For human beings religion is a hope and a moral compass that always move them to take goodness in their hands. It a holy practice that makes human spirit sacred and absolute. To make their relation strong with their religion there are some mediator or we can say agent. These agents are known by different names as priest, monk, prior, or in Muslims they are usually referred as pir. But in modern times, most of them forget their duty and convert themselves into a beast, who do nothing for the humans, but only use them for their own benefits and turn out to be a parody of greed. Tehmina Durrani in her novel Blasphemy brings out the hidden dark truth of these wretched conditions of religious propaganda with the help of a story that is based on a real event. It is a story of a young girl Heer, who got raped and was treated as slave and prostitute by her own husband and her husband is none other than 'human God'. This story portrays that how these agents or mediators made religion an inhuman business.

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Chapter - 5

Disease of Soul: Religious Hypocrisy in Tehmina Durrani's

Blasphemy

Arshiya Parveen

Abstract

For human beings religion is a hope and a moral compass that always move

them to take goodness in their hands. It a holy practice that makes human

spirit sacred and absolute. To make their relation strong with their religion

there are some mediator or we can say agent. These agents are known by

different names as priest, monk, prior, or in Muslims they are usually

referred as pir. But in modern times, most of them forget their duty and

convert themselves into a beast, who do nothing for the humans, but only use

them for their own benefits and turn out to be a parody of greed. Tehmina

Durrani in her novel Blasphemy brings out the hidden dark truth of these

wretched conditions of religious propaganda with the help of a story that is

based on a real event. It is a story of a young girl Heer, who got raped and

was treated as slave and prostitute by her own husband and her husband is

none other than 'human God'. This story portrays that how these agents or

mediators made religion an inhuman business.

Keywords: Religious Propaganda, Social Impact, Power Play, Violation,

Duplicity, Human God.

Tehmina Durrani (b-1953-), a Pakistani author established herself as a

prominent writer all over the world in 1991 with the publication of her

autobiography My Feudal Lord. In which she gave information about her

experience of domestic violence and her recovery from her horrible past. It is

an eye-opener for the readers and her second novel Blasphemy ( 1998) is also

based on a true event and brings out the dark truth of Muslim society.

Neither Tehmina mentioned the authentic source of the story, nor the actual

place where these events take place. The novel is set in Lahore, Pakistan and

most of the novel's events happen in a haveli of Pir Sain, which is on the

grounds of a famous Shrine. Tehmina Durrani is an owner of a bold and

blunt pen, who brings out social plight, exploitation and longings of women

in the rich Muslim families. Durrani herself is a highborn in a Muslim family

Page | 26

and face this exploitation that took place on the name of religion. A religion

teaches us to be humble, respectful and to be gentle with our fellow living

beings. People mostly criticize politician for their hypocrisy but we often

ignore the hypocrisy of religion that exist because of the so called leaders of

religions and it is way more dangerous. These Agents not only con your

money but also plays with your faith and feed up your weakness. Religion is

a sacred practice and there are various religions all over the world. One of

the most prominent religio ns is Islam who believes in "Tawhid" (Allah). But

as the time passed people started to misunderstand this concept of "One

God" and that is because of these so called agents of God commonly known

as Pir or Hazrat. In Islam the actual duty of a Pir is to lead the followers of

Allah on a good path but most of them mend it according to their own

advantages. Tehmina Durrani opens up about it and highly criticizes the

concept of the worshiping of shrines on the place of Allah and noted,

"Middleman and salesmen had converted Muslim into grave worshipper"

(Durrani103).

These Pirs, who portrays themselves as holy men or sometimes even

called themselves son of God, actually use religion as a chain. This chain of

religion makes a good hold on mentally weak and anxious people. These

middlemen tries their best to con the followers economically, socially,

politically and most of all mentally. They misuse the religion and spared lies

about it. In this novel Tehmina depicted falsehoods and misrepresentation of

religion through the character of Pir Sain. Pir Sain is famous saint and

representative of the biggest and most famous shrine of Lahore. Pir Sain's

attire is very representative of his so called work as he always draped a green

shawl around his shoulder which is embroidered with the ninety-nine names

of Allah and his bracelet in hand is also engraved with prayers but he is

nothing like his attire but complete opposite to what it represents. He is

brutal and does criminal activities without hesitation. He tried to rape hi s

own daughter Guppi and sexually assault many young girls and even make

sex tapes of his own wife Heer and later on turned her into a prostitute. He is

in power and it is because of his great amount of blind followers, which he

creates on the bases of fear and one can understand the true Pir Sain and his

ruling kingdom in the following description given by Heer:

