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 ...