The Great Mujaddid
Syedena Maulana Hazrat Syed Shah Mustarshid Ali Al Quaderi Al Hasani Al Husseini wal Medinipuri al Mutakhallis ba Tajammul* Ala Jaddihi Nabiyyina Alayyis salat was salam was born on the 05th of November, 1918 AD, 1st Zilhajj, at 22, Khanqah Sharif ,Kolkata during Subh Sadiq bearing similitude to the descent of the heavenly beams which lightens up the horizon.
As Huzur was born in the holy month of Zilhijja ,also the month in which the day of sacrifice appears ,His holiness would often comment that he would be surrounded by extreme trials and difficulties in his life time. He has been sent to this world in this month as a premonition of his self sacrifice that he would have to offer to the lord .
Our Huzur was a Mujaddid of his time. According to the popular Muslim tradition, Mujaddid refers to a person who appears at the turn of every century of the Islamic calendar to revive Islam, remove from it any extraneous elements and restore it to its pristine purity.
His holiness was enthroned with the Sajjada Sharief of Khanqah e Quaderia e Razzakia on 21st of Jamadiul Awwal,1372 AH i.e 06th February 1953 AD.
Our Lord’s childhood, adolescence, education, extreme penance, and achievement of the ultimate bearing in the spiritual realm was something which will remain unfathomable to the ordinary human mind. It is rife with numerous miracles which remains bereft of the ability of narration. We have attempted merely to bring his human qualities and the adversity he faced to limelight.
Sajjadanashin
Our Lord became the Sajjadanashin of the Order after Syedena Hazrat Syed Shah Irshad Ali Al Quaderi Alayyis salat was salam in the year 1953, as his eldest surviving son ,according to the tradition of the Quaderia Silsila which stipulates that the eldest surviving son will be Sajjadanashin after their father.
At the time he took over the reins of spiritual guidance of thousands of his disciples, of the Quaderia Order, the political unrest following the partition of Bengal in 1947 had its natural effects on many of his followers who belonged to Eastern part of Bengal. But his disciples, in what is now Bangladesh, remained steadfast in their allegiance to the saint’s spiritual leadership. However his assumption of the spiritual responsibility was fraught with troubles in the personal front too.
His near kin breaching the time honored law ,claimed to be the Sajjadanashin .
They challenged the position of his Holiness on the basis of a fake testament which they were not able to produce in the court of law. They resorted to various methods in order to gain custodianship of the holy shrines of the order. Under their leadership few followers had stooped to the level of trying to desecrate the holy shrine at Mangalkote pak and Medinipur sharief , like Muawiyah and his son Yazid who descended to every kind of deceit to espouse their unjust cause. There other numerous lawsuits were also rendered useless as all the decrees had favored his Holiness in spite of their very powerful sources in executive and judiciary. This goes on to prove that the status decreed by Allah swt to his holiness cannot be taken away by any worldly measure. Despite the aforementioned transgressions His Holiness had always maintained an attitude of clemency towards them.
The Human Qualities of our Lord:
His Holiness paid utmost importance to punctuality. He would always finish his activities within the allotted time. In case he would commit a time for visitation he would arrive at his holy chamber prior to the arrival of the visitor and wait for them. He would wait for a considerable period before getting involved in some other activity. His holiness would thus instruct the attendants to inform the visitor that our Lord had waited for the period of time as was the case and would meet him later if possible. These visitors would thus miss this holy opportunity irrespective of their status or social position.
The former President of Bangladesh Late Abu Sayyid Chaudhury was denied his holy visitation in spite of Mr. Sayyid’s repeated requests.
In religious studies his knowledge was unparalleled. He would baffle famous professors and authorities in fields of Hadith(traditions of the Prophet), fiqh(jurisprudence), tafsir (commentaries) with supremely intricate and subtle questions. They would give up saying “ let’s not discuss upon this” . With further queries they would escape by saying” I ‘ll have to refer to the doctrines and may come up with an answer later”.
Our Lord seemed to have obtained mastery in many other fields of knowledge too. Our lord’s understanding of Philosophy, poetry and music was also exceptional.Our lord read few poems of Rabindranath’s Gitanjali back to back and asked about the innate meaning of the lines from Mr. Iqbal ( a disciple ). He tried to explain in the manner he had understood. Our lord then interjected and asserted that “this is not what the poet had felt or what he tried to mean although the underlying meaning is deep and magnificent”. Then he presented the true exegesis of the lines which mesmerized the audience. This left everyone present spell bound,as, leave alone reading poetry of such advanced stage, our lord had never even learnt elementary Bengali.
Huzur had never studied Engineering. Once Mr. Khusrau who was a famous architect and civil engineer of his time was consulted to design the Blue print of the Khanquah Sharief at 4 Haji Md. Mohsin Square. The layout was displayed to our Huzur. He inspected the design in details and expressed the requirement of a pillar at a definite portion of the plan, the absence of which would render the structure unsupported at the spot. The architect was stunned on hearing this and acknowledged his mistake and incorporated the same in his drawing immediately. He was astounded by our Huzur’s observation as such an intricate fallacy has been noticed by someone who has not studied engineering. He had later inquired from others as to whether our Huzur had ever studied engineering.
