QUAID-E-AZAM

(25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948)

ON the 11th of September, nine years ago, passed away from this earth the great Muslim leader, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had, in the face of terrible and treacherous opposition, fought for and found the Islamic State of Pakistan. He was really great, for he served a greatness, not his own, for neither praise nor self. Any other man, with so horrible and huge odds arrayed against him, would have fallen confoundedly: but Qaid-e-Azam’s nerves were made of strong steel and his heart of cast iron. He withstood successfully all the enemy onslaughts and achieved peacefully with the spontaneousness of a wonder, the freedom of his people, proving to the world at large that his pen was much mightier than the blood-spilling sword. He was so strongly armed with arguments that in spite of the banya’s tactics and Mountbatten’s Machinations, Pakistan emerged on the map of the world as an Independent Islamic State. Rightly to be great, said Shakespeare very aptly, is not to stir without great argument, but greatly to find quarrel in a straw when honours at the stake. It falls to the lot of a few freedom-fighters to see and reap the fruit of their struggle. Many of them pass away, during the course of their action, with the gloom of uncertainty, and sometimes of frustration and failure, weighing heavy upon their souls. But our Beloved Leader, may his soul rest in peace in heaven, not only founded this State for us but also established it, during the short period that he stayed with us thenceforward, on such sound lines that it is going progressively from strength to strength, and commands a place of honour and respect in the comity of nations.

Quaid-e-Azam was, by the accident of birth a Shia Muslim. But, happily, he was endowed with the true broad Islamic vision which was absolutely free from all manner of religious bias and sectarian prejudice. He believed, as a matter of principle, in a sect-less Islam of the Holy Prophet’s ﷺ time that generated a force which no human effort could stand against and resist. There are no sects in Islam in the sense that there are sects in other religions which differ from each other in matters of fundamental importance. The so-called sects in Islam are nothing but so many schools of thought which, while having full agreement on all the fundamental principles of Islam, hold different views in certain matters which are not of basic importance. Quaid-e-Azam acting upon this principle of sect-less Islam gathered all the different sections and fragments of the nation on one platform. It was indeed a miracle of this age that Mulla-ridden Muslims, sinking all their superficial differences, rallied round the Quaid-e-Azam to put up a combined and concerted fight for their freedom. His mind was free from all manners of cant and hypocrisy; so he led the nation from one point of success to the other, in spite of the perfidious fraud that beset his path and Pakistan, although a truncated Pakistan, emerged on the map of the world.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the astounding success which Quaid-e-Azam achieved in the teeth of a tremendous opposition, was due to the force and strength of a sect-less Islam. The power of a sect-less Islam is irresistible, and triumph and glory must follow in its wake. But it is highly distressing to observe that our national strength and solidarity has again been shattered into pieces by vested interests and exploitation of the religious sentiments of the people for the achievement of political ambition is again at work. People had hardly recovered from the horrible havoc wrought during anti-Qadiani riots of 1953, when they were set up by the ears on the occasion of the last Muharram to break each other’s bones. Shias and Sunnis, the two important limbs of one and the same body, pitted against each other with violent intentions, is but a very sad commentary on Islamic brotherhood and solidarity. And if Quaid-e-Azam were to return to this earth for a day and see for himself how that solidarity of Pakistan which he had taken great pains to build up, is being dashed to the ground, while a formidable foe is thumping at the door, he will run away from here with horror and disgust, never to think of Pakistan again. It is, however, gratifying to know that the Government have instituted a judicial inquiry into the Shia-Sunni clash that occurred at some places on the occasion of the last Muharram to find out the political jugglers who pulled the strings of fanaticism from behind the curtain. We urge emphatically upon the Government to sentence these national criminals to such an exemplary punishment as to render a repetition of any such anti-national action an impossibility.

There is yet another H-Bomb, manufactured in the Mulla’s arsenal, which sweeps with one burst a whole section of the nation off the surface of Islam, much in the same way as did the Amercan H-Bomb at Nagasaki and Yokohama in Japan. It is kafir and outside the pale of Islam. Anyone, an individual or the whole humanity, who incurs even the slightest displeasure of the Mulla, not necessarily on religious principles, is dubbed as a kafir, and thrown off the world of Islam into annihilation. It is high time that the Mulla’s Mouth should be strongly muzzled. The Holy Kalima, ever since the inception of Islam, has been the one gateway to enter into the world of Islam. Its acceptance confers on the newcomer the certificate of Muslim nationality which no power on earth can cancel or confiscate. It is the only denial of the Kalima, and no other misdeed on the part of the believer, that drives him out of the pale of Islam. Such was the practice of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, and such was the practice of his successors all through the centuries. Acceptance of the Kalima brings in denial of the Kalima drives out; and there is no third alternative. But the Mulla would not have it. The other day we got the shock of our life when we heard a Mulla saying in full confidence. If a Sikh were to recite the Kalima, will he become a Muslim? The Mulla is a creation of the present age; he had no place in early Islam and the practice of having paid Imams, whose only duty is to conduct prayers, is to a large extent responsible for the degeneration of the Muslims. These people have generally no sense of the dignity of Islam and its institutions, nor have they the light and learning which should entitle them to the sublime duty of giving a spiritual lead to the Muslims.