Today, I am writing about a person I admire so much and I was overwhelmingly influenced by his spiritual thoughts and helping nature. Our relationship with each other was more than a father and son. We shared our opinions on religion, politics, food and much more.
In fact, after years of spending memorable time with him, we both began to open up our feelings toward each other.
Whenever I read poetry and introspect something about social issues, I began to share with him, especially reading aloud Iqbal’s mystic poetry and explaining it to him. Also, we discussed current affairs. I never felt scared or hesitant to express my love and closeness toward him.
He was there for me whenever I needed his help, and he helped me in all possible ways. Whatever I am now is all because of him. He was to me like a hero who taught me to stay firm in my decisions in any circumstances of life and embrace a helping hand towards a needy person in whatever I could do to go beyond the man’s limit.
My world is incomplete with him. With him, I and my extended family members, including his two wives and six children, were bonded together. As he is no longer with us, we got separated like the leaves leaving their mother plant, and the new seeds of enmity were grown and transformed into a plant within our homes.
Well, I will not pen down here the dishonour, betrayal and extreme anger his family members have showcased against my innocent and self-respective mother and us. I would like to give you a glimpse of the pure soul of my late devoted stepfather, Kazi Najamuddin.
His Vision Of A Better World
He was not like an ordinary businessman. Although he lived a normal life, his vision of a better world was far away from the imagination of common people like us. He never embarked on a similar path that is usually people taken to earn money and success. Rather, he took the never-ending path toward the spiritual journey.
He devoted his time, efforts and money to spreading the message of peace and unity among different faiths.
On top of that, he followed his secular beliefs by accepting the good and bad teachings of every religion. He was too deeply rooted in understanding the religion that he sometimes went too far and started to openly challenge and criticised Muslim scholars on controversial subjects of Islamic times.
Due to this, he was arrested and sent to Chanchalguda jail for his blasphemy speech against the Umayyad Dynasty ruler Muawiyah (RA) in 2019. Due to this, he was labelled as Gustaq-e-Sahaba.
Moreover, his controversial remarks about the AIMIM party and its leaders like Asaduddin and Akbaruddin Owaisi did not go well in the minds and hearts of their huge followers in the old city. After that incident, some of them were madly searching for him.
I alleged that his arrest at Mumbai Airport was carried out by the influence of powerful political parties in Hyderabad state.
Because of his outspoken nature, being extremely god-fearing and having a broad knowledge of Bhagwat Gita, Quran and other scriptures, he was most of the time loved and hated by his close ones, and business partners and candidates. He never spared anyone else when he saw something bad or injustice happening within the city of Hyderabad.
On 24 January, 2021, my mom and dad, accompanied by my stepbrother and sister, participated wholeheartedly in a fundraising campaign for the construction of the Ayodhya temple.
In all of his interviews with Hawk media, he brought up the issue of religious hatred spread by political parties, how to have a perfectly balanced diet of vegetables and fruits, and highlighted some other Islamic matters.
After this incident, my mother’s relationship with her sisters and brothers got worse. Suddenly, every one of my nearest family members targeted my mom, distanced her from her, and never spoke until she witnessed the murder of her husband on the worst night of 7 August, 2021.
There is no doubt that he was unique and peculiar in his ways. In one such incident, I was getting ready for Friday’s prayer when I heard some unknown man call my father and ask to intervene in some illegal destruction of an old temple taking place in some part of the city.
Without wasting a single second, he rushed to the spot, where he recorded the whole scene and showed up the true face of police authorities and some government officials to the public. They were forcefully asking the residents to vacate the place by removing the idol without giving them prior notice.
As my father was a famous recruiting businessman with a huge following on social media channels on Facebook, he got support from the netizens. He became a messiah overnight to the Hindu community in that conflict area.
So, this was how my father battled against authority when he landed on the ground by echoing the voice of an oppressed people. He was exceptional in his moral values and treated everyone equally. In this hateful atmosphere, my father was like a bright shining star of hope and devotion toward mankind.
To me, he was like a fearless tiger who fought against any wrongdoer and was struggling hard in his efforts to bring social justice to poor people.
At home, he was very strict towards my mother and his children about eating habits. His instructions to eat healthy, nutritional and organic food were unwillingly followed by each one of us. He was immensely vegetarian. We never dared to eat junk food and mutton within his presence.
Unlike other Muslim households where delicious mutton curry and Biriyani are cooked occasionally or daily, we were no less than Brahmins who never thought of eating mutton or eggs during our entire lifetime.
Finally, I would like to take this story to my readers to seek their opinion on my stepfather. Did he deserve to be murdered because he constantly spoke the truth and unearthed the falsehood?