Page 20 - Pakistan Link - August 13, 2021

P20 – PAKISTAN LINK – AUGUST 13, 2021 COMMUNITY
n By Yusuf Salahuddin When Time Stood Still plied: “I’m happy to be here but you
Lahore really must thank Shaharyar. It was on
his invitation that I am here.”
was dining with friends at my A smorgasbord of Lahori special-
home when Shaukat Aziz, then ties was relentlessly delivered to our
I finance minister, mentioned to table. Though I was apprehensive of
me that the Quaid-i-Azam’s daugh- the assault on her taste buds, she tried
ter and her family were due to visit a bit of everything and was gracious
Pakistan during the Pakistan-India in praising the food. She then spoke
cricket series. I could hardly believe highly of the ambience of the Old City
that. The rest of the dinner passed and the Badshahi Masjid. She told me
in a haze while I wondered what it that she had visited my grandfather’s
would be like to meet this remark- grave earlier that day. I felt somewhat
able lady. guilty for monopolizing the guest of
I grew up in a family where sto- honor, but I couldn’t help speaking to
ries of the Quaid were often narrated her. I talked about her father and she
and listened to in rapt attention. I listened with great interest. One could
never had the opportunity of meeting clearly see that she loved her father
the great man himself, even though he very much. It was amazing not only
seemed omnipresent in our house. how closely she looked like her father,
My maternal grandfather, Allama she also spoke like him.
Mohammad Iqbal, gave the vision of We were sitting near the stairs
Pakistan and when Mr Jinnah left Con- leading up to the rooftop and people
gress and settled down in England, it came and went past us now and again.
was he who convinced the Quaid that Out of these people, three women spot-
a separate homeland for Muslims was Dina Wadia with her father (Quaid-i-Azam) (left) and with the author during her visit to Lahore ted Dina and hesitantly made their way
absolutely necessary. The Allama also over to her. One tried to speak, but was
convinced the Indian Muslims that in the Punjab. A group of well-to-do Swire during the 50th independence deniable presence which one felt the clearly choked up. After apologizing
the Quaid was the only one who could Muslims donated their time, money celebrations of India and Pakistan. moment he entered a room, but when profusely for interrupting the dinner,
achieve it. It is quite simple really - had and property for this cause and my I could clearly see her father in her. the Quaid walked in, his presence was she said: “I don’t have words to speak
there been no Quaid, there would have great, great grandfather, Mian Karim simply electrifying. I wondered if his to you. God bless you.”
been no Pakistan. Buksh, was made life vice-president. daughter had the same kind of person- As we were leaving the cafe, I met
When they met for the last time at It was this institution that built She graciously shook ality. my old friend Haroon Rashid with his
Allama Iqbal’s house shortly before his the Islamia College Railway Road, Is- hands and spoke to them, I met Mr Jinnah’s grandson Nasli family. I introduced him to Ms Wadia
death in 1938, Iqbal told his son that a lamia College Civil Lines and Islamia wishing them luck. It was Wadia and his sons, Ness and Jay, at my and said his grandfather, Sir Abdul
gentleman would come to see him that College for Women, along with other house on the evening of March 24 at Rasheed, was the first chief justice and
day and that he should be well-dressed educational institutions and orphan- heartening to see such a party hosted by my son, Jalal. I told swore in the Quaid as the first gover-
and look for an opportunity to get his ages. The Anjuman Himayat-i-Islam, reverence in the eyes Nasli of my overwhelming desire to nor-general of Pakistan. Confusing
autograph. Dr Javed Iqbal relates the as it came to be known, would hold an meet his mother. Haroon’s name with the Haroon family,
story in his book Zinda Road. He went annual congregation of Muslims from of Pakistan’s so-called The next day, Nasli called to tell she said, “Of course I know the Haroon
into the room where he was sitting. all over India every year. Smaller ses- disrespectful youth. I me that they were postponing their de- family, they were friends of my father.”
After wishing the great leader, he re- sions were held at the Haveli Barood- don’t think anyone who parture to Karachi and that he would Or maybe she knew his aunt was from
quested him for his autograph. While khana which hosted dignitaries such be happy if I joined him and his moth- the Haroon family. The genuine emo-
signing the book, the Quaid asked him as Altaf Hussain Hali, Deputy Nazir met Ms Wadia will ever er at a chic cafe in the walled city where tion was overwhelming and I had to
if he wrote poetry like his father did to Ahmed, Maulana Shaukat Ali and forget her. I opened the they were to dine with their friend Sha- take a minute to compose myself be-
which he replied in the negative. The Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar. It was haryar Khan and his family. After the fore asking her if she would do me the
Quaid then asked him what he wanted this platform that the Quaid used to door of the car and said initial excitement died down, I noticed honor of visiting my home. She agreed
to do when he grew up. The young man address the Muslims of Punjab for the goodbye. She kissed me that Nasli, who had all the amenities of and I can say without reservation that
didn’t have an answer to that. Mr Jin- first time. And in 1940 when the Paki- the State Guest House at his disposal, that was the greatest moment of my
nah then asked Allama Iqbal why his stan Resolution was passed, the Quaid on both cheeks and held had called me from his own mobile life.
