Syria | Senile Delusions...

Trip To Syria: The Lioness’s Den

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Continued from Trip To Syria: Flying Away.

**************

We reached the hotel in Muhalla-e-Zainabia on the outskirts of Damascus. Imagine waking up from a deep sleep and then having to carry sixteen heavy suitcases to the hotel building. And it doesn’t stop at that. The room was on the third floor. Thank God for the elevators!

We were told to come down for tea. What ‘down’ turned out to be was ‘down – 1′ i.e. the basement. It was divided into parts. Ours had plastic seats and tables set up for around thirty people. The tea was served and IT WAS PATHETIC! My cook makes better tea.

Khair, not to be unfair to the Maulana Sahab cooking for us there, I think it was the tea’s fault.

We were told that the Haram was to close at eight-thirty.

I came back up and went to sleep. Woke up around six-thirty and got busy in getting ready. That usually consists of emptying myself (in this case, all the Etihad food and specially the Octopus) and taking a bath. Left at seven-thirty with my uncles.

The hotel was five minutes from the Haram and my taya (father’s elder brother) led the way through the crowded streets of Muhalla-e-Zainabia. We entered through one of the small side gates and came upon a small opening with people sitting. The place was extremely crowded. Crossing another gate, we came into the main courtyard.

The burial chamber sits in the middle, surrounded by a circular courtyard and then again by a circular building that houses administration offices and other rooms. Two tall minarets stand in the courtyard on both sides of the main entrance. The huge gold brick dome sits on top of the large burial chamber, marking the resting place of the eldest daughter of Haider, the lion of Allah. The place emits an aura of authority and fearlessness, all the while maintaining a charming elegance and attraction for millions of devotees.

Welcome to Syria, the place where the Captives of Karbala (A.S.) were brought tied up in chains, bare-footed, bare-headed, being stoned from all sides, in a state of helplessness that does not find it’s counterpart in the realms of documented and undocumented history. This was the place where Yazeed (La’natullah) ruled and the people were hardcore enemies of the Ahle Bayt (A.S.). Where the mention of Ali (A.S.) was met with curses and abuses.

Who could have thought that the stronghold of Bani Umayyah (La’natullah), the capital of Muawiyah (La’natullah) and Yazeed (La’natullah), would fall to Lady Zainab (S.A.) in such a way that nothing would remain of their kingdom and they would become the focal point of all curses and abuses themselves? That their followers would become a minority and the country would come under the rule of people who would hail Ali (A.S.), not as a Caliph, nor an Imam, not even one of the most astounding creations of God, BUT GOD HIMSELF!

And the daughter of this God “sleeps” near Damascus. Welcome to the Lioness’s Den!

I went with my phupa (father’s sister’s husband) towards the burial chamber and stopped outside the door. An Arab with whom my phuppa had become acquainted helped us read the Ziarat of Lady Zainab (S.A.) that hung beside the door. Then we went in. I will not describe what I saw inside. You will see for yourselves in later posts!

My taya had told us that it would be impossible to reach the Zareeh (gold and silver cage above the grave) in the middle of the chamber on the first go due to the usually huge crowd but we did not find one of such size. The reason being that this was the first year when all barriers to Karbala had been lifted and most Zaireen (visitors) had gone there. The gathering in Karbala on Arbaeen this year was 20 million strong as compared to only 1.7 million for Hajj!

Result: we got to the Zareeh easily.

After praying and paying our respects, we came outside and offered the Ziarat prayers. I left my phuppa with the Arab and returned to the hotel, cursing myself for not taking my camera with me.

NOTE: I have uploaded some pictures of the tour to my Facebook account and will upload the rest with each related post. You can see them there if you want.

14.04.2009 Ali(A.S.), Amazing, Captives of Karbala(A.S.), Enemies of the Ahle Bayt (A.S.), Me, Religious, World 18 Comments

Trip To Syria: Flying Away

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

Picking up from where I ended my second Ayyam-e-Aza post, as promised, I’m beginning my travel log of the trip to Syria last month.

