A Letter from the Quaid's Grave

My Dear Children,

Asalamo Alykum,

How are you faring since I left you when you were only one year old ? I was heartbroken to leave you so young, but some things are just not in man’s control. Allah Almighty had some other plans. I was at somewhat peace, that my sister, your mother, Fatima, is there to take care of you. But I was shocked to know, that you people did not treat her very well after me. Why ? What sort of a children are you ?

Like a true father, I still kept praying for you. Hoping for you to fare well. Hoping for you to see right from wrong. Hoping for you to follow the right path. And the prayers did work, for you took many right turns in your historical journey. You chose to help Afghanistan against Russia. You participated in the Arab-Israel war of 1967. You vowed to become a nuclear power despite being bullied against it. And you did it !

I know it has not been easy. You had to tell the world ‘Eat grass if we have to, but we will become a nuclear power!’ Its helping you right now, isn’t it ? You know what ? When I created Pakistan, we were short on a lot of things too. One of the first offices setup, registering immigrants from India, used thorns plucked off trees to be used as common pins to clip pages together. [Chuckle!] So rightly said by my brother Iqbal, نہیں کوئی بےکار دنیا کے اس کارخانے میں . And you know what ? They intentionally, prematurely delivered Pakistan, several months earlier than its due date, hoping for Pakistan to crash in its infancy, and beg to return to Mother India. But it was Allah Almighty, mother of all mothers, like in the famous poem Footsteps, Who carried us through in His Palms. So you see, Allah Almighty would never let you down, unless you let Allah down.

Remember how Musharraf let Allah down ? When he was threatened after 9/11, that Pakistan should join the war-of-terror, or else Pakistan would be returned to the stone ages ? He succumbed to the threats, and yet Pakistan was returned to a semblance of the stone ages. Soon after, you had no electricity, no gas, no finances, and my dear, dear seventy-five thousand children died in the repercussions of a war, which was not ours. [Weep…] Had Musharraf stood strong, Allah Almighty would have saved Pakistan from destruction like He protected Pakistan in the Afghan Jihad and the Palestine Jihad and the Nuclear Jihad.

There are many, who say for the Afghan Jihad, that that was not ‘our’ war, because they have become confused by the indoctrination of man-made county-ism as opposed to God-made nationalism. They confuse what is ours with what is not ours. But see, even if Pakistan would not have supported Afghanistan under Islamic nationalism, it would have had to support it under selfish county-ism anyways. For a giant like Russia, would not have been satisfied by devouring Afghanistan only, just like the Cyclop of the Odyssey. It would have spooned Pakistan next.

Which brings me to the very reason I am writing to you today, my child. Kashmir stands like Afghanistan today. Nay, much closer. For you have declared to the world for seventy years, that Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan. Does it make sense that someone has put down its foot, on your jugular vein, and is jamming down hard, since August 5th, 2019, and you are issuing statements, ‘We will give a befitting response to any misadventure!’. [Cough!] What further misadventure do you want ? Yet, India has not disappointed you. It is doing misadventures yet and again, with the likes of issuance orders of CAA and NRC upon the Muslims of India. Now, what further misadventures do you want ?

Back in the 1970s, you did not wait for Russia to touch the Pakistani border, but tackled it in the battlefield of Afghanistan. India has already set up the war camp in Kashmir. Why are you waiting for India to touch the Pakistani border ? What makes you think that you will be able to defend yourself then ? The nuclear defense ? Well then why cannot it defend Kashmir now ? Why will it defend Pakistan then ? You are wrong. Let me clarify a human misconception on your part. It is Allah who gave you victory in the Afghan Jihad, not America. Remember Battle of Hunain? Today, it is Allah who will give you victory in Kashmir, not the nuclear defense, and nor the Saudi prince, Mohammad bin Suleman. Remember Battle of Badr ? Those are just pawns, by which Allah Almighty moves His Plans. Today, if you defend Kashmir for Allah’s sake, Allah Almighty will defend you. Tomorrow, if you defend Pakistan for your own sake, Allah will leave you on your own. Then, what will be the result, son ?

I leave you to think about it. I do not need flowers on myself in my Karachi tomb. I want to see those flowers showered on you by the Kashmiris, when you enter Kashmir, in sha Allah …

I pray for all of you to become Ghazis, but for the martyrs, I shall welcome them myself.

Take Care, Your Father,

Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

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Sinful Love

I was once sitting in a religious gathering, when the preacher went on to narrate the story of a person. There was this person, who was in love with somebody. So he presents his case to somebody. He expresses his feelings for the girl in such words, ‘I feel a pure love for her …’ but he was cut short right there and admonished, ‘What do you mean by pure love? If your love is pure love, then what is impure love? Tut, tut, don’t you know that love between a man and a woman can only be an impure love. You must seek Allah’s forgiveness for your thoughts and feelings …’ I was aghast. And my mind raced back to Mother Khadijah RA who had fallen in love with Prophet Muhammed SAW. And she had expressed her feelings. And she had asked one of her friends to ask Prophet Muhammed SAW if he wanted to marry her too. What if Mother Khadijah RA had lived in these times? What is the response she would have gotten? What would have been our people’s comments?

