Zainul Haque Sikder was afraid of none but Allah, the Creator. He was as outright as to say anything boldly on the face of anyone. He was a man of indomitable courage. He was never afraid of doing his works, home or away. There is a plenty of examples of it.
He was very much respectful to the Peers and Awlias. He has the practice of pilgrimage to the shrines of the Awlias and offering prayers there. It is believed that his prayers are most often fulfilled because of
his deep reverence for the spiritual leaders. A story of this sort may be rimmed as follows:
Once he visited the shrine of Awlia Ganj Baksh in Pakistan. One of the many stories of the shrine is: before the outbreak of the Indo-Pak war in 1965, the then Pakistani President Ayub Khan visited the shrine of the holy man and made a lot of tearful prayers for the help of the Almighty Allah. It is said that it was for the blessings of Allah on that occasion that the Indian forces could not advance up to Lahore; they were rather compelled to retreat.
Having reached Lahore Zainul Haque Sikder went directly to the shrine without going to hotel first and stayed there to participate in a special ceremony of prayers used to take place there in the wee hours. It was biting cold there. Mr Sikder was expecting a cup of hot tea at that moment, if it could at all be possible, particularly with a seat on the cushion there. But he did not utter a single word.
All on a sudden, a local Sardar type man called out pointing at him, "Where do you come from?" He replied that he was from Bangladesh. The Sardar type man then cordially invited him and said, "Please be seated here." Mr Sikder sat on the cushions there. And the much desired hot tea arrived after a while. He started drinking tea.
Once Mr Sikder went to a pilgrimage at Azmir Sharif in India. His ticket was confirmed for Delhi via Azmir. He did a lot for the development of Azmir Sharif premises, including Jannati Darwaza, the gateway to Heaven. Because of his most sincere veneration for Khawaza Baba, only two days stay there did not appear satisfactory enough for him and he requested the Khadim there to try for the change of the tickets for two more days. He made the request only if the desired tickets had been confirmed, But the Khadim cancelled the tickets outright without having the delayed ticket confirmed. Mr Sikder grew angry on this act of the Khadim and at a point of emotion even rose to assault him physically. His companions managed the anger of him.
But that was only for a while. Later he alone at the dead of night Mr Sikder chased and caught caught the Khadem and submitted him to Azmir Sharif Police. At Azmir Sharif, the Khadems were well organized and were powerful enough. But Mr Sikder had the guts to find fault with him and send him to Police custody even within the Indian territory. It was so wondrous an act!
Mr Sikder had one more magnificent quality. It was that he knew how to pay someone back with manifold benefits, should there be any such beneficial hand. He had good intimacy with a certain officer, named Major Nowab of Pakistan Armed Forces. In 1971, when War of Independence was going on he was posted at Sylhet Cantonment. At that time he wrote to Mr Sikder that in case of any trouble or misfortune from the Pakistani forces, he should then and there let the infonnation pass on to him. When the war broke out all on a sudden at the midnight of March 25, l 971, the Pakistani forces raided the residence of Mr Sikder when was not present in his residence. The Pakistani forces began searching his rooms with such words as: "You are freedom fighters. There are arms hidden in your houses. Let us know where Sikder is." Mr Sider’s wife Monowara Sikder felt utterly helpless. Suddenly the words of Major Nowab flashed in her mind. She produced that letter from Major Nawab to the Pakistani forces, along with the postal envelop. The Pakistani forces then calmed down and went away. Mr Sikder did not forget the incident.
Later on when Mr visited to Pakistan, he was enquiring after all and sundry there as to how to reach Kembolpoor, how much time it would take to reach there, etc. At last, early in the morning he managed a taxi and gathered information about Major Nawab's whereabouts and ultimately succeeded to reach there. He met Major Nawab, He offered him some rupees, too. At the dramatic style of meeting together, Major Nawab was taken aback. He could hardly think of a man recollecting benefits done to him long ago and visiting a far-off place to acknowledge his debt. He could faintly imagine what made it possible. Mr Sikder even sought the help of the postmaster there to confirm the location of Major Nawab's house. The entire family of Major Nawab got spell-bound at the awesome generosity of a Bengali that Mr Sikder was!
Hundreds of such stories are there about the exceptional activities in the life of Zainul Haque Sikder.
