Book of Healing - Qur'anic Healing - From Yarkand to Montreal
From Yarkand to Montreal
Tags: Burushaski, Divine Remembrance, Yarkand
In addition to a great many amazing and admirable qualities, our spiritual friend, `Allamah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai, will also be remembered in the literary and linguistic history of Pakistan, because of his memorable contribution to the movement of compiling and editing the grammar of Burushaski, the ancient language of Hunza, Northern Areas. Besides working with two French Professors in the Department of Linguistics, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada (on the Burushaski language), he has also formulated the script of the Burushaski language. Another distinctive merit of `Allamah Hunzai is that he is the first poet, who has a "diwan" (collection of poems) and his "Diwan-i Nasiri" possesses a memorable position in the poetry and literature of the Burushaski language. Pakistan has the status of being a confederation of different linguistic regions. The current language of Hunza, Nagar and Yasin is Burushaski, that of Gilgit is Shina and that of Chitral is Khuwar. These languages belong to the Aryan family of languages. `Allamah Hunzai composes poetry both in Urdu and Burushaski. To date, his pen has produced more than a hundred epistles and booklets.
In addition to literature and linguistics, `Allamah Hunzai's favourite subjects are: spiritualism, Qur'anic studies, Islamic studies, Sufism and esoterics (batiniyyat), etc. Around twenty three or twenty four years ago, I had a long discourse with Hazrat Amir Hamzah Shanwari, the Father of Pushtu ghazal and `Allamah Nasir al-Din Hunzai on the subjects of spiritualism and psychicism. `Allamah Hunzai had described his experiences in a moving and eager tone. Further, `Allamah Hunzai has spent five to six years of his awe inspiring life in (strenuous spiritual exercises) in Yarkand (Sinkiang, China). ... During this solitude, a window of his mind opened and he went through such an arduous cycle of revolutions in consciousness and spiritual experiences, that the world transformed for him.
In my previous articles, I had mentioned an event of the Islamic Research Centre, where I had presented some of my opinions on the subject of "Spirituality in the Modern Age". I had said that psychicism is an art which can be attained by individual struggles, practices and exercises. Today, scientific research of the psychic phenomena is being carried out in every country. In this scientific adventure, America and Russia are pioneers. But as far as spirituality is concerned, the spiritual capacities of man can be actualised only in a society which seeks truth, loves humanity and is progressive. Spirituality means to act in accordance with the positive feelings of the human mind, namely, love, altruism, enlightenment, sincerity, firm resolve and zeal to serve humanity. These creative and positive feelings, whereby human civilisations thrive, can be put into practice only by living in a human society. The supernatural demonstrations of yogis, which people interpret as revelation and miracle (kashf-u karamat), in fact, have no more importance than jugglery. Spirituality is a different level of the elevation of consciousness. `Allamah Nasir Hunzai, in his more than a hundred works, has discussed the true and real spirituality in an extremely appealing and impressive way. For instance, he has discussed Divine remembrance, its kinds and their benefits, such as, remembrance by an individual (dhikr-i fard), remembrance by a group (dhikr-i jama`at), open remembrance (dhikr-i jali), hidden remembrance (dhikr-i khafi), abundant remembrance (dhikr-i kathir), short remembrance (dhikr-i qalil), remembrance by the tongue (dhikr-i lisani), remembrance by the heart (dhikr-i qalbi), remembrance by the eye (dhikr-i basari), remembrance by the ear (dhikr-i sam`i), etc.
`Allamah Hunzai cures spiritual and psychological diseases through Divine remembrance. On these subjects, his works are worth reading, particularly, his "Divine Remembrance (Dhikr-i Ilahi)" and "What is Soul? (Ruh Kiya Hay?)", etc. Spirituality does not mean that we should shun the world, turn our face away from society and sit cross-legged in a dark and narrow cave in the Himalayas. The spiritual upliftment of man is possible only through struggle for the prosperity and progress of this world; he should merge his personal "I" in the "I" of the society; he should earn a lawful livelihood and act righteously in all circumstances. He should be above religious, racial, linguistic and regional prejudices. He should contribute with his tongue, pen and action to create a society which will not be divided into different strata (of wrong-doer and wronged, ruler and ruled, powerful and powerless); a society where there is no concept of the oppressor and the oppressed. Without doubt, the plant of spirituality can thrive only in a soil which has been irrigated and saturated by the spring of Kawthar of philanthropy, altruism, sincerity of intention, freedom of thinking and enlightenment. Our friend `Allamah Nasir Hunzai, in his works, has alluded to these matters beautifully. The first station of the spiritual journey of `Allamah Hunzai was from Yarkand to Montreal. Now I have requested him:
"Sir! There is a vast field left for your spiritual struggle, namely, Europe, America and Russia". (Address of `Allamah Hunzai: Khanah-i Hikmat, 17B, Noor Villa, 269 Garden West, Karachi 3)
`Allamah Hunzai, due to his numerous engagements, cannot spare the time to meet friends generally and hopes that they will accept this reason.
Publications: I have already introduced `Allamah Nasir al-Din Hunzai (Research Associate, Universite de Montreal, Montreal, Canada). In his epistle Precious Treasures he has answered three most important questions, which are:
- What is the part of the five senses in acquiring real knowledge.
- What is the relation between mind and soul?
- How can the act of entering the boundary of the non-temporo-spatial world from the temporo-spatial world during `ibadat and dhikr and returning to it, be described?
All three questions are difficult, but the way `Allamah Hunzai has neatly and clearly answered, delighted me. This epistle can be obtained from Khanah-i Hikmat.
(Rais Amrohvi, The Daily Jang, Karachi, Pakistan, 14th March, 1986)
`Allamah Nasir al-Din Hunzai: Hazrat `Allamah Nasir al-Din Hunzai, the author, poet of Urdu and Burushaski, a language of the Northern Areas, and scholar and thinker of spirituality and Qur'anic studies, has to date published 20 works on the subject of the glorious Qur'an and spiritual and physical health. The present book consists of 26 articles. `Allamah Hunzai has explained not only the medical allusions of the holy Qur'an, but has also discussed in a simple language the interpretation of dreams, effects of dhikr, miracles of prayer, spiritual science, Divine love, man as macrocosm (greater universe) and the symbols and secrets of taqwa (God-fearing) and `ibadat. In this connection, contact Khanah-i Hikmat.
(Rais Amrohvi, The Daily Jang, Karachi, Pakistan, 20th June, 1986)
| Chapter Index | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter |