A funeral to remember

Lakum din-ukum walya-din. (My faith is with me, while your faith is with you) —  Surah-e-Kaffiron, Verse No 6

La aqraha fid-din. (There is no compulsion in religion) — Surah-e-Baqrah, Verse No 256

It was a dark, cloudy and humid afternoon on August 3, 2010.The weather in Karachi suited the city’s mood. Two of Karachi’s sons, one a cop and the other a legislator, had been assassinated at the hands of terrorists just one day earlier.

The place was Azizabad’s Jinnah Ground. Two caskets had arrived, one from Baab-e- illum, an imam bargah in the middle class neighbourhood of North Nazimabad, the  other from the lower middle class neighbourhood of Islam Nager in Orangi Town.

In one casket lay the body of Police Constable Khalid Khan. He was shot, at point-blank range in the back of his head. Khalid was a Sunni by faith. The other casket bore the body of Syed Raza Haider, a member of the provincial assembly from the city’s majority party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

He was shot in the back of the neck. Another bullet shattered his forehead. Both bullets were fired at very close range in the House of God, a mosque. Raza was a Shia and an elected legislator from Orangi.

Ask a semi-literate maulvi about the murders and he would reply, “No Muslim would commit such an act.” My answer to such people would be, “Indeed they are committing such acts, blinded by the preachers spreading hate.”

Both caskets were lined up, side by side. Members of both the Shiite and Sunni clergy arrived. Thousands of mourners were assembled in the ground and they were still trickling in disciplined lines. Amongst them were MQM workers; belonging to different sects such as Barelvis, Shias, Deobandis, Ahl-e-Hadees and Ahl-e-Sunnats.

Normally, the caskets of police personnel killed in the line of duty are taken to the police lines and senior police officers attend the funeral prayers. But since Khalid was killed while protecting an MPA his casket was brought along with that of Haider's.

In this part of the world, religion and the faith, especially when it comes to differences between sects, is a highly sensitive issue. But at Jinnah Ground in Azizabad, the funeral prayers were offered in turn by clerics from both sects and the tens of thousands of congregants fully observed both prayers.

On this historical day, preachers of hatred, who are still busy spreading their extreme philosophy in the cities, towns and villages of the country, should learn a lesson from the worshippers and mourners at Jinnah Ground.

No Sunni or Shia amongst the congregation lifted a finger to protest the way the funeral prayers were being conducted, with preachers from both sects. No one accused other mourners of being a “Shia Kaffir” or “Sunni Kaffir”. And no one was beheaded for this either, because that is the teaching of MQM founder and leader, Altaf Hussain. He preached tolerance in society, tolerance in attitude, and above all, tolerance in religion.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 10^th, 2010.