Chapter 2: 1: Cold in the Summer
In the scorching heat of noon in Karachi, the Imam of the Jama Umar Farooq Mosque was leading the congregational Friday prayers in his mosque. Karachi was paused. The shops remained closed, carts of prayer beads, prayer caps and fruits lay unattended, several cars were found parked outside the mosque but none on the road. As soon as the Imam said the Salam for the second time, the city seemed to have been reborn. The unattended fruit and vegetable carts soon found their vendors. There was a loud roar of hundreds of shutters being forced open as the market was reopened after the prayer. Minutes later, he was also done with Dua. There was chaos when the owners of the dozens of cars parked outside the mosque returned. The deafening cries of horns announced the resurrection of the city of lights. The Imam of the mosque was a renowned Islamic scholar and a Muballigh (Preacher) named Sheikh Abdul Haadi, who was also the president of the preacher's organization his most respected teachers had founded almost a century ago, named "Hizb ul Muballigheen", literally translating to "Group of Preachers". He was well known not only in Pakistan but also in the neighboring countries. He had spent his entire life traveling with different preaching groups all around the world. Sheikh had no wealth to show in terms of properties, estates or Bank accounts but his wealth was incalculable when it came to the respect that he had earned in his decades of hard work. He retired to his office, situated in the corner of the mosque. In that office he managed the matters of the mosque as well as the matters of the Hizb ul Muballigheen. The main goal of the organization was to send capable and competent preachers to the far-off places where there was either no footprint of Islam whatsoever or the existence of Islam seemed to be in danger in any way. The travel was expensive and the organization had always been dependent on zakat and any other sorts of charitable funding. The organization had seen better days in terms of funding before the bearded terrorists started making the headlines. Common folk now thought twice before lending a penny to the mosques. But recently the organization had found themselves a number of admirers among the privileged class of the city, many of whom were businessmen from different ethnic backgrounds. Sheikh was pleased at their generosity but was also quite paranoid when it came to the origin of that money so he never approved the funds unless he had personally investigated whether it had come from a legitimate business or is fruit of some kind of distorted religious concept of a con wondering if a part of his unfair money given in charity would somehow purify the rest.
Abdul Haadi was a tall, lightly built man in his sixties. He had a long white beard and a perpetual smile on his face. He wore a white shalwar kameez and a black karakul hat. The legs of his shalwar always ended above his ankles and his matted down peshawari shoes were another bare example of his austerity. He had lived half of his life as a student of the organization and the other half as a teacher in it. He did not regret a second of it because his stay with this organization had given him a chance to work with the heroes about whom others can only read in the legends.
Upon entering his office, he took a moment to stand in front of the group of memorable photos hung in the walls that commemorated the great travels made by his esteemed organization and also the photos of the honored previous presidents of this outfit. Sheikh Abdul Haadi felt a lot of pride along with the overwhelming realization of responsibility of filling the huge shoes of his predecessors. He sat on his work table and started to perform his duties as the president of the preacher's organization with reading the letters sent to it. The first letter was from a far-off secluded island in South America, the writers thanked the organization for sending a talented preacher to their island upon their request. The request for a capable preacher was received by the organization a month ago and the reason for such a request, as stated in the letter, was because some non-Muslim groups were seen confusing the ignorant Muslims of that region into changing their faith. The new letter thanked Hizb ul Muballigheen and also announced that the problem had been solved thanks to their help. The letter put a smile on his face.
There were more than a dozen letters on his table sent to the preacher's organization. Some of the letters were from far off places requesting help from the organization, some were from the places recently visited by the agents of the organization, thanking the organization for the help and some were follow-up reports from the representatives already at work in other regions. There were also bills among the letters which he inspected carefully and placed into the basket designated for them. The articles of the basket were to be complied together and dispatched to the donor who had taken the responsibility of the paying them. He kept on reading.
None of the letters seemed out of the ordinary until one pulled Sheikh Abdul Haadi's undivided attention towards it. The envelope of the letter was crumpled and stained. The back of the envelope yelled URGENT in bright red letters followed by a note saying, "Only to be opened by the PRESIDENT of Hizb ul Muballigheen". Abdul Haadi stood up in anticipation and hesitantly opened the envelope. He took the letter out and started to read it with utmost attention. The letter was from one of groups that were sent out for a mission in an isolated village inhabited by idol worshiping savages. The writing on the letter worried him because it was clear to him by the hand writing that it was written quite hastily. He read the letter further and the news shook his world. He froze on the dropped the letter. He felt his legs tremble and he uncontrollably fell on his chair.
On the sharp sound coming from the office, his students and colleagues rushed into the office with worried faces. They saw their teacher sitting motionless on his chair as if he had seen a ghost. They wanted to ask him what had happened but were not able to find a suitable way to do so. One of the students noticed a letter on the ground and silently motioned one of his teachers towards it with his eyes. A teacher picked up the letter and asked the students to empty the room and the preachers and teachers to stay. After all the students had left the room, he locked the door and read the letter out loud. The letter read,
"To the president of Hizb ul Muballigheen,
Dear Sir,
Assalamu alaikum,
My name is Hafiz Muhammad Daud and I was sent with the group that left for the recently discovered idol worshipping village near the jungles of Southern Africa to preach Islam under the supervision of Sheikh Muhammad Soleiman. We preached there for days without facing any problem but suddenly the natives turned against us and ambushed us and tried to kill us in our houses. We had a narrow escape and ran out of the village but we failed to locate Sheikh Soleiman. We had a slim window to depart for the homeland so we couldn't stay there for long. I am sorry but our group is returning without our supervisor. May Allah help him escape.
Regards,
Muhammad Daud"
The preachers fell silent for a minute. Sheikh Muhammad Soleiman was the best preacher the organization had to offer. The teachers were not new to the fact. He was the teacher of many on duty preachers around the world.
"It must be just a prank!", a teacher spoke up and the rest of them hummed in agreement. "I doubt it. I know Daud. He is better than that", said the teacher who had the letter in his hands. The room fell silent again. The teachers tried to find the words to comfort Sheikh but words failed them.
After a few agonizing minutes of silence, Sheikh Abdul Haadi gathered himself and asked:
"When was this letter received?"
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