Nagore remembers 'tsunami' souls in true Sufi spirit
Nagore (Tamil Nadu) | December 26, 2005 in webindia123.com
Noorbano held on to the iron grills, staring longingly at a patch of green behind it. The long grass, however, could not hide the tombstone of her brother - washed away in the tsunami that struck the Nagapattinam coast a year ago.
Sitting a little distance from the prayer gathering Monday, Noorbano quietly remembers her brother, who she says now live as a 'nerunji'- a grass flower among hundred other tombstones.
Among these mass graves lie the remains of 300 people, who perished in the monster waves. The graves are located in the 'dargah' of Sayedna Sayed Abdul Kadir Shahul Hammed Nagoori, the highest-ranking Sufi saint in southern India, popularly known as Meeran Sahib.
The beaches are less than a km from the dargah and that is why the bodies were brought here on Dec 26 morning last year.
Haji H Mohamed Abubacker Sahib, a dargah trust aide, told IANS: "There were 50 children among the dead.
"We don't know who among the dead were Muslims and who were Hindus. We buried all the bodies we recovered here and prayed for their salvation, be it Hindu, Muslim or Christian. We are Sufis."
He said in true Sufi spirit, Nagore and its 20,000 inhabitants Monday joined in special 'namaz' prayers for the salvation of all tsunami victims - Hindus, Muslims, Christians - at the dargah.
"Death is a great leveller of truth for the high and mighty as well as the weak and the low. That is what our saint taught us," the keepers of this dargah say.
Nagore is a small pilgrim town, about seven km from Nagapattinam, where lie the remains of Meeran Sahib, a spiritual leader born in Audh between 1490 and 1500, who travelled all over in his quest for truth and eventually settled and preached here.
The devotees who throng here cut across religion.
Jayakali, from Sripudupettai village on the Cuddalore coast 200 km away, said: "We believe in Meeran Sahib. We will pray to him to make things all right. It was only because of him my family was saved from the tsunami."
Such is the power of faith here.
Hundreds of people from Pattinancherry, Silladi, Manalmodu, Kadalkarai and Attankarai on Nagore coast had died in the disaster last year.
During the tsunami, Muslim youths and elders of Nagore worked together to provide relief, without any religious bias.
After tsunami, Shanmugavel, 21, had along with Mohammad and John recovered the dead bodies. He was one of the first youths to have reached Pattinacherry that devastating Sunday.
The dargah - the biggest building in the town - was the centre of all relief operations.
Recalling those first few days, Shanmugavel, an Amritanandamayi Math volunteer at Nagore, said: "The mosque was the first place to thrown open its doors to the people from the coast, fleeing in fear. They were the first to help the villagers."
Mohammad, who helped bury the dead at the dargah, is philosophical: "Before Allah, who is Muslim, who is Hindu? We are all the same." He was selling a 'chaadar' to a Hindu Brahmin pilgrim at the dargah.
The dargah authorities have provided four acres of land for temporary shelters to tsunami victims.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
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Sunday, January 08, 2006
Nagore remembers 'tsunami' souls in true Sufi spirit
Nagore remembers 'tsunami' souls in true Sufi spirit
Nagore (Tamil Nadu) | December 26, 2005 in webindia123.com
Noorbano held on to the iron grills, staring longingly at a patch of green behind it. The long grass, however, could not hide the tombstone of her brother - washed away in the tsunami that struck the Nagapattinam coast a year ago.
Sitting a little distance from the prayer gathering Monday, Noorbano quietly remembers her brother, who she says now live as a 'nerunji'- a grass flower among hundred other tombstones.
Among these mass graves lie the remains of 300 people, who perished in the monster waves. The graves are located in the 'dargah' of Sayedna Sayed Abdul Kadir Shahul Hammed Nagoori, the highest-ranking Sufi saint in southern India, popularly known as Meeran Sahib.
The beaches are less than a km from the dargah and that is why the bodies were brought here on Dec 26 morning last year.
Haji H Mohamed Abubacker Sahib, a dargah trust aide, told IANS: "There were 50 children among the dead.
"We don't know who among the dead were Muslims and who were Hindus. We buried all the bodies we recovered here and prayed for their salvation, be it Hindu, Muslim or Christian. We are Sufis."
He said in true Sufi spirit, Nagore and its 20,000 inhabitants Monday joined in special 'namaz' prayers for the salvation of all tsunami victims - Hindus, Muslims, Christians - at the dargah.
