Living in the Heart

By Bureau Report, "School staff visits shrine of Rahman Baba" - The News International - Karachi, Pakistan
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Peshawar: Principal and the staff of Peshawar Public School and College, Warsak Road, visited the shrine of Abdur Rahman Baba and paid tribute to the great Sufi poet.

A delegation of teachers, led by Principal Arbab Mohammad Jamil Khan, paid a visit to the tomb of the 17th century Sufi poet the other day and expressed their anguish over desecration of the shrine at the hands of unknown miscreants on February 25.

Speaking on the occasion, he said Rahman Baba was not only a great Sufi poet but also a great social reformer whose refined poetry has helped shape the outlook of Pakhtuns for ages. He added that Baba’s poetry was a perpetual source of inspiration for all segments of the society from old and young, poor and rich, men to women and educated to illiterate.

Jamil Khan appealed to the authorities concerned to give full protection to the shrines throughout the province for, he said, they are our cultural heritage and a symbol of national pride.

“Rahman Baba is considered as the poet of humanism, love, mutual harmony, universalism; he is living in the heart of every Pakhtun; he cannot be ousted from our minds and souls; bombing of his shrine is a great crime committed by those who are bent on causing damage to our cultural and religious symbols. We need to unite for saving our national heritage and country’s pride,” he added.

Later, he laid a floral wreath on Baba’s grave and offered fateha.

[Picture: Facades in Peshawar's Walled City. Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshawar].