Salam, Imran Khan

Prophet Muhammed Pbuh said, ‘What is your opinion about the feelings of the person whose camel, loaded with the provisions of food and drink, gets lost in the desert, where there is neither food nor drink. The camel moves about with its nose-string trailing in the waterless desert. The person wanders about in search of that camel until he is completely exhausted. Accidentally, the camel happens to pass by the trunk of a tree and its nose-string gets caught in it. The person then finds the camel entangled therein?’

The reply was, ‘He would feel immensely delighted!’

Thereupon Prophet Muhammed Pbuh said, ‘By Allah, Allah is more delighted at the repentance of His servant than that person is when he finds his lost camel’.

[Narrated Al-Bara b Azib in Sahih Muslim, N.1275]

Imran Khan may have been the playboy of London in the 1980s but that was his past. He made a turnaround. He turned a new page in his life. And he never went back to his old, non-Islamic lifestyle. Is that unknown to his critics or do they choose to ignore it?

Allah's Messenger Pbuh said, ‘He who repents of a sin is like him who has committed no sin.’

[Narrated Abdullah bin Masood RA, Tirmizi:754]

Allah Almighty, promises forgiveness to those who quit vices for good. Then, who are these small gods on earth, who do not let anyone forget their past? Who do not let anyone bury their past? Who decide not to forgive someone’s past, while Allah Almighty promises forgiveness?

Imran Khan, the Son:

Imran Khan’s mother suffered from Cancer and died of it. Imran Khan proved to be a compassionate and worthy son who turned his sorrow into the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital of Pakistan.

Imran Khan, the Captain:

Imran Khan captained and motivated the Pakistani cricket team into winning the Cricket World Cup in 1992. Very maturely and timely, he chose to retire from cricket right after the successful grand show.

Only, to enter a field where most of the players were either losers or match-fixers. It was a field which had become synonymous to corruption and because of this, people of respectable families preferred not to enter it. To add insult to injury, in there was a dearth of educated people, of honest people and of brave people. Yes, Imran Khan entered politics in 1996. It was very dark nationwide and for him, a start from zero after reaching the glittering heights of education, social work and cricket.

Imran Khan, the Leader:

It took him fifteen years to rise as a shining star in this sky. The day was 30^th October, 2011, when this star was noticed on the political sky of Pakistan. And now, after elections 2013, Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa has become his first field of action. With the simple, practical and public-oriented steps already announced by his Chief Minister and ministers, the sky of KPK already seems to be twinkling with prosperity, Insha Allah. Can you believe it that the PTI ministers have refused the official tidbits, residency and protocol escorting? The chief minister would be using an ambulance for public contact. I know of only JI who has done this kind of governance in the past, but they never got highlighted. Indeed, our traditional politicians must be fuming annoyance because of the high precedent the spotlight on PTI’s welfare governance has set for them. Imran Khan also has the rare combination of being of Islamic ideology and modern outlook, and this is what has attracted the religious and the seculars to him alike.

However, the best about Imran Khan is yet to be discussed. No, I am not talking about his good looks, for looks are from Allah Almighty. Since they are not a person’s personal achievement, they should not be accredited to him or her and neither are they a relevant hallmark in politics. But being a woman, I salute Imran Khan’s noble character for the gentleman behavior he has shown towards Jemima after their divorce. It is exactly the essence of Islam.

“When you divorce women and they have reached the end of their waiting period, either allow them to stay with honor or let them go with kindness, but you should not retain them to harm them or to take undue advantage. If anyone does that he wrongs his own soul. Do not take Allah's revelations as a joke. Remember the favors of Allah upon you and the fact that He sent down the Book and Wisdom for your guidance. Fear Allah and know that Allah has knowledge of everything.”

[The Holy Quran, (2) Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 231]

While we, the honorable Muslims, who have not committed the heinous sin of marrying a ‘Jew’, when we divorce, it is customarily preceded by howling fights, a tirade of verbal abuses at the time of divorce, followed by character assassination accusations for a long, long time. We usurp the woman’s jewellery, clothes and furniture, which came as her dowry. In some cases, the husbands are not even interested in keeping the children but snatch then away from the mother just to torture her and later dismiss the children to ad hoc relatives or hostels. Then they are all set to go off on a second honeymoon, so they remarry. One of our ministers did something really sinister. He probably got bored of his former-showbiz-star wife and was having problem divorcing her so he went as far as to kidnap her, dump her somewhere and then feign ‘no knowledge’ of the missing woman.

