Pakistan : Sufi organization hands over 110-year-old Sikh manuscripts to Gurdwara

Islamaba : The Sufi organization in Pakistan handed over 110-year-old rare manuscripts of the Guru Granth Sahib to a gurdwara in Sialkot, Punjab province, to strengthen the Muslim-Sikh brotherhood. According to a media report, the manuscripts were kept at a Pir’s house in Pakistan for 90 years.

The ancient Sikh form kept with a Sufi family in Gujarat district in the Punjab province of Pakistan has now been handed over to the Gurdwara Baba Di Beri administration at Sialkot by local Sufi friend Sanjh Punjab.

Iftikhar Varraich Kalravi, the head of the Sufi organization, said that two manuscripts of the Guru Granth Sahib were long preserved at the house of Syed Munir Naqshbandi, a Sufi pir of Gujarat. The Naqshbandi, advocating mutual harmony, had protected some Sikh families at home and some of their religious texts, trying to avoid ethnic violence before Partition, and protected them from desecration. There were two manuscripts of Guru Granth Sahib among them.

Kalravi told that after the death of a Sufi elder in 1950, his children had kept them safe and had been with the family since then.

After keeping the manuscripts safe for over 90 years with Pir’s family, we have now decided that these manuscripts should be handed over to Gurdwara Baba Di Beri. It is a shining example of Muslim-Sikh friendship and will help strengthen our relationship.