From the Heart

Columnist MUZAFFAR KHAN AWAN, M.D writes an open letter to the PRESIDENT Gen Pervez Musharraf.

I was impressed to read the English rendering of speech you delivered during the 25th National Seerah Conference on June 5th in Islamabad. Indeed Allah (swt) sent Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) to this world to serve as his last messenger to humanity. It was through the Prophet that Allah perfected Islam. Islam provides us guidance in all walks of life including politics. The Islamic revolution brought about by the Holy Prophet was all inclusive of social, political, economical and moral aspects of individual and collective human life. It provided justice and equity for all. No one had privilege or preference over another. A new consciousness developed as tolerance and unity created strength and solidarity. The women were accorded a place of honour and respect in the society.  A moral geography and history was created and that ushered the beginning of new outlook, character, culture, a model state and civil society that became a reality in the early days of Islam. The rapid rise of Islam and its glorious civilization lasting for centuries subsequent to the founding of a model civil society in Medina remains unexplainable and one of the most spectacular events in the annals of human history. Its impact on the entire world continues even to this day. This culture and society with a very unique view of origin of man and his existence has for centuries occupied the very depth of soul and collective memory of Muslims. Man's essential worth in Islamic civil society lies in his inner self and not in his physical body. All men are equal regardless of the caste, creed or race. This view gives full recognition to the dignity of man as man.

There should be no doubt in any Muslim's mind that the Sunnah and path of the Prophet (as so accurately pointed out by you that his life and teachings will continue to provide the guiding light to Muslims till the end of the world) and his revolution constituted an evidence of the necessity for establishing Islamic government in every Muslim land on this globe. He himself established a government, as history testifies. He engaged in the implementation of Islamic laws, the establishment of the ordinances of the Shari’a, and administration of the society. According to one of the verses of the Qur’an, the ordinances of Islam are not limited with respect to time and place; they are permanent and must be enacted until the end of time. Thus the formation of Islamic government and establishment of its executive, legislative and judicial organs are all necessary requirement in Islam. The ratio of Qur’anic verses concerned with the affairs of society to those concerned with ritual aspect is greater than hundred to one. Of the approximately fifty sections of the corpus of hadith concerning all ordinances of Islam, no more than three or four sections relate to matters of ritual worship and the duties of man toward his Creator. A few more are concerned with ethics, and all the rest are concerned with social, economic, and political aspects of Islam.

However, Islamic History and Qur'anic order have been incongruent for quite some time.  Unfortunately, there is very little compatibility between the two even to this day. Arab Muslims who managed to grab power about 50 years after the death of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) established imperialism. The Qur'an, on the other hand, always stood for equity and justice. And, justice indeed means the rule of law as opposed to the rule of man. It was during the Abbasid period that the Arab Imperialism along with professional priest-craft and a culture of the privileged took roots. The so-called "Mullahs" of the time collaborated with the rulers to legitimize dictatorial regimes in return for positions of authority within the ruling hierarchy. For all practical purposes Deen and politics began to separate then and have remained so for centuries. The Qur'an neither condoned authoritarianism nor it granted such form of governance any legitimacy whatsoever.

Pakistan's creation in 1947 was meant to be a starting point for the renaissance and reawakening of a decaying Islamic civilization over many centuries. The objective of Pakistan's genesis was indeed none other than a model Islamic state through revival of Islam as a socio-political and moral factor, and the resurrection of the intellectual legacy and creativity of Islam's past. Quaid-e-Azam by helping create Pakistan gave us the opportunity to institute a model pluralistic Islamic democracy as an improvement over all forms of democracies but we unfortunately failed miserably over the past 50 years due to corrupt civilian and military dictators.

Iranian revolution of 1979 (after Pakistan's Islamic State having been derailed) was a second opportunity for the ummah to revive the Islamic civilization. It was the brainchild of a brilliant and learned Muslim reformer and a jurist, Imam Khomeini (1901-1989). He had dedicated his entire life to the study of Islamic political thought and philosophy and was an authority on Islamic law, philosophy, mysticism, as well as poetry.  Imam had developed and refined his own political thought in Islam and since the early 1960s initiated an Islamic movement that eventually led to successful establishment of an Islamic Republic in Iran in 1979 against all the odds. Iranian Revolution helped initiate Muslims to come to modernity on their own terms. Imam himself initiated the idea of dialogue among the civilizations. He had himself initiated the process of shifting more power to the parliament and with his blessings the idea of Velayat-e-Faqih was given a democratic interpretation by the then speaker of the Majlis Hashmi Rafsanjani. Imam Khomeini was the only one to create an Islamic State through a revolution 1400 years after the revolution of the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam himself.

Iranian revolution has further begun to demonstrate maturity of the Islamic state of Iran as the outcomes of recent polls in Iran have demonstrated. It should be a lesson and an example for Pakistan and all other Islamic nations. Speaking after his recent victory, President Khatami said that his victory was an affirmation of the Islamic system of government established by the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and that he would continue to work towards the establishment of a just and moral society based on Islamic principles. In his first address since his re-election to a large audience of common people, he repeated his commitment to the establishment of an Islamic democracy in which freedoms and national progress are institutionalized. He stressed the elements of the Islamic Revolution reminding Iranians that Iran would have to continue to undertake everything with an Islamic mind because Islam was the foundation of the statehood in Iran. Iranians wanted a system of Islamic democracy. That is why the Islamic Revolution, has been stressing the basic rights of the people within an Islamic state and civil society. That system has an Islamic identity. He observed further that Iranian independence, freedoms and progress is in line with their faith, culture and national identity. He urged the youth to continue to remain committed to their Islamic beliefs and cultural identity as a society and help the establishment of a free and independent nation consistent with those elements. The Islamic Republic, he said, proposes to offer the model of a new statehood with the will and preferences of the people being the foundation of the political authority of the government. Iran’s Guardians Council has approved the landslide June 8 re-election of Khatami, allowing him a second four-year term. The charismatic president had eased social pressures already during his first term at home while working to restore Iran's image on the international stage through the dialogue of civilizations initiated by the Imam. He drew the world's attention to his struggle when the Islamic Republic of Iran continued to support the concept of dialogue as a means of materializing detente and mutual understanding among world nations and ethnic and cultural divides, "greater strides will be taken to reach lofty human ideals," Khatami said. The Iranian president’s pursuit of `Dialogue Among Civilizations' was made a global objective for 2001 by the United Nations, and also called for better cooperation between the Islamic Republic and the U.N.

For Pakistan religious sectarianism has indeed become a dangerous problem, due to the opportunism of successive political and military governments over the decades that had pandered to it. The militant sectarian groups and parties, led by many semi-educated and bigoted mullahs, many of them armed to the teeth, are continuing to hold Pakistani society as a hostage. They threaten the very fabric of our society. Threats of disruption from religious groups have been further escalating in recent decades. They have actually grown steadily in strength since the time of General Zia. They now claim to be the true custodians of Pakistan and according to them they, the mullahs, were the ones who had fought successfully to establish an Islamic state for Muslims in the subcontinent. Facts, however, contradict such claims. With the exception of Ghulam Ahmad Parvez's pro-Pakistan Tulu-i-Islam group, all other religious groups and parties, including the Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Hind, the Majlis-i-Ahrar and the Jamaat-i-Islami, had bitterly opposed the Pakistan Movement and abused its political leadership.

The fact remains that the raison d'etre of Pakistan Movement and as such struggle for Pakistan began as early as 1938 at the behest of Allama Iqbal.The hallmark of Iqbal's idea for Pakistan was indeed the implementation of Quranic socio-political and economic system. Allama lqbal, an Islamic thinker and philosopher of the 20th century who after an in-depth study of the Qur’an realized that true Islam (Deen) got buried under the debris of artificial sectarian Islam. He called upon the Ummah to revive true Islam in the light of the Qur’an. He actually converted Quaid-i-Azam from being a staunch Indian nationalist to an Islamic ideologue of Pakistan through their mutual and personal meetings and exchange of ideas in numerous letters spanning over a period of about 10 years. It is evident from Quaid’s numerous speeches and statements that Pakistan was to be governed in accordance with an alternative democracy (Islamic Democracy). Our founding fathers had indeed a very unique form of democracy in their mind and that was an Islamic pluralistic model of democracy. They never meant a theocracy for Pakistan. They also never meant dictatorship by the military or by the corrupt politicians. Everyone agrees that Pakistan needs a strong government. But military rule with a civilian face has been a spectacular flop almost everywhere it has been tried. From Latin America to the Middle East to sub-Saharan Africa, military and military-backed regimes have proved to be as corrupt as the civilian governments they replaced, often even more so. 

Pakistan's economics, educational and state institutions have unfortunately been based entirely on colonialist’s models and without a true Islamic revolution; there is no possibility of bringing about grass root changes when corruption is so prevalent and has penetrated deeply to all segments of our society from top to bottom. Such a revolution is nowhere in sight at this point in time. Not unlike the mainstream political parties and the military rulers of the past, Pakistan’s religious parties also have had no plans or a concrete methodology to implement true Islamic governance. The Khakis, the Baboos and the Mullahs had all wanted power and made false promises about enforcing Islam but nothing materialized in over 50 years. The religious groups are equally responsible for their own contributions to the existing chaos in Pakistan when compared with the military's detrimental indulgence in politics and the abuses of power by the corrupt politicians.

For Pakistan to become a real Islamic country, it must establish a truly Islamic civil society you talked about in your talk in the Seerah conference. The road to genuine Islamisation in Pakistan has neither been easy nor clear in spite of the clear path charted by the founding fathers. The time has run out for empty talk and rhetoric. No one believes the empty talk any longer. Pakistan’s religious groups are deeply entrenched in a sectarian divide. They each have their narrow definitions of Islam. They do not pray together; they do not agree on a unified plan and they are ill-equipped to deal with contemporary and complex realities of our times. Yet all of them keep talking about the enforcement of Islam order.

During your straight talk at the Seerah conference, you seemed remarkable at least in words. You appeared neither rigid as some of your uniformed stiff-necked appearances nor as diplomatic as your new plans might have demanded. Your words were invariably tempered by realism rather than rhetoric. Your talking "frankly", "simply", in your "own idiom", your " straightforward manner" and flexibility may have won you some friends at home and perhaps even abroad than your critics might wish to acknowledge. Your words at the Searah Conference were indeed commendable. Until now, no political or military leader in the history of Pakistan has had the audacity, courage or integrity to talk so frankly about the home truths to the Ulema, Mashaikh-e-Kiram and to all Pakistanis. Many of these pious men are supposedly self-proclaiming "guardians of Islam" and self-appointed "defenders of the identity" of Pakistan. In all honesty no one could disagree with your words.

What is so "Islamic" about our country when Sunnis and Shias have been killing each other over the decades, and now Deobandis and Brelvis have started killing each other? We remain deprived of a sense of brotherhood and tolerance. Allah Almighty is indeed the Judge but we brutalized Ahmadies and took upon ourselves on Allah’s behalf to declare them non-Muslims.  There is no justice for the poor and the destitute. Our women are relegated to second-class citizenship? Who can blame the West for calling Pakistan as a "failed" or "terrorist" state when we go on hurling threats to others? Who will invest in Pakistan when it is consistently rocked by mad sectarian strife and killings? Since no nation is isolated in our global village, how can Pakistan survive being so hostile to others?

The root cause of our instability surely lies in our giving up of true Islam i.e. Deen, that was the pure and real Islam. The politics of today remains so dirty that it can never mix with true Islam. Could you have said half of what you have uttered now even six months ago? With hindsight, one would think probably not. The proposal to amend the procedure of filing a case under the blasphemy law is an example. The idea was sound enough as the law was being exploited by the vested interests. In fact, a representative government had already drafted the necessary changes. But you readily backtracked when your intelligence agencies revealed how the religious groups had intended to stir up trouble for the government if the proposed changes were implemented. You were advised that the military government should not open a Pandora’s box when the politicians and businesses were already up in arms against your government, India was fomenting trouble, the economy was in shambles and the global community wasn't being helpful. One step forward could have become several steps backward. General, you no longer seem to be a weakling .You have wrought changes in the army's high command filling all the critical positions by your own obedient generals. You may have pacified India and the global community by initiating the regional peace process and bowing down to IMF dictates. You have calmed the restless domestic business community by nudging NAB to focus on the public sector while restraining the ubiquitous CBR from fishing in murky waters. You have unleashed the process of local elections, thereby isolating the traditional political parties in the run-up to the general elections next year.

