Annotated Contents
Actual columns follow the annotated contents
This is Benazir's second year on the North American lecture circuit. It was reported that last year she earned US$200,000 from her twenty lectures. With such a start, Benazir's new career looks rather promising. But this should not come as a surprise to anyone, for she has the right qualifications. But what a fall for a woman of such fortunate background!
Contemporary
The agenda for change
has failed to emerge. The euphoria created by the ouster of Mian
Nawaz Sharif by the
military has quietly disappeared from the national scene and it is business as
usual, once again.
When all is said and
done,
Built on a scale which reminds one of the Mughal dynasties, medieval ages and grand empires, the
Presidency recedes into the hills from its imposing front view at the
intersection of
It was a glorious Thursday. The date was
March 31, 2000 Haj year 2000
We had gathered from all corners of the world. Thousands upon thousands. Men, women, children, old, young, strong and weak. Responding to the urgent invitation, we all submitted: “Here I am, O Lord, Here I am…”
Another Political Void
Six months after the historic October 12 day, we are in the midst of a political void. The law of necessity had demanded the creation of this void, expediency had required the removal of all political elements from the scene, and instinct of survival had dictated the mechanisms.
…This is how hundreds of madrassah students start their school day across the country. Their repetition, their drudgery and their unchanging curricula were formulated at the height of decadence of Muslim culture. Things have not changed in centuries.
Five years ago, on a cold March day,
Professor Syed Hussein Nasr
delivered a keynote address in
The coincidence of dates and the number of
judges leads us to a grand finale marked for
If we are to believe our worthy science
minister,
June 23 A forgotten Pakistani
It was a cold and cloudy day of April 2000.
I had walked up the long road high above the historic city of
The June 27th meeting of the
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Foreign Ministers’ (ICFM) meeting at
The connection between the chief executive’s promulgation and the train blast is clear: while a statement from the country’s ruler proclaims Islam to be the state religion, a section of population negates, violates and contradicts the very spirit of Islam by taking lives of innocent people and by showing how helpless the rulers are in real life.
Ahmae sits in front of his computer screen in a small room on one of
As individuals, we should rise above the rosy dreams of a utopia modeled after the western prosperity. We should realise that the only purpose this technology can serve for a Muslim is to put enough money in his pocket to enable him to live freely.
For the weary reader, the title of this column may sound like a diatribe … After all, who would dare to write against the virtual reality, for that is the only reality we know in this
age of collective amnesia.
Not a single leader from the fifty-six
Muslim countries at the recent UN meeting in
Look at a contemporary map and you will
The images shown on the TV and news media of the 12 year-old boy and his father sitting in front of a wall a Netzarim of Saturday, September 30, the volley of bullets, the agonizing cries, the shouts for help and the death of the boy produces no outrage in the West. No one paid more than a fleeting attention to this violence.
Today, Hajj and Umrah
have become a multi-million dollar business. The two peak seasons are the
Ramadan and the Hajj when are many as two million people come to the
The familiar cliche
about science in
It was the fourth Friday after the
notorious visit of Ariel Sharon to Islam’s third holiest site, a visit that had
left more than 260 people dead in its wake. Shortly after arrival in
It is a cruel and crude joke and no one is ready to listen to it anymore. What is needed is a national plan to tackle the very basic issues. The need is for a national alliance for the restoration of human dignity, quality of life and basic infrastructure, not for the restoration of a caricature of democracy which will bring more destruction and corruption and misery.
Will we have two Eids again? Every year
|
The News International Benazir's betrayal Dr Muzaffar Iqbal "Former Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto's story is one of hope, perseverance and survival as
she guided the people of The date is "Unique Lives
& Experiences, The other speakers in the series are an Olympic rower, Silken Laumann, who is called "a Canadian sports legend", a comic strip writer, Lynn Johnston, who created the chronicle of the Patterson family in "For better or for worse", and an Oscar and Emmy Award winner, Patty Duke, who will speak "with openness and courage about living with manic depression". The series packages for all four performances start from $109, VIP series ticket is $308, which entitles you to "VIP Orchestra seating, followed by a private reception with the guest speaker". This is Benazir's second year on the North American lecture circuit. It was reported that last year she earned US$200,000 from her twenty lectures. With such a start, Benazir's new career looks rather promising. But this should not come as a surprise to anyone, for she has the right qualifications. But what a fall for a woman of such fortunate background! Glimpses of her life
are full of dramatic moments. She was born on a hot June day in 1953 in a house
on Eighteen years later,
Benazir flew from That was The next dramatic
glimpse of Benazir's life appears on After this eventful
trip to And then there was the
fateful day of Thereafter, her life is
shrouded in mystery. Long years in solitary confinement, dark days.
