The Mess We are Living In - ramblings of a disturbed mind
I could not sleep last night. Have only had one or two such restless nights in my life before the last one...
I feel so sick of television and the noise that comes out of it is getting unbearable with every passing day. Sheer cacophony. But there is so much going on in the country at the moment that nobody in the family would dare to unplug the idiot box, which continues to transmit its idiocy into our lives. Anyway, this post is not about the hazards of the idiot box. I will have ample occasions in the upcoming days and years to rant about them when I will practically try to get rid of this device in my life with the help of Allah SWT and those around me. This post is about my country, which is probably going through the toughest of times in its history. The events that have materialised lately should plunge all of us into the thinking mode. The issues that are haunting my mind at present are as follows:
1. Who is Tahir ul Qadri? We know he is a self-proclaimed "Shaykh ul Islam" and that his and his organization's beliefs have nothing to do with the mainstream religious tradition. He is surely not making Islam a basis for the "reforms" that he is demanding, but the question is that can we keep Islam out of it? He's a "religious leader" after all, and his followers follow him because of his "religious" beliefs. He has the label of religion attached to him. Now, how is it possible that in the current Islamophobic environment a supposedly "religious" leader comes forward and speaks of electoral reforms? All this transpired within a matter of days with media, as usual, playing its due role in hyping up the situation. In crude terms it goes something like this: one fine morning we all woke up to find out that a religious "Shaykh ul Islam" has returned from Canada (just a few months before the elections!) and he wants people to come out on streets with him demanding reforms. In the paid content that runs on TV channels, this man is seen telling us, the people of Pakistan, that we are living in destitute and inhuman conditions with no basic necessities of life such as electricity or gas, and hence we need to join him in his "long march" against the present government. Now those of us who endorse his religious views or are a part of his organisation rise with full force and agree to walk along side him (or behind him, to be precise). And those who are my likes sit glued to our TV screens day in and day out wondering at the nayrangi-e dauraa~! There is no denying that the past five years have been worst for us so far. I might have bought Mr Qadri's logic had he returned sometime earlier to "free us of our miseries" ... At present, (even if I keep the religious bias aside) I can only offer suspicion (and no sympathy at all) as a Pakistani regarding his motives behind all this drama that he has staged.
2. Along with this long march topi drama going on, the Hazara Community killings, the Governor Rule in Balochistan and the ever increasing tension at the Pak-India LOC is very disturbing.
All the more unsettling is our attitude towards the entire situation. We hardly have time to step out of our TV rooms and pray two units of salat al haajat or salaat al Tawbah. We are too busy following the spicy news stories that keep on flashing on our TV screens every single minute. We hardly have time to reflect over our own tarbiyah or of the people of our household. The news should not be missed. The tarbiyah programme can wait. I know I sound bitter. I myself can taste the bitterness in my words. But I feel helpless. Way too helpless. The experiences of an average Pakistani youth like myself life are tv-mediated. The experiences of my elders are media-mediated. Media, which, by the way, is hell bent on telling us these days "paRhne likhne ke siva, Pakistan ka matlab kya?" Who would have thought we would stoop to this level.
Who would not feel helpless in the face of this mess? To what have we lost our critical abilities? Why have we become so mindless about our choices in life? For what benefits have we mortgaged our thinking quloob that a self-professed "Shaykh ul Islam" springs out of nowhere at a very specified and particular point in time and takes us by storm? Where is that wisdom of momin which was to be feared for a momin saw through Allah's Light!? Why have we stopped looking for our answers in the primordial tradition of our Prophet's sallallahu alaihi wassallam Sunnah?
Something is terribly amiss. Is it morning already? I guess I need to wake up.
Allahumma arinal-haqqa haqqan warzuqnat-tiba'ah, wa arinal-batila batilan warzuqnaj-tinabah, bi rahmatika ya arhamar-rahimeen.
O Allah! Let us see the Truth as Truth, and bless us with following it. And show us the falsehood as falsehood, and bless us with staying away from it, with Your mercy, O Most Merciful!
Comments
The most responsible of us who are to blame are those who know the truth and don't have the courage to come out of dire sleep.
You will see them talking on tv screens and 'analyzing' the situation. Giving 'their' opinion like hassan nisaar and orya maqbool jaan (I do respect their endeavor but still it is not enough). The people present in long march said "we are done with this situation and we are here for revolution." They don't know about the meaning of revolution, Tahir ul qadri's character is also vividly known to many but still i respect the people who are sitting there in islamabad and have come from DI Khan and other very remote areas of Pakistan. They are at least not the hypocrites and it is also known by all of us that faces will change in the election but the policies will be the same.
So, why this mob was not assembled by the "more enlightened" of us and more "illuminated". Is our suffering still not enough for those "who know" to come out and tell people the "truth".
I just can't understand this dilemma.
Why is there no one to speak the bare truth about Islam, its ideology? Where are those spiritual ones, who dare to unveil the unseen to the common man? Where are the doctors, engineers and business people who care for Pakistan? (There absence has given the opportunity to people like Tahir ul Qadri to take the lead)I feel myself responsible as well for this and these thoughts just wrench the soul out of me.
Everything has gone wrong with us from day one. Whether it be the delayed delivery of Quiad in hospital or assassination of Liaqat Ali Khan. From army boots in 1958 to the separation of Pakistan, from our forgetting the ideology of Islam to our acceptance of Western enslavement. Whatever our 'informed' and 'intellectuals' are doing is not enough. There must be a strong synchronization to create a vibe that can really affect masses in a moment. But we are in a deep sleep. God knows when we are going to wake up. May Allah guide us to do something for the betterment. May He bless, those from us who are sincere, the infinite fearless urge to promulgate what is right and what is wrong. People say that things change in centuries for Nations but i believe otherwise. Things are colliding very fast on us and if we don't act now as at least a Nation we will be wiped out, the signs of which you can see everywhere.
These are just my emotional ramblings, a catharsis i might say. We need more than this.
I don't know much his sect. Neither am i his fan especially when he watched him surrendering to western views on blasphemy in West, and saying the opposite in Pakistan.
Many of his religious beliefs are opposed to those professed officially by Saudi Arabia. (hope it doesn't sound like calling names.) And these are not primarily new innovations by his sect 1+ centuries ago, but mainstream views of Arabian scholars and Salaf. These views are stifled officially in SA, they do this by not allowing traditional encyclopedic scholars do their job of teaching preaching. Top level interventions are needed to secure a legitimate position in two holy cities. This exercise of choosing one interpretation over all other was shunned by Salaf including at least one Great Imam out of four.