قل سيرو في الارض (Surha Al An Kabut Chapter No 29 Ayah No 19)
“Go About In The Land And Look.”
Acting upon this Aayah and the fact that untold facts of the world can be learnt by travelling rather than being hit by books, on 15th October 2018 Monday evening I left for Hyderabad for the first time with my six of my friends. As the MERC gives opportunity to visit anywhere after completing the first semester for sight-seeing and learning the art of writing Travelodge. I reached Mahadul Aali Islami at 11 am on Tuesday after taking a train from Yashwantpure to Kashigoda namely Yashwantpure Lucknow Express. The train pulled out of the station at 9 pm and reached Kashigoda at 11 am the next morning.
On reaching Mahadul Aali Islami we attended the lecture of Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani which was going on, on the topic of Zakat (purifying dues). On finishing the lecture we met him for a while and he promised to meet after but unfortunately, it didn’t happen. Mahadul Aali Islami was established in 2000 AD by Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani and there are only specialisations courses. We spent a day there. We had only two days, Thursday and Wednesday to visit the whole of Hyderabad.
Hyderabad, one of the largest princely states, was established by Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah in 1591 AD. It has been enriching in terms of its historical values and culture ever since. Hyderabad is well known for the beauty of the Charminar, Zoological Park, Golconda Fort, Museum, Salar Jung, Hussain Sagar, Darul Uloom Sabeelur Rashad and many famous temples etc. Your trip to Hyderabad cannot complete without visiting these places.
On Thursday, firstly we made our way to Charminar. Charminar is a 400 years old structure built by Sultan Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the 5th Sultan of the illustrious Qutub Shahi dynasty which is an integral part of the history of Hyderabad, the Sultan built the monument right after shifting his capital from Golconda to Hyderabad. Historians opined that the inadequacy of water in the plague forced Quli Qutub Shah to construct a new city. He prayed to the Almighty to end his people’s suffering and pledged to build a Mosque at the very site where he prayed.
Seeing the shape of Charminar, I felt like weeping but I avoided it because of my surroundings. Charminar was adorned with its a hundred types of shops and well laid-out shopping street. You must know that Hyderabadis are very fond of food. The most famous dish of Hyderabad is Biryani that was invented during Nizam’s Period. There are around 140 varieties of Hyderabadi Biryani. Hyderabad’s most famous dish is meat and rice.
Haleem was introduced by the community of Chaush, predominantly living around Barkas, in Hyderabad. However, Grabbing a quick lunch at a restaurant, we made our way to Golconda hill. After getting off the rickshaw at Golconda Fort, my eyes were astonished to see such an amazing and high structure of Golconda fort. It’s 11 km away from the main city. After spending three hours we went to the Zoological Park. The zoological park was named after the first Prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. There were several species of animals. But I could not see animals as I should have seen because of clicking pictures, making videos and riding a bicycle and we could not press home our advantage as we should have done.
But we were not complaining because we had enjoyed ourselves so much in the Zoo of Mysore, the biggest zoo in India’ last year on the same occasion. Reluctantly, we had to leave for Hussain Sagar which is built across a tributary of the river Musi river in 1563 by Ibrahim Quli Qutub Shah, was named after Hussain Shah Wali, who helped to design it. There were many types of ships: small, moderate and big with different fare accordingly. We left Hussain Sagar very soon because of a hurry. We didn’t get any type of ships.
To visit Darululoom Hyderabad we hired a Rikshaw. Darululoom was established in 1975, with the purpose of teaching non-Muslims who have just accepted Islam but later on, they realised that without Muslims students and Muslims environment they can’t learn as they should be. That’s why they started to take admissions of Muslims too. The most appreciable feature of this Darululoom is that it cherishes, takes care of new Muslims and marry them. This place was the most memorable part of my journey.
Then we finally Hyderabad. I was vexed during our travel to and from Hyderabad, because of the general bogie. People were fighting for seats, and children were crying because of the rush. Nowadays, people are trying to reach the sky, Moon, other planets and beyond the world. But they are not noticing the problems of this world. Prepared as I was for many shocks, what I had not expected here was to understand the meaning of life. The life of mortals in this world is troubled and brief and combined with pain, pang, trial, tribulation and heart-rending unexpected events, tragedy and story. After reaching old age there is death. Such is the nature of all living beings.
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You must go to Hyderabad. Do eat Haleem, Paya and Biryani and pay a visit to Begum Bazaar!
By Riyaz Ur rahman Shaikh