| July 12, 2002 | Friday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1423 |
Mysticism in literature defined
Ideal educational edifice
IT was from the cave of Hira that the first message of Islam was delivered by Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) which was couched in superb and transcendent diction: “Read: In the name of thy Lord who createth, createth man from a clot. Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous, who teacheth by the pen, teacheth man that which he knew not” (96:15).
THE STORY of the theft of Safari Park land and Madhu goth encroaching upon parts of it is a classic example of pillage, theft and plunder of public lands during the past fifty years in Karachi.
Safari Park was originally established by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in 1970 on about 407 acres of land transferred by the Sindh Board of Revenue. Today less than 263 acres remain with the City District Government Karachi, the KMC’s successor. Many fear that soon even that may become a story of bygone days.
The Evacuee Property Trust claimed some of the land out of the 407 acres that was also under partial encroachment by five villages. According to Phandi Khan, the Senior Surveyor Land, Board of Revenue, less than 20 acres of Survey Nos 39, 40, & 41 of the Evacuee Property Trust at Deh Okewari were occupied by those five goths (villages) in 1974, namely Husain Hazara Goth, Moosa Goth, Noor Mohammed Gabol Goth, Madhu Goth and Swaleh Mohammed Goth. The KMC offered to regularize these villages and, during 1987, occupants of four of those villages, along with a fictitious Jogi goth, were given legal rights and resettled on some 30 acres of Safari Park land near Rashid Minhas Road. However, the occupants of Madhu goth encroaching upon 4.8 acres as per official records, led by Wadera Ali Mohammed Baloch (an occasional Lyari resident), refused the offer. Fifteen years later, after continuous litigation and many interventions by the corrupt as well as the soft-hearted they continue to occupy Safari Park land and are now demanding more than 29.5 acres under the Gothabad Scheme. Unfortunately, even if another 30 acres of prime land along University Road were sacrificed at the altar of the insatiable greed of the corrupt and the city’s builders’ mafia, there is hardly a chance that the genuine villagers (now as urban as anyone of us) could get any more benefit than a couple of plots each.
The unrelenting attempts by the Wadera, corrupt officials and the builders to devour this precious land have been continuing unabated since day one. Even though the land had been transferred to the KMC, the then DC East Karachi used the opportunity and issued an office order masquerading behind then chief secretary Salim Abbas Gilani’s orders for the previous regularization, issuing agreement deeds (leases) for 175 occupants near the present venue of a ‘Wednesday Bazaar’ on Rashid Minhas Road. But even that did not satisfy the mafias at work, and with the KMC objecting to the allotment by Sindh government functionaries, the matter continued to drag on.
Syed Qaim Ali Shah as Sindh chief minister or the interim governments and the KMC Council that followed could do little to resolve this thorny issue underlying greed. On December 27, 1993, the then chief minister, Syed Abdullah Shah, convened a meeting at the CM House, which was attended by Hakim Baluch, his cousin Rasool Bux Baluch and secretary local government Agha Shahabuddin, to address the pending issue. Later, the local government department moved a summary proposing to allow 20 acres of land to Madhu goth.
The KMC, however, did not accept the proposal, but agreed to conduct a joint survey with the representatives of Madhu goth. The villagers’ contention that the number of families was at least double the number of houses was also accepted in the interest of resolving the contentious issue resulting in a grudging offer of 11.92 acres by the KMC that included 1.5 acres for a controversial football ground-cum-park. The villagers, in turn, agreed to a joint demarcation for a layout plan pushing the village to a corner of the Park. Accordingly, allotment orders were issued on 21st April 1996, but three days later with the change of administration at the KMC, the initiative, which was hardly palatable to the land mafia, was also lost in the wind.
A former assistant commissioner, mines and labour welfare, ministry of industries, government of Sindh, who later lost his job and also his influence, was very active with the Wadera during the mid-1990s and helped him in his bid to move against the KMC and the government.
During 1997-98, the KMC again tried to remove the encroachers, but, sensing impending action, the Wadera and his comrades-in-arm quickly moved the Sindh High Court through a constitutional petition (No 25-D/98) claiming that the age-old Madhu goth was being demolished by a callous KMC. Chief Justice Wajihuddin Ahmed allowed stay against the KMC action, which was finally dismissed by Chief Justice Saeed Ashhad on 17th May 2000 observing that since it was a property dispute, a proper suit should be filed.
