The Black Rainbow

by Hussain Zaidi

  “Interesting,” Prof Rameez admitted. “I’ll definitely answer you. But I think we should have our lunch first.”

  “Sir would we resume our discussion after we have our meal, because I’m desperate to have your answer and then I have questions of my own?” Ali, who was beginning to take interest in the debate, requested much to the annoyance of Naila. She was interested less in the discussion and more in Rameez and wanted to spend some time with him alone. Before Rameez could answer, Naila told them that she would be leaving after lunch.

  “Ok. As I have to answer primarily Naila’s questions, I’ll defer the discussion until such time as she is available. But I’ll definitely take your questions Ali,” Prof Rameez said. After lunch, Naila left leaving the four men in the debate mode.

  “Sir, of late, I have got interested in mysticism,” began Ali. “One common element that I have found among mystics across religions and continents is the belief in an all-pervasive unity embodied in the statement that all is one, that all distinctions including those between God and man and good and evil are at bottom illusory; and therefore the best course for man is to submit to the divine will. How do you see this?”

  Prof Rameez drew a deep breath and then said, “Like you, I have also been interested in mysticism but that’s a different story. Whatever you have said of mysticism is largely correct. However, there are some schools of mystics, particularly among Muslims, which deny that all distinctions, especially those you referred to, are illusory. Man, the dissenters say, shares many divine attributes but similarity is not identity and man is not God. Just as a droplet has several attributes of the ocean but it’s not the ocean itself. So distinctions are there and they are real.

  “When we say that good and evil, pleasure and pain, virtue and vice are relative or subjective, it doesn’t follow that they are one and the same. Relativity or subjectivity doesn’t constitute identity. Mysticism has other attributes like enthroning intuition over reason, resignation over effort, subjectivity over objectivity. It’s a complete worldview as opposed to rationalism or empiricism. However, it’s not merely a worldview; it’s also a way of life. Hence, to me mysticism represents a unique blend of religion and philosophy. This means one cannot be a mystic merely by having a mystical worldview unless one adopts the right way of life.”

  “But sir is it possible for me to understand mysticism without myself being a mystic?” Ali asked.

  “Yes, just as you can appreciate poetry without being a poet yourself.”

  “But sir poetry isn’t a way of life,” Ali returned.

  “I was coming to that. The mystic worldview can be understood without being a mystic but in order for you to appreciate mystical experience you need to live it,” Prof Rameez explained.

  At that moment, he received a call. “I’m afraid gentlemen I need to go back to the department. We’ll discuss this issue some other time,” Rameez told his students.

  Chapter 26

  Seth Nisar returned from abroad and was told by his secretary that Mr Rais Ahmad had called him twice during his absence. Rais Ahmad was one of the code names of Maulvi Zia. So Seth Nisar called Zia and was asked to see the latter immediately.

  “I suppose you had a successful tour abroad,” a grim faced Zia said to Seth Nisar as the latter called on him at his farm house.

  “Yes, thanks,” Nisar replied briefly.

  “You must be wondering why I asked you to see me immediately.”

  “I guess there’s some pressing business.”

  “Yes it’s. Far more pressing than you would imagine,” Zia replied. “You have a daughter named Sara I suppose.”

  “Yes. But what my daughter has to do with the business between us?” a flabbergasted Seth Nisar asked.

  “A lot, I’m afraid. She has been spying on you,” Zia dropped the bombshell.

  “What? My daughter spying on me! I don’t believe it,” a stunned Nisar remarked.

  “You are shocked. But there’s much more in store for you.” And then Zia told his visitor how Sara met him twice.

  “I know it’s difficult for you to believe this and I trust you’re in no way to be blamed for this. But now that you have come to know of this, you have to keep an eye on your daughter and make sure that our nexus remains a closely guarded affair. We mean no harm to your family as long as no harm comes to us from them.” Maulvi Zia warned Seth Nisar.

  Seth Nisar was at a loss what to say. He had never imagined that Sara would do things like that. He wanted to speak to her at once. So he sought the permission to leave. However, his main concern was not that Sara had spied on him but her safety. He knew how ferocious those people were and they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her if they had to.

  When Seth Nisar reached home, Sara was in her study. “We need to talk,” he said in a harsh tone as he entered the study. “You have been spying on me and have been to Maulvi Zia?”

  “Oh. So you know it,” Sara replied calmly.

  “But you don’t know how dangerous these people are.”

  “If these people are so dangerous, why do you work for them?”

  “Why I work for them is a long story but you shouldn’t have done that.”

