Death of a maulana

Sometimes something happens that one cannot help but take notice of and start thinking about. The recent funeral of a religious scholar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was one such occasion. It was a funeral fit for a king. The gathering was so huge that it was beyond imagination.
The deceased was neither a ruler nor a man of wealth. Still the gathering at his funeral surpassed that of everyone else. It broke and set records. Why did so many mourners turn up at the funeral of Maulana Dr Sher Ali Shah in Akora Khattak near Nowshera? What was so special about this 86-year-old man who during the last years of life was unable to even move without a wheelchair?
Flowing with crowds of young and old men streaming towards the vast venue of the namaz-e-janaza by the side of the Grand Trunk Road just across the Darul Uloom Haqqania seminary, one was tempted to ask as many people as possible about why they had decided to attend the maulana’s funeral.
An Afghan refugee, Mehboob, spoke for many when he answered that he was neither a student of Maulana Sher Ali Shah nor had he ever met him, but that he was drawn to the funeral because the maulana was a ‘waliullah’ (friend of Allah) and one could be blessed by attending the namaz-e-janaza. It is difficult to argue with someone holding such a strong belief about a fellow human being. There was unanimity of opinion among those in attendance that they had yet to see a bigger crowd at any funeral in their life.
The fact that Maulana Sher Ali Shah was a highly respected man was beyond doubt. He was reverentially referred to as Sheikhul Hadith because he was a top scholar with extraordinary knowledge of the sayings of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh). He had done his PhD from the Madina University in Saudi Arabia and was one of the few clerics in Pakistan who held a Doctor in Philosophy degree, albeit in religious studies.
Not many people beyond Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata had heard about him, but those who had heard him speak immediately became his fans. That bond lasted forever as one saw his students coming from all over Pakistan and Afghanistan to pay their last respects to their beloved teacher.
The Afghan Taliban, and to a lesser extent the Pakistani Taliban, listened to and respected just a few Pakistani ulema. This list didn’t include anyone involved in politics. Maulana Sher Ali Shah’s name was at the top of the list along with the late Mufti Rasheed Ahmad and Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai from Karachi and Maulana Abdul Ghani of Chaman in Balochistan. These men have also passed away.
For 38 long years the Maulana taught at the Haqqania madressah. His pupils took pride in having someone like him as their teacher. And the students of his students were proud that their teachers had been the pupils of Maulana Sher Ali Shah.
The maulana had thousands of students, who in due course of time became ‘mullahs’ (givers of knowledge). The generational change was evident at his funeral as young and old thronged the place and narrated stories of their meetings with the maulana. The way they talked about him explained the deep reverence that they had for this ‘man of God’.
Maulana Sher Ali Shah had many famous students. The mention of two – one from Pakistan and the other from Afghanistan – would suffice and establish his status. One was Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the JUI-F leader heading the biggest religio-political party in Pakistan. The other was Mullah Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Afghan mujahideen leader who founded the Haqqani Network to first fight against the Soviet occupying forces and then the US-led Nato troops. Maulana Sher Ali Shah had condemned both invasions of Afghanistan and backed those who offered resistance.
In Pakistan, the authorities occasionally sought his help to use his influence with the militants to secure the release of hostages or agree to a ceasefire in difficult situations. He didn’t always succeed in such secret missions because the militants gradually stopped listening to advice from anyone, even someone as respected as Maulana Sher Ali Shah. Still, he keenly became a part of such peace initiatives because the internecine bloodshed pained him to no end.
One hasn’t seen many teachers as loved or a scholar as widely followed as Maulana Sher Ali Shah. This is because he practised what he preached. He didn’t make money as other religious scholars have done. He was unafraid to speak the truth and stayed away from politics after having lost the 1990 general election.
Thereafter, he devoted his life to teaching religion and in the process earning unusually high respect. And this was reflected at his funeral when the G T Road was blocked for hours due to the crowds of mourners converging on Akora Khattak to catch the last glimpse of a man who didn’t bestow any favour on them except teaching them to become better Muslims and human beings.
The writer is resident editor of The News in Peshawar.
Email: rahimyusufzai@yahoo.com