BaKhabar, July 2010, Page-7

better light a candle than curse the darkness

Short-cut to Salvation, as discovered by my friend Amit ... ...

- Shakeel Ahmad (shakeeluae@gmail.com)

Amit met me almost ten years after we graduated from IT-BHU, accompanied by his wife and a cute little girl who looked to be his photocopy. In fact, I noticed his daughter first, and felt as if she belonged to my family; then looked at Amit. It was easier for me to recall the face of Amit from his daughter’s rather than from Amit’s face itself. He had gained some fat all over his body, his face being no exception, apart from the signs of maturity hiding the marks of innocence that I was familiar with during our college days. The first few moments of this chance meeting brought sparks of joy that drove through all my arteries and veins propelling the sensors of emotions onto my face, turning it red and filling it with smiles written all over. Instant realization that it was Amit because of whom I had actually started on a journey of reading Quran with an intention to understand, sense of obligation towards him overtook the emotions of joy (refer to BaKhabar, May-2010 Issue, page-7). Before I could take the first step towards greeting him with hello or salam, he almost jumped onto me, grabbed my hands with full intensity, and embraced me like a lost brother of a thousand years. I was overwhelmed with his sheer warmth which resulted in my speechlessness for the next few seconds, droplets of tears wetting parts of my cheeks as if to cool the red hot spots on my face.

“Hey, Shakeel! Where have you been doing all the while; long time no see!”

“I’m indeed very sorry, dear”, I muttered, in a whispering tone, “it’s a great moment for me, and in order to extend the joy of this moment, I propose we spend this evening together, at my place.”
He readily accepted, and the evening turned out to be remarkable reunion. When we sat in the small garden of my house, under a lamp-post near an artificial waterfall, with the stars sprinkling the blessings of God as if shading us from all the attacks of satanic meteors, the resulting ambience presented perfect moment for transcending into the spiritual world. Our families got busy discovering each other.

The discussion on what each one of us did to boost our professional careers did not at all seemed to be of interest, as if both of us were waiting for talking about some other facet of our lives. When I asked Amit about whether he could explore the holy Quran, we realized we actually wanted to delve into the spiritual world. My moment of amazement came when Amit told me he had become a devotee of Baba Akhileshwar Nath who preaches peace and love as the essence of religious life, promoting inclusiveness, and does not differentiate between Quran and Geeta, urges his devotees to learn the underlying messages from all the religious scriptures rather than exclusiveness.

“So, did you read the Quran completely?” I asked Amit, and he replied in the affirmative.

“Did you go through the explanations of Quranic verses so as to discover its underlying messages?” I asked Amit, and he said yes. As if to assure me that he did his best to understand the Quran, he related many stories of the prophets with reference to specific chapters and verses – his memory had always been awe-inspiring. And, he told me the underlying message of Quran was love-and-care for all the creatures, peaceful co-existence, obedience and thankfulness to God, the one-and-only, and faith in the life of the hereafter. Amazing, I thought, as he went on to summarize the message precisely!

“So, what is the religion of God? Is it not Islam?” His response was resoundingly affirmative. “So, does the Baba teach Islam?” He said, “no, not exactly, but to quite some extent!” I was getting more confused. My curiosity was growing; it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold my queries about Amit’s belief.

“How come your Baba knows that the religion of God is Islam, but still does not ‘quite’ preach it?” I almost pounced upon him with the question. He explained that Islam was not the only religion to be believed in, faith must extend to all religions of the world, ultimately making it easier to win the proximity to God. I became interested in knowing about how he reached this Baba, and if he ever came close to Islam. So, I asked him about his journey towards salvation. As he went on relating this, I felt more and more unsure about my own faith in Islam. He said, when he got the Quran from me, he regularly went through the book, and completed the first round in about a year. He felt so deeply inspired that he did not touch any other religious books during this period. He had almost decided to accept Islam. And in order to know the steps towards becoming a Muslim, he approached a local bearded Muslim colleague in his office, who advised him to meet an Islamic scholar called Maulana Tauqeer. Maulana asked Amit to go on a chilla (a 40 day trip of salvation undertaken by members of Tableeghi Jamaát), which was about to leave for Southern Tamil Nadu to cover most of the coastal regions.

He added, “To join them, I had to resign from my job as my company did not agree for such a long leave; they could destroy my only source of income, not my determination to explore Islam.”

“But Tableeghi Jamaát does not preach to non-Muslims, how come they took you along?” I intervened.

