began studying about medicine dispensing and I managed to gain recognition from the civil hospital and thus start my own chemist. That was a lot easier to manage than the factory. During that time I also got married, and Zainab and I had our first child in 1934. We had five daughters and two sons.

The World Wars changed a lot of peoples’ lives, and those in India were not spared. In 1941 I joined the British Indian Army. I was 34 years old and could not be sent to the front line because I was above the maximum age. The British army personnel insisted that I looked 10 years younger and so listed me as a 24 year old who could fight in the front line. That is why my passport lists my date of birth as being in 1917. I joined the Indian Army Ordinance Care unit which was later renamed the Indian Electrical & Mechanical Engineers unit by Winston Churchill. The Prime Minister had visited our unit and was impressed with the work we did which he thought wasn’t reflected by our title, this renamed us.

I was sent to the front line when the British Indian Army was fighting the tribes on the border which now exists between India and Pakistan. My task was primarily to train the soldiers who were then sent out to fight. Many of these boys died. The only way to deal with it was to view it as a job and do what we were there to do. In times of war, human life is cheapened. There was no room for emotion. It was war. We only found out who had died in the fighting by reading it in the newspaper.

I recall being based quite far away from my family and I requested a transfer on numerous occasions, but all requests were turned down. I then once, while on guard duty, caught my Colonel sneaking back to our camp in the middle of the night, most probably after a secret rendezvous with a woman. I told him I had to report him for leaving the camp without a Captain, however, he agreed to arrange my transfer if I kept silent! Following the end of the war and the Treaty of Armistice, I left India with my family for Pakistan where we started our new lives. We walked most of the way; my wife was pregnant at the time with Shaheen’s father and found it difficult to walk. I tried to carry her as far as I could but only managed a mile and couldn’t carry her any further! Our lives continued in Pakistan until 1965 when I visited the United Kingdom to see a friend. I was really taken with the place and decided to stay here with my family. It was that simple.

My first job in Britain was as a lamp lighter, in Glasgow. In those days, after dark, the close lights did not come on automatically. We walked around and switched them on individually at dusk, and then switched them back off again at dawn. I finally retired in 1982 and decided then to go on my second Hajj.

71 years had passed since my first visit to the Holy Land of Makkah. The first time, we had travelled by sea and trekked across the desert on camel back being guided by the stars. The hills of Saffa and Marwa were simply desert plains and the Ka’ba was not crowded which meant that I could touch the black stone on every Ta’waf. There were no loudspeakers and there were 3 mu’azzins at each minaret shouting the Adhan. On my second visit, we flew in to Jeddah and travelled by car on roads. We could not do the Ta’waf directly around the Ka’ba and had to make do with the upper level of the building. I didn’t touch the black stone even once.

The first time I went on Hajj, it took over a month for us to get to Makkah. I now live in a world where one can perform Isha prayers in Karachi, Fajr prayersin Jeddah and Dhuhr prayers in Makkah, all in the same day.

My generation was very different to my grandson Shaheen’s generation. Our priorities were different, for example, in the event of disputes we would always take the counsel of our elders as our respect for them was unparalleled. If there was a wedding and an elder did not attend we would take our turbans and lay them at their feet to persuade them because their presence was an honour. A lot of things have changed since then.

Shaheen and I spend a lot of time together and a day rarely goes by without my seeing him. I’m proud of the profession he has chosen for himself as my father was a Policeman and I feel that we have roots in the uniform services. We served India under the British Raj, and I honestly believe that things were better organised under them than after independence as free nations. The world has moved very fast, during my lifetime and a lot of things have been invented during this time. I remember the times when I saw the first car and aeroplane, and the first time I saw a telephone and television. I have seen and done a great deal, and been lucky enough to be able to tell the tales.