**************

I came back to my house from Zameer Akhtar’s after seeing that he was fine and recovering well, I sat down on my computer and did some last minute net surfing. Stayed up all night. Took a bath and got ready at four and we left our house for the airport. My father was staying back in Karachi and only me, my sister and mother were going. We met my aunts and their familes at the airport and together it was a group of sixteen that checked in and went on to the waiting lounge. Everyone was making fun of my bruise but they couldn’t get the better of me.

Our flight plan was to go to Abu Dhabi and then catch another flight to Damascus. We were flying with Etihad Airways. The first flight was at 6:25 a.m., almost empty and we had the leisure of choosing seats at will. The airhostesses were hot!

Plane started moving and we could see the tarmac and runway on screens fixed behind all seats. The take off speed was damn slow. Hell, I can drive faster!

Karachi looked cool at night, full of lights: blessings of KESC.

I took my mp3 player to Syria and me and my cousin listened to Nauhas throughout the journey. Apart from that, I took my camera and external hard drive. I also convinced my cousin to take his handycam and laptop along which turned out to be a very good idea.

After sometime, food was served. The table was attached to the handrest of the seats, rather in it. It was very uncomfortable, too close to my stomach and even after extending it forward, I was unable to comfortably use my hands at such close range. The table was low too and was resting on my knees. Disadvantages of being tall…

They had liquor on the plane. Had my mom not been with me, I would have taken the liberty of trying some. Haha, just kidding!

The food was, well, pathetic! They had a paratha, two rolls with achar chicken type qeema in them, two kababs, fruits (papaya to be exact), tea, butter, jam and…Shezan juice? Being the jugaroo that I am, I managed to have a good meal by emptying qeema from the rolls and eating it with the paratha.

We reached Abu Dhabi airport at God-Knows-What local time, after a flight of 1.5 hours. We had been told that it would be a stay of another 1.5 hours before the next flight but the rude shock we got was that the stay was more than 4 bloody hours!

With the women sleeping in the mosque and the males trying to find places to sleep:

my cousin and I set off to explore the airport. We went to the duty-free section and found all kinds of stuff available there. Liquor, pork, etc, you name it! We thought about buying cigs but nobody was selling single packs, just completely packed bars. We found Burger King and ordered some nugget like things. They were serving hamburgers there as well.

Abu Dhabi airport is huge but I like Jinnah Terminal better. Desi stuff! And the city is not near the airport. At least, I didn’t find one. The only good thing I found about the place is the Wireless Internet Facility.

Oops, sorry, wrong picture!

The time for the next flight came. I thought the first plane was bad, the second one was downright microscopic! Not even enough space to spread my legs properly. And once the plane started to move, the engines made strange noises like someone was trying to start a car. The take off speed was more satisfying this time.

Took some pics from the plane. During the first flight, I was hesitant to take out my camera and take some snaps, worried about the high frequency noise signals being produced interferring with the plane’s navigation system and making it crash. During the second flight, I thought what the heck, let’s crash!

The food in this flight was absolutely pathetic! I mean, baked fish? Looked more like a roasted octopus to me. And tasted like sponge. My friend’s mom was right. Etihad food sucks like hell!

Don’t know if I should be complaining or not. It could’ve been as bad as this:

Although the leg space does seem adjustable in this plane…

When we were about to land, I tried to find the shrine of Bibi Zainab (S.A.) from the sky but to no avail. Later on, I learned that it was in one of the suburbs of Damascus named Muhalla-e-Zainabia, not Damascus itself.

Landed at 3:15 p.m. local time. My uncle was there to pick us up, with a huge bus. I tried to stay awake on the way to the hotel but fell asleep in a few minutes.

29.03.2009 Me 21 Comments

Ayyam-e-Aza: The Last Few Days

Saturday, March 14th, 2009

We landed in Karachi on 24th Safar. Slept the whole day then went to attend a majlis that night. Being held in commemoration of the martyrdom of the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.W.) and Imam Hasan (A.S.) on the same day, 28th Safar, it was part of a Khamsa (group of five majalis) to be addressed by Zameer Akhtar on the tale of ‘grandfather and grandson’. I missed the first one but joined from the second. I was relieved to see Zameer Akhtar back in full form and better than ever. And I also learned that it was Muawiyah (L.A.) who opted for a truce with Imam Hasan (A.S.) rather than the other way round.

