We meet so many people day in and day out... some have long lasting impact, some hardly matter and some an everlasting impact. We don't need to study anthropology, psychology or any other science to convince ourselves that people around have an impact on our lives - our psychology and the way we are.. Some of us are fortunate enough to have better confrontations and some not so lucky... I have been amongst the fortunate ones, thankfully, so far... although I also got to know people I might have been better without being acquainted with... There are people you think in very high spirits but get exposed when calamities befall and they show their back.. i don't want to give them any space here... for I want to talk about people who are the real propellers of our lives.. people with an everlasting impact...
Parents strive hard to provide their children all they desire and deserve, and it doesn't require a father or mother to be Will Smith of Pursuit of Happiness to do all this but a God given instinct.. They are the first and best teachers for a child and I was lucky to have them around to protect my childhood.. They were there to show me the path to follow- saying you are not alone... make me realize what dreamz are and how they see the light of the day... As the time passed, more people showed their way into my life... I realized FRIENDS mean people you like to have around more than others... school friends, college friends, university friends, hostel friends ,locality friends... there was no dearth of them all... but time waits for no one and some other people replaced them all. I enjoyed all the times with all the people who gave me beautiful moments of my life... the times I cherish and wish I could go back in... but time and tide waits for none... all of them found their way... and I kept thinking the relations last forever... It took me a long time to understand that only few relations last forever...
One such relation is that I share with a person whose presence I feel in all I learnt from him.. in my thoughts... in my existence. Sincere,altruistic, Honest, Courageous are only few of his attributes I can speak of.. a soul with humility , love and respect for everyone... a person someone rightly called "Khwabon ka saudagar". A person who not only showed his people how to dream big but also how to realize and achieve them. He started his journey as an ordinary young man from a small town with aims of an extra ordinary person. An epitome of simple living and high thinking, this person started a blood bank in a town where majority of people didn't even understood this jargon.. When people were in cry of rage for casualties in a bus accident in the town, this man was thinking of preventing another situation like that where majority died bcoz of non-availability of blood.. He would be the first to donate blood in the camps he organised... which numbered not less than eleven. A polyclinic where doctors of the town would serve few hours in a week for poor, a free clinical lab for diagnosis, a trust for orphans, widows and down trodden , a center for sorting disputes were few of the things he initiated against all the odds... which followed huge criticism and accusations expected from people of a small town. Accused of selling blood and branded as "ratt czoor" to amassing the wealth from trust funds, nothing deterred him from the social work that according to his own words was the only thing that gave him peace.. He always had a reply to any accusation or criticism in Iqbal's couplet:
"Phal dar ke naseeb mein hai pathoro ki choot
Gar ye hosla nahi to phir besamar raho"
In a town with a very small per capita income, he could conceive building of a huge charitable hospital for the people who left no stone unturned to make him silent. His acquiring of a land, measuring more than 32 canals, for a hospital is a long story in itself which he always spoke proudly of.. the way he collected money, his struggle with convincing landlords to sell the land, fight for demarcations, road etc all showed how he single handedly built an emperor for people who could never have thought of it even in their distant dreams. This land costs in crores this time and is located in the center of the town..
A secular by heart and religious by soul, this person opened a medicine camp for Amarnath yatris when some groups banned the yatra.. On being questioned , he would answer in the saying of beloved Prophet (SAW)
"Khairan nasu mayín fa un nas"
Better people are those who help others
He would say Prophet(SAW) never said better people are those who help muslims only but all the people and Prophet's (SAW) statements never used to be ambagious..
I am talking about a person who never compromised on his principals even if it meant going against his own interests or family. An ardent fan of Rumi, he would always give an analogy with short stories from Rumi's masnavi and quote persian poetry and literature to prove his point. He was never afraid of death and would repeatedly tell me so.. When afflicted with a disease like hepatitis B, I remember him praying to Allah to save him if He wants some more contribution from him to His creation, otherwise don't let him live to get involved in worldly affairs which are none but sin.. Allah always answers the righteous and pious... and he survived to contribute more, built four masjids, helped poor and needy...
After completing the final obligation of the faith he followed religiously and fulfilling few left over domestic liabilities, he prayed again what he had prayed some years back... but this time around, Allah had different plans.. He shifted the responsibilities to his children... for He knows best, we know not.. Abbu left leaving behind a huge lacunae for people he always has been a reason to smile... a reason to live. I remember a person coming to me while walking on a busy street..." I lost someone who used to prop my family", said a person in ragged clothes and full of tears and disappeared before I could ask him to reveal his identity..