Hopelessness, fears, uncertainty and finally exile. But then came When she returned to In August of 1990, President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismissed her "corrupt" and "inefficient" government. She lost the next elections, only to re-emerge a second time when Ishaq Khan clashed with his own progeny in a war of mutual destruction. It was Nawaz Sharif's downfall that brought Benazir back to power. But before the next
glimpses from This time in office she was experienced, but life had taught her to be pragmatic. So she learned the dark art of the kind of diplomacy which rested on lies, compromises and appeasing everyone who was perceived a as possible threat. Her own interior minister would later tell the tale of how a certain maulana from NWFP would periodically arrive in the prime minister's secretariat, have a meeting with the prime minister and leave with a warm pocket, until one day the interior minister told Benazir to hand over the keys of the State Bank to the maulana. But this was, once
again, a shortlived image. The axe fell again, by
the hand of a handpicked president who could not tolerate the arrogance, the
plunder and the waywardness of the first couple. Then comes the finale.
Through a mutually beneficial arrangement, Nawaz Sharif lets Benazir Bhutto
leave the country and then passes a verdict against her, thus preventing her
return. The nation hears about corruption charges, Swiss accounts, The government there is
helpful, to the extent that when one of its own citizens, a certain Paul
Keating, files a suit for recovery of his 375,000 pounds in bills for
renovations to |
|
Quantum Note ---------------------- Dr.
Muzaffar Iqbal A Day in
It is
raining. The green van of the Bayporter shuttle service arrives on time. My
luggage is placed in the van and within seconds, we are on our way to I look
out through the window. The six-lane highway is packed with vehicles cruising
at 50 mph. On this cold January morning, millions of vehicles are running on
American roads: people rushing to their offices, travelers on the highways,
school buses taking young children to schools, hospital vans, post office and
courier service vehicles transporting millions of packets across the vast
continent. By the
end of the day, a staggering number of people, parcels, boxes, letters and
vehicles would have moved from one place to another. At least 859 people
would have been killed in accidents, another 349 would have been murdered,
based on figures from the statistics, one can calculate the victims of arsons,
rapes and fires. But these cold statistics hardly provide us an insight into
the working of a country which has become the sole arbitrator of the lives of millions of people in all
parts of the world. After
the Gulf War, This added muscle has necessitated
expansion of espionage and other covert activities. Today’s paper carries a
report about the expansion of CIA. George Tenent,
CIA’s director, calls it the spy agency’s biggest recruiting drive since the
end of the Cold war. A full-page advertisement in the leading journals of the
country, call it “the ultimate international career”. The numbers of new recruits are classified
but the report in the USA Today ( All across But most Americans are still oblivious to
these “ petty details” of their country’s meddling in the affairs of other
nations. Most Americans are not concerned with the fate of their fellow human
beings in places which are out of their mental horizon. Most do not know even
the approximate location of countries in which American spies and military
experts are playing havoc with the lives of innocent people. For a majority
of Americans, these places only come to life when their fellow countrymen are
taken as hostages or when there are casualties. No doubt, there is a general feeling
shared by most Americans that they belong to a mighty power, but newspapers
and electronic media is devoid of any references to the military power. What
dominates the minds and hearts of most Americans is not their country’s role
in the world affairs, nor its military power, but the economic and social
issues which affect their daily lives. At the beginning of a new millennium, the
American society is facing a crisis whose sheer dimensions and force would
tear apart another society: moral and ethical issues which have played havoc
with the good old traditions which were once at the heart of family life in
this land of opportunity. But it is the remarkable resilience of the American
society that, in spite of a very high level of disintegration, it manages to
remain intact. It does so, partly, through
institutionalizing the process of its moral decay. In 1984, a federal law was
passed which forced high schools to allow Christian clubs and prayers in
schools. Today, the same law is being used by gay and lesbian groups to
secure a place for their own clubs on school campuses. Likewise, through
legislation, rights of single parents have been insured. Two brothers in What is so fascinating about contemporary Just in the past century, the American
system has survived the two World Wars, the Great depression of the thirties,
the student unrest of the sixties, the This remarkable ability to adjust itself
to the changing realities is built into the very working of the system. There
are “think tanks” working to ensure the survival of the system. Spread
throughout the country, these formal as well as informal think tanks involve
some of the best contemporary minds for the process of its regeneration.
University faculty members, researchers, corporate executives and business
leaders are the backbone of these think tanks. Their involvement in the
process of self-criticism and self-analyses produce a body of literature
which is not ignored by the government. The politicians listen to these
opinions and base their policies on these studies. By now an amazing amount of statistical
data has been collected which is used to forecast future trends with
remarkable accuracy. No one thinks of fabricating or altering this data. No
one tries to hide the unbecoming side of facts; no one is worried about the
ugly realities, which the data some times portrays. This honest and analytic
approach is perhaps the key to their success. Contemporary |
Quantum Note
published in The News International
Opinion
Dew on sunburnt roses
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
The agenda for change has failed to emerge. The euphoria created by the ouster of Mian Nawaz Sharif by the military has quietly disappeared from the national scene and it is business as usual, once again. This is not a hasty judgement, for we are not talking about the actual change but the process of change. It does not take 115 days to start a national debate on the future structure of the governance.
The actual change in the
fundamental parameters defining the quality of life in this wonderful land is
obviously a slow process. What concerns us is the lack of any genuine effort
which would take us toward such a change. The hope that a vigorous national
debate will emerge on the crisis of civil society in
The fourth interruption in the affairs of the country by the army in 53 years disrupted the political process, created a vacuum in legal as well as political sense and has now become the defining reality of sorts. There were some fundamental differences in the way the present change came.
This time around, there were no promises of a return to democracy in the proverbial 90-day period. But the raison d'etre of the intervention was none other than a fundamental change in the way government was being run by one man. That fundamental promise had created hopes among the masses. It was this hope that created a tacit approval of the military takeover.
But this hope was like dew on the sunburnt roses; it has rapidly evaporated, leaving behind the scars of 53 years of disillusionments. The agenda for change has failed to emerge because fundamental steps required to generate such an agenda have not been taken. Instead, what we have is a series of orders meant to expedite and legalise ad hoc arrangements and produce quick-fix solutions to grave problems.
This will inevitably lead to further deterioration of the situation. The recent series of bomb blasts is a stern reminder of what lies in store if major initiatives are not taken to build a more cohesive national fabric. No government can hope to rule a society which is fragmenting at its very core. Nations are not built by executive orders. They emerge in an historical context produced by willing participation of the masses.
In
Instead of looking at the deeper causes of this internal collapse, we looked for easy ways to explain national disasters. Thus, for years, we have lived with the cheap slogans, empty rhetorical promises and quick-fix solutions. At another level, easy ways have been found to befool ourselves: The cession of East Pakistan is blamed on General Yahya Khan or ZA Bhutto or Mujeebur Rahman, the collapse of law and order is the result of RAW's activities and so on. These easy but incorrect ways of ascribing national failures on individuals and the ubiquitous "foreign agents" has produced self-defeating mechanisms at the national level.
Thus major blunders have been brushed under the carpet. Hundreds of inquiry commissions and committees established to probe into national disasters have failed to produce a single action to redress the situation. Collected amnesia rules.
In a recent series of articles in The News, retired Air Marshal M Asghar Khan has suggested various fundamental changes in all aspects of national life--from elections to education and from agriculture to the rights of women. But, like so many other voices, his voice has fallen on deaf ears. The hope that a national debate on these fundamental questions will take root as the first and top-most priority of the new government has faded; what is left behind is mere continuation of the old patterns of governance.
The fundamental steps needed to produce a major change in the present system of administration, which was designed by the colonial rulers, does not start or end with the firing of a certain number of officers of this or that corporation. It implies major conceptual changes, built-in accountability, efficiency and, above all, participation of people.
A possible way toward
such a change in the context of
Fundamental changes are needed in the way legislation, policy-making, planning and budget-making takes place. Major initiatives are needed to restructure the infrastructure which deals with health, agriculture and education sectors. Institutions such as hospitals, colleges, universities and police require fundamental changes in their operating mechanisms.
The institutions of
effective local self-government have never been established in
What M Asghar Khan has suggested in his series of articles is a broad outline of a major change. He is perhaps the only person around whose personal integrity is beyond doubt and who has been pondering over these things for years. His somewhat hasty entrance in politics after the arrest of ZA Bhutto at the height of his movement against Ayub Khan, establishment of an unsuccessful political party and subsequent retreat into the quietness of a mountainous home have pushed him into the background, but his ideas need serious attention.
