Sindh , my land , a province of Pakistan , has historically been a land with less weapons .The persons who had the privilege of having a weapon on Government issued license were respected and were considered in local notables. The less knowledge about firearms and even less number of weapons had given birth to very strange hypothesis about them that were poles apart reality.
The more old a weapon was , the more reliable , lethal and costly it was considered . These weapons were shrouded in strange myths. For example , some one’s single barrel 12 gauge shot gun which he inherited from his deceased grandfather had to be believed to have a deadly poison , milked from the fangs of a thousand cobras who were kept thirsty for a year, mixed in the metal of its barrel and even s slight rupture caused by any of its number 6 or number 8 cartridge’s pellet was enough to dispatch an elephant . A lee Enfield rifle granted to a landlord’s great grandfather, by the English Collector of District in recognition of his services for British Empire in World War II said to be a range equal to an anti Aircraft gun because it was specially made on the order of and send by the Monarch of England himself to that land lord’s great grandfather. When such notables took out from old iron trunks hidden udder the cots the sit and sleep in day and night respectively , and carry those weapons and walk around their villages in goose step on special occasions like big festivals or any other social events , the ordinary men would gather in flocks to avail the rare opportunity of witnessing such guns with supernatural powers with their jaws dropped back to London. But the myth of one weapon was above all myths.
Just as sun outshines the stars, the presence or view of just a single particular weapon was enough to deflate the grandeur of other weapon like a punctured tyre and that weapons was none other than German invented G3 , the official infantry rifle of Pak Army -
As the people of Pakistan hold their army in high regard , G3 was believed to possess all the qualities an anti material rifle could imagine to possess. Its range was believed to be beyond visual range . There was no material in the world which can withstand the bullet of G3 and could provide cover to the enemy from the blood thirsty fire of this rifle. All these qualities were believed to be found in this gun because it was a GERMAN made / German invented gun.
Germany had always been a very fascinating and a sort of mythical land of the people of Sindh because it has been mentioned in the poetry and predictions of some religious personalities revered by the people of Pakistan .
Well, being a gun enthusiast, I also love G3 and other weapons and cartridges made in or invented in Germany ,but the German made or German invented weapons and brands and calibers of Ammunition are not the only reference of this great nation for me . The references through which I was introduced to Deutschland are far greater than just a weapon and calibers of Ammunition.
Interestingly enough, all of the august personalities, through whom I know Germany, belong to feminine gender.
(By the way, as per Sindhi grammar, the gun and a rifle also fall in feminine gender)
3.Mother Elsa Kazi
She is such a respected and revered figure in Sindh that nobody dares address her with her bare name. She is always addressed as “Mother Elsa Kazai” or as we address her in Sindh “Jiji Elsa Kazi” . The word jeejal or Jiji is an affectionate expression to address a mother out of respect and love .
Mother Elsa was born in Gernamy in Gertrude Losesch on October the 3rd 1884 . She was married to one of the most learned, Nobel and gifted person of Sindh, Allama I.I. Kazi in London . They met in a spectacular way. The Wikipedia narrates the encounter as under
“It was in London that she met the philosopher from Sindh, British India Allama I. I. Kazi by sheer chance. It so happened that Mr. Kazi, having arrived at the railway station while the train had already started moving, managed to board in the last compartment which was empty, except for a solitary young lady occupying a corner quarter. Raised in a traditional family background, Mr Kazi felt very shy and embarrassed and kept standing near the door with his back to the lady. Elsa was amazed, astonished and amused to meet a man who would not take a seat despite her repeated offers, and would only repeat apologies. For such a man, she sought his address and thus developed a lifelong association.[ The couple was married in Germany in 1910.”