Two days later, I delivered the Tabarrukat that I brought for him from Syria. There I saw Haider Rizvi, owner of TV Today. He had come to convince Zameer Akhtar to speak on his channel against the attackers. Zameer Akhtar told him to wait till after the 8th of Rabi-ul-Awwal, when the Ayyam-e-Aza would end. Three other channels had already made an offer to him and he told them all to wait.

Days passed with the same routine. I got the video of the annual majlis of Karavan-e-Murtaza and watched it. Shaukat Raza Shaukat brought the roof crashing down with his verses on Hazrat Abu Talib (A.S.).

Khamsa ended on the eve of 28th, but there was a seperate majlis on the same topic the next night as well. There I got to decorate the Taboot of Imam Hasan (A.S.), the same one that was used for Imam Husain (A.S.) on the eve of Ashurah but with a green covering this time. Green is the color that is associated with Imam Hasan (A.S.), red with Imam Husain (A.S.). The special feature this time were the protruding arrows from the Taboot to signify the arrow-riddled Janaza of Imam Hasan (A.S.) that was prevented from burial beside the Holy Prophet (S.A.W.W.) by the “Ummah” who attacked it.

Taboot of Imam Hasan (A.S.)

The next day, the ash’ara at Qasr-e-Musayyab started on the topic of “Imamat and Azadari”. In the second majlis, Zameer Akhtar shook all of Rizvia Society with his speech. I kept teasing my sister for the next couple of days on what she missed.

On Saturday night, Zameer Akhtar addressed a Shab-Baidaari on the topic of the History of Azadari. After that I planned to go meet him but my father brought me home.

I missed the majlis on the fifth as I went to the Alvidai juloos at Imam Bargah-e-Tanzeem-ul-Momineen where we decorate and bring out Baadshah every year. One thing I wanna say here is, never touch a horse between the ears from behind and never stand near his rear legs. You’ll get a free ticket to America if you do, but someone will have to collect your pieces from all over the country.

Baadshah with my cousin Haider.

Baadshah was well-behaved and more sober this time, unlike last year when he got scared of the rising Alams. It’s awesome to run with him when he starts jump-trotting. And keeping his size in mind, it makes you look really brave and cool, even if you’re terrified inside and pleading with Allah to make him stop. But Baadshah don’t listen to Allah Mian either.

I was planning to do both Zanjeerzani and Qamazani at the end of the juloos but my nincompoop of a cousin above failed to get my tokas sharpened. Bloody &#@*()*#! So I postponed my “Grand Sunday Plans” to Thursday night for the Alvidai Matamdari at Imam Bargah-e-Baab-e-Askari.

The next three days went by smoothly, Thursday arrived. At night there was Nazar at my Phuppo’s. Got too late there so I had to skip another majlis and went straight for the Matamdari.

Haider and I picked up our Zanjeers from his friend who had gotten them sharpened. His were “talwars” or sword like zanjeers. There I came to know that my tokas had become really popular among the guys and everyone wished to do matam with them because they were the right size and shape and good for inducing deep cuts. They asked me to switch my zanjeers with them. My reply: “Chal be!” My tokas were celebrities!

Khair we went for the Matamdari. It started around half past twelve. I did matam for around ten minutes when my head began to spin. I stepped aside and another cousin Abbas (in pic above with folded hands) dried my back up with my shirt. So much for Zanjeerzani. And I didn’t even come around to Qama. Crap!

I kept thinking it was due to my reduced intake of food but Haider later came and told me it was because of the two Ghulam Latifs I’d had before the matam. Man, I hate John Player! Better to stick with DLs.

Nevertheless, I took advantage of the Nazar afterwards and drank three glasses of Lassi from the Sabeel to stuff myself. Came back to Haider’s place and we both went to sleep but not before we had made videos of our backs.

Would anyone like to see?

