We Turn Humans into gods!

““We Turn Humans into gods!”

I was about to enter the airport to catch a flight to Lahore when I stopped to look at a crowd of around 125-150 people waiting with flower wreaths in their hands and reciting Durood Sharif. Moments later, a huge car appeared near the departure lounge and out came a buzurg with a long white beard. Someone among the crowded screamed, “Pir Sahib aa gaye! (the Pir has arrived)” The crowd ran towards the Pir Sahib whose face beamed when he looked at the crowd. People were literally going crazy in the blessed presence of Pir Sahib. Some were holding Pir Sahib’s shirt against their eyes, some were kissing his hands, some were at his feet, someone picked up his shoes and was holding them against his eyes, someone took his bag and someone else yanked his Tasbeeh. The whole departure lounge was bursting with the roars of “Allah-hu, Allah-hu” and “Na’ra-e-Takbeer”. A group of foreigners, who, I guess belonged to an earthquake rescue team were staring at the scene with deep astonishment and soon their cameras were flashing, capturing the weird drama.

I went inside the airport. Inside, Pir Sahib was still being followed by half a dozen of his mureeds (followers), who, I discovered, were traveling with him. Soon the waiting area had turned into Pir Sahib’s personal sitting area, with the Pir Sahib sitting on a sofa and his mureeds gathered at his feet. I bumped into a friend of mine and started talking to him, momentarily breaking free of the strange aura.

After a while when I boarded the plane and soon observed that the situation inside the plane had become quite interesting. The mureeds had dedicated a full set of triple seats to Pir Sahib, which is normally allotted to three passengers, while they themselves had hacked the seats of other passengers. The actual owners of these seats were arguing with the mureeds for their seats. After a while, the mureeds reluctantly got up and sat on the floor. As it turned out, the mureeds were reluctant to sit beside Pir Sahib and were saying, “We are willing to die here but cannot commit blasphemy by sitting beside our Pir Sahib!” Astaghfirullah!!

The situation was about to get out of control when a couple of sensible passengers offered their own seats to the mureeds in exchange for the seats on either side of Pir Sahib and soon the problem was finally resolved.

I was continuously observing Pir Sahib during the whole mockery of a situation: his head peacefully resting against the seat and his eyes closed with his fingers running feverishly on his Tasbeeh. The flight finally became airborne and we were off to Lahore. However, every now and then, Pir Sahib would suddenly shout “Allah-hu” and his mureeds would follow at the top of their voices, “Allah hu, Allah hu”, which seemed to cause turbulence in the airplane.

As I got off the plane at Lahore terminal, thanking Allah that the flight was over, the scene outside the arrival lounge proved me wrong in an instant. The lounge was packed with not less than 300 mureeds, with longing in their eyes. I couldn’t have missed the drop scene and decided to wait in a corner. The crowd of mureeds was now standing on the tiptoes, trying to peep inside the arrival lounge to catch a glimpse of the revered face. Pir Sahib soon appeared, walking at a steady and confident pace and as I expected, the terminal erupted into trembling roars of “Allah-hu, Allah-hu”. The moment Pir Sahib put his foot outside the gates, the whole crowd dropped at his feet. Seeing so many humans prostrate at the feet of another human was too much for me and I ran outside, touching my ears and repeating “Astaghfaar”.

Inside my car my head was spinning with the horror of the scene I had just witnessed. “What was this?” I had no answer to the question.

Are we the same Ummah who claims to be the worshippers of one God (Allah)? We do believe in one God but do not believe in His commandments. We turn human beings, His mere creation, into gods and then seek our salvation under their feet. We seek bliss by touching their shoes and forget that these are the people who are oblivious about their future; their next step and their next moment, who don’t even know if this breathe of air, which they are dragging inside their lungs with so much pride, would ever be able to come out of their arrogant bodies, or if the sip of water they have just taken would ever flush through their kidneys, or if the loaf of bread they are holding in their hand would ever reach their awaiting mouth! What can these meager humans give them?

I started thinking about progressive nations and realized that all the nations who have shown tremendous advancement and succeeded in achieving their goals followed only one god… This god could be justice, science or system and on other occasions, it took the form of merit and equality. Whether he lived in a church or a mosque, he was ONE! I also realized that almost all the nations who worshipped many gods or bowed at the feet of other humans got off-track and lagged behind. And soon the stark reality hit me: the reason for the pathetic failure of Muslims everywhere in the world was staring me in the face. When a nation forgets Allah and seeks salvation from many human-gods, then it deserves to be ridiculed and mocked all over the world!

Bernard Shaw once said, “A human is very strange; he cannot even create a leaf or a fly and yet he creates hundreds and thousands of gods”. How true and priceless is this saying! When nations are punished by the Almighty, they busy themselves in god-manufacturing. Every new fear throws them at the mercy of a new god and each of these new gods hands them a new fear as a gift!

We are at the mercy of these innumerable, insignificant and miserable human-gods! No doubt that the Almighty, who can create human irids in 16 million colors, can save us from the wrath of countires like America. BUT He listens to only those who listen to Him!

Regards.

Malik Riaz Hussain”

The above is an english translation of an amazing article written by Malik Riaz Hussain, Chief Executive – Bahria Town, printed in daily “Jinnah” on November 02, 2005. I found it so accurate and soul-shaking that I decided to share it with you all.