The real task, for you General, is to initiate the process of economic growth, universalism and modernity in a progressive Islamic democratic environment without unleashing any of the turmoil and instability associated with rapid change in a largely static society, and then attempting yourself to escape from the scene in a chaotic manner. However, anything short of true and real Islamic governance would be unacceptable to Pakistani masses that have suffered for too long.

Is the road map clear to you, General? No, sir, it cannot be clear given the contradictions. There is a contradiction between continuation of sponsorship of jihad as state policy and at the same time trying to tame the religious activists in the interest of domestic stability. There is also a contradiction between squeezing the public for greater revenues and channelling them into defence expenditures. There is a contradiction between plans for devolution of power and yet your own ongoing pre-occupation with military mode of centralism in civilian governance. There must be a contradiction between constantly stockpiling and upgrading nuclear and missile materials while asking the international community to write off or reschedule our staggering foreign debts.

The sooner you, General, remove these contradictions from Pakistan's reckoning, the better. Words alone will not suffice any longer. We need an action. Will the military leadership have the ability to implement Islamic governance worked out and planned by the founding fathers of Pakistan? The answer can be certainly yes if you as a president and your comrades have the integrity, sincerity, decency and the ability to act and accomplish this very tall order in a manner Iqbal and Quaid would have liked you to accomplish for our nation.

You even had a dream and now believe in all "sincerity" and "honesty" that you "really have a role to play" in Pakistan. You sincerely think that you have "a job to do here" and, therefore, you cannot and will not let this nation down. So, the decision to self-elevation to the Presidency becomes an ilham sent from the heaven. God has been very kind to you and God continues to be kind to you as He has been giving you and showering bounties on you. If all this is through heavenly intervention, and you have been indeed picked to serve a destitute Islamic nation, then the ultimate decision about your rise or fall will come from the masses after you deliver or do not deliver.

Mr. President, you now have even started talking about the Islamic revolution of our Holy Prophet and a true model society created by him. We are also witnessing maturing of Islamic democratic model in Iran. In spite of tremendous odds, Islamic Iran continues to stay on the course charted out by the great Imam and is vigorously being pursued by the present leadership of Iran. Islamic democratic and pluralistic model of state is indeed in the making in Iran and should be an example for Pakistan. Unfortunately, to this day and even 22 years since the actual and miraculous success of the Islamic revolution in Iran, much of the Islamic world still falls short of the correction and convergence that Imam Khomeini developed for the entire Ummah.

It now remains your ultimate obligation to initiate and help recreate such a model not only for Pakistan but also for the entire Ummah and the world as you stated in your recent talk. You have the best opportunity in helping to recreate a true Islamic identity, unity, a model pluralistic Islamic democracy and a model civil society of our Holy Prophet in Pakistan. You can help recreate a socio-political and Islamic economic system based on true Islamic beliefs and thought. Islam cuts across continents, nationalities and ethnic groups and indeed is a global system with tremendous future possibilities for the solution of serious problems faced by mankind and for peace and tranquillity of the entire human family. If you prove to be a genuine leader with an Islamic revolutionary insight you mentioned (by sincerely understanding the real purpose of Pakistan’s coming into being and by implementing true Islam), you will surely succeed and only then elevate. You have a tremendous opportunity of fortune and fame to recreate history of Islam in the 21st century. Let us wait and see if you indeed have the vision to be a hero or you too turn out to be a villain in Pakistan’s history like many of your predecessors at the helm of Pakistan’s affairs over a period of half a century.

May Allah guide you in the right direction?
I will end here with a few couplets of Iqbal:

(Do not compare your nationhood with the nations of the west
Distinctive is the nation of the prophet of Islam
Their unity depends on territorial nationality
Your unity rests on the strength of your faith
When faith slips away, where is the unity of the Ummah?
And when the Ummah is no more, neither is the nation.)