PROPHET’S BIRTH-DAY CELEBRATIONS
The Holy Prophet Muhammad’s ﷺ birthday was celebrated with more than usual enthusiasm throughout Pakistan. The celebrations took various shapes and forms – mauloods, lectures, processions, parades and so forth. They are all very well so far as they go. But they do not go very far. They are at best an expression of the deepest of devotion, which all classes and sections of Muslims, even those who put scant value on religion, cherish towards the Holy Prophet ﷺ. True celebrations of the Prophet’s memory should consist in how far Pakistan incorporates the ideals and aspirations for which the Prophet ﷺ stood and for which he lived, suffered, and died, and how far the people of Pakistan mould their work-a-day life on the model of the Holy Prophet ﷺ. But for this inner spirit, the celebration amounts to adding just one more item to the list of our national festivals.
What was the main urge of the Prophet’s ﷺ heart and soul, what was the one dominating note of his personality, what was the burning, all-consuming passion of his life? That man’s eyes should be opened to the existence of a State higher than all earthly States, the sovereignty of God, that man should be shaken and awakened to the existence of the moral and spiritual law, that man should be taught to look upon that higher Law as the be-all and end-all of his life, that the Kingdom of God should be established in the heart of man. It is here that we need a little honest heart-searching and say how many of us have attuned ourselves to this higher music of life and how far.
Incorporation of the visions and ideals of the Prophet ﷺ at this higher level was never in greater demand than to-day. It has become a question of life and death to Pakistan itself. But for this Spirit of the Prophet ﷺ, Pakistan is but a house of cards. The negative force which has been responsible for its creation, viz. reaction against Hindu domination will not do for long. Fear of Hindu military aggression which Pakistan politicians have so far kept in the forefront to keep Pakistan going is also a negative force. What Pakistan needs and needs most urgently is a positive constructive force which should serve as a cement to consolidate this baby state and enable it to grow from strength to strength.
Just now there are two religions which are holding the arena of human mind and making a definite all-out bid for world domination. These two religions are Democracy and Communism. Yes, these two systems sway the minds of men with right religious devotion and enthusiasm, even fanaticism. It is these two gods that are sharing between them at the present day the allegiance of the bulk of mankind. If the Muslim has the slightest idea of his great Faith and the faintest glimpse of the vision of his great Prophet ﷺ, he cannot possibly watch this twin-challenge with equanimity. In the words of the late Allama Iqbal, Islam is Destiny and will not suffer a destiny. It is up to the Muslim, if he is to be really loyal to the Prophet’s message to take up this challenge and say as did the late Qaid-i-Azam in the in face of Hindu challenge, that there is a third Party, a third System that is Islam.
It will be recalled that when Hindu leadership bamboozled world opinion by the slogan that there were but two parties to the struggle of independence in this subcontinent, Britain and Congress – Qaid-i-Azam there and then gave that leadership a straight slap in the face, meeting it with a prompt retort:
” There is a third party. That is the Muslim League!” This is exactly the faith, the fervour, the conviction that must be rediscovered in this new setting when Pakistan has been established, if Pakistan is to be maintained in health and vitality and full-blooded vigour. With the robust faith of the Qaid-i-Azam, Pakistan must rise to meet the new challenge in the world-context and direct the national energies along the positive constructive channels that Islam, not communism nor the capitalistic Godless democracy, is to be the coming social philosophy that can lead mankind from the present chaos and confusion.
A Communist is a devout Communist in the sense that he is staking his all on his creed. The democracies are in dead earnest to put up a fight for their social philosophy to the very last ditch. Has Pakistan anything of this fervour for Islam – a fervour that world destiny is bound up with the re-discovery of the moral and spiritual values embedded in the faith and culture of Islam?
We wish to emphasize this as right national emergency and strike the note of warning that unless Pakistan comes forthwith into grips with this reality of world situation, it shall not be loyal to the slogan on which the battle of Pakistan was fought and won – viz. that Islam is a distinct life philosophy and Muslims must be free to mould their social structure in the light of that philosophy. Now that Pakistan has come into being, it puts Pakistan on its trial. The world must now have a definite proof that Islam is really a wholesome constructive force. High sounding slogans cannot solve problems crying for solution. Pakistan must catch up with this spirit of the times. Its own future is wrapped with how far those holding the reins of this Islamic State in their hands – are imbued with this high-level vision of Islam as the final Divine dispensation for the good of man.
This, to our mind, is the real message of the Prophet’s ﷺ. Instead of taking salutes at ceremonial parades, high-ranking state ministers must, on this day, rededicate themselves to these ideals of the Prophet’s ﷺ way of life.
Mohammad Yaqub Khan
The Light – January 24, 1949.