It is ironic that his own son is part of the present setup. If the vision of a fundamental change is as engraved in the mind of the son as it is in the father, we should have seen some steps toward it during the last months. Instead, there have been the usual sycophancies: functions and speeches to "celebrate and honour" the rank, empty rhetorical addresses and the rest.
The return of old faces and old ideas to the forefront has produced a mechanism of its own. The national scene is, once again, dominated by the tiring speeches of various aspirants. The architects of a scam called Vision 2010 are once again writing in the newspapers, those who were fooling the masses with promises have disappeared but promises have stayed behind and have found other tongues.
The present setup is
neither the first nor the last imposed on the people of
The News
International http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/index.html
Quantum Note
Collapse of institutions
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
A news item on the
National pages of The News, (
While everyone is busy in
forecasting, analysing and expressing opinions about
an inconsequential matter which deals with the visit of one Bill Clinton to the
subcontinent with a team bent on discovering the "tremendous market"
of
But let me quickly make
the point I want to make today: When all is said and done,
This simple mechanism, which put certain individuals beyond any accountability, gave rise to Bhuttos and Nawaz Sharifs who treated the whole country as their personal fief. In addition, it created lesser minions and battalions of sycophants. In due course of time, the institutional structure completely collapsed and the country was left to the whims of the one in the chair. And the chair was up for grabbing by any means available.
Even a cursory analysis
of
They claim that the hopes which arise at every change in government are basically hopes for the arrival of a messiah who would deliver us from the decaying process and who would transform the whole society, as if by magic. Now this is a very serious allegation for a people who claim to be Muslim and whose religion forbids and abhors this concept. But let us leave religion aside for a while and look at the allegation that Pakistanis are inherently incapable of building institutions and they have always sought heroes and charismatic leaders.
Our history is replete
with instances of this trend. Right from the days of the Pakistan Movement, the
nation relied behind individuals rather than institutions. Individuals led,
made or destroyed causes, created mass movements and produced major changes.
Even children are taught history in a manner which leads them to believe in
this magical character of individuals. In answer to the question: "Who
created
But a deeper look at this attitude provides a different framework for our discussion. As a people, Pakistanis have had no experience of institutions that work. Psychologically, at least at the personal level, they know individuals count. It is an individual who provides protection, who does or does not clear their application for a phone connection; it is an individual who decides about their income tax and it is not a traffic law, but an individual, who determines whether or not they should be fined for crossing the redlight.
This lack of experiential trust in the working of the institutions is further exasperated by the daily experience of another kind. The students who study hard and who write their exams honestly do not get to the prestigious engineering and medical colleges but those who have other means, find seats in these colleges. The next door neighbour who knows how to deal with the income tax department is not charged any tax while his income is twice as much. The telephone department does not have the cable or the phone sets for an applicant who does not want to bribe but these things appear, as if by magic, for the one who knows how to slip a few bills into the hands of an individual in that same department.
These, and thousands of
such daily occurrences, have become built-in realities of contemporary
Pakistani society. Sometimes glossed over as "the problem of
corruption" the underlying, more serious cause of institutional failure
has been never addressed in
But these moral crimes are, once again, product of a conditioning which occurs very early in their lives. When my fourteen-year-old nephew tells me that there is no point in his studying hard because in the end it would not amount to anything, he is saying so on the basis of his experience. He has already lost faith in the educational institutions and he has already suffered that tragic loss of innocence which can never be reversed.
But perhaps the real
tragedy is that we have even lost the ability to feel this loss. Eleven years
ago, when I returned to
If we are to stop the process of decay, we need to look into the causes of institutional failure in our society. From political institutions to the educational system and from the institutions which govern public life to those which deal with religion, there is a rampant sense of decay and collapse. It is only through the development of a new trust in the working of our institutions that we can hope to build a society which will have a sense of pride in its own existence.
How can we build that
trust? How can we establish institutions which will function according to their
rules and function for everyone regardless of his or her social position and
relationship to those who hold power? This question should be the foremost
concern for anyone interested in rebuilding
Twenty miles from Pakistan
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
Built on a scale which
reminds one of the Mughal dynasties, medieval ages
and grand empires, the Presidency recedes into the hills from its imposing
front view at the intersection of
Since that historic trip to Choti by a man who now faces an uncertain future, the Presidency has lost its pivotal position in the power play. The last man to enjoy and exercise the right of dismissing an elected government has also disappeared from the scene. His decision to pack the chess game of a thoroughly corrupt government had heralded a new era in Pakistan's turbulent history which gave an unprecedented parliamentary majority and almost absolute power to one man who could not handle it and ended up in a small jail in Karachi.
But the building stands and anyone strolling on the broad Constitution Avenue cannot help but look at this grand structure and feel a sense of helpless exasperation at the stature of men who have occupied this grandiose structure. Who were they? What brought them there? What did they do to the country? Where are they now?
But the Presidency is not the only building on Constitution Avenue which evokes these feelings. This avenue is full of such buildings. As one walks on the sidewalk opposite to the Presidency and looks at the marble monsters across the road, they all seem to exist in a foreign land; they all seem to be out of place. The Parliament building is not visible from the road, only its iron gate and the guards can be seen. This is perhaps the only thing that is not out of place. The caged-in building is a good metaphor for Pakistan's political history.
Leaving aside the equally imposing marble structure of the Supreme Court, one comes to a truly palatial building which has yet to emerge as a real structure in the history of the country. This is the Prime Minister's Secretariat which has successfully dodged two successive prime ministers, though both had spent lavishly on its construction and furnishing. The Mughal-style mehrabs, the turban-clad guards and the empty spaces between the white minarets all stand as metaphors of propensity of Pakistan's rulers who have a knack for empty rhetoric.
Next to the Prime Minister's Secretariat, but hidden behind it, is a building which deserved to be on the main boulevard but which has been tucked behind the imposing structures; only a sign stands beside Constitution Avenue, pointing to the presence of Pakistan's National Library. It has taken years for this building to become habitable but even after its completion, it stands aloof, hidden and is inhospitable. There is nothing warm about it. The cold and imposing structure has nothing inviting about it. As one stands facing its broad stairs, one neither sees scholars with loads of books going in and out of the building, nor students in search of knowledge. Only a few guards stand aimlessly.
The cul de sac to the library ends the "Pakistani" part of the avenue on this side; from here to the end of the avenue, there are only the foreign missions, the French School and empty spaces. But it is time to turn around and have a closer look at other side of the avenue which has slowly emerged on the scene and is still in the process of asserting its meagre being compared to the grand buildings which this side faces.
Walking north, one comes across two older buildings, the Foreign Office and Radio Pakistan before a series of newer buildings. The first of these is that of Pakistan Science Foundation. Established to provide a unifying umbrella to the country's numerous science institutions, Pakistan Science Foundation's new building is perhaps the only building on the whole avenue with an aesthetic exterior to it. Its blue tiles, modest yet symmetrical exterior and quietness is in keeping with the traditional designs and historical structures which occupy the vast cultural landscape of Islam's greatest cities.
Next to the Science Foundation, there is a building which has remained under construction for more than a decade and has gained the characteristics of ruins even before its completion: This is supposed to be the building of the Election Commission of Pakistan. The construction history of this building is truly amazing.
I used to look at this humble structure when it was trying to raise itself above ground. At one time, it seemed that it would quickly soar high above the other buildings on this grand avenue. Workers worked, machines churned out concrete and iron beams went up. But it was an illusion. That hyper activity must have been the result of a closing date for a cheque clearance for the contractor. Because after that short spell, nothing happened for months.
The building has been in the making for years. Does it need to be completed? With no elections on the horizon, there seems to be no need for its existence! But the unfinished cement blocks, the iron bars sticking out of the columns and beams, the empty holes for the windows and the characteristic odour of ruins are there for everyone to see.
Next to this building in ruins is a strange combination of two buildings. One of these used to be an unassuming simple structure with weeping walls, run down windows and unkept lawns with a small board which read: Pakistan Academy of Sciences. The other one was not there at all. In its place, there used to be just wild grass. But all of this has changed during the last two years.
The unassuming building
in need of repair has been given a new look with columns and arches and the
tall grass has given way to a building which seems to come out of E-7, the posh
residential area of the city. The old structure is still undergoing changes and
one day it might become as pretentious as the buildings on the other side of
the boulevard. The new structure, the guest house of the
Further north stand two more government buildings, both similar in their exterior to the building of the Pakistan Science Foundation. Occupied by those who control the financial strings of the country, these buildings with their blue and white colours add to the same sense of historicity as that of the Pakistan Science Foundation.Perhaps the famous epithet about Islamabad--a city situated twenty miles from Pakistan--applies to Constitution Avenue more than any other place in the country.
