The Sayeed family has been living in the village Kila Kalra Diwan Singh of Gujrat (Pakistan) for several generations.
They "inherited" two swaroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy scriptures, five generations ago when the-then family head Sufi Mubashar Nakashbandi recovered them from their local Gurudwara at a time when ethnic violence was rife.
Shabar Hashmi, a scion of the family told SBS Punjabi, "Throughout his life, my ancestral grandfather took great care of the holy books.”
Pakistan's Sayeed family at Gurudwara Babe ki Beer in Pakistan Source: Mallhi
He recalls his grandmother telling him, how the family had provided protection to several Sikh families in the pre-partition days when riots had erupted.
It is then that Sufi Mubashar Nakashbandi went to the local gurudwara and retrieved the holy scriptures, with the intention of keeping them safely within his household.
“When he was dying, he told his children that as long as they live, they must take care of the holy scriptures just like they would preserve an inheritance or protect their loved ones,” said Mr Hashmi.
"My grandmother says that her father had asked her to care for and protect these holy books at any cost. They were handed to us as a family inheritance, just like land and valuables are bequeathed down the generations".
Mr Hashmi says during several decades of caring for the sacred manuscripts, there was a time when a museum had offered to keep these relics on their premises.
Bhai Jaskaran Singh, granthi of Gurudwara Babe ki Beer, Pakistan taking Guru Granth Sahib ji back to Gurudwara Sahib. Source: Mallhi
"But our family thought that Baba Nanak belonged to everyone, not just to the Sikh community. So the best way to honour that would be to hand over the sacred books to a Gurudwara, and not to a museum," he said.
But his grandmother really needed to be persuaded to agree to handing them over to the Gurudwara for their traditional care, because she wasn't ready to part with her precious inheritance.
After she finally agreed, the Muslim family that had taken care of the two handwritten holy books for over seven decades handed over the two swaroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib to Babe de Ber gurudwara in Sialkot.
The priest at that gurudwara, Bhai Jaskaran Singh told SBS Punjabi, ‘I came to know that a family in Gujrat has preserved two swaroops of Guru Granth Sahib ji since Partition, or probably from even before. When rioters were trying to damage and burn the Gurudwara Sahib, the head of this Sayeed family brought these two swaroops to his home, saying all religions are equal and the holy books should be respected alike’.
He added, "This clearly demonstrates the Sikh-Muslim friendship is a very real thing, not just a slogan written on a piece of paper."
To hear the interviews with Shabar Hashmi and Giani Jaskaran Singh, please click on the audio player above.
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