Rehana & Justice Abbas Ali Tyyab

Rehana was daughter of Justice Abbas Ali Tyyab of Baroda. She had been given Shri Nathji's book,“Payaame Muhabbat” to read in Baroda and her heart had yearned to meet Shri Nathji. However she did not know where he was. That summer the Tyyab family decided to go to Mussoorie for the vacations. When in Mussoorie, Rehana visited a bookshop, Cash Book Depot, at Library, and saw Shri Nathji's book, “Zahoore Haqueeqat”, lying there. Her heart thrilled with happiness when she found out that Shri Nathji was at Mussoorie and would be giving a lecture at the Rialto Theatre. It was as if Shri Nathji were calling out to her in the depths of her soul.

The father and the daughter had always clashed over religion. While the father was hostile towards other religious faiths in general, the daughter was greatly attracted to Hinduism. Quite naturally, a conflict developed between the two over Shri Nathji’s sermon at the Rialto. At first Justice Abbas Ali Tyyab would not go and had stopped his daughter from going. However on the morning of the lecture, even as a disconsolate Rehana prayed, a miracle occurred–her father herself came to her room and asked her to get ready to go to the lecture! And it was thus that Rehana and her father, Justice Abbas Ali Tyyab, went to the Rialto Theatre to listen to Shri Nathji's lecture in 1935.

Shri Nathji’s sermon that day was electrifying, the divine aura around him inexpressively strong, and the intoxication in his words such that all forgot themselves. Justice Abbas Ali Tyyab had burst out into tears and later said to Shri Nathji: “ I have never heard such a lecture on Islam in my entire life. I have met many spiritual persons in my life amongst which have been learned Maulvis, but I have never seen such spirituality as I see in you!”

After attending that sermon Justice Abbas Ali Tyyab and his wife and daughter, Rehana, became greatly devoted to Shri Nathji.

 

Hwen walking on the Mall Road, Justice Abbas Ali Tyyab would walk with Shri Nathji and say: “Jab aap chalte hain to ruhaaniyat sarrkon par barasti hai! When you walk, divine benedictions drop along your path!”

Rehana Tyyab found herself lost in a spiritual bliss that was difficult to define. Rehana would often sit in the verandah of Kahkashan, darning Shri Nathji’s socks and lost in a blissful meditation. "Bahen Rehana!" Shri Nathji would call out. And she would reply, "Labek Maharaj! Yes, Maharaj!"
When Shri Nathji was staying at Dilaram Estate in 1936 she came to Mussoorie. She became a part of the daily gathering of devotees there and enthralled everyone by her music. She had the unusual ability of being able to simulate the sound of a flute with her mouth.

There was a time when she peeped inside the dining room of the house. Shri Nathji was sitting all alone, quietly by himself. He seemed to be lost in thought. As Rehana cast her eyes upon the silent Figure in the room, a strange revelation came upon her in the stillness of the atmosphere– the figure on the chair was running the entire Universe. In His thought rested all of Creation. Shri Nathji was none other than the Grand Creator. Rehana came for Shri Nathji's darshan again in 1936 at DIlaram Estate. After that meeting at Dilaram Estate, Rehana continued to see Shri Nathji at Mussoorie and Dehra Dun over the years.

She was very happy when Shri Nathji got married in 1939, and would then walk very proudly at the side of Shri Nathji and His wife, Mateshwari, at Dehra Dun. Which was not possible for her to do before due to Shri Nathji’s strict “mariyada.”

It was Shri Roop Kishore who informed Shri Nathji about the passing away of Rihana in 1976, (a year after her death) when he met Him in Mussorrie .

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Rehana was born in Baroda, Gujarat  on January 26, 1900. (She and Shri Nathji were of the same age group, thus Shri Nathji referred her as Behan Rehana”) Like her father,  Rehana, too got involved in the affairs of the Congress party and along with her father became quite close to Gandhiji. The father-daughter duo helped Gandhiji improve his Urdu. Rehana, became a disciple of Gandhiji and also learnt Hindi very well. With help from Rehana, Gandhiji become good in Urdu and used to write letters in Urdu to Ulemas and poets. He also had an Urdu edition for his newspaper - Harijan. Gandhiji's letters to her constantly exhort her to take care of herself and not be lost to everything else but service to humanity. He says of her, 'Rihana, poor cripple, spends her days and nights thinking of India only.' (Collected Works, vol. 43,, p.340, 'The Spirit of Raas'). Rihana was jailed several times for her work in picketing liquor and drug outlets, in the boycott of foreign cloth, and her participation in the satyagraha against the salt tax. She also rose to presidentship of the Youth League of Congress.

Rehana held a special interest in spiritualism, which helped her cross barriers of caste, class, religion etc. Though she was a Muslim, she was open to viewpoints from different religions.

She was quite adept at singing Hindu devotional songs and has the honour of being the first Muslim woman to sing Vandemataram at any Congress session. Rehana is remembered as a famous singer of Meera bhajans. People know hear as a mystic and had many mystical experience in her life.

She pleaded for the cause of women and commended the Rai Saheb Harbilas Sharda Act, which favoured the prohibition of child marriage. Even after independence, Rehana continued with her social work but kept away from active politics. She died on May 16, 1975 in Mumbai, due to old age. 

 

Abbas Tyabji (1 February 1854 – 9 June 1936) was an Indian freedom fighter from Gujarat, and an associate of Mahatma Gandhi. He also served as the Chief Justice of Baroda State
As an England-educated barrister, Tyabji landed a job as judge in the court of Baroda State as a matter of course. With a generous salary added to his sizable family inheritance, and the respectability of a high-government appointment, the family was ensconced in the higher echelons of elite, westernized society, as compradors of the British Raj. For the entirety of his career, Tyabji remained a staunch loyalist of the Raj. He raised his children in a westernized manner, sending them to England for higher education, and in time, he rose in the judiciary to become Chief Justice of the High Court of Baroda State and retired. He was an early proponent of women's rights, supporting women's education and social reform. He broke with the prevailing custom of the times by disregarding purdah restrictions and sending his daughters to school.
He was a moderate but all of that changed after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919, when he was appointed by the Indian National Congress as chairman of an independent fact-finding committee. He cross-examined hundreds of eyewitnesses and victims of the atrocities committed by Reginald Dyer, reacting with "nausea and revulsion". That experience drove him to become a loyal follower of Gandhi, giving strong support to the cause of the Indian National Congress.
Leaving his Western style aristocratic life behind, he adopted many of the symbols of the Gandhi movement, burning his English clothes and spinning and wearing khadi. He traveled around the country in third-class railway carriages, staying in simple dharamsalas and ashrams, sleeping on the ground and walking miles preaching non-violent disobedience against the British Indian government. He continued this new lifestyle well past the age of seventy, including several years in British jails. In 1928, he supported Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the Bardoli Satyagraha, which included a boycott of British cloth and goods
On 7 May 1930 Tyabji launched the Dharasana Satyagraha, addressing a meeting of the satyagrahis, and beginning the march with Gandhi's wife Kasturba at his side.
Mahatma Gandhi appointed Tyabji, at age seventy-six, to replace him as leader of the Salt Satyagraha in May 1930 after Gandhi's arrest. Tyabji was arrested soon afterward and imprisoned by the British Indian Government. Gandhi and others respectfully called Tyabji the "Grand Old Man of Gujarat".
Abbas Tyabji died in Mussoorie, on 9 June 1936.