Blasphemy Diplomacy

Okay so before going into the heart of the matter at hands, let us do a recap of the blasphemy issue. For there is huge number of people out there, including Islamic scholars, who opine that, in the face of blasphemy, ignore! If we split the opinions of the Muslims into five categories, here are the claims. Group A says, go for the kill, even if you have to do it with your own hands. Group B says, go for the kill, but let the government do it. Group C says, protest and boycott. Group D says, just ignore so that the blasphemy would die its own death. Group E says, be forbearing and forgive, so that people could see the benevolence of Islam. And Group F says, chill, its freedom of speech!

Of course, the Group F would not be so chill if some stand up comedian stands up one day and starts cracking jokes and cartoons about their deceased parents. As for the benevolence of Islam, people have already taken it for granted. Sharing a bit of a personal episode, I once had a skirmish with a family member. At the end of it I said, ‘ Let it go, I forgive you … ’ Believe it or not, the person retorted by saying, ‘ Well, you wear the abaya, so its no big deal if you forgive … you are supposed to forgive! ’ So you see, in these times of not practicing Islam being the norm, practicing Islam has become synonymous to the Christian benevolence if someone will slap me, I will turn my other cheek for another slap which originally came to soften the hearts of the Jews which had become hard and corrupt over time in the olden times. Group D has a point, to ignore, but if you match it with the prophetic era, the Muslim community generally ignored blasphemy during the Meccan era and generally did not ignore during the Madinite era. Why? Well, its simple common sense. America arrested the Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at President Bush, but America would not have bothered anything at all if President had been a nobody Bush. So after Prophet Muhammed SAW had been recognized and declared as a prophet and head-of-state post migration, no more nonsense would be ignored or tolerated.    

Now zero tolerance requires some ideological, political and economical strength. And that is what PM Imran Khan is talking about. That the West, mostly falling into category F and below from religion point-of-view, might make a Tom and Jerry game out of the whole issue and attempt blasphemy one country after the other, to tease the entire Muslim world. So how many embassies will we shut down? It would be like lots of Jerries popping out of different mouse holes and Tom Pakistan would be going bonkers attacking one mouse hole after another. All the Jerries, the non-Muslim countries, the Arab emirates and the desi liberals would be having a good laugh at poor Tom.

Am I trying to say PM Imran Khan is doing right? Am I trying to say that Pakistan has no choice but to continue diplomatic relations with France? Am I trying to say we have to look after our economic welfare over blasphemy? No. I think the French ambassador should have been kicked out without a second thought the night France displayed the unholy cartoons on its buildings throughout France. Even taking a time period of three months for an action was an action too late. And then saying ‘Sorry we cannot do it … ’ is unacceptable.

But the problem is, Prophet Muhammed SAW also warned us by the wisdom that our deeds shall become our leaders. So let us have a look at our deeds. Facebook committed blasphemy in May 2010 by announcing the ‘Everybody Draw Muhammed Day’. The indignant Muslim youth took Facebook by the storm and quit it. Some genius software engineers from Lahore quickly came up with a Millat Facebook as an alternate and invited everybody to join. Almost everybody did, but only for a meagre two months and then crawled back to the blasphemous Facebook. I hung around Millat Facebook to catch the Muslim crowd for about three years, only to stand there with only a handful of people. Eventually, I crawled back to Facebook in 2013 too, looking for the lost Muslim youth. Shame on and upon all of us.

Then Youtube did it too by hosting the blasphemous movies. Google is the parent company and their patronage. And we all have gmail accounts, right? And we all know that Nestle supports Israel. Coca-cola factories are on Palestinian lands and Lays chips, an American product, is not a friend of ours either. We cannot even resist eating bananas and cooking tomatoes coming from India. Poor Gourmet Cola, Oye Hoye Chips and Haleeb yoghurt are left stranded in the stands just because, ‘ Its not the same taste! ’ To hell with the taste! These foreign products are bleeding our economy and pumping the cash into wars and occupations against Muslims, and we are paying them out of our, literally, bloody pockets. And then we are angry at PM Imran Khan, that why is he thinking about the economic risk of a country of 224 million population?

