The Holy Ghost took Sadhu Sundar Singh through Baluchistan to the borders of Afghanistan, along the famous Khyber Pass into the country itself. It was here that on a later visit, he had an experience which again threatened his life, but in which the living Presence of God turned the tide that was against him.

He had reached the town of Jalalabad and among that Muslim population his preaching about Jesus, accepted by Islam as one of the prophets, was listened to quietly enough until it became evident that he was being proclaimed as God. Immediately the mood of his listeners changed into open hostility and he was warned that if he did not get out quickly, he would be killed. Night was coming on, and made his way to the only place open to him – the Serai, a place where the caravans of animals and their drivers from Central Asia lodged for the night. There was very little shelter from the bitter cold, and as it had been raining, Sadhu Sundar Singh slept very uneasily it at all. Early in the morning, he got up and was drying his robe by the fire that had been kindled, when he loved and saw at the entrance of the Serai a group of the very men who had been threatening him the night before.

It was an alarming moment. He wondered if they had come to carry out their threat to take him off and kill him. Instead, they stood there looking at him with amazement. What they had expected to see if he was alive at all, was a shuddering half-dead creature, scarcely able to stand. What they saw was a tall well-built, bearded youth obviously in good health, half-clad in his robe, which he was drying, by the fire.

Perhaps they saw more than that. Perhaps there was something about that figure which slightly awed them. At any rate, they stood and talked together, and then one of them came forward and to Sundar’s surprise, bowed to him. Then he admitted that they had come to kill him off if he was not already dead from exposure, but on seeing him alive and evidently, well, they had realized that Allah had preserved him. That being the case, he was urged to come back with them and tell them the message he had come to deliver.

This surprising turn of events resulted in Sundar’s remaining for about a week as a guest in the house of the leader of the group. To what extent he was able effectively to convey his message is uncertain since he did not speak their language, but their whole attitude towards him had changed. They recognized in him one who was preserved by the Supreme Being whom they knew as Allah. The presence of God with His servant had given him an inner power and dignity, which subdued his opponents and commanded their respect. It was to happen many times in the years that lay ahead.