I'm so glad that my practise of visiting kabrestans is such a dedicated practise despite all these years of living away from Pakistan.
A visit to the khandan's kabrestan is such an important and timely reminder - about life, death, family, unity, relations, spirituality, mortality, Divine essence, returning back to source...etc.
We live our lives and then we become a mark on a graveyard stone. We are remembered by the kind blessings and prayers of people who visit kabrestans, their duas and flowers left by our graves. The birds chirp by our graves and sometimes strong sturdy trees grow from our middle. Some flower and some just provide shade.
I loved visiting the Sakhi Hassan kabrestan in Karachi because that is where a lot of my close family is buried, including mom's sheikh, John Gilbert Leonord (Hazrat Shaheedullah Fareedi) who leaves behind a rich lineage of murids visiting his shrine dutifully. There's a huge misunderstanding amongst many people that visiting or respecting these sufi practitioners/saints is not Islamic.
Surely, it is one's intent that matters most and lies at the root of all belief. There is no shirk if as humans we place God ABOVE all else and not collude our beliefs mixing up on where our piety and prayer lie.
Khair, to each his/her own. I have deep and uttermost respect for the silsila that mom has been in and I don't see any bida'a (innovation) in the practise of respecting others who have propagated the Love for Allah through their life's course.
May Hazrat saheb's soul and that of my family's passed members rest in peace and may Allah provide ease for all passed souls. Ameen.
the better the understanding and awareness one has about the realities and truths of death and mortality, the wiser one gets in life. likewise the more one is heedless and ignorant about the realities and truths of death and mortality, the stupider one gets in life.
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