SCENE (12) – ALAM INVITES SHIRQUI TO INVADE PANDUA
Setting:
- A modest Sufi lodge on the outskirts of the city. Night.
- No luxury. A mat, a lamp, a low table.
- At center sits Nur Qutbi Alam.
- Outside, distant shouts. A door opens.
(A group of MUSLIM COMMONERS enter—men, women, elders.)
(Some are injured. One man carries a torn prayer mat.)
FIRST COMMONER
Forgive us for coming at night. Roads are not safe for Muslims by day.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Night does not offend truth.
Sit.
SECOND COMMONER
They burned our shops.
THIRD COMMONER
They marked our doors.
MUSLIM WOMAN
They dragged my brother for refusing to chant.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Who did this?
FIRST COMMONER
Hindu radicals.
SECOND COMMONER
Protected by soldiers.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
By order?
THIRD COMMONER
By their silence.
(Silence. This matters.)
MUSLIM ELDER
The king favors one faith openly now.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Favor is not law.
MUSLIM ELDER
Then why does law look away?
SECOND COMMONER
We went to court.
FIRST COMMONER
They told us: patience.
MUSLIM WOMAN
How long is patience when your house is ash?
THIRD COMMONER
We cannot live as tolerated guests.
MUSLIM ELDER
Make it just.
SECOND COMMONER
Declare it openly.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Declare what?
FIRST COMMONER
An Islamic state.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
I do not crown kings.
MUSLIM ELDER
But you stop rule.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
I spray faith, stop hatred.
SECOND COMMONER
Then stop this hatred.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Faith cannot be enforced without becoming its enemy.
THIRD COMMONER
Neither can survival be postponed.
MUSLIM WOMAN
We are being beaten because we are Muslim.
FIRST COMMONER
And because the ruler is Hindu.
MUSLIM ELDER
And because the capital protects them.
(Silence. No denial.)
NUR QUTBI ALAM
If I call for war—
SECOND COMMONER
—war has already come to us.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
If I call Jaunpur—
MUSLIM ELDER
—then at least it will speak our name.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
You ask me to choose power over patience.
FIRST COMMONER
We ask you to choose life over silence.
(NUR QUTBI ALAM rises slowly.)
NUR QUTBI ALAM
I do not believe this land belongs to one faith.
MUSLIM ELDER
But today it belongs to fear.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
And fear must be confronted before it becomes tradition.
Bring parchment and a rider.
(A disciple brings paper and ink. The saint writes deliberately, aloud.)
NUR QUTBI ALAM
(to himself, but heard)
“To Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, Sultan of Jaunpur—
Bengal bleeds from sanctioned cruelty. A ruler has chosen favor over justice. A people are punished for prayer. Intervene—not for conquest, but for restraint.”
(He seals the letter.)
SECOND COMMONER
Will this make it an Islamic state?
NUR QUTBI ALAM
It will make oppression expensive.
MUSLIM WOMAN
Then we accept the cost.
NUR QUTBI ALAM
So do I.
(He hands the letter to the messenger.)
NUR QUTBI ALAM
Go.
(The messenger exits.)
NUR QUTBI ALAM (to himself)
When rulers forget mercy, saints are forced to remember power.
BLACKOUT.
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