Once a famous lawyer from Ballygunge had sent a draft to a petition . It was not Huzur’s practice to read such drafts or inspect these in person . However in this case, he instructed to read out the petition to him. On hearing he exclaimed that “this draft can never be acceptable in the eye of the Law”. The reason was also explained in details. On hearing huzur’s explanation the lawyer was amazed at his understanding and acknowledged his mistake . Later the lawyer had commented that his draft was not only lacking in understanding but also stood objectionable in the eyes of the law. He also had inquired as to whether our Huzur had ever studied Law in his lifetime.
His Holiness was the epitome of reverence. It is impossible for any person to show the depth of such reverence. He used to order the normal papers lying on the floor to be immersed. He used to say concerning small pieces of blank paper lying on the floor that someone may write the Holy name of Allah pak on it.
He would wash his hands prior to touching any holy book if he was without wuzu and used to dry his hands in the air. During the majlis pak, huzur never touched any part of the leg however much the discomfort may have been. After having the Tabarruk pak from Hejaz, Iraq or any niyaz pak, huzur used to order the water of the washed hands, seeds, skin of the fruits etc to be immersed in the water of gol talab. Articles related to prophets, siddiqeen, shohda or saleheen or torn portion of religious books were ordered to be immersed. Using newspapers to wrap things or turning them into table cloth while eating annoyed Huzur Pak as there was possibility of Allah pak’s names printed on them, sometimes even in the form of people’s names.
He would never allow backs to be turned towards holy books or photo of holy places. He would also not allow any holy pictures to be hung on the wall least someone turns his back towards it or puts out his legs in that direction while sleeping. He would never read while lying down and never used saliva to flip pages. Huzur used to listen to the azan with full attention and used to kiss the nails of the thumb when the holy name of Huzur (saw) was called out in azan.
Once early in the morning before sunrise a Christian lady narrated her disturbed state and sadness in front of Huzur while tears continued to ooze out of her eyes. Huzur tried to console her with kind words but she kept iterating the same words repeatedly. A khadim standing close by told her to go home as huzur pak had heard her and prayed for her. Maula got annoyed at the khadim and rebuked him saying that the lady was heartbroken and had lot of sadness in her heart. His Holiness’ heart would melt whenever he encountered human grief.
Maula completely immersed himself in the service of mankind.
The flood of 1978
The great flood of 1978 ravaged West Bengal badly. Dwellings of thousands of people, their agricultural land, cattle, all got washed away. The cries of helpless, hungry, heartbroken and diseased people could be heard from all corners of the state- the entire district of Bardhaman got almost washed away. Communication links were broken completely. The newspapers were unable to cover the unfolding tragedy. However in the district of Medinipur the news of the disaster were being portrayed almost everyday such as the submergence of 2 storied Jagannath Mandir.
Huzur pak was not worried at all about medinipur and strigunj pak and kept silent about them. When the Khadem bhais of Mazar pak and Strigunj pak expressed their concern Huzur said “ I am not worried about Medinipur. I feel, Mangalkot is facing Qayamat as if the Great deluge of Noah Alaihis Salam has descended here at Mangalkot.”
One day suddenly Wasim (disciple) came and said that the 2 rivers Ajay and Kunu have wreaked havoc in Mangalkot. Everything has been destroyed and only the Mazar pak stands alone.
Huzur was in Kolkata. Muridans thought that huzur pak was physically at Kolkata while spiritually he was helping the destitute day in and day out. Huzur Ghaus Pak(AS) attended 70 invitations at one time. Our Huzur’s help to the needy can be confirmed in the words of OC of the thana, Rajan Bhattacharjee-“ On the highland my official government quarter’s ceiling was almost submerged. The Bel tree was over the house. Of late the tree had turned to the other side . Brothers it is the great blessings of Huzur Ghaus Pak that I got saved from the flood and the tree.”
By the end of the flood Huzur had become weak and tired. Following the orders of huzur pak Wasim and Iqbal immediately left for Mangal kot. At the entrance of the town they met the district magistrate, SP and others. The people of the place said they were not allowing anybody to go inside Mangalkot as animal carcass was stinking and it was literally impossible to move inside.
The relief camp was ordering more food and medicine. Doctor Maqsud had gone to the flood hit areas. Doctors from Kolkata like Dr Amin and Dr. Matin were busy sending the medicines. Maula ordered help to everybody irrespective of Hindu, muslim or his disciples . Huzur’s selfless work rescued the lives of many. In fact the entire area got saved.
The Maula and king worked tirelessly to save everyone and took purdah soon. On the 25th of October,1978 and 22nd Zilqadd 1397 Huzur departed this world to meet Allah. His personality was a mix of pearls, gold and diamond which was unmatched. It would not be possible to dwell into the details here. May Maula give us the power . May maula give us the guidance.
Ref:
In the book Tazkeratul Tajammul .
*al Mutakhallis ba Tajammul means pure and magnificient
