Khaliq Qureshi is a Saintly Figure

June 16, 2011

By Saeed Qureshi

Saints are in human garb and so is esteemed Muhammad Khaliq Qureshi Sahib. I have known him for eight years now and during all this time, I never saw him speaking ill of others. He has good word for everyone. He is incapable of hurting any one’s feelings.

Miracles are attributed to holy men and saints. Khaliq Qureshi is not a man of miracles but he is undoubtedly a saintly figure. I must emphasize that had you met him you would have come to the same conclusion that I have formed by observing and meeting with him for all these years.

I would not be exaggerating if I portray his personality by saying that God has endowed him with a kindly and sympathetic disposition and an ingrained predilection to be, chaste, virtuous and forgiving.

Once or twice I have been frank enough to talk to on him on subjects that were exclusively privy to him and which in other situations would have earned me wrath and rebuke from others. He simply looked at me and to my utter disbelief, readily said that he forgives me for those unwarranted remarks.

His belief in God is unshakable like a rock as he considers God his friend, his savior, his guide and his counsellor who provides him peace and bliss whenever he is under strain or in stress. He remains virtually in conversation with almighty the lord of all being, the sustainer and seeks his guidance and succor in solitude, distress and grief.

He observes fasting from time to time round the year. Besides he fasts for the full month of Ramadan. He is an embodiment of self abnegation, self-restraint and suppresses the humanly urge for extravagance, lewd pleasure and unrestrained luxury.

A devout Muslim with a glorious heart, Mr. Qureshi possesses a glow of religious sublimation that he earnestly combines with the untainted morality charactering him as a model human.

He is not familiar with ill manner of shouting at others, raising his voice or talking in a jarring tone. His voice is low, draped in courtesy and emitting a kind of sweetness that is not affectation and spurious but genuine, spontaneous and natural.

In the face of scathing outrage by others he would seldom respond with a matching vitriol or malignancy that the people usually display when provoked or disparaged.
He is above petty repartees and frivolous point scoring and prays for those who speak ill about others. If I am asked to sketch him in a brief sentence, I would say, “Thy name is humility”

As a truly selfless and temperamentally altruistic person, he is in the habit of helping the needy and less privileged as far as he can. Beside the religious obligations of taking out Zakat, He goes out of the way to readily respond with contributions and donations and charitable offerings to the deserving and the people in need of dire and urgent financial relief.

Although, himself, a man of meager income, it would be seldom that he would refuse or turn away from helping someone that approaches him.He is generous and it is my empirical observation that he shuns love or liking or greed for money. He has already bequeathed his property and assets to his family members.

He abhors accumulation of wealth and would be last to be stingy in giving a donation or responding to the community calls for participating monetarily in social welfare ventures or feeding someone or for relief of natural calamity stricken people.

He takes the domestic and external pressures and challenges as the will of God and as his test for the faithful to see if they stand firm and remain steadfast in the face of trials and rigors. He believes in complete submission to the will of God and in the inescapable destiny that is divinely ordained for every human being.

As such he never complaints about the anguish and afflictions that he has been copiously facing in his life but has always accepted them in good grace and with fortitude and forbearance.

Mr. Qureshi invites his friends and acquaintances for eating together in consonance with the glorious traditions of the Muslim forbearers and great Sufi saints. He believes that sharing of meals fosters goodwill, understanding and feelings of fraternity besides erasing misunderstanding and bitterness that might be there for some reasons.

Nonetheless, he trusts that eating together was a great virtue and broadens knowledge and understanding by sharing opinions and ideas.

While his life is a combination of simplicity and piety, he spends his later part of the night in prayers and meditation. Thereafter, he opens the mosque, says Azan (call for prayer), dusts and cleans the premises both inside and outside and thus fulfils his obligation of maintaining the house of God.

Now such an exuberant passion to maintain link with creator, and also to serve with coveted dedication was the exclusive life pattern of such mystics and saints as Hazrat Khawaja Moinuusin Chishiti, Nizamuddin Aulia, Baba Farid Ganj Shakr, Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh , Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sarmad, Sachal Sarmast and others.

Mr. Qureshi’s heart goes out for the sufferings of the Muslims all over the world, particularly in the lands of Chechnya, Kashmir, and Palestine, where they are intimidated and live under extremely humiliating and oppressive conditions.

To project the pitiable plight of the enslaved Muslims in these regions, Mr. Khaliq Qureshi wrote a book entitled, “A ONE MAN MISSION FOR MUSLIM UNITY”. A monument of industry, the book, contains letters written to several heads of states and governments.

Through his letters Mr. Qureshi very passionately and effectively pleads for the liberation of the Muslim territories and ending the humanitarian catastrophes besetting those lands.

He is a zealous and steadfast advocate of the Muslim populations that are still living a life of servitude and are being denied their inalienable right of independence and homeland.

He is still busy writing these letters and communications to the decision makers of the world and convincing them of the miseries of the captive Muslims in various parts of the world.

He writes every address on the envelope with his own hand keeping a typed memorandum inside. He scribes 1600 or so addresses on large size envelopes and then mails them in lots every day. It is a stupendous task that takes several weeks and during this time he works feverishly day and day out till he finishes it.


But on the human level he loves all mankind belonging to any religion, cast creed, region or background. He is a true humanist and a pacifist. He is free from any kind of bias, prejudice, bigotry and intolerance.

He loves human beings because as he explains, they are created by almighty God. Like we love God we must also love his creations (humans are the finest of all the creations). In his view such a belief was also a befitting tribute to the greatness of the lord of the universe.

The writer is a senior journalist and a former diplomat
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