THE WRATH OF SAINT JAMALI SHAH

In the valley of wonder
Look O, Haider;
All the intellectuals are there
To be looked at!

            Whatever has happened to Jeelay has happened. But I wish if only it hadn’t happened! It happened because of he himself and his stonehearted cleric father. At least I staunchly believe in it. 
            The clergy man Ataurrahman used to live in a village earlier. He led the prayers in a small mosque there and preached the faith before the small town people.  The people held him in great esteem without comprehending or otherwise the import of his sermons. He left the village and settled in a city when lady luck began to smile on him and became the head priest at the central city mosque. He first bought a motor cycle, then a car and eventually because the owner of a Peagio ! He started wielding a lot of clout and people from all walks of life began to fawn on him. The abundance of money and the respect and flattery by the people made him   an egoist and an extremist in his dogmas.  Instead of becoming kind hearted and wise he turned into a stonehearted and narrow-minded man. 
            Further analyzing the matter closely I have now come to realize that whatever happened to Jeelay had some sort of contribution by me too. I had once told him the story of a hermit. The story belonged to the Moghal Era. During their reign an important Moghal king once built a huge and impressive mosque.  When its inaugural prayers took place the hermit too joined the congregation led by the head priest of the august function. When the prayers began, the hermit, in a state of self-obliviousness. 
           Shattered the reverential hush by crying out loudly “That which is in the heart of the head priest is under my feet!” The Moghal kink, his courtiers and the clergy who were all present felt offended by this outrageous act. When the ‘Salaath’ (Prayers) concluded they took the hermit to task. The hermit replied innocently, “You can dig the earth under my feet and find the truth. The king immediately ordered to dig the place.  When a lot of earth was removed from the spot where the hermit was standing a large bag containing a thousand gold coins was found. The people were awe struck. The hermit said, “as soon as the prayer began, the head priest started thinking that as he was leading the first and inaugural prayer of the new mosque and the king too was present in person, he would surely oblige him by paying at least a thousand gold coins as a regal gesture.  And that prompted him to say that whatever   was in the heart of the head priest lay under his (hermit’s) feet, he added. When I told this strange incident to Jeelay, he was genuinely surprised. He continued to approach me for more such stories related to saints and religious ascetics and I never disappointed him. But when he related some of them to his father clergy Ataurraheem he became   furious. He said he was not aware that his son had got that much ‘strayed’. He dealt with Jeelay very tactfully and as a result, when we met after a while I found that he had lost him innocence and his eyes were no longer inquisitive and full of childish wonderment.  He told me knowingly that the hermits and recluses I usually talked about were all fake and conceited.  They should not be clubbed and categorized with religious saints and clergy, he further added with conviction.  He even began to ‘enrich’ me with the real meaning of mysticism   and its stages. I knew that his father had a complete sway over him. I tried to convince him that learning something about mysticism and experiencing it were poles apart but Jeelay didn’t   budge and instead tried to convince me by saying that the hermit of the Moghal period was actually a heretic and never believed in “KALEMAH” (a mandatory Muslim declaration of faith in which he pronounces the UNITY of Allah and holds Mohammed – may peace be upon him – His last prophet) fully.  As a result, he said, he was ordered to be beheaded under the religious edicts.  I thought it a waste of breath to tell him that the sentence of death that was carried out against the hermit was a result of a conspiracy hatched by the head priest of the time who was publicly humiliated by him after the inaugural prayer. I, instead, advised Jeelay to believe in whatever he thought was right but never enter into a conflict with an ascetic or hermit.
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            Saint Jamali Shah was usually found in the main graveyard of the city. Occasionally he was also spotted on the roads walking in total obliviousness of his surroundings. It totally depended on his mood to pray for somebody on his request.  He would say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ as per his disposition at the movement. I, myself, once requested him to pray for my success in the tenth standard examination after appearing for it.  He closed his eyes and mumbled for some time in an undertone and opening his eyes said, “run along, kid, you have passed it! I, suddenly getting wiser, further requested him to pray for the first division. He looked at me with displeasure first but closed his eyes again and began to mumble soundlessly.  When he opened his eyes they were laughing.  He said, “this prayer too has been granted”. And it turned out to be inspirational by God’s grace that I stood first when the results were announced.   Saint Jamali Shah usually ignored elder people’s requests for reasons best known to himself. 
