Er Bashir Ahmad Kakroo Kashmir has lost a son and Dayton a citizen – a tribute by Aijaz Kakroo
And finally he moved into the eternal world .Alone and alien. Came alone and went alone The verses of the Qur’an continue to descend on our souls
کُلُّ مَن علیھا فان
All that is on earth will perish
(Surah Al Rahman , 55 : 26)
And our Iqbal’s divine words :
اوّل و آخر فنا، ظاہر و باطن فنا
نقشِ کُہن ہو کہ نو منزلِ آخر فنا
Another tall, elegant, handsome and eloquent Kakroo is gone Bashir Ahmad Kakroo is no more. And when me and my wife were being driven by our son Mashhood Kakroo from Columbus to Dayton to attend the funeral of Bashir Sahib on the spacious roads of Ohio, USA , the truth of the following verses of the last edition of the divine book, was naked before my sinful eyes
“And Allah has produced you from the earth, growing (gradually), And in the end He will return you into the (earth),And raise you forth (Again at the Resurrection) ,And Allah made the earth for you a carpet(spread out) , That ye may go about therein , in spacious roads”
(Surah 71 :Nuh : 17-20)
Bashir Ahmad Kakroo, son of a royal father Kh Inayatullah Kakroo and grandson of a luminary Kh Abdul Samad Kakroo, was compassion and simplicity personified More than fifty years sojourn in USA had not gone to his head A down to earth man , he struggled hard to reconnect with his roots for the last several years His yearning to do good to the people of his native place by returning peace to the beleaguered nation and his doing immensely good for the community here in United States are testimony to his being a blessed soul He served humanity wherever he was And in the words of Iqbal
خدا کے عاشق تو ہیں ہزاروں بنوں میں پھرتے ہیں مارے مارے
میں اس کا بندہ بنوں گا جس کو خدا کے بندوں سے پیار ہوگا
He loved humans and was humane to the core. Being the son of a philanthropist father and grandson of a legend, who was friends with Iqbal, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Shibli Nomani and the elite of that era, a founder member of Muslim Educational Conference ( the foundation was laid in 1906 in the bungalow of Nawab Saleemullah of Dacca and later converted into Muslim League),who , in the glorious tradition of the Kakroo family, constructed various masjids( including Jamia Masjid,Baramulla),Bashir Kakroo had no airs of his glorious past He was a man of the masses We,as children, were in complete awe of him when he would, dressed in a clean creased white uniform, play cricket in the then police lines and Brigadier ground at Baramulla And then he shifted to the States For many years he was denied visa to travel to his native place because he would highlight the misery of his people in international fora Khawaja Inayatullah passed away with out seeing him
After spending some years in other cities, he finally settled at Dayton As fate would have it I was destined to bid farewell to this illustrious Kashmiri and the icon of my family How amazed and proud I felt during the last rites of Bashir Sahib Everybody missed him Everyone loved him They came in hundreds on a working day to attend to his funeral And Lo and behold! Everyone confided in me that he was closest to him for the last two or three decades Across the board Muhammad from Kenya, Shams from India, Ab Qadir from Pakistan, Ab Munim from Syria ,so on and so forth, men across the globe, condoled the death of an alien, a Muslim brother, closest to him Wow! What an achievement? Everyone in mourning I felt so proud of the son of my soil and the darling of my family and was reminded of a verse of the Persian sage Sheikh Saidi :
تو می دانی کہ وقت زادن تو ہمہ خندان بود و تو گریاں
پس ازیں زی کہ وقت مردن تو ہمہ گریاں بود و تو خنداں
(Lest you know that at the time of your birth every body was laughing and you were weeping,
So live your life in a way that at the time of your death every one should be weeping and you smiling)
Death has finally snatched him from us But it is divinely ordained کُلُّ نفسٌ ذائقتہ الموت (everyone who is born has to die) is a divine decree No one can escape it As Iqbal has said it
موت ہر شاہ و گدا کے خواب کی تعبیر ہے
اس ستمگر کا ستم انصاف کی تصویر ہے
But everyone cannot do it as successfully, in the service of the family of Allah( الخلقُ کلُّھُم عیال اللّٰہ ) as Bashir Kakroo has done it The establishment of an Islamic school at Dayton , despite heavy odds, is no mean achievement and, surely, a “sadqa jaariya” ( perpetual charity) for him The declaration of second Saturday of October every year as “Islamic day” by the state of Ohio, USA is a singular contribution of this noble soul to keep the Muslims of different nationalities from across the globe and their progeny, exposed to tremendous evil influences here, connected to their “Deen” Bashir Ahmad Kakroo is finally gone and buried in a cemetery that was his singular achievement and contribution to the Dayton Muslim community
Good bye Bashir Sahib ! Khuda Hafiz! Allah grant you highest place in Jannah !