In the dim light of dawn, shivering in the early morning chill, a long queue of devotees formed outside Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine when it was opened to public three days after two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrance gate, killing eight persons, including two little children and injuring at least 60.
The shrine, and other shrines in the city, was immediately sealed after the attack, but had the shrine remained open devotees would still have swarmed like bees on a beehive. What is there in shrines which commands such devotion?
Orthodox preachers criticise shrine visitors yet their harangues have not discouraged a single devotee. If you had looked at the scene of devotees outside Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine on Sunday morning, you would have noted that they were young and old men, they were mostly without beards, they were dressed in everyday clothes of jeans and t-shirt, trousers and shirt and had covered their heads with prayer caps berets, cricket caps or a handkerchief.
Like the men, women shrine visitors are also dressed in ordinary styles. There is a clue in appearances which indicates why saints and shrines are so popular. The devotees find in mazars what they do not find elsewhere.
In villages, towns and cities the landmark is usually a shrine.
Pakistan is a land of shrines and saints, but I was quite surprised to learn Karachi has some two hundred shrines, besides Abdullah Shah Ghazi in the Auqaf department's list. Abdullah Shah Ghazi was an eighth century saint but all the others could not be that ancient. Traditionally, shrines are found on high ground which were far from human settlement when the saint chose the place for his final devotions, which in Sufism requires total seclusion. Yet people continued to approach them for help, refusing to leave them in peace. Karachi shrines, however, are mostly in the city, in places which did not exist before the British Raj, such as Kharadar, M.A. Jinnah Road, F.B. Area, Korangi-1 and Korangi-4.
What this indicates is that people need saints, because the mullah does not give them spiritual comfort they need. Orthodox preachers have criticised Sufism since day one. Nevertheless, Sufism which celebrates a passionate love of God and life including song, music and dance, was much more popular than authoritarian religion. A spokesman of the Tehreek Nifaz-i-Qura'an, condemning the attack on Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine, pointed out that it was the Sufi saints who spread Islam throughout the sub-continent. The proof of this is the number of shrines, which dot India and Pakistan from north to south, east to west.
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