Our Spirtual Legacy- Hameedah Nayeem

  
The heart-rending  and soul-stirring incident of  the devastating  fire of  Dastageer Sahib mosque,  the Shrine dedicated to Syed Abdul Qadir Jeelani, shocked and outraged the entire  state  both Muslims  and non Muslims alike. This is yet another deep  psychological  blow  that our collective consciousness has received in the past two

decades  of military rule which  has wreaked  havoc with  the living symbols of our history, religion, culture, the sereneness of our  environment , forests and health resorts, the harmony of our  ecology, the health of our resources, not to talk of human lives and their habitat. It freshened the wounds of Charari Sharief, Khanqahi Muallah of Amir-e-Kabir at Tral, Baba Rishi’s shrine at Tangmarg, adjacent mosque at Makhdoom Sahib’s and many others.

This shrine in particular   has served as a cradle of comfort and solace for the people of the valley in the most difficult times of their lives. I  recall  my  meeting with   a  psychoanalyst  Shobna Sonpar  in 2002 who  was   invited   by  an   NGO to  counsel  the victims of violence in the valley. After meeting many traumatic victims of violence, she was outraged by what Indian army, her own country’s army has done to people here and shed real tears of both pain and sorrow in empathy with the sufferers but felt defeated by the people’s resilience and their faith in God and the saints’ power of intercession before God for them. She felt poor by the richness of their faith and power of endurance which the sufferers displayed.  While explaining to her why people here do not  need trauma centers  despite  colossal sufferings  and miseries,  I told her it is because Kashmir is dotted with the shrines and mosques where people go  to cry to their God  to find solace and comfort and therefore the secular armament of   trauma centers  and counselors to deal with  the situation is redundant in this milieu.

The shrine dedicated to   Syed Abul Qadir Jeelani  popularly known as  Dastageer Sabun  was in particular within easy reach both physically and symbolically to people  and they would get comfort and  consolation by visiting it and  meditating there for hours, crying to their Lord  and feeling lightened and purified. At the same time they would feel recharged to endure the fret and fume of life and the buffets of time.

It stood  as  a rock of  strength  and inspiration  especially for women  who would sit there for long hours to  get relief from pain and  agony , the sense of loss of their dear ones to the violence raging here   changelessly, a sort of  catharsis to bring about an equipoise in their psychic make up. It is this   peaceful sacred space which will be most missed by people particularly by women of all hues.

In 2007, Michael Mubarak, an American and a disciple of Hazrat Inayat Khan, the saint who founded Sufism in the West in 1910, came to Kashmir to pay a visit to the shrines of saints. In his conversation with me, he made a particular reference to Dastageer Sahib’s mosque that it is really an abode of saints. My own experience  corroborated his in the sense that I have also felt  a sense of peace and tranquility in its environs whenever  I have  been there  perhaps also because ‘dadiwallas’ do not pester the visitors  with begging  which is so nauseating at  Makhdoom Sahib’s shrine.

Dastageer Sabun has also served as a centre of political activism and a unifying symbol from early twentieth century for the people of Kashmir. It has been a symbol of its syncretic culture, a living monument of its history, a testimony of its spirituality and a symbol of Kashmir’s dedication to the most elevated saint who achieved the highest pinnacle of closeness to God by following the Prophet of Islam in letter and spirit.

Besides all these attributes, it was a finest feat of indigenous architecture, of pinjira kari, of unique khatamban, of papier machie of symphony of colors and arches and antique chandeliers. Its devastation once again underscores our plight, our powerlessness and the political quagmire in which we are caught and an intensified need to end it.
The author  teaches at Department of english,university of kashmir and  can be mailed at hameedah.nayeem@gmail.com