P A K I S T A N: Idea, Struggle and Achievements

Many books have been written, numerous speeches have been made, several lectures have been given and a number of seminars in expensive five star hotels have been held on Pakistan. The subject is such as it begs repetition.
In a short essay, it is not possible to talk in detail about the history of Indian Muslims as to why they wanted a separate homeland, their struggle for this demand culminating in the achievement of their aspirations with the establishment of Pakistan in 1947.
After the war of Independence in 1857, termed as mutiny ( ) by the then rulers, Muslims of India were left bleeding in utter humiliation.
The British wreaking vengeance on Muslims who were deprived of their political, economic, civil and military power; their lands, wealth and resources were confiscated; educational institutions were closed or denied any financial help. Muslims were reduced to a fallen nation.William Hunter in his book "Indian Musalman" published in 1871 says:"Now all sorts of employment, high or low, great or small are being gradually snatched away from the Mohammedans, and given to other races particularly Hindus. They are reduced to Bahistee, wood cutters, peons or pen menders in offices."
This was the time and period when there arose a phoenix from the ashes of fallen Muslims by the name of Syed Ahmad Khan whom we rightly call the first "architect" and founder of Pakistan. He gave the Muslim nation self-confidence and he turned their eyes from defeat of yesterday to hope, success and freedom of tomorrow.
He educated them in modern sciences in the face of strong opposition from the "Ulemas" particularly of Deoband.
Indian "Ulemas" issued "Fatwa" (religious indictment) against teaching of English. He did not care and established the famous Aligarh Muslim University. He knew very well that the survival of Muslims against the united opposition and hatred of the English and the Hindus was not possible if Muslims did not make an intellectual progress by studying natural and modern sciences.
When Indian National Congress was founded by a British it was soon hijacked by Hindus and a militant revisionist Swami Diyannand raised his popular slogan "India for Indians".
Sir Syed genuinely alarmed and pleaded to Muslims not to join the Congress party.
He wrote to Mr. Shakespeare, the Commissioner of Benares of his being convinced that the "two nations" could never participate jointly in any kind of work and that hostility and opposition would come mainly from the "Educated Hindus". He prophesied that who lives would see what he said was true. Later, Quaid-e-Azam also advanced his two-nation theory saying that Muslims belonged to two different religious philosophies, social customs, literature and civilizations at the Frontier Muslim League Conference on 21 November, 1945 Peshawar League Conference. He said that the Muslims demanded Pakistan where they could rule according to their own code of life and according to their own traditions and Islamic laws. In a message to Frontier Muslim Students Federation he said, "you have asked me to give you a message. What message can I give you? We have a great message in Quran for our guidance and enlightenment."
Non-Muslim often used to say sarcastically that they did not know what the purpose and meaning of Pakistan was.
A young poet of Sialkot, Punjab, Asghar Sodai said:Pakistan ka matlib kiyaLa—ila ha Illallah.
Further, in his Eid message to the nation in 1945, he said,"Every one except the ignorant knows that the Quran is the general code of the Muslamans and our prophet has said that every Musalman should possess a copy of the Holy Book and be his own priest and guide."
In 1943 at All India Muslim League Annual Session, Delhi, he said:"I would like to give warning to landlords and capitalists who become exploiters by a system which is so vicious, so wicked and makes them so selfish that it is difficult to reason with them. They have forgotten the lessons of Islam. Millions have been exploited and the poor cannot get one meal a day. These rich people will have to adjust themselves to the new conditions of life. If they do not God help them: We shall not help them."
After seven years’ struggle, Pakistan came into being on the map of the world with Almighty Allah’s blessing on the sacred night of Laila-tul-qadr ( ), 27th of Ramathan i.e. 14 August, 1947. Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani declared that it was ordained by Allah that this Islamic State should come into existence on this scared night so that his law i.e. the Holy Quran was to be the Constitution of this new State.
In a broadcast talk to the people of the USA as the fist Governor-general of Pakistan, he said:
"The Constitution of Pakistan has yet to be framed by the Constituent Assembly. I do not know what the ultimate shape of this constitution is going to be but I am sure that it will be a democratic type, containing the essential principles of Islam. These are as applicable in modern times as were 1400 years ago. However Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic state to be ruled by priests with a divine mission."
Unfortunately Quaid-e-Azam did no live long to make Pakistan a truly Islamic state based on Quranic Laws as he had often said after his death, his concept of an Islamic state could not take a practical shape.We failed shamelessly in our duty to fulfil the promise Allama Iqbal and the Quaid had made to the Ummah. We have paid an un-imaginable heavy penalty for it. Corruption deep in our veins, sectarian killing, polarization of Ummah into sects, feudalism, capitalism, nepotism, greed, murders, gang rape, in short every evil one can think of, has become cancerous for the society.
For fifty years, we have been ignoring the warning signals from Allah of impending calamities ( ). I do not have to go into detail about the pathetic situation of the country politically, morally, economically, socially and educationally. We all are witness to it.
The crying need of the hour is to change this so called Muslim society into a Quranic one, by which we mean transformation of the whole edifice of government i.e. the parliament, executive and judiciary. It demands honest, dedicated and sincere Muslims to come forward and replace the present feudalistic capitalistic set-up with a Quranic system of government as dreamt by Iqbal and the Quaid-e-Azam.
Then and only then through this experiment "The whole world shall be illuminated with the glory and light of Allah" (Al-Quran; 39:69).
By: Maqbool Mahmood Farhat, London