Maroof Karkhi and wonders

Random thoughts
In two of my previous columns I wrote about the saintly personality of Hazrat Maroof Karkhi and how he had advised people to use his name as reference while praying so that, Inshallah, their prayers would be answered.
After the publication of those columns, a dear friend and religious scholar, Aslam Ghazali, called me up. He praised the column and said that he had distributed 200 copies to friends. Later he phoned again and told the following story: “A friend of mine told me that his son had been missing for more than three years. After reading Dr Khan’s columns, he performed ablution, offered two navafils and prayed to Allah through Hazrat Maroof Karkhi. Hardly half an hour later there was a knock on the door and there was his son! Somebody had brought him and left him at our door.” Alhamdulillah.
In Tazkaratil Aulia, Shaikh Fariduddin Attar mentioned many saints and their wonders. The famous Muslim traveller, Ibn Batuta, also mentioned many such episodes. On the face of it, such stories seem unbelievable, but both Attar and Ibn Batuta were pious people and their word cannot be doubted. Even in Bhopal we children were told that one Pir, Jabbar Mian, used to take people to Makkah and Madina by just asking the person to close their eyes and then putting his hand on their head. When they opened their eyes again, they were in Makkah or Madina, together with Pir Jabbar Mian. After prayers, they were brought back in the same way.
Once Begum Bhopal wanted to send an urgent letter to the Viceroy in Delhi. Time was very short and she was worried. A courtier asked her to give the letter to a well-known saintly figure and he delivered the letter in a jiffy. The reply came about a week later via a courier on horseback – the normal time taken for letters.
Ibn Batuta was a learned Islamic scholar who used to be appointed as the Great Qazi (chief justice) wherever he went. In his travelogue he mentions two very special

events. Once he heard that there was someone living in a cave at the top of a hill who always served delicious, out-of-season fruits and delicacies to guests. Ibn Batuta thought this to be some sort of trick so he visited the gentleman in question. After the usual greetings, he was asked to sit down. His host then moved his hand toward the entrance of the cave and there appeared a tray full of out-of-season fruits and other delicacies. The host then apologised saying that, living on the top of a mountain, he was unable to serve Batuta better.
Ibn Batuta came to India during Tughlaq’s rule and was duly appointed as the Great Qazi. The king was known for acting on a whim. For some reason he threw Ibn Batuta into the dungeon next to another religious scholar. One day there was much commotion and Ibn Batuta was told that large rats had bitten the other detainee and he had died due to loss of blood. Batuta became afraid and prayed to Allah for help. Suddenly there appeared a saint-like elderly gentleman who told him not to be afraid and recite Surah Ikhlas (Qulhowallah).
Upon Ibn Batuta’s enquiry, he was informed that the gentleman was the brother of the man who had saved Batuta from dying of thirst in the desert before coming to India. That evening the guards set Ibn Batuta free. Batuta recounted how once, while travelling in the desert in Arabia, he lost his way and fell unconscious from thirst and exhaustion. When he came to, he realised that someone was carrying him on his back. He was taken to an oasis and given water. Before leaving, the man told Ibn Batuta that he would meet the man’s brother in India and that he should convey his greetings to him.
One should be careful in doubting such events. Have we not been told in the Quran how a learned man (and not a jin) had fetched the throne of the Queen of Saba and put it at the feet of Hazrat Sulaiman (SA) in the twinkling of an eye? This wonder was not carried out by an angel or a prophet, but by a pious man.
After reading my column, another dear friend, Khalil Ahmed Nainitalwala, sent me an SMS from Saudi Arabia where he was performing Umrah. He said that my column was giving the impression that I was supporting qabar parasti (grave worshipping). No Khalil Bhai, nothing is further from the truth. I belong to Bhopal where such practices were unheard of. We were good practising Muslims. I know you don’t, and can’t, get anything from a grave. Yet there is no harm in offering fateha at a grave or praying to Allah through the good offices of a saint, as is the case of Hazrat Maroof Karkhi or Ghause Azam, etc.
We ask the Almighty, not the saint. The Almighty has very clearly ordained in Surah Hajj, Ayat 73: “O human beings! Here is a parable set forth. Listen to it! Those on whom besides Allah you call, cannot create a fly even if they all join hands for the purpose! And if the fly should snatch anything from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly. Feeble are those who petition and those when they petition.”
Tailpiece: The recent heavy rains have caused flooding and billions of cusecs of sweet water are flowing out to sea. Fields and crops have been swept away causing huge human and material losses. This has been happening, unchecked, for the last six and a half decades. The rulers seem least bothered to tackle the problem, perhaps because it is always the poor who suffer. It is time the bull is taken by the horns.
I have travelled extensively in China when it was less developed than Pakistan and noticed that the PLA (army) was intensively involved in making roads, bridges, flyovers, water canals, etc. Wherever such projects were undertaken, tents were erected to provide living quarters, bathrooms, kitchens, cinema halls, etc. and fields for volleyball, football, etc. laid out. The Chinese army has done wonders. They also built the railway line from Chengdu (Sichuan Province) to Lhasa (Tibet), crossing ravines, gorges and high mountains.
In Africa they built a railway line from the west coast (Angola) to the east coast (Mozambique) to transport copper. Our army jawans and engineers are equally competent. They should be supplied with the necessary equipment and some nominal extra allowances as incentive. That way they can be deployed to dig lakes along the route of flood waters and make channels to fill them. These can then be used throughout the year for fish farming and agriculture. Is that asking for the moon? I hope Gen Raheel Sharif will consider this seriously.
Email: dr.a.quadeer.khangmail.com