By: Farzana Ali Khan
It is said that “People with good intentions make promises and those with good character keep them”
The above quotation is quite apt to describe the story of a Muslim owner and his Hindu tenant keeping words by the former with the later trace back to India- Pakistan partition till now i.e. for 73 years.
Despite the ongoing tension between Pakistan and India we still find people from opposite religions treating each other as one community. It’s not unrevealed anymore that only the Muslim and Hindu extremists are responsible for the growing hatred by fueling the fire at both sides but one thing that we can never deny is that whichever religion we belong to ‘humanity’ comes first and is above all.
Being secular Hindu, Muslims is the only factor that has bound both religions for decades, and that’s why we can find hundreds of Hindus and Muslims who are living like families.
Although this is plainly written in the Quran that marriages cant take place between the two religions. But in this modern world, we witness a lot of successful love marriages between Hindu and Muslims.
I myself have learned about such families being inevitably promising towards each other since pro-independence.
Here is a real example of fulfilling a promise made by two fellows during the partition. The story is neither fictitious nor dramatic at all but based on two actual characters, a Hindu tenant(shopkeeper)and a Muslim owner in a small place (Loralai) part of the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The poor shopkeeper named Kakkar, who was forced to leave, abandon his post and return to India during the India-Pakistan partition period 1947 had asked his Muslim landlord not to rent out the shop and wait for his return. And the owner promised him to take care of the shop till he is back.
Now almost 73 years have passed since then. The shopkeeper did not return, but his business is still securely locked and waiting for the man who will quite likely never return.
Only God knows the reason for his neither contacting the Muslim owner nor coming back.
It could be assumed that either he has died or unable to return to Pakistan due to some genuine reason.
Whatever is the case with the shopkeeper but the trustworthy Muslim owner, who had never opened the shop’s gate since then remained true to his words for decades.
Though the Muslim owner has reportedly died a while ago, still didn’t forget to charge his children to wait for the return of the Hindu man, becoming a symbol of loyalty and trust between two states that have been at loggerheads with each other for decades.
As the owner had assured the tenant that nobody would open the lock of his shop(made of mud) but wait for him to return who didn’t return even after 73 years of India-Pakistan partition, still the owners of the shop have not opened the lock of the shop.
Decades have passed but the shop is still locked awaiting for the occupant who may never return, but the promise has been kept which was made 73 years ago.
The Muslim owner literally proved to be a Sadiq(the truthful) and Ameen(the trustworthy, honest) the titles which were conferred to our holy prophet Muhammad(P.B.U..H)
As they say “Promise only what you can deliver then deliver more than you promise”
So the owner of the shop not only made a promise but also delivered it till death.
It is important to mention that though the Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan, consisting of West and East Pakistan, were partitioned in 1947. The bloody migration, one of the worst in modern history, killed an estimated one million Hindus and Muslims but still keeping aside the Hindu, Muslim politicians, and extremists the common people of both countries have a soft corner in their hearts for each other.
At the end of this article, I would just say, “Promises are only as strong as the person give them” meaning the Muslim owner was strong enough and quite patient to wait for the tenant, not just for days, months a few years but for decades to keep his words.
Dear readers, my this piece of article is not for entertainment or increasing your knowledge but its a kind of appeal by me and an Indian friend of mine to governments of both the countries India and Pakistan to pay attention to the issue by finding out the descendants of both the Hindu and Muslim men to sort out the problem of the shop by unlocking that.
Besides, the locked shop for the last 73 years has also created curiosity among the people around.
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