The reality of Peer Zulfiqar

W-Salam,

I wish to have a cup of tea.

www.sacredlearning.org/shaykh-husain-abdul-sattar/

www.islamicspirituality.org/shaykh-kamaluddin-ahmed

My father was a high ranking Government official and was a Barelwee and so was his Peer Saheb (whom I vaguely remember as a child).

Once he called my father to his village (which he never did) and the reason was that he wanted to go for Hajj in his old age but he believed photography to be Haram and he didn’t believe that getting pictures for passports was permissible even for Hajj and it was against Taqwa.

They lived in some remote village and for the only time my father decided to have a Government issued Jeep (and security detail). I went because I wanted to ride the Jeep. My father never used the Government vehicle for personal use but this time, him and some other officers went in Government vehicles (I remember that).

He had called my father for consultation.

There was no way him or his wife (and daughter, I think) were going to get pictures taken but he wanted to explore any possibility of performing Hajj (since it was Fardh on them).

Government of Pakistan issued special diplomatic immunity to the 3 of them through my father and they were allowed to travel on passports without pictures. Pakistani consulate officials at Jeddah received them and walked them through immigration.

There were plenty of Ulama who believed in photography being Haram and never did Hajj or Umrah. Unlike today when Fatwa is given that Photography is Haram but pictures are taken to spend Ramadhan in London!  
 

One of the biggest problems with such groupings (or silsila's) is that the belief of the weak follower is that the leader cannot be wrong, they cannot mislead, there must be daleel, he must be exempt and thats why the wrong doings become the norm, the norm becomes the culture, culture turns into The Culture.