Be the character that you want PM Imran Khan to be. Kick out blasphemous, anti-Islam and anti-Muslim services and products from your homes and then see where the French ambassador ends up !

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Ramadan Pawri

Yay … Ramadan is coming and we will all be doing pawri now! Yes, admit it or not, but most of the excitement for most of the people in the Muslim world today is the pawri atmosphere of Ramadan. Now! I don’t want to be Aunt Polly who keeps looking for the boy who puts his hand in the jam jar, but lets at least have the honesty of the street boy Tom Sawyer who was brave enough to speak the truth and name Injun Joe at the court! A popular motivational Dawa speaker once asked, ‘Is it the month of fasting or feasting?’ If you ask me, I would say, both. Why not? For Allah Almighty says in the Holy Quran,

“ Eat and drink happily but do not transgress . ” [Reference]

I would say, its not too different from the English proverb, Eat, drink and be merry! For its only fair to tell anyone that they are more than welcome to have a party in their garden but please not to get drunk and topple over the wall onto the neighbors. So that’s the point of Islam, that you have the right to party, I mean, pawri, but not to break morals or laws of any kind.

So as Ramadan approaches, the Muslim world is abuzz! Cleaning, shopping, stocking, stitching, decorations … truly sounds like a pawri, doesn’t it? Routine schedules are quickly rearranged and changed to accommodate Sehri, Taraweeh, Dora-e-Quran … no, no, no, you started off right but quickly went off track. Its Sehri, Sehri Pawries, Iftari, Iftari Pawries, and since its quite difficult to stay all day long without food, we swap our morning and evening routines. We stay awake through the night, merrily pawrying all night long and sleeping through the day, to dodge the Fasting hunger pangs. And if God forbid, we are committed to work or study in the morning, we start asking for shorter hours. And if the boss does not concede to shorter hours, we look at him in horror and despise. ‘What a bad Muslim boss he is … not giving us time off during Ramadan!’ As if we had to go home and attend a Dora-e Quran, or do Quran recitation after Asr, or stand up for Taraveeh at night. Funnily, just nine o’clock in the morning, our gait is slow, our tone is down, and if somebody may ask us, ‘What happened?’ ... we croak ‘I am fasting …!’ As if it is news in the Muslim world that somebody is fasting during Ramadan. Obviously, we all are fasting. What’s the big deal?

The big deal is that since fourteen hundred years, or lets say since Prophet Musa As’s time, or perhaps even afore, Fasting has been prescribed in all holy scriptures, but we still have an indigestion of the idea that the purpose of Fasting is to mature us spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally and to take our will power to newer heights, where we could and would work and struggle and strive despite hunger pangs in our stomach and desire pangs in our hearts. It is then that we can resonate with the Sahaba RA who set out for Tabuk despite the scorching travel heat and ripe fields at home ready to be harvested and who dug the Trench in the Battle of the Trench with stones tied to their stomachs to curb the hunger pangs.

But we want none of that. Oh yes, we want the lost glory of Islam and Muslims but none of the struggle behind it. Just like we want A+ grades without studying and by just buying readymade assignments from book shops and a few glances here and there in the exam room. And just like we want a six-figure salary without the qualifications required for it. And just like we want perks and promotions without the hard work and sweat behind it. We are happy that our ancestors met all the challenges, spread Islam and made it easy for us. We shake our heads at the fall of the Ottomans and nod in approval that Jinnah carved out Pakistan for us. Now we want to be the golden spoon children whose parents have done all the struggle and life should serve us everything in the silver platter. In fact, it seems like we are actually at the spiritual level of children, who are motivated to Fasting by promising them their favorite food at the end of the day. Was that the motivation the Sahaba RA followed? How immature can we be?

The excitement that we need to have as a runner up to Ramadan is … yes! Ramadan is coming once again, and now I am in a higher grade, or my job has become tougher, or we have a new baby in the family now, how am I going to manage all this … that’s the challenge! How exciting! I going to make myself stronger, be more resilient, increase my will power and meet the challenge! I want more time for worship? I am going to take out my free time, my entertainment time, my rest time, or cut out nonsense activities … but I will not let the quantity or quality of my work to go down ! That’s the spirit of Islam and Ramadan … to celebrate the promotion of the body and soul to greater heights. It is only then that we may make the month of Ramadan, the month of fasting and feasting … provided that we earn the feasting and not sleep through the training  and develop the courage to speak up for Aafia Siddiqui in public !