Friday, March
17, 2000 -- Zil'Haj 10, 1420 A.H.
The last pilgrimage
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
It was a glorious Thursday. The date was May 28, 632 (Rabi ul-awwal 12, 11 Hijri). It was also a sad day for the Muslim community, for on this day, the Prophet of Islam departed from this world. But it was a glorious day in the sense that with the departure of the Prophet from this world, the final phase of the cycle commenced. In this final phase of the human cycle, no prophet will come and Allah has completed His religion for all humanity until the Day of Resurrection.
The mission of the Prophet had come to a successful conclusion three months before his death. The Qur'aan has affirmed this: "This day the disbelievers despair of prevailing against your religion, so fear them not, but fear Me. This day I have perfected your religion and fulfilled My favour unto you, and it hath been My good pleasure to choose Islam for you as your religion" (5:3).
This ayah was revealed on the ninth day of Zilhaj, in the tenth year after Hijrah, after a supplication from the Prophet while he was sitting on his camel, Qaswa. It was the same camel on which he had migrated from Makkah; the camel was now standing on a hill, Jabal al-Rahmah, Mount of Mercy, in the valley of Arafah about thirteen miles east of Makkah.
The Prophet had arrived in the plain of Arafah a few hours before after spending a night in the valley of Mina. He was accompanied by companions who had travelled with him from Madinah or who had joined him on the way to this extraordinary gathering.
Earlier on that historical day, the Prophet had sent a young man, Rabi'ah bin Ummayya bin Khalf, on an errand. He was to approach every member of the congregation and ask three questions on his behalf and proclaim an article of the constitution which he was going to unveil on that glorious afternoon of the consecrated day of Arafah in the tenth year of Hijra.
Obeying the Prophet's instructions, Rabi'ah bin Ummayya managed to contact every member of the assembly; they were sitting in groups. He went to the first group and said:
"Say, O, People, the Messenger of Allah asks: What month is this?"
When he received no answer, he said:
"The holy month (as-Shahar al-Haraam)," he said, the Messenger of Allah says: 'Allah has made inviolable for you each other's blood and your property until you meet your Lord, just like He has made inviolable this your month.'"
Then he asked the second question:
"Say, O, People, the messenger of Allah asks: 'What land is this?'"
Again he received no answer.
"The holy land (al-Balad al-Haraam)", he said, [the Messenger of Allah says:] 'Allah has made inviolable for you each other's blood and your property until you meet your Lord, just like He has made inviolable this your land.'"
Finally he asked the third question: "Say, O, People, the Messenger of Allah asks: 'What day is this?'"
When he received no answer, he said, "al-Yowmal Hajj al-Akbar", the Day of the Great Pilgrimage, "[the Messenger of Allah says:] 'Allah has made inviolable for you each other's blood and your property until you meet your Lord, just like He has made inviolable this your Day.'"
When the sun had passed its zenith, the Prophet sat on
, and began his sermon by praising Allah, as was his custom. The members of that historic gathering were seated on the sand on the slope of the hill and the words of the Prophet were repeated by criers from point to point throughout the whole assembly until they reached the farthest listener. Starting with the first, each crier identified himself, repeated the name of the previous crier along with his lineage, and the chain went on increasing. The first crier had a strong voice. He heard the words directly from the lips of the Prophet.
His usual opening words, Al-Hamdo Lil'Alllah, not only brought everyone to attention but also brought the Prophet nearer to the close of his mission. A brief pause followed the praise, then the Prophet said:
"O' People! Listen to my words for I do not know whether I shall meet you again on such an occasion ever after.
"O' People, your lives and your property shall be inviolable until you meet your Lord, just like this inviolable day and month. Surely you are going to meet your Lord and He will ask you about your deeds, so I convey [this] to you. Whoever is keeping a trust of someone else, shall return that trust to its rightful owner. All interest obligations (riba) shall henceforth be annulled; your capital is, however, yours to keep, you will neither do wrong nor be wronged; Allah has decided that there shall be no usury and all interest due to Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib is henceforth annulled; every right arising out of homicide in the pre-Islamic era (Jahilliah) is henceforth annulled; and the first such right that I annul is the one arising from the murder of Rabiah bin al-Harith bin Abdul Muttalib…
"Reason well O' People and hark to my words which I now convey to you. I am leaving with you the Book of Allah and the way (Sunnah) of his Prophet (Nabi) if you hold fast to these, you will never go astray."
