The Shrine of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi History (in English)

Every day, near about sunset, a steady stream of devotees crawls towards a green dome. Their destination is a grave draped in flowers. All wish to touch it but the marble railing comes their way. Not to feel belittled, they step back; sit cross-legged with head down and recite verses from Holy Qur’an. Soon the place would become congested and the khadims would persuade some in deep slumber to move out to make way for others.

There are separate sitting arrangements for men and women but all mumble their secret wishes to the saint. Desperate women, under threat of divorce, pray for a son. Some are seeking good fortune, some pleading for the health of their loved-ones. Drug addicts ask for forgiveness and an opportunity to live a normal life. This is an unusual crowd. Parents have their children with them and persuading them to ask the saint for high marks in the next examination. The young ones raise their tiny hands for blessing of the Sufi Saint.

At first, it looks as if the devotees are from the city or nearby places. But a closer look would reveal some un-common faces. Jan Muhammed has come all the way from a far off city, Rahim Yar Khan. He has his wife and three kids with him. He proudly disclosed: “We come here for Ziarat, not every year but when we can. We wish we could afford to come each year,” Ms Saima Khan, from another distant place, Quetta, a mother with two children, visits the Mausoleum annually. “We come for Manat and to seek solutions for our problems.”

THE SHRINE

Perched on a hilltop amidst a posh residential area and just a few minutes walk from the Clifton beach at Karachi (Pakistan), the place is a magnet to the devotees. It has a tall square chamber topped with green-and-white striped dome. Centuries old tiles decorate the walls and green flags flutter giving a majestic view.

Worth seeing are cast-iron cooking pots containing Sindhi Biryani, a rice dish. It is always ready and anyone paying about US$ 6-8 can buy 8 kgs of sizzling rice with chicken or mutton or beef. Who would eat this enormous quantity? Not the buyer but some of the visitors mostly poor and homeless, runway children and heroin addicts.

In fact, the shrine offers the underclass some spiritual sustenance and a safety net in the shape of free rations.

Moving around these shops is an experience in itself. The place is extremely lively. Many people, sitting on tea stalls, could be heard narrating how their wishes were granted. A famous myth about the shrine is that Karachi never had a tropical disaster in the past thousand years because of the shrine’s blessing. It appears to be true as in the recent past two powerful storms have avoided Karachi when they were less than 10 hours away from the city and deflected to hit the Indian city of Gujarat.
Moreover, the tomb is just adjacent to Arabian Sea. The water found in the area is totally brackish except for miraculous sweet water tricking behind the shrine. In fact this is holy water and many ailments are cured by drinking it. This is vouched by the people who gather each day for collecting the water in small bottles.

THE SAINT

Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi is a famous Sufi Saint. He was born in the year 720 in Medina, the second holiest city in Islam. He was the great grandson of the Holy Prophet from the historical tribe of Bani Hashim. He was educated in Medina where he learned Qur’an and Hadis. He arrived in Sindh in the year 760 as a merchant and brought with him a large number of horses purchased from Koofa, Iraq. He was given a warm welcome as he belonged to saadat family, the noblest in Islam.

Another version has been given by an internationally acclaimed scholar and historian, Dr. Umar Bin Mohammad Daudpota . According to him, real name of Abdullah Shah was General Abdulla bin Nabhan. He along with another senior commander, Badil bin Tuhafa, had launched a military expedition against the local ruler, Raja Dahir. The assault was a strong reaction against activities of Raja Dahir who was encouraging the pirates to raid Arab ships. In particular, the war was triggered when a noble woman wrote to the then Governor of Basra, Al-Hajjaj bin Yousuf, that she had been kidnapped and be rescued. A letter was sent to the Raja Dahir and but he replied that he did not have any control over pirates in his kingdom. Consequently, the war ensued at Debil, modern day Karachi, but the Raja did not surrender. Later, the mission was entrusted to a young commander, just 17 years old, Muhammad Bin Qasim. He defeated the Raja and rescued the noble woman and other Muslim prisioners.

While Muhammad bin Qasim forged ahead to far off areas like Multan (Punjab), Abdullah Shah continued to live in Sindh as he loved the people and thought they needed him for teaching of Islam specially love for humanity.

Beside preaching, Abdullah Shah was very fond of hunting. In old times, Sindh had plenty of wildlife like ibex, urial, blue bull, gazelle and deer. In his passion for hunting, Abdullah used to go far from the base. Once he had gone far enough and was intercepted by the enemy. Out-numbered, he preferred to fight rather than submitting. It is because of his display of valor he was given the title of “Ghazi” meaning “victorious”.

He died in the year 773 near the sea while dressed in war attire. He was buried at the present place, atop a hill in Karachi.

In December each year, a great festival is held at the shrine for 3 days marking the anniversary of Abdullah where Muslims from all factions come in large number. The festival is enjoyed even by some non-Muslim as the saint is revered by all for preaching love, tolerance and politeness.

OF TOMBS, SHRINES AND DARGAHS

A tomb is a burial chamber. It contains remains of the dead. It could be of any famous person like a scholar or a politician. Anıtkabir is the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the leader of Turkish War of Independence and the first president of the Republic of Turkey.

A shrine is a holy or sacred place. In Muslim world a Shrine may contain relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated. Hazratbal Shrine in Kashmir contains a hair of the Holy Prophet. The relic is displayed on various occasions related with the life of the Prophet and his four holy companions.

A Dargah has much wider meanings. It could be a portal or threshold. These usually contain mosque, Madrassas (schools), hostels (khanqah), residence of the teachers or caretakers or other structures for community. Normally, it is a shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint.

There are many such terms like mausoleum and monument for tomb, chapel or temple for shrine and ziyarat and keramat for dargah.

