My Personal Recollections of Moulana Noor Ahmad Trali(r.a)

Lau Malakun yunadee Kula Youmin,

Ladu lil maut i wabnu lil kharabi 

 Everyday an angel piercingly proclaims ,

Beget thee for death,make thee for destruction  

This couplet recited often by Moulana flashes him before our eyes &  reverberated internet after his death 

It was cold wintry December 2020 morning .His corpse remained laid down outside his office at  verandah  ,with a sea of people regretting his loss as though he was their own, people came greeting ,crying  and kissed his face and stroked his white beard. His eyes were so shut it seemed that he was in deep midnight's sleep  and would  rise the pulpit soon.His pulpit felt painfully hollow ,his mosque gloomy and his people were still in denial .I was standing near the grill of vernadah .His smile flashed over and over again vividly before my eyes.To his left  was room full of memories & stories  where we have had our Sunday discussions on virtually any subject with bulk on religion .These memories are rooted in my childhood and  school days at MTI,our school headed by him ;

They  begin somewhere in a time frame of my religious  curiosity during my school days when, just before our afternoon Friday prayers, I started framing written questions to Moulana.It seemed a feat to even ask him  a question and then impatiently wait till the end of his sermon for a brief answer in those childhood days. This ''feat '' was something for which I was appreciated and I even prided about that in my relatives and family.Later ,from paper-posed-questions indirectly , I mustered courage and  progressed to pose him questions in person directly after his Friday sermons. With this , eventually  & fortunately  I reached  his closer orbit-- an inevitable requirement of my spiritual development like anyone else. What accounted to this closeness were both  his loving & welcoming attitude in answering questions  patiently  and possibly my own curiosity, that I felt , Moulana appreciated .He was strongly encouraging even to my tender & nascent thoughts on Islam .What later substantiated this feeling into belief was when I took my first booklet to him for a review, he smiled radiantly & was forthcoming and very jubilant. Another strong limb of documented evidence to that is his encouraging  foreword to the book, still more later his  coming  &  commenting on  it on its releasing ceremony in our school .That was a huge encouragement. Even in general he readily permitted for any religious and social events that we as students asked him for  and never stopped us from doing our own experiments.Whenever we called upon him,he respected that and responded to our call. Arguably he was very ease-going, highly encouraging to us students yet many people  felt his sunlight strangely. Moulana's heart was full of love for students.In one of his visits to the school,after finding some students writing exam under open sun on  verandah ,he was outraged , rebuked teachers  asked  them to shift them to shade.   

Thus began  a journey of  crafting questions indirectly on pieces of paper to finding myself in his closest orbit.However, in between is a beautiful path to personal, spiritual development and of course a cleft  that was created by my  absorbing interest in puritan & sectarian salafist thought for some span of time ,that I later thankfully & respectfully shunned forever; partly by returning back to him.(1)  

Probably all those who studied in any wing of his institute, particularly those  who took religion seriously shall admit that  his Friday sermons were the greatest source of our spiritual and religious growth apart from Islamic curriculum taught in the school .In fact,if we have any vestiges of Islam in us today credit races to him  ,not to mention his and his father Moulana Noor -u-din Trali's (r.a) role in general religious ,social and spiritual development of people of Tral.They were the real game-changers in religious history of Tral .Needless to say, they left a legacy that unfortunately is finding very slippery  and perhaps irresponsible hands to rest on.

What was unique about Moulana (r.a) ?

An open minded leader 

Right from keenly observing his aura as great leader with a strong personality , whenever he came to the  school  & his handling of chaos in one of the yearly gatherings  created by some religious miscreants,  to his universalism ,cosmopolitan & non-parochial  thought --   his uniqueness has a spectrum.

Personally I would define his thought  as a uniquely mysterious  hybrid of Hanafi Deobandi  & Jamat i Islami thought, however it was not hard to find him liberally meandering and encouraging openly  other streams of thought. For instance ,to quote him  on Moulana Wahid ud din Khan (r.a) when  asked by his other colleagues about signing a paper that was marshalled against Khan's ''indigestible " ideas  to so called ''mainstream clergy".Moulana said " I clearly told them, Khan  is absolutely right in certain matters that they find objections to,his criticism is not justified "  that was just one instance of a brave manifestation of his unbiased approach. In exclusively religious wings of his institution i.e. Islamia Oriental College for girls and Darul uloom for boys ,he always encouraged non-sectarian approach in teaching Islam .As for his comments on Madrasa system ,he openly acknowledged problems of its ineffectiveness with needs of time ,due to :lack of investment of intelligent people into madrassa pool and other financial hurdles.  

