BLOG 71 - ARJUN DAS TRUST IN GOD

[Dr. Shabbir]

ARJUN DAS & TRUST IN GOD - 1968
July 18th, 2008 by Dr. Shabbir

Respected friends, Peace & Blessings!

This is a funny but incredible story. Many of my classmates are witnesses to it.

The year was 1968, our final year in medical college. Liaquat Medical College, Jamshoro (now a top class university) was not one of, nay… it was the most awe-inspiring campus in Pakistan and India. Wow! That original, locally excavated and carved yellowish stone-brick construction all through. The awesome college building, dissection halls, lecture theaters, laboratories, central offices, ER, patient wards, operating rooms, ICU, research centers, library, cafeterias, girls’ and boys’ separate hostels, guest houses, common rooms, TV lounges, play-fields, auditoriums and much more. Moreover, we had outstanding professors, lecturers and demonstrators in all departments. Think of anything best and LMC would stand no less than any campus in the West. We were proud of our LMC and even more proud (of course, in the Muslim sense with humility and thanks to Allah) of our country that could erect such a marvel on its sacred land.

LMC also had an Olympic size swimming pool. Arjun Das, an excellent Hindu classmate from interior Sind, was the swimming champion in 1967 while Shabbir was second. In 1968, the very tall Rustam Kavina, a Zoroastrian from Karachi, was the champion and Shabbir once again the runners-up, but topped as the best diver. Arjun Das came third in swimming.

Now, there was a third year student Naimtullah, son of a Tablighi “Maulana” from Raiwind, Lahore. He had never been to a swimming pool but he firmly “placed his trust in God”. Dazzled by the glitter and glamor of the Swimming Gala and the large, beautiful crowd, Naimat asked me in confidence, “If Arjun, a Hindu, can swim, why can’t I, a staunch believer, swim better than he?” I explained that everyone regardless of religion had to learn how to swim. He became emotional, “No, Bhagwan cannot be greater than Allah”, and, with that, he jumped into the deeper section of the pool shouting, “Help Ya Allah!”

What happened next is obvious. First, Allah refused to help him. :-)

In the next few seconds, he was going up and down rumbling, gagging and yelling, “Save me for God’s sake, O You watchers!” Of course, we dived swiftly and took him out to safety.

Moral of the story is obvious: Allah’s Laws in the Universe do not discriminate between His servants. As you sow, so shall you reap.