MONGOLS DECIMATED THE ISLAMIC CALIPHATE IN BAGHDAD;
AND CATASTROPHE WAS DOUBLED WITH THE ONSET OF PLAGUE.
REPORT ON THE FALL OF BAGHDAD AND CONSEQUENCES SAME.
A DESERTED LAHORE IN 1421 AD, AND SO THOUGHTS OF FUTURE.

History repeats itselfall the time. The advent of Islam from the region of its origin to other areas was not that gradual as can be thought by some.Caliph Haroon Rasheed was a phenomena of his times, in all ways. Baghdad was the centre of economic affluence, culture, fashion, and implementation of Ideology. And yes truth and honesty.

 A tale has been told from generations and I heard it from my father, as he heard it from his own. The story of the times of Caliph Haroon ur Rasheed, when Baghdad was the richest capital of the world. Everything flowed through Baghdad, the capital of the world. And where the Court of the Caliph, shined in affluence of every kind, the honesty prevailing in his reign was outstanding too. We are told that Caliph Haroon ur Rasheed used to disguise himself as a common man and used to roam the streets of Baghdad to notice first hand the rights and wrongs going on in the society. The principles were rigid indeed. The testing of men’s character is paramount to the character of the city.
Trade flew through Baghdad through caravans and merchants from all over the world passed through the city. Buying things, selling things. A merchant had come from far away and found that there was a gold dinar lying on the paved street. He noticed it but did nothing about it. Time passed. The merchant came again to Baghdad the next year and saw the Gold Dinar there where he had seen it before. It did not vex him then but after a few years, he could not take the anxiety any more. He asked the nearby shopkeepers as to why the Dinar was lying there after a few  years, where it was originally seen by him. The shopkeeper’s answer was straight forward. ‘WE ARE STILL HOPEFUL THAT THE OWNER WHO LOST IT, MAY COME LOOKING FOR IT AND WILL FIND IT WHERE HE DROPPED IT.” This unimaginable honesty seen in Baghdad engendered the character of the Muslims of that time.
And then the catastrophe happened. Halaku Khan came to set things right. Let us study the aftermath of same.  Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī   Akhbār-i Moghūlān (Mongol News) recounts how, at the siege of Baghdad in 1258, ‘Pestilence [wabā] struck and many people died’. The level of fatalities was so extreme that normal burial practices could not be maintained; instead, bodies were thrown into the Tigris River. Most of the Mongol army also became sick. The most recent historian of the Fall of Baghdad, Mona Hassan who records outbreaks of what she describes as ‘plague’ after the Fall of Baghdad. Emerging from their subterranean places of hiding, these few survivors [of the Mongol siege] would have been confronted with the sight of Baghdad lying in complete ruin and its streets filled with the decaying and disfigured corpses of hundreds of thousands of the city’s former residents. The stench was reported to be overwhelming, and combined with the contamination of the city’s water by the dead and the descent of flies upon Baghdad, which also contaminated the food supply, these drastic changes were considered to be the cause of the last source of death, the plague, which claimed the lives of almost everyone who had escaped the sword. Certainly it is a reflection from deflection of the Principles of Allah which they had followed and quit eventually.

For a few moments let us move to Lahore. Unbelievable scenario here too.  The deserted city of Lahore, which was bereft of any living soul, save the inauspicious owls which had made it their abode. Can you imagine this situation? Aftermath of the Timurid situation. Or something more. Jassa Khokhar had embraced Islam, married an actual Timurid Princess and wanted to take Lahore. Delhi Sultanate resisted him all the time.

Yahya bin Ahmad bin Abdullah Sirhindi writes in “Tarilkh-i-Mubarakshahi”:
“In the month of Muharram, A.H. 825 , (Dec- Jany 1420-1421 A.D.), the shade of the blessed fortune and the shadow of the Imperial umbrella fell upon the deserted city of Lahore, which was bereft of any living soul, save the inauspicious owls which had made it their abode. After a time, the Sultan turned his attention to the restoration of the city, and under his royal favour the building was reconstructed. He stayed there encamped by the side of Ravi for nearly a month, engaged in repairing the fort and the gates. When the repair work was brought to a completion, the fief of Lahore was bestowed upon Malik-ul-Shark Mahmud Hasan, and a contingent of two thousand horses was placed under him. Having made suitable arrangements for the upkeep of the army and the fort. His Majesty returned to Dar-ul- Mulk Delhi.”

These are excerpts from various sources on the making of new Lahore. A deserted city with no one, got a new lease of life and was renamed as Mubarakabad in 1421 A.D. A Muslim city in all ways. No Mandirs were seen. All before the Sikhs and their Gurus. Was it Amir Timur who sacked Lahore before that? Or due to fear people had already left the city. In any case there was no one here. A new Lahore was born in the process. Timur negotiated and left the city alone so it was not him who sacked it. Or perhaps when Sheikhu  Jassa Khokhar renegaded, warriors were sent to quell him.  Very little history is known of that period. Without Ahmad Sirhindi, the author,  nothing would be known. Thanks to him for filling the void in our knowledge.
Nothing can ever be predicted. Everybody indulges in spinning tales. The favourite one is of a doomsday scenario. It is not Divine intervention. It is due to the selling of the souls of our own people. Arrogance of people without souls is evident so much in our society. A class of under privileged people are set to be erased by robots as well as genocide, at the hands of others as well as ourselves. A class of world people are the new Pharaohs determined to their ruthless ways. Angels questioned the decision of Allah about humankind. Allah told them Allah knew better than them. Allah had hope for humankind. Certainly we should have hopes in ourselves before we become dust at the hands of the soulless people of the world . It is not seeking of fallen Mandirs by hair tossing rabbids, but by implementing the laws and principles of Allah for the welfare of human beings. Can humans learn from history? The choice is in front of us. A splendid future or a Lahore full of stench of murdered people beset with plague. The choice is not ours. Our choice is welfare of all, not merely rising higher of the most corrupt people in the world.