Asifiye mvua imemnyea; he who praises rain has been rained upon.
Here begins my story:
In the year 2000, Burhanuddin Moula visited Dar es Salam. I was a five-year-old girl in KG 2 of Al Madrassa tus Saifiyah tul Burhaniyah. It was my cousin’s nikah, and my fuaji got the sharaf of zyafat. So little I made the most of it.
Without being properly mindful of the zyafat rituals, and with extra najwa covers given to me by my father in case of necessity, I decided to use them all for Burhanuddin Moula RA, going to do salaam as many times as I could. I went with my dadima, nanima, masi and a couple times on my own. I was not completely certain, but I sensed that Burhanuddin Moula RA had been noticing me. After keeping on standing in line for salaam more than a few times, I went out to play. However, behind my back, there was a whole other scenario unfolding.
Burhanuddin Moula RA had asked for me; “dikri ne lei awo”. All the daughters in our family were presented to Moula RA but Moula RA kept saying: “nai, wo dikri ne lai awo”.
Soon enough, I was found by my father, who had frantically searched for me everywhere, after the realization that I was the only child who wasn’t presented to Moula RA. As soon as I got near Moula RA, He RA smiled and inquired: su naam che taru?. Terrified and wondering what I may have done wrong to be called for, I uttered my name. My voice couldn’t have been lower because of which I had to repeat the name thrice, each time a little louder.
Moula RA asked me my age. Taken aback again for some reason, my volume went down. In a very low voice, I said five. Again, I had to repeat it. By the third time when Moula RA asked again, I had gathered up some good confidence, which was enough for me to extend my palm right up and say five. Moula RA laughed, stroked my cheek like he used to and instructed my father there: “bhai Mufaddal pase lai jau”.
Shortly after that, I was standing in front of Mufaddal Moula TUS, equally terrified as I had been in front of Burhanuddin Moula RA earlier. But, a little confident too, because, with that cheek stroke and the tabassum I had gotten from Moula RA, I felt stuffed with aplomb. I did salaam to Mufaddal Moula TUS and right after, Moula TUS started quizzing me; asked me Burhanuddin Moula’s name, Syedna Taher Saifuddin saheb’s name, asked me to recite salawaat, and say the names of panjatan paak. I answered everything correctly, with a big smile, feeling proud of myself.
Mufaddal Moula TUS then instructed me to recite Imam Hussain’s shahadat. Unfortunately, I didn’t know it at that time and I said, “school ma hajhi nathi sikhawu”. Upon hearing this, Mufaddal Moula TUS directed me to do matam. I obeyed. Moments later, I was carried away by my father and got busy in playing.
Next thing I remember is being at school the next day and I saw students being given a piece of paper that had Imam Hussain’s AS shahaat on it and everyone had to memorize it that very day.
For a long stretch of time, I used to recall this instance in order to flaunt my chance of having been able to converse with Burhanuddin Moula RA and Mufaddal Moula TUS. However, with time, the episode stemmed into a profound realization of identity for me. Burhanuddin Moula RA inquired about my extrinsic identity and routed me to Mufaddal Moula TUS who’s inquiry was an interpretation of mumin’s intrinsic identity. Ever since then, this realization of abiding by both identities has helped me triumph over the toughest hurdles of life.
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Behn Batul M Mukarram Amiji
Dar es Salam, Tanzania
In the means of shukr and zikr, anyone who is willing to share his/her’s acquaintance, incident or any experience with Moulana Muqaddas RA or Moulana Mufaddal Saifuddin TUS can mail it to dm@tazkerat.org & md@tazkerat.org.
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