Woman's corpse preserved for 18 years awaiting burial in Karbala

By: Nizam Hussain

LUCKNOW, India: “Dafan hon to waheen hon (bury me only there)” was the last wish of Iftekhar Fatima who expired in 1986 in Indian city of Lucknow.

Like many other followers of Ahlul Bayt (progeny of holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad peace be on him & his pure progeny), she too had expressed her last wish to be buried in the holy city of Karbala, Iraq – home to the holy mausoleums of Hazrat Imam Hussain bin Ali bin Abi Talib (peace be on him) and his brother Hazrat Abbas bin Ali bin Abi Talib (peace be on him).

But even after 18 long years her body is lying in a room in the city's Malika Jahan Kabristan (Queen Jahan graveyard) waiting for a final journey to Karbala. Though the downfall of Saddam's regime had raised the hopes of her family members impatiently waiting to fulfill her “last wish”, the recent developments in Iraq have thrown a spanner in their tireless efforts. Nonetheless, they are willing to wait for yet another year to fulfill her will.

Iftekhar Fatima is not the only one awaiting burial in the holy city of Karbala. Along with her are many others in different parts of the country who had expressed their desire to be buried there.

In Uttar Pradesh there are now two. The other one is Sakina Begum, aunt of Begum Noor Bano, whose body lies in Rampur. Two bodies, one of MK Ali Khan and Ashkar Fatima were buried in Lucknow after a painful wait of 12 and 29 years respectively. Ashkar had died in 1976. The question haunting the family members today is whether they would ever fulfill their last wish.

When Fatima's son Maulana Hameedul Hassan had promised to fulfill her last wish in 1986, little did he know that keeping his word to his mother on the death-bed would prove to be such a Herculean task.

He explains: “Many from my mother's side were buried in Karbala. I myself had taken the body of my relative Syed Ale Muhammad Zaidi in 1954 to Karbala for his burial. There were no problems then. After taking permission from the Government, the coffin carrying the body was taken to Karbala by steamer. Later they were flown.”

Maulana said that they did try to take Fatima's body to Karbala but every time they were dissuaded by the information that the security agencies, armed by modern satellite vigilance, may force open the box, which cannot be permitted at any cost as it would tantamount to disrespect to the body.

It may be recalled that Saddam had not only committed lot of atrocities on Shias, he had also engineered attacks on Karbala and dissuaded Shias from undertaking holy visit to Karbala and Najaf.

Saddam's tyrannical rule forced many Shias to take bodies of their relatives to Iran for burial. But Maulana Hameedul Hasan couldn't even do that.

His family members' dilemma is that his mother had disfavored her burial in Iran. In fact she remained non-committal whenever they had asked her about what should be done in case it became impossible to bury her in Karbala. Her cryptic reply was “Do whatever you want”. To ensure that she did not impose any financial burden on the family, she left behind a piece of land, some gold bangles etc to be sold for her last journey.

To preserve the body from getting fumed, several three-part layers of cotton, camphor, sandalwood powder and mehndi (henna) are used. Thereafter the wooden box is sealed in a steel box, which is kept in a room, which too is sealed to make it airtight.

Though the family members can check the condition of the body, they prefer to keep it untouched till the time it reaches Karbala for the last rites.

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