A follower sways to music playing at the urs. PHOTO: ZAHID AWAN/EXPRESS
PESHAWAR:
“An illuminated visage similar to the Sun and Moon, Hair that engulfs the night like the fragrance of musk,” humed a dedicated minstrel in his 70s, reciting Sufi poetry around midnight at the shrine of Peer Syed Hassan Badshah on Thursday.
He and hundreds of others commemorated the saint’s death anniversary. Followers and disciples of Badshah attend the Urs, which is being celebrated for the first time in 12 years.
The shrine is located off Kohat Road near Wazir Bagh. The Urs was cancelled many times in the last 12 years due to security threats from terrorist outfits that were particularly targeting specific sects and shrines throughout the country.
“It has been a long time since we publicly held such a gathering,” Syed Mukarram Ali Shah, the Sajjada Nasheen told The Express Tribune. However, the Urs this year was held for one night only as opposed to the traditional three days. “The number of people who showed up for the event has also reduced considerably,” Mukarram observed. “People are still scared. But we preach love and not hate. Soon, we will have the entire place filled with people once again,” he added.
An anomalous tradition
Pappoo Saeen, a Christian by faith, says he has been attending the Urs since 1972. “I came here with my father for the first time when I was four years old,” he added. “Peshawar was a city with a unique identity back then because people came from diverse religions and ethnicities,” Saeen said with a hint of emotion in his tone. “We (the Christian community) have been responsible for langar (the distribution and cooking of food) for centuries.” However, he recalled that with time, his community has been marginalised. Therefore, he brought his five-year-old son with him to the Urs “to show him that diversity lives on through love and respect.”
The saint’s story
Badshah was born in Thatta, Sindh in 1023 Hijri (1614 AD). He shifted to Peshawar permanently after his father’s death and continued to live there till he died in 1115 Hijri (1706 AD).
Popular belief has it, he prayed that the area where he is buried never be inundated by floods, a belief that is still dearly held by his followers. They testified that the shrine has never been hit by a flood despite its surroundings being affected on several occasions.
Sound of music
For the hundreds that gathered at the shrine, it might be a matter of faith and devotion. However, there are a large number of people who attended the Urs just to witness the undoing of a decade of silence at the shrine. Past midnight, the qawwali grew louder and disciples who initially sat in small circles to listen to the music gathered around the singer. They sway in trance-like rhythms to music orchestrated between different instruments like guitar and rabab, and lyrics in languages such as Pashto, Punjabi, Sindhi, Hindko and Seraiki.
Outside the shrine, the presence of police officials, although minimal, served as a stark reminder that threats still persist.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 12th, 2015.
COMMENTS (1)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