Interview with TARIQ SOHAIL

(Q1) INTERVIEWER: Would you please introduce yourself.

(A1) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: Introduce myselfr-my name is Syed Tariq Sohail. I live in Arampur, Bihar, Kaimur. I was born in this village. As far as my family goes-well, it's quite large. At the moment, it has twenty people-in this house. We have a transportation business--we run trucks and such, my father's a policeman. This neighborhood's name is Jama Masjid. That's the name, Jama Masjid-the Allishan Masjid over there-the neighborhood gets its name from that mosque over there-that's it-Jama Masjid.

(Q2) INTERVIEWER: It's across from your home.

(A2) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: That's a mazaar over there-the mazaar'

(Q3) INTERVIEWER: What's a "mazaar?"

(A3) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: A mazaar is the place where a venerable person used to live-a learned wise person who had miraculous powers. When a such a person dies we say he has "concealed himself" or "gone into occultation." When he enters occultation or conceals himself, a mazaar, a tomb or shrine is built. People offer flowers and garlands in veneration and have the faith that he will help with whatever comes their way. The special quality of this mazaar is that appears awake and alive in everyway-for example, next to the mazaar was a tree, an old neem tree. Years ago the tree fell down but look, the special quality of the mazaar is that even though the tree fell down right on the mazaar, on the mazaar itself there wasn't a scratch, nothing broke off, there was no damage at all. And if anything fell on top of it, nothing happened. And so to this day, people say this is a special quality of this mazaar: when a tree falls something should happen but nothing did in this case. Yes, and so people come, they worship and read their sacred texts, whatever they are. And there is alos an "annual function."

(Q4) INTERVIEWER: And so what happens during this annual function?

(A4) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: This annual function obviously happens once a year. People first bathe and wash themselves and then they offer cloth and flowers and pray the Fatiha (the opening chapter of the Quran). And we perform one act of worship: we offer flowers, garlands, sweets and such. So, after the worship comes what we call the Fatiha-the worship and the Fatiha are different. After offering flowers and sweets, people pray the Fatiha and pray to him and ask for boons: "make me a great person," "we are in difficulty, banish our difficulties," "banish our poverty," "banish our problems," "whatever difficulties we face, please take care of them." That's it, those are the boons we ask for.

(Q5) INTERVIEWER: So, after the sweets are offered do you take them back?

(A5) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: All the people who live there divide up the sweets. The sweets are then distributed to people far and wide. In Urdu this is called "Taksim." So, yes the sweets are divided up and distributed.

(Q6) INTERVIEWER: What's a "shaheed."

(A6) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: A "shaheed' means this-a person who was very learned and wise who goes into "occultation" or "concealment," such a person people call a "Shaheed." There is another meaning to Shaheed: one who has fought and died for the country- at that place over there, people have been worshipping for a long time. So there are two kinds of Shaheed: one is a person who dies in a struggle and the other is one who always was ready to sacrifice for the intentions and welfare of another, who would give up his own clothes to clothe another, who would not eat himself in order to feed others-when such people go into occultation or concealment, they are given the name "Shaheed." So the meaning of Shaheed is one who in a particular place helps others and then moves into occultation or concealment-such a person people call a "Shaheed."

(Q7) INTERVIEWER: The person, whose shrine is here, how did he lead his life as a Shaheed. Is there any story about that?

(A7) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: As far as a story goes, well it's a very old "history" and there isn't anything published about it in books nor is there anything about that time that I could tell you. This tradition has been going on for a long time and people come having heard from others that he's a Shaheed-there's no "historical biography" about him.

(Q8) INTERVIEWER: Could you please tell us something about this village?

(A8) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: This village of Arampur, well Arampur is a special historical village. Great kings have seated their authority here-for example there's Bakhtiyar Khan Khilji's mausoleum-you must have seen it over there. It was the Khilji dynasty. There are a lot of ancient things here-you'll find many mazaars here. There was Raja Vicitra and Shastri Brahm.

(Q9) INTERVIEWER: Would you please tell us something about the village that American students could learn from?

(A9) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: There's nothing else left to learn here. Those Indians who are living in India, well they're living on their knees. They're living life anyway they can. Government was much better when the English ruled here. When the English ruled at least everyone had meals two times a day. Now times are such that many people are dying from hunger because they have nothing to eat. All those big leaders are just sitting around-checking their bank balances-Bank of America, Bank of Syndicate, Bank of Whatever. People are dying here and out of everyone's mouth (you'll hear) that the former English administration was good-a rule of enslavement was good.

(Q10) INTERVIEWER: What do we need to understand about Islam?

(A10) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: Islam is a true religion of submission. Islam doesn't just encompass India-it's spread over the entire world, the whole world. And from Islam it is proven to us that all the rules and regulations made by Islam-all the laws, all the traditions, all the Sharia [Islamic law]-are perfect. It [Islam] protects us from every kind of evil. It saves us from all evil deeds. If I'm about to fall into a pit, it stops me-by following Islam everything we ask from the One On High is acceptable. Unity-unity also (comes from Islam). For example, in Islam whatever we do, we do according to the Sharia of the Prophet Muhammad, May Peace Be Upon Him. Praying five times a day is a rule that comes from him that says you need to do something in a particular way-you can't just worship when you feel like it-whenever the bell rings-it's not like that with us. (In Islam) everyone has a "time table" that says you should pray in this way. During a full day, we pray five times. At such and such a time you must pray. In other religions, whenever you feel like, whenever you feel like it, you do something. But in Islam there are a lot of restrictions. For example, Ramzaan [Ramadan] lasts an entire month-a full month of fasting. You can't eat in the morning and you can't eat during the entire day. Everyone over the age of ten must observe the fat. That's the law in Islam-it's severe.

(Q11) INTERVIEWER: Who lives in the Jamamasjid neighborhood.

(A11) SYED TARIQ SOHAIL: In the Jamamasjid neighborhood? The Jamamasjid neighborhood-the area you're looking at, that's the area. Caste? You're asking about caste, aren't you? Caste, well in the Jamamasjid area there's the Sheikh clan and the Sain clan and the Khans. It's a "Muslim belt" especially. There are some Hindus, nearby there are Barbers and such-so there are Sheikhs, Sayeds and as far as Hindus go, Barbers. There's also a "Forward belt" and a "Scheduled Caste belt". There are some Scheduled Castes. There are also Backwards-B.S., those people.