Does Imran Khan sound a bit different?

Imran Khan, the Father:

Salute be to Imran Khan for letting his children go with the mother for the sake of motherhood and childhood.

Imran Khan, the Husband:

Salute be to Imran Khan for not character assassinating his ex-wife after the divorce.

Imran Khan, the Statesman:

Salute be to Imran Khan who sacrificed his personal life for the future of the nation.

And here I would like to make a factual correction, that Jemima was never a Jew but a Christian. However, even if she had been a Jew, have you forgotten that Prophet Muhammed Pbuh also married a Jew? Syedna Safiya RA, was the daughter of a Jew chief and the widow of a Jew husband, whom Prophet Muhammed Pbuh married after she converted to Islam. Jemima had also converted to Islam. Nonetheless, even if she had not converted, do you not know that marriage to a Christian or Jew woman is legal by Islam?

All these are serious and hard facts. However, I would like to end this article on a cheeky note to spiteful commentators of Imran Khan. They remind, ‘Imran Khan, the playboy of London!’ They object, ‘Why did Imran Khan marry Jemima? A Jewess?’ They question, ‘Could Imran Khan not have found himself a wife from the entire of Pakistan?’ I say, why not? Why shouldn’t the charismatic Imran Khan be the playboy of London? Have you seen some of our gruesome parliamentarians, who visit the prostitution dens of Pakistan? Is it okay for them to party around? With prostitutes? Just because they are ‘Muslim’ prostitutes? While Imran Khan was not with prostitutes but decent, high-class girlfriends? Why shouldn’t he marry the very beautiful Jemima? If the likes of Jemima ever bothered to smile at some of them politicians and commentators, they would freak out to marry her not one but ten times. They would not even settle her here in Pakistan but their own green passports would be flying out of their wardrobes to reach Jemima’s hands. However, the case remains that the grapes are sour and the fox doesn’t want them.

So please ! Stop being jealous and everybody salute along with me to Imran Khan ...

Still on Facebook ?

There is this really cool hangout. All my friends go there. It is the meeting place of the youth. We chat, we laugh, we meet, we share; we socialize round the clock. The only problem is, this cool hangout has no serious ethics. One day, as I lounge on one of its sofa-seats, I see the cartoons of my Prophet Muhammed Pbuh displayed on its walls. I get very angry. I go to the reception table and insist to talk to the ownership. The owner is called around. I complain. The owner tells me that he has not put up these cartoons but some of the visitors have done so. He cannot stop them, because it is freedom of thought and speech. He tells me to be cool about it. This happened on May 20, 2010.

Very angry, I quit the place.

I quit the hangout for about ten days or so. Then I crawled back to it.

While I was out, I got to know that some commendable boys from Lahore-Pakistan have countered the insult to the Muslims by launching the Millat Facebook. I signed up to it. In a few days, I got bored because it was not that populated, yet. And I did not have the patience to wait for people to catch on. So I crawled back to the blasphemous Facebook. I had registered my protest and made my point by quitting for about ten days which made absolutely no difference to the owners or other malicious users of Facebook.

Do you see in me, a chivalrous Muslim? One who claims or should be claiming…Fidaka Ya Rasooluah, Abee wa Ummee. It means, ‘O’ Prophet Pbuh, may my parents be sacrificed upon you…’.

What?! Yes, exactly.

Prophet Muhammed Pbuh once said to Syedna Umar RA, ‘You cannot be a true Muslim until I am dearer to you than your wealth, family and yourself’.’ Syedna Umar RA said, ‘Yes, you are dearer to me than my wealth and family…but not myself.’ (They were honest people!) Prophet Muhammed Pbuh repeated, ‘You cannot be a true Muslim until I am dearer to you than your own self even…’ Syedna Umar RA thought for a while and then said, ‘Yes, you are dearer to me than my own self!’ (They changed priorities for the good in an instant!) To this Prophet Muhammed Pbuh said, ‘Now, you have become a true Muslim’. [Hadith of Bukhari, Book of Faith]

How can this be? How can another human being be more important than ourselves? And why?

Is it really that difficult to understand? Ask a PPP jiyala what he would do for Bhutto? Ask a PTI member what he would do for Imran Khan? Ask a Mujahid what he would do for Osama bin Laden? With due respect, they are only leaders of the 21^st century, and people are willing to die for them, while Prophet Muhammed Pbuh is the final prophet to mankind till the establishment of the Final Hour. Should not the reverence for him exceed all reverences?

