Tough duty : A gravedigger’s journey

Shares rare moments of his time at Lahore’s oldest graveyard

LAHORE:

At Lahore’s oldest graveyard, one man has the toughest duty. Muhammad Yusuf, 60, is the longest serving gravedigger. Over the past four decades, the sexagenarian has seen it all. He has witnessed how the Miani Sahib Graveyard, which dates back to the Mughal rule, has become the permanent resting place for thousands from all walks of life.

Yusuf, who hails from the family of Hazrat Baba Nizam Shah, a revered saint, is also the Gaddi Nasheen, commonly known as trusty and successor of the Sufi.

He never thought he would be digging graves. Yusuf’s life took a turn when his father passed away. His father was a gravedigger at the Miani Sahib Graveyard. He spent all his life at the graveyard and that became his final resting place. At his father’s funeral, people asked: who would dig the graves after Allah Baksh? Yusuf, still mourning the passing of his beloved father, responded, I will.

It has been more than four decades since that day. He dedicates each day to his job and to the graveyard he has seen all his life.

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During this time, Yusuf recalls, he had to dig many graves. Some, he said, were for loved ones. “One still gets emotional when the grave belongs to a loved one,” said Yusuf, with a quiver in his voice.

“I do it every day. I dig graves and there comes a point when you stop being emotional,” he explained.

People, he said, fear visiting graveyards. “I’ve lived all my life here,” claimed Yusuf. “I’ve never seen anything unusual in this graveyard,” he said.

“People associate graveyards with jinns and other supernatural activities. I’ve never witnessed anything here,” he claimed.

In his words, Miani Sahib Graveyard, serves as home to all those who have passed away. “It is home to the saints. It is their final resting place,” claimed Yusuf, referring to the mausoleum of Ghazi Ilm-ud-din Shaheed and others.

He said the graveyard also has a dedicated compound for those who die while traveling or have no family members. “We have a dedicated section for such graves,” he said.

Sharing his experience at the graveyard, Yusuf said, Miani Sahib is home to some of the most pious individuals.

Not too long ago, the graveyard was inundated after heavy rains in Lahore. Many graves were damaged during the flooding. That summer, Yusuf was busy repairing them. One family approached him for help. “I was asked by the deceased man’s daughter to repair her father’s seven-year-old grave,” recalls Yusuf.

The grave, he said, was like any other at the Miani Sahib. “The walls were weak and there was no way to repair it.”

After the family’s permission, Yusuf reopened the grave. For him and the family, this was the most unusual moment. “The body was still wrapped in a clean, plain white cotton shroud,” he said.

“After all these years, the man’s face was still the way it was seven years ago,” said Yusuf. “His family was as surprised and so was I,” he recalled.

That evening the grave was repaired and the man was laid to rest once again. Yusuf’s life is peppered with such moments at the Miani Sahib.

Now in his 60s, the oldest caretaker at Lahore’s largest graveyard has only one plan for himself. He wants his final resting place to be at Miani Sahib.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2020.