Khair, I came back home the next morning, took a bath and then left again for the Chup Taazia juloos from Qasr-e-Musayyab. Went straight to Rizvia Imambargah where Baadshah was brought. He was first given a bath to clean up all the sweat from running. It’s fun to watch him try to drink it all up when they wash his face. (You can find the video on my Facebook profile.)

Then he was decorated and taken to join the procession from Qasr-e-Musayyab.

Left to Right: Me, Baadshah, Allama Syed Zameer Akhtar Naqvi

My cousin Shahazeb walking Baadshah

I walked Baadshah for some time in the juloos, then I left for the last majlis of Ayyam-e-Aza, back at Rizvia Imam Bargah. It was the majlis of the Barsi of Allama Zameer Akhtar’s mother. There I joined in decorating the Taboot of Imam Hasan Askari (A.S.) and then carried it out into the crowd after the majlis.

Flowers decorated on the Taboot of Imam Hasan Askari (A.S.)

We all bid farewell to Imam Husain (A.S.) and appologized for the lack of our efforts to commemorate and condemn the terrible attrocities on him and his family. Time passed quickly, maghrib arrived and Ayyam-e-Aza ended.

Eid-e-Zehra (S.A.) began.

14.03.2009 Captives of Karbala(A.S.), Fatimah Zehra(S.A.), Hasan Askari(A.S.), Hasan(A.S.), Husain(A.S), Martyrs Of Karbala(A.S.), Me, Muhammad(S.A.W.W.), Religious 1 Comment

Ayyam-e-Aza: Spirit Tortures And The Dark Night

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Picking up from where I left, I returned home after the Shaam-e-Ghariban majlis. My parents were too worried about my back and making me feel like a Mummy-Daddy kid. They weren’t letting me pick up any weights in case my stitches came apart and I was like “What the hell, it’s no big deal!” They stopped at three different places to collect medical supplies: bandages, spirit, cotton, etc.

Back home, I had no idea what was in store for me for the next few days. My mother cleaned my back with spirit and dressed it up. I went to sleep.

The next morning I took a bath to wash the blood off my body. Before putting on my shirt, my mother came to dress my wounds again. And that’s when all hell broke lose.

I hate spirit!

She wet a cotton swab and literally squeezed it onto my wounds. She rubbed the rest on my back. And that’s when I yelled out in pain. Spirit will make normal skin burn and go dry, talk about open cuts. Then next ten days were sheer torture!

On the tenth, she cut off my stitches. Hurt a little but all was well. And that was the end of it.

Back to the second day after Ashurah, I went back to pack and collect my Azakhana. I was reappointed as the official family driver and assigned the task of driving my mother to different majalis at our relatives’ houses.

On the 22nd of Muharram, the majlis was at my youngest phuppo’s house and I went there. The biryani was awesome. One thing I must say about Biryani in Muharram is that it get’s distributed in majalis as tabarruk and I eat it three times a day, seven days a week but I never get bored of it. Nor does anyone else. And I absolutely love it in ‘langars’. Four guys get to eat from the same platter/tasla and no one can tell who ate how much.

Fast forwarding, the annual majlis was held at my house on the 3rd of Safar, the date of martyrdom of Imam Husain’s (A.S.) four year old daughter Sakinah (S.A.). Went to pick the Zakira near NIPA, then had to get the Soazkhwans as well. Came back, took a bath and then got busy in the management work. Man, did the men eat! Aurton ke liye to chhora hi nahin. Okay, they did leave a lot but they ate more than their share. Maybe the food was too good. Don’t know, didn’t get to eat much and I wasn’t feeling hungry in those days.

Two days later, there was a gents majlis at my eldest phuppo’s house to be addressed by Allama Zameer Akhtar Naqvi. The biryani fell short of filling up all the tummies and we had to get more. After this majlis, I went to another of his at Imam Bargah-e-Chaharda Masumeen. Later on that night, I attended one more at Imam Bargah-e-Akhir-uz-Zaman. Can you believe that he addressed 11 majalis in a span of 30 hours without sleeping? That’s gotta be a world record!

