Tahirul childishly stopped admitting to himself that he had a weakness for Riziya. He altogether stopped visiting the Miya household. In the mornings, he stopped walking along that road, on one pretext or another. He no longer taught Riziya. He tried in every possible way to prove that whatever people had heard was entirely false – merely rumours spread by his detractors. Riziya was only his student, and nothing else. Tahirul didn’t actually say any of these things, but he conveyed them through hints. The detractors too did not say anything directly, they conveyed it through talk and actions. Many people laughingly remarked, ‘Hujur, you should get married now. Shall we look for a bride? Or have you chosen someone already?’
Tahirul could have treated this as simply a joke, but he regarded such talk as nothing short of a poison-tipped arrow, and that sharp arrow seemed to pierce him. He was constantly under the impression that people were asking questions or mentioning the name of Riziya in order to find out something. He faced a lot of mockery. Tahirul did not want the seat of honour on which the people of Sadnahati had placed him to be destroyed. There was also another worldly reason for not wanting that. Twin injunctions had been ordered by the court on Riziya’s valuable land. Rafiq Ali Sheikh had secretly bought a part of it. He too had filed a suit. It didn’t look like the case would be resolved easily. People turned old by the time verdicts were pronounced on civil suits. And so, Tahirul’s secret dream had also been crushed. That left the matter of Riziya. He really loved the girl. She had a unique grace, her body language was different. There was a semblance of progressiveness in her thinking and consciousness. Although Tahirul was charmed by her for all these reasons, he was somehow scared of her. He thought that she would get angry the moment he deviated from ideals. Riziya would not tolerate trickery or artifice at all. This was good in a way, but differences of opinion could well arise within a family. Differences of opinion had already arisen many times, but what was the certainty that these wouldn’t increase in the course of their marital life? Nonetheless, it was Riziya that Tahirul wanted to marry. But the situation had reached such a pass that even if he did not meet Riziya a single time before marrying her, people would still say that this marriage of Hujur’s was a love-marriage! He kept wondering what he would tell people in that event. One could only trust in Allah.
Tahirul kept himself occupied within the religious ambit now. He conducted zikr sessions along with a few musulli after the Isha prayer at night. While rapt in zikr, there were thoughts about the coming future, there were desires, and there were pleas to Allah. Almighty Allah granted honour to whoever He wished, but He could also take away the honour if He so wished. People had to resort to caution. That was why Tahirul did not want to battle against the circumstances. He wanted to remain aloof and above any kind of dispute. If Allah so wished, he would settle down in Sadnahati and be able to set up home with Riziya too. Even if the whole world wanted to obstruct that, they would not be successful. Tahirul became terribly fatalistic.
‘Hujur, are you in the room?’
‘Yes, who’s that?’
‘Assalamu alaikum!’
‘Waalaikum assalam, Maruf Bhai! Please come in. How are you?’
‘I had been to meet Suman, and was coming back this way, so I remembered you.’
‘That’s nice. But why don’t I see you in the assembly at the mosque?’
‘I’ve been joining the gathering in the mosque in the other hamlet the last few days. But I did come here for prayers on Fridays.’
‘In the Tablighi Jamaat’s mosque?’
‘That’s also a mosque for Muslims, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, it is. Actually, I just repeated what people say. Forget it. How’s everything else?’
‘Haidar Ali had been asking me for long to accompany them to their gathering. It’s for forty days. That’s why I’m leaving tomorrow, Inshallah. Do give us your blessings.’
‘What are you saying? You’re going for chilla?’
‘Let me go and see what it’s like. One hears a lot of things from afar. Let me see things for myself.’
Tahirul was not pleased to hear Maruf. He admonished him, saying, ‘You’re going to perform chilla for forty days? But you’re yet to fulfil your duty of Haj, Maruf Bhai. Did you think about that? You set aside your duty and attend a bedaat…’
‘I’m getting my passport made, I’ve decided to go for Haj next year, Hujur. But is chilla bedaat?’
‘What do you think? Just go through the Hadith and the Koran and see whether you can find any evidence of the forty-day affair.’
‘Hujur, since my childhood, I had developed a negative view of this Tablighi Jamaat. I’m going in order to eliminate that prejudice. It occurred to me that this was a mobile educational institution. It could give Muslims the opportunity to learn more about Islam and to practise it. That’s why I agreed. And after all, it’s you people who say that there are two kinds of bedaat. Bedaat-e-hasna, meaning acceptable bedaat, is one of them. I am viewing the chilla as something like that.’
Tahirul was already dejected. Maruf could well have said that, after all, bedaat was only bedaat! But if he had said that, Maruf would also smear himself. As it is, he didn’t like to discuss such matters.
‘I was sitting with Suman, you know. His views seemed to have changed a bit. All these days he was not really interested in his religion, but now I see he is hugely interested.’
‘How so?’
‘Earlier, he used to be astonished to learn about various things pertaining to Islam and try to find parallels to those in his own religion. Now, today I heard him say that the ancient Vedic religion is apparently the best ancient religion in the world. That apparently keeping intact the characteristics of this religion on Indian soil is the duty of all Indians. Of course, I didn’t get into an argument. Where’s the need for that! Everyone can claim their religion to be the best, right?’
‘You’re setting out to preach the religion by going to chilla for forty days, but you don’t invite your own friend to Islam. After all, the Prophet (PBUH) invited his own family members and friends first.’
‘That was a different matter. We can discuss this elaborately later. May I tell you now about the other reason for visiting you?’
It took Maruf some time, but after a while he said, ‘There’s a lot of gossip going on about something, and it’s a problem if an imam makes such a slip…’
Tahirul understood at once. But he feigned ignorance and asked, ‘I don’t really understand.’
‘Listen, I’m telling you directly because you are a friend. I had guessed it long back. The day you went to the madrasa with Salaam Miya’s son. The boy felt hurt and said…’
‘Let it be, Maruf Bhai. I feel ashamed. I made a mistake. You are indeed a friend. Tell me what I ought to do now.’
‘Achchha, do you want to marry her?’
Blushing in embarrassment, Tahirul lowered his head and replied, ‘I do. But Raqib…’
‘Yes, I heard that too. They are getting the girl married to Raqib. I’ve also heard that he’s not in the village now. Did you hear about it? He stole things from his house and ran away somewhere. It’s just as well. If you explain to Salaam Chacha, he’ll agree.’
‘But…’
‘But what?’
‘Actually I want to take her to my village house…’
‘Hmm. That’s a problem. Let me return, we’ll talk about it after that. But you should stay away from all that.’
‘All right.’
Maruf left. Tahirul felt a great sense of relief. He believed that if Maruf took up the responsibility, a lot of problems would disappear.
