The Zikris

In the coastal areas of Karachi and Balochistan, you will find that Muslims are described either as “Namazis” or “Zikris”. The Zikris do not pray in the manner that other Muslims do. Instead of namaz, they do “zikr”, apparently reciting what they have learnt. Sometimes you find a zikri man having a namazi brother, and often a namazi man will marry a zikri woman (and vice versa). The zikris, like the Qadianis, do not believe in the Holy Prophet Mohammad (saw) being the last of the prophets. They are the followers of Syed Muhammed Jaunpuri, who lived and preached five hundred years ago.

Not much is known about this fake prophet, except that he was very pious. But I have heard the following story about him (which may, or may not, be true).

He is said to have raped his own mother (while drunk). When he recovered, he was deeply ashamed of himself and left immediately for Makkah. In a few years he had acquired so much knowledge about Islam that he came to be regarded as an outstanding scholar. One day, some visitors from India asked him why he had never married. He replied that he was so much involved in the study of Islam that he had never thought of living a normal life. So they told him about a girl who was with them and asked him if he would marry her. Since she was from his hometown (Jaunpur), he agreed, and they became man and wife. After a couple of years, she told him that she wanted to go back to India and see her aged mother. He agreed and eventually they arrived at her house in Jaunpur, where he was shocked to find that her mother was also his mother, whom he had raped many years ago. He immediately realized that his wife was actually his daughter. That was when he went crazy and headed for the mountains where he lived alone for a long time. Eventually, he concluded that since he had suffered so much, he must be either a prophet, or Imam Mehdi, about whom you find references in many books on Islam. He now began preaching among the illiterate Indian Muslims, and soon gained thousands of converts. But he also faced resistance from the true Muslims, and soon he migrated to Baluchistan, where the Zikris perform their annual pilgrimage (they call it Haj)on the 27th of Ramzan at Kohi-Murad near Turbat.
Eventually he settled in the city of Farah (in Kandahar, Afghanistan), where he died and was buried in 1505 (910 Hijri).

As I said above, I cannot say if what I have heard about his personal life is true or not. If there are those among my readers who have some knowledge about him, I shall be grateful if they will share it with me. There are estimated to be at least five million Zikris in the world, most of them in Sindh & Baluchistan, but also in India and Iran. Some Zikris do not believe that Syed Mohammed Jaunpuri was a prophet, but that he was Imam Mehdi (the twelfth Imam of the Shias).