The Real Match

So Pakistan is aflame with the celebrations of winning its first match against India in ICC T20 2021. And why not ? After all, we have a trail of defeats against India and this match was also expected to be lost to India. So the Pakistanis opened their screens to watch this match only half-heartedly. Even the cricket stadium of Dubai was more filled with Indians than Pakistanis. I had some online task with my nephew in Dubai, so he told me that it had to be done before 6 pm DST because the Pak-India match was starting after that. I asked him why he was not watching it at the stadium … and he replied that because we are expected to lose !

So amidst this atmosphere of almost hopelessness, Pakistan won ! And it was not a struggling win, but a neat, clean sweep. Everyone was shocked, most of all Pakistanis themselves. And India was mad like hell. It is not easy for either India or Pakistan to face a defeat from the other under any circumstances, but the situation was worse this time, for by their recent feats over Pakistan, they had become over-confident and had been trolling the Pakistanis pre-match and boasting of their sure-shot victory. In such a heated environment of victorious expectations, the hit hit really hard, engulfing India in flames.

The Indian cricket team and their captain, Virat Kohli, on the other hand, faced the defeat very decently. He congratulated the Pakistani cricket team and gave them full credit for their game, rather than coming up with blame games. So we must give them full credit for their sportsmanship ! Both teams were quite amiable on the cricket ground and there were no spats between them. So I guess both teams were carrying the sportsmanship spirit that day.

The prayer of Muhammad Rizwan right in the middle of the cricket ground has drawn a lot of attention in the international media and a lot of applaud in the local media. This is actually a simple and straight answer to that religious crowd who piously dislike cricket or any game for that matter giving the reasoning that sports distracts Muslims from their religious obligations and prayers are often wasted than not. That’s not it. The fact of the matter is that a person who is not regular in his prayers in daily life, cannot be expected to suddenly be saying prayers amidst a game. And likewise otherwise. So its not sports which evades prayers but the person himself. If you ask me, sports like cricket are among the Islamic recommendations for sports for it includes aiming and shooting. Let that sink in …

If someone is still adamant that cricket wastes prayers and is a waste of time, well that is ironic really then ! For there are a lot of other things in our society which wastes our prayers but we are not upset about them at all. Our sleep wastes our Fajr, but we have become accustomed to it. The work load and rush at offices sometimes wastes our Zuhr, but that is all fine because that is in the holy path of earning halal rizq. Our shopping sprees often waste our Asr but hey then, what is the injunction of qaza salah for ? Our late return from the park with children does away with our Maghrib. And of course, it is not possible to say prayers in the park because … of some reason I don’t know. Serving dinner and the drag of a whole day’s work takes its toll and often sacrifices our Isha but that’s okay because after all responsibility is responsibility and we cannot shun the responsibility of a whole household just for prayers. Of course, Allah Almighty knows our holy intentions and limitations. Women especially have been stationed to serve religiously … to religiously serve in-laws, their neighbors, their relatives … crowds and crowds of them … don’t these people have their own homes ? And don’t they have any responsibilities at their homes ? Don’t they have any schedules to follow ? All prayers missed by women are carted in the bandwagon of ‘Allah Almighty may forgive His rights but will not forgive the rights of fellow beings …’ Did Allah Almighty promise us forgiveness for all prayers missed as a woman ?

Ah we have wandered far from our topic of cricket. So perhaps we can wander a bit more and touch a very critical thought regarding the Pakistan win against India. Sure Pakistan has won a game against India, but after all, its just a game ! What about the real matches of life ? What about Kashmir ? Can we really celebrate our win against India for long whence soon after the win, India started persecuting the Muslims of India and Kashmiris ? Such is their venom against Muslims and Pakistan. And such is our helplessness regarding the defence of our victory. Its alright ! We can and should celebrate our cricket victory against India, but we should soon get serious and think seriously about the real match in Kashmir !

