Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 162
162 and so his passion was fresh. When Akbar Shah Khan Sahib Najeebabadi said, “Do you know who I am? I am a Pathan,” Naik Muhammad Khan answered, “ Do you not know who I am? I am an Ahmadi!” Now see here, the one whose tribal ancestry is uncertain claims to be a Pathan and the one who wa s a genuine Pathan claims to be an Ahmadi. It is possible that Akbar Shah Khan’s forefathers belonged to another nation but ended up being called Pathans because of living among Pathans. There is also a well - known anecdote about a m arasi. When the British ruled the sub - continent, certain nationalities were not allowed to purchase l ands while others were allowed. T he Sayyeds [those who claim to be descendants of the Holy Prophet sa ] were allowed to purchase land in some areas but w er en’t allowed to in other areas. In some areas they were considered landowners and allowed to purchase land. But, in some areas they were not allowed to be landowners and were not allowed to purchase land. There was a family among the m arasis who had connections with very influential officers. They save d money and a time came when they became very wealthy. Now , they considered it humiliating to be known as a m arasi. They asserted that m arasi is made up of m a r and as i. Meaning that in reality they are Say y eds , but at one time one of their leader s committed a sin , so people began to boycott them and began to call them m arasis. Anyway, they called themselves Say y eds and since they had the money, they bought a piece of la nd. The people from whom they bought the land, e ither his neighbor or a nother landowner , who was not rich , but was very clever , took them to court and said, “We are the rightful owner s of the lan d. These people cannot buy this land. ” The grounds upon which he based this was that they w ere not Sa y yeds , but m arasis and as th ey are not Sayyeds , they should not be allowed to purcha se land. Since m arasis were now influential people, they b r ought false witnesses to the court. One of the witnesses was woman who owned land but was poor. The m arasis approached her and said, “Take a hundred rupees and swear that we are truly Sayyed. ” This woman took the money and exhibited all appearances that she would give this testimony, but secretly decided to speak against them and say in court, “These people are not Sayyed , they are m arasis. ” The magistrate asked her, “Are these people really Sayyeds ?” S he replied, “ O h yes, there is no doubt they are Sayyeds. T hey are for sure Sayyeds. ” T he magistrate naturally became suspicious of her