Abdul Masih (missionary)

Abdul Masih was born under the name, Sheikh Salih, to a devout Muslim Family in the town of Delhi.

While Abdul Masih was teaching in Lucknow, he decided to visit Cawnpore where he befriended a British East India Company chaplain named Henry Martyn.

Henry Martyn, who was the Chaplain of the station, would preach to the poor assembled before his door every Sunday afternoon to receive alms.

He began to study Martyn's Urdu translation of the New Testament and befriended two other company chaplains, David Brown and Daniel Corrie.

Bishop Heber describes Abdul Masih, "He is a very fine old man, with a magnificent gray beard, and of much more gentlemanly manners than any Christian native whom I have seen.

He would travel to principal cities and regions and through his respectable character, his loving action and scholarly conversations, he introduced the subject of religion to Muslims of many social statuses.

As the Hymn was sung a second time, Abdul Masih's illness caused him to become disorientated and quickly died on 4 March 1827 at the age of 51.