Dusty, But Shining and Bright
DUSTY, BUT SHINING AND BRIGHT*
This writer recently had the occasion to receive at Bombay some relations returning from Hajj. Two young men were trying to peer through a crowded door leading to the custom hall, where custom officers were checking the pilgrims. ” Can you sight father ?” one of them asked the other. ” Yes, I can see him standing over there “, the other replied. ” Has he the recorder with him ?” anxiously asked the first one.
My pleasure at meeting the relations coming from a holy journey was struck numb. Musing over the conversation, I was reminded of the note made by Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, after his Hajj, which appeared in the Ma’arif of Sept. 1926.
“The Nigerians were”, he writes, “pilgrims from the farthest land (this year). This (West African) country has 1.5 crore Muslims over whom pretends to rule a Sultan. Actual powers are in the hands of the British. These pilgrims had reached Mecca from Nigeria (3,500 kilometres) in nine months. Most of these nine months these had been walking. In them were old and the young, men and women, scholars as well as the unlettered—but all strikingly very humble and very innocent.
“They walked the distance (roughly 1,700 kms.) from Nigeria to Sudan, where they sighted a train. The train brought them to Port Sudan where they boarded a ship which brought them to Jeddah. From Jeddah they walked to Mecca (80 Kms.) and from Mecca they walked (another 300 Kms.) to Madina.” (Hayat-e-Su/aiman, Shah Moinuddin Ahmed Nadvi, p. 272).
Our readers should note here that the above figures (added by this writer) are straight-line distances. Actuals will be one and a half times greater when covered through curved and round-about roads.
Thinking about these one is reminded of a verse in the Quran: “They will come on foot and on every lean camel; they will come from every deep ravine (22 :21).” These words were originally addressed to reassure a diffident Abraham (peace on him) when he was asked to construct a House of God in Mecca. Would it be wrong, one wonders, to say that these Nigerians had come thus in 1926 to prove that Allah will keep His promise?
The Prophet (peace on him) was once asked as to who is a true Haji. ” One whose hair is dusty and body smelling (with sweat) “, he had replied. Would it be wrong, do you think, to say that he had these and the like of these in mind ?
If thus they had come—plodding through thousands upon thousands of miles : these ‘scholars as well as the unlettered’, in the hope of adding virtue upon virtue, in what state do you think they would have gone back ? With cameras and transistors added to their luggage ? or they would have— these ‘strikingly very humble and very innocent’— added only virtue, and more of humility, and more of innocence?
And what about us? Our parents, our uncles, our relatives—Those who enjoy all the modern facilities of travel and yet return only with tape-recorders and T.Vs, gold and linen ? And no sign of virtue ? !
Where do we stand when compared not to the Companions of the Prophet, but to the Nigerians — ‘companions’ of toil through deserts and mountains ; of hardships through heat and severe cold ; who tramped through 7000 kms. to say : ” Here we are. 0 ! Allah, here we are ” ? !
And what do you think our faces will look like when made to stand along with these on the Day of Judgement in front of God — they with their dusty hair and smelling bodies, but faces bright and shining with innocence and humility, and we with our bright and perfumed clothes but faces and character… . ?
Shall we correct ourselves, our people a little?