The plan of our ‘khandan’ leaving for Syria materialized as we got our passports and visas. Bound to leave on the 16th of Safar, I got busy in the preparation for the annual majlis of Karavan-e-Murtaza to be held on the 22nd of Safar in my absence. Karavan-e-Murtaza is the name of the group of my batchmates and friends from Al-Murtaza School who organize and hold a majlis every year. We got posters and pamphlets published, arranged for tents and video makers, etc. I went out with my friends to put posters up on the walls near Imam Bargahs and on the route of the main juloos on the 20th of Safar. Had to rub glue on the walls with my hand so you can well imagine how dirty they got.

Then came the unfortunate day of 13th Safar. Went to a majlis at an acquaintance’s house, to be addressed by Zameer Akhtar Naqvi of course. Returned around seven. When I left again for the Ashara-e-Chehlum majalis at Jama-e-Sibtain, I got a message which said that ISO planned to attend Zameer Akhtar’s majlis that night. I quickly forwarded it to Allama Sahab’s close friends.

When I reached the Imam Bargah, my cousin was there with two friends who were armed. Inside, Allama Sahab’s nephews made me sit in the middle of the crowd, away from my usual place near the mimber and asked me to watch around. They had already gotten the news.

As soon as Allama Sahab took the mimber, a guy got up from the crowd and started shouting slogans. Around 40-50 people stood up to reply to them and they all started moving towards the mimber. I rushed towards the mimber to stand near Allama Sahab. His close friends and associates made a wall between the ISO guys and him. But we were only a handful as compared to them. At that time, we only thought they were there to disrupt the majlis. We had no idea they would attack.

Allama Sahab stood up on the mimber and at the same moment one of them threw a brick at him. It him in the ribs due to which he collapsed on the mimber. One guy went behind the mimber and started to climb it to attack Allama Sahab. They attacked us also and I got three punches on my right eye in the process.

But our side was not unarmed. The guy to whose house I went that day for the majlis had brought his guards with him. He fired shots in the air. My cousin’s friends all did so and the attacking crowd dispersed. Allama Sahab was taken inside the mosque and armed guards were placed at the door. He kept fainting time to time from the pain in his chest. We managed to catch a few guys and gave them the beating of their lifetimes. Meanwhile, the ISO guys called for backup and around five to six hundred of them gathered outside the main gate with loaded weapons.

Allama Furqan Haider Abidi and MQM MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi arrived on the scene and met with Zameer Akhtar. More of his fans arrived at the Imam Bargah.

Now the task at hand was to get Zameer Akhtar out of the Imam Bargah to his sister’s house directly across the street. But the ISO crowd was in between. The Rangers and Police just stood there watching, doing nothing.

Soon, some of his close friends picked him up and took him outside. ISO attacked him again but he remained safe although unconscious. Some of the people carrying him got hurt but they came back inside the Imam Bargah.

One of our tasks had been accomplished and Zameer Akhtar was safe. The second was to save ourselves.

Soon, Abbas Kumaili and Mirza Yousuf Husain arrived and they tried to negotiate with the ISO crowd. We knew it was a drama as they were the main orchestrators of the whole thing.

Around half past one in the night, we came out of the smaller gate besides the main one. My father made me walk quickly towards my uncle’s car and sit in it lest anyone recognize me and attack me. After we drove of, everyone breathed a sigh of relief that we were safe. We had women with us and that was the most worrisome thing.

I couldn’t sleep for a long time that night. I never expected myself to be in the midst of such a thing and I was cursing myself for not hitting back at the guy who punched me. But more so, I was worried about the safety of Zameer Akhtar and kept wondering if there would be more attacks in the future. I decided that if needed, I would stay behind from the Syria trip to help protect him.

The next day I learned that he was alright but had been admitted to a hospital so he could relax in a safe environment. I was relieved to hear that the majalis had been canceled from Jama-e-Sibtain and would be held privately.

I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere far away from our house just in case someone recongnized me from the previous night. As I said, Mummy-Daddy…

The night before I was to leave, I paid Zameer Akhtar a visit and he was good, chatting with his friends although he still had pain in his chest and a big bruise. I came back around 12:30 and did not sleep. Instead, I wrote down a quick blog post, took a bath and got ready. Left the house at four, flight was at 6:25 a.m.

