You raise an interesting point and mention interesting names. Maybe the prediction by a sufi mystic Shah naimatullah Wali and all the related ones by the names you have mentioned leading towards Ghazwa e hind.
For me the topic is much more vast whether its military or sufism. I was enjoying having a conversation in lighter moods in earlier posts of this thread, I kept smiling thinking how Joe Shearer sahab usually teases members. His standards are much higher of course, but I was merely having a good time replying to posts with a silly point here and there. It was good fun to see the reactions.
Kher, your post is intriguing.
In Military, there are different kinds of faith. Some are shia, majority are sunni, some go to shrines, others stick with masjid only, some drink alcohol, others are devoted muslims - basically all schools of thought exist. Islam unites them.
Military itself is intertwined with religion like I said previously. But it all comes down to faith of a military officer eventually. Lt Col Haq Nawaz Kayani (Shaheed in 71) was a retired army officer who was called back in war as reservist. He wanted command of his unit instead of desk job in GHQ which reservists get. While walking through a mine field in leepa valley AJK, he said to his troops that he has prayed so his troops will walk on the mines without getting harmed and thats exactly what happened, troops went through minefield unharmed. In Gilgit, a unit was transferring to Punjab region. The trucks of advance party went under the shadow of koran held by the unit's khateeb. The brakes of the first truck failed even after it had passed under koran. Two different CO's, different units, same terrain (AJK) - it boils down to faith.
Lt Gen Sarfraz Ali, who was martyred in recent heli crash, was IG FC too and against the popular perception, he moved to induct Baloch women in FC, and it worked out well. Later, his decision to dedicate Cadet College Turbat to girls also proved to be prudent. .Once, he learnt about a cottage school in village Inami Bhent, Awaran being run by a teacher after the floods of yesteryears uprooted the school building. Upon his directive, in just a few months, a fully furnished school was opened for the children in September 2020. I have more incidents like these of Brigs, Lt Cols and majors too, but the common myth that Generals are corrupt - needs to go, its not valid.
Major Raja Aziz Bhatti when used to go out with family and when approached by a beggar would take out money for beggar without looking in the wallet. His wife would argue against this approach but he would say that the beggar is getting whatever is in beggar's fate from his wallet and he is not a decision maker for beggar's fate but Allah is.
Take two military dictators- Zia and Musharraf. One conservative, other liberal. Zia Islamized the Army, Musharraf was opposite, yet the wars that military fought were through faith on Allah.
Lets talk about the other topic now. Faith, sufism, spirituality etc. Lets start with Lahore, some names you took lived in Lahore. I will mention briefly about them.
Lahore was land of black magic, ruled by hindus. Hazrat Miran Hussain Zanjani arrived in Lahore but went into seclusion soon afterwards without making any worthwhile difference. When the situation didnt change, another sufi dervish from the same order, same class (making them classmates) was sent to Lahore. The new dervish was excited to meet his class mate Miran Hussain Zanjani, but as he entered Lahore, he saw that jinaza of Hussain Zinjani was about to be held. the new dervish led the jinaza prayers and buried his classmate Hussain Zinjani. This dervish was Hazrat Ali bin Usman Hajveri (R.A) or Data Gunjbuksh R.A
He defeated a black magician who would take money/milk from everyone (Gujjars) or their cows/buffalos would give blood instead of milk. This magician converted to muslim and became known as Sheikh Hindi, now buried along with Data Ganjbuksh in his shrine. Data Gunjbuksh then ordered Ravi river to move away at certain distance as population of Lahore grew. This was 1000 years ago and last week was his 979th urs mubarak. Then all the sufis who had to travel to subcontinent were ordered to pay visit to Data Gunjbuksh in Lahore and then enter subcontinent. It continues even today but in different forms.
Jumping to 19th century, Allama Iqbal's incident with Data Gunjbuksh was narrated by one of his aides which became very famous. Wasif Ali Wasif was a professor in college, writing on blackboard with chalk one day in class room that he got mixed up while writing a sentence. His heartbeat rate increased, and he decided to go home instead somehow he went to the shrine of Data Gunjbuksh and then he became what we know about him today.
