I was married into the community, so Syedna Taher Saifuddin Saheb was initially a distant influence, limited to a picture on the wall. Until one night when he appeared to me in a dream. He told me that my hands were soft and asked me to fetch water. I filled a lota of water, went towards him, realized that the water was dirty and threw it away, went for a refill and returned. Thereafter the dream faded.

The next morning, I narrated the dream to my husband with the provision that ‘it wasn’t this Syedna’. I saw some picutures before I could ascertain that it was Syedna Taher Saifuddin Saheb. The dream was written down and narrated to Syedna Mohammed urhanuddin Saheb in Bombay that very day. He pronounced that ‘Behen ne kehjo ke jeh ehna dil ma vaat chhey eh poori thaase.’Shifa nu paani was provided. Within a fortnight I had conceived. My daughter was born on 18 Rajab. How could one not be a believer thereafter?

-         Sameena Patherya, Calcutta