‘Bolts of lightening that kindle in my soul fire of your love are a blessing, not a misfortune’ says the Persian poet Hafiz Shirazi. I feel exactly the same as I narrate my account.
The 27th of September 2020 was like any other day for me until noon; things took a dramatic turn as the night began to fall. Around 5 PM, my wife suddenly sensed heat and smoke in the living room which was right above the basement. Immediately, I came to realize that the basement was caught on fire.
I hurried down to check out what had happened. As I opened the basement door, plumes of black smoke dashed on my face and took me down. I realized the fire had taken hold and scrambled to get out of the house with my wife and mother. Due to the smoke and intense stench and heat inside the house, I had to pull my wife out from the terrace.
A crowd had gathered outside the house at the sight of clouds of black smoke billowing out of the basement. The fire brigade teams arrived at the scene after a good forty-five minutes. The fire was blazing as the teams launched into putting it out. Two hours had passed but the fire refused to die out.
In the meantime, I had an araz presented to Mufaddal Moula TUS for dua mubarak. Around 8 PM, I received the dua mubarak paigaam along with word that Moula TUS has directed to recite azaan. We recited the azaan and a few minutes later, member of the fire brigade team showed up and informed that the fire has been successfully put out.
The story does not end here.
Next day, we went down to look at the condition and clear the place. The basement used to store household items and documents in cartons which were stacked in a three tier shelf. Everything was reduced to ashes by the fire.
During the clean-up, my wife caught sight of a carton on the first tier of the shelf which appeared somewhat intact. It was striking because even things on the second and third tier had burned to a crisp. In astonishment, she advanced to pick the carton up. As she was sorting the things inside the box, she suddenly paused; and got teary.
A frame of al-Quran al-Majid and picture of Moulana Mohammad Burhanuddin RA with the zareeh mubarak of Imam Hussain AS were unaffected. The back side of al-Quran’s frame and borders of Burhanuddin Moula’s RA picture were damaged which evidenced that the fire, at some point, did come into contact with the frame and the picture.
How did the house survive such a fire that was merrily blazing for hours? How did my wife manage to come out of the house unhurt?
The answer to the questions rested in a carton inside the basement in the shape of al-Quran al-Majid’s frame and the picture of Moulana Mohammad Burhanuddin RA; connection between the two does not require an explanation.
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Shk Mustafa Bhai Jivanjee
Karachi, Pakistan
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