The sufi saint of the people

I HAVE always held Syed Afzal Haider in high esteem both for his literary prowess and legal acumen. He used to submit highly readable articles during my days with The Frontier Post. As such, I was anxious to hear him speak about Farid Ganjshakar in the sitting arranged by the Lahore Arts Forum (LEAF) in the Model Town Library auditorium. Unfortunately, the speaker suddenly fell ill and could not keep the appointment. Since quite some people, including a number of young ladies, had gathered that evening to hear Syed Afzal Haider, the sponsor of the function, Muzaffar Ghaffar, did not want to disappoint them. As such he took it upon himself to talk on the given topic, and brought out all that needed to be said.

Hazrat Fariduddin Ganjshakar was one of the most exalted sufi saints of the line of Chisti. His family had migrated from Afghanistan and settled near Multan in a village called Kotheywal. It was there Baba Farid was born in 1173 AD. Sent to Multan for education, he met Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki who was coming from Afghanistan and was on his way to Ajmer. The interest shown by Farid in sufism greatly impressed Kaki. After some years, Farid went and joined Kaki in Delhi who later nominated him as his successor. After the death of his mentor, Farid came over to the Punjab and settled in Ajodhan, now Pakpattan. He travelled widely and besides visiting the holy places in Saudi Arabia, went round preaching Islam. It is said that Faridpur in Bangladesh and Faridkot in East Punjab are named after him as he had been there on a preaching mission. His most revered disciple is Khwaja Nizamuddin Aulia who lies buried in Delhi. Farid passed away on October 15, 1265 AD.

Farid is said to be the first poet of Urdu and Punjab Seraiki. He adopted the folkloric media of oral poetry and recited ‘shalokas’ in the local dialect. The masses of the region soon knew his couplets by heart and his ‘shalokas’ and ‘shabds’ were sung in every household. He was accepted as the sufi saint of the people. Even eight hundred years after his death, millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims swarm to his shrine complex during his Urs celebrations. The Sikhs recite the Granth Sahib, in which is incorporated a large part of Farid’s poetry, and the Hindus chant hymns. Farid is dead but his tradition lives on.

After Muzaffar Ghaffar had dealt exhaustively with the topic of the day, he called upon the erudite scholar, Anwar Bukhari to say something. He straightaway dilated upon the last Haj sermon of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and went on to prove that it was indeed a universal charter of human rights.

THE Overseas Pakistanis Foundation has an effective office in Lahore as well and makes sure to bring its monthly publication, Yaran-e-Watan, to the notice of those interested in literature. The latest issue that I have is tastefully produced and printed on art paper. It is edited by a team of professionals. It is not devoted to shop talk alone but has the blend of a literary magazine as well. The November issue before me justifies my statement. It does print luggage rules for the convenience of those coming from abroad and other relevant information. But then, it provides reading matter of general interest as well. In the present issue, a historic lecture of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan has been reproduced plus an article on Allama Iqbal. There is also a short story, a ghazal by Shabnam Shakil, and a highly informative writeup on Mast Tawakkali, the almost forgotten poet of Balochistan by Qaiser Nazir.

In addition, a section has been devoted to an introduction and brief reviews of recent publications. Under the heading, Book Corner, quite a few publications have been covered. Fehmida Riaz is known as a poet but this issue talks about the collection of her short stories, Khat-i-Marmooz. Another in this section is about the English novel by Qaisara Shahraz, The Holy Woman, which revolves around the much condemned tradition of marrying girls to the Quran. The list further includes the eighth collection of verse by Zafar Iqbal, Tafavat, and Shahzad Ahmed’s first collection of Punjabi verse, Jagan Wali Raat. Mention has also been made of Anis Nagi’s latest book, Jins Aur Wajood.

To keep the expatriates in touch with all that is going on in the theatre, TV and musical circles, four pages have been devoted to it together with coloured pictures. I wish such a publication was available to me when I was passing days of boredom in Saudi Arabia. — ASHFAQUE NAQVI

Standing up to a bully: MEDIA REVIEW

THE Americans have finally got their way and managed to get the Security Council —- including Syria —- to vote unanimously for a resolution asking Iraq to let in UN weapons inspectors. By the time this comes in print, the inspectors will already be in Iraq. However, America has all along, despite Iraq’s acceptance, said it is highly sceptical of Saddam Hussain’s assurances or promises. US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, a known hawk on Iraq, told several American television networks right after the passage of the resolution that the Bush administration was quite sceptical of Saddam’s assurances. That, by the way, is as good an indicator as you can get of America’s real intentions, that war cannot be ruled out precisely because that’s what America wants.

