A Glimpse of the Great Saint ---As My Grand Father

By Bismah Farouq Keelu

                       

My Grand Father Jenab-e- Sada Abdul Rahman (R.A) has altogether been a unique Person, whom I met, when I gained conscience, in my early child hood. People would throng him all over, every day. I could make nothing out of it except “Surprise Uninterrupted”. Why people from all walks of life would visit our house. Pay tributes. Show reverence to my Grand Father was unintelligible to me.

To be frank enough, my Grand Pa had no literal Degree or Diploma from any University or Educational Institution whatsoever; but in spite of all this, well read people, Officers, Authors of all shades of thinking would visit and pay their respect & gratitude to him. They would talk about religion and especially about Islam at length.

Firstly I wondered; and by and by, I started to ponder over, all these happenings. I would listen silently, what was passing between my Grand Father (Whom People, out of Love, Respect, affection & dedication would call “TOTH SAIB”) and his visitors during the course of discussion.

I could not make much of it as I was novice to it. I could see TOTH SAIB would organize celebrations on the eve of Islamic Great Days like “Ashoura”, “Mehraj-ul-Alam”, “Shab-e- Qader”, “Shab-e- Baraat”, “Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi (SAW)”, “Dastegeer-e-Du-alam”, “ Wesaal-e- Murshid Jenab-e-Khan Sahib” every year, with great reverence, fervor and festivities.

People from all over the State of J&K with their families, would attend the function in the day and night with all religious curiosity and love. TOTH SAIB would serve people with all the piety and humbleness. It was very difficult for a fresher entrant to the folds of Sufi Society to guess as to who is “Peer Sahib” because TOTH SAIB would throughout the day and night work like other participants & would look like a very ordinary and common worker of the Function called in Sufi Terminology as “Bhandara”.

It is only when “Khatm-e-sharief” would be recited that TOTH SAIB would appear to be  

the prominent, the GUIDE of the whole folk otherwise at no occasion he would give you a chance to differentiate him from the rest of the Sufi Workers. Such was his practical approach towards the society at large and his disciples in particular.

He would stop the “Chakri Singing Party” in the midst of the rhyme in progress; and would for the sake of his Taught & audience, reveal the vistas of mystical meanings of the couplets in the verses and the facts concealed within the words and stanzas of the verses of great Sufi Poets. He would refer the meaning of these verses to the relevant Verses of the Holy Quran.

He would not buy even a word from such verses which would not be exactly compatible to the holyLife of Prophet Mohammed (SAW); & reveal and enlighten the disciples, the reality of “BAATIN/ UNSEEN” in concurrence with the Verses of Holy Quran.

This he would relentlessly, continue to do, to make his disciples more and more learned. He would rather wish his disciples to ask questions, have interactions; and then get absorbed in the fathomless Universe of Thought & Unseen, having no boundaries, at all, no end.

He left us in the evening of 15^th of November 2008 ( 16^th of Zee Qaed 1429 H) in the evening with bottomless ocean  of ethos; and with endless pain and pathos. We could not visualize his physical departure. We could not realize the depth of pain, his leaving gave us. We were thinking in the same manner & style as any body would do, at the departure of his closest kith & kin. It was not an ordinary and usual departure. His Disciples could be seen in deep pain. The tears were running down their sad cheeks, unchecked with complete silence, which was reining the scenario; & had overtaken them completely.

I as a growing child in the family could not remain aloof and unconcerned to all what was happening around. He was a Great Grand Father to me especially. He would in detail and minutely evolve my needs and requirements both for my growing person and for my studies. He would leave no stone untouched to fulfill my growing requirements. He was in essence a MODEL GRAND PA to me.

As usual, we have today, the 15^th of November 2010, again assembled here to commemorate Him, as we have done in the past. I cannot give any humble thought to His learned Disciples, who have gathered here because I have to learn a lot about “TOTH SAIB” from them but the perspective, under which this august Assembly is holding session needs to be implemented in letter and spirit .

The huge gathering over here has to rededicate themselves with practical implementation of his Human Love & Beating-cum- Bleeding Heart, in their lives and reassert themselves,  to what they have been taught by their Great Saint “SADA ABDUL RAHMAN SAHIB (RA)” .

They will have to have and go through the deep and remorseful introspection individually as well as collectively, so as to quantify the  Achievements, they made, qualitatively; or God forbid, the Lost Achieved Grounds, which they had attained, in his presence, and now lost through mere negligence unwittingly. I am no judge of the Great Sufi Culture. I am still a crawling child in this serene atmosphere of Sufi Culture. I am equally their child as well. But it too cannot be forgotten or ignored that Introspection is the accountability of Soul & Mind through which a Sufi must pass & transcend to achieve Unattainable, the Zenith of being in this short and deceitful World. I think my few words will not bruise anybody’s heart. I beg pardon for it , if my words were a little hard to absorb. I think we have been taught by “TOTH SAEB” to have regular introspections. I just wanted to remind the same. Lest we forget the key to the Sufi Philosophy and pursuit of Haq.                                Thanks. Wasalam.