Articles by Moonis Elahi

Article # 2

A Few Questions

A few questions have been giving sleepless nights to countless Muslims across the globe in recent times.

Firstly, while they strongly believe that Islam is a message of peace, progress and harmony, the Muslims of the world desperately want to know that why they are currently steeped in the worst kinds of ignorance, intrigue and ignominy?

Secondly, they also want to know that while Islam emphasizes on the maximization of the best in human nature, why today some of them are capitalizing on the worst in human nature to the detriment of mankind?

Thirdly, they are now seeking to find out the answer to this vital question that why despite abundant human and natural resources, oil for instance, the majority of today’s 1.5 billion Muslims living in 55 Muslim countries of the world are pitted in abject poverty and forced to live in extremely trying social, economic and political conditions?

Moonis Elahi

Pakistan is no exception to the rule. As a matter of fact, the worst conditions that can prevail in any present day Muslim land are all at their full foul play in the Land of the Pure. Another sordid truth is that while Pakistan’s present reputation as the hot-bed of terrorism precedes all its earlier claims to fame, the thinking Pakistanis have always been haunted by Pakistan’s reputation as being a country surviving essentially on foreign pittances since birth. The fact remains that if terrorism has recently become synonymous with Pakistan the flip side of the Pakistani coin has always featured the “green begging bowl”. We have been known as a nation of charity seekers through out our 62 years history. Today, the Pakistanis have the right to know that while the Holy Prophet (PBUH) enjoined upon all Muslims to seek knowledge as an obligation even if that meant going to China, why instead of knowledge we only look up to China for financial support? And not just to China, why have we been trotting the globe from Saudi Arabia to Libya and from Europe to the United States of America busy begging for riyals, yens, pounds and dollars?  Here by “we” the obvious allusion is to the respective Pakistani governments since 1947 which have always taken pride in their success of wining charity and alms in the form of aid and loans from richer countries. In fact, foreign borrowings are the barometer of a government’s success even today. The false rule of higher the borrowing, stronger the government is what the Pakistanis have been made to appreciate all along. The people of Pakistan are now questioning the true merit of this fallacy more than ever before. Destined for greatness, they want to know that why have they been reduced to a nation of borrowers?

The quality of religious education currently being imparted in the Muslim world is also a matter of grave concern for the present day thinking Muslims. There are many of them incessantly searching an answer to questions like why religious education in Muslim societies instead of nurturing has blocked intellectual and material growth? They are desirous to find out that why today’s religious education is not helping them in the attainment of material success. Muslims are keen to know that why instead of making them self reliant and bringing them at par with the knowledge and technological standards of the developed societies today’s religious teaching is making them further dependant on the west for almost every thing? From modern textile machines to F.16s there is nothing any of the Muslim countries can proudly claim to have become self-sufficient in. Today, every thinking Muslim wants to know that why has the true Islamic knowledge base been over-shadowed by the debate between belief and disbelief and why are we so behind the West?

Another strange contradiction scarring Islamic values today is the presence of a mindset that on one hand persuades the followers to lay down their lives in the name of Islam and on the other hand itself falls miserably short of the great Islamic moral and social codes and ethics. I see examples of this dichotomy spread all around us. While driving in Lahore city, I often come across posters, banners and bill-boards of religious groups declaring their unflinching love and loyalty to the Holy Prophet (PBUH). As a Muslim I also share the same feelings but then I ask myself that are we following in deed what we are claiming in word? I ask myself that if we were truly following the teachings of our Holy Prophet (PBUH) then would the vices of food adulteration and an unbridled squandering of time and resources be as rampant in our society as they are today. I ask myself that why are our cities and towns infested with filth and rubbish while our Holy Prophet (PBUH) has taught us that “cleanliness is half faith”. I ask you that had we been the true followers of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) as we claim to be then would we be as divided and resource less as we are today and could our lives be as undisciplined as they are today?

Who are those who have restricted the pursuit of knowledge and free inquiry in Muslim societies? Who are those who have eclipsed the light of true Islam from reaching and enlightening our lives? Are we to continue groping in this enforced darkness thrusted upon us? Why the Holy Quran, God’s final message to mankind and the world’s most recited book, is only presented to us as a book of atonement and not of enlightenment? Why are the so-called custodians of God’s final message not allowing us to rationalize our lives and find our answers in the light of true Quranic teachings?  Such and similar other questions are looming large in the minds of thinking Muslims of the 21^st century.

The startling truth is that Muslim thinking was rendered a strong blow a few centuries back when reason was made subservient to blind faith. It is also true that since then Muslim thinking has not been able to retrace its way back to its glorious past and the retrogressive forces have not let free enquiry play its role in the re-ascendancy of reason in the Muslim world.

The first word with which God began His communication with the Holy Prophet (PBUH) was “Iqra”…Read, yet is it not true that for centuries the Muslim world has been deliberately kept away from following this divine injunction? Can we deny the fact that amongst the top 500 universities of the world there is not a single university belonging to the Muslim world considered worthy of a place in the coveted list? Can we question the veracity of the charge that let alone American and European universities there is not a single university in the Muslim world which can parallel even some of the more known Indian universities of today. Similarly, as opposed to an innumerable number of American, European and even Indian Nobel laureates what is the number of Muslim recipients of the world’s most prestigious award conferred on men and women of outstanding knowledge?

An undeniable truth of our times is that the world we today live in has been crafted by Western thought and we are only recycling the knowledge transferred to us by the West. Here, allow me to categorically state that I am not among those who believe in the supremacy of modern science and technology over human spirit. On the contrary, I am of the firm belief that there is no conflict between the two and that the minds which refute religion for science and otherwise are both “Baatil”…. False and Untrue.

To sum it up, I believe the time has come for the Muslim world to make a fresh journey with in and find answers to some basic questions, a few of which I have dared to put forth.

Article # 1

Pakistan for all Pakistanis

A special article on Pakistan’s 62^nd Independence day by Moonis Elahi

In the last 62 years, much ingenuity has been spent to explain the concept of Pakistan as envisioned by the Quaid and Iqbal.  But the question that haunts us even after 62 years of attaining freedom is that how close have we come to the actual translation of our founding fathers’ vision into reality? There are no two views that their vision was based on the genuine desire to provide the Muslims and other deprived communities of the Sub-Continent with a free homeland where they could live with honor and respect. Together, Iqbal and the Quaid had visualized a society where the cardinal principles of main stream Islam based on socio economic justice and equal rights for all irrespective of their religious, economic and ethnic backgrounds were to be guaranteed. They knew that the British-Hindu nexus was too powerful to be broken and the Muslims would always remain as third rate citizens in a Hindu dominated India and they would never get their rightful place in the society. The pathetic conditions in which the 150 million Muslims are forced to live in India today are a living testimonial to Iqbal and Quaid e Azam’s foresight. They had foreseen that under the Hindus the doors of higher education, better employment and economic excellence will never be open to the Muslims. Allama Iqbal’s historic Allahbad address in 1930 when he first articulated the dream for Pakistan turned a new leaf in the freedom movement of Indian Muslims and gave them a fresh lease of life. This Iqbalian dream inspired the Muslims of India with a renewed hope for freedom and they soon rallied under the banner of All India Muslim League led by Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah and won freedom from the British after countless sacrifices on 14^th August, 1947.

Moonis Elahi

But 62 years after the success of this historic struggle for freedom the most saddening truth is that the people of Pakistan are still loitering in the dark. Despite living in an independent country the light of freedom has still not illuminated the lives of many. The Quaid-e-Azam had a very clear and principled concept of Pakistan which he explained through his words and deeds on numerous occasions.  On March 24, 1943 he openly declared in a party session that he would much rather not struggle for freedom if eradication of economic injustice of the poor and the deprived could not be ensured in the State of Pakistan. It is quite evident from our Quaid’s words that Pakistan was to be a land devoid of economic oppression and exploitation of the have not’s at the hands of the powerful.  But 62 years later an overwhelming number of Pakistanis still face the same pre independence oppression and exploitation and they continue to live as third rate citizens in their own country.  Today more than 60% of Pakistanis are living below poverty line. More than half of the Pakistanis have no access to clean drinkable water.  Similarly health and education facilities are also available to a negligible portion of the society. Law is only for the rich and the influential.  With these problems already playing havoc in the lives of Pakistanis suddenly new problems like the atta crisis, the power crisis, the water crisis and worst of all extremism have raised their ugly heads.  The reasons for all these continuing as well as recent abominations are not far to seek.  They are all rooted in our failure to ensure a just society based on the cardinal principles of mainstream Islam as envisaged by our great leaders.  In his May 28, 1937 letter to the Quaid, Allama Iqbal asks him that what is the remedy of all the ills  the Muslims of India confront?  He then answers that the solution lies in the implementation of Islamic principles of economic equality, social justice and tolerance in our lives. Undoubtedly,  the founding fathers of Pakistan saw Pakistan as a means to achieving socio- economic freedom for the have not’s and the hapless in the light of Islamic teachings and beliefs. I wonder as to how far we have been successful in translating this vision into reality.

Today, the spirits of  both Iqbal and the Quaid must be greatly tormented to see that the people for whom they had envisioned a just and prosperous society were still stuck deep in the quagmire of socio economic deprivation, injustice and sinister exploitation by the powerful.  They must be in agony to behold the tentacles of IMF squeezing the last drop of blood out of an already emaciated soul of their nation.  Can anybody tell me whatever happened to Iqbal’s concept of the” self” derived from the Holy Quran and where has the Quaid’s vision of a strong and prosperous Pakistan based on principles of democracy,equality and fraternity disappeared?

I believe that on our 62^nd Independence Day we should do a sincere soul searching and resolve afresh to make our country economically, socially and politically strong not by paying mere lip service to the importance of freedom but by actually taking concrete steps that may lead to the achievement of the vision and goals set by our founding fathers. To begin with as a nation we should endeavor to become self sufficient and pledge to stop borrowing pittances in loans and aids from foreign countries and financial institutions. As individuals we should resolve to lead lives free of ostentations and learn to tailor them according to our own means and resources. We should also resolve to eliminate poverty, injustice and inequality by becoming individually as well as collectively more charitable, understanding and forgiving. It is also high time that we evolve a common plan of action against tyrannical rules and exploitative politics and not allow selfish rulers to treat us as “flies to the gods who kill them for their sport”.

Here I would also want to condemn along with the entire nation over the recent tragic killings of innocent Pakistani Christians in Gojra.  Sadly, this episode took place in the month of our independence and is an ugly blemish on our history.  The religion of Islam declares the murder of one individual as the murder of entire mankind but only due to the callous and cruel attitude of the present rulers of Punjab a handful of fanatics were encouraged to set ablaze non Muslim Pakistanis alive in their houses in the name of Islam and ironically the actual culprits have still not been apprehended. On this Independence Day, I request all my fellow countrymen to bemoan this tragic incident and resolve to weed out all the elements that are bent upon violating the spirit of Islam which is the true force behind the creation of this Land of the Pure called Pakistan.

The need of the hour is to follow in word and in deed the teachings of Islam and the vision of the founding fathers for a Pakistan which is free of economic, religious and social exploitation.  And the way to achieving these goals is to stand united against all enemies internal and external.