The Prophet concluded the sermon by asking the members of the congregation whether he had conveyed Allah's message or not. The congregation responded in affirmative and the Prophet said: "O Allah, be my witness."
This extraordinary proclamation, which ended by making Allah a witness, not only delivered the first complete constitution in the history of constitutions, it also initiated its implementation. The Prophet set the example by annulling the blood revenge and interest of members of his own tribe, the Quraysh.
This farewell sermon of the Prophet contains, in an extremely condensed form, seeds which later flourished and developed into a highly elaborate system of thought rooted in the unity of Creator, fraternity of mankind and social justice. It declared that all beings were children of Adam and Adam was created from clay. This biological unity of mankind was further emphasised at the moral and ethical levels by proclaiming that neither the black has any superiority over the white, nor an Arab over an ajami and vice versa. All human beings are equal before the sight of the Creator and the only criteria for superiority is piety.
The farewell sermon of the Prophet is one of the most important documents in the history of mankind and it has remained to this day a source of inspiration for countless Muslims. The succinct declaration is a charter of rights and obligations at two levels: It provides the spiritual, legal and moral framework for human rights and it sets out fundamental guidelines for the rights and duties of man toward his fellow human beings.
Preserved over the
centuries through a chain of transmission, which is fascinatingly unique in its
construction and perpetuation, this fundamental charter of human rights has
tremendous relevance to
An important part of the implementation of this charter of rights was its immediate and complete enforcement, starting from the family of the Prophet. Note that he did not wait; he did not merely ask others to follow what he had proclaimed. By annulling the interest owed to his uncle and by repudiating the blood claim of his own relatives, the Prophet set an example and a procedure which is the key to any reform process: start immediately and from your own household. How many of us are willing to follow this today?
Haj year 2000
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
We had gathered from all corners of the world. Thousands upon thousands. Men, women, children, old, young, strong and weak. Responding to the urgent invitation, we all submitted: "Here I am, Here I am O, Lord, Here I am, there is no deity except You, Surely all praise belongs to You and all favours and the Kingdom, You have no partner."
It had been weeks and
months of waiting and suddenly we were at the outskirts of the
This level of experience starts at the port of entry where hundreds and thousands of human beings encounter a series of obstacles, they are forced to stand in lines and go through a humiliating process that treats them as criminals. At this level of Haj experience, one goes through such an intense mental suffering that virtually every one breaks down. This is how it starts.
For the airborne pilgrims, the entrance to the country is restricted to two ports: Jeddah and Madinah. Once you arrive, you are quickly ushered into a waiting area, enclosed with iron grills and manned by guards who look at you as if you were about to run away from a concentration camp. After a waiting period that ranges from two to eight hours, you are hurled into a queue with a lot of shouting and pushing. The queue moves incredibly slowly because the young immigration personnel at the booths have no intention of processing the pilgrims' entrance; they smoke cigarettes, they joke with each other, they look around, and once you arrive at their counter, they stare at you and your passport for what seems to be eternity before stamping the passport.
But this is not all. With the stamped document in our hands, we were ushered into another queue that stood in front of a large room where the workers of the so-called mualam were taking the passports. This was the first place where passports and nationalities became the defining factor. This was to remain so for the rest of our stay in the country. Those of us who had come from the West were assigned a mualam who was designated by a number "20". We handed our bank drafts to the worker who stuffed our passports with a few papers and a handful of machine readable barcode numbers and stapled everything to the passport at four places.
Next came the customs
officials, where most of the fellow pilgrims from
After the customs, one came to a large area where loudspeakers and megaphones made all kinds of announcements. The area was divided into "Haj centers" for various countries and once again one went through the painful realisation that an ummah which was supposed to be united on the basis of divine message has been badly divided on national and racial lines.
We had intended to go to Madinah first. But we were not allowed to go out of the enclosed zone. One could leave the cordoned area only by official buses that had ceased to run after sunset. "The only way to go to Madinah is by air," we were told. We rushed to the Saudi Airline office in the same enclosed area where several hundred people were standing in front of the small windows most of which were closed. No one was telling anything about the flight schedule; there were no signs, no announcements. Those who could make it to the window found no-one sitting at the seat. There were people inside but they were not interested in answering queries.