Pir Sain ruled over his trapped people. He could demand and extract

anything from anyone. Considered to be a direct link between the

Almighty and wretched, people believed that his intervention could

even alter what Allah had fated for them. That made them worships

him (Durrani61).

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Religious leader supposed to be the personification of morality and

goodness yet in this novel we find how they are infested with hypocrisy and

also shows that they are unethical, shady and dishonest toward their practice.

Among the very few women writers of Pakistan, Tehmina has shown

immense interest in producing the real truth of religious distortion through

the Religious leader. She believes that it is important for the people to see

the real face of God created by their own hands. The impact of religion

appears in the novel from the first page as novel begins with the Adhan of

Fajar. But the main focus is on the Pir Sain, who claimed to be directly

descendent of the Prophet and whatever he says is meant to be set in stone.

Even when He chooses Heer as his third bride, who is just fifteen years old

girl, is considered Heer's greatest fortune. Heer's mother became extrem ely

happy and feels blessed because according to her this is the greatest fortune

that took place on their whole family. At this time she is unaware to the fact

she is going to slaughtering her daughter to a living beast. One can

understand the dreadful condition of Heer through the unsent letters she

wrote after her marriage in which she appeal her to take back all the prayers:

Dearest Ma, You fell on your prayer mat to beg God not to remove

His abundant blessing, Ma.

You wanted more miracles like mine.

Take your prayers back, ma.

Take them back (Durrani69).

Islam is religion that supports peace and justice and it is a religion of

equality for all the living beings. But this religion is highly misunderstood

over the time and there are various reasons for it as- stereotyping of terrorist,

distortion of Muslim laws, and fake religious leaders. A true Muslim always

follows Qur'an. It spared humanity, kindness, mercy and equality. In Qur'an

women are considered equal to men as it mention in Surah 'Ali-Imran, " I

never fail to reward any work you do, be you male or female, you are equal

to one another" (The Qur'an 3:195). Tehmina understand how these

middlemen spread misreading of Qur'an and for them women are just

objects of pleasure. Pir Sain in the novel is denoting this more often. He

abuses all the women around him, which includes his wife, mother,

daughter, and maid servants and even women followers. He is the Pir for his

own mother not a son and his mother Amma Sain is also afraid to speak in

front of him. Amma Sain is well aware with her son's real behavior but

never utters a single word against him. Pir Sain not only discriminates on the

bases of gender but also on the bases of money. His followers were divided

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into two category "aam" and "khass". Khass followers are privileged guest

and more important than others and are served first and best. Their food tray

contains a fried egg, two parathas (bread), meat or chicken curry and tea. On

the other hand aam followers are given common treatment as their food tray

contains only one boiled egg, one chapati and a cup of tea. Allah does not

discriminate their devotees but only these hypocrites human Gods attend

their followers on the basis of social status.

Purdah or Pardah or veil is one of the ancient cultures of Muslims and is

considered only to be belonged to Muslim women. But Tehmina in her novel

revealed her vision that purdah should be of eyes not of a certain gender.

Purdah is not a symbol of a woman's weakness. It should by choice and it

also offers women to take control over their bodies. It has nothing to do with

their education and social activities. For instance, Pakistani activist and

Nobel Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai wears hijab in public not because of

any restriction but because it is her choice to do so. If a woman is required to

hide her face from an unknown man, then the man's face must also be

covered. Tehmina find it fraud and it can be understood through the event

when Heer first time encounters Pir Sain. She went to his haveli for his

blessings with her mother and two sisters and when she goes inside his room

and tries to cover her face but her mother refuses her by saying "you don't

need to cover your faces before Pir Sain. He is too holy for that"

(Durrani24). But this same Pir don't even allow a tomcat to his Janankhana.

