The eternal wisdom

Allah Kay Ghar Der Hay, Andhair Nahi” is a common urdu proverb. Of course, Allah is replaced by Baghwan in Hindi. Its English equivalent is God’s Mill Grinds Slowly But Surely.

In Punjabi, it is used as “Raba Di Mila Huli Hay Par Paki Hain”. In Kashmir we have near to equivalent phrase “Nav Bharith Yinass Chu Waq Lagaan”.

“Allah Kay Ghar Der Hay, Andhair Nahi” – it literally means that there is delay in God’s House , but not Dark. Both God’s House & Dark are figurative expressions of the phrase.

God’s House is like God’s Arms, Steps, Hands, which all manifests the Real Sovereignty & Power rests with God Almighty alone. Dark here stands for denial, rejection, hopelessness & helplessness.

In this way, the phrase means that God takes His Own Time but he does do Justice. He waits but delivers people of injustice. When a person suffers due to wickedness & harm of another person[s], the former feels disappointed & dejected.

But, this idiom instills a Belief & Faith in him that God will punish the wicked fellow[s] for the vice & wrong he/the has/have done to the victim. God’s Mill of Justice Grinds the wicked & unjust fellow[s].

Slowly & surely leaves no doubt in the mind of the victim that God is aware of mischief of the wicked & will do Justice. In Punjabi, it is stated that God’s Mill [Chaki] may be going on , grinding, slowly (hole, hole) but it is certain [Paki] to grind the wicked, mischievous, thugs, tricksters, unjust & cruel, sooner or later.

In Kashmiri, we have an idiom, “Nav Bharith Yinass Chu Waq Lagaan”, which literally means that till the boat of wickedness & cruelty gets overloaded, it does not sink. But, it is bound to sink in the whirlpool of wickedness & cruelty. Or, I may quote one more proverb here that has relevance in the context.

“Muth Khivaeni Chi Ne Pech Yivaan” which literally means that one does not get pain & bloating in stomach immediately after taking soybean or any non-digestible food”. Its connotation is clearly manifest that one does not receive punishment from God immediately after harming & damaging others. Retribution from God for wrong deeds takes some time but it is bound to happen.

If innocent people are harmed by the wicked, Allah will definitely deliver the innocent of injustice & harm by punishing the wicked because Allah is always pleased with Truth, and innocent, honest & simple hearted man. “ Kalis Halis, Khudai Raiz” is another Kashmiri proverb.

Kul or dumb means innocent whose innocence pleases God. Kashmir’s mystic Sufi saint Sheikh Noor ud Din has said: “Krihi Khoteh Insaaf Budh”, which means Justice is higher than meditation or worship. The Holy Quran is full of verses to show that Justice of Allah is bound to come for deliverance of the suffering people.

“Yutaam Pazar Pazaan, Tutaam Aalam Dazaan”: God Sees The Truth But Waits. Yes, God’s Justice takes time but it is certain to come. It is a Bible quote and Leo Tolstoy has written a classic story under this title that pithily explains this phrase in most appropriate literally style. The story shows that Justice delayed can prove fatal at times. Justice delayed is justice denied.

1872 short story of Leo Tolstoy is about a man, Aksenov, who lived in Vladimir town of Russia. Aksenov is young, handsome merchant who has a family of a wife & small children.

Before marriage he was given to drinking & quarrels but after marriage he is altogether a changed person. He intends to join a fair in another town of Russia, called Nizhny.

When he decides to leave for the Nizhny Fair, he is stopped by his wife. She tells him that she had a very bad dream about him. She tells him that she saw him in her dream returning from the Fair but with completely grey hair.

She takes it a bad omen. But he laughs at the apprehension of his wife & so sets on the journey in his horse-cart. After traveling half-way, when it is evening time, he halts the travel & puts up in an inn. Here he meets an old acquaintance. They chat & take tea & then both retire to their adjoining rooms for sleep.

He wakes up before dawn & asks his driver to start driving the cart. In the midway at noontime, he is stopped by cops. They question him: who is he, wherefrom has he came, where was he last time, with whom was he last night, who was the person he met at the inn & so on. Irked by so much questioning, he asks police officer, is he a thief or a robber to be questioned like that.

The police officer asks his men to search his luggage. On search a blood-stained knife is found in his bag. Then, the usual questioning follows. The officer tells him that they are confirmed in their suspicion now that he has murdered the merchant with whom he had tea last evening & that he had cut his throat with the knife & stolen his 20,000 roubles. He is shocked, swears that he has not done it & that the knife does not belong to him. But police do not trust him.

He is frisked away by the police. In the meanwhile, the testimony from his town is collected which shows that he was a fairly good human being in his town. His wife visits him in prison. When she asks him, has he really done it, he is broken to pieces.

Now my own life too suspects me. He does not utter a word & hides his face in his hands. He does not then put any petition before police & other authorities. He talks to himself: It seems that only God can know the truth. It is Him alone I must appeal & from Him alone expect Justice & Mercy.

The court convicts him of murder of the merchant. He is flogged with knout & when the wounds caused by the knout are healed, he is driven to a prison in Siberia with other convicts. Here he spends precious 26 years of his life in prison thousands of miles away from home. He earns a little money by boot-making in prison & buys a book: Life of saints. He reads it daily. He prays daily.

The whole prison gets abuzz with his daily choir/prayers. The inmates respect him highly & call him Saint & Godfather. He becomes spokesman of the prisoners before the jail authorities. He has grown old. His hair has turned white as snow. One day a new gang of convicts arrive in the prison. One among them is Makar. He is the one who had killed the merchant & hid his blood-stained knife in Aksenov’s luggage.

Askenov during a conversation with him gets clear idea about him being the actual murderer for whose crime he has been languishing in jail but does not tell him anything. Makar digs a hole in the jail wall to escape. Aksenov only has seen him digging but when the authorities ask him who dug the hole in the wall, & has he any information about it, he avoids disclosure. He does not take revenge. On this, Makar is totally shamed, shattered by dual guilt.

He weeps, breaks down, & begs apology from innocent Askenov for making him suffer these long 26 years. Makar confesses his guilt before the jail authorities and the court. Askenov is ordered to be released and sent back to his home. But Askenov is already dead in the prison room.

Yes……God Sees The Truth But Waits. In Kashmiri there is an analogous proverb, “Yutaam Pazar Pazan, Tutaam Aalam Dazaan”: Till the truth becomes known, worlds get destroyed.

This is symbolic meaning of this Kashmiri idiom. Not difficult to understand its real meaning in the light of the cited short story. In our land, we have countless such stories where people suffer for no fault, no sin, no crime of theirs. But of others?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.

The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.