“I pronounced shahadah, and became a Muslim according to them, so that was not a problem. It was an exhilarating experience, a journey towards real discovery of self and God alike. I learnt how to worship like a Muslim, and how to seek God’s help. The group was amazing, everyone so down-to-earth and simple, ready to do anything to help a group member or the natives of the places we visited, doing everything on our own, from cooking to cleaning of our clothes, the floors of the masjids we stayed in, and the toilets we used. I wondered why we can’t get some of it done by paid employees!” But, this only added further to my surprise. How did he reach this Baba, then?

“After the salvation trip, I had undergone a major transformation, with my aggression giving way to politeness and humility, my selfish pursuits had changed into selfless helping of everyone, whichever way I could,” Amit continued to relate his way forward. “I started praying, sincerely, in a way I thought was Islamic, and believed must have been the way of every religion before getting corrupted into rituals that turned spirituality into comprehensible actions, and motions, devoid of genuine emotions. Then I met Sohail who took me to a Muslim saint, Baba Fareed, and that was another life-changing experience, a real tryst with divinity.” Amit seemed to have got completely carried away into another world, of tranquility, his spirits in absolute peace with the supernatural. “Baba Fareed was a reflection of God, his face glittering with divine grace, his eyes radiating heavenly rays ready to instill life into the dead. I instantly fell at his feet; in that state of prostration, for the first time in my life, I felt I had submitted myself to God. Baba sprinkled holy water on my head and face, lifted me from the ground, then embraced me as if I was his little child, whispering “Subhanallah” all the while. Two of his disciples were hitting me with a soft broom as if to clean me of all the dirt I had gathered the whole of my life. He said he would love to accept me as his murid (disciple) so as to reserve a place for me in Jannah. His attendants then took me around Baba’s shrine at the centre of which was a grave of Baba’s father, Sheikh Nasheed, a renowned sufi saint. A long queue of devotees, that almost reached the shores of the sacred river, waited in the glaring sun for their turn. I received special favour, and was taken straight to the mazaar sharif, advised to bow in ruku and sujood, received Baba’s blessings with broomsticks, an almost hundred years old saintly khadim covered my head with a special cap, and gave me prasada (gift from god) the kind of which I used to receive at my hindu temples. I felt so close to God, ceaselessly reciting the hundred names of God I had learnt during my chilla! The time for Zohar passed, and I did not realize I had missed my first prayer in two months of journey towards salvation. When the sun sank in the sacred waters of the river, I realized that I had missed my Zohar as well as my Asar prayers. I thought I was under some sort of magical spell, so I might not have heard the adhan, nor could see the congregations, so I asked Sohail if he had said his prayers, and if he was planning to pray maghrib.” Amit paused to take a deep breath, as if he needed some oxygen badly, then he repeated Sohail’s reply which I was dying to hear.

“Today, you have reached salvation, and now, God entered your soul as Baba’s words, through your ears, to reside within you forever. You just need to feed your soul every day for the next forty days, and your journey to the heaven would be complete.” “How do I feed my soul?” Amit asked Sohail, who replied, “Just go through the same routine every day, Baba Fareed’s words are fodder for your soul.” Amit had asked, “What about Sheikh Nasheed’s zeyarah?” Sohail responded, “Sheikh Sahab is in Jannah pulling in the real devotees of Baba.” “Subhanallah”, I murmured, “what an easy route to Jannah! La Haula Wa La Quwata Illah Billah.” I still wondered how Amit reached Baba Akhileshwar Nath …

Amit read my mind, it seems, or had he really been blessed with divine powers? He said, “Baba Akhileshwar Nath was waiting at the end of my journey through shrines, masjids, temples, gurudwaras, churches, and so on. Some lunatic wahabi slaughtered Baba Fareed one day, the shrine was taken over by the government, and closed. Most of his hindu devotees turned to the ashram of Baba Akhileshwar Nath, as did I. I saw God in him, felt so comfortable listening to the recitations of Quran and Geetas in one place.” “What about the teaching of Quran that God is one, and He answers when we call Him (Udóonee, Astajib Lakum, 40:60), so why do we need any intermediary Baba?” I asked him. He replied, “All routes lead to the same God.Baba is an incarnation of God. Who doesn't want God to be real, walking among us, love us and shower us with blessings, whom we could touch and feel?”

I wanted to ask Amit for more details of his journey towards Islam, and the deviation towards a cocktail religion, but as the midnight bell rang, his wife asked him to leave. Fortunately, Amit promised to meet again next weekend. Till then, the question that would ring the bell in my mind was how Quran could not make a Muslim of Amit even after dedicated practice of Quranic teachings!

Email: bakhabar@biharanjuman.org 7