The greatest of revolutions of history have originated from a personality. Islam wants to keep these personalities alive in the mind and revered in the hearts so that the energy emanating from them is not fizzled out. Imagine that you rise to pray Tahajjud and a piece of that wretched cartoon or movie about Prophet Muhammed Pbuh comes to your mind, and you start laughing. What will you do? Sober up and continue to pray? Imagine leading a battalion in war after studying the war strategies of Prophet Muhammed Pbuh, and a piece of that pathetic cartoon or movie comes to your mind and you start laughing. Are wars fought by following comic figureheads? Imagine conveying the Holy Message of Allah and his Prophet in a classroom full of students, and a piece of that blasphemous cartoon or movie comes to your mind and you start laughing. Are comic figures at the source of spirituality and education?

Imagine making cartoons of such revolutionary personalities. Imagine the personalities being laughed at. Imagine revolutionary personalities turning into comic characters. Imagine laughing at Gandhi of India. Imagine laughing at Khomeini of Iran. Imagine laughing at Mandela of South Africa. Can you digest these laughs?

Why with Prophets then?

As Muslims, we should be protesting not just the blasphemy of Prophet Muhammed Pbuh, but all prophets. If the Christians are cool about making fun of Jesus Christ, that is not okay with us either. Mind you, to protest does not mean harming innocents or destroying public property, although unfortunately some governments do not understand the language of a peaceful protest. I am sorry to say but I do not think that YouTube has been blocked in Pakistan out of respect for the Holy Prophet Pbuh, but only to protect public property.

It has been three years since Facebook hosted ‘Everybody Draw Muhammed Day’. It has been almost a year since YouTube hosted the blasphemous movie ‘Innocence of the Muslims’, and it is still up there! Why cannot we switch? We have a good alternative in the form of Millat Facebook (www.mymfb.com). Why cannot we hang on to it till it becomes crowded like the other Facebook. That was empty too, once upon a time. People like us filled it up. We can do it again.

Why cannot we shift to MetaCafe (www.metacafe.com) or other such video hosting websites, instead of crying over YouTube? Some insist that the said website is most populated, most informative and hence cannot be quit. Well, how come China today is faring well without YouTube? For in the world of God, there is a force superior to technology. Why else would the superpower America be receding from Afghanistan after a ten-year-long full-of-technical-support war, unsuccessful?

Why not quit the source culprit G-family altogether, who hosts Youtube, Google, Gmail and Blogger? We have ‘Yahoo’ and ‘Bing’ as alternative search engines, ‘Yahoo’ and ‘Live’ as alternative email providers, ‘WordPress’ and ‘MillatFacebook’ as the alternative blogging spot and so on.

I ask you. Would the addiction still be there if the humiliating cartoons and videos were about you, your parents, your children or your leader? Then how can you become suddenly so ‘cool’ and ‘broad-minded’ for your Prophet Pbuh? Do you not give him at least as much respect as you give to your children? If you do not, then you should immediately quit all your extra-curricular activities and contact a spiritual guide on an emergency basis. Treat yourself, before death meets you in a sudden moment and you meet your Lord as a back-bencher Muslim.

“Has the time yet not arrived for the believers to submit with fervent hearts to Allah's warning and to the reality He has revealed, so that they may not become like those who were given the Book (The Message) before this, even though their term was prolonged for them, but their hearts became hardened? Today, most among them are transgressors.”

[The Holy Qur~an, Surah Al-Hadid (57), Ayah 16]

Welcome Back to Purana Pakistan

Imran Khan envisioned a Naya Pakistan after winning Elections 2013. However, Nawaz Shareef has swept the national assembly seats, while PTI has swept the Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa provincial assembly seats only.

I chose to vote for Imran Khan. In fact, I was severely confused between voting for PTI or JI, for to me, basically they are two sides of the same coin. Both are pro-Islamic, progressive, brave and want America to stop dictating us. I was once a PML-N voter but quit being so because despite the fact that PML-N is pro-Islamic, it is not brave and cannot stand-up to America. The deciding factor which made me vote for Imran Khan is that he seems to have more capability to face the challenges of the Muslim nation in the 21st century. He is highly qualified in education, has very good communication skills and has amazing international high profile public relations. He would have been able to handle our international causes and issues brilliantly.

