Written By: Hassnain Malik
We used to go to whichever village in Chitral, made a list of the earthquake
victims, and then visit their homes and examined them, which most of them had
become piles of rubble.
We also had limited funds and medicines, so we thought we would give money to
the thirty people and give medicines to three hundred persons so that we could
go to more villages and work according to our capacity. We accompanied every
village's Nazim, councilor, a nearby police station, or an employee of the
outpost. They helped us to make a list of twenty or thirty people, and after we
had met and scrutinized them all, we gave them an equal amount of money, set up
medical camps and headed to the next village. Most of the people live near the
river so that they can get water and do farming easily.
Some people build houses over the mountains so that they are protected from
floods. Such people have to come down from the mountain to collect wood and
water near the river, and lift them on their heads and go back to the houses
over the mountain. From the front of the river, descending from such a mountain,
there appeared an Amma Gee who would be at least sixty years old.
She carried a large wooden knot on her head that seemed to be larger than her
age and her health. I told my friend who knew his language, ask her why is she
carrying so much woodpile. They are too much for one week, and then isn't it
better to take them for two or three days so as not to be so difficult.
Amaajee gasped and replied as she was walking on her way that some girls in the
village have little children, so I thought if I came down, then take it for them
too, they won't have to come. They have little kids; it's such a difficult task
to take care of them.
The Qur'an whispered in my ear "Help the people"
One of my fellow social workers used to help women in their homes, especially
women who did not have a family.She went inside a house while we were waiting
outside. When she returned, there was a pearl garland in her neck that the women
of Kailash usually look wearing. She said that when I gave the money to the lady
of the house, she was so happy that she took this garland off and placed it
around my neck.
Inside Kailash, there was a shop on Chitral Road, where samples of local
artifacts, pearls, jewelry, and embroidery were available. We stopped there; I
saw the pearl garland of the same kind. I asked its price from the shopkeeper
that was twice the money as much as we gave it that woman for help.
From the beads of the Qur'an, the pearl number 92 of Surah Al-Imran came in
front of me and shone.
"By no means shall you attain to righteousness until you spend out of what you
love."
In the middle of a village in Kafristan, we set up a medical camp. So, we also
had some common medicines that are useful for fever, sore throat, allergies, or
coughs, and they are found in almost every house.
We thought these medicines should be distributed to all the people so that they
could use them later. A sweet little baby girl came and stood by me.
I asked her do you know Urdu, she said yes I know Urdu, and I go to school. I
made her sit beside me and told her that this medicine should take for fever,
and the second one should take for the sore throat, etc.
The girl whose name was GulFaria said, "I am not sick. I said maybe someone in
your home is not fine; bring it for him/her. She said everyone is fine at home.
I said, keep them if you ever get sick, then they will heal you. Now he has
given her final decision.
When I get sick, Dezau will recover me. When I got back to Chitral, Google told
me that Dezau was her god's name, and the girl was pretty sure that he would
heal her when she gets sick.
It seemed like GulFaria taught me to believe in this Ayat.
"And when I am ill, He heals me" (Ash-Shu'araa')
There I saw a board written in English outside the house, 'English Language
Academy.' I was curious that there is also an English Academy in such a deprived
or marginalized area. I got to know that a local man who is now quite old had
been working in Karachi for some time, where he learned to speak and read some
Basic English.
When I met with him, he said that he did not understand anything else that he
could share with his villagers. So, he thought that he should teach English to
everyone as it was the only thing he has that other people do not have in the
village. And they have been doing this service for free for the last twenty
years.
Surah al-Baqarah again explained:
"If you disclose your donations, it is well; but if you conceal them and give
them to the poor, that is better for you."
An employee of the police station in Kailash accompanied with us from the
beginning. I asked him during the chat, "What are the conditions of the police
station and what kind of problems do you have the most?
His response exploded like an atom bomb, the effects of which I still feel four
years later. He said,
"There is nothing to do all day here, since becoming Pakistan; no FIR has been
registered till today. Here no one occupies the property of the other.
Neither they do not fight among themselves, nor do they do the robbery.
Many police officers consider it a punishment to come here because there is no
'earning'. In extreme cases, someone's animal is lost who would either find the
next day or come back on his own.
Somewhere from the front, Al-Baqara sounded up again:
"O Believers: Do not devour one another's possessions."
One day we arrived in another village in Kailash.
We met a local Kalashi employee there and asked him to make a list of 20 people.
He wrote something on a paper for a long time and then comes and says, sir!
There are only 19 homes in our village that need financing, and everything else
is fine." A colleague of mine who was with us from Chitral took me in isolation
and said, 'Bro, this is a strange man.
Every village we went to, we asked for 30 homes, then they made list of 30
homes, and if we said 20, then they made a list of 20 homes. And this is the
first one who could include any person to complete 20 person list, and the whole
village is poor, but he is saying there are only 19 houses are like this.
The voice of the Qur'an came from somewhere:
Speak the truth'.
And our Prophet said: A Muslim can't lie.
It seems only Muslims are living in the entire Kafiristan.