By Salahuddin Sikander
Mr. Qayoom Jan Sheikh, was my best teacher. He, in my opinion, was and will be forever among the greatest men of our region.The only phrase which can perfectly encapsulates his personality is that of ‘Larger than life”. Every thing about him was great, grand and inspiring. Few understood him in his life time, fewer others came, even remotely close, in emulating his great example or in drawing up correct sketches and appraisals of his great and glorious personality. This is how Mr. Qayoom Jan khan gradually faded away and drifted into oblivion after his demise. Then, people of our area forgot him. I doubt, even if his immediate family has an inkling into his tall stature or the fact that his life and personality was the stuff of a legend. People from his own town and those in Draban Kalan, never raised a monument in his honour or kept flame of his memory alive through some means, like naming some public building or an even event in his name. Yes, it needed some distance in time and some other set of circumstances , allowing others, with kindred passions and sympathetic and compassionate outlook on life, to pass a judgment on this great and illustrious son of the soil.You need to have greatness and unselfishness in yourself to understand this great man. If you don’t have love and sympathy for humanity then Qayoom Jan’s message won’t appeal to you, it might look like lack of experience in life, sheer simplicity and something as an outright folly. But we can’t judge a person through money he earns or big offices he holds. Both of these carry enough temptations for doing evil. As a great German philosopher said “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.
Give a man power, money and position of authority and he if is, knowingly, desisting from doing harm to others, and is rather doing acts of unselfish good then you must pause for a second and think that you are dealing with a great man. Mr Qayum Jan was one such great man, whose life was untimely and tragically cut short by a fatal illness and he died in relatively young age of 35. Qayoom Jan, my best teacher,was from the famed town of Musa Zai, housing famous shrine of Khanqah Ahmdia Saeedia, Musazai Sharif, which acts like an invisible magnet, drawing tens of thousands of devotees from all across Pakistan.
Mr Qayoom Jan had a rich, affluent, landowning background.True to his family bloodline, he was a tall, handsome man with beautiful facial features. He didn’t have to take up teaching as a profession for earning money. He was a man of independent means but he enjoyed teaching and most importantly he had valuable message to convey to the students. He came to school in his own car, something which was unheard of then and quite surprising now for teaching community in our area. Concept of car as personal comfort giving vehicle was mostly alien in Draban at that time. Musa Zai, unlike Draban, had a rich, influential and educated upper class, The Aristocrats. They came from Pashto speaking Peer, The Sheikhs, and Miankhels people of pure Pashtoon descent who could equally speak Saraiki like native speakers of the language. People of Draban then, generally gave short shrift to notions of education as a tool of personal empowerment, financial stability and inner illumination. Their constant plaint was good jobs are possible with money or it requires powerful connections, Sifaresh as they said it. Sending children for smaller jobs was nagging concern of most of the parents.
Mr. Qayoom Jan, though coming from same aristocrat background, was so much different. I admired Mr. Qayoom Jan for his great qualities. He was far ahead of his time. He was an idealist, an iconoclast, a man overflowing with milk of human kindness, a champion of liberty, equality and fraternity. He didn’t give a damn about class system which makes any person less worthy because he earns nothing. He himself came from privileged class but he himself realised the hollowness and vanity of things which were transitory and subject to decay. Mr. Qayoom Jan pinned his faith on our common humanity and our shared values. While traveling to Musa zai from Draban, he gave free ride to poor labourers in his car, who were waiting for local bus bound for Musa Zai. He was a man of golden heart and golden deeds. This is Mr. Qayoom Jan’s Way of looking at the world. When we stripp away our false pretentions, shaping our identity and our sense of divide on basis of race, language, ethnicity, economic or social standings then we are able to see our shared humanity. When Mr. Qayoom Jan spoke, he exhibited his vast knowledge, it was his educated, civilised, polite manner of speaking that caused a spell over his audience. His discussion was full of references and quotations, with scholarly touches lying here and there.This rendered his method of teaching highly effective. You were always in big company while listening to him . He treated students like his own. He doesn’t address us “beta, weta” etc but we knew him he wanted our good and dealt with us in perfect sincerity. He inspired us to do great things in life. He never commited an abdominal sin, which unfortunately has become defining feature of our our education system and without it our education looks so imperfect, like a car without four wheels. I am talking about tuitions and the deadly lethal alliance between education and money. Mr. Qayoom Jan bought books on diverse topics from Dera Ismail Khan and gave these to students for free, He never charged money. What I know for sure Qayoom Jan wanted us to tape into our vital intellectual faculties to get access to fresh, modern ideas. He wanted us to create “A Brave New World” and this new world was to be created on the back of these ideas. He urged us to rid ourselves of outworn, stale, pale thin, stagnant ideas of education which no longer worked and which offered only prospects of small jobs of primary school teacher or those of minor jobs in FC. Mr. Qayoom Jan’s aim was to expand our mental horizons and make us ready for bold adventure in our quest to make ourselves highly productive in our lives.
Many times during evening, I had to travel to Musa Zai. Then, in twilight, as the sights and sounds of Draban begin to fade and Musa Zai became slightly visible in the distance, I began to mull over the idea of Qayoom Jan sheikh. This man was an embodiment of all that can conceived in a human being, an angelic figure. He died young and those who die young live for ever. Great legacy and message of Qayum Jan Sheikh we need to kept in perpetual motion. We just can’t afford to let his vital message slip into oblivion and forgetfulness. In my own humble opinion Qayoom Jan, was a role model for us, even the word role model looks so dull and drab in describing great and multifaceted personality of Mr Qayoom Jan. On personal note, I must share this with you, that apart from my paternal cousin Karim Shah Hashmi, it is Mr. Qayoom Jan who exerted tremendous influence over my life.
Qayoom Jan proved that for living in hearts you need not be a politicians or to act in manner of a Khan, though he had graceful personality of a tall handsome Pashtoon man, he was a Khan per excellence.
Thus essay is a tribute to Mr Qayoom Jan Khan and it was long overdue. In showering praises over great and noble personality of Mr. Qayoom Jan, I need to emphasise, side by side, that other teachers of our area are equally worthy of respect and many of them I fondly remember as persons who taught me. My aim in writing this article was to pay a tribute to this great man and also to let my readers know that what made Qayoom Jan, so different, so unique and so great. And emergence of great men is rarely unique phenomenon.
Other great teachers of our area include illustrious names like Mohmmd Maskeen saib, Asmatullah Khan, Alizai Khan, Asmat Khan, Saifuran khan, Ramzan Khan, Ghairat khan, Jahangir khan, Atlas khan, Abdul Aziz saib, Saifurman khan of Chowdwan , Sonra khan.
Alexandria 