As once Dai inform Heer "I saw a Billa daring to sneak down the chimney

into the women's quarters, he was set ablaze in the fireplace" (Durrani49).

Later on he presents Heer as a prostitute wearing burqa in front of his elite

male friends and let them enjoy her as some cheap whore.

Tehmina is very adamant to illustrate the hypocrite nature of these Pirs

and she also has depicted their cunning ways of turning people into slaves.

When people start following these hypocrite salesmen of religion they lost

their freedom. The followers of Pir will do anything without raising any

questions and neither applies any logic to his decisions. They worship him

over Allah and seek out the solutions of all their problems from him. If any

follower commits a crime or sin, then they seek forgiveness from him. Here

Tehmina raises a question, how can one grant you forgiveness if he himself

is an epitome of sins. This Pir sit on their throne and let people worship him

like God but it is clearly mention in Qur'an that you can only bow your head

in front of Allah, "Surely those who are with your Lord are never too proud

to perform acts of worship to Him, but they glorify His praise and prostrate

before him" (Qur'an 7:206). In the case of Pir Sain, he is a living vulture and

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does not do anything for glorification of Allah. He uses his name to spread

lies about Islam and to make his own life luxurious and lavish.

Islam or any other religion does not support any inhuman or merciless

behavior. A true leader of religion spread humanity and compassion.

Buddhist monk Dalai Lama stated about the true philosophy of religion,

"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My

brain and heart are my temples; my philosophy of kindness" (Sidney 204).

which means that to be near to your God, you need to be human first. But in

the novel Blasphemy Pir Sain never shows a single shred of human quality.

He is a fiend and a true descendent of Satan. One can easily understand the

inner monster of Pir Sain through the speech of Heer, which she delivered

after Pir Sain, killed his own son:

To me, my husband was my son's murderer. He was also my

daughter's molester. A parasite nibbling on my holy book, he was

Lucifer, holding me by the throat and driving me to sin each and

every night. He was the rapist of orphans and the fiend that fed the

weak. But over and above all this, he was known to be man closest

to Allah, the one who could reach him sand save us (Durrani143).

Tehmina understand the real mentality of these religious salesmen. She

understands that they are mentally sick and contain insatiable lust for power

and this lust for power passes from one generation to another like an

exquisite legacy. To make her point strong she created the character of

Rajajii, who is son of Pir Sain and a replica of his worst and wickedest

version. He does not show any sign of mercy even to his own mother, who

suffered throughout her life. He put her into jail without any food and water

when he got to know that Heer became a threat to shrine. Heer understands

his mentality and indicates, "My son is a link in a satanic chain"

(Durrani208). This appetite for power is never satisfied and makes them

mentally sick and corrupts their souls. The corruption of soul is something

that cannot be healed and it is a carbuncle of soul which grows day by day.

These simulated God created by humans thinks they are cheating Allah

and innocent people by nurturing fear of Allah in their mind and heart but in

reality they are cheating none other than themselves without even realizing

it. But Tehmina make sure to highlight all the follies that exist in the

hypocrisy of religions. Ramadan is considered as the most holy month of

Muslim calendar. It is a month of fasting, prayers and spiritual reflection.

But in this same month Pir Sain's demand for attention increases and it

became very hard for the people around him as Heer says, "pleasing and

Page | 30

appeasing our master and God at the same time was impossible"

(Durrani83). After the month of Ramadan when Heer became pregnant, he

orders Heer to have an abortion because he does not want to deprive himself

of sexual pleasure after whole month of fasting. But abortion it is highly

prohibited in Islam and considered "haram" (forbidden). That is why Heer

comments, "he practiced another religion" (Durrani83). His religion is based

on selfishness, ego and greed. And it is complete opposite to the real practice

of Islam.

