Some place in Kashmir two brothers started traveling for getting some education. It seems the Sunna of hijra has many reasons and for knowledge it is even more commendable. They came down to the Panjab in the city of Sialkote where there were well-known sources of education and so that city was a place of attraction.
The life in Kashmir, in the late eighteenth century was tough and inspite of the fact that the British had taken over, things did not look better, so instead of going back home after graduation from Madrasa they went their own way. One of them went to Amritsar and the second one walked over to a village in the northern Panjab, got married and settled there. Why did they separate? I have no clue. The village where he settled had nothing to offer (except, perhaps the woman he married). No institution, nothing for education and he himself then started teaching Islam from the books he must have carried with him after study in Sialkote. There was some land that he probably tilled worked for feeding his family. He had no choice but to pass on the education (mostly Islamic) to his children and if there was anybody interested in the village for it.
I begin the story from the Person who made the hijra or who migrated from Kashmir to Sialkote and after education settled in a small village called Sahontra. I am told his name was "Khair Din", who was the grand father of Saheb Din who was the grandfather of my father Chiagh Din. Sometimes my father would write his name as Muhammad Chiraghud-Din. Starting from Saheb Din who had three sons and land for work there was a hobby of his, helping the sick with local herbs. He lived a longer life (died at age 80 or so in the late nineteenth century) than others so maybe he picked up anecdotes or something like that to help because that was the only available medical help in those days in the villages. Oldest son finished memorizing the Qur'an and he was placed in a nearby village of Sidwal Kalan. Hafiz Nizam Din was my mother's father. Younger than him was Mahmoodul-Hasan who was my father's father and youngest son of saheb Din was Yasin who also memorized Qur'an, but Hafiz Nizam din was an Imam of the masjid and taught Qur'an memorization also, whereas Yasin took up the land.
What about Mahmoodul-Hasan who was educated at home and practiced the favorite hobby of helping the sick. His nackname was "Allah Loke" (a term in Panjabi used for a simple honest type of person) and he was a peripatetic cloth merchant, sometimes traveled far off from home. His such travels ended up in making Hijra again to a city in MidIndia. When my father was born probably in 1878 or thereabout, he found his father often 'missing' and nothing to keep his interests at home other than running around teasing one or the other in the village, liked by everybody. There was an educated (oriental languages) person in the nearby village of Kakrali with whom he learnt ABC of Persian and Arabic, finished his Qur'an memorizing about three-quarter of it but his thirst for knowledge demanded more and there was no school anywhere near. Call for next Hijra and again for the same reason.
So one day he took about 8 paisa ( a coin of duanni) in his pocket and left the village for an adventurous life of getting more education. Maybe he was 6-8 years of age. So he too made the hijra That is how we ended up leaving that village, five generations after Khair Din.
Please visit my Urdu blog at http://saugoreebsc.blogspot.com/
I begin the story from the Person who made the hijra or who migrated from Kashmir to Sialkote and after education settled in a small village called Sahontra. I am told his name was "Khair Din", who was the grand father of Saheb Din who was the grandfather of my father Chiagh Din. Sometimes my father would write his name as Muhammad Chiraghud-Din. Starting from Saheb Din who had three sons and land for work there was a hobby of his, helping the sick with local herbs. He lived a longer life (died at age 80 or so in the late nineteenth century) than others so maybe he picked up anecdotes or something like that to help because that was the only available medical help in those days in the villages. Oldest son finished memorizing the Qur'an and he was placed in a nearby village of Sidwal Kalan. Hafiz Nizam Din was my mother's father. Younger than him was Mahmoodul-Hasan who was my father's father and youngest son of saheb Din was Yasin who also memorized Qur'an, but Hafiz Nizam din was an Imam of the masjid and taught Qur'an memorization also, whereas Yasin took up the land.
What about Mahmoodul-Hasan who was educated at home and practiced the favorite hobby of helping the sick. His nackname was "Allah Loke" (a term in Panjabi used for a simple honest type of person) and he was a peripatetic cloth merchant, sometimes traveled far off from home. His such travels ended up in making Hijra again to a city in MidIndia. When my father was born probably in 1878 or thereabout, he found his father often 'missing' and nothing to keep his interests at home other than running around teasing one or the other in the village, liked by everybody. There was an educated (oriental languages) person in the nearby village of Kakrali with whom he learnt ABC of Persian and Arabic, finished his Qur'an memorizing about three-quarter of it but his thirst for knowledge demanded more and there was no school anywhere near. Call for next Hijra and again for the same reason.
So one day he took about 8 paisa ( a coin of duanni) in his pocket and left the village for an adventurous life of getting more education. Maybe he was 6-8 years of age. So he too made the hijra That is how we ended up leaving that village, five generations after Khair Din.
Please visit my Urdu blog at http://saugoreebsc.blogspot.com/
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