Following interview of Tasneemben Palanpurwala by Mudar Patherya

Several years ago, my father (Shaikh Tyebali Davoodbhoy, then in the khidmat of the Daawat) was flying from Bombay on official work. He had left home for the Santa Cruz airport when we received an urgent call from Saifee Mahal enquiring if dad had left. We said he had. The person hung up.

An hour or so later, my father returned home. What happened? Did he miss the flight? He replied that when he reached the airport, there was a miyasaab waiting for him with a directive from Huzurala asking him not to take the flight. My father obeyed, did not show up for the flight and returned. The next day, the newspapers were full of the headline that the flight that my father supposed to have taken had crashed.


There is another instance that is a part of our family lore. My father suffered a series of massive heart attacks and was admitted in the ICU of a Bombay hospital. At one point, doctors confessed that they would not be able to save him. At that very moment, we received a call in the hospital. The voice at the other end asked, "Aqa Maula is asking that how is Shaikh Tyebali at this moment." We conveyed the grim news.


In a short while, Shehzada Mufaddal Bhaisaheb had arrived at the ICU. The doctors told him that they had tried their best in vain. Suddenly, Shehzada saheb said in a loud voice: "Shaikh Tyebali, maney tamara Dai Syedna Mohamad Burhanuddin Saheb ye mokla chhey! Tamara waaste ehnu paigam chhey! Suno chho?!"

This is what happened thereafter: a few seconds later, my father opened his eyes, looked up and lifted his head from the pillow.

Simple (and yet not to so simple) words had done where repeated shock treatments had failed. Thereafter, Shehzada saheb conveyed Aqa Maula’s kalaam that “Shaikh Tyebali ne kaho ke eh paacha Badri Mahal (his workplace) aavse!"



And so it was.

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