This is an incident which happened on 17th March 2008. There was a fire in the industrial estate in which our printing press is located on the 2nd floor. The fire began at 3.00 pm in the afternoon in an industrial unit which is involved in refilling aerosol sprays located on the 4th floor of the building. Each of the 50 units in the building is engaged in activities that involve the use of highly inflammable material. I was inside our office and suddenly I heard a sound of explosion, which sounded like either gun shots or bomb explosions. I immediately rushed out of the unit. People were running up and down shouting to everyone to vacate the premises immediately. We all rushed out leaving everything behind. As soon as I reached the ground floor, I saw the fire had already spread to the third and second floor as it was very windy.

I telephoned my father and informed him to rush to the factory. I stood there watching the fire engulf the whole building. People who were trapped inside were being brought down using ropes, some jumped on the parapet. I was waiting and just praying in my mind seeking the doa of Syedi Mazoon Saheb TUS ke Maula aap hamaare aag ma si bachaavi lo. Laagtu notu ke aag qaabu ma aawse, fire was spreading as it was very windy. The fire brigade arrived very late. In fact hamara just upar na baju no galo (unit no 305 on third floor) was burning. We could hear explosions intermittently because either koi na machine ni tank burst thaati hoi or chemical na drums explode thaata hata. As soon as daddy came I immediately phoned Haider bhai Calcuttawala to ask him to inform Mazoon Maula and seek his doa (that time Mazoon Maula was in Dubai). Haider bhai was able to speak to Sakina baisaheb, who told him ke Abdullah bhai ne kejo ke Mazoon Maula ye doa farmavi chhe ane nazrul maqam maane, sadaqo karay and bani sakay to gaala na nazdeek jai ne doa ‘al-Joshan’ padhe.

Doa ni araz thai and in some time the fire that had engulfed the unit No 305 qaabu ma aavi ane aag further spread na thai. Mazoon Maula ni doa na sabab hamay bachi gaya. A total of 10 lives were lost in the fire, most of the industrial units on the 3rd and 4th floor were badly damaged. However unit No. 306 which is exactly above our gaala was saved with the doa of Mazoon Maula, and as a result our factory which is located just below on the second floor (gaala No. 206) was unscathed.

Nobody was allowed to enter the premises. However next morning we went to building, and I requested a fire brigade official that there was no damage to our gaala, I also did not have a fire insurance policy, so could I be allowed to enter the premises and remove the copper rollers from the machine. In case the ink dried on them they would crack and I would have to incur an expense of Rs50,000/- to re-copperize them. Mazoon Maula ni doa na sabab officer ne su sujhu ke manay jaava didu, ane rollers bachi gaya. In the whole gaala there was ankle deep water pan apne kai wadhare nuksaan nai thayu. Many industrial units incurred losses not due to the fire but indirectly due to the heat in the building; their machines were damaged.

I can only conclude that Mazoon Maula ni doa jo dil si leso to tamnay ehno faido zaroor milse. Aqa Taher ye farmaayu chhe ke “Khuzaima ni doa mustajab chhe.” Ye vaat ma koi shak nathi. In fact there has been another incident of fire in the same building, but we emerged unscathed from it, only because we had sought the doa of Syedi Mazoon Saheb TUS.

A similar incident has happened before. Every year since the past sixteen years continuously we have been lucky to be given the sharaf of iftaar to Mazoon Maula. In the year 1426H. on the night of 24th Shehrullah, Mazoon Maula iftaar ziyafat ma si qariban 11 pm hamara ghare si padhaara. Within an hour I received a telephone call from a cousin that there is a fire in Retiwala Industrial Estate, he had no further details. I panicked, did not know how to tell daddy. I immediately phoned Mazoon Maula’s residence at 12 midnight to seek doa. Shehzada Taher bhaisaheb was on the line, he did araz to Mazoon Maula, Maula ye doa farmaavi ane farmaayu ke janaawjo kahaan aag laagi chhe. We went to the industrial estate and learnt that the fire had begun at approx 10pm. The unit which is just opposite ours separated by hardly 4 feet on our floor had caught fire. There was total chaos. The owner of the unit which was on fire came out from the building. He had been taken upstairs by the fire men. He told daddy “Kaka fikar na karo tamay bilkul safe chho. Hu toh khatam thai gayo chhu.” We were not allowed to stand there. It was early morning, we went home. At around 8am we went back and managed to go up. You will not believe it, the unit adjacent to ours was knee deep in water. It is a thread-making unit, all his reels of thread were floating in water; the opposite unit was completely charred; there was water in the passage. But due to the doa of Mazoon Maula there was a pile of garbage which had collected near the entrance of our gaala, which prevented the water from entering our premises. It seemed as if the water had changed its path of flowing near our entrance. When we opened the gaala it was COMPLETELY DRY. Not a miniscule of damage. It is only the doa seeker with yaqeen who will benefit from the doa of Mazoon Maula.

[Contributed by Munira Bai Kaka]