These two brothers are helping Pakistanis dispose of old Qurans
QUETTA: Deep inside the dry, biscuit-coloured mountains surrounding Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta lies an unexpected treasure: a honeycomb of tunnels bursting with cases of Qurans, hidden safe from desecration.
The hill known as Jabal-eNoor, or “Mountain of Light”, has been visited by hundreds of thousands of people since two brothers turned it into a shrine for Islam’s holy book, some copies of which are up to 600 years old, officials who run it say.
“We have buried at least five million sacks of old Qurans,” says Jabal-eNoor administrator Haji Muzaffar Ali.
But the mountain’s labyrinth of tunnels is steadily nearing capacity. Hundreds of sacks packed with copies of the holy book now lie exposed on the hillside as administrators struggle to create space for them.
The problem is especially thorny in Pakistan, where any disrespect to the Quran can inflame accusations of blasphemy, punishable by death — whether by the state or at the hands of a vigilant mob.
Islam’s holy text is believed by Muslims to be the word of God spoken through the Prophet Mohammad directly to mankind.
Religious scholars approve of two ways: by wrapping the book carefully in a cloth and burying it in the ground, as at Jabal-eNoor, or placing it in flowing water so the ink is washed away from the pages.
But the man behind the mountain, affluent 77-yearold businessman Abdul Sammad Lehri, has an idea that, if realised, would prove both risky and revolutionary: building one of Pakistan’s first-ever Quranrecycling plants.