Children of Dust_ A Memoir of Pakistan - Ali Eteraz [68]
“Can you tell me about my ancestors?” I asked.
Ammi was washing dishes and the pots clattered down the phone line as she spoke. “Sure,” she said. “My family descended from Mongols. They were Genghis Khan’s children.”
“So they weren’t always Muslim?”
“No.”
“That sucks,” I said despondently. “Well, what about the fact that the Mongols converted to Islam?”
“Not my family,” she said. “We converted to Islam after becoming Sikh. Before that we were Hindu.”
“Hindu?” I exclaimed.
Ammi picked up the accusation in my voice and became defensive. “Initially Hindu, yes. But my family has served Islam well. I told you about Beyji and my great-grandfather. What about him? He built a mosque and converted jinns to Islam.”
“Yes,” I said, with barely contained antagonism. “But they don’t count.” I was irritated by all these people descending from Sikhs and Hindus. “Listen. Can you just not tell people that you come from Hindu stock?”
I could tell by the lack of background noise that she’d quit doing dishes and was concentrating on our conversation. “Why?” she asked cautiously.
“It sounds bad.”
“No thanks,” she said. “I am Rajput Bhatti,” she added, affirming her Hindu heritage with pride.
“Astaghfirullah!” I exclaimed (having stopped saying “Jesus Christ!” to express frustration). I seethed on the phone. I didn’t want to be associated with Ammi’s side of the family anymore, so I looked for ways to diminish them.
“Isn’t it true that your family didn’t support the creation of Pakistan?” I asked angrily. “How shameful! All those Muslims that died for Islam—and your family opposed them!” I knew it was a cheap shot since just as many Muslims had stayed in India as had gone to Pakistan, but I felt resentful and wanted to let her know.
“You’re right,” she admitted. “My father didn’t want Punjab to be split up. He felt that during the Partition of 1947 all the Muslims of India should stay in one united country.”
“Let’s forget about your family,” I said, trying a different tack. “Isn’t it true that in Islam we follow the father’s side of the biology?”
“True.”
“So tell me about them.”
“Hold on,” she said. “You do realize that on the Day of Judgment everyone will be raised under their mother’s name?”
“Yes, but we’re talking about this life,” I countered. “In this kind of stuff, this life is more important than the afterlife.”
Ammi began with stories of Pops’s family from the time of the Partition of India and Pakistan. She reminded me about the aunts that jumped into the well. The story of the buried treasure. The nights in the open grave. The way Dada Abu had lost Dadi Ma during the transfer and then found her in a refugee camp. This was much better, I thought. People who had died for Islam; who had showed how much they loved the religion by giving up their most valuable possession. I wanted to belong to this group.
“So what about before the Partition? Where were Pops’s ancestors from?”
Ammi excused herself for a moment and went to ask Pops. I could hear them consulting for several minutes. Finally she returned.
“You guys are Siddiquis,” she said.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“It’s like a family name, but it’s also a caste. It comes down from Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddiq.”
My hands began shaking, and my pulse picked up.
“You mean the Abu Bakr Siddiq?” I asked. “The first convert to Islam?”
“Who else?”
I almost dropped the phone. Abu Bakr? He was one of the most celebrated personalities of Islam. He accompanied Muhammad on the migration to Medina, and the two men hid together in a cave when their enemies from the Quraysh tribe came looking for them. It was across the mouth of that cave that a spider commanded by Allah wove a web, to make it appear that no one was inside. Abu Bakr was the man who affirmed Muhammad’s story about the ascension to heaven to the skeptics in Mecca (which earned him the nickname “the Truthteller”). Abu Bakr was also very generous with his money, purchasing many slaves from oppressive holders and setting them free. Before his death, Muhammad appointed Abu Bakr to lead the