by MUTEE-UR- REHMAN
A dishevelled-looking man with a betel-streaked beard sat near the edge of a footpath in the upscale neighbourhood of Clifton, Karachi, as several luxurious cars drove past him. He lifted a half-burnt cigarette to his lips with one hand while the other scratched the greasy mess of henna-dyed tangles on his head.
Several others sat near him — a weary-looking woman with three sleeping children, young boys with unkempt hair, wrinkled men staring at their feet and an infant crying in his mother’s lap. The crowd watched each passerby ominously as they crossed the road to the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, one of the most revered Sufi saints of the city — if not the country.
Abdul Ahad*, 26, drove his bright red convertible to the shrine and almost immediately, a dozen children chased his vehicle to the parking lot, swarming around him and asking him to buy a talisman — an object considered to have protective powers — from their stall.
Several people had set up stalls on the ramp leading to the entrance of the mazaar, selling toys, thread, taweez (amulets) and large stone rings. A boy wearing a Pashtun cap agreed to safeguard Ahad’s bag for the small price of buying him tea. Due to security reasons, male visitors are not allowed to bring bags inside the shrine.
Ahad wore a kurta with ripped jeans and a pair of bright neon football shoes. He had completed his higher education at a university in the UK, which explained his anglicised Urdu accent.
Ahad lives nearby and regularly visits the mazaar. Although he joked during our conversation, which so far had been light-hearted, his outlook became solemn when I asked him the reason behind his visit. After several attempts to skirt around the question, he revealed that he is unable to marry the girl he loves because his family has issues with the community she belongs to.
“My mother used to revere Abdullah Shah Ghazi. When I was a child, she always asked me to accompany her to his shrine on Thursdays but I used to be afraid of graves,” he smiled. After his mother’s death, Ahad started visiting the shrine regularly. Every Thursday, he prays to the saint for one thing — his beloved.
The shrines of Sindh
The shrines of Sufi saints are dotted across the length and breadth of Sindh, where they are revered particularly in rural areas and are frequented by thousands of people each year. The shrine of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, for example, located in the small town of Bhit Shah, attracts up to 500,000 visitors during the celebration of his Urs (death anniversary).
During the reign of Gen Ayub Khan, the Auqaf and Religious Affairs Department was established to bring some of the many shrines in Pakistan under the care and sponsorship of the state. According to the department’s records, Sindh has a total of 80 registered shrines. This excludes the intricate network of unregistered shrines built in the smaller hamlets of the province.
While the practice of visiting shrines is most eminent in the rural areas of Sindh, there are 28 registered shrines in the bustling metropolis of Karachi.
Reportedly, there are many shrines in Karachi that do not fall under the government. There is a strong custom of visiting shrines among a significant number of residents in the city. On Thursdays, Karachites are well aware of the chokehold traffic in areas such as Saddar which hosts shrines of lesser-known saints, due to the vast influx of their devotees.
To understand the culture of visiting shrines in Karachi, I traversed a number of Sufi dargahs and spoke to some regular devotees to ascertain what drives them to these places.
His birth can save your marriage
At many of these shrines, people from all walks of life shared some common afflictions — financial difficulties, domestic issues or injustices in the judicial system. Like Ahad, marrying the person of one’s choice was also a reason shared by several women.
When I visited the shrine of Sufi Pir Mangho in New Karachi, 25-year-old Humaira* was the only woman standing near the resting place of the saint. She revealed that she had asked a mannat (divine intervention) from the Pir for a son. She has birthed six daughters, three of whom have passed away. After the birth of her youngest daughter, she received an ultimatum from her in-laws to conceive a son. Humaira has been visiting the Pir since she was a teenager and made her first mannat when she was 19.
Ever since, “the Pir has been the waseela (mediator/means) to my prayers,” she said, adding that he had listened to all of her pleas before and when the time comes, she believes he will help her out this time as well.
Humaira is currently expecting what she hopes is her unborn son.
Thus, an irrefutable certainty is present in the minds of regular shrine-goers that the Sufi saints have a direct link with the Almighty, due to their lifelong piety. A saint is, therefore, regarded as a waseela or medium by devotees for their prayers to get answered.
Like Humaira, many childbearing women, especially those who face threats in their families for giving birth to more daughters, make their way to the Pir’s grave for pleas to have a son. Several women mentioned that they face abuse from their husbands or arguments in their family for not giving birth to a boy, leaving them little choice but to ask God’s pious men for help. Many women who face domestic issues visit the shrine to plead for help. For them, turning to a Pir when they confront a situation they cannot escape is embedded in their faith.
Contrary to popular perception, although the vast majority of shrine-goers belong to the working class, upper-class individuals like Ahad were also seen at the shrines.
In the slavery of my beloved — Pir-Murid
Dawn for more