After about an hour, we
found out that there are no more flights going to Madinah! "But may be
there will be one flight after
At three in the morning, three women in our group were able to get tickets for the unscheduled flight that was leaving in ten minutes. We rushed to the departure terminal that proved to be a short hallway. We formed a queue and somewhere along the line, someone took our passports and threw them in a basket that was being carried along the line.
We arrived in Madinah and it took us another two hours to get to the hotel. My favourite city had transformed into a place filled with sick and tired pilgrims who were in a high state of anxiety. The Mosque, which had been my refuge for a month three years ago, was now a place filled with pilgrims who crowded around the shrine of the Prophet, guards who yelled at the pilgrims, young, strong men who pushed their way through the crowd and the most painful background noise of sore throats and coughing during prayers.
No-one had told us anything but after going from office to office, we figured out that the last day to go back to Makkah was not the 7th of Dhu'l Haj, which was our plan but the 5th. And we had to go to an office 24 hours in advance to inform the people there who would then send the passport to the bus terminal (or the airport).
On the day of our departure from Madinah, we put on Ihrams and arrived at the bus terminal after Fajr as we were told. But it was full four hours before the bus moved! I watched the slow movement of the passports from one window to another and finally they were sealed in a bag and handed over to the driver.
But the driver was in no rush to reach Makkah. He made three long stops for drinking tea and smoking cigarettes while the pilgrims said their prayers or ate at dirty, wayside restaurants. These wayside stops had run down mosques, with no toilet or ablution facilities.
Thirteen hours after leaving our hotel in Madinah, we arrived at the outskirts of Makkah. (The journey normally takes five hours.) The bus stopped at a checkpost where the bag with the passports was handed to a young fellow who rode the bus to the office of the mualam in Makkah. Here our passports were taken and we were handed coded wristband; from now on, we were pilgrims with no name but a number.
The sight of the House of God made us forget everything. It was the 6th of Dhu'l Haj. Almost two million pilgrims had gathered at the House of God built by Allah's friend Ibrahim who had prayed to God: "O my Lord, I have settled some of my offspring in a barren valley near Your Sacred House, so that they may observe true worship."
It was time to forget everything: the long waits were over. We were faced to face with the Holy House. Thousands and thousands of pilgrims were going round and round the House, clad in black. We joined the crowd and went around, calling and supplicating to the Lord Who had granted us the opportunity to be there out of His infinite Mercy.
Another political void
Dr Muzaffar Iqbal
Six months after the historic October 12 day, we are in the midst of a political void. The law of necessity had demanded the creation of this void, expediency had required the removal of all political elements from the scene, and instinct of survival had dictated the mechanisms. The end result: a perfect state of political void. But what next?
The euphoria created by the military takeover has died down. Those who had pinned their hopes for a basic change have lost their hopes; those who were sceptical have become cynical and those who had been watching from the sidelines have decided that it is "business as usual". But where does it lead the nation?
The price was high. Very
high: Months of unrest, strikes, closure of factories, disruption of the
education system and the collapse of industry. The country was rent asunder.
The aftermath of the fall of Ayub's regime led to
civil war in
Then came the strange and
turbulent era of ZA Bhutto. With his rise, the speed of change increased
dramatically. He was indeed a vibrant person who could not rest; who could not
fathom his own greatness. A person who could not live up to the great expectations
he himself had created. All through his turbulent rule, there was a clamour of new policies. From education to health-care and
from energy to industry, everything was to be operated on a new basis. In fact,
ZA Bhutto constantly talked about a new
But while he talked about
creating a new
The violent summer of
1977 not only saw Bhutto's fall, it also witnessed the emergence of yet another
new political void. That was the summer during which the balloon of Islamisation was hoisted, prematurely, and generated false
hopes. These hopes were destined to end up in smoke. But there were ten long
years between that turbulent summer of 1977 and the fatal crash over
If
Whatever her motives might have been, one thing is clear. She failed to realise that she was merely harvesting the fruit of her father's labours. She was brought to power because of a vacuum which yearned to be filled. When she failed, the same political void which had been bred over the long years of General Zia's rule also provided an opportunity to the Sharif dynasty. And the Sharifs failed, leading to another political void.
It remains to be seen
what the current political void would produce. But there are already clear
signs that we are once again back to square one. Just like 1958 and subsequent
overthrows of the political system, we are being told that there is a need for
cleanup. That once the cleanup operation is finished, everything will be
alright. The whole complexity of