Hypocrisy is like oxygen for these fraud Gods and they feed on

duplicity. If they really know their jobs, then they would have understood

that Allah strictly disallows any kind of hypocrisy as it clearly mention in

Qur'an in Surat l- nisaa, "Verily, the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths

of the fire" (Qur'an4:145). But they don't understand Qur'an and only look

out for their own advantages and earthly life. They don't lead people

according to Qur'an but on their own greed and gluttony. Tehmina is not

against the Islam or Allah but she is raising her voice here against the system

of grave worshiping that is led by the predatory leader of Islam. Pir Sain

subjugates the 'weak' and 'helpless' in the name of Allah and Islam. And if

anyone dared to raise his voice against the system, then he/she was crumpled

in such a way that it became an example for other rebel to never question the

authority of the Pir's inherited Shrine. Kali, Guppi, Toti, Tara, Chote Sain,

Sakhi Baba, and Yathimri, Cheel – all became the victim of this dark system.

Only those who blindly followed to the requirements of Pir are considered

reliable Muslims. Durrani portrays a clear image of Pir Sain taking away

everything from Heer on the name of Allah. This novel presents the dark

side of religion which is created by the man God and how he use religion as

an instrument to get supremacy. Pir Sain turns religion into a business. The

Shrine in nothing but his shop and he is a clever shopkeeper who con his

customers (followers) on the bases of their problems. He takes their money

and expensive gifts but in returns he presents nothing but only lies and

deceptions.

Tehmina is not an atheist, she respect her religion as we find throughout

the novel Heer bows her head in front of Allah not to the fake God. Tehmina

is against the Pirs and Shrine worship system. She observes that these Pirs

are no different form the terrorists. Both take money from the people with

the help of fear but the only difference is that terrorist use guns and Pir uses

religion. They give people alluring exchange offers. They make prophecies

about future and wishes and in return they need great sacrifices. This is how

their business keeps on blooming. Tehmina create a stir in the society with

Page | 31

the publication of this novel and believers of fake God condemned it very

much. But she never afraid to depict what she really wants to tell her readers

and that is increasing hypocrisy in Islam because of these mullahs and Pir

Fakir. Though the story is set in Pakistan but it happens all over the world.

Here Tehmina is talking about Muslim religion but the situation of other

religion is no different. These fake monks, priests, hermits, are destroying

religion and people's faith from their respective God. These ogres pretend to

have virtues and religious philosophies but in reality they practice

dishonesty. It is one of the greatest sins. Through this novel Tehmina tried to

create awareness of this corruption of soul and make readers realize to do

acts according to Allah and Qur'an not to a human God.

References

1. Durrani, Tehmina. Blasphemy, New Delhi: Penguin Random House,

India Pvt. Ltd., 1999, Print.

2. Haleem, Abdul. M.A.S, The Qur'an: English Translation and Parallel

Arabic Text, Oxford UP, 2016, Print.

3. Pilburn, Sidney. Dalai Lama: A Policy of kindness, Delhi: Motilal

Banarsidass Publication, 2002, Print.

4. Rani, Sandeep. "Women and Religion in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis

of Tehmina Durrani's Blasphemy: A Novel." Remarking: vol -2, Issue-2

july-2015, Web.

Web Sources

https://www.newageislam.com/indian-clerics-set-to-counter-

misconception-shrouding-rights-of-muslim-women/islam,-women-and-

femsinism/d/113182

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrXczV-n4P8

https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/story/19910630-

tehmina-durrani-if-he -can-treat-his-own-women-this-way-how -will-he-

treat-the-nation-814486-1991-06-30

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

New Delhi: Penguin Random House

  • Tehmina Durrani
  • Blasphemy

Durrani, Tehmina. Blasphemy, New Delhi: Penguin Random House, India Pvt. Ltd., 1999, Print.

The Qur'an: English Translation and Parallel Arabic Text

  • Abdul M A Haleem

Haleem, Abdul. M.A.S, The Qur'an: English Translation and Parallel Arabic Text, Oxford UP, 2016, Print.

Dalai Lama: A Policy of kindness

  • Sidney Pilburn

Pilburn, Sidney. Dalai Lama: A Policy of kindness, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publication, 2002, Print.

Women and Religion in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis of Tehmina Durrani's Blasphemy: A Novel

  • Sandeep Rani

Rani, Sandeep. "Women and Religion in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis of Tehmina Durrani's Blasphemy: A Novel." Remarking: vol-2, Issue-2 july-2015, Web. Web Sources https://www.newageislam.com/indian-clerics-set-to-countermisconception-shrouding-rights-of-muslim-women/islam,-women-andfemsinism/d/113182