Daily Times

Your Royal Highness, It is a great honour that you would grace Pakistan with your presence in the near future. I do not have enough words to thank you for coming to the aid of Pakistan in this hour of need. I am afraid I will not be there to receive you but I would advise our Prime Minister (PM) to make sure that all the necessary arrangements, which befit your Highness’s stature and expectations, are made.

By staying away, I would miss out on the opportunity to experience your charisma and observe your negotiating skills for the benefit of both countries. I am sure you will share with our Prime Minister (PM) how you browbeat the backward mindset of your clergy, and the tools you employed to extract the embezzled money from the corrupt elite. Some assets stolen from the people of Pakistan may also be stashed in your country, I authorise you on behalf of the people of Pakistan to confiscate those, and return the proceeds as a gift.

Before I offer a gift in return, I have another matter for your attention. Could you please cancel Iqama of all our past and current public office holders? Also, a future ban may please be imposed on such characters so that they appreciate the importance of public office and understand the concept of conflict of interest. Please also ensure that next time a certain self-proclaimed professor turned politician turns up in your Kingdom, he gets suitably punished for being insightless regarding his hypocrisy and bigotry.

Being a simple Muslim, I try to rise above politics which embroils religion in any shape or form. However, if something involves welfare of Muslims without compromising individual, communal or national integrity, I try and help. I am sure you agree with this approach for being one of the custodians of the holiest places in Islam. In that role, you must feel morally and lawfully obliged to do something about a threat which is looming large over Islam as a religion.

We need to preserve whatever is left of the Islamic relics, dwellings or articles associated with the Prophet (PBUH) or those around him

Since 9/11, some in Western academia are out to undermine the very foundations of Islam. They have proposed that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is a fictional character and that Islam was retrospectively created by the Umayyad Caliph, Abd al-Malik. The basis of this claim is the relative absence of authentic artefacts from the time of Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Articles, books, documentaries, and even PhDs on this topic are being churned out and the volume of such evidence is growing. Unfortunately, Muslim academia has not taken much notice of this situation and no robust response to date has come forward. This may possibly be due to lack of insight, dearth of scholarship, and/or lack of resources. Whatever is the reason, the outcome could be that in a few decades, Islam as a physical reality may disappear because there would be nothing left to show.

You and I know that Islam is a living religion and is simply about Allah and ‘here and now’. Therefore, Muslims have not paid much attention to preserving their artefacts, and such efforts are even discouraged by sections in our clergy. However, human remains and artefacts have become the focus of reverence, celebrity, curiosity, and conflict. I noticed that in 2011, Saudi Commission for Heritage, under your leadership, recovered and preserved 52,000 artefacts from in and out of the country. I am not sure how many were from Prophet Muhammad’s lifetime, because that is the crucial period. We need to preserve whatever is left of the relics, dwellings or articles associated with the Prophet or those around him. I know about the clergy’s sensitivity but I am sure your persuasive powers would prevail when you highlight the above-mentioned threat. International law has also evolved to protect historical documents and artefacts in light of the principles of proportionality and distinction, and helps safeguard cultural heritage for future generations.

Religious relics and physical remains serve as instruments of legitimation and embodiments of authority. Interest in relics as objects of consumption, accumulation, and display, functions as a religious and political capital along with the associated economic and cultural value. Being an entrepreneur, you know how such items have correlated with commerce-trade, purchase, sale, and exchange throughout history. As holy relics attract pilgrims, and these religious tourists need to be housed, fed, and provided with souvenirs; relics have become a source of income not only for the destinations, but also for the hotels, towns, and personnel attached. You must have noticed how many tourists visit the Topkapi Palace in Turkey, and how the numbers, next door in Iraq, are growing.

You obviously want Saudi Arabia to make great progress while retaining its cultural and religious status. My gift (idea) for you is to unlock a huge potential by starting an international project, under your direct supervision, for gathering and preserving the Islamic artefacts from Prophet Muhammed’s time. This should involve historians and academic (for supervising PhDs and producing articles or books), media (for films and documentaries), librarians (for collections of ancient books and manuscripts), and architects and curators (for preserving existing artefacts and designing museums). I am happy to volunteer my services without any cost.

The writer is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Visiting Professor

Published in Daily Times, February 6^th 2019.