  “I’m sorry but I was concerned about you. You were meeting some odd people and one day I chased you to Maulvi Zia’s farm house and was surprised what you had got to do with a person like him. The rest you probably are aware of. But trust me papa, I did this only for you. You would remember that I had asked you several times about that as you seemed to be in some trouble. But you decided not to share anything with me. But papa now you’ll have to disclose to me the connection between you and the patron-in-chief of terrorists. Why do you work for such savages?”

  “Yes I do work for these people. But I do so against my will and I warn you against them.”

  “But what makes you work for Zia? I can be of help to you.”

  “The only way you can help me is to avoid these people. Now tell me who else knows I’m in Zia’s league?

  “I haven’t shared it with any one,” Sara lied, because she didn’t want to create problems for Ali and his father.”

  “Ok. From Now on, forget that I have anything to do with Zia or his organization. Just focus on your studies and then get yourself prepared for the real world.”

  “As you say papa,” Sara nodded obediently.

  “That’s like a good girl.”

  “But you’ll also have to promise that you’ll quit the company of Zia as early as possible.”

  “Sweetheart, I would do so this very moment if I could. But unfortunately, it’s easier said than done. Zia’s league is like the gates of hell, where you neither enter nor leave of your own accord. Anyway, I‘ll do my best to find a way out.”

  “Papa, please one more time. Tell me what possibly can force as wealthy and as influential a man like you to remain in an evil league against your will?”

  “Last time, sweetheart. Yes I have wealth and influence. But with all my assets, I’m helpless.” Seth Nisar said in a voice choked with emotions and left the study.

  That was too much for Sara. She had never seen her father so helpless. He was known as a dauntless and ruthless business tycoon, who was wooed by top politicians and senior bureaucrats of the country. Not only that, he had global links and was on personal terms with several Congressmen in America. But now that very person was in a mousetrap.

  “How powerful Maulvi Zia is that he has brought my father to his knees! But how did he come to know of my identity. Papa has talked to me about that just after his return from abroad. So it all happened during last one week. But who can be the source of this information? Yes, it can be Dr Junaid. Yes the other day, he asked me about my family. Yes, the name of Seth Nisar would have raised alarm bells in him. It means Dr Junaid is also part of the nexus. But why would such an enlightened a person would side with extremists and terrorists?” Maybe, he too was trapped like my father. But the real question before me is how to get papa out of this diabolical
league?” Sara’s train of thought ran like that.

  Prof Rameez’s statement that one cannot appreciate mystical experience without going through it made a great impression on Ali. He had turned to mysticism only to impress Sara but gradually his interest in the discipline increased.

  “Is it possible to experience the reality directly? Can I become one with God? Can the subject-object, man-God distinction obliterate?”

  Such were the questions that agitated his mind. Ali had realized that answer to those questions couldn’t be given by speculation. He had to undergo the necessary experience to answer them. Already, the study of anti-rationalists like Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Bergson had brought home to him the limits of reason and strengthened his trust in intuition.

  “Reason can’t resolve metaphysical problems. It begets only doubts, which it can never go beyond. The one who places trust in reason is lost in the labyrinth of skepticism. Life can be understood not by speculation but by living it,” he thought.

  Ali felt that mysticism could help resolve his conflicts and doubts. But the problem before him was how to get himself initiated into that cult. He needed a guru to guide him but he was too impatient and too shy to search for the one. So he decided to be his own guide. He borrowed couple of books on mysticism from the library and impatiently skimmed through the pages.

  “Mysticism above all,” he concluded, “is absolute trust in and submission to the will of God. While a religious person lives and dies for God, the mystic lives and dies in God. For the mystic nothing exists but God. He thinks only of God, feels only the presence of God and sees only God. If I want to embark on the course of mysticism, I must first of all repose full trust in, and resign to, the divine will. I should do nothing of my own accord and submit entirely to the will of God wherever it leads me to,” Ali resolved.

  Chapter 27

  Formally Maulvi Zia was still a bachelor. The reason was that he had never felt a passion for any woman beyond sexual attraction. But Sara had come to her as an exception and he had stuck on her and wanted to possess her. Many a time when he was in bed with Rubina, he would call her Sara in the moment of ecstasy — much to the annoyance of that poor mistress.

  On that evening, Zia summoned Seth Nisar and said to him, “Seth sahib, you are the luckiest person on the face of this earth.”

  “I’m? How? A bewildered Seth Nisar asked.