As outside observers to the Middle East scene, Pakistanis tend to tune into sources of news that are invariably western like BBC, CNN or the much-reviled and much-biased Fox News. Several Arabic news channels, including Al Jazeera, are available in Pakistan but then how many of us understand Arabic. In fact, what is even worrying is that situation is much worse if you happen to live in America because then you really have no choice but to listen to, read or watch mainstream sources of news. And the problem with mainstream news sources in America is that they hardly ever question US foreign policy especially when it comes to matters like the Israel-Palestine conflict, the so-called war against terror, or Iraq. In Pakistan, people who want to get alternative views on Iraq or the Afghanistan situation can read the local press or can get on the Internet, and the last option is precisely what many American, fed up with the lies and the propaganda their government feeds them, turn to.

Having said that, there is a vibrant alternative media in America, led by progressive journals like The Nation (www.thenation.com), Mother Jones, The Christian Science Monitor, The village Voice, and various websites like www.fair.org, www.Yellow Times.com and www.workingforchange.com. And that’s probably where you are likely to find some of the more strident and sensible dissenting voices on Iraq and a plethora of other issues related to American foreign policy objectives. Perhaps one of the best known is 77-year-old Gore Vidal, one of America’s best-known writers, and maverick, iconoclast and dissenter all rolled into one. The following are excerpts of an interview the writer, who spends much of his time living in Italy, gave to Marc Cooper of LA Weekly (not at all a mainstream publication) on the release of his latest book The Last Empire and Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got To Be So Hated, a collection of essays published in the wake of Sept. 11.

Q: Are your arguing that the 3,000 civilians killed on September 11 somehow deserved their fate?

A: I don’t think we, the American people, deserved what happened. Nor do we deserve the sort of governments we have had over the last 40 years. Our governments have brought this upon us by their actions all over the world. I have a list in my new book that gives the reader some idea how busy we have been. Unfortunately, we only get disinformation from The New York Times and other official places. Americans have no idea of the extent of their government’s mischief. The number of military strikes we have made unprovoked, against other countries, since 1947-48 is more than 250. These are major strikes everywhere from Panama to Iran. And it isn’t even a complete list. It doesn’t include places like Chile, as that was a CIA operation. I was only listing military attacks... This is probably whey geography has not really been taught since World War II —- to keep people in the dark as to where we are blowing things up. Because Enron wants to blow them up. Or Unocal, the great pipeline company, wants a war going some place.

We had planned to occupy Afghanistan in October, and Osama, or whoever it was who hit us in September, launched a pre-emptory strike. The knew we were coming. And this was a warning to throw us off guard. With that background, it now becomes explicable why the first thing Bush did after we were hit was to get Senator Daschle and beg him not to hold an investigation of the sort any normal country would have done.

Q: You’ve spend decades bemoaning the erosion of civil liberties and the conversion of the U.S from republic into what you call an empire. Have the after effects of September 11, things like the USA Patriot bill, merely pushed us further down the road or are they, in fact, some sort of historic turning point?

A: The second law of thermodynamics always rules: Everything is always running down. And so is our Bill of Rights. The current junta in charge of our affairs, one not legally elected, but put in charge of us by the Supreme Court in the interests of the oil and gas and defence lobbies, have used first Oklahoma City and now September 11 to further erode things... No one has been elected president in the last 50 years unless he ran against the federal government. So, the government should get through its head that it is hated not only by foreigners whose countries we have wrecked, but also by Americans whose lives have been wrecked.

Q: You say millions of Americans hate the federal government. But something like 75 per cent of Americans say they support George W. Bush, especially on the issue of the war.

A: I hope you don’t believe those figures. Don’t you know how the polls are rigged? It’s simple. After 9/11 the country was really shocked and terrified. (Bush) does a little war dance and talks about evil axis and all the countries he’s going to go after. And how long it is all going to take, he says with a happy smile, because it means billions and trillions for the Pentagon and for his oil friends. And it means curtailing our liberties, so this is all very thrilling for him. He’s right out there reacting, bombing Afghanistan. Well, he might as well have been bombing Denmark. Denmark had nothing to do with 9/11. And neither did Afghanistan, at least the Afghans didn’t.

Q: Let’s pick away at one of your favourite bones, the American media. Some say they have done a better-than-usual job since 9/11. But I suspect you’re not buying that?

A: No, I don’t buy it. Part of the year I live in Italy. And I find out more about what’s going on in the Middle East by reading the British, the French, even the Italian press. Everything here (in America) is slanted. I mean, to watch, Bush doing his little war dance in Congress...about “evildoers” and this “axis of evil”. I thought, he doesn’t even know what the word axis means. Somebody just gave it to him. And the press didn’t even call him on it. This is about as mindless a statement as you could make. Towards the end, he said something about America’s liberals and its well worth quoting because it probably applies in Pakistan’s case as well especially with the rise of religious extremists.

“...And the liberals, of course, are the slowest and the stupidest, because they do not understand their interests. The right wing are the bad guys, but they know what they want —- everybody else’ money... But once you know what you want, you are in a stronger position than those who can only say, ‘Oh no, you mustn’t do that’—OMAR R. QURAISHI

(email: omarq@cyber.net.pk)