Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 130
130 (of the time) has ordered that all available t roops should be sent to Africa. T hus, at this time, we cannot send our troops anywhere else. ” The messenger tried to explain the matter in every way , but it had no effect on Hajjaj and he said , “My circumstances are not such that I can pay attention to this. ” When he [the messenger] had worn himself out in presenting his arguments, he said: “I have a message for you and for the Khalifa of the time. ” Hajjaj asked , “And what i s that?” He replied , “When I was leaving, a Muslim woman who was in danger of being captured, and who i s now most likely capture d , gave me a message to convey to the Muslim Khalifa and to the g overnor of Iraq that, ‘Muslim women have been taken prisoner by cruel Hindus and the ir honor and dignity is not safe. W e implore the Muslims to fulfill their obligation and strive to rescue us from here. ’ ” This wa s not a bout a country or a whole nation. This was only two or three women and twenty or twenty - five men, for whose liberation even a d eputy c ommissioner of a district might say he does not have the manpower. T his is a relatively trivial matter. However, it had such an effect on Hajjaj , t hat very Hajjaj who declared he had no troops available because he was preparing to attack Europe, jumped up anxiously upon heari ng this message. W hen the messenger asked , “Well, now what response do you give me?” He replied , “Th is is no time for talking or listening. There is absolutely no doubt as to any other decision for me now. The response to this will now surely be delivered to the Hindu army. ” Consequently, he ( Hajjaj) wrote to the k ing and the latter also agreed , “This is the correct decision. T here is no longer any t ime left for us to deliberate. ” According to this decision, the Muslim army was dispatched to Sind h. There is a distance of about a thousand miles or perhaps more [between Iraq and India] a nd even nowadays, it is not easy to cover that distance in a motor vehicle. However, the k ing issued an order that it was now a matter of the honor and dignity of the Muslim people. It was vital to reach the destination without any delay whatsoever. The Muslims did not therefore stop [to rest] anywhere. Consequently, t hey traveled day and n ight on horses and camels. O n the twelfth day, they reached the border of India , which even trains or motor vehicles of today cannot cover in such a short time. T hrough their untiring exertion and effort, t hey traversed that distance and reached the border of India. Now, y our very presence here tells us what the result of that expeditio n was. The result was that th os e eight thousand soldier s who had