Faith healers: An amulet-a-day keeps the doctor away

The ‘medicine men’ descended from a local saint can cure all diseases.

HARIPUR:

In a remote Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa village, the touch of a holy amulet and a magic knife, along with some good old-fashioned incantation, serve as a panacea to all physical and mental afflictions.

Our rational, scientific minds would think this was bunk, mumbo-jumbo or, worse still, a massive con-trick on the poor and vulnerable. But an empirical survey of those who have been treated tells a different story. The patients, who come in their thousands, are happy and, contrary to conventional reason, healthy.

The faith healers are descendents of Khwaja Pir Khuda Bux, known affectionately to his followers as Ban Babaji. They sit around his shrine, which is in the locality of Ban Peeran, just beyond the village Sang Jani which is four kilometres from the fabled Grand Trunk Road. Babaji left his native Gujrat district and settled in Sang Jani about 175 years ago, preaching Islam but also, to great acclaim, curing many complicated diseases with just his amulets, a knife and sacred words breathed out over the patient.

As with others who are revered as saints, when Babaji died his sons, and then his grand- and great-grandchildren, took over the mantle and treated patients with the same mysterious techniques. These are curing people to this day.

“It is awful remembering when I received the lab report which said I had Hepatitis B,” says Yaqub, a driver from Gujjar Khan. Doctors prescribed Yaqub with a course of injections, which he could not afford. The pain from the disease was worsened by having six family members fully dependent on him.

One day a passenger in his taxi told Yaqub about the legendary Ban Babaji.

“It was the turning point in my life. I came here [to the shrine] and discussed my ailments with Pir Sahib (one of the faith healers).” The Pir, Yaqub says, gave him a Tahweez (amulet) and a bottle of water while reciting a few Quranic verses. The Pir then placed his knife on Yaqub’s chest and neck.

After several return visits, a near-miracle: “Now I feel much better. My test reports are negative and it is only because of the blessings of Almighty Allah and the spiritual efforts of Pir Sahib.”

Another woman, a teacher from Islamabad, said that her daughter was suffering from hysteria. When she brought her to the Pir, he gave her amulets and holy water along with placing his knife on her head and neck. The girl has now made a full recovery.

A middle-aged man from Mansehra said that he was diagnosed with cancer in his left leg. “But after three months of regular visits to Pir Sahib, I am improving fast and hopefully this will be cured very shortly,” he said.

There were many others who gave similar accounts.

Sitting beside a pond, the primary faith-healer Pir Muhammad Sadaqat Ali, one of the great-grandsons of Ban Babaji, claims that his amulets and knife can work their magic on every disease.

The knife was inherited from his forefathers, and the pir says he can cure dog bites, cancer, Hepatitis A, B and C, fits, hysteria, piles and stomach ailments. He adds that he does not charge a fee. Patients give donations – whatever they can afford.

People wait for hours and hours for their time with the pir. Every Sunday 1,200 to 1,500 men and women from all backgrounds and all socio-economic classes come to visit him.

Pir Manzoor Hussain and Pir Niaz Hussain, two other great-grandsons of Ban Babaji, also sit near the shrine, providing the same services to lighten the load. They claim that once a sick person comes to see them, he or she will never go under the surgeon’s knife. “The ever-increasing number of patients visiting us is solid proof of the relief we provide,” said Manzoor.

There are, of course, cynics – or skeptics. Dr Mohsan Raza, a local surgeon, attributes the ‘spiritual treatment’ to a lack of resources and education, which he says are the root causes of superstition.

“If it is so easy to treat cancer, the authorities would have closed all medical colleges and research institutes, which cost billions,” he said. He added that the high cost of medical treatment contributes to the popularity of ‘saints’.

This may be true, but it cannot be denied that Khwaja Pir Khuda Bux and his heirs have helped and healed many thousands, and continue to do so to this day.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2012.