Lt. General Hamid Gul happens to be a distant relative. So it gave us the opportunity to touch stone his wife’s journey towards him into eternity as she demised on the 20th of October 2019. Only to find, his daughter, Uzma Gul absent on the occasion.
We reached around 3 pm, soon after the
funeral procession had returned home after the burial. The house was Abdullah
Gul’s residence, the son. Perhaps, we thought, the daughter has returned to her
personal residence after the burial. We went knocking on her door, a few blocks
away. Only to be told by the servant that she had gone to Islamabad. The
residences were in Rawalpindi.
‘Why?’ I thought to myself. ‘What could be
so important on her mother’s burial day that she had buried her mother and shot
off to Islamabad …?’
My husband dialed her son, only to be told
that she had gone to join the prescheduled Kashmir Freedom Rally on Jinnah
Avenue, Islamabad. My heart skipped a beat … what a daughter !
It was the best Esal-e-Sawab she
could have done for her mother. Images of spread white sheets, dried date seeds
for Dhikr count and parchments of prayers held in people’s hands, glazed my
mind, which I had just come from. She could have cancelled her program in the
face of sorrow and tradition. She could have said, next time. She could
have sat amongst the condoling crowd, and sought to find solace for her
grieving heart for her deceased mother. But she chose to do something for the
alive and grieving mothers and daughters of Kashmir.
As I walked back to our car, the red car
placard stared out at me. It had been placed on the car by myself a few weeks ago,
since the Kashmir Abrogation Issue had surfaced. The placard said,
‘Fear is No Policy … Surrender is No Option
– Signed, Hamid Gul’.
These are the golden words, spoken by
General Hamid Gul during the Afghan Jihad of the 1980s.
I turned back to look at Hamid Gul’s house.
He has been gone since four years. Today his wife has gone too. But his legacy
lives on. His words are still quoted, printed and driven inspiration from.
Imagine a car or many cars driving around a city where he is no more and nobody
asked us to put up his words, but the power of his words find a way back in our
hearts and minds and writings to continue to inspire honor and defence.
His son, Abdullah Gul, also heads an
organization struggling for the revival of youth. So is Uzma Gul struggling for
the nation and Kashmiris right now. May Allah Almighty give bless our works
with unity, sincerity and success, Ameen.
|
Indeed, Uzma Gul proved to be Hamid Gul’s daughter, when she stood in the Kashmir Freedom Rally, after burying her mother the same day. Salute be, to such daughters. I am sure, Hamid Gul and his wife are smiling right now, to be reunited and to have such a brave and nationalistic daughter.
No comments:
Post a Comment