As-Salam-o Alaikom dear readers!
Today we are going to the tomb of Queen Noor Jehan who was the wife of Mughal Emperor, King Jahangir, and the step-mother of Mughal Emperor, King Shah Jehan. Today, we are going to learn a lesson from history. It is said that history is the best teacher.
Before going to the pictures and trip, I would like to tell my readers that when we were young, we were told the stories of Mughal Emperors (in History classes) and we were very proud that Mughal Emperors were Muslims and ruled India when India was the whole sub-continent that also had a part of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, we didn’t knew that how far were the Mughal Emperors from Islam and its teachings. One example is that drinking was common in them. And today, I feel ashamed instead of being proud when I think that Mughal Emperors were Muslims. It is very hard for me to think that the ancestors of Mughals and Ottomans were same Mongols.
Today, their remains are preserved as a sign of culture. People go to such places just for praising their makers and forget their own Maker who has destroyed these things. Today, we do not learn any lesson from history. Today, we do not think that if such great kings and queens have been perished in the muddy wind of history, we would also be perished. Anwar Masood said about Harappa,
اجڑا سا وہ نگر کہ ہڑپہ ہے جس کا نام
اُس قریۂ شکستہ و شہرِ خراب سے
عبرت کی اِک چھٹانک میسر نہ ہو سکی
کلچر نکل پڑا ہے منوں کے حساب سے
The summary of the above couplets is that from the destroyed Harappa, we have not taken any IBRAT (lesson) but we have taken out a lot of culture from it. Today, when we listen the story of Anarkali and Salem (King Jehangir) we feel very sad for him and think that his father King Akbar has done very bad by not letting the two lovers to unite. How cruel he was! But wait! let’s see all the facts. Salem was a Prince and Anarkali might not knew that the nature of Prince is to not be loyal to one girl. However, Prince Saleem married later with Mehr-un-Nisa (Queen Noor Jehan). Whatever it was, it was his personal life and we do not have anything to do with it. We are not against him for this reason. We are against him for drinking and making himself a god. Sheikh Ahmad Sirhandi Mujaddid Alf Sani (May Allah have Mercy on him) refused to do the prostration of respect at Jahangir’s court and eradicated the wrong practices of his time.
If we just see towards the works of Mughal Emperors, what have they done for Islam? Nothing. And what have they done for themselves? Jahangir built a huge minaret just in the memory of his deer. The Badshahi mosque was built by King Aurangzeb and it was because he was more towards Islam than his fathers and grandfathers. Even after that, the area of that mosque is far lesser than the area of the tombs of Mughal Emperors. And the mosques that were built by his fathers and grandfathers are just like the mosques an ordinary person makes nowadays. After watching those mosques, a person questions himself that whether it was built by an Emperor or some poor person.
I have already said a lot and I will not go further on this topic. Now, I am just going to paste the pictures below that will tell you that it is the result of that proud. Furthermore, it will also tell you that what cruelties were shown by Sikh rulers to Muslims and their properties when they ruled India for a very short duration.
First of all, read the history of this tomb (in English or Urdu) in following pictures. Click the pictures to enlarge.
Even after the destruction, it is beautiful. Think how beautiful it’d be before destruction. And after that, try to think that whose land would be that and whose money would be that. Can you hear the screams of poor people in these pictures and can you see the blood of poor people on these walls?
On one hand, it is the destruction that tells us that nothing lasts forever. So, we should never invest in this world. On the other hand, it gives us the look on the cruelties on the Muslims of India. Sikhs rulers used to tie their horses in mosques and Muslims were not allowed to pray there.
Can you see what people has done with the tombstone of THE QUEEN OF SUB-CONTINENT.
These are the graves of A QUEEN and her daughter. These are the graves of marbles. In fact, these are only the marbles to tell that the grave is here. The corpses were in the basement. Today, People use to sleep on these marble graves. On the other hand, the Saints of Allah do not have any property in this world but has nicer graves with people respecting them. It is not that the government has neglected these ruins but it is what Sikhs rulers had done.
This tomb was very beautiful when it was created. You can imagine this from the image below.
Can you see the tiles? These tiles might not be available nowadays.
Now, we have to move to the original grave but it’ll make this episode very long. There are still 30 more pictures of Noor Jehan’s tomb. They are all ready but I’ll post it next week so that it’ll not be a load in opening and reading. There is a lot more information related to that grave.
Mukarram's space 
MASHALLAHA
ebrat hi ebrat hi hy afsoos malka noor jahan kabi usee zameen per sahan sookat ky sath rahty thi our ab kitni gurbat hu k koi fataha bi nahii parta
it is first hand information and so wonderful for me because I read like this for first time
Just to keep the record straight, the story of Prince Saleem and Anarkali never happened in real. It, actually, is a fiction novel written by Syed Imtiaz Ali Taj sahab and has become so famous that most of us consider it as a true incident of the history of sub-continent.
Sir, thank you for your comment. Can you enlighten us more?
Sir, I have a question. When I visited the secretariat of Lahore, I saw a tombstone with a Persian stanza and the word “Saleem” written on it. It is said that this tombstone was removed by the British when they converted this shrine of Anarkali into a church and shifted her body somewhere in the garden as it is not allowed to build a church on a grave. So, as they say, today we do not know where the body of Anarkali was buried but it was buried somewhere in the garden of today’s Secretariat of Lahore.
They say and they have published this from the secretariat that When Emperor Akbar enclosed Anarkali in the wall, later he ordered her to be rescued and flee to Afghanistan. As also depicted in the film and written at the Wikipedia. But later she came back as a prisoner in the era of Jehangir and then she died after getting fainted the moment she saw Jehangir at the throne.
At Wikipedia, they also say that it was Anarkali whose identity was changed to Nur Jehan. However, all of these things are ambiguous. So, can you enlighten us in this matter?
A female servant (kaneez) was certainly immured as it was common practice by Mughal rulers to do so on wrong doings of grave nature but I was referring to the story of love between Anarkali and Prince Saleem (Jehangir) which is just a fiction.
As far as Noor Jehan is concerned, Her real name was Mehr un Nisa and was married to Sher Afghan of Bihar. Saleem (while he was crown-prince) saw her on his visit to Bihar and fell in love with her. According to a conspiracy theory (which was never proven), Jehanir (after taking over the reigns of Mughal Empire after the death of Akbar) got Sher Afghan Killed and married Mehr un Nisa and named her as Noor Jehan.This marriage was also a real time scandal but has to do nothing with the fiction of Anarkali.