Karachi looks beautiful from the sky at night, as Absar wrote in his post.

**************

I’ll write about the Syrian tour in the travel log soon, not now. The next post will continue from 24th Safar when I returned.

12.03.2009 Captives of Karbala(A.S.), Enemies of the Ahle Bayt (A.S.), Husain(A.S), Martyrs Of Karbala(A.S.), Me, Rants, Reflections, Religious 16 Comments

Back But Khuda Hafiz Again

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

I’m back.

Where was I? Well, my grandmother called me and I went to pay her a visit.

I am now officially a Zaair of Lady Zainab Binte Ali (S.A.), Princess of Islam and Queen of Syria!

Man, what a peaceful visit! No tension, no problems, nothing to bug me. Just me and my thoughts, beliefs and the Ahle Bayt (A.S.). Aaahh!

And what beauty!

The shrine is magnificent! From outside it looks small but once inside, and after some exploration you come to know how large it is. The dome is made of gold bricks. The minarets are tall and beautiful. And the burial chamber is simply breath-taking!

Glasswork and patterns on walls, the magnificent interior of the dome, the solid gold and silver cage (Zareeh) that covers the grave. The doors to the chamber are of gold and silver, plated with glass. The shrine gives the impression of some lioness’s den. Well, it is.

And then there is another shrine. That of Sakinah Binte Husain (S.A.), the four year old daughter of Imam Husain (A.S.) who died in the dungeon of Yazeed’s (L.A.) palace. This shrine looks small too but it’s huge, beautifully simple and simply beautiful!

This shrine has an aura of innocence, of the masoomiat of a child. And it’s even more beautiful than that of Lady Zainab (S.A.).

I also visited the shrines of Bibi Sakinah Binte Ali (S.A.) [under construction in Darayya], the Ahle Bayt (A.S.) section of the graveyard of Bab-e-Saghir in Damascus, the grave of Sahabi-e-Rasool Bilal-e-Habashi (A.S.), the Christian priest’s house in Halab where Imam Husain’s (A.S.) head was kept on a stone and the stone weeps blood on Ashurah to this day.

I visited Riqqa where the graves of the Sahabis of Muhammad (S.A.W.W.), Ammar-e-Yasir (A.S.) and Awais-e-Qarani (A.S.) are located. It’s actually the battleground of Siffin where the army of Ali (A.S.) trampled Muawiyah’s (L.A.) like ants. These two Sahabis gained martyrdom here and about Ammar-e-Yasir, the hadees of the Prophet (S.A.W.W.):

“O Ammar, you will be killed by a group of rebels!“

On Ammar’s martyrdom, Ali (A.S.) was enraged, entered the battleground and slaughtered Muawiyah’s (L.A.) troops like carrots and radishes. The battle was won.

I visited Bazaar-e-Shaam (the Bazaar of Hamidia), Bab-us-Sa’at and Yazeed’s palace.

I witnessed moujzaat (miracles) at the shrine of Lady Zainab (S.A.), two general and four personal. Yes, with me!

All those who can see my bruised eye in my Facebook dp, I rubbed it with the Zareeh of Lady Zainab (S.A.) and it healed in no time. The dark bruise that was refusing to go vanished within two days!

This is only a small summary of my visit. I hope I get invited again.

But right now, I’m sitting in Pakistan, back in the grip of life. And I’m going to take an indefinite break. Could be two hours, two days or two months. I don’t know. I’m going to relax now, enjoy the pack of Dunhill’s My Mixture No. 16 Limited Edition that I got from Abu Dhabi airport.

When I come back, that is if I do, I’ll write about my journey, complete with pictures and videos. But right now, it’s Khuda Hafiz again. Take care.

23.02.2009 Ali(A.S.), Amazing, Captives of Karbala(A.S.), Enemies of the Ahle Bayt (A.S.), Facts, General Knowledge, History, Husain(A.S), Martyrs Of Karbala(A.S.), Me, Muhammad(S.A.W.W.), Reflections, Religious, Women, World 18 Comments