28 May 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com
The sudden appearance of Prophet Mohammed in Chakwal, a wave of religious excitement across Pakistan
The
sudden appearance of Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) alleged footprint in the sleepy
village of Dharabi near Chakwal has sent a wave of religious excitement across
Pakistan. At a three-hour drive from Islamabad, Dharabi is now attracting tens
of thousands of visitors from Swat to Karachi. They seek blessings, spiritual
enlightenment, miracle-cures, and relief from life’s other stresses. A road that
is sparsely traveled in normal times is now clogged with traffic, vendors of
food and drink are having a field day, new businesses selling pictures and holy
paraphernalia have sprouted, and a permanent shrine is under construction. The
village could not have hoped for better. -- Perwez
Hoodbhoy
A wave of religious excitement
in Pakistan
By Pervez
Hoodbhoy
The sudden appearance of Prophet
Mohammed’s (PBUH) alleged footprint in the sleepy village of Dharabi near
Chakwal has sent a wave of religious excitement across Pakistan. At a three-hour
drive from Islamabad, Dharabi is now attracting tens of thousands of visitors
from Swat to Karachi. They seek blessings,
spiritual enlightenment, miracle-cures, and
relief from life’s other stresses. A road that is sparsely traveled in normal
times is now clogged with traffic, vendors of food and drink are having a field
day, new businesses selling pictures and holy paraphernalia have sprouted, and a
permanent shrine is under construction. The village could not have hoped for
better.
My encounter in mid-March with
this phenomenon was accidental and preceded the heavy rush that came in
subsequent weeks. While on the way to Chakwal, I became curious about the heavy
police presence. Upon inquiring, I was told of a recent momentous event – a
giant footprint was said to have suddenly appeared, which the local ulema
promptly declared as belonging to the Holy Prophet. But this had ignited a
fierce war of words between various religious factions in the larger Chakwal
area. Some believers insist that the Prophet had left the earthly world once and
forever, while others contend that he revisits it periodically to remind
followers of his presence. The police had been called to prevent physical
violence.
Conversations over tea with the
Dharabi’s inhabitants gave me some facts. However, the entire story soon receded
to the back of my mind. It was revived several weeks later when it hit the
national press and television. To augment my understanding I made phone calls to
several villagers I had met, but discovered that new embellishments and
inventions are being added by the day to the original narration of events.
Village skeptics, on the other hand, are being silenced and speak only on the
condition that their identities not be revealed.
The story begins on 12th
Rabi-ul-Awwal, the Prophet’s birthday, when celebrations were held as per
village custom. This involves cooking sooji ka halwa in large flat iron dishes
called karahis. Since there are no stoves large enough for the purpose, shallow
holes are dug and then filled with twigs, charcoal, or other flammable material.
After the cooking is done and the fires had dimmed, the holes are filled with
loose earth. On that particular evening, I learned that there was a heavy rain
shower.
And now the story goes like
this: that evening a woman looked out into her backyard and saw a glow that
appeared to move. In her excitement, she summoned her mother-in-law who says she
also saw the glow. It appeared very briefly and was not seen subsequently
(although a six-week later version is that it lasted for three days and was so
bright that the house did not need electric lights!). The women also claimed
that the glow was accompanied by a sweet smell. In the morning, the cooking area
was discovered to have a mysterious ground impression. The rest is history.
What scientific explanation
exists for this phenomenon? As a starter, readers of this article are invited to
Google the “Dharabi miracle” where they will see countless uploads of
photographs and hastily made celebratory videos. By straining one’s imagination,
some may be able to see a footprint. But its enormous size – between 3-4 feet
long – would indicate that it belongs to the long-sought mythical Himalayan Yeti
rather than any human. The shape of the impression can be more plausibly
explained as that of loose earth, brought together by rainwater, from two
adjacent irregularly rounded cooking holes. It could also be the water-distorted
image of two heavy round karhai’s of different sizes placed on the soft earth.
Or it could simply be deliberate fraud.
Assuming that the women had
their wits about them, and had not been overpowered by the devotional intensity
of the day’s celebrations, the softly glowing ephemeral light could have
multiple explanations. First, it is possible that a swarm of phosphorescent
insects was somehow attracted to the cooking area. Bioluminescence in insects is
a well known phenomenon. As in the common firefly known as jugnoo, “cold light”
is produced via chemiluminescence.
It could also be that the
organic matter buried in the holes, assisted by the heat of imperfectly quenched
coals or twigs, could have converted into methane and phosphine gases. The
latter is known to oxidize spontaneously upon coming into contact with air and
can burn at a low temperature causing glowing light. Appearances of apparitions
in western folklore, such as Jack-o'-the-Lantern or Will-o'-the-Wisp, have been
traced by scientists to various flammable gases and insects.
A detailed investigation would
involve looking at the soil composition, local entomology, and recorded
statements of different witnesses. It seems, however, that the Dharabi event
will be ignored by Pakistan’s scientific institutions, of which there are well
over two dozen. With exorbitant budgets but zero or little scientific output,
some are housed in shiny new buildings on Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue. These
include the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, Committee on Science and Technology in
the Islamic World (COMSTECH), COMSATS, Pakistan Science Foundation, Pakistan
Council on Science and Technology, etc.
Unfortunately not one of the
above or, for that matter, any other Pakistani scientific institute, has ever
debunked the unreasonable and anti-scientific attitudes that one sees all
around. For example, after the October 2005 earthquake that killed nearly
100,000, none challenged the view in the public media that this tragedy was a
consequence of our bad deeds such as, for example, watching television or
allowing unveiled women to go out of the house.
To be sure, superstitious
beliefs exist in other countries as well. One recalls the hysteria in 1995
following the discovery that Lord Ganesh, the Elephant God, would “drink” milk
if a spoon of milk was held up to his trunk. Even minor temples in India
overflowed with superstitious devotees. So great was the rush of devotees that a
traffic gridlock resulted in New Delhi and sales of milk jumped up by 30%.
Fortunately for India, an
independent body, the Indian Rationalists Association, was quick to show that
Ganesh’s milk drinking had a simple physical explanation. It was shown to be
simple capillary action – what everyone learns about in school science books.
The surface tension of the milk was pulling the liquid up and out of the spoon,
before gravity caused it to run down the front of the statue. To its credit,
India’s Ministry of Science and Technology confirmed the explanation and the
country’s religious craziness slowly abated. With such precedents, surely it is
time for Pakistan’s Ministry of Science and Technology to investigate the
so-called Chakwal miracle, as well as the many similar superstitions that delude
our people and keep them in a state of stupor and
backwardness.
POSTSCRIPT: After this article
was published in Dawn on 18 May 2010, the police authorities in Chakwal
telephoned me to say that my version of events was accurate. Moreover, the
authorities had poured cement upon the alleged footprint but “miraculously” it
had been removed by some divine agency the very next morning. Mr. Tanvir’s
house, which houses the phenomenon, had a market value of Rs 250,000 a few
months earlier but has just been sold at Rs. 2,000,000. He, and those of his
family members who claim to have witnessed the light, have become pirs andpirnis
with people queuing up for days to receive blessings. The family has hit the
jackpot.
Source:
outlookindia.com
9:54 PM
Sultan Shahin
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