Some sixty years ago, after much struggle and sacrifices, a new country had been carved on the world map. That country, named Pakistan, was solely created on the basis that Muslims of the subcontinent constituted a nation of their own and would be better off having their own homeland. So that they could live their lives according to the teachings of islam.
But what does really disturb me is the fact that although prescribing to the foundational norms of this country, we are at a crossroad where everybody is looking for answers that we all know already. Since the creation of Pakistan, there hasn't been one government that delivered. It was either corrupt or taken over by military regime. What happend? Why couldn't they deliver? Government means politics, politics means strategy and critic. Is it that simple?
Of course not, a lot of other factors are involved in it but one factor that is overlooked all the time is the person self. When a normal citizen does something opposing to the religion or the cultural norms, he is certainly made to feel the consequences. But when a pilitician does so, it gets pushed under the carpet without a mention. Why is that so? The plight of our Politics was and is that a vast majority of politicians are either mighty feudals or big industrialists who employ citizens of this country in vast numbers. Even if these citizens would want to vote for somebody else, they wouldn't dare. What is left, is that the normal citizen whatever aspiration he might have is left to the mercy of the one mighty person. Left to the conscience of the few.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Pursuit Of A Conscience
Conscience - something that is thought to be present in everybodies mind. Which is there with a person at any moment and with every action he does. Its there to judge whether something said or done is right or wrong. Which compells you to do the right thing - the right thing? What is the right thing to do? How can one know what the right thing is? Something that is quite fine with one may not be acceptable for the other. Fortunately, we have people around us with their specific humane faith beliefs. The beliefs and teachings the majority share and respect become the acceptable 'right thing' to do. Having these rightful teachings, one can compare them with his gut feeling- the inner conscience of man that is by nature peace loving.
As a Pakistani or more importantly as a Muslim we aspire to the beautiful teachings of the Holy Quran and The Holy Prophet PBUH. The majority of people follow these teachings - even if they do these in there own way. But there are moments when faith and belief get sidelined just because of a certain minority faction of the same society from which they belong want to impose their belief on the majority. These people, even knowing at heart that something said is wrong would admit it to be right just because they would not want to be harassed by this faction. Extremism, they call it.
Now, one could argue that 'how would you know that this faction of the society is doing something wrong - when there are thousands of people who belive in in the same thing'.
As said before, we are extremely fortunate to have this vast treasure of the teachings of the holy quran. But, it is extremely heart grieving to know that not everybody does understand the holy book- far from even reading it. We normally say that if you want to succeed in your studies, want to be successfull in your exams - craming the whole material is not the right way. Understanding what is written is the way to success. Now with respect to the holy quran which is written in arabic, how many people are there who understand the arabic language? Ultimately we are left with the explanation of the holy quran from our local clerics. Which in itself is not bad, but with so many factions - all with their own explanation of the holy book, who makes the right explanation?
With this in mind, isnt there the need for those who seek the truth to explore themselve the holy quran, the various versions of the explanations and decide themselve what is right and what is wrong. Why is it that from childhood to becoming an adult we just take the teachings of clerics as the defacto truth? Why are we ready to do violent acts by the clerics order- without even thinking why we are doing it. Are we really deprived of a conscience of our own? Is there any harm to explore the holy book and the sayings of theHoly Prophet PBUH at our own?
As an example, if you slap your child - even for the sake of teaching him something and compelling him to do something the right way, you are innert prone to your conscience telling you that you did the wrong thing. This feeling will haunt you till you havent expressed your sorrow to the child and taken him to your arms.
What if you were to murder someome in the name of god- because the cleric said it to be the right thing to do to attain eternal heaven. Even if you did it, what does your conscience tell you thereafter? "That was the right thing"? If it was this - there is really something wrong - either your holy book is wrong which says "killing one person is like killing the whole humankind", or your conscience is really manupilated.
Think about it.
As a Pakistani or more importantly as a Muslim we aspire to the beautiful teachings of the Holy Quran and The Holy Prophet PBUH. The majority of people follow these teachings - even if they do these in there own way. But there are moments when faith and belief get sidelined just because of a certain minority faction of the same society from which they belong want to impose their belief on the majority. These people, even knowing at heart that something said is wrong would admit it to be right just because they would not want to be harassed by this faction. Extremism, they call it.
Now, one could argue that 'how would you know that this faction of the society is doing something wrong - when there are thousands of people who belive in in the same thing'.
As said before, we are extremely fortunate to have this vast treasure of the teachings of the holy quran. But, it is extremely heart grieving to know that not everybody does understand the holy book- far from even reading it. We normally say that if you want to succeed in your studies, want to be successfull in your exams - craming the whole material is not the right way. Understanding what is written is the way to success. Now with respect to the holy quran which is written in arabic, how many people are there who understand the arabic language? Ultimately we are left with the explanation of the holy quran from our local clerics. Which in itself is not bad, but with so many factions - all with their own explanation of the holy book, who makes the right explanation?
With this in mind, isnt there the need for those who seek the truth to explore themselve the holy quran, the various versions of the explanations and decide themselve what is right and what is wrong. Why is it that from childhood to becoming an adult we just take the teachings of clerics as the defacto truth? Why are we ready to do violent acts by the clerics order- without even thinking why we are doing it. Are we really deprived of a conscience of our own? Is there any harm to explore the holy book and the sayings of theHoly Prophet PBUH at our own?
As an example, if you slap your child - even for the sake of teaching him something and compelling him to do something the right way, you are innert prone to your conscience telling you that you did the wrong thing. This feeling will haunt you till you havent expressed your sorrow to the child and taken him to your arms.
What if you were to murder someome in the name of god- because the cleric said it to be the right thing to do to attain eternal heaven. Even if you did it, what does your conscience tell you thereafter? "That was the right thing"? If it was this - there is really something wrong - either your holy book is wrong which says "killing one person is like killing the whole humankind", or your conscience is really manupilated.
Think about it.
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