In my last chapter I related how the saint Udero Lal and his disciple Phugar, after diving into the Indus near Nasarpur, came to the surface between Rohri and Sukkur and landed on a rocky island. The island is still there and bears on its rounded back a temple to Zinda Pir. According to the Hindus Zinda or the living Pir is none other than Udero Lal. According to the Musulmans he is somebody quite different.

According to the Musulmans, the river Indus flowed once past Alor and not past Rohri. Somewhere in the tenth century A.D. a Hindu king called Dalurai ruled at Alor. He and his brother Sasu Rai practised every kind of abomination. Such were their wickedness and their vigour that they enforced the jus primae noctis on every young lady, who was married within their dominions. On one occasion a pious Musulman merchant named Shah Hussein was going down the Indus, so that he might sail from its mouth to Arabia and visit Mecca. With [19]him journeyed his beautiful daughter. On the way they stopped at Alor and the beauty of the merchant’s daughter was noised abroad and reached the ears of King Dalurai, who instantly demanded that she should be sent to his palace. But neither Shah Hussain nor his daughter had any wish that she should become the concubine of a Hindu king. They both prayed fervently to Zinda Pir. He appeared in a vision to the young girl and bade her and her father board their boat and weigh anchor. They did so and the stream at Zinda Pir’s command, changed its course and leaving Alor, brought the boat and its burden to Rohri. When Shah Hussain awoke next morning, he was close to Udero Lal’s island. To it he moored his boat and built the temple, that stands there to this day. On it are the words “Darga Ali.” These give the date 341 A.H. or 961 A.D.

The above tale explains the foundation of the temple but it does not tell us who the saint himself was. Earnest Christians will hear with surprise that he is none other than their old friend the prophet Elijah. They will probably exclaim with Molière’s M. Géronte “Mais que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère?” It was this way. According to the Islamic legend, Elijah was in a former life a very holy man indeed, named Balya Ebn Malkan. Because of the colour of his garment, he was also known as Al Khisr or the Prophet of the Green robe. Balya Ebn Malkan was the contemporary of Moses and in Chapter 18 of the Koran we find him going with Moses on a most interesting circular tour. The story is shortly this. Once the great Jewish sage was preaching to his people with such wisdom and eloquence that at the close of his sermon, they asked him whether there was any man in the world wiser than he was. Conscious of his great powers, he replied in the negative. That night God appeared to him in a dream, rebuked him for his [20]vanity and told him that his servant Al Khisr was wiser than he was. Moses asked where he could meet this paragon of wisdom. God answered that Moses would find Al Khisr near a rock where two seas met. If Moses took a fish with him in a basket, the spot where he missed the fish would be the place where the prophet of the green robe dwelt. Moses took Joshua and a fish with him and in due course missed the fish and found the prophet. Moses asked leave to be Al Khisr’s disciple and to learn his wisdom. Al Khisr answered that if Moses came and suffered all that Al Khisr did without asking any questions he could be his disciple, but not otherwise. Moses promised to do so and the two prophets went to the sea shore and boarded a ship. Al Khisr at once made a hole in the bottom of it. Moses indignantly asked whether he wanted to drown every soul on board. But his companion sternly reminded Moses of his promise and left the ship. A little later they met a youth. Al Khisr struck him so violently on the head that he died at once. Moses angrily asked why he had taken an innocent life. Al Khisr again rebuked him and went his way to a city. There they saw a crumbling wall which the citizens could not repair. Al Khisr touched the wall with his hand and it became as if it had been newly built. Moses asked him why he did not claim from the citizens a rich reward. Al Khisr then turned on his unfortunate disciple and cast him forth. “Three times” said Al Khisr, “you have broken your promise and questioned my acts. You are not worthy to be my pupil. I made a hole in the ship to save it from the king’s men. Had it been seaworthy, they would have taken the ship by force and given the owner nothing. I killed the youth, because although the son of true believers, he was himself an unbeliever and I feared lest he should corrupt the faith of his parents. I repaired the wall for nothing, because hidden [21]under it was a treasure, which a righteous man had buried there before he died. He left two orphan sons and it is God’s will that when they reach man’s state, they shall find their father’s treasure.”

During Al Khisr’s existence as Balya Ebn Malkan he found and drank the waters of immortality. That was why as Elijah he did not die, but was transported to heaven in a fiery chariot. And because he drank the waters of immortality, he is always connected with running water; and with what nobler stream, could he be associated than the Indus, as it passes through the Sukkur gorge?

To-day the special duty of Zinda Pir is to help the Indus boatmen when in distress. His functions are thus similar to those of the ancient Dioscuri, of whom Macaulay wrote:

The Indus is terribly dangerous in July and August, when the mighty river swollen by the melting snows of the Himalayas comes tearing and tossing through the gorge. So one who has seen the Indus in flood can never forget the sight. It is then that the boatmen pray to Al Khisr. To attend more closely to their prayers, Al Khisr comes in person to his temple and for forty days sits in a little niche specially reserved for him. The niche has comfortable cushions and in front of it is laid a copy of the Koran. The saint is invisible, but the mujavars or attendants of the mosque or temple know that he has been there; for when the forty days begin they place in front of the niche the Koran open at the first page and when the forty days are past, they find the Koran open at the last [22]page. Elijah has in his leisure moments read the Koran from cover to cover.