Many years ago, before entering into intermittent periods of silence and seclusion, Diya Ahmed had said, “A sufi or dervish doesn’t impose himself on others. Like a mullah, he doesn’t confuse you with sermons. He doesn’t tell you terrifying stories of Hell, and the luxurious life of Heaven. He doesn’t guide you. He doesn’t tell you what to do, and what not to do. A sufi inspires you through the way he conducts himself in this impermanent world.”
What friends have derived from Diya Ahmed is simple, and unambiguous. Neither inflict, nor bow before atrocities. Always speak the truth, nothing but the truth, no matter how atrocious the disputant happens to be. Do not submit to falsehood. It hollows you from the inside. Death is a mode of departure. He who arrives is destined to depart someday.
Many of his friends deduce that no normal person would think, act and talk like Diya Ahmed. Thus, he evidently betrays traces of abnormality. Has Diya’s mental health deteriorated over the years and in the modern context of medical science? It is a matter of interpretation. Some well-wishers have often thought of referring Diya Ahmed to the National Institute of Behavioural Sciences! Diya Ahmed appreciates their concern. Once, he told them, “I am aware of my mental predicament. Can doctors tell you how to live normally when you are surrounded by deceitful darkness? You see nothing, and you become one with nothingness. You constantly listen to the hissing of venomous serpents, the shrieks and howling of hyenas? How long can one put up with an agonizing culture and maintain mental equilibrium?”
A few friends believe Diya Ahmed’s mental health has no doubt deteriorated over the years. But to say he is insane would be fallacious. He doesn’t like to enter into any kind of conversation. Therefore, he has receded into silence. However, his immediate neighbours opine Diya Ahmed is a withdrawn person. I know Diya Ahmed from the days we were together in Karachi University. Like Syed Safwanullah, Fatehyab Ali Khan, Shaista Karar and Meraj Mohammed Khan, Diya Ahmed was an orator. He had aroused stir and lot of controversy when he had refused to participate in intercollegiate and inter-university debates. He preferred to fight in the street battles against the ruthless law enforcing agencies of the dictator, Field Marshal Ayub Khan.
During Field Marshal Ayub Khan’s 10-year martial law, Diya Ahmed was incarcerated on many occasions, and was subjected to severe mental and physical torture. Once, during detention, Diya Ahmed was hospitalized for the treatment of a disease called elephantasis. Hardened skin around his enormously swollen legs had developed weeping rashes. Through the courtesy of a doctor, I had managed to see him in Civil Hospital. Looking at his legs was a frightening sight. He was in terrible pain. I leaned over him, and asked, “What happened, Diya?”
He spoke in a faint voice, and said, “This is what you get when they do not let you either lie down or sit for innumerous days and nights. They constantly keep you walking in the cell. Even for relieving, they do not let you sit on the commode. You relieve while standing.”
What Diya endured during Ayub Khan’s martial law was for the fulfilment of a better tomorrow for Pakistan. But, better tomorrow did not come. General Yahya Khan took over from the ailing Field Marshal Ayub Khan. Pakistan plunged into unprecedented disarray, and was finally disintegrated. An angry Diya Ahmed had shouted through the megaphone at Regal Chowk, Saddar, “One must deserve, then desire. We are worthless people. Our leaders ought not to have had demanded an independent country for us. We do not deserve it.”
Diya Ahmed was arrested. While answering a query during the trial, Diya Ahmed stunned everyone in the courtroom when he said, “We have left no stone unturned to make Abul Kalam Azad’s predictions come true. We have made a mess of our own country. Is the military meant to run the affairs of state?”
Diya was sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment. After several years of incarceration, when Diya Ahmed was released from prison, he did not enter an independent Pakistan. From the huge gate of the Karachi Central Jail, he stepped into the Pakistan under General Ziaul Haq’s martial law. He tore his clothes, dumped ashes on his head, pulled at his hair, cried and yelled at the heavens, “Where is Pakistan’s better and honourable tomorrow?”
The Chief Martial Law Administrator General Ziaul Haq’s ruthless men promptly removed Diya Ahmed from the scene. He was not heard of again for a very long time. We feared they might have done away with Diya Ahmed!
But, to everyone’s surprise, Diya Ahmed surfaced during General Pervez Musharraf’s democratic martial law. When I met Diya Ahmed last, he appeared totally disillusioned. He said, “I am Diya, a lamp. I have burnt my oil. I am on the verge of extinction. It is hard for me to breathe in a country run by rulers not chosen by us.”