With a long list of builders like Barkatullah Khan Ghauri, Abdul Sattar Veyani, Sattar Merchant and Shabbir Veenjhar drooling over property worth billions of rupees, a suit was immediately filed. On 1st June 2000, however, on the orders of the Sindh High Court Shah Mohammed Junejo, superintendent official assignee, and Mohammed Idrees Qureshi, advocate for plaintiffs Ali Mohammed and Abdul Qadir, visited Madhu goth. The official assignee reported and the plaintiffs and their counsel endorsed that the village consists of about ten to eleven acres with about 150 houses and a football ground. Photographs were also taken and the report was submitted to the Sindh High Court. This resulted in dismissal of the Suit by Justice Shabbir Ahmad at the next hearing.
Madhu Goth is a Pandora’s box today with Wadera Ali Mohammed Baloch and his cohorts and umpteen numbers of builders take turns, drooling over that precious city property. The art of using courts, provincial and local governments and their machinery thwart attempts by the city administration to regain its property around Safari Park. The greed of Wonder Builders, together with that of the local Nazim, is responsible for the project constructed against all norms of urban planning over Karachi’s main Sui gas supply line, or Medina Blessings constructed on land illegally allotted by Jam Sadiq Ali to two of his MPAs, or its adjoining land illegally occupied and under construction structures of Moon Gardens or Commercial-I created by a KDA’s director and manipulated by his frontmen, the famous Bengalis or Times Square constructed on land regularized under the Gothabad Scheme, or Park Shoppers’ Galleria built by a ‘used car dealer-turned-crush supplier-turned-builder, are just few stories of the unending greed of “Mafia-turned-builder and Builders-turned-mafia.”
One only hopes that someone will be brave enough to decide and settle the Madhu goth issue once and for all so that Safari Park shall be able to retain whatever is left of it.
KARACHI: ‘Mysticism in literature’ was the theme Yusuf Jamal was invited to talk about by the Karachi Theosophical society on Wednesday evening.
A pleasant conversationalist, Yusuf had many lively and informative anecdotes for his listeners, drawn from history and from the poets of his times. But he, at the outset, preferred to draw lines between mysticism and cult and mysticism and religion.
First, he had to “de-mystify mysticism,” and redefine the term as “it has been mush distorted by its naive critics. “Peace within oneself and peace with others” was the key phrase.
Devotional thought and penetrating meditation were required to purify the soul. The fact was that all the major and vital poets delved deep into mysticism and that it should not be taken negatively. The speaker was highly critical of those writers who misunderstood mysticism as “leading to inaction” and resignation. “It does not discourage inquiry, it rather promotes inquiry and inquisitiveness exhorting ‘ijtehad’,” he said and quoted Faiz supporting what the noble laureate Prof Salam had earlier observed.
kai baar is ki khatir zarrey zarrey ka jigar cheera
mager yeh chashme hairan jis ki hairani naheen jaati —Faiz
He regretted that the last century was marred by warfare, genocide, mass killing, terrorism and bloodletting on a massive scale. He also flayed the extremists of the right wing parties in South Asia who he said had poisoned the minds of the people by their venomous outpourings. He said mysticism demanded honesty, truthfulness, non-violence and total absence of malice towards all human beings. Peace, happiness and tranquillity could only be achieved by showing love and respect to all humans.
He quoted Roomi, Hafiz and Ghalib, the exponents of great love poetry and spiritual solace. Ghalib would have been acclaimed as the greatest philosopher of the century had he not met two major debacles— the fall of the Moghal empire and the Mutiny. Both the events totally shattered the great man, a pauper in his last years who could only think about his pension for a living.
During the question-answer session, when he was asked to explain why he had criticised George Bush for his threatening gestures against Saddam Hussain as the latter had indulged in many excesses and deserved a thrashing, he said the US president should have thrown his weight for persuasion, negotiation, peaceful deliberation and not such uttering as “ using all tools” to oust Saddam.
Earlier, Bahauddin Sarhandi read out a brief paper introducing the Theosophical Society as the oldest in the city (formed in 1896).
