Reminiscence, blessings of River ‘Jhelum’
Aubaid Ahmed Akhoon
The land of Kashmir has been blessed by the Lord of the worlds. There is no precedent for the beauty of Kashmir. Here on keen observation, one can come across the presence of Allah which is quite evident from everything seen here.
One of these most beautiful evidences is “The river Jhelum” which has a unique place in refining and adding to the beauty of Kashmir. The Jhelum river starts from ‘Verinag ‘ and finally ends up in the Chenab river located in Pakistan after passing various stages. The settlements along the river Jhelum have been observing this river every single day in one way or the other. These people are more aware and well known of its importance be it in case of water or in case of livelihood as a large group of people are wholly and solely dependent upon this river.
I’m also one of those lucky ones who have spent their childhood around the Jhelum river and even today a handful of memories go on circulating in my mind. I used to go out with my friends to enjoy fishing.
Fishing itself is an art of fascination and the best natural way to gain happiness and patience. It was an utter treat to wait for hours and hours for a fish to get stuck in the hook. It felt like utmost pleasure when after hours of hard work and patience we used to catch the fish.
But at the same time, imagining a fish in hands while returning empty handed to our homes, turned out to be a natural way of increasing endurance ;which is primarily missing in today’s generation. Though fish is an excellent food and a rich source of proteins but many children today do not prefer eating fish.
Fish is considered to the worldwide favourite food. In the broader aspect, even in the “Tibbe Nabvi” (a book on the medical guidance of prophet PBUH) , benefits of eating fish are mentioned.
Fish contains a large amount of unsaturated fat which automatically lowers the cholesterol level. In addition to this, fish meat and oil are useful in preventing heart diseases, obesity, depression, cancer and many other diseases.
It also helps in keeping skin healthy and better healing of wounds. Omega present in fish oil is vitally beneficial for a healthy heart. Supplements of fish oil during pregnancy help in the development of baby’s eyes and brain and improve neural coordination.
”Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ibn Majah have said in their books in the narration of Hazrat Abdullah ibn Umar, that the Messenger of Allah (Pbuh) said:
“Two kinds of dead meat and two kinds of blood have been permitted to us. The two kinds of dead meat are fish and locusts, and the two kinds of blood are the liver and spleen.”
Eating and consuming fish is halal in Islam. There is no need to slaughter the fish because as soon as it comes out of water, the whole system of its body changes into a specialized one formalized by Allah. As soon as a fish comes out of water and dies, all the blood of its body accumulates in the epiclasts present in its mouth. All of its body becomes sterilized as result of which it doesn’t need to be slaughtered. Apart from the fishes, I remember the sand which was extracted from the river Jhelum by the ‘Hanjis’ in large piles on the shores. It was a great source of exercise and sports in our spare times.
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs but not every man’s greed” (Mahatma Gandhi)
It is rightly said that “change is the law of nature”. As time passed by, our way of living changed and so did our priorities. Nowadays, fishes are becoming scarce in the river Jhelum and the water is becoming increasingly filthy and unsafe day by day.
Furthermore, the prices of sand exported from Jhelum are skyrocketing by every passing day and despite all of this we have left no stone unturned in polluting river Jhelum. All the garbage coming from the houses and all the sewage of the drains is dumped down into the Jhelum.
Also instead of burying dead animals, they are being flung into the Jhelum during the darkness of the night. If we take a look at the older pictures of Dal lake, we can observe how wide the lake was at that time. But now it is so unfortunate that because of illegal constructions, poor governance, some selfish elements and largely because of lack of awareness; this dying lake is itself telling it’s story and despite all of this if we still keep on doing what we have been doing since years, the same will happen to river Jhelum. If we are still reluctant to take any firm action, river Jhelum will lose all its beauty and glory in the next few years which is quite vigilant in some areas in the present times.
Our past, our present and whatever remains of our future, absolutely depend on what we do now.
“Let’s nurture the nature so that we can have a better future”
(The author is working as Sr Edp head at DD Target PMT Parraypora)
KV Network