SUFISM

Sufi means soft and pure like wool. Most Sufis wear in-expensive wool clothes for unification. A Sufi seeks direct experience of Allah and discards all that does not belong to the inner-self.

Initially the term referred only to those who had achieved God realization, but now it applies to anyone who follows a spiritual path. The goal is to align with the will of God. Sufis agree that all religions offer a path to salvation. Basically, a saint in any religion is equal to a saint in any other religion because they are inspired by the same Divine source. The philosophy is universal in nature.

There are many Sufis who are not Muslims and there are many Muslims that are reluctant to consider Sufism as part of Islam.

DHOL

Dhol is a big, oval-shaped drum, normally a meter long and half a meter wide. It is slung with a string around the neck and played by using two sticks. The loud sound of a dhol can be heard from great distance. A low, steady beat can create calmness whereas a stronger upbeat can stir anyone into action or frenzy. One can find inner peace and relaxation as the drumbeat has a great healing power.

 DHAMAAL

Dhamaal is a devotional dance performed by the devotees at tombs, shrines and dargahs. The purpose is to thank God and the saint when their prayers come true. The participants whirl, twirl, twist and turn on the beat of a dhol or drum. Their heart and soul are immersed into a thankful vibe.

It is a mind lifting activity. The rhythm makes you vibrate, oscillate, pulsate, rock and roll. The beat gradually picks up, and keeps going higher and higher. Let all join the festivity like a Sufi and swing to the rhythms of music to get closer to nirvana

QAWWALI

After dhamaal, one comes out of trance and starts hearing the sounds around. First to reach the ears is ‘qawwali’, the eternal Sufi song. Soon one can find some artists singing with passion, their voices rising and falling. One is drawn towards them as if under a spell.

Qawwali is an art passed from father to son. This is a Sufi music: its beauty lies that it is loved by all religions without any discrimination. Hindu devotional songs are synthesized with Muslim poetry – to sing about the unity of God. The poetry is implicitly spiritual, the central themes being love, devotion and longing for Divine.

The History of hazrat Syed abdullah shah ghazi Karachi

                  

History of Pakistan (Historical Background of Pakistan and its People)

Muslim world is a vast and immense mass of land sprawling from West Africa facing the Atlantic to southern Philippines far in the Pacific. Its northern limits touch the Volga in Russia while southern frontiers run up to Mozambique in South-East Africa on the Indian Ocean. In China, in addition to Sinkiang, Muslims are in substantial numbers in the provinces bordering Burma and in the districts around Peking. Total population of Muslims in the world is estimated at one billion.

In this book it is proposed to deal with only a small segment of this vast and varied world — with the land and people of the region called Pakistan. The purpose is not to discuss each and every aspect of their history nor to give a comprehensive account of their activities. It is intended to bring out only certain salient aspects which have either escaped the notice of historians or failed to receive sufficient emphasis from them. This book will substantiate the historical truth that the creation of an independent State of Pakistan in the sub-continent in the middle of the 20th century was not an oddity or a strange phenomena, nor have the people inhabiting this new political entity asserted their separate status from India for the first time.

Pakistan in different forms and in different backgrounds has appeared many a time in these very regions and endured longer than other independent states of this sub-continent, making enormous contribution to civilization. The history of its people is full of colour, thrill and excitement; of gallant deeds and sublime performance. It has, perhaps, witnessed more invasions than any other part of the world, absorbed more racial strains than any other region and more ideas have taken birth in the bosom of this land than elsewhere.

It was in these lands that the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the most brilliant in the annals of human history, flourished with its main centres at Moenjo Daro in Sind, Harappa in the Punjab, Kej in the Baluch territory and Judeiro Daro in the Pathan region. It was here that Buddhist culture blossomed and reached its zenith under the Kushans in the form of Gandhara civilization at the twin cities of Peshawar and Taxila. It was on this very soil that the Graeco-Bactrian civilization had its best flowering and left the indelible marks of finest Greek art in the potwar plateau around Rawalpindi. The entire Baluchistan is strewn with the remains of the earliest products of man’s activities. “Western Pakistan is a region which has been conspicuously important in the development of civilization.” (Pakistan and Western Asia, By Prof. Norman Brown. Pakistan Miscellany).

“In our present state of knowledge, we may regard the period of the Indus Valley culture as the first epoch in the history of civilization in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent. The second epoch is again one in which the north-west figures basically. This is the period when the Aryan entered through the passes of the north-west at a time assumed to be about 1500- 1200 B.C. and possessed the culture of the Rig Veda, which is the first and most important book of the early Indo-Aryans and was probably compiled by 1000 B.C.” (Ibid)

“Of the two river systems that of the Indus, now mainly in Pakistan, had the earliest civilization and gave its name to India. The fertile plains of the Punjab watered by the five great tributaries of the Indus had a high culture over two thousand years before Christ, which spread down the lower course of the Indus as far as the sea.” (The Wonder that was India, By A.L. Bhasham.)

In valour and patriotism the people of these lands have been second to none. It was the people of the Indus Valley that held back the Aryans for decades; it was in the Punjab that the advance of ferocious Mongols was halted for more than a century. But for this defence the tender sapling of Muslim state planted at Delhi in the early 13th century A.D. would have been trampled upon and smothered out. Among more recent events the stiff resistance that Napier encountered from the Sindis and Baluchis is still fresh in our minds. The revolt of the ‘hurs’ of Sind against British rule in the 20th century is another glorious mark in this series. Pathans’ defiance of the British rule and their perpetual struggle in the cause of freedom is a story of only the other day. Kashmiris have suffered silently but never ceased their fight for freedom. The lands of Pakistan are indeed drenched with the blood of many a hero and saturated with the wisdom of many a sage. And what is more exhilarating, it was from these lands that Islam commenced its journey in the sub-continent.

Sign & Sayong,s