Aversion to sectarianism 

 Unlike his several colleagues who remained in their sectarian shells  Moulana rid  that off ,trudged its debris and encouraged people of all sects  under a single banner. His Noor was antithetical to darkness of sects ! The living testimony of that is his  yearly gathering that found preachers and scholars from all sects .And that's not unremarkable when religion and sectarianism are poisoning the soul of Muslim world, particularly when this tendency emerges out as one of the bulk reasons of our downfall .At Darul Uloom Noor ul Islam we all met shedding our sects outside the gate yet found our beliefs respected whichever denomination we belonged to . Thus Moulana was a strong upholder of unity in diversity in Muslims even humans in general.

Da'ee e Quran , Tanz nigar e Awham

Another important approach Moulana embodied was his persistent emphasis and  reliance on the Quran ,he strove very hard to connect people to the Quran.In a way his Friday sermons ,as he himself once told ,were Daroos e Quran .That manifestly reflected in his discouragement of extreme ritualism, superstitions ,fairy tales told in the name of Islam in Friday sermons.It pained Moulana personally to see sermons having  everything other than the Quran  as content. To a good  extent ,he was successful in eliminating the perception of religion as something that  is exploitative to common masses , inflicted upon them  by playing with their fears.Thus,frequently  he encouraged medical,scientific and psychological help to various ailments thought to be inflicted by ''foul souls '' or bad Djin.It was not uncommon to see him joke around these mythical  ailments as something solvable by religion alone,swelling pockets of pseudo -saints .He strongly disliked hero-worship to an extent that once a man excessively praised karamat of  his illustrious father and he dismissed it in a joke ,'' Mayhasa ous moul,yout apuz te ma wan " . 

Insights into psyche of people &  sensitivity of their needs 

Maulana was well aware of challenges of our time and particularly spiritual needs of people.That struck me particularly twice ,once in  2019 when Article 370 was scrapped and 2020 when the world was caught in the grip of monstrous pandemic.Both events had one thing in common , that was ''uncertainty''  radiating fear and loss of confidence ,those were testing  times for people. Interestingly,the content of his Friday sermon shifted to highly encouraging, faith restoring, confidence showering & optimistic lessons from the Quran. Doubtlessly he had a deep sensitivity & insights into needs &  mood of people  respectively. That is what great leaders do,they infuse hope and confidence in people whenever circumstances get unfavorable,help them to tide over tough times. They usher  life to dying people! Further,he frequently referred to developments in politics of Islamic world conciously and actively in his sermons. Clearly, he never got lost into excessive  detailing on trivia like "Mouzu pe masaa"  because he lived with an active head .  

Spirituality and mysticism

His spiritual aura and  deep understanding of Islam were something that caught us every Sunday at a personal level : when he taught us the Quran ,Rumi etc and discussed on a spectrum of issues particularly current developments of the world affecting Islam .What those Sundays taught us was ''essence of fundamental Islam" .Mystically his opening up on his subjective spiritual experiences was something as divine gift that we would always cherish.No university class found me as peaceful as those hours of sunday afternoon in his room or the park of his  mosque under the shade of tree.Moulana was a sea of tranquility and faith found heights under him.

In this short account it is hard to summarize a person of his greatness ,yet I would say despite meeting several other religious preachers I don't feel the same level of spiritual satisfaction anywhere again.His loss brought a personal spiritual crisis for me .The loss that I was crying for near his dead body has same intensity as it was four years back,he is still missed by all of us particularly on Laylatul Qadr.His widely circulated clips on social media with their piercing Persian couplets tear us apart, again reminding us who we've lost.But are we really grateful of his legacy? this question stares us in face and deserves a deep reflection .Responsibly people must be careful that his legacy is handed-down to future generations with honour,and that must not be spilled by petty discord and familial power quarrels .May Allah grant him Jannah,forgive his shortcomings and help us to live up to his legacy .Amen  

1.Note ;This is meant to denigrate any religious group but a point of my personal reservations with people who commit to extremes of sectarian thought.