Mother Elsa Kazi with her Husband
My introduction to this great lady was through her poem, which was the part of my 9th grade curriculum. It was a poem written by her to praise a species of local tree that we call “Neem” . This tree has a great, dense, cool and soothing shade for the villagers who do not have any other refuge, except shadow of Neem tree , in the scorching heat of Summer when temperature often crosses the 50 degree Centigrade mark . She has paid homage to the Neem tree in a wider perspective and in unforgettable words. The poem runs as under
“My lovely Neem,
That intercepts sun’s scorching beam,
Yet bears the heat all day
Without the rain’s refreshing spray,
Thou charm’st the wanderer’s woe away
With soothing shade
How strong you are, how unafraid,
How green thy leaves in spite of all
The mid-day flames that burning fall
Upon thy unprotected head ……….
Could man be both as thou and rise
Above the earth, with the sheltering arm
To save the suffering ones from harm,
From sorrows, poverty and vice
Through sacrifice
Could man be steadfast, and like thee
Face every fate, would it not be
Fulfilment of life’s loftiest dream
My lovely Neem!
She has also authored many other books including another great work which she co authored with her husband captioned as “The Adventures of the Brown Girl in her Search for God.” This book is an answer from a Muslim point of view to The Black Girl in search of God authored by George Bernard Shaw. She was also instrumental , along with her husband in establishment of biggest University of Sindh. She breathed her last in …. And is resting besides her husband in a peaceful corner of Sindh University , the alma mater established by this esteemed couple . Her death broken her husband who also died in an extra ordinary fashion, as extra ordinary their life was, but this is not the place to mention that.
May Allah bless their souls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Kazi
https://www.sindhidunya.com/elsa-kazi-the-mother-elsa-of-sindh/
2. Angela Markel . The German Chancellor
I don’t know whether these lines of mine shall harm this respected and great lady politically as Muslims are increasingly becoming untouchables in western societies. In this scenario, any word of praise for a western politician from a Muslim shall not amount anything but to loss of some votes. I salute this revered lady as she opened the gates of Germany to the devastated and humiliated Syrian refugees when rest of Europe and other world was in a race to slam their doors on them. I don’t know why the Europe was so quick to forget the days of Second World War when the tidal waves European refugees were hitting the shores of Muslim lands and there is not a single precedent on record where any Muslim country had ever closed its borders for such helpless and desperate humans for a single day irrespective of what religion they belonged to, and needless to mention that such devastated European refugees were either Christians or Jews corresponding to the proportion of their population .
And it was also not the first time in history when Muslims helped and housed the non Muslim refugees with open arms and keeping their dignity and respect intact. When Jews of Spain, who were already subjected to massacres and apartheid in Christian Spain, were further persecuted by King Ferdinand and Isabella and were given a deadline of 4 months either to convert to Christianity or leave the country through a legal decree called Alhambra Decree, the safest and most honorable refuge for such persecuted Jews was none other than Ottoman Empire and their savoir was nobody else but Sultan Bayazeed II , the Ottoman Muslim Sultan/ caliph .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayezid_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree
The following link from a website called “Holocast , a call to conscience”
Speaks volumes about the status of those ousted Jews in Ottoman Empire
http://www.projetaladin.org/holocau...ry/jews-in-the-ottoman-empire-and-turkey.html
And even while in Spain, the golden period of Judaism and jews of Spain is termed as the rule of Caliphate of Cordoba. Following links may be helpful if someone wishes to study the subject further
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Spain
The period of Ottoman Empire is called to be a time of cultural blossoming for Jews . I copy paste the paragraph from a website namely www.myjewshlearning.com
This was also a time of cultural blossoming: Hebrew law was enriched by Joseph Caro’s Shulhan Arukh (the “Prepared Table”) which was to become the authoritative code for the entire Jewish nation, while from Safed in Palestine emerged the Lurianic Kabbalah of Ha-Ari, one of the most influential trends in Jewish mysticism. It seems that these communities of exiles, suddenly liberated from the danger of extinction, could give expression to an outburst of cultural forces which had been stifled by centuries of persecution.
