Story
PEACE

  By M. Umair Tariq

He was looking at me… His intense yet graceful gaze, his half-opened yet fully aware eyes, his beautiful smile and his posture… I was mesmerised. It wasn't the first time that this was happening with me; whenever I passed through the dwelling of the majestic Shining Buddha, it happened to me. I looked down because I wasn't able to stand the conflagration caused by his majestic looks. I looked down and moved on.

He was sitting in a yoga posture just behind our school, in Sawat, where I spent my beautiful childhood days. In those days it was different; maybe because the whole scenic valley was bustling with tourists who were the sole source of our monthly incomes. He had been there since ages.

Even my grandfather didn't know who had carved it and when, but he was there. I was used to looking at his smile, filled with eternal tranquillity. I was used to gazing back at him to find out what he was trying to tell me. He was beautiful, calm and very elegant. I used to think of him as the jewel of Sawat.

But then they came and occupied the whole valley; it just happened. They came under the guise of Islam. They spread the holy message about not lying, stealing, kidnapping and murdering, but then their message became violent and brutal. They closed down all the girls' schools in our beautiful valley and decreed that all the people who are trying to have western education are the biggest transgressors.

They executed them in public. They stoned women and demolished the homes of barbers and established their writ in Sawat. Our district administration was snoring and they didn't check them, and finally it was too late.

Who am I? I, too, was their right hand. I became the apple of their eyes because I adapted to what they wanted us to become so quickly that they started calling me 'Saif-Ullah'. But I learnt about Saif Ullah, Khalid Bin Waleed (RA), who in some civil war told his Amir that his sword would never shed a single drop of the blood of his own people. But they were establishing the 'Will of Allah' and they told us that God had chosen our place to become a fortress of Islam, just like the early dwellings of Medina.

I stood by them every time. I carried out their work but whenever they talked about demolishing that Shining Buddha, I used to feel a pinch in my heart. Our school became a training camp for them who used to rule the region as 'Virtue and Vice Police' and all of them carried out their work in the name of God as they were told that the Amir used to see messianic dreams and God himself told him to establish the "real" religion of Prophet (PBUH).

I tried to change my way because I never wanted to look into the eyes of Buddha. Whenever I passed by, I heard a voice: not from outside but from my heart. It told me that I was not doing the work of Prophet (PBUH) because Prophet (PBUH) taught us peace and brotherhood, but they interpreted his sayings in "actual" way and told us that "Prophet (PBUH) wanted to execute all kafirs." And we believed them because they told us that whoever says no to his Amir becomes a kafir and none of us wanted to perish in hell.

One day, the Amir came to visit us from his stronghold and we welcomed him jubilantly. We thought that it was an honour to have him with us as we were told that Amir meant a sign of God on earth. We welcomed him and killed a dozen transgressors to please God because they used to shave beard and cut hair and our 'teachers' told us that whosoever does that becomes a kafir and killing a transgressor is like securing a palace in the paradise of God.

The Amir was very angry with us. He told us that God would stop rains, kill our livestock, close the wombs and would rain fire upon us because we hadn't destroyed the signs of idolatry and kufar amongst us. He was so charged and angry! He told us that he himself had got a vision the previous night about 'Buddha' and he was directed to destroy that sign of kufar.

Our teacher was so disturbed. He fixed Friday to be the day to wipe out the sign of transgression from our godly valley. I became insomniac. I used to think about Shining Buddha's shining smile, his half-closed eyes, his beautiful hands and his majestic yoga position.

I felt that my heart had been amputated and my soul had been thrown into the fire. I couldn't imagine my valley without him. I thought about the devotees who had carved him out. I thought about his teachings that I read in a book that belonged to my grandfather.

Then I made up my mind. I remembered that my grandfather told me that his ancestors embraced Islam because Islam was the most humane and peaceful religion and that's why they became Muslims. I made my mind to carry out God's work.

Friday approached. After saying prayers we all went to the hill where his statue, carved from stone sat. He was looking at me. His smile was dull but his face showed an eternal tranquillity. Amir chanted some verses from the Holy Quran. He told us that God would give us a red-carpet-welcome in His paradise as reward for carrying out 'His work'. All the followers were shouting. Everyone had become very emotional by the situation. The followers were trying to take lead over one another and ordinary people were trying to hide their aloofness. 'The Gift of Gab' was about to collapse. And then the Amir asked us to chant the greatness of God and ordered the 'selected ones' to push the lever so that the explosives that were planted there would explode and demolish the Shining Buddha forever.

All the people were running and chanting the holy verses and I felt a strange current in me. I ran after them and shouted as loud as I could: "NO!! You cannot destroy him!"

They were shocked. My teacher called me kafir and told some boys to hold me so that they could deal with me afterwards. They were running to hold me and those who were assigned the duty to destroy the statue were on their way to pull the lever. I decided to do what I had done many times for them: I decided to open fire with my Kalashnikov to save the Shining Buddha. Then I opened the fire. I saw three of them down on earth, lying in the pool of blood. But their response was swift. They opened fire at me. I was shot eight times and I collapsed while my face was towards the Amir. He was spitting over me…

Now I am dying. I know that my soul will leave my body any time now but I don't know why I am calm. Maybe because I have achieved peace at last!

(Adapted from a real-life story of a twenty-one-year- old, who gave his life to save the Shining Buddha in Sawat)