| Hadhrat Molana Pir Faqir-u-llah Bakoti | |
|---|---|
| Died | November 18, 1921 |
| Known for | Religious resistance leader |
Hadhrat Molana Pir Faqir-u-llah Bakoti (died November 18, 1921) was a religious leader in the resistance movement against British rule. He used the idea of Tassawaf (Sufi Theosophy) to recruit his followers by promising freedom. Fakir-u-llah Bakoti is not his real name, but an honorific one made up of several parts:
His appearance was viewed as a miracle by the local people when the British Empire had crushed the people of Murree and Circle Bakote brutally and treated them as slaves. His arrival from Pajja Sharif district Muzaffarabad (now in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan) through the Kohala Bridge resulted in the reunification of local tribes. The tribes, such as Dhond Abbasi and others, were unified and were encouraged to battle the British authorities under his leadership. Mohammed Ali Shah (Pir of Plasi) was another Saint of Circle Bakote who led local tribes in the war of Bala Kote against Sikhs with co-ordination of Seyed Ahmed Shahid and Shah Ismail Shahid, but they did not succeed.
Pir Faqirullah Bakoti Usmani's ancestors came from Kundan Shakrean five hundred years ago, but it is still a mystery why his tribe vanished. There are only two families which existed at the time of Pir Bakoti Usmani, one being his family and the other is his brother Said Noor.
His father, Molana Mian Hafiz Taj Mohammed Usmani, was a religious leader at the time. As Qazi Amanullah narrated a tradition to Obaidullah Alvi that in-laws of Molana Mian Hafiz Taj Mohammed Usmani were living in the village of Phanna Chapprhean, Chikar, District Muzafferabad, Azad Kashmir. Molana Mian Hafiz Taj Mohammed Usmani migrated there.
Molana Mian Hafiz Taj Mohammed Usmani married a noble lady of the Bloch tribe of Kashmir. His eldest brother was Pir Faqirullah Bakoti Usmani, and the two younger brothers were Mohammed Seyed Noor and Abdullatief. His sisters were Baigum Jan and Sahib Jan, and were still babies when their father, Molana Mian Hafiz Taj Mohammed Usmani, died.
Pir Faqirullah Bakoti Usmani had two brothers and two sisters. His younger brothers Said Noor Usmani migrated and got married in Khaki, Mansehra. Said Noor Usmani had two sons, one was Molvi Ghulam Hessian (Hasan) and the other was Molvi Mohammed Safi. Molvi Ghulam Hasan had four sons; the first son was Molvi Dawood, the second was Molvi Ayoub, the third was Mohammad Sultan and the fourth was Molvi Ilyas. His one daughter was named Bibi. The first son of Molvi Ghulam Hasan Molvi, Dawood, had only one daughter who got married in Sherpur Village, the second son of Molvi Ghulam Hasan Molvi Ayoub, had four sons, and two daughters. The first son was Dildar Hussain (late), the second son was Fida Hussain, the third son was Musarat Iqbal (late), and the fourth son is Khursheed Anwer. One daughter married in Village Tarangri Paeen, and the second daughter married in Khaki Village. The third son of Molvi Ghulam Hasan Sultan Mohammad had three sons and three daughters. One is Mohammad Tariq, the second one is Babar Sultan, and the third son is Ehsan Ellahi; one daughter married in Khaki and the second daughter married in Bherkund Village, and the third daughter is unmarried. The fourth son of Molvi Ghulam Hasan Molvi Ilyas (late) was unmarried.
When Dogra forces under the command of Hari Singh Nalwa ruined Molana, Pir Faqir-u-llah Bakoti then stepped in as younger age, the Kashmir. Pir Bakoti was a fellow of his family shrine in Pajja Sharif, Chikar, but Nalwa's forces gutted the holy place under their feet and set it on fire. These circumstances compelled Pir Bakoti to migrate to the Hazara Division, where his uncle was a priest in a religious school in Baffa, Mansehra. He stayed there for a few months, then he went to Swat, where a new spiritual horizon awaited him. He stepped down before Ahkoond of Swat known as Pir Abdul Ghafoor, had sucked the inner light of soul. He stayed there more than twenty years and analysed the holiness, warriorship and struggle for Jihad against Sikh atrocities. He also participated in many wars with his priest. He completed his religio-spiritual education and practice in Swat and in 1876, set off to the beautiful valley, on the order of his priest Pir Abdul Ghafoor.
Alvi Awan, historian, and biographers Mohabbat H Awan (Birote) and Malik Pervaiz Ahmed Awan (Baithek Awanan, Azad Kashmir), claimed that Pir Faqirullah Bakoti belonged to the Awan tribe, but both authors failed to provide any proof or his family tree. Pir Faqirullah Bakoti himself provided his tribe identity as Qureshi, the tribe of Mohammed bin Abdullah. New research by Mohammed Obaidullah Alvi, his biographer, stated that Pir Faqirullah Bakoti is Usmani but not Alvi on the basis of the newly discovered family tree that was compiled by his younger brother Said Moor's grandson, Mohammed Daood of Khaki, Mansehra. This family tree is attested by shrine superior Sahibzada Pir Mohammed Azher Bakoti Usmani too by his handwriting. He showed that Pir Faqirullah Bakoti Usmani's family started from daughter of Mohammed and second wife of third Caliph Usman bin Affan Roqeyya, from Umayyad tribe. Roqeyya was second wife of Uthman bin Affan after the death of his first wife and daughter of the prophet Mohammed Umm e kalthome. Syed Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Syed Qamar Usmani, Syed Taqi Usmani, founder of the Islamic Banking System and financial institution Meezan Bank, and Kashmiri Islamic scholar of Deoband University of India Molana Anwar Shah Kashmiri also belonged to this Islamic and Arabic Umayyad tribe. (For further details, see Qamar Usmani Book Usman Zunnourain, Khilafat o Seayaset').
Pir Bakoti was fond of tourism and moved from his native town Pajja Sharief to Murree through Kohala. His tribe Alvi Awan was living in Birote, so he decided to settle there. He came to Birote in 1888, built his house at Khoaas. Local Kamlal, a sub-tribe of the Dhond Abbasi tribe donated him eighteen canals of agri land where he rebuilt an old mosque and started Jumma prayers for the first time in the history of Circle Bakote.
Pir Faqirullah Bakoti Usmani was a great spiritual leader of his time who continued the spiritual movement of Pir Malik Seraj (Sooraj) Khan, a feudal and a spiritual personality from the Dhund Abbasi tribe of Murree and Circle Bakote. Pir Faqirullah Bakoti Usmani came to Birote, Moolia and Bakote on an invitation from Sardar of the Dhund Abbasi tribe of the before mentioned areas. They gave him land and cooperated with great enthusiasm. Pir Faqirullah Bakoti Usmani was a practical man in religio-social affairs and every person believed he was a saint. He gave honor and dignity to the Seyeds tribe, as narrated by his grandson Sahibzada Azher Bakoti Usmani in his book NIsbat e Khair ul Basher. He further wrote that Pir Bakoti Usmani believed the honor of Seyeds as a part of his faith. As a social worker, he helped the needy people from every walk of life. Poor people of the area traveled with him and he donated to his colleagues, and when Rs. Twenty collected and paid to his colleague, he ordered him to return back to his home. His house was a free dining room for all people and they sat and ate. He also introduced tea for the first time in Circle Bakote in the first decade of the twentieth century. He also boiled his olive tree leaves and used them as tonic for his patients, they would recover their health immediately. This herbal treatment is still continued by his successors. He named newborn babies as Obaidullah Alvi father's name changed as Mohammed Abdullah Alvi instead of Khaliullah Alvi. He also married needy girls as their guardian.
Pir Faqirullah Bakoti Usmani came in Circle Bakote to complete a mission of a multi-dimensional spiritual movement:
Pir Bakoti was not a spiritual personality but a great saint of the area, after two centuries of Pir Malik Sooraj (real name is Mohammed Suraj Khan died in 1632) of Potha Sharief Murree, Pakistan. A generation of Circle Bakote and Murree Hills followed him and his message. Pir of Deval Sharief Abdul Majid Ahmed wrote in his book that he was the tidings of Molana Pir Faqir-u-llah Bakoti. No person or family did not accept his spiritual position as well as his blessings. It was an age of despair, after the Balakot massacre in 1839, and the defeat of the local tribe in 1857 against the British Government. As a result, they were totally unable to lead a caravan without a leader of the time, an uncourageous personality. That space was filled by Molana Pir Faqir-u-llah Bakoti by highly ethical way of life, so he was welcomed everywhere in the area. He encouraged and returned them towards life and social activities. He established religious schools, started Jumma Prayers in Bakot and Birote, taught them the lessons and reorganized their culture and society. He planted Indian Olive in his lands but these plants turned into Palestine or Spanish fruit trees. Nobody can harm these trees without his offspring's permission. He preached the teaching of Islam as a flexible way and never issued any religious directives which could cause harm to the culture at the time. He reformed and taught people socially and benefited them spiritually without any difference of caste. He himself had a very simple personality and donated all his belongings to the needy throughout his life. He married those widows who had no compensation from their deceased husbands and treated them equally according to teaching of Islamic prophet Muhammad. He never permitted anybody to come inside his house or peep through his door. His ladies were always in veils day and night, met only with their closest relatives father, brother, son, grandson only that continued today in his family. He died from diarrhea but he said that he would never pass away before the exit of all his bodies maleness. He was a practical Sufi who implemented his philosophy of theosophy first on his soul and body before he preached. He is recognized as an elder today. Every house of area and people walk without shoes towards his shrine and translate into reality their uncompleted deeds.
Many have written about his life, theosophy and his teaching. Following is a detailed account of Pir Bakoti Usmani writers and their books.