Reprinted with permission from Eli Barnavi’s A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, published by Schocken Books.
KABBALAH
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-ottoman-empire/
I do not say much rather that “we all, who are people of Scripture
(Jews , Christians and Muslims) and who believe in day of Judgment , shall see this great lady and who helped her in this regard , on an elevated position in heavens, God willing , in the company of Moses, Jesus, Mary and Muhammad (May peace be upon Them all) due to the mercy she had on the refugees marred with miseries no matter what religion they belonged to .
May Allah elevate her to the heights obsessed by others
1 Dr Annemarie Schimmel
The name of this most revered German lady bows my head in
Respect as I write about her.
What can be written about her? But for readers some of worldly honors she received are as under
Dr Annemarie Schimmel was a German Orientalist and scholar who wrote extensively on Islam and Sufism. Internationally renowned, she was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.
A little gist of Awards she received world wide
• ,
She was given other awards from many countries of the world, including the 1995 prestigious Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. This award caused a controversy in Germany, as she had defended the outrage of the Islamic world against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses(1988), a novel, in a television interview.[7] Schimmel's award speech is available online in translation, entitled "A Good Word Is Like a Good Tree."[8]
Among other awards and honors are the following.
• 1965 Friedrich Rückert Prize of the City of Schweinfurt, Germany
• 1978 Foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences[9]
• 1980 Johann Heinrich Voss Prize for Translation from the German Academy for Language and Literature
• 1989 Grand Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1990 Golden Owl award of the German Socratic Society, for outstanding scholarship
• 1992 Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize of the University of Tübingen
• 25 October 1996, Order of Merit of the Republic of Turkey
• 1996 Egyptian Order of Merit for Art and Science, First Class
• 1997 Honorary membership in the Central Council of Muslims in Germany
• 2001 Reuchlin Prize of the City of Pforzheim, Germany, for outstanding contributions in the humanities
• 2002 Do'stlik Order of the Republic of Uzbekistan, for the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding between nations
• 2002 Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi Peace Prize of the Central Islamic Archive Institute of Germany, Soen, a prestigious award for Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue
• 2005 Name engraved in the "Walk of Fame" street in the City of Bonn
.
In my personal view these awards did not do anything to add an iota to the dignity of Dr Schimmel , rather Dr Annemarie Shimmel enhanced the values of these awards by graciously accepting them .
She was an authority on Sufism which is a charmingly vivid color in the rainbow of Islamic traditions which has helped preserve and conserve many civilizations and cultures pursuant to their embracing Islam. She was one of unbiased Westerner scholars who realized that Islam does not repel but absorb and does not alter but preserves the cultures. She was, perhaps, the only western personality who came close to feel the magnitude of the attachment the Muslims have with their Prophet (here I am not talking about Wahabi / salafi elements who are playing havoc in the name of Islam and which are known as ISIS, Al Qaeda, TTP , Boko Haram , Al-Nusra front , Hayyat Tehrir Alsham and what not). The attachment that Muslims have with their Prophet is beyond the understanding of a Non Muslim. But if someone goes through her book “And Muhammad is His Messenger” he can have a touch or glimpse of that attachment she was able to grasp and depict in that book.
In her last days she was very close to one of the Sindhi intellectual of her own caliber namely “Syed Hessamuddin Rashdi” and when she red Shah Abdul Lateef Bhitai , the great Sindhi Sufi poet and Musician , she felt that Sindhi Sufism is essence of all streams of mystic ideologies and , thus , decided to be eternal part of soil of Sindh . She made a will to be buried beside her co-intellectual “Hessamuddin Rashdi” in one of world’s biggest graveyard situated on the Makli Hills in Thatta , the former capital of Sindh .
My humble hands had the honor of touching her feet, at the end of a lecture, in her last days.