"Death is a great leveller of truth for the high and mighty as well as the weak and the low. That is what our saint taught us," the keepers of this dargah say.
Nagore is a small pilgrim town, about seven km from Nagapattinam, where lie the remains of Meeran Sahib, a spiritual leader born in Audh between 1490 and 1500, who travelled all over in his quest for truth and eventually settled and preached here.
The devotees who throng here cut across religion.
Jayakali, from Sripudupettai village on the Cuddalore coast 200 km away, said: "We believe in Meeran Sahib. We will pray to him to make things all right. It was only because of him my family was saved from the tsunami."
Such is the power of faith here.
Hundreds of people from Pattinancherry, Silladi, Manalmodu, Kadalkarai and Attankarai on Nagore coast had died in the disaster last year.
During the tsunami, Muslim youths and elders of Nagore worked together to provide relief, without any religious bias.
After tsunami, Shanmugavel, 21, had along with Mohammad and John recovered the dead bodies. He was one of the first youths to have reached Pattinacherry that devastating Sunday.
The dargah - the biggest building in the town - was the centre of all relief operations.
Recalling those first few days, Shanmugavel, an Amritanandamayi Math volunteer at Nagore, said: "The mosque was the first place to thrown open its doors to the people from the coast, fleeing in fear. They were the first to help the villagers."
Mohammad, who helped bury the dead at the dargah, is philosophical: "Before Allah, who is Muslim, who is Hindu? We are all the same." He was selling a 'chaadar' to a Hindu Brahmin pilgrim at the dargah.
The dargah authorities have provided four acres of land for temporary shelters to tsunami victims.
Nagore (Tamil Nadu) | December 26, 2005 in webindia123.com
Noorbano held on to the iron grills, staring longingly at a patch of green behind it. The long grass, however, could not hide the tombstone of her brother - washed away in the tsunami that struck the Nagapattinam coast a year ago.
Sitting a little distance from the prayer gathering Monday, Noorbano quietly remembers her brother, who she says now live as a 'nerunji'- a grass flower among hundred other tombstones.
Among these mass graves lie the remains of 300 people, who perished in the monster waves. The graves are located in the 'dargah' of Sayedna Sayed Abdul Kadir Shahul Hammed Nagoori, the highest-ranking Sufi saint in southern India, popularly known as Meeran Sahib.
The beaches are less than a km from the dargah and that is why the bodies were brought here on Dec 26 morning last year.
Haji H Mohamed Abubacker Sahib, a dargah trust aide, told IANS: "There were 50 children among the dead.
"We don't know who among the dead were Muslims and who were Hindus. We buried all the bodies we recovered here and prayed for their salvation, be it Hindu, Muslim or Christian. We are Sufis."
He said in true Sufi spirit, Nagore and its 20,000 inhabitants Monday joined in special 'namaz' prayers for the salvation of all tsunami victims - Hindus, Muslims, Christians - at the dargah.
"Death is a great leveller of truth for the high and mighty as well as the weak and the low. That is what our saint taught us," the keepers of this dargah say.
Nagore is a small pilgrim town, about seven km from Nagapattinam, where lie the remains of Meeran Sahib, a spiritual leader born in Audh between 1490 and 1500, who travelled all over in his quest for truth and eventually settled and preached here.
The devotees who throng here cut across religion.
Jayakali, from Sripudupettai village on the Cuddalore coast 200 km away, said: "We believe in Meeran Sahib. We will pray to him to make things all right. It was only because of him my family was saved from the tsunami."
Such is the power of faith here.
Hundreds of people from Pattinancherry, Silladi, Manalmodu, Kadalkarai and Attankarai on Nagore coast had died in the disaster last year.
During the tsunami, Muslim youths and elders of Nagore worked together to provide relief, without any religious bias.
After tsunami, Shanmugavel, 21, had along with Mohammad and John recovered the dead bodies. He was one of the first youths to have reached Pattinacherry that devastating Sunday.
The dargah - the biggest building in the town - was the centre of all relief operations.
Recalling those first few days, Shanmugavel, an Amritanandamayi Math volunteer at Nagore, said: "The mosque was the first place to thrown open its doors to the people from the coast, fleeing in fear. They were the first to help the villagers."
Mohammad, who helped bury the dead at the dargah, is philosophical: "Before Allah, who is Muslim, who is Hindu? We are all the same." He was selling a 'chaadar' to a Hindu Brahmin pilgrim at the dargah.
The dargah authorities have provided four acres of land for temporary shelters to tsunami victims.
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