Allah Al-Wadood says, that He has put love in the words of the Nikah. It means that even if you are having an arranged marriage, even if you are getting married to a stranger, Allah Al-Wadood will put love between the two of you by the divine bond of Nikah, condition that you have sought Allah Almighty’s consent by Isthekhara. However, some people are blessed by Allah, with the blessing of love even before that. Let me explain it to you by an analogy. If I ask you, how do children learn studies? You would say, school. Or even, homeschool. But there are some children, who have awesome learning powers. They learn so many things informally from nature, surroundings and even sibling’s study! They are usually called god-gifted children. So Allah Al-Wadood, blesses some of us with the gift of love, even before Nikah. As Muslims, our responsibility is to seal that gift with Nikah.

But it is a far cry for our present Eastern society to understand this. The only cry understandable to them is the cry of HAW-HAY to such talk. It baffles me really. For everyone nods happily to the love of parents and children, brothers and sisters, cousins and relatives. And it is easy to identify this love, for it is related to blood relations. You are born, and you know that this is your father, this is your mother, these are your siblings, cousins and relatives, and you are supposed to love all of them. Even if you don’t feel like loving some of them, you are kind of hammered by religious quotes, ethical values and guilt trips to love them. However, there are two relations, which Allah Al-Wali has already decided but kept as surprise gifts for us. One is friends and the other is your soul-mate. We do not know who our friends in life will be, but we find them on our way like the gift packs of Fun House. Our society has its heart and mind open to love for friends as well, but the soul-mate and love idea is still lined up next to wine, gambling and zina.

Soul-mate, huh? Sounds mushy, huh? Why not? Why should I not use the term soul-mate? It is Allah Al-Wadood Himself, who has said that He created everything in pairs. Then see the creation of Prophet Adam AS and Hawa AS. In fact, husband and wife are the first relation that Allah Al-Khaliq created. He could have started the human progeny with a miracle the likes of Sister Maryam AS. But He chose to create a husband and wife to tell that this relation is the basis of life. The seed of life needs to be full of love to grow and off-shoot human beings full of love, capable of feeling love and giving love. Look around you … do you see people full of love? No? Because we have been working on a failing formula. We want every relation full of love (miraculously!), except this one, which produces people who we want to be full of love. I know, I know, you are going to say that nobody condemns love between a husband and wife, we only condemn love between an unmarried boy and girl. Really? Think again. Recall again. I have heard the prayers of many mothers. I have heard the prayers of many fathers. I have heard the prayers of many teachers. I have heard the words, ‘May Allah bless you with … life, health, knowledge, wealth, marriage, children, happiness, deeds, success … I think I would not be exaggerating but I do not remember ever hearing anyone blessing anyone with the blessing of love … something like ‘May Allah Al-Wadood bless you with love …’ Have you?

Oh I know, you would say that love is automatically included in marriage. When we give somebody the Dua of getting married, we are giving the prayer of love. Is it? I am asking, does getting married automatically mean getting love? Look around you … how many marriages you find full of love. Oh no sir, marriage matches are maneuvered very carefully. We here in the East, do NOT want the boy to be in love with the girl, lest he goes blind in love and starts ignoring his family. So the smart plan seems to be to keep them out of love. One might argue, then why do the Eastern moms look for a beautiful, beautiful girl? Hmmm, that is a good argument. But the actual reason is that brides are also considered a decoration piece to be showed-off to relatives and friends at the wedding. And also for the ‘chemical reaction’ to produce beautiful children. Is this an allegation by me? I don’t know, but I can certainly quote a marriage proposal which specified that the girl should be fair, beautiful, tall, have a Computer Science degree but will not do a job. So what do you think they wanted the Computer Science degree for? Cleaning sponge?

So you see, we do not bless our children with the prayer for love. Not even the daughters. We have a different kind of fear for them. Lest they do something shameful. Why did it not cross our minds to teach our children about love and tell them how to handle it? Both boys and girls? I think that is something like wondering why African people do not wear fur coats? Because they have never experienced winters. Likewise we have never experienced love. We do not know the joy of it. We do not know the thrill of it. We do not know the power of it. It is so powerful that it gave Prophet Muhammed SAW a throb, across the years, when he heard Mother Khadijah RA’ sister’s voice which resembled hers. So let me start by myself. I pray that Allah Al-Wadood blesses my children with love. May they find the love of their life. May my children find their soul-mates. Ameen.

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