Power of the Unseen
By Rafiq Ebrahim
Gllyn IL

My brother-in-law and his family had come to Karachi from the USA on a visit in 1985. We were coming back from my father-in-law’s place in Clifton to go to an uncle’s place in Gulshan-e-Iqbal in my old Volkswagen. Just as we approached the Clifton Bridge, the car staggered, then stopped. It simply wouldn’t start again, though the petrol tank was almost full. I got down, opened the bonnet, looked at the engine and checked the spark plugs, but to no avail.
It was getting late that dark night. The road was almost deserted, for in those days traffic was not so heavy. My wife and my sister-in-law were wearing conspicuous and glittering jewelry, and I got scared at the thought of some evil-intentioned persons, coming there and taking advantage of our plight.
Fortunately, a taxi was passing by. I hailed it and urged my brother-in-law to take the family to the uncle’s place in that taxi. I told him that I would somehow manage to get the car started or park it at a safe place for the night.
To leave the car there would be inviting trouble, because in those days car thieves were making hay, and if not stolen, certainly I would find a skeleton of my car in the morning, because they would take away the tires and the engine during the night.
I signaled a couple of cars passing by to stop and help me by either giving a push to the car or tow it to the nearest gas station (petrol pump). But nobody bothered to stop.
God! Help me, I prayed inwardly many times. A few minutes later, I saw a man wrapped in a white shawl, approaching me. He asked me if I needed any help. I told him about my plight. He asked me to open the bonnet, which I did. He just put his hands over various parts of the engine and asked me to get into the car and turn the ignition key. I did that and, to my utter surprise, the car started!
I got out of the car to close the bonnet and thank the man and ask him whether he needed a ride to go somewhere, but the man had just disappeared! I looked about, but he was nowhere in sight. Nonplussed and completely at a loss to comprehend where the man might have gone, I remained seated in the car for a few minutes.
Then it dawned on me! Was he a man? Or…..
Was it help from the Unknown? Power of the Unseen? A Miracle?

 

 

 


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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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