The society, he said, affirmed the brotherhood of man and provided a spiritual and rational basis for such belief. “It also aims to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour,” he said.—Hasan Abidi
This was the most majestic and magnificent message for the edification of mankind. Moses was deputed to emancipate the people of Israel from the bondage of Pharaoh. Jesus Christ was also sent to dispel darkness and degeneration. But the Prophet of Islam was bestowed with the message of different character, higher and nobler than the individual and racial interest. It was the highest ideal and objective which the man has to accomplish. The range of this teaching is universal and draws the human race within its orbit.
The morality of the world was at its lowest ebb and it was but natural that the sun of universal message must shine to vanish all darkness, barbarism, ignorance, fetish and dogmas. The prevalence of wickedness and mischief had to be demolished and the rule of discipline, self-respect, integrity and service to mankind had to be re-established and recreated.
The Quran clearly states that Allah has raised a wonderful creature like man out of a clot, but He vehemently contemplates to enhance him to the apex of mental, moral and spiritual culture. He (Allah) reveals this lofty message in this first revelation and clearly discloses the light and glorious path leading to that goal.
The message coming from our Lord (Rabb), “Read: In the name of thy Lord — Read and your Rabb is Most Bounteous.” Here the word “Rabb” is of far-reaching significance. It conveys not only the idea of fostering, bringing up, or nourishing, but also that of regulating, completing and accomplishing i.e. of the evolution of things from the crudest state to that of the highest perfection.
The word “evolution” does not convey the real idea of the Quran. The Divine Book uses the word “Falah” to give a wider concept for unfolding the latent faculties of man. The revolution was made with the sole purpose of guiding mankind to follow the prescribed course in order to develop to the fullest extent the innate faculties of man. The emphasis on science and knowledge infused creative thinking and founding of various universities which led the world in learning and research. All knowledge was their field, and they took in, and they gave out the utmost knowledge, attainable in those days. The universities of those days were, of course, different from those of modern times, but they were then the most enlightened institutions of the world.
The German scholar Professor Joseph Hell in his book “Arab Civilization” has remarked: “Even at the universities religion retained its primacy, for was it not religion which first opened the path to learning? The Quran, Tradition (Hadith), jurisprudence, therefore — all preserved their pre-eminence there. But it is to the credit of Islam that it neither slighted nor ignored other branches of learning: nay, it offered the very same home to them as it did to theology — a place in the mosque. Until the fifth century of the Hijrah the mosque was the university of Islam; and to this fact is due the most characteristic feature of Islamic culture — perfect freedom to teach. The teacher had to pass no examination, required no diploma, no formality, to launch out in that capacity. What he needed was competence, efficiency, mastery of his subject.”
In the context of Madrassah education it is notable that these teachers of the Arab universities were the most outstanding scholars of their time; they were really the teachers of modern Europe. It was one of them, an eminent chemist who wrote: “Hearsay and mere assertion have no authority in chemistry. It may be taken as an absolutely rigorous principle that any proposition which is not supported by proofs is nothing more than as assertion which may be true or false. It is only when a man brings proof of his assertion that we say: your proposition is true.
Marmaduke Pickthall has also endorsed this observation thus: “These Ulama were no blind guides, no mere fanatics. The professors of those universities were the most enlightened thinkers of their time. In strict accordance with the Prophet’s teaching, it was they who watched over the welfare of the people and pointed out to the Caliphs anything that was being done against the rights of men as guaranteed by the Quran. It was they, indeed, who kept down the fanatic element, discouraged persecution for religious opinion, and saved Islamic culture from deteriorating in a thousand ways....”
Who can deny that in the great centres of learning during the heyday of Islamic civilization in Europe, in Cordova, Granada and Seville, Students flocked from various corners of the world to slake their thirst for knowledge. They were much impressed by the new researches and discoveries of the Muslims and their disciplined observations of nature; laboratories for detailed analyses and experimental testing of hypotheses; systematic use of scientific and scholarly literature; critical evaluation of the work of colleagues; a dedication to, and an elaboration of the methods for investigation into the nature of the universe and of human phenomena.
This inductive and experimental method of research and inquiry and the critical spirit exercised a remarkable influence and created tremendous confidence on the coming generations of Europe and other countries, who subsequently built up the noble structure of their educational edifice on the foundations laid by the Muslims in Europe. The inspiration given by the Muslim universities ultimately led to the setting up of numerous colleges and seats of learning in Europe approach to knowledge.