7/31/2019 Kashmir Has Been a Place of Saints
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KASHMIR IN A BURNING SHRINE!
Kashmir has undoubtedly been a valley of saints, and people here
love and respect them (which they
should do) to their utmost. This love is, what we consider a
very important factor in our relationship
with GOD Himself, as the mention of HIS righteous slaves invokes
HIS mercy and blessings on the
one who is mentioning, and this is a means that we seek to gain
HIS eternal pleasure. The fact that
you can find mosques full of relics at many places in Kashmir
(more than anywhere in India, or even
in Pakistan, I recon), shouts out the above mentioned
observation, and it is indeed a thing to be proud
of. But, looking at the ground situation, it reminds me of a
saying of the Persians, which later went on
to become an infamous idiom, namely padram sultaan buwad, which
means our forefathers were
Sultans. People used to say this when they were asked about
their achievements, thus recognizing
themselves with their forefathers, which may seem respectful to
a microscopic minority, but in fact
was nothing but a sugar-coated insult for their own selves. This
is because, their lethargic approachtowards life, thus leading them
to vacant poetry and flying pigeons, led them to save their faces
by
hollowly reminding themselves and the questioners of the great
heritages that they attributed towards
themselves (thanks to their forefathers), the great lands that
they had conquered (thanks to their
forefathers), the contributions they had made to science (thanks
to their forefathers), and so on. It is a
total misfortune (although I hate to use the word, but that is
the softest I can personally get), that such
an ideology has already crept into our (Kashmiris in specific)
minds, thus leading us into the practice
of a religion, that is practically totally impractical,
lethargic, and delusional! We boast of our great
heritages, great shrines, and the great people we had in
Kashmir, and wail on the losses of 300 year
old buildings, cursing Satan, blaming the Indian government,
Zionists, National Conference, everyone
and anyone for its destruction, when our own youth (the own son
of a mother who is cursing thegovernment for the loss of a
building) are roaming around on bikes, following girls and killing
them
in accidents , or our girls (the own daughter of a father who
puts a fire brigade truck on fire , for
not being able to put out the fire on the building) are
performing acts, which I feel ashamed even to
mention!
The Shrine of Khanyar, housing the blessed relics, of the great
saint of Islam, Imam Sayyid Abdul
Qader Jilani (ra), was unfortunately gutted by a fire caused due
to unknown reasons (to me), and this
led to stone pelting in some areas, burning of cars in other
areas, destruction of public property in
some other areas, random protests against the government, and
curses upon everyone and anyone on
facebook.!! Some Separatist parties even called for hartaals,
the reason for which I personally cant
understand. Where I personally am an ardent believer in seeking
blessings from the relics of our
pious predecessors, on the other hand, I dont understand as to
why a day of work must be closed off
so as to mourn over the loss of a 300 year old building (when
the relics are safe and sound). I
remember, some years ago, when some separatist (for the record,
I am not anti-separatist) party had
called for a bandh on a trivial issue, one of my school
teachers, who actually belonged to Chennai
said you Kashmiris, literally dont have any work culture
whatsoever, and none ofus Kashmiri
students could think of an answer! Yes! We did lose a heritage
site, and it is a sad loss, but at the same
time arent we losing our youth (who are more precious than
heritage sites!) everyday, each and every
moment, when we can clearly see that school going children are
becoming chain smokers ,drug
addicts and killers? Arent we losing young boys and girls, by
letting them adopt the way of people
who call themselves civilized whereas their moral level starts
from where normal morals end , andletting them prefer such things
over what the real teachings of Shaykh Abdul Qader Jilani were?
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Arent these GREAT LOSSES too to be mourned upon? Did the mother,
wailing on the loss of a
200 year old building and blaming and cursing everybody for
such, ever try to emulate the mother of
Shaykh Abdul Qader Jeelani or Sayyid Makhdoom (radhiallhu
anhum), by giving her son or daughter
the teachings that these great women had given to their
children, or is she just making their shrines a
profit gaining machine, or a slate-board to write up exam roll
numbers of her children upon, for their
success?! We must realize that where on one side, relics of the
blessed personalities are without a
doubt, sources of blessings for us, at the same time they are
also a reminder for us, about the great
personalities they belong to, about their struggle, about their
message, and about their way of life, that
led them to be such great personalities in the first place. But
we choose to neglect these practical
aspects, and our preferences are surprising!
Unfortunately, our preferences expose our lethargic approach to
issues. We are driven by anger, blind
hatred, and adrenaline stimulating activities (like kids, not
even knowing what azadi actually is,
being encouraged for ragda ragda and slogans like pond police:
hay hay, where tomorrow they
themselves become policemen, or their parents go out and
vote!!), and not being governed by
assessing grass-root level priorities. The shrine getting burnt
down, surely must cause some reaction,but over-reaction, less led
by light sentiment , more led by anger and the wish to point
fingers at
someone and cause ones adrenaline running, is unfounded, and not
the teaching of Sayyid Abdul
Qader Jilani (alyhi rahmah).
It would rather be better that such an incident be marked by us
as a warning signal by GOD, because
the destruction of blessed relics is considered to be a kind of
wrath from HIM by our elders and we
came this close to that! Such a warning signal should incite in
us the sense of trying to be better (in
every positive aspect, and specifically religiously) than what
we are today, rather than calling for
mournful holidays!! After all, the Bard of the East said Ai
Ta`ir e laahooti, is rizq say maut
achhi;;; jiss rizq say aati ho parwaaz main kotaahi, O high
flying bird, death is better than the
bread;;; that causes a possibility of difficulty in flying!.I
hope my words do the job I intend them to do, as words that dont
incite action are even worse than
the bark of a dog!
Ruhan Madni Naqash.
(Student. Contact : [email protected])