            Once, our region was hit by a severe draught.  The rains didn’t  ‘love-lash’ the area.   The crops got damaged and the threat of famine began to scare the people to death.  The head priest reverend Ataurraheem, through a public announcement, made it known   a day before, that a mass prayer would be held the next day at the ‘Idd-Gah ; (a vast open place for mass festival prayers especially reserved and owned by Muslims  within or without the town) to beg God for mercy. The prayer to beg for rains as mercy is called ‘Salath – E – Istisqua’ in Arabic and Quaranic terms.  It took place as per the schedule under the leadership of the head priest. A lot of people from the city and the suburbs attended it devotedly.   But it obviously went in vain. The clouds didn’t darken the harshly lit sky and the rains kept giving the area a wide berth.  After waiting for one full week the people went to St. Jamali Shah and besought him to pray for the rains.  Saint Jamali Shah didn’t close his eyes, as was his known style, instead, he began to collect the date twigs from different tombs (they were usually laid there by the devotees as flower wreaths to express their gratitude). He collected a lot of them and then started lashing the roads of the city with them harshly. Each time after hitting the roads twice or thrice he would look at the sky and address God in a way completely alien to the people. “O, you! Are you going to rain it or not? I say rain it! “Shivers ran through the crowed.  Begging with hypocrisy and demanding angrily but sincerely have their own worth in the eyes of God, I thought. When St.  Jamali Shah broke all the twigs by hitting them against the roads he returned to the graveyard.  But the whole city witnessed the sudden onset of monsoon and the regiment of dark clouds marching in. it rained so sufficiently that all the fears of a devastating famine were washed away. 
            Though Rv. Ataurraheem had become very belligerent against St. Jamali Shah after this incident, people say they had once spotted him going to see the St. under the cover of darkness.  I thought he might have gone with a request for a special prayer and the St. may have shown him the door.  But after a few days it also came to be known that St. Jamali Shah was arrested by the police on the charge of espionage for a neighboring country and it was Rev. Ataurraheem   who had given the clue to the police.  Rumors and counter rumors began to abound in the city but the news that got enough credence was regarding the sub inspector of police who tortured St. Jamali Shah at the police station and turned a lunatic within three days.  The police got panicked and released the saint immediately. The incident further enraged the head priest and at his instigation his son Jeelay began to foment trouble for St. Jamali Shah. He enticed children by toffees and asked them to throw stones at the hermit whenever he appeared on the roads and in the alleys and shout mad, mad, loony, loony after him.  I asked him to desist from such acts and told him that the ascetics and hermits should be left alone. But he didn’t agree and said that the so-called saint was a fraud and that he knew mesmerism and using, which he succeeded in escaping from the prison.
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            Today, after the evening prayers, a large group of youths approached St. Jamali Shah, bearing a bier.  They were all Jeelya’s friends or acquaintances.  The bier contained Jeelay instead of a corpse. The plan was to say that there was a corpse in the shroud and that the saint should perform its last rites and lead the prayer.  If the hermit did it they would scoff at his saintliness and make him a butt of laughter. Jeelay himself chalked out the plan and that’s why he had to lie down in place of a corpse pretending dead.  The boys, with hidden mischievous smiles asked the hermit to lead the prayer as a last rite. Saint Jamali Shah began to do as was requested.  The boys didn’t follow him and stood aside without giving him a clue. When the saint was through and concluded the last rites the boys burst out laughing. They mocked and jeered him and said, “It is not a corpse. It is Jeelay, the son of Rev. Ataurraheem. He is alive, he is alive, they shouted.  Saint Jamali Shah turned wrathfully towards   them and said,  “Whoever he might have been, Jamali Shah has performed his rites. He will only rise on the Doom’s Day now!”  The whole lot of the boys was shell-shocked. Jeelay was very  much dead !.
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            Whatever has happened to Jeelay has happened. But I wish if only it hadn’t happened. And it happened because of he himself and his stonehearted cleric father. At least I staunchly believe in it! 
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