Daily Times

Pakistan’s 75th anniversary is approaching. What should be an occasion of fanfare and celebration has been marred by the political chaos that has engulfed the country.

Quaid-e-Azam, with his foresight viz-a-viz the two-nation theory, bequeathed us a sovereign nation. Looking at India today, we should all be immensely grateful to the Quaid-e-Azam. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India, has moved beyond persecution and apartheid, as it is gearing up for a Muslim genocide. It was painful to watch a new documentary by Al-Jazeera, showcasing the oppressed Indian Muslims, under the BJP-led government. The RSS ideology has now permeated the fabric of the body politic. It has instilled hatred for Islam and Muslims in the heart of the common Indian Hindu man and woman.

Any nation aspiring to progress must subvert communal hatred, but India is fueling it instead. India is thus on a path of self-destruction.

Pakistan is presently paying the price for racism. The Sharifs and Bhutto-Zardari have always played the Punjabi and Sindhi card, respectively to gain political power. They have fueled racial hatred and encouraged racial divides. This power-hungry, unpatriotic and self-serving leaders actively subverted nationalism to divide and rule.

Imran Khan arrived on the scene making tall claims and promising change. His words were mere rhetoric as he had nothing of substance to offer. His machinations have created chaos at the highest level.

Pakistan’s saving grace can only be Islam, which is ironically its raison detre.

Heavily armed, willful, lustful and power-hungry, the TTP and TLP are a menace to society and an impediment to peace and progress.

Islam derives from the root word s-l-m, which means submission to the will of God. Becoming Muslim is to submit to Allah and live by a code. The code of ethics and spirituality defined by Allah in the Quran is the only thing that can save Pakistan.

Europe emerged from the dark ages when it encountered the real Muslims of Jerusalem during the first Crusade in 1099.

The European crusaders lacked hygiene, manners, ethics and chivalry towards women. They only knew violence. They came to wrest the Holy Land from the infidels – making a diversion to Germany en route to Jerusalem to slay half a million Jewish people – and slaughtered the Muslims and Christians of Jerusalem alike.

However, nineteen years after their arrival, they had begun learning a better way of life from the people they had defeated with their barbaric warfare.

Religion is the only true force of change in the world because we are wired to believe in God. John Paul Sartre called it a God-Shaped Hole in the human psyche.

Amongst the crusaders, a Catholic military order was the first to become civilized and disciplined under the influence of the Muslims. They were called the Knight Templars, and they were the first group who submitted to a code. The order was founded in 1118, and headquartered on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Members of the order had to take vows of poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience.

The Knight Templars became the most skilled fighting units of the Crusades. Prominent in Christian finance, they became the first European Multinational organization.

Europe remembers Salah-ud-Din Ayyubi for his chivalry. He and the Muslims of his day inspired the British to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. The biggest gift of Islam to Europe is the legal transplant of Shariah Law to create the English Common Law. During the last decades of the Crusades (1099-1291) Henry II in the 1260s transformed the English legal system by inculcating the provisions of Sharia Law in it. Chief among these was the action of debt (from the Islamic Aqd), the assize of novel disseisi (from the Islamic Istehqaq), and trial by jury (from the Islamic lafif).

The rise of Europe thus began from their learning of the world of Islam. The Knight Templar’s vow of poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience is the antithesis of the greed, lust, hypocrisy and willfulness that we see in our Islamic Pakistan today.

In the contemporary Islamic military orders of the TLP and TTP, poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience are unheard of. Heavily armed, willful, lustful and power-hungry, they are a menace to society and an impediment to peace and progress. They submit to the baser desires of their Nafs or inner self, and certainly not to the message of Allah and His messenger.

Our judiciary is a cesspool. Our bureaucracy is corrupt to the core. Our educational system is devoid of ethics and substance. Such is not the composition of an Islamic nation. Muslims who submit to Allah, are honest, just, chivalrous, non-covetous and chaste. We are a nation of hypocrites big on ritual but deficient in character. Submission, to the will of Allah, created a world in which Muslims dominated. Submission to a code of conduct created a world dominated by western civilization.

Evil people submit to nothing and follow their desires to live life as per their own will. This is who we have become. From flouting traffic rules to casually lying about everything in daily life to not fulfilling promises, to denying verbal commitments, to possessing vile tongues, the evil of willfulness is everywhere.

Accepting Islam and becoming Muslim, is the only thing that can save us.

Prophet Muhammad (puh) said: “Verily, the bankrupt of my nation are those who come on the Day of Resurrection with prayers, fasting, and charity, but also with insults, slander, consuming wealth, shedding blood, and beating others. The oppressed will each be given from his good deeds. If his good deeds run out before justice is fulfilled, then their sins will be cast upon him and he will be thrown into the Hellfire.” (Sahih Muslim 2581)

The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) also said: “I guarantee a house in the surroundings of Paradise for those who give up arguing, even if they are in the right; and I guarantee a house in the middle of Paradise for those who abandon lying even when joking; and I guarantee a house in the highest part of Paradise for those who have good character and manners.” (Sunan Abu Dawood: 4800)

The writer is an independent researcher, author and columnist. She can be reached at aliya1924@gmail.com