“This is an amazing animal,” says Sohail, a local goat trader. “In the five days or so that it has been here, at least 1,000 people have visited from all over the city and surrounding villages. They take videos and pictures and they pray because this is a miracle.” The “miracle” Sohail refers to is a patch of white fur on the brown animal’s forehead that looks, to some people, like it spells out “Muhammad”.
“It reminds us of the Almighty,” says Akbar, another goat trader. He says he and his son have travelled wherever the ox has been on display. “It would be very sad if anyone tried to sell it because it represents a form of perfection by God.”
The owner, a lean, soft-spoken man, says he has received offers of Rs2.5 million and Rs3 million to part with the animal, but has no plans to do so. “Once a man offered me the keys to his brand new car in exchange,” says Mian Waleed.
“We (him and his family) refuse these offers because the religious significance of this animal is much more valuable. My goal has been to put it on display for as many people as possible.” Waleed is from Sharqpur and is descended from the brother of Sufi saint Mian Sher Muhammad Sharqpuri. His grandfather is the current head of the Sharqpuri Sufi order. The saint was a known practitioner of calligraphy who regularly wrote the name Muhammad in various calligraphic styles.
Waleed says his family noticed the animal and offered to buy it from people in a Yazman village in Bahawalpur district some eight years ago. The villagers, devotees of Mian Sher Muhammad Sharqpuri, decided to present the one-year-old ox to the family as a gift.
For many locals, the ox provides a sense of spiritual excitement. They say that in a climate where issues such as inflation, terrorism and the general state of the country have drained many people of their faith, the animal is a “symbol of hope”. But not everyone is convinced. Maqsood, another goat trader, says the ‘birthmark’ may have been painted or burnt onto the ox. Others say the similarities between the birthmark and the way the name Muhammad is written in Arabic may be entirely coincidental.
“I don’t understand the big deal,” says Asad, a local villager. “This seems like a scam.”
Waleed brushed aside this notion. “People always question whether it’s real or whether the hair has become white of over time.
The truth is he was born like this and we have done nothing to change the way it looks,” he says. He says the ox, now nine years old, may pass away soon. Once that happens, he will have the head stuffed.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2010.
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