The election results depict the vision and the priorities of the Pakistani voter. Some of us have a very local vision and not a global one. Some of us think short-term and not long term. Some of us think as an individual and not as a nation. Some of us become happy with promises of easy loans, electricity and gas issues and the building of roads only. In fact, some of us are so short-sighted that we would be more happy with some one-time cash payment made to us before the elections than the promise of free, quality education till high-school after the elections. Although the afore mentioned are the basics of life and a person is unable to focus well in life without these basic necessities of life being in place, however, the visionary knows that the real issues of life faced by the Muslim nation today are Drone Attacks, Missing Persons and the economic slavery to IMF. No? If you lived in a shabby home and your drive way was broken, then all of a sudden one of your daughters gets kidnapped. What would you focus on? Building your driveway or ransoming your daughter back? What is more important, building flyovers or repatriating Aafia Siddiqui? The Punjab PML-N government and Federal PPP government had a golden chance to repatriate Aafia Siddiqui when Raymond Davis was in custody, but Aafia Siddiqui was never a priority. I once asked Fowzia Siddiqui, sister of Aafia Siddiqui, after the successful Long March of 2009, why she did not approach the political parties to conduct a Long March for Aafia Siddiqui, especially PML-N? She said that she did approach, but all of them are scared to do so, except Imran Khan. Mind you, Imran Khan is the very leader who brought Yvonne Ridley to Pakistan and disclosed the notorious kidnapping and imprisonment of Aafia Siddiqui. Reader, wait a minute…do you know who Yvonne Ridley is? Who Aafia Siddiqui is? Do you care at all? Or are you a coward too? Or are you too engrossed with advertisements of Katrina Kaif?

So are the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa more visionary than the rest of Pakistan? No, but they voted for him because they are facing the horrific war-of-terror there at its worst. The rest of Pakistan is also facing the percussions, but since we keep cracking jokes about Pathans, perhaps Allah Almighty penalized us by giving them and not giving us the intelligence to select the right leader. To add to it, as a nation, we are not bothered about an issue until it reaches right up to my doorstep. Globally, the Muslim nation’s life, property and self-respect is under siege today, but what do we care? ‘I am a Pakistani’. So at least care for the Pakistanis under siege?

Imran Khan is not a relative of mine and Nawaz Shareef is not an enemy. There is no doubt that Nawaz Shareef can take up excellent development projects, albeit the priority is somewhat confused, but Nawaz Shareef’s lifetime negative side is his past record with respect to America, starting from when he sold Emal Kansi to America, to his refusal to conduct a Long March for Aafia Siddiqui and other Missing Persons, to giving dual and contradictory statements about Drone Attacks, to go into hiding when Raymond Davis was to be whisked off by America, it becomes clear that Nawaz Shareef does not have the courage to stand up to American aggression and terrorism.

As the election day progressed, and I saw the PTI camps most crowded in Lahore, my hopes began to soar. Can it really be true? Will Imran Khan become our next Prime Minister? Oh my God! I excitedly began to look forward to the day when the next drone will come our way and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, would order the Airforce of Pakistan to shoot it down, for this is what Imran Khan had promised. I excitedly began to look forward to the day when the next person would go missing and tough action will follow, for Imran Khan had said, ‘If a person goes ‘missing’ under our government, either the person is recovered or the Prime Minister goes home’. I excitedly began to look forward to the next day of the elections for Imran Khan had said they would start by putting the names of five hundred tax-evaders and corrupters names researched by PTI on the Exit Control List.

However, my hopes came crashing down as the election results began to surface, plunging me in deep despair and hopelessness. Another five years of Drone Attacks? Another five years of Missing Persons? Another five years of economic slavery to the IMF? Aafia Siddiqui stays in the prison of Carswell, Texas for another five years?

Perhaps the Pakistanis did not deserve a leader like Imran Khan, because they have yet not fathomed the real issues of life and Islam. Perhaps the Pakistanis are not yet ready to shoot down a drone and face its possible repercussions. Oh yes I recall the Hadith, ‘Like people, like rulers’. How can coward people get a brave leader? Is there a way to learn to be brave or is it god-gifted only? Perhaps the Pakistanis need five more years of burning in fire to become pure gold.

