Migration | Senile Delusions...

Justice to Muslims, and the Justice of Muslims

Sunday, September 21st, 2008

One day a man was traveling on his camel with his possessions and his slave. He stopped at a mosque and went inside to pray, leaving the slave to take care of the goods.

When he was gone, the slave climbed on the camel’s back. When the master returned, the slave declared himself as the master and the actual master as his slave. A quarrel ensued.

The matter was then taken to Ali Ibne Abu Talib (A.S.), cousin and son-in-law of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.W.). He was seated on the ground in a field with some of his friends and followers, and his slave Qambar.

Upon hearing the matter, Ali ordered Qambar to make a wall out of mud. He then told Qambar to make two head-sized holes in it. He gave his sword, Zulfiqar, to Qambar to unsheath and hold high above the wall.

Ali addressed the two men and ordered them to put their heads in the holes. They obliged. Ali then turned to Qambar and ordered:

“Behead the slave!”

Upon hearing this, the real slave quickly withdrew his head, got up and ran away screaming.

Ali turned to the remaining man and declared him the real master.

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In another event, two women were brought to Ali. They both claimed they were the mother of the same child.

Ali ordered the child to be brought to court. He then told to cut the child in two and hand a piece to each woman.

Upon hearing this, one woman denounced her claim and asked to give the child to the other woman.

Upon hearing this, Ali ordered the child to be given to the woman who had spoken, saying that a real mother would never allow her child to get hurt, even if it means staying away from him!

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Examples of Ali’s wisdom and generosity are here, here, here and here.

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This is the Ali about whom Umar remarked:

“اگر علی نہ ہوتا تو عمر ہلاک ہو جاتا“

“If Ali had not been, Umar would have been killed!“

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The 19th of Ramazan marks the day Ali was attacked by Abdur-Rehman Ibne Muljim (L.A.), a Kharjite (one of the Remnants from the battle of Naharwan), sent by Muawiyya (L.A.) Ibne Abu Sufyan (L.A.), the Umayyad (L.A.) daddy of the likes of Zakir Naik (L.A.), Israr Ahmed (L.A.), Javed Ghamdi (L.A.) and Amir Liaquat (L.A.).

Ali was leading the Fajr prayers in the mosque of Kufah when Ibne Muljim (L.A.) attacked him with his sword in the second Sajdah (prostration), bifurcating the top of his head from which blood began spurting. After the attack, Ali declared:

“Fuzto Bi-Rab-bil Ka’aba!“

meaning

“By the God of the Ka’aba, Ali has become successful!“

The sword that Ibne Muljim (L.A.) used was heavily poisoned and as soon as the medics examined the wound, they asked Ali(A.S.) to declare his will. (For more information on Ali’s Martyrdom, read this.)

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I’m talking about the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet (S.A.W.W.) whom the Prophet raised in his own house from the age of three months and fed him in such a way that according to Ali:

“He used to put the food in his mouth, soften it up with his tounge and then feed it to me like a bird feeds it’s chick i.e. put it directly in my mouth from his own!“

This is the Ali whom the Prophet (S.A.W.W.) declared as his own brother after the migration to Madinah when he was forming brotherhoods between the Mahajirs and the Ansars.

This is the Ali about whom the Prophet also declared that “Wherever truth goes, Ali will follow and wherever Ali goes, truth will follow!”

Once, Ali was seated with the Prophet (S.A.W.W.). Abu Bakr and Ayesha were also present. Ayesha noted that her father kept his eyes fixed on Ali’s face.

She asked her father, “Why do you keep looking at Ali’s face?”

He replied, “Have you not heard the Prophet say that Allah sends his blessings on Ali’s face and to look at it is the worship of Allah?”

This is the Ali who has the honor and distinction of coming to and leaving this world in the houses of Allah: Born in the Holy Ka’aba itself and martyred in the mosque of Kufah!

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It is a shame to say that none of the channels yet have aired a program on Ali Ibne Abi Talib (A.S.) on the occasion of his martyrdom. Geo TV’s Aamir Liaquat-guided-and-produced anchor did a program in which he informed the viewers that it was the date of the death of the ruler Abdur Rahman Saalis. And who the heck is that?

Our media can go out of their way to investigate and inform about a historical nobody like Abdur Rahman Saalis but fail to even acknowledge the occasion of the attack on perhaps the most popular undisputed personality in the history of Islam, after the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.W.). Why is every information related to the Ahle Bayt (A.S.) of the Prophet (S.A.W.W.) hidden and suppressed by our media and scholars when it is present in coherence in the books of almost all the sects? What is there to be afraid of? Is this stubbornness, jealousy or plain defiance of the Prophet’s (S.A.W.W.) teachings and sayings?

One thing it is for sure, and that is shameless idiocy!

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“Innal-laha As-alukum Alaihin Ajran Illal Mawaddata Fil Qurba!“

“Say: I do not ask of you (followers) any return for it (teachings) but love for my near relatives.”

(Holy Quraan, 42:23)

The verse is popularly known as the Ayah-e-Mawaddah (Verse of Mawaddat or the Verse of Devotion)

The term “Al-Qurba” in this verse, based on the traditions narrated from the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.W.), embraces only “Ali, Fatimah, Hasan, and Husain and no one else”.

The tradition from Ibne Abbas has it that when the “mawaddat ul-qurba” verse was revealed, the Prophet (S.A.W.W.) was asked: “O messenger, who are your near relatives who should be loved?”

He stated: “Ali, Fatimah, and their sons!”

This tradition has been narrated by Muhib Tabari in “Zakhair al-`Uqba” 25/1; Ibn Hanbal in “Manaqib” 110; Mo’min Shabilenji “Nural-Absar” 101; and Zamakhshari in “Kashshaf” as annotation to the said verse.