May Allah grant her the status in Heavens in accordance with the saying (Hadees) of Prophet Muhammad that “The ink of the pen of an Scholar is more important/precious than the blood of a martyr”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimu/2530767574
The more old a weapon was , the more reliable , lethal and costly it was considered . These weapons were shrouded in strange myths. For example , some one’s single barrel 12 gauge shot gun which he inherited from his deceased grandfather had to be believed to have a deadly poison , milked from the fangs of a thousand cobras who were kept thirsty for a year, mixed in the metal of its barrel and even s slight rupture caused by any of its number 6 or number 8 cartridge’s pellet was enough to dispatch an elephant . A lee Enfield rifle granted to a landlord’s great grandfather, by the English Collector of District in recognition of his services for British Empire in World War II said to be a range equal to an anti Aircraft gun because it was specially made on the order of and send by the Monarch of England himself to that land lord’s great grandfather. When such notables took out from old iron trunks hidden udder the cots the sit and sleep in day and night respectively , and carry those weapons and walk around their villages in goose step on special occasions like big festivals or any other social events , the ordinary men would gather in flocks to avail the rare opportunity of witnessing such guns with supernatural powers with their jaws dropped back to London. But the myth of one weapon was above all myths.
Just as sun outshines the stars, the presence or view of just a single particular weapon was enough to deflate the grandeur of other weapon like a punctured tyre and that weapons was none other than German invented G3 , the official infantry rifle of Pak Army -
As the people of Pakistan hold their army in high regard , G3 was believed to possess all the qualities an anti material rifle could imagine to possess. Its range was believed to be beyond visual range . There was no material in the world which can withstand the bullet of G3 and could provide cover to the enemy from the blood thirsty fire of this rifle. All these qualities were believed to be found in this gun because it was a GERMAN made / German invented gun.
Germany had always been a very fascinating and a sort of mythical land of the people of Sindh because it has been mentioned in the poetry and predictions of some religious personalities revered by the people of Pakistan .
Well, being a gun enthusiast, I also love G3 and other weapons and cartridges made in or invented in Germany ,but the German made or German invented weapons and brands and calibers of Ammunition are not the only reference of this great nation for me . The references through which I was introduced to Deutschland are far greater than just a weapon and calibers of Ammunition.
Interestingly enough, all of the august personalities, through whom I know Germany, belong to feminine gender.
(By the way, as per Sindhi grammar, the gun and a rifle also fall in feminine gender)
3.Mother Elsa Kazi
She is such a respected and revered figure in Sindh that nobody dares address her with her bare name. She is always addressed as “Mother Elsa Kazai” or as we address her in Sindh “Jiji Elsa Kazi” . The word jeejal or Jiji is an affectionate expression to address a mother out of respect and love .
Mother Elsa was born in Gernamy in Gertrude Losesch on October the 3rd 1884 . She was married to one of the most learned, Nobel and gifted person of Sindh, Allama I.I. Kazi in London . They met in a spectacular way. The Wikipedia narrates the encounter as under
“It was in London that she met the philosopher from Sindh, British India Allama I. I. Kazi by sheer chance. It so happened that Mr. Kazi, having arrived at the railway station while the train had already started moving, managed to board in the last compartment which was empty, except for a solitary young lady occupying a corner quarter. Raised in a traditional family background, Mr Kazi felt very shy and embarrassed and kept standing near the door with his back to the lady. Elsa was amazed, astonished and amused to meet a man who would not take a seat despite her repeated offers, and would only repeat apologies. For such a man, she sought his address and thus developed a lifelong association.[ The couple was married in Germany in 1910.”
Mother Elsa Kazi with her Husband
My introduction to this great lady was through her poem, which was the part of my 9th grade curriculum. It was a poem written by her to praise a species of local tree that we call “Neem” . This tree has a great, dense, cool and soothing shade for the villagers who do not have any other refuge, except shadow of Neem tree , in the scorching heat of Summer when temperature often crosses the 50 degree Centigrade mark . She has paid homage to the Neem tree in a wider perspective and in unforgettable words. The poem runs as under
“My lovely Neem,
That intercepts sun’s scorching beam,
Yet bears the heat all day
Without the rain’s refreshing spray,
Thou charm’st the wanderer’s woe away
With soothing shade
How strong you are, how unafraid,
How green thy leaves in spite of all
The mid-day flames that burning fall
Upon thy unprotected head ……….