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Tissue Paper Relationships

Wow! What a girl Sana is. How she carried her love like a flag through troubles and tribulations and married her fiancé despite the fact that he encountered a terrible accident and lost both his arms and a leg. People are amazed and astounded and all applause. But the question is, how many of us would do even a ten percent of this? How many of us would allow our children to make such a decision? Had Sana been my friend and rushed to my home crashing with sorrow and horror and had narrated to me the onslaught of a terrible calamity of her life, what would I have said to her as a friend? For sure I would have said that, ‘Sana, Dawood is a nice person. I am sure you both love each other very much, but be practical. He is a cripple now. He would be no good to you as a husband. He would just be a liability. He cannot even earn for you now, rather you would have to earn for him and take care of him and take the responsibility of the whole household … ’ and then sing for her … It must have been love, but its over now …

Few of us have the character to answer in positivity to the lyrics of Michael Jackson,

In my troubles … and my tribulations … will you still care … will you be there ? 

For sure Sana is. Kudos to her! A few people are a little worried that Dawood and Sana are Christians because she was heard saying in one of her interviews the word Khudawand which is the Christian version of Khuda meaning God in Pakistan. Does it matter? The deed she has done is an inspiration to all of us Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus … to all mankind. For Allah Almighty says in the Quran,

“Another of His signs is that He created your soul mates for you so that you might be at peace with them, and has put love and compassion between you two. Verily there are signs in this for those who think.”

[The Holy Quran | Surah Ar-Room | Verse 21] 

So think! The prime purpose of marriage is peace, love and compassion, while our marriage criteria for marriage selection is a good salary, a good house and a good job. If we reverse it for the females, the criteria is beauty, housework and umm … given that the inflation is going high and we have advanced to higher levels of materialism … a good job for the girl as well. There! That’s a nice, neat, meaty marriage package. The moment money leaves a marriage, the marriage starts shaking on its foundations.

Same is the case with teachers. Yes, sorry for swerving the topic so suddenly and catching you off guard but the same materialism has penetrated education, the noblest of professions. Mother Aisha RA is reported to have said that two of the noblest of professions of the world are medical care and education. But you will see today teachers floating in and out of schools following the carrot of salary. If you ask one, ‘Why did you join that university?’ You will hardly find the answer, ‘Because I am inspired by their vision…’ But then the question is, do the universities today have a vision or they also have ventured to open the university as a ‘business’? Hearing the word business reminds me of my childhood days when parents used to be advising their children to become a doctor or an engineer. Mind you, they would not ask them ‘What do you aspire to be?’ but instruct them to become a doctor or an engineer because, they would say with raised eyebrows, doctors and engineers make very good salaries. That is why, when the salaries remain not so good, the doctors go on strike, while the patients are lying on stretchers, helpless. And helpless is the government in front of them because they had to cut down on the health budget to increase free facilities for the ministers who are already getting very handsome salaries.

So what hopeless chance does Dawood Siddiqui stand today in a world where marriages are sought not for love and compassion and character but for salary figures? But, the fact of the matter becomes that Dawood stands a very handsome man today, because he is still handsome in the eyes of Sana. And the richest and the most powerful, for having such a loving, loyal and brave girl standing next to him. Uh…oh, I have a very interesting question. What would Dawood have done if Sana had suffered the same fate? The smile on Dawood’s face is enigmatic, where Sana is feeding him with her own hands. Would Dawood have looked at her with the same love, if she had gotten crippled? Would Dawood have fed her with his hands? Would Dawood have stood against his family and married Sana anyways? Would people have allowed him to do so? And if Dawood and Sana would have been already married, at worst, his family would have suggested him to divorce her to get rid of her, and at best, lined up other girls for him for a second marriage, to console him from the trauma, which his wife was suffering upfront. In life, when a man and woman need each other all the more, we tear them apart, inside and outside, with our universally accepted and adjusted selfishness.

So where do people like Sana Mushtaq stand in today’s world ? Only in the newspapers !

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