A shocking incident which jolted the Valley and the repercussions of which are felt throughout India: the exposition of a fake seminary head or one may call him fake faith healer Gulzar Ahmad Bhat, a resident of Khansahib, Budgam. This is not for the first time that such shameless acts have been unveiled. Earlier also an aged “Pir” was caught for raping a minor in his custody. Now the question arises: Will such shameful acts stop? By and large ,the answer will be a big NO,as long as we remain among the people of ignorance and don’t act to stop such heinous crimes.
Let us get to know few things about this quack ,which attracted people towards him. He was known among his followers as Syed Gulzar Qalandar. In some of the advertisements published by him, he claimed to have gained Ma’rifat-a stage in sufism where a person is said to have mystical knowledge of spiritual truth.His disciples used to say that he has slept only on a few rare occasions in the last 20 years of his self-absorbed meditation & prayer. He had kept a separate room for himself at the seminary & called it Hujra-e-Pak (Purified Room). Recently an FIR was registered in Police Station Khan Sahib after some minor girls alleged that they have been sexually-exploited by Gulzar Ahmad. Moreover, the police officials have confirmed his involvement in this inhuman act and detained him. According to Police sources : It was in this room (Purified room), where Bhat (a divorcee in his 40s),used to exploit the girl students. Once inside the room, Bhat would recite verses from scriptures to persuade the girls.”He would tell them that whichever part of their body he would touch, that would be protected from hell fire”.Many people are of the opinion even if it is proved that he is the accused, there still will be a large chunk of people of ignorance who will still believe that their mystic leader is self purified, innocent.
Mutahida Majlis-e-Ulema (MMU), a group of clerics headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, issued a statement soon after this shameful episode came to lght, demanding stern action against the fraud faith healer that was running a racket under the garb of providing Islamic education to innocent masses. He advised people to live their lives according to Quran, Sunnah and by following the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). The general masses must be made aware about the true nature of self purification in islam , how is it achieved and more importantly, one should get to know who are the true awliya & who are the fake ones. To a large extent, it is the confusion in these matters that the parents of many girls willingly got their wards admitted in the institute headed by Gulzar Ahmad. Coming to purification, we must understand that the Sahaba (companions) of the Prophet (SAW) were on the highest state of purification. How did they achieve this?. The answer is simple and straight: They would help themselves attain self purification through the Quran. They would always strictly follow the commandments of ALLAH (SWT) and abstain from evil doings..there are numerous verses of Quran on this topic like [10:62] & [10:63]
Thus who love ALLAH (SWT) ,follow his commandments & perform all good deeds & abstain from evil deeds are really the awliya of ALLAH(SWT). On the contrary those who follow their own needs by going against the laws of ALLAH (SWT), do evil deeds,disobey ALLAH (SWT) are not even good muslims,being awliya is far off.
Lastly,I have a question for our politicians. In the backdrop of recent acid attack on a school teacher in Srinagar, almost all the mainstream leaders condemned such a heinous & inhuman act. Now what about this shocking episode? Where are they this time? Do they not feel it is worth condemning, atleast on human grounds?.
DEMOCRACY means government of the people,for the people,by the people. Didn’t it hurt the collective conscience of society? Doesn’t these things point to what they call “politics is a dirty game”.
Apart from Kashmiri civil society, It is the moral responsibility of separatists and religious clerics to raise their voice against such people who don’t have any religion but merely decieve people by posing as people of religion.
Er Tabish Reyaz Shah
