Wishing everyone a happy Diwali! In addition to celebrating it in its Sikh context ( https://twitter.com/JungNihang/status/1059538385872871427), am personally remembering today another story from Sikh history that thematically displays the triumph over evil...that of the exalted martyr, Bhai Mani Singh Shaheed (1)

Mani Singh was an exalted Sikh scholar and associate of the 10th Guru. He was a scribe for the final version of the Guru Granth Sahib (the Damdami Bir), wrote a compilation of the first Guru's life in the Gyan Ratanvali, compiled works from the 10th Guru's court into what (2)

we now know as the Dasam Granth, and also compiled the first gutkas with individual banis in them as well as tried creating new organizations of the Guru Granth Sahib. The last two moves caught ire in the eyes of many Sikhs, but he was still respected as a devout Sikh (3)

As such, Bhai Mani Singh was a large figure in the early Sikh Panth. One year, he organized the annual Diwali congregation for Sikhs, at Amritsar. He got permission from the Mughal authorities to do this as long as he paid a tax, which he agreed to (4)

However, the wily Diwan Lakhpat Rai suggested the Mughals post troops near the entrance of Amritsar. Inevitably as intended, this scared many Sikhs and Singhs who had come to the congregation, and who then decided to not join (and therefore were unable to contribute) (5)

A skirmish ensued because of the Sikhs' inability to pay the tax, and out of it, Bhai Mani Singh came forward and said that he would not extort money for the tax from anyone, and would rather give his life for it (6)

Bhai Mani Singh was executed in a brutal manner of dismemberment. Even the Sikhs who had cursed him to undergo a horrid death due to his "cutting up" of the Guru Granth Sahib would honor him as one of the most exalted and honored Shaheeds of the Sikhs (7)