Famous film artist Sunil Dutt referred to Rahib Dutt’s family and mentioned the great respect he and his ancestors held for Imam Hussein
The Friendship of Rahib Dutt in India and, Imam Hussein, Hazrat Mukhtar in Iraq
In the earlier sections, I have described how trade relations between India and Arabian countries were established even before the rise of Islam. After Islam was established in India, these relations grew closer. There was an interchange of travel where merchants from India would go to Arabia and traders from Arabia entered India. In this trade exchange, traders of the Brahmin family of the Punjab region of India went to the city of Medina in the era of Prophet Mohammad. The leader of these traders was an Indian named Rahib Dutt, who had no son.
One day, Rahib Dutt went to Prophet Muhammad and requested him to grant him the boon of having a son. It is said that Prophet Mohammad asked his grandson Hazrat Imam Hussain, who was playing nearby, to give his hand for Rahib Dutt to raise and pray, after which Imam Hussain raised his little hands and prayed. After that, a little later Rahib Dutt got a son. After this miracle, the Dutt family started calling themselves Hussaini Brahmins.
Sometime later, the horrific news that Imam Hussein was besieged and martyred in the field of Karbala in 680 AD was reported in India. In an angry response, a force of 700 soldiers of Hussaini Brahmins from India left for Iraq and these brave warriors along with the Army of Hazrat Mukhtar bin Abi Ubaid Saqfi, defeated the Yazidi Army, in support of HazratMukhtar and targeted killing the soldiers of Yazid (who had persecuted Hazrat Imam Hussain and his family members).
The Ancestral Unity Between Sunil Dutt’s Family, Rahib Dutt’s family with Imam Hussein
After coming back from Iraq, these people started organizing majlis (memory meeting) and langar etc. in memory of Imam Hussein on the days of Muharram, which were conducted by the members of the Dutt family till date.
Famous film artist Sunil Dutt also referred to Rahib Dutt’s family and in particular on many occasions mentioned the great respect he and his ancestors held for Imam Hussein. The high traditions for which India has been famous for, and the event organized by the Hussaini Brahmins in the memory of Imam Hussain is the best example of that.
The unique feature to note is the ancestors and members of the Dutt family did not give up their religion, remained Hindus and raised a message to the world that there is no greater religion than humanity.
A matter worth pondering on is that while Yazid’s army consisted of Muslims, he did not feel ashamed of tyrannizing his own prophet’s family because power was more important to him than religion while Hussaini Brahmins held a different faith but they practiced truth made a choice to support them.
Exodus of Arabians and Iranians taking Refuge in India
During the last few years of the rule of the Bani Umayyads, a tribe called Bani Abbas waged a war against them, due to which there was unrest in the whole country and common citizens fled from the country taking refuge in nearby countries. Bani Abbas ousted the Bani Ummayads in 750 AD. When Bani Abbas formed his kingdom, he also tortured his opponents intensely which led to a large influx of Muslims from Arabia and Iran who started coming to India to take refuge. There were different states in India and each ruler kept an eye on the people who settled locally in their areasand none of the rulers had any trouble with those who came to the country peacefully.
Descendants of Prophet Muhammad Lived in Patiala in the 9th Century
When Hazrat Ali Raza, a descendant of Prophet Muhammad and the eighth Imam of the Shia class, was poisoned during the Abbasi Sultanate, one of his sons, Hazrat Ali Wali, along with his family, fled the city of Mashhad in Iran in the beginning of the 9th century. They came to India and settled in a village near Patiala. Patiala was a kingdom at that time ruled by the King of Thanesar. When they arrived, the king sent his soldiers to find out who had entered the region and the soldiers informed the king that these people were refugees from Iran, along with women and children. The ruler of Thanesar graciously allowed them to stay there. Later, Hazrat Ali Wali established a settlement, buying land from nearby people and built a new village which he named Samana after his mother Hazrat Samana (Samana 28 km away from Patiala).
A distinctive fact was that after the riots of 1947, there were no Muslims left in Samana, all either went to Pakistan or were killed, but the Hindus and Sikhs there looked after the dargah of Hazrat Ali Wali for a full fifty years and then in 2003, this dargah was handed over to the Muslim Waqf Board of Punjab, where the functions of Majlis and Mehfils now take place. The shrine of Hazrat Ali Wali is also an answer to those who say that Islam came to India with foreign fighting invaders.
Islam Came to India Peacefully
These series illustrate that Islam in India came from traders and refugees of Iran, Arab and Iraq who entered India peacefully and started living here considering this great country as their home. Migration was very easy in those days because no visas and passports were required to enter any country and due to this, Muslims settled in India effortlessly, peacefully and comfortably.
(To be continued)