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Answering friends and foes; Pakistan in the context of Its Inception and Future, In relation to Islam

By Sadaqat Ali

It has been sixty five years, a long time since we achieved our freedom. A sufficient amount of time for people to forget , forgive and move on. Eyes and hearts that saw and felt the horrors have either extinguished or dulled. Arms that carried once their loved ones to dust, have now become part of the same. The collective dream of liberation never materialized for some and for those whom it did find it very painful to recall. The devil of passing time has blurred the lines and probably tricked our minds in believing a more humane and a less tragic side of the story or it has calloused us up, unable to feel the gravity of what was lost and price of what was won. It was customary, around this time of year for our TV screens to show black and white assortment of the tragic scenes from partition. Glimpses from those times kept the story of the people known and alive. Lately some liberal media big wig has thought it to be too Gory for our TV screens. This is age of friendship ,free borders, Aman ki Asha and New Dawn does not spare any room for old prejudices and vendettas . Two Nation Theory has drowned in the Bay of Bengal! Said once the triumphant Prime Minister of India .Not a word more is needed to elaborate the hatred an Indian Hindu has for this idea. The Idea that split the Bharat Mata into two is a blow that a Hindu will never forget. Islamic scholars have not been kind to this idea either. Nationalism is to them a Satans creation to split Muslim Ummah. The fact, however remains that scores of people have sacrificed everything for this idea, often more than what a human mind can comprehend or understand. Fathers have bore the pain of seeing their daughters raped, mothers have collected the remains of their sons, sons

have unhooked their fathers from the bloodied point of spears and all have witnessed humanity go to down to pure monstrosity. We have heard about brave Mujahids destroying tanks with bombs strapped across their chests and likes of Captain Sher Khan striding and invoking fear right into enemys hearts. Even now in these perilous times gallant sons , from the snow laden peaks at North to burning deserts in South to dry scorched Tribal areas in west, are busy adding glory to this land with their sweat and blood. The question then arises is that all this pain, sacrifice and suffering for nothing? All in vain and down the historys drain? To answer these questions and do some justice with the martyrs of our nation, we need to go down the timeline and recall why the creation of Pakistan was the single most turning event in life of an ordinary Muslim of Indian subcontinent. Have we forgotten the tyranny a Bengali Muslims had to go through under Hindu domination before the division of Bengal? Were they not made to pay and pray for Durga Maa? Dont we remember the Congress rule under 1935 act? The persecution and humiliation Muslims went through was only just a small demonstration of what was to come as British leave India. Today, the secular India portrays itself as the champion of democracy and land of diverse cultures. Just go few years down the memory lane and you will find the true face of this champion in the shapes of Gujrat massacres of 2002, destruction of Babri Masjid 1992, decades of Human rights violations in Kashmir and blood bath in Samjhota Express. Modern India can and will never denounce the rancid and rotten foundations of prejudice and hatred it was built on. This ugly face of India has and will forever remind Muslims of their true place in Indian society. Even in the mainstream media and film industry Muslims are portrayed nothing more than thugs, Mafia dons and the cockroaches gnawing at the Indian society. Is this the place our intellectuals and religious scholars prefer over than the country we are living in right now? Can we deny the planned culling of Muslims in Gujrat? Or do we like to dwell in fools thinking that we can be a part of the progress of India by pleasing her

hawks and opening our arms wide open to them, so much so that we forget our own identity, interests and self respect? It is true Pakistan was made in the name of Islam and till date we dont have a system of government based on Shariat. There is a penal code that is still in larger extent a remnant of British India. Parliament is debated as being supreme though the name is Islamic Republic of Pakistan. There are short comings and flaws, no doubt, but is there any alternative? Khilafat and Shariat is not a simple process to implement in modern times. No matter how much we desire Islam to rule every aspect of our lives, there is no turning away from the fact that we are not the Muslims we used to be. Spiritually, morally and politically Muslims are today in the annals of decadence. Even from the days of Khulfa e Rashideen troubles regarding this system were evident . Barring years of Khulfa e Rashideens rule and few others, Khilafat in the history of Islam has been nothing but an amalgam of treachery, brothers killing brothers, monarchy and case of who is a stronger General. There was nothing Islamic about nor was it according the system Holy Prophet (pbuh) left for the Muslims. Islamic scholars though very fond of preaching and criticizing, have always come short in addressing the problems regarding the practicality of Khilafat in modern times and introducing a workable formula that encompasses all sectarian divides. Once we dissect modern democratic system of government we can well observe that it is more in tune with what Holy Prophet(pbuh) ordained than the traditional Khilafat system we had over the centuries. Several modifications in the structure of this modern form of government and we can have an answer to our long awaited wishes. We do not need to conform to Western idea of democracy but to evolve our own based on Shariah and injunctions laid down by Holy Prophet Muhammad(pbuh). Having gone through the Islamic history and its association with khilafat, where does Pakistan stand in modern times in context to Islam and its future is a question in every Pakistanis mind. Not a single country in the world right now can pride itself of being created in the name of Islam. There may not be shariat in this land but every heart here beats for Islam,

let it be the Muslims of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia or Kashmir Pakistanis have always answered the calls of their brethren. Muslim scholars target Pakistani nationalism. Its founders and everything it stands for. The fact however is that the idea of Nationalism for a Pakistani is nothing more than a Islamic brotherhood .The notion of Pakistan first is actually very much against the basis of Pakistan itself. Being a Pakistani is nothing like being an Arab or Persian or Kurd or Asian. It is about being follower of Islam that binds a Punjabi, Pathan, Balochi, Sindhi, Kashmiri or for that matter any muslim in this world on basis of his belief. Was this not the concept behind Khilafat?. Even if the founders intended it to be an economically independent state for Muslims of sub continent so that they can practice Islam without a Hindu Banya lurking over them and may not have exactly intended it to become an Islamic Shariah state, there is no bar for us to take Pakistan to somewhere ahead of what was initially planned and to evolve it into a Shariah state. Pakistan is a fortress of Islam that is destined to grow and be the starting point of what will one day be a magnificent Khilafat consisting of all the Muslims in the world, an Islamic democracy based solely on beliefs and faith, where ethnicity, nationality, colour, creed, tribe and association will serve only for identity purposes as ordained in Quran. At the end , let us remember today on 14th August ,all those who perished in the way of achieving this dream and never lived to see it .let us take this dream forward from its inception to its greatness so that not only we leave a mark in the history of Subcontinent but forge ahead a new era and future for Muslims of this region and the world.

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