* 372nd urs celebrations for Hazrat Madhu Lal Hussain
* Action Aid plans Sangat Mela

Staff Report

LAHORE: The 372nd urs celebrations of Hazrat Mahdu Lal Hussain will start in the city tomorrow (Saturday). Auqaf minister, Sahibzada Saeed-ul-Hassan Shah, will formally inaugurate the event on Saturday afternoon.

Five hundred thousand devotees are expected to attend the celebrations. The three-day event is known as Mela Chiraghan (festival of lights). Many devotees light clay lamps to honour the saint at his shrine near Shalamar Gardens in Baghbanpura. The final day of the urs is reserved for women. Every year nearly 7,000 female devotees visit the shrine.

The event begins with the celebrations of Shah Hussain’s birth. Most devotees show their affection for the saint by dancing to the beat of drums. The festivities include the burning of hashish, singing of the saint’s kafis, qawalis and the setting up of traditional food stalls. Another attraction at the urs is the dancing transvestites and eunuchs.

Many pilgrims walk up to a fire at the shrine and throw candles into it. The belief is that the closer you can get to the fire, the greater the chances of your prayers being answered.

Auqaf Department shrine manager, Badar Hayat, said that the department had arranged various programmes for the occasion - a Mehfil-e-Naat, a Mehfil-e-Samaa, recitations of the Holy Quran, spiritual gatherings, and a Husn-e-Qirat session.

Hayat said that special arrangements had been made by the department in collaboration with the authorities concerned to keep the shrine clean. He said that the police had been asked to make security arrangements. The shrine committee was responsible for the distribution of langar (food), he said. A Rs 4 million contract had been awarded for the setting up of stalls, including those offering entertainment for children, he added.

Action Aid Pakistan, a non-governmental organisation, is organising a Sangat Mela on Saturday at 7 pm following the urs celebrations. People have been invited to attend the event at Baradari Bhogewal, Shiwala Chowk, Singhpura. Shah Hussain was born in 1538. In his poetry he called himself Hussain Julaha, Hussain Namana, Hussain Faqeer and Shah Hussain. At the age of 10, Shah Hussain was sent to Hafiz Abu Bakar at the local mosque for a formal education. According to tradition, he memorised the entire Holy Quran.

Shah Hussain’s life was changed when Sufi elder, Hazrat Behlol Daryai, visited Lahore and met him while searching for water to perform ablution. Shah Hussain fetched water from the River Ravi for him. The saint then prayed to Allah to bless Hussain with a broad vision and accepted him as his disciple.

The main theme of the saint’s poetry is knowing God by knowing ourselves. He passed away at the age of 63 in 1599. He was initially buried in Shahdara but 13 years later the body was exhumed and reburied at Baghbanpura.