A story out of modern-day Bahrain
Hazrat Khizr, to whom Taliban gave reference, may have lived in Bahrain where there is a shrine in his honour.
After attempting to assassinate 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai for championing the cause of girls’ education in Swat, the Taliban said they had decided to kill her in the light of the Sharia. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, stated:
“If anyone argues about Malala’s young age, then the story of Hazrat Khizr in the Quran states that, while travelling with Prophet Moses, Khizr killed a child because, while his parents were pious, the child would have grown up to be a bad man.”
In the Holy Quran in the chapter titled “The Cave” (18:61-83), Hazrat Khizr travelled with Moses and met a boy whom he killed. Moses demanded an explanation but Khizr kept quiet. Later he said:
“The boy, I saw, was destined to become a violent criminal who would break his parents’ heart and take many lives, leaving terrible suffering in his wake all throughout his life. Therefore, while he was still innocent, I chose to send him back to God, as sad as that was, praying that God would grant his parents a worthier son.” Jesus Christ recounts events in the Gospel, too, and the famous one is “The Return of the Prodigal Son”. Muslims have wondered about the place where the Khizr parable had unfolded.
Many people think that Khizr was actually Khwaja Khizr and that the place was Kashmir; and the “two seas” mentioned in the Quran were the lakes of Kashmir. This is also connected with the legend that Moses spent his last days in Kashmir.
The other candidate is Bahrain. The Holy Quran refers to Majma al-Bahrain (meeting of two seas) and Muslims have always believed that Moses had gone to Suez where two seas met (Mediterranean and Red) — coming across the unnamed “wise man” they think is Khizr or Khadr. But modern research says the place was Bahrain.
Plural Bahrain is an archipelago in the Gulf where many Pakistanis go to work. It has a population of approximately 700,000. Bahrain means two seas. This is because the main island where capital Manama is located has springs of fresh water. If you dive into the adjacent sea you will come upon apertures in the seabed where fresh water gushes to this day.
The Old Testament stated that the children of Noah scattered from Sumer or the Tigris-Euphrates delta and came to the islands somewhere in the Mediterranean. That may not be true. Sumerian records talk of the islands and describe them as trading posts to Meluhha, Sumer’s designation of what is now Pakistan.
Bahraini traders were middlemen for Sumer/Mesopotamia. Bahrain has archaeological evidence of that going back to 2500 BC. The Quranic verse 55 (19-22) is supposed to describe Bahrain.
The Quran also refers to salt and sweet waters of the ‘two seas’ and to the production of marjan (pearl or coral) there. Like many other words, marjan is Greek margeron (pearl). When somebody created synthetic butter, he named it margarine because of its pearly texture.
Khizr means green or fertility. Khwaja is added because of the proliferation of mystics or khwajas in Kashmir. Legend has it that Khizr also instructed Alexander the Great.
If you think Bahrain has not paid attention to this evidence, you have a surprise coming. On the island of Failaka, just off the coast of Kuwait, there is a shrine devoted to Al Khizr, which is of considerable antiquity and, if excavated, could yield more evidence of links with the Great Flood legend of Mesopotamia.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2012.
“If anyone argues about Malala’s young age, then the story of Hazrat Khizr in the Quran states that, while travelling with Prophet Moses, Khizr killed a child because, while his parents were pious, the child would have grown up to be a bad man.”
In the Holy Quran in the chapter titled “The Cave” (18:61-83), Hazrat Khizr travelled with Moses and met a boy whom he killed. Moses demanded an explanation but Khizr kept quiet. Later he said:
“The boy, I saw, was destined to become a violent criminal who would break his parents’ heart and take many lives, leaving terrible suffering in his wake all throughout his life. Therefore, while he was still innocent, I chose to send him back to God, as sad as that was, praying that God would grant his parents a worthier son.” Jesus Christ recounts events in the Gospel, too, and the famous one is “The Return of the Prodigal Son”. Muslims have wondered about the place where the Khizr parable had unfolded.
Many people think that Khizr was actually Khwaja Khizr and that the place was Kashmir; and the “two seas” mentioned in the Quran were the lakes of Kashmir. This is also connected with the legend that Moses spent his last days in Kashmir.
The other candidate is Bahrain. The Holy Quran refers to Majma al-Bahrain (meeting of two seas) and Muslims have always believed that Moses had gone to Suez where two seas met (Mediterranean and Red) — coming across the unnamed “wise man” they think is Khizr or Khadr. But modern research says the place was Bahrain.
Plural Bahrain is an archipelago in the Gulf where many Pakistanis go to work. It has a population of approximately 700,000. Bahrain means two seas. This is because the main island where capital Manama is located has springs of fresh water. If you dive into the adjacent sea you will come upon apertures in the seabed where fresh water gushes to this day.
The Old Testament stated that the children of Noah scattered from Sumer or the Tigris-Euphrates delta and came to the islands somewhere in the Mediterranean. That may not be true. Sumerian records talk of the islands and describe them as trading posts to Meluhha, Sumer’s designation of what is now Pakistan.
Bahraini traders were middlemen for Sumer/Mesopotamia. Bahrain has archaeological evidence of that going back to 2500 BC. The Quranic verse 55 (19-22) is supposed to describe Bahrain.
The Quran also refers to salt and sweet waters of the ‘two seas’ and to the production of marjan (pearl or coral) there. Like many other words, marjan is Greek margeron (pearl). When somebody created synthetic butter, he named it margarine because of its pearly texture.
Khizr means green or fertility. Khwaja is added because of the proliferation of mystics or khwajas in Kashmir. Legend has it that Khizr also instructed Alexander the Great.
If you think Bahrain has not paid attention to this evidence, you have a surprise coming. On the island of Failaka, just off the coast of Kuwait, there is a shrine devoted to Al Khizr, which is of considerable antiquity and, if excavated, could yield more evidence of links with the Great Flood legend of Mesopotamia.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2012.