Random thoughts
By Dr A Q Khan

In my columns of July 22 and Oct 14, 2009, I had written in detail about Raja Bhojpal of Bhopal, his sighting of the splitting of the moon, sending his son, Mata Din, with a delegation to Madina, embracing Islam, etc. I had also written about the Raja of Kerala sending his son with a delegation to Madina, their meeting with the Holy Prophet (PBUH), embracing Islam (taking the Muslim name of Mohiuddin), the marriage of the prince to the daughter of a companion of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the whole delegation embracing Islam. The most recent article by Mr Javedullah Raja (Jang, Feb 20) points out that the ruler himself had also gone to Madina where he embraced Islam and took the Muslim name of Tajuddin. Prince Mohiuddin, after becoming the ruler, built a mosque (Cheraman Jamia Mosque) in the name of his father. This mosque is considered to be the first mosque built on the subcontinent. In response to the above-mentioned columns, some interesting and informative articles appeared in Jang.

Here I would like to summarise the information that is now available. I had already thanked my dear Bhopali friend, Tameezul Haque, for the photocopy of an article that had appeared in the Kerala Magazine, which had been published in Tarikh-e-Uzbekistan and was written by Syed Kamaluddin Ahmed, which prompted me to write the second column. Another Bhopali friend and senior Jang columnist, Mr Muhammad Ahmad Sahzwari, gave me more valuable information on Raja Bhojpal, which I am reproducing here with his kind permission.
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Random thoughts
By Dr A Q Khan

Everybody is engaged in exploiting and looting the country. Both the rulers and the public are held equally responsible for this lawlessness and plunder. It must be obvious to everyone that when neither rulers nor public follow laws (or are held responsible), the result is chaos and corruption.

One story goes that there was once a raja who wanted to enforce law and order in his kingdom but the elite and the public were not willing to follow the rules and wanted to do whatever suited them. After the raja failed to convince the officers and public, an old, wise minister advised him to allow the people to do just as they pleased. So it became a free-for-all. Robbers, the corrupt, exploiters and extortionists had a heyday. Once the son of an officer got seriously injured in an accident and when he was brought to the hospital there were no doctors available to attend to him and he died. After a few days there was a robbery at the house of the head of the hospital. The robbers thrashed the inmates, stole all their belongings and vanished. The police were least bothered and did not take serious notice. Soon after, a fire broke out at the house of the chief of police but the fire-fighters were slow in reacting and the whole house was reduced to ashes. The sanitary workers refused to collect the garbage and the whole area stank, became contaminated and various diseases spread rapidly.
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