A good orator, writer, poet, columnist, narrator, author and historian, his contributions are preserved in his books, articles, documentaries, interviews and more in the hearts of people he lived for... I lost my father, but society lost someone who even in the hospital room in an unstable position kept telling me that he is dreaming of building a hospital like that on the land he strived so much for, so that people like him don't have to come such a long distance for treatment..
I would never have justified my blog without writing about this great man in my life... I wish my eyes could allow me to write more..they have been missing him like anything all the time and protest with tears... There are many things which may left untold..but as Abbu always said.. Allah keeps record of everything and no one other than Him has the power to give rewards for what you do here... and His rewards are far more than what anyone can give you. I pray a far better world for him.
Abbu, I lost my smile with you and you will remain in my thoughts, in my prayers till my last breath and till we meet again, inshaAllah.
Allah bless u with enuf courage to make up with this irrepairable loss and guide u in completing ur Abbu's unaccomplished tasks.
ReplyDeleteGod its so overwhelming......only i know how i read all ofit in one go.at the end i couldnt see or read as my eyes were filled with tears and had a lump in my throat.
ReplyDeleteAlhamdulillah,for making us a part of a family where we've seen since childhood that its giving that makes us rich not taking,where forgiving makes you brave not fighting and where happiness is making others smile.this is what abbu planted in our hearts ....a seed which keeps growing as a tree with its branches spreading in all directions of humanity. our father was a legend an institution in himself where ideas were conceived and brought into life come what may.
what you've written is so much but still a small part of what abbu did for the society b'coz every waking minute he was contributing in writing,helping,donating be blood, money or whatever he could. his contributions are countless and endless so are our thanks to allah for making us part of abbbu's life,imbibing in us human values through his knowledge and dedication and sincerity to his mission.every moment spent with him is memorable although we wish it could last forever.i can write for years about abbu but would like to summarize his mission in one of his favourite verses
dard-e-dil ke vaste paida kiya insan ko
warna ita-at ke liye kafi na the karobian.
we'll never miss him as he is always with us,its just we cant see him.
LOVE YOU ABBU!!
I wrote comment, pasted..but did not allow more than 4000 words and writting less than that even in comment is injustice to the person, whom you called Abbu, my Mamaji...my best friend...and friend of Humanity. I summarize his personality as a VISIONARY.....A LEGEND. Soon I will come up with my self composed Poetry, and try to pay tribute to THE LEGEND...since the my poem is in making...but you have mentioned word "Khwabou ka Saudagar"..so I would like to present only one couplet from my Poem here as a tribute to my Mamaji.
ReplyDeleteAe Ibn-e-Shamas teray chahray ka wo noor Baimisal
Aafreen tery Khwabou ki tabeer hai ab tak lazawal.....saadat
By reading this it left my eyes with full of tears i am unable to see and type the text dear. i have his pleasure to spend my few years with uncle.
ReplyDeleteThe person of his caliber, strength and stature will never be born again who was bestowed sympathetic corner,helping hand,generous heart. We lost a person who was an unsung hero for the society but not for his family and for few more people who were close to him,i was among them. i have learned many good lessons from him,Often he used to tell me the tales, his dream of a hospital for which he moved from post to pillar.
He was not an ordinary person,he was a big inspiration for all of us.
I am proud to be associated with his family.
i again and again would like to repeat the Allama Iqbal's verses
"Hazaron Saal nargis apni be noori pe roti hai
badi mushkil se hota hai chaman me deedhavar paida.
He inculcated not only the discipline,values,beliefs,ethos and rich muslim culture among his family members but propagated the same to all whoso ever met him.
I still remember the day when i got selected for my graduation course how patiently he waited for my admission turn though on that day he got a severe back pain.
His sayings and teachings will remain with me forever.
i even cant forget how sympathetic and saviour he turned to my family when really it came a time of give and take.
I pray Allah to give courage to my younger brother burhan and my two sisters. I know how much Uncle was associated with his children,he was not only a good husband,father ,bother but a beautiful friend to his children.
May Allah bless us all and fill his grave with "Noor and Fragrance'
Aameen!!!
Nice....whatever you have written about THE MAN is tip from the ice-berg, infact I feel that mere blog writting about THIS MAN is injustice as his personality can be better explained in a big book. I always keep myself away from commenting people's blogs, but here some unknown force within inside compelled me to comment and I am taking this liberty.
ReplyDeleteThe person about whom you have written above, your Abbu......MUQBIL MOHAMMAD MAQBOOL. Fortunately he is my Mamaji, the relation I am proud of and will remain and as a relative he is my dearest Mamaji and I have deep love and respect for him as every nephew has with his uncle and in turn his love is more as every uncle has for his nephew.......but I have lost a Friend, more than a Mamaji.