son was silent, to which the poet said: entrusted my grandfather, Mian Ami- my hand firmly. It was phone. It was typical of what one had I have in the past had the good
“He is looking at you for advice.” nuddin, with the task of organizing and an inexplicable sense of heard of the Quaid. fortune of entertaining dignitaries,
On my father’s side, our first con- holding the meeting. Mian Aminuddin I arrived early at the cafe and was celebrities and heads of states, all of
tact with the League began as far back was chairman of the ‘Pindal Commit- reassurance and comfort, there to watch Ms Wadia walk in. I which paled into insignificance when
as 1906 when the League was not a tee.’ this contact with the was stunned by her resemblance to her compared with this experience. We all
political party but a movement of like- Coming back to the present, the father. Everyone who sees her for the made our way over to my house where
minded people. During the second possibility of seeing the Quaid’s daugh- Quaid’s living link first time is struck by her remarkable I showed her the pictures I had of her
session in Karachi, my grandfather’s ter in this same haveli moved me be- likeness to her father. Shaharyar Khan father and our families. She looked at
younger brother and cousin attended yond words. I didn’t know very much I once asked my late mother-in-law, was kind enough to ask me to sit next all of these pictures with great affec-
as representatives of our family. By that about Dina Wadia other than that she Begum Iftikharuddin, who knew both to her. When I was able to speak, the tion, particularly at one of “Auntie Fati-
time, our family had already started was a private person. I had only read Jawaharlal Nehru and the Quaid close- first thing I said to her was: “Ma’am, ma”, pictured with my mother when
a movement on the lines of Sir Syed one interview of hers that was done for ly, what was the difference between the you have done a great honor to us by she visited the Allama house in 1951.
to educate underprivileged Muslims a documentary by my friend Sophie two. She said that Nehru had an un- coming to Pakistan.” To which she re- TIME, P8
The Beginning of the Hijri Calendar where Muslims first attained religious and po-
n By Paul Lunde litical autonomy. The hijrah thus occurred on
1 Muharram 1 according to the Islamic calen-
n AD 638, six years after the death of ing months based on the phases of the moon dar, which was named “hijri” after its epoch.
the Prophet Muhammad, Islam’s second but intercalating days outside the lunar cycle (This date corresponds to July 16, AD 622 on
Icaliph Umar recognized the necessity of to synchronize the calendar with the seasons. the Gregorian calendar.) Today in the West, it
a calendar to govern the affairs of the Mus- On the eve of Islam, the Himyarites appear to is customary, when writing hijri dates, to use
lims. This was first of all a practical matter. have used a calendar based on the Julian form, the abbreviation ah, which stands for the Latin
Correspondence with military and civilian but with an epoch of 110 BC. In central Ara- anno hegirae, “year of the hijrah.”
officials in the newly conquered lands had bia, the course of the year was charted by the Because the Islamic lunar calendar is
to be dated. But Persia used a different cal- position of the stars relative to the horizon at 11 days shorter than the solar, it is therefore
endar from Syria, where the caliphate was sunset or sunrise, dividing the ecliptic into not synchronized to the seasons. Its festivals,
based; Egypt used yet another. Each of these 28 equal parts corresponding to the location which fall on the same days of the same lu-
calendars had a different starting point, or of the moon on each successive night of the nar months each year, make the round of the
epoch. The Sasanids, the ruling dynasty of month. The names of the months in that cal- seasons every 33 solar years. This 11-day dif-
Persia, used June 16, AD 632, the date of endar have continued in the Islamic calendar ference between the lunar and the solar year
the accession of the last Sasanid monarch, to this day and would seem to indicate that, accounts for the difficulty of converting dates
Yazdagird III. Syria, which until the Muslim before Islam, some sort of lunisolar calendar epoch for the new Muslim calendar the hijrah, from one system to the other.
conquest was part of the Byzantine Empire, was in use, though it is not known to have had
used a form of the Roman “Julian” calendar, an epoch other than memorable local events. There were two other reasons Umar The Gregorian Calendar
with an epoch of October 1, 312 BC. Egypt There were two other reasons Umar re- rejected existing solar calendars. The early calendar of the Roman Empire
used the Coptic calendar, with an epoch of jected existing solar calendars. The Qur’an, in was lunisolar, containing 355 days divided into
August 29, AD 284. Although all were solar, Chapter 10, Verse 5, states that time should be The Qur’an, in Chapter 10, Verse 5, 12 months beginning on January 1. To keep it
and hence geared to the seasons and con- reckoned by the moon. Not only that, calen- states that time should be reckoned more or less in accord with the actual solar
taining 365 days, each also had a different dars used by the Persians, Syrians and Egyp- by the moon. Not only that, calendars year, a month was added every two years. The
system for periodically adding days to com- tians were identified with other religions and used by the Persians, Syrians and system for doing so was complex, and cumu-
pensate for the fact that the true length of cultures. He therefore decided to create a lative errors gradually misaligned it with the
the solar year is not 365 but 365.2422 days. calendar specifically for the Muslim commu- Egyptians were identified with other seasons. By 46 BC, it was some three months
In pre-Islamic Arabia, various other nity. It would be lunar, and it would have 12 religions and cultures out of alignment, and Julius Caesar oversaw its
systems of measuring time had been used. months, each with 29 or 30 days. reform. Consulting Greek astronomers in Al-
In South Arabia, some calendars apparently This gives the lunar year 354 days, 11 days the emigration of the Prophet Muhammad exandria, he created a solar calendar in
were lunar, while others were lunisolar, us- fewer than the solar year. Umar chose as the and 70 Muslims from Makkah to Madinah, CALENDAR, P10
www.PakistanLink.com