  “Because I have chosen your daughter to be my bride. I hope it’s wonderful news for you,” Maulvi Zia said with a devilish smile.

  “Look Maulvi sahib, ever since I joined you, I have complied with your each and every order and put all my resources at your disposal. But what you have just said is impossible for me to tolerate. How could you come up with such a nasty proposal?” An exasperated Nisar said.

  “Why? Am I not rich and powerful? I may be a bit older but that’s normal in our society. Men ought to be more mature than their wives so that they could lead and guide them.”

  “Zia sahib it’s not your age; it’s just what you are. My daughter wouldn’t consent to that.”

  “If I have your consent, then it’s not much difficult to have hers.”

  “I can never give you my consent either. It’s not a question of my wealth and influence; it’s the question of my daughter — my life, my heart and soul.”

  “You have already sold your soul to me. As for your life, I can take it whenever I want. On one occasion in the past you had refused to play ball with me and I need not remind you what happened afterward. So please don’t make me get tough on you. Your daughter I must say is a princess and I’ll make her a queen. But if you persist, I’ll make her my concubine. I’ll not leave her in a position where any honorable person would be willing to marry her. So better behave like a good old man. I give you two weeks to decide and convey me your consent.”

  Seth Nisar was a man of strong nerves but Maulvi Zia’s tone and words were enough to shatter him. He knew well what Zia was capable of doing. Since it was the question of the life of his beloved daughter, he decided not to give in. He couldn’t report the matter to the police because that would also expose him without guaranteeing Sara’s safety. One option he thought was to send Sara abroad immediately. He could settle her anywhere in the world. He realized that the time had come to tell Sara the truth.

  When Seth Nisar reached home, it was dinner time and Sara was waiting for him. At the dining table, Sara at once noticed there was something terribly wrong with her father. He was sitting with his head down completely silent and motionless.

  “Papa you don’t seem to be ok.”

  Seth Nisar didn’t reply. Sara rose from the chair and went to her father.

  “You look very upset. Has it something to do with Maulvi Zia?” she asked.

  Seth Nisar realizing it was time he must speak said, “Come dear we have some crucial things to talk about.”

  Sara followed Nisar to his bedroom. Seth Nisar shut the door and began, “Sara my daughter what I’m going to say you should listen to with utmost fortitude.”

  “Yes papa I’m all ears.”

  “I have just come from Maulvi Zia, who has made an obnoxious proposal, which I wouldn’t entertain come what may, even if it costs me my life.” Nisar paused for a moment to catch his breath and then dropped the bombshell, “He wants to marry you.”

  “What! How could he say such a thing?”

  Seth Nisar gave an account of what went between him and Zia.

  “So what do you say?” Sara asked when Nisar had finished.

  “I’ll never let that happen. Nothing is dearer to me than you. I can report the matter to the police but that wouldn’t solve the problem. Zia would deny that he ever made such threats and I can never prove that. Besides, it would give rise to questions about the connection between me and Zia. I care the least about myself but I don’t want you to be in the news. My greatest fear is that even if Zia is put behind bars, he can cause you incalculable harm through his network. The only way I can ensure your safety is to send you abroad and that too immediately. You can get yourself enrolled in some university and resume your studies. I curse the time when I joined Maulvi Zia. But trust me honey never in my wildest of imaginations it had occurred to me that things would boil down to your life.”

  “Papa please don’t upbraid yourself. What’s done is done. Maulvi Zia may be a lethal person but I’m not afraid of him and I’m not going to leave you or the country. I’ll definitely go abroad for advanced studies but in due course and not out of fear of Zia,” Sara expressed her resolve.

  “I know you’re courageous but courage has to be combined with prudence and prudence demands that we should make ourselves secure. If you go abroad, it will not be an act of cowardice but of prudence. Retreat is not surrender. So please do as I say.” Seth Nisar implored his daughter.

  “Papa I understand that but I don’t want to make myself secure at your expense. More than anything else, I owe a duty to you.”

  “The best way you can fulfill your duty to me is to pay heed to my advice.”

  Silence ensued for a few minutes.

  “Papa there’s another way out. What if I marry someone else? You can always tell Zia that you tried your best to persuade me but I married of my own accord,” Sara proposed a way out.

  “I don’t know whether it can work. Whom would you marry in such a short time? Of course, I can’t let you marry any Tom, Dick and Harry. Nor would you do so I trust. He must have at least some measure of compatibility with you. We don’t have the time to find a suitable match for you.”

  “We don’t have to find one. I have already one in my mind.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “His name is Ali Naqvi. He is my classmate.”