Could man be both as thou and rise
Above the earth, with the sheltering arm
To save the suffering ones from harm,
From sorrows, poverty and vice
Through sacrifice
Could man be steadfast, and like thee
Face every fate, would it not be
Fulfilment of life’s loftiest dream
My lovely Neem!
She has also authored many other books including another great work which she co authored with her husband captioned as “The Adventures of the Brown Girl in her Search for God.” This book is an answer from a Muslim point of view to The Black Girl in search of God authored by George Bernard Shaw. She was also instrumental , along with her husband in establishment of biggest University of Sindh. She breathed her last in …. And is resting besides her husband in a peaceful corner of Sindh University , the alma mater established by this esteemed couple . Her death broken her husband who also died in an extra ordinary fashion, as extra ordinary their life was, but this is not the place to mention that.
May Allah bless their souls
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Kazi
https://www.sindhidunya.com/elsa-kazi-the-mother-elsa-of-sindh/
2. Angela Markel . The German Chancellor
I don’t know whether these lines of mine shall harm this respected and great lady politically as Muslims are increasingly becoming untouchables in western societies. In this scenario, any word of praise for a western politician from a Muslim shall not amount anything but to loss of some votes. I salute this revered lady as she opened the gates of Germany to the devastated and humiliated Syrian refugees when rest of Europe and other world was in a race to slam their doors on them. I don’t know why the Europe was so quick to forget the days of Second World War when the tidal waves European refugees were hitting the shores of Muslim lands and there is not a single precedent on record where any Muslim country had ever closed its borders for such helpless and desperate humans for a single day irrespective of what religion they belonged to, and needless to mention that such devastated European refugees were either Christians or Jews corresponding to the proportion of their population .
And it was also not the first time in history when Muslims helped and housed the non Muslim refugees with open arms and keeping their dignity and respect intact. When Jews of Spain, who were already subjected to massacres and apartheid in Christian Spain, were further persecuted by King Ferdinand and Isabella and were given a deadline of 4 months either to convert to Christianity or leave the country through a legal decree called Alhambra Decree, the safest and most honorable refuge for such persecuted Jews was none other than Ottoman Empire and their savoir was nobody else but Sultan Bayazeed II , the Ottoman Muslim Sultan/ caliph .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayezid_II
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree
The following link from a website called “Holocast , a call to conscience”
Speaks volumes about the status of those ousted Jews in Ottoman Empire
http://www.projetaladin.org/holocau...ry/jews-in-the-ottoman-empire-and-turkey.html
And even while in Spain, the golden period of Judaism and jews of Spain is termed as the rule of Caliphate of Cordoba. Following links may be helpful if someone wishes to study the subject further
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Spain
The period of Ottoman Empire is called to be a time of cultural blossoming for Jews . I copy paste the paragraph from a website namely www.myjewshlearning.com
This was also a time of cultural blossoming: Hebrew law was enriched by Joseph Caro’s Shulhan Arukh (the “Prepared Table”) which was to become the authoritative code for the entire Jewish nation, while from Safed in Palestine emerged the Lurianic Kabbalah of Ha-Ari, one of the most influential trends in Jewish mysticism. It seems that these communities of exiles, suddenly liberated from the danger of extinction, could give expression to an outburst of cultural forces which had been stifled by centuries of persecution.
Reprinted with permission from Eli Barnavi’s A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People, published by Schocken Books.
