12. Fayaz

In the first week after the earthquake, Shigri had trucks coming from Islamabad to Bagh with tents and blankets for distributing to the people.
There used to be a crowd of desperate people and some of them behaved badly. Fayaz and his cousin were two of these, and when Shigri told them to behave they became angry and started to incite the crowd to attack the camp and take everything away. But the people paid no heed to Fayaz and his cousin because they had come to respect Shigri for his efforts to save many of them.

But Fayaz kept on going around inciting the people to harm Shigri’s team. So, the commodore called one of his friends in Islamabad and asked the police to come and put these two trouble makers in jail for a while.
It was Ramadan and an old man came to invite Shigri to his village for breaking the fast. When they met Shigri immediately loved the old man because the light on his face showed his piety, goodness and wisdom.
So they kissed each other’s hand and sat for talking about the needs of his people as the old man was the Sheikh of the area and chief of a village of 65 houses, 55 of which had been destroyed, including his own.

He is renowned for his religious wisdom and he cures people with herbal remedies and with verses from the holy book.
At this moment a major of the army arrived who had come to arrest Fayaz and his cousin, and the commodore went out of the tent to tell the major the names of the two trouble makers who were threatening them.

Someone told then “Do you know that this Fayaz is the son of the Sheikh?”
Shigri immediately ordered the major not to arrest the boys, because he had come to love the Sheikh and did not want to cause him suffering.

So, when they came in the village to breakfast in the evening, they saw the mother of Fayaz smiling to them because she already knew what had happened. Fayaz came to Shigri humble and excusing himself. Shigri hugged him and excused him and from this time Fayaz has become his loving friend and Shigri considers him like his younger brother.

These wonderful things happen during Ramadan in the mountains of Kashmir, enemies become like brothers.

The new house should go to replace the houses of Fayaz and of his father the Sheikh, because it is very big. When I saw the structure in construction in Islamabad I exclaimed “But this is a Villa!”

Shigri has chosen that we should give the house to the old man because he is so respected and loved by the people of the area that nobody will object that he has been preferred above everyone. The many people who come to the Sheikh for spiritual and medical help can be received in a proper place and they can see how good the houses designed by Shigri are.

We hope that instead of building stone houses again, they will choose to buy the prefab homes with the money they have, so that they will be able to start a normal life again as soon as possible, in an earthquake proof home.
If their money is not enough, Shigri has promised to give some to them.

So, we went to Islamabad to see the builder of the new houses. He said that in a week the big one that I have bought would be completed and we returned to Bagh to go on with the work of the camp. We are now waiting for the house to come up in a truck.