Miracles do Happen!

By Saeed Qureshi

Miracles do happen. Here in Dallas Shaikh Hafiz Ameer Ahmad Khan is blessed with astounding powers in his Dua (prayer) to heal visibly incurable maladies. His prayers bring jobs to the jobless, prosperity to the impoverished and hope to the despairing. His Dua is a medium that brings happiness to the distressed and solace to the melancholy. These are not just inane assertions or mere gossip. There are here in Dallas quite a few living beneficiaries who would vouch for his spectacular healing power, amazing grace, and God gifted Messianic faculty.

Here is Safdar Iqbal a Pakistani national, who was declared “legally dead” in Parkland hospital. He was admitted in the hospital in a state of coma on May, 1 2009 and walked out of the hospital cured on May 18, 2009. That was the outcome of Hafiz’s Sahib’s 30 minute prayer beside his bed on the first day. His dazzled doctor is on the way to embracing Islam.

There is a letter in the dossier of Hafiz Ameer Khan written by a couple. It reveals how the conceiving of a child by the couple was impossible for a variety of factors but Shaikh’s Dua made it possible. How an inevitable C section for the birth of the same child was converted into a normal delivery again thanks to the prayer of Hafiz Ameer. The couple expressed their deep gratitude to their spiritual healer and is beholden to him forever.

The story of a baby born to a barren women, to the recovery of several women with cancer, the healing of skin cancer, to the incredible vanishing of brain tumor are all incidents written by the affected people themselves. Yet this is not an exhaustive list. I have seen at least 20 such statements addressed to Hafiz Ameer Khan about his Dua and its miraculous results. I shall specifically mention here the case of Sami Qureshi’s son. I happen to know Mr. Qureshi personally for the reason that he particularly mentioned to me the astonishing impact of Hazart Ameer Khan’s prayer on the extremely infirm health condition of his infant child born with a hole in his tender heart.

Mohammad Hassan Qureshi, later named as “Miracle Baby”, was born premature and therefore, needed a surgery to repair his heart. While the preparations were underway for the surgery, the child on more than one occasions, developed multiple serious complications, one of which was the kidney’s going dysfunctional. Finally the open heart surgery was performed that was successful. During this traumatic period lasting for about 12 months, the medical treatments and the prayers of Hafiz Ameer were, complementing each other. The heart surgery that appeared to be a risky affair in the beginning turned out to be decidedly smooth and successful. The doctors too were simply dumbfounded to find how a tiny child with multiple precarious complications would so positively respond to the various levels of treatment. The child is now a playful boy with normal health.

With all humility and humbleness at his command, Shaikh Ameer is proud to call himself as the slave and servant of God. After his Isha prayers he retreats to his prayer room and throws him into a communication bond with the creator of the universe. He remains in a state of complete meditation, devotion and unison with Allah till the morning or the Fajar prayer. Such is the devoutness and association of Hafiz Ameer with the Lord. At an age of 82 he remains in a trance of complete submission, like a dutiful servant to his master and the sustainer of the world. And he is following this sublime undertaking of being one with God for countless years. There is a term “Fana” (Passing away of one’s self) used by the mystics. This doctrine of Fana was first developed by the famous mystic Bayazid Bustami of Persia. Another doctrine of “union with the divine” was enunciated by Junaid Baghdadi, whose pupil Mansur Hallaj (922 AD) went to the extent of making the famous statement that “I am God”.

Mansur Hallaj in fact transgressed the limits set by Islamic Shariah. But to the limit that “there is nothing but God” or God manifests himself in everything was acceptable as these proclamations fall within the orbit of Islam. In case of Shaikh Ameer, he unquestionably remains in communion with God through his heart and mind. He is a practicing Muslim who dutifully observes all the tenets of Shariah and pristine obligations ordained by Islam. In fact his relationship with God is three fold: he is his humble servant, he is a staunch Muslim and he is immersed in him as a Sufi believing in the mystical dimension of Fana, or “Fana-fiz-Zat.”

That is why his prayers are answered by almighty God. With his complete dedication and attendance before the invisible, yet omnipresent and omniscient God, Shaikh Ameer invokes the mercy, compassion and blessings of God. God listens to one of his most devoted subjects and acknowledges his imploring. As Shaikh told me, it is seldom that what he prayed was not fulfilled. Hafiz prays for the people who are needy, helpless forlorn, grief stricken, infirm or with severe health problems. And it is all “Fee Sabilillah” or in simple words without any charge or monetary return and contributions as is customary in case of holy men, issuing amulets to the credulous.

One of the unforgettable incidents that Shaikh narrated to me is about Abdullah Yusuf Ali, the legendary translator of the holy Quran. When Shaikh Ameer was a student in London, Abdullah Yusuf Ai also lived in that English metropolis. They met each other frequently. Abdullah was extremely dejected and heartbroken due to the infidelity of his English wife. He was a lonely figure living in a state of complete agony and isolation. One day he died on the street and was placed in a mortuary. Hafiz Ameer Khan traced him. He earned the divine blessings for giving him the Islamic ceremonial bath and leading his Namaz-e- Janaza or funeral prayer. Abdullah’s name would remain immortal for his unique work of rendition of Quran in English. No one can snatch from him this matchless distinction and singular honor.

Shaikh Hafiz hails from an ancestry of Hafiz-e Quran (the learners of Quran by heart). His mother, father, grandfather and the great grandfather besides being Hafiz-Quran, were well versed in the Islamic Fiqa or jurisprudence. So the piety, rectitude and love with Islam and unflinching belief in God lie in his veins. So it is a family of saints and devout Muslims to which Hafiz Ameer belongs. They, also like Shaikh Ameer, had their mystical candor and all of them drank deeply at the fountain of mysticism and spiritualism. Hafiz Ameer is the embodiment of a synthesis between mysticism and Islamic teachings. He has traversed the entire arduous course in Tassawwuf (mysticism) in the lineage of Naqshbandi, Qadiria and Chishitia: the three famous schools and fraternities of Sainthood.

An anecdote of his yester years that he told me sends the chills down the spine of a listener. It is instructive as well as amazing in that the curse of a saint in a peculiar moment of the majesty of his ire can spell doom for the offender. A Jewish judge had uttered some very profane and vitriolic words about the last prophet of God. These highly sacrilegious words could be offensive even to a non Muslim with an iota of humanity and civility.

Hafiz Ameer asked him four times to withdraw his words. When he did not do so, Sheikh warned him “you will soon have consequences for your utterance”. After a few hours when the judge was going from his court room to the car porch he collapsed and died. Hafiz Ameer was charged for putting black magic on the judge, but thanks to the diplomatic immunity that he enjoyed for being a diplomat in the British Foreign service, he remained unhurt.

Shaikh Ameer has many devotees all over in USA and elsewhere. He keeps showering his benedictions and blessings upon those who seek his spiritual succor. He is selfless and cannot be ranked among the traditional peers (holy men) who are materialistic and thrive on donations and charities. He is accessible to all.