KABBALAH
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-ottoman-empire/
I do not say much rather that “we all, who are people of Scripture
(Jews , Christians and Muslims) and who believe in day of Judgment , shall see this great lady and who helped her in this regard , on an elevated position in heavens, God willing , in the company of Moses, Jesus, Mary and Muhammad (May peace be upon Them all) due to the mercy she had on the refugees marred with miseries no matter what religion they belonged to .
May Allah elevate her to the heights obsessed by others
1 Dr Annemarie Schimmel
The name of this most revered German lady bows my head in
Respect as I write about her.
What can be written about her? But for readers some of worldly honors she received are as under
Dr Annemarie Schimmel was a German Orientalist and scholar who wrote extensively on Islam and Sufism. Internationally renowned, she was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.
A little gist of Awards she received world wide
• ,
She was given other awards from many countries of the world, including the 1995 prestigious Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. This award caused a controversy in Germany, as she had defended the outrage of the Islamic world against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses(1988), a novel, in a television interview.[7] Schimmel's award speech is available online in translation, entitled "A Good Word Is Like a Good Tree."[8]
Among other awards and honors are the following.
• 1965 Friedrich Rückert Prize of the City of Schweinfurt, Germany
• 1978 Foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences[9]
• 1980 Johann Heinrich Voss Prize for Translation from the German Academy for Language and Literature
• 1989 Grand Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1990 Golden Owl award of the German Socratic Society, for outstanding scholarship
• 1992 Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize of the University of Tübingen
• 25 October 1996, Order of Merit of the Republic of Turkey
• 1996 Egyptian Order of Merit for Art and Science, First Class
• 1997 Honorary membership in the Central Council of Muslims in Germany
• 2001 Reuchlin Prize of the City of Pforzheim, Germany, for outstanding contributions in the humanities
• 2002 Do'stlik Order of the Republic of Uzbekistan, for the promotion of friendship and mutual understanding between nations
• 2002 Muhammad Nafi Tschelebi Peace Prize of the Central Islamic Archive Institute of Germany, Soen, a prestigious award for Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue
• 2005 Name engraved in the "Walk of Fame" street in the City of Bonn
.
In my personal view these awards did not do anything to add an iota to the dignity of Dr Schimmel , rather Dr Annemarie Shimmel enhanced the values of these awards by graciously accepting them .
She was an authority on Sufism which is a charmingly vivid color in the rainbow of Islamic traditions which has helped preserve and conserve many civilizations and cultures pursuant to their embracing Islam. She was one of unbiased Westerner scholars who realized that Islam does not repel but absorb and does not alter but preserves the cultures. She was, perhaps, the only western personality who came close to feel the magnitude of the attachment the Muslims have with their Prophet (here I am not talking about Wahabi / salafi elements who are playing havoc in the name of Islam and which are known as ISIS, Al Qaeda, TTP , Boko Haram , Al-Nusra front , Hayyat Tehrir Alsham and what not). The attachment that Muslims have with their Prophet is beyond the understanding of a Non Muslim. But if someone goes through her book “And Muhammad is His Messenger” he can have a touch or glimpse of that attachment she was able to grasp and depict in that book.
In her last days she was very close to one of the Sindhi intellectual of her own caliber namely “Syed Hessamuddin Rashdi” and when she red Shah Abdul Lateef Bhitai , the great Sindhi Sufi poet and Musician , she felt that Sindhi Sufism is essence of all streams of mystic ideologies and , thus , decided to be eternal part of soil of Sindh . She made a will to be buried beside her co-intellectual “Hessamuddin Rashdi” in one of world’s biggest graveyard situated on the Makli Hills in Thatta , the former capital of Sindh .
My humble hands had the honor of touching her feet, at the end of a lecture, in her last days.
May Allah grant her the status in Heavens in accordance with the saying (Hadees) of Prophet Muhammad that “The ink of the pen of an Scholar is more important/precious than the blood of a martyr”
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pimu/2530767574
Last edited:
(May be because the gun has not been broken in yet.)