It needs real courage to write about him and I summarize his personality as "HUMAN FRIEND". His loss is personal loss to everybody whosoever knew him. I have observed him closely and his personality graph was constant with one and all and he shared PERSONAL relations with every individual. This thing I used to imagine, how he can maintain this. Every individual irrespective of age, group, ideology, caste, religion whosoever knew him, tried to spend time with him and with every individual he shared personal relation, a special bond which nobody other knew and common discussion with all at the end of their personal discussion was his motivation lectures, motivating the others to serve for cause, work for the upliftment of humanity and strive for the cause. You can imagine his Personality from a incidence which I observed year earlier. He went to his native town in connection with some personal engagements, as soon he reached town, many people knew that he is in town and started calling on his cellphone to ask if he has time to meet them on that day. One of my cousins son...Mohsin who is only 5 years old started looking for him at his own, with no cellphone and not aware how to contact somehow managed to meet him, hold His hand and did not allow him go. Both whispering in one others ears, both smiling and laughing and it seemed for while that they are best friends, either Mohsin is old enough to have stuff talking for hours and discussing something serious or asking for some mature advices as Mamaji was famous for his logical, mature and great suggestions…....or my beloved Mamaji was of his age as both shared a strange chemistry. Next moment the grand mufti of town asking one of my cousins that he had heard that Muqbil sahab is in town, and please convey him message that Mufti sahab wants to meet him and has to ask his suggestions in one of the serious social issues. I wondered, how person can maintain such personality with a perfect relation ....contd in next comment...
with every age group. From Town’s most respected and most literate person to town’s youngest kid, everybody was his fan and shared chemistry with him. I never dared to ask him, as how he manages this, though I was close to him like everybody, but remained confined only to my personal things for which often I used to seek his advices.
ReplyDeleteHe is my dearest friend, and it is the person whom I can proudly summarise in one word as VISIONARY…A LEGEND. He always felt the human pain and in a small town as you have mentioned with low capita income he dreamed of a Charitable Hospital and he was the person who coined the name Rahmat-e-Alam Charitable Hospital. He made the road map, travelled across India to interact with other trusts and asking their comments and making perfect plan. He got help of engineers, made the map of the hospital and on that day I had seen an everlasting smile on his face, when he named the wards as well. Nothing in hand, single handedly with so many obstacles, he went on. I was a young school boy at that time and had a bicycle. Mamaji used to take my bicycle, riding ten’s of kilometres per day, deep inside it will make me angry at times he taking my bicycle, but never refused and he will get toffee or chocolate in return. He used to ride that bicycle to go kilometres tirelessly, interact with farmers, marking boundaries of that piece of land….. his dream, a hospital for downtrodden and motivating people of the town and his friends to work for the cause. Some putting faith and working with him, others as per historical rule laughing at him and he smilingly saying critics make a person stronger.
He had great mental outlook and his horizon was not limited, he had deep understanding of the things which can be inferred with his actions and words that he said. I always liked the things he did, tried to be with him in whatever he did and once he decided to make documentary film on history of his town, as very few people knew the real history of that town. He actually wanted to write a book on that history but once told me that very few people in new generation is into reading habit and books remain on shelves, but awareness is to be made and with this vision opted to make documentary movie. As usual I followed him and with his personal camera he began shooting himself, he had passion to do something for the humanity, on that day started shooting with camera, tried different angles but can not make it to perfection. I tried shooting with camera, tried different angles and he instructing me, sometimes angrily shouting at me, to do the way as he wanted to do, but me too was not professional, tied and for few days we have been doing it from dawn to dusk tirelessly at many ...contd...in next comment.....
places in Bijbehara but could not make perfectly. He was a perfectionist as well and in evening we looked at the videos that we shot that day and he commented very badly on my shooting and I taking liberty to comment on his bad shooting, both laughing at one another’s shots as none among us were professional cameramen. Next day we tried again and continued for few more days and ended laughing at one other. At last he took one professional cameraman along with him and we have been shooting again for whole day and this time it was perfect. The script written by Mamaji himself is perfect and one can imagine how good hold he had over history after watching that documentary “History of Bijbehara”. He was master of all trades. He had plans to make another documentary movie on Islamabad town. Script is well written by him and is with me. He was waiting again for me and we two planning, doing it this summer, but Allah has some other plans this time.
