The shareef Muslim as the exilic figure

 Over the course of the semester we have read about and seen many Mullahs or what we can categorize as the ‘pious religious character’. The movies, stories and videos all depict a different character of a mullah, yet at the same time they all are very similar at the core. I think it is an attempt to show how such people have tried to adopt a staunch Muslim identity by making Islam such a rigid structure but how it becomes the reason for their own exile in an Islamic state. Examples of the very controversial story of the Mullah in Jannat ki basharat who sees erotic dreams after rejecting his wife because he has to worship on “Shab-e qadr”, to Hakeem sahib in Bol and his very strict views, resistance to modern technology including the television, and his blind faith in God that ‘rizq denay wala tou allah hi hai”, The author and the directors are criticizing a certain kind of mind set. The view that only people who pray, keep a beard, wear a shalwar kameez with a topi on their head are truly Muslims.

Along with this they criticize how these people are using God as an excuse for their idleness. They believe that since everything has been set from before and everything works from God’ will,  and so since  they can’t change anything, they need not try. Saleem mirza’s character in Garam Hava is an example of such a stagnant character because he believes that God will take care of everything and that “chaar din mein sab theek hojaega”.

Even Shehzad Roy criticizes such people in his song Laga reh:

SR: Yaar, mulk mein bari tension ho gayi hai.

Buzurg: Koi nahi, koi nahi, sub kuchh Allah pay chor dou.

The Maulana’s very 'shameful' dream demonstrating an obvious lack of pious perfection on his part, Hakeem Sahab’s fall to a male prostitute and his loneliness, and Saleem Mirza’s economic and social downfall all show how these figures are disadvantaged and exilic because of the rigidity of their own beliefs.

In opposition to these Allah walays, Shehzad Roy offers a very stark opposing belief to who is a virtuous and pious person

 “Naik woh hai jis ko mauqa nahi mila”