Selected Editorials - The Sikh Bulletin

during his stay at a madrassa in Mecca from 1927-1930. Following quote is from that article to be
published in the September-October 2012 issue of the Sikh Bulletin:
“Siyahto Baba Nanak Shah Faqir, by Haji Tajjudin Naqshbandhi, who had met Guru Nanak during the
hajj. Tajjudin caught up with Guru Nanak in the town of Undlas located between Erar and Bagdad and
travelled thereafter with him as a member of his entourage. He thus remained with Guru Nanak during
the years of 1504-06.
During Guru Nanak's visit to Mecca, Qazi Ruknuddin was among the first batch of Muslims who had
extensive dialogue with him. After the incident in which Nanak was found sleeping with his feet pointing
in the "wrong" direction, several Hajjis or pilgrims to Mecca-Medina gathered around Guru Nanak,
seeking a dialogue.
Qazi Ruknuddin then asked Nanak:
“Fala Allah mazabo” (What is your religion)
To that Guru Nanak responded:
“Abdulla Allah la mazaboo” (I am a man of God and belong to no religion.)
This was one of some 360 questions and answers from Guru Nanak’s dialogues during his Middle-East
Visit.”
This response by Guru Nanak reminded me of a similar utterance I heard in a scene of a play, ‘Bulleshah’
(1680-1757) performed in Chandigarh by a Pakistani group, about ten years ago. Two of his disciples
were accosted by the religious police while eating during daylight during the month of Ramadan. When
asked what religion they belonged to they responded that they were Muslims. Bulleshah told them that
with their response they asked for that treatment because a Muslim is not supposed to eat during the day
time during the month of Ramadan fasting; that their answer should have been ‘we are men of God’.
Guru period and Mughal period were contemporary periods. There should be a wealth of original
information in the archives of the Mogul Empire in Persian, the official language of the court. We need to
train future researchers, proficient in Panjabi, Persian and English.
Hardev S. Shergill
*****
EDITORIAL
NANAK (1469-1539)
The One and Only of His Kind
(From the November-December 2012 Sikh Bulletin)
Before Nanak’s coming there had been no body like him, including the founders of world’s largest
faiths, and nobody since.
During the age of European Renaissance of the 14th–17th centuries Guru Nanak was the only person who
brought renaissance to the Indian sub-continent. Human mind, that Gurbani calls ‘dasam duar’, is so
unique that at any given time more than one person can arrive at the same conclusion about the
fundamental truths of the physical world. Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and Copernicus (1473-1543),
thousands of miles apart and unknown to each other, arrived at the same conclusion about the cosmos,
including that it is in constant change.
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