In the “Tafsir al-Kabir”, Fakhr Razi has related the said narration from “Kashshaf” and has said that based on this verse, Ali, Fatimah, Hasan, and Husain should be revered and sanctified. He has also cited lines of verse from the Shafii’ Imam, Muhammad bin Idris Shafii’ in this regard. A line of it is as follows:

“If love for the members of the Household of the Holy Prophet is heresy, then the world should stand witness that I am a heretic.“

21.09.2008 Ali(A.S.), Enemies of the Ahle Bayt (A.S.), Facts, Fatimah Zehra(S.A.), General Knowledge, Hasan(A.S.), History, Husain(A.S), Muhammad(S.A.W.W.), Pakistan, Rants, Reflections, Religious, Society 18 Comments

HAS PAKISTAN COME?

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Col. Jafri witnessed this story. Tell our children that we didn’t get Pakistan cheap.

By COL. RIAZ JAFRI (RETD.)

Thursday, 14 August 2008.

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — I don’t think I will ever forget what I witnessed as a young man of 17 on an early night of late August 1947 at Bahawal Nagar railway station in the then Bahawalpur state.

I do not remember the exact date but it certainly fell in the later part of the month – around 27^th or so. The subcontinent received its independence from Britain and Pakistan and Bharat emerged as independent states, resulting in the largest exodus of refugees in the history of the mankind. Over fifteen million people were displaced on both sides of the border.

Thousands of families had been torn apart from their dear and near ones in the wake of the bloodiest communal riots that had not seen its parallel before. To the horror of all, religious frenzy turned the erstwhile good neighbors mad and hostile towards each other for no other apparent reason. Though there were a few instances of human compassion between the neighbors on both sides – some even at the risk of their lives – but these were far and few in between. Mostly, while the men folk were mowed down the women were taken alive. Many a wife, daughter, sister or a young mother had been left behind by the fleeing refugees who out of sheer desperation, honor and shame preferred them to be believed dead than alive and kidnapped.

East Punjab Muslims had been the worst hit victims of the communal carnage. They were not only mowed and mauled, cut to pieces by the kirpans and daggers, lances and axes, tokas and gandasas but the beast in the man had ebbed to such abysmal low that the innocent infants were tossed up in the air and their small falling bodies with fluttering arms and legs were plucked and pricked by the sharp shiny lances underneath. Many a young flowering toddler was fried in the boiling oil of the most heinous cauldron of madness in front of the eyes of their helpless mothers and parents. It was also not an uncommon practice to cut open the womb of the pregnant mother to put the unborn to the sword with a most pagan like ritual of shouting and dancing to have eliminated yet another Muslim in the making. Severing of the breasts of the women so that they would not nurse their lactating babies and shearing of the genitals, with at times Kirpans left inside them, rendering them unable to procreate further was considered a methodology of finishing a race. It is not that I recount such atrocities with a view to fanning and fuelling the hatred but to apprise the younger generation of today of the extreme sacrifices made by their elders and the creators of Pakistan.

Bahawal Nagar was the nearest sizeable town with a district headquarters after Mcleod Ganj Road – a small border town with India. Delhi – Bhatinda – Bahawal Nagar – Multan was the shortest route to Lahore and Karachi for the trains to carry the ill-fated refugees and the beleaguered staff escorting and entrusted with the official records of the newly born state from India (Delhi) to Pakistan (Karachi). Bahawal Nagar, as such, was the first place where they could find some solace and succor in their arduous journey to freedom.

I had just passed my matriculation examination from Bahawal Inter College, Bahawal Nagar and in the hindsight I can only pay a rich tribute to the otherwise oft-condemned British Raj, for not only holding the exams in time but also announcing the results on the dot when everything in the subcontinent was in the biggest turmoil that one could imagine. Quite a few of us students had formed impromptu social work groups, with make shift equipment and apparatuses to render whatever help we could to the refugees and immigrants and whenever a train was to arrive we used to gather at the railway station.

On the fateful evening, word went round that a train was arriving around 9 p.m. What we didn’t know was that it had been attacked near Fazilka (India) by the miscreants and most of the refugees on it were in a very bad shape. Blood was all over the compartments, many lay dead, most unconscious breathing heavily and a few were half conscious. We were frantically trying to save as many lives as possible. All we could do was to carry the unconscious and the semi conscious on our makeshift stretchers to the waiting tongas and a very few vehicles (no ambulances) to be transported to the district hospital.

It was here that when we were carrying an old man – badly battered bruised and injured and barely conscious, that he opened his half closed hazy eyes and asked me in a barely audible low voice but with an expectant look, “Putr, Pakistan — aa gia hai?” (Son, has Pakistan come?)

I replied enthusiastically, “Yes Baba, yes. You are in Pakistan and everything will be alright now.” Hearing it his head slid to the side and the Baba had gone. To me it appeared as if he was just waiting and trying to keep himself alive to reach Pakistan – reach Pakistan to take a breath or two of the free air of the free state of Pakistan. And having fulfilled his desire he contentedly left for his heavenly abode.

It was some 61 years ago, but Baba’s last words still haunt me. Yes Baba, Pakistan has come. Yes Baba, we lost half of it too in 1971. Yes Baba, we are hollowing the foundations of the remaining Pakistan too by looting and plundering it every day. We are doing all that what our Quaid asked us not to. We have thrown to the winds his Unity, Faith and Discipline. Yes Baba, Pakistan had come. Pray Baba, it doesn’t go!

Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd) is based in Rawalpindi. His commentary appears frequently in several national Pakistani dailies. He can be reached at jafri@rifiela.com