November 28, 1696 Birth of Sahibzada Zorawar Singh Ji at Anandpur Sahib, 3rd son of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Baba Zorawar Singh Ji was only 9 years of age at the time of the evacuation of Anandpur and attained Shaheedi on December 26, 1705 by being bricked alive with his younger brother Sahibzada Fateh Singh Ji by the Mughals.
Fateh Singh is probably the youngest recorded martyr in history who knowingly laid down his life at the very tender age of 6 years. Sahibzada Fateh Singh and his older brother, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh are among the most hallowed martyrs in Sikhism.
The mind boggles to understand how children of such young age had the guts, courage, bravery and focus to refuse the promise of many lavish gifts and a future of cosy comforts of royalty that were being offered by the Mughals. All they had to do to get all these luxuries was to abandon their religion. This young child was asked to weigh an easy out against the stark option of a brutal, painful and tragic death entombed within a wall of bricks and cement.
The world salutes the supreme sacrifice of these kids of steel who never once - even for a moment considered the easy option and always remained focused on their mission to uphold the principles of God's kingdom and allowed their bodies to be tortured, violated and endured the intense pain of a slow, pain-ridden and certain death.
On the one hand the world witnessed, the supreme sacrifice of the youngest members of the Guru's household for the highest ideals of humanity and on the other hand you have the lowly, cruel, cold-blooded and barbaric acts of the heartless and immoral Wazir Khan who had broke an oath sworn on his own Holy book—the Qur'an. May the world reflect on this supreme sacrifice made by this 6 year old, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Guru Tegh Bahadar to fight for justice and for the right of his people and people of other faiths to practise their own faiths without interference or imposition. May we all, the different peoples of our planet learn from this episode in our global history, the values of life and the way to uphold these values. Also, may we all realise the dangers posed by uncontrolled and immoral minds on the development of humanity on this fragile earth.