Manto was another character, like VCheng you could say, who would write what he saw and he only saw the dirt in society. He isnt related to Data Gunjbuksh dont worry. He had some influence of sufism but no way near others of his time and later writers. Manto would sit in Pak Tea house in evenings, not that far from Data Gunjbuksh shrine and consume alcohol.
There was Waris shah, he considered himself Ranjha, as he did fall in love with some heer whose love took him from ishq e majazi to ishq e hakiki while waris shah would visit shrine of Hazrat Baba Fareed Ganjshakar RA in pakpattan
Now this guy Dar, the one called from abroad, also has a story linked with him through Data Gunjbuksh. There was a Tonga driver, who would drive outside Data Gunjbuksh shrine everyday. One day he decided to come in the shrine and prayed that I have 4 sons, please request Allah to grant me 4 more rickshaws for them as I have been asking Allah for years but cant save enough money, people said that I can request through you, so kindly accept my request. One of his sons was an eager fellow, who was interested in studying and making a name for himself. He started visiting Data Gunjbuksh shrine. Today the son of a tonga driver owns properties abroad. This is just another story like millions of stories we hear.
Ashfaq Ahmed in his writings would present a "zawiya" - a point of view. If you read hypno therapy, the therapist keeps changing point of view of person to look at life from different angles to understand not just life but also his ailments ti find cure psychologically. Ashfaq Ahmed talked about metaphysics and physics in his story,"mann chalay ka soda" though the whole story revolves around " fanna" with concepts from sufism. If you do read Ashfaq Ahmed, you will see he mentions a paragraph after every few pages dedicated to concept of faith, Allah and spirituality from within the story for understanding of the reader.
If you conduct an analysis of different writers, then Qudratullah Shahab comes on top with his book Shahabnama. The thing with such books is that one has to read them again after sometimes to understand the context. Just like Data Gunjbaksh's famous book, kash ful majoob, is very difficult to understand even if you read it first few times.
Back in the day, when TV was conservative and decent, we were used to watching the start of transmission by Hamd shareef, naat shareef, recitation of koran etc. That was another building block for a generation to get solid foundation of understanding of religious values. Thats how a normal day would start. If you feel the cool breeze in morning, it sways the plants, grass, leaves etc just like they are whirling in love of Allah reciting hamd. The birds are leaving homes but they are squeaking in their own language early morning like praying to Allah and when returning to nests around maghrib, squeaking again as if thanking Allah at the end of their day. Although my previous posts got a bit silly considering I was joking around with disgruntled audience, but the importance of morning prayers is always there. If you listen to any motivational speaker, they start their day early. Bodybuilders and actors like Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson etc start their day before 5 am. Doctors say to take walks in early morning to energize body, as oxygen goes in body with deep breaths. Its actually energizing the soul because the soul wants to get up in morning while body wants to rest.
The basis of faith on Allah is very important. Allah is very kind and devises ways and means for every person to ask for forgiveness and turn towards Him. Its a mistake to judge Allah. Humans judge humans, but no one knows what actually lies in hearts. I wouldn't undermine Allah neither judge him. He gives to muslims, hindu, jew, christian, atheist - everyone. Someone who is not sparing Allah from judgement will obviously judge humans.
I have another member quoting me about hard work and honest hard work. Isnt it common sense that that there is no hard work without honesty. If its not honest, there is no hard work in it. I mean I come across biased people who have made up their minds on no matter what basis. Instead of working hard, we are more inclined to judge others if they are honest or not.
Then is the family upbringing. See the topic of this thread. Is that what parents have taught these members ? Ridiculing, insulting, cursing to get their points across. Its fun in a way, but it just shows how parents taught their child to express himself. This is why I mentioned the TV programs of back in the day starting from hamd, naat etc. Such values dont exist anymore.
In the end, my intention is to bring positivity, pick positivity and look for positivity. There is already too much negativity in such topics.