And perhaps PTI needs to increase its rural masses awareness program. Perhaps PTI supporters need to stop clapping and instead become PTI members to do some hard work instead of just cheering as supporters. Perhaps PTI members also need to learn humbleness, cordiality and decent language, for Allah Almighty does not like the proud, the boastful or the rude. Nawaz Shareef and his supporters get full marks for their honorable behavior in response to the PTI aggression towards them. Even the PTI leadership was behaving arrogantly when the media questioned them about Nawaz Shareef’s honorable response to Imran Khan’s fall and injury. They shrugged it off as ‘eastern values’ and no big deal. We have also been requesting Imran Khan not to degrade Nawaz Shareef in his public rallies. To point out professional mistakes and weaknesses is one thing, but to call someone a circus-lion is not acceptable.

Sir Imran Khan, all is not lost. You still have great things ahead of you, right after these elections. You are getting Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa, Insha Allah. Please do not refuse it. Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa is the hub of foreign interference right now. Although you will not have the complete power necessary to put it in order, because you will only be a provincial assembly, but there is still a lot you can do starting from hygiene and health, education and jobs, security and terrorism and most importantly, blocking NATO supply-lines and not allowing drones to cross into Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa my some local methodology. Think! Your team is educated, intellectual and revolutionary. Put your brains together and come up with something out-of-the-box. Make Khyber Pakhtunkhuwa a model province, so that the other provinces realize the mistake they have made and what they have lost. Be the ideal provincial chief minister, so that other leaders may learn from you.

InshAllah, your and our dream of Naya Pakistan will materialize, perhaps, a term late. Just like Prophet Muhammed Pbuh envisioned the Umrah, but he and his friends could not do it that year and the dream came true the next year. For the time being, everyone, welcome back to Purana Pakistan…

To Vote or Not ?

Yes, this is the million-dollar question. Should Muslims participate in democracy and elections and cast their vote?

The question arises because the system of democracy does not originate from Islam. It is a Greek system and its name comprises of two Greek words. ‘Demo’ means ‘People’ and ‘Karots’ means ‘Government’. That is, Government of the People. Former American President Abraham Lincoln expressed it very well by his famous slogan Government of the People, By the People, For the People. In a little detail, it means that supremacy of power lies with people, people have the right to legislate the law of the land and the will of people will be judged by the will of the majority.

Whereas the ideology of Islam is that supremacy and sovereignty belongs to Allah Almighty, the Creator of the world and the people. Allah Almighty created not just the world and the people, but created a constitution for them too so that nobody legislates with vested interests. He has already decided the basic laws regarding politics, economics, defence, society, education and so on. Islam is not just about religious rituals but is a complete code of life encompassing all spheres of life and providing guidance for them. Any further legislation, which may be required according to the situation and circumstances, must originate from the core constitution of Islam, as allowed under the religious provision of Tazeerat and Ijtehad. Tazeerat means formulating a relative penalty due to a varying degree of crime and Ijtehad means to infer an Islamic law for a new situation via pattern matching. However, the bottom-line remains that the laws will originate from the Divine Code and not from the mind of an individual.

I came upon a booklet published by Tehreek Nifaz-e-Islam by the name of ‘Democracy and Elections’ in Urdu. It gave a very smart analogy of the fallacy of supremacy of people. In the olden times, kings like Pharoah used to proclaim kingship and sovereignty and supremacy over their lands and did what they will.

Today, that consolidated supremacy has been dissipated and divided into bits and pieces called ‘votes’. Now entire communities of people believe themselves to be supreme in their right to legislate for themselves and do as they will. A glaring example of the vice of such an unbridled democracy is the legitimacy of gay and lesbian marriages in the West today.

I read the Constitution of Pakistan. It is a patchwork of the Greek Democracy and Islam, for it says in the very beginning,
‘Whereas sovereignty over the entire universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the authority to be exercised by the people of Pakistan within the limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust;
And whereas it is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order;
Wherein the State shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the people;…’

Further Article 62, 63 of the constitution, if followed in letter and spirit, defines such prerequisites for the legitimacy of the parliamentarians which are quite the same as the requisites for the members of the Majlis-e-Shoora of the Islamic governance.

The exact system of governance prescribed by Islam is Khilafah. In Khilafah, a leader is selected by a group of wise men based on his piety, wisdom, intelligence, strength, capability, foresightedness and such qualities. This leader is called the Khalifah. The entire Muslim nation then takes an oath of allegiance to him. Mind you, by the Muslim nation, it means exactly that, the entire Muslim nation. No Pakistanism, no Afghanistanism, no Iranism and so on. Islam views all Muslim lands as one empire. The Khalifah governs the Muslim nation according to Islamic laws and values. Also, the Khalifah stays the Khalifah till he is performing well, be it one year or ten years. It does not matter. There is no logical reason to disrupt a good leader just because some Greek theologian thought it is a good idea to do so. Neither there is a logical reason to continue a bad ruler for five years just because some Greek theologian thought it is a good idea to do so. Finally, the best part about Khilafah, which is very close to the much favored democracy’s ideology, is Prophet Muhammed Pbuh’s saying, Al-Hakim Al-Khadim, meaning that the ruler is the service man of the people. That is, he is for the service of the people and not at all to throw about his weight or to loot them. Indeed, this noble character has been lived by many pious Muslim governors of the past.