ReplyDeleteAbout human sufferings he really felt the pain and I knew it and you can judge how much pain he felt by these words and this conversation of his. Once we were going somewhere in his car and as usual we discussing few social issues and he making me aware of the things, sowing seed deep inside my soul, perhaps watering that seed with his advices, perhaps trying to carve out human being out of me as many times he would say that I am like him in many things and this thing making me feel proud inside and I wished and prayed to almighty Allah that make me perfectly like him. On that day with this vision to water that seed, he asked me if I see any human being bleeding what will be my instant reaction. He told me not to think, but reply instantly about the instant reaction. I replied that I will move my gaze as I may feel bad while somebody is in pain. He smiled and replied that it is called selfishness and I wondered over the words. Then continuing the conversation he said that nobody ever feels other’s pain, for humans are selfish, can not see blood, feel nausea with so much blood and somebody bleeding and with that selfishness he move his gaze and try to be away from that place, person does not want himself suffer so he runs away and that is selfishness and if person really feels the others pain, he will surely try to heal the wounds. If you read it between the lines, you can understand what he really wanted to convey and what he was trying to motivate me.
I have lots of other things to say, many experiences with THE LEGEND, fortunately having spend enough time with him in his short span of life and for that reason I said a book can justify his personality in better way. I kept on writing and do not know is this comment to your blog or am I paying tribute myself or am I going down the history lane…whatsoever, I can not stop myself writing few lines for my beloved Mamaji, my best friend…..MUQBIL MOHAMMAD MAQBOOL……………..Haq magfirat karay, ajab azaad Mard tha
My 31 years of life has been divided into two parts, one, before I met Abbu and the other after I was touched by his extraordinary brilliance. Before I comment on our association I have to state that “the first half of my life I regretted not meeting him a few years earlier and the rest will be spent ruing his absence”. Description of our encounter is so huge that it cannot fit in any forum. However, I can highlight some of the especial traits that have been felt by many of us and will carry us through this life as a guiding light.
ReplyDeleteWords no matter how I form them or transform may still not be able to describe even a fraction of his greatness. Without doubt Abbu was a special soul and I have no hesitation in saying (many among the readers will agree) that he was the most influential personality I have ever met in my entire life. His presence gave life to the moment, his words gave zeal to any thought, his aura brought charm even in dull environments, mere mention of his name inspired enthusiasm, his hard work instigated in us dedication, his soft words bore humility, when he reached out to anyone it was in generosity, when he met the needy it was in utmost sympathy.
My family is not from Kashmir and we are still in the process of learning kashmiri culture and its people. We couldn’t be luckier that our first encounter with this place was through Maqbool sb. I have felt so much pain from this loss that life is not the same anymore. Burhan had described the parting moments of abbu and his final journey to me over the phone and the lines below is how I have envisioned the final journey of this great personality.
qitaat, ashaar, ghazal aur qaseedey kya bayaan kareingey
is safar ke zikr mein herf kum padeingey
kaisa ajab manzar hai unkey iss safar ka
aalimon ko ilm hua unkey khwabon mein is waqey ka
ameeron ka majma hai ghareeboon ka hojoom hai
kis azeem hasti ka kaafla hain farishton ko maloom hai
ye kaisa manzar hai unkey aakhiri ghar ka
ek aramgah hai jaisaey mahal ho jannatul-firdaus ka
khud unki kaifiyat kya main bayaan karoon
kaisey sunaon kin lafzon ka istemaal karoon
chehrey ka jo noor tha na dekha gaya pehley kabhi
jo uspe sukoon tha na paya gaya kabl iske pehle kabhi
jism ki aisi chamak na dekhi kabhi unki hayat mein
lipta ho jaisey sooraj haram key safaid libaas mein (his qafan was from mecca)
solaya unko kehney ko do gaz zameen mein
per wo raheingey hifazat mein Uski aur USII ki amaan mein
mitti to sab ki kabron per paikhi gayee zamaaney sey
banee wo arsh ki dhool maqbool ke is ghar mein aney sey
ye aankehn abhi bhi nam hai
ye aanson sookhte hee nahi
is sheher ko sukoon hua ye jaan ker
ke jaaney waaley is sheher ke they hii nahi (he belonged in heaven)
"In kali sadiyon ke sar se, jab raat ka anchal dhalkega
ReplyDeleteJab dukh ke badal pighlenge, jab sukh ka sagar chalkega
jab ambar jhoomm ke nachega, jab dharti nagme gayegi
wo subah kabhi to aayagi, woh subah kabhi to aayegi
Mana ki abhi tere mere, armano ki keemat kuch bhi nahi
Mitti ka bhi hai kuch mole magar,insan ki kimat kuch bhi nahi
Insano ki izzat jab jhuthe sikko me na tauli jayagi
Wo subah kabhi to ayegi, wo subah kabhi to ayegi."
Ritu