By JAVEED GILANI
It was an ordinary day in my neighborhood when suddenly I heard a lot of noise coming from outside my home. People were screaming especially the children. Shouts of excitement and fear filled the air with people running around. Out of curiosity I hurried out to see what was causing the chaos.
As I stepped out, I saw a cow on the road, attacking the passersby with her horns. I noticed young men, especially children shouting “Mutmamin noush” which translates to Mutmam’s daughter-in-law at the cow. Every time someone shouted those words, the cow became wild and started attacking people. To all these people this behavior of the cow was a sort of entertainment, something to enjoy and laugh at. The moment the cow walked near the school, all the children would burst into action, running after her and shouting ‘Mutmamin noush!’, it was something worth witnessing. The traffic would stop, people would run to safety and the cow…well, she chased everyone frantically.
Almost every day around the same time this cow would show up followed by the chants of the children and people teasing her. A chaos would unfold, with children running and yelling and the cow chasing them. Sometimes people would even get hurt. Then came a time when this poor cow could no longer exist in peace, there was always someone bullying her with that nickname.
Some days later there was no talk of the cow in town and no chaos whatsoever. It seemed as If this particular cow had completely disappeared. It turned out to that a few days back when the cow was crossing over the Zinakadal Bridge, there were people on both ends of the bridge teasing her “Mutmamin Noush, Mutmamin Noush”. In this state of vulnerability and confusion the cow jumped into the Jhelum. The river was not as cruel as the people—it did not mock or hurt her. Perhaps, in her eyes, death felt kinder.
Looking back, all of this seemed like a series of funny and entertaining events. We laughed, we watched, and we never thought twice. But today, when I remember that cow, I can’t help but wonder—if a nickname, made just for fun, could hurt an animal so deeply, how much more pain can it cause a human being?
This thought reminds me of a verse in The Holy Quran chapter 49, verse 11, of Surah Al Hujurat, where Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala says:
“Do not defame (or insult) one another, nor call each other by offensive nicknames, how evil it is to act rebelliously after having faith and whoever does not repent, it is they who are (true) wrongdoers”.
JAVEED GILANI can be reached @
Javeedgilani84@gmail.com
