JANUARY 8

The Awakening of Man

Just over a year ago when I was in Jabalpur, a town in India, I met a middle-aged gentleman by the name of Abdus Salam Akbani from the town of Nagpur. In the course of conversation, he told me an incident in his own life, which gives us a great lesson.

It seems that four year prior to an encounter, he had arranged to buy a piece of land in Nagpur from a Hindu landowner, one Prabhakar Hazare, for the sum of six lakhs of rupees. It was settled that Abdus Salam would pay two lakhs in advance. Then after a period of six months, the land would be registered in his name, at which time the remainder would be paid in full. But after just two months, the landowner asked for and received a further two lakhs, so that now four out of the agreed six lakhs had been paid to him. During this period, the price of the land went up, and the landowner could not resist the temptation of making more profit from that piece of land

When, after six month, Abdus Salam asked Prabhakar Hazare to arrange for the registration of the land, the latter kept postponing it on one pretext or the other. Hazare was a lawyer, and he thought if Abdus Salam went to court, he would so complicate matter for him that he would finally be compelled to meet his demands.

One day Abdus Salam went to see Mr. Hazare, and found the latter’s father-in-law, Mr. Sawarkar, also present. Mr. Sawarkar who was a member of the RSS, was very provocative in his manner. Finally, he said, “What can you do after all? Go to court? If you do, we’ll see to it that you wear out a lot of shoe leather!”

Abdus Salam replied that that would happen only if he went to court. And if he didn’t go to court, how would they make him run back and forth. Mr. Sawarkar asked him what he actually proposed to do. Abdus Salam replied that he would appoint him (Mr. Sawarkar) as his arbitrator. On the one side you have your son-in-law, and on the other your nephew (meaning Hazare and himself). “Now you can decide as it seems befitting to you.”

Mr. Sawarkar’s wife, who had overheard the conversation from an adjacent room, now beckoned to her husband to come and talk to her privately. When Mr. Sawarkar returned, he appeared to be a changed man. In the meanwhile, Mrs. Sawarkar brought tea for them. Mr. Sawarkar sipped his tea in silence. Then he asked Abdus Salam to come the next day, saying that the matter would then be settled.

The next day, when he reached there, he was taken by Mr. Sawarkar himself to the court in his car. Being a man of influence, he was able to get the land registry done the same day. Mr. Abdus Salam paid the same price as had been fixed earlier.

Mr. Sawarkar was so impressed by Abdus Salam that afterwards, whenever he saw him passing by anywhere, he would stop his car to greet him and inquire after his health. One day they met by chance at the Housing Finance Board where Abdus Salam had gone on business. When Mr. Sawarkar  saw him, he introduced him to the Director of the Board and said, “I have met many Muslims, but I have seen only one young father of an old man. And this is he—Abdus Salam. He has given me an important lesson, namely, that if one does not go to the court, one’s shoes won’t get worn out!”

Although Mr. Sawarkar was associated with RSS, he was first and foremost a human being. The moment Mr. Abdus Salam had said, “I am your nephew and he is your son-in-law. Now you yourself become the arbitrator and decide for yourself,” the “man” in Mr. Sawarkar was awakened.

When the inner man is awakened, you can be sure that the person concerned will always give a just verdict in his dealings with others. It is no longer within his power to be cruel or unjust.