Share the Realization

Discarded Heroes

So another hero gone ! Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan died last Sunday, 10th of October 2021, and was buried with full protocols by the government and the people of Pakistan. Nay ! It was not just the people of Pakistan who were swarming up to Faisal Mosque where his last prayers were due, but the clouds and the winds and the rain also paid their respect to him. The weather suddenly turned black and awesome and thundering … just like the awe we all felt when the Chaghi hill turned white on Yom-e-Takbeer !

Six years later, Dr.A.Q.Khan was accused of ‘selling’ the nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Well, what’s wrong with a sale ? Doesn’t America sell weapons to its own citizens ? Doesn’t America sell fighter jets to other countries ? Oh right, America is the super power and decides the rules. So the rules of this game are that you can sell weapons and tanks and aircrafts but not the nuclear weapon technology. Why ? Because it is very, very dangerous and a threat to the human existence. True. But this caution is meted out by the very country who is the only country which has ever dropped a nuclear bomb, not once but twice, on a military target densely populated with civilians. America and their friends are okay with it for we have never heard even a verbal apology coming out of America for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And its best friend Israel continues similar attacks to date in Palestine.

When Pakistan became a nuclear power, there was celebration all over the Muslim world. People shook hands with ad hoc Pakistanis residing in their regions of the world. The Kashmiris and Palestinians thought that finally a messiah is here who would defend them against the occupation and their atrocities. And why not ? We are one nation. Just like the Jews always identified themselves as Jews throughout history, no matter which country they lived in … they were knit together by their Faith and Holy Book into a single fabric. So is the case with the Muslims. So it should be no issue if we shared our nuclear technology with Iran and Libya, them being Muslim countries. As far as North Korea is concerned, well obeying the rules of the selected five, perhaps we should just return the money paid by North Korea and declare it a gift :)

But the sad thing is how we dealt with this issue internally. We cowered under the international pressure and put our national hero Dr.A.Q.Khan under house arrest in 2004. He fought his own case in the Islamabad High Court against the Federal Government of Pakistan and won his freedom after five years in 2009. What a shame ! A national hero versus the national government. And afterwards, what benefits did we give him or take from him in the twelve years he has lived after his release running up to 2021 ? Nothing ! Like so many national heroes wasted, he just languished away within the four walls of his home with a meagre pension while we strut around beating our chests proclaiming to be a nuclear power and undefeatable, as declared on Yom-e-Takbeer after the successful nuclear blast.

Well the irony is that this undefeatable country Pakistan, only three years after declaring itself unbeatable, surrendered to the USA upon the war-of-terror, unconditionally, and opened its gates for Pakistan to become a battle ground. It was the year 2001. Not only did we give out our land for warfare but started handing over our citizens at America’s beck and call, including the iconic Aafia Siddiqui. It was the year 2003. Then an American citizen kills our citizens in broad daylight and runs away to hide in the American Embassy and is given a very safe passage out of Pakistan by Pakistan itself to fly out to his den, America. Zooming to the year 2011, NATO forces killed twenty-eight Pakistani soldiers in a border skirmish at Salala. But because this time it were the holy soldiers, we managed to give  a teeny-weeny reaction. We blocked NATO supplylines, sulked for a meagre seven months and then patched up by reinstating the NATO war supply-lines against our own brothers in Afghanistan. Eyes roll !

I think it takes America just a handful of years to plan out and execute an evacuation plan in order to evict Muslim heroes out of their home grounds. The Afghan Jihad was victorious, supported by America itself, but then General Zia-ul-Haq was eliminated in 1988 by the exploding mangoes and General Hamid Gul politically put on the grey list. The Taliban won the civil war in 1996 but then were ousted by America in 2001. Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani Muslim, graduated with all honors in 2001 but then was grounded by America itself in 2003. Pakistan proudly became a nuclear power in 1998 but then one of its founding fathers, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan was convicted in 2004. 

And what are we doing ? Standing lamely at the sidelines, looking the other way, or pretending to look and agree, whilst our national heroes are being taken off ground right before our very eyes. What a lame nation we are !

Share the Sorrow