Be a Playback Speaker For Me
When I was travelling in some western country, I was invited to address a gathering, but I had not been told about what kind of audience it would be. I was just told that the audience would be composed of educated people. Due to some misunderstanding, I thought that the audience would be composed of people from India and Pakistan and, therefore, I could speak in Urdu.
When I reached there in the evening, I saw that many people were sitting in a big hall. On inquiring about them, I was told that they were all English speaking people, and that I would have to address them in English because they did not understand Urdu. For me this news was like a bolt from the blue. Earlier, I had read only prepared papers in English. I had never spoken extempore in English in any gathering.
Very perturbed, I went to a side room and locked the door. Then I performed my ablutions and said two unit of prayer salatul hajah. This is a prayer which is said to ask God for something. When I raised my hand to my eyes they were so full of tears that it was as if a tap had been turned on.
Weeping, I said to God that I was totally helpless and I had to represent an Omnipotent God: “O God, if You command, even the stones will speak out and convey Your message. If You command, even the trees will break their silence and will address mankind. If You command, the earth and the heavens will say what man should have spoken. But, O God, because of the law of test You will never do this. Therefore, now You have no other choice but to help a helpless man like me. Your help should be so great as You have never given anyone before.
O God, in the name of all Your good names, I pray to You to become a playback speaker for me. You speak and I will repeat. Speak in a silent language, and I will repeat Your words. O God, if I do not speak on this occasion, it will be like fleeing from the battlefield, and if You do not help me today, this announcement (of calling people to God) will not be made in a way that is most desirable for You. O God, it is a moment when neither do I have a choice nor do You. O God, this is the moment when the total helplessness of man and the Omnipotence of God, the Creator, have arrived at one level. In such a situation, neither can I renege nor do You have the choice to ignore me.”
After saying these prayers, I came out and sat on the speaker’s chair in the hall. The whole hall was full of people and I was the only speaker. I started speaking in a frenzied manner, and, for about an hour, I continued to speak in English. The whole speech was extempore and fluent. At the end of the speech, I asked the audience if anyone wanted to ask a question. But no question came from the audience. Later someone told me that the audience had been so mesmerized by my language that they just did not dare to ask a question.
After this experience, my life quite unexpectedly entered upon a new phase, that is, I started speaking in English extempore. Speaking in English, giving interviews in English, making speeches in English, all these things had earlier not been a part of my life. Now they became part and parcel of my life and, by the grace of God, this situation still continues.
It was in 1947, when India gained its freedom that I started learning English. But I got no encouragement from anyone. My cousins laughed at me. At that time I was about 30 years of age, so everyone laughed at how I could think of learning a new language at that age. As a matter of common experience, they were right. But by divine succour everything is possible, for I believe, the prayer I made above was without doubt, a prayer with isme-aazam and it is due to the miracle of this prayer that something unexpected became a reality.