The question is, since Khilafah does not exist for the time being, is it wise to boycott the existing system of democracy and leave the field open for corrupt politicians to get elected and create havoc in the land?

How to struggle for Khilafah and Khalifah? As said before, a group of wise men select a Khalifah. These days, there is so much disunity among Muslims that people of the same school-of-thought within religion are unable to unite on a single issue, let alone a nominated person. A very recent example is the Lal Masjid incident. The Lal Masjid folks belong to the Deobandi school-of-thought. Tableeghi Jamaat, Jamya Ashrafiya, JUI, and countless other religious, educational and political organizations also belong to the Deobandi school-of-thought. Many supported them in theory for their effort towards The Shariah Rule, but none in practice; either in fear of persecution or disagreement upon the methodology. How will all the Muslims then, unite upon a movement towards Khilafah? More importantly, how will all the Muslim scholars unite upon the nomination of the Khalifah?

Definitely Khilafah is the best form of governance, but it has to be achieved by a practical method. It will not be achieved by simply wishing for it or waiting for some Khilafah movement to gain momentum. I truly appreciate all movements worldwide towards Islam and Khilafah, but it is more important to actually achieve it.

If we truly follow the existing constitution of Pakistan, focusing on its Islamic guidelines and ignoring the little diversions, it is not that hard to work towards Khilafah from within the existing system. If all legislation is truly done in the light of Islam, and all the ministers are truly nominated after an Islamic scrutiny, then we have only unity of the Muslim ‘countries’ to work out. That should not be too difficult either. Just like we have provincial assemblies, we can convert the current national assembly into the state assembly and supersede it by a national assembly, or Majlis-e-Shoora, which would comprise of the heads of all Muslims states as its members. Policy-making would be done by this national assembly and the Muslim states would at least share the economy, media and defence. If there can be a United States of America, why cannot be there the United States of Islam?

The procedure of election will in fact resolve the issue of eternal disagreement among Muslims and Muslim scholars. Yes, we will be electing, but only among candidates of a noble character as short-listed by Article 62, 63 of the constitution.

And yes Islam does not appreciate people themselves seeking and asking for position of power, but in situations of scarcity of good candidates, it is in fact recommended. Don’t you remember Prophet Yousuf AS offering his services as the treasury and resources minister to the king of the times?

And I agree that wise people should have more say in the electoral process. This logic can be incorporated in the electoral process by introducing ‘value votes’. An uneducated person’s vote may have value one, an educated person’s vote may have value two and a person having both worldly education and religious education may have a vote value of three. Why not? If the UNO can grant some of its members the veto power, why cannot the Islamic empire do so?

If you do not like the idea of a converted democracy, then perhaps you like to recall the time when Allah Almighty told the Muslims not to pray while they were drunk. He could have said ‘Quit drinking at once’ and He could have said ‘Do not pray at all until you have quit drinking for good’, but He knew that the Muslims were in a transition and hence ordered them accordingly.

Finally, by the prophecy of Prophet Muhammed Pbuh, the Khilafah will ultimately be re-established by Imam Mehdi, who is agreed upon by all schools-of-thought of Islam. And we are all waiting for him. However, we should not twiddle our thumbs while we are waiting, but work hard towards Khilafah to the best of our knowledge and circumstances so that when Imam Mehdi arrives, the stage is all set for him to take the lead and Prophet Isa AS (Jesus Christ) to reappear. Indeed, the Jews are doing exactly this, but for Dajjal. For he is their awaited messiah against our messiah and you can see the work they have done for him by the insignia of his one eye visible everywhere around us as depicted in the documentary ‘The Arrivals’. How much work have we Muslims done?

Indeed, it is important to vote and to vote for Islam-oriented personalities, who will keep out the corrupt politicians, establish a welfare state and work towards Khilafah.

Unfortunately, I have discovered that my vote is registered from Lahore while I am residing in Islamabad. Insha Allah, I will go to Lahore to cast my vote.