Adil Najam
What an amazingly poignant and powerful advertisement. And how timely.
Published in Dawn (11 August, 2006) as a full page ad for the radio station City FM 89 it highlights what I believe to be one of Mr. Jinnah’s most evocative and inspiring speeches. Certainly one that is most relevant to Pakistan’s present as well as future. The key quote is printed right below his photograph:
“You are free to go to your temples; you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the state.”
Of course, his vision was not always followed. But on this, the eve of Pakistan’s Independence Day, there could not be a more timely moment to remind ourselves what the vision was.
City FM 89 also has a full day of special music planned for August 14, which by the looks of its sounds very enticing. For example, I would love to find out what their list of the ‘Top 50 Pakistani Songs’ look like. Whatever that list might look like, it is bound to have multiple entries from the incomparable Shahenshah-e-ghazal: Mehdi Hassan.
And that brings me to the second advertisement I saw, also in Dawn (12 August, 2006). This ad also spoke to my sensibilities.
First, this advert from Mobilink pays tribute to one of our greatest artists. That is something we do not do often enough; and do not do very well when we do it.
Moreover, the Urdu verse at the top — yeh watan hamara hai, hum hain pasbaan iss kay — comes from what I think is one of the most moving Pakistani national songs ever (commentary and link to the song here; more ATP posts on this here and here).
Most of song is in the ‘words’ of Mr. Jinnah so that ‘humara‘ (ours) in that line is ‘tumhara‘ (yours) in the song. But the intent is quite clear: we have to make of this country what we make of it. Even as a kid, this song always mesmerized me both for how Mehdi Hassan sang it and even more so for the words…. hum tou mehz unwaaN thay, asl daastaN tum ho!
Unlike so many other milli naghmay which were really naara baazi set to music, this one had a clear and powerful message. It seemed to me that Jinnah was saying to all of us: ‘guys, my time is up, I have done what I could, now its your turn; do the best you can and make the best of what you have.’ Of course, neither he nor the song was saying exactly that. But that is what I took from the song.
It was always a poignant song, but also an uncomfortable song. Because one always knew that we had not really lived up to the responsibility placed on us.
hi
there isa famous milli song played a lot on national occasions .its called …….hum zinda qaum hai.painda qaum hai….hum sub ki hai shan .hamara pakistan pakistan pakistan…
the sad thing is that we evry year have to remind ourselves that we are a zinda qaum !!!
that means were half dead if not full. our national character is amply displayed by this song, the passion of those who think we are a zinda qaum and the inherent irony in the same song that in fact we are dead, morally, politically and economically.
Excellent choice Saima…
And this Part 1 of the same article… called “Jinnah in a League of his own”
http://www.bitsonline.net/eqbal/articles_by_eqbal_ view.asp?id=5&cid=5
The daily Dawn published an article in June 1995 written by late Iqbal Ahmed, a prolific writer, journalist and an intellectual, unintimidated by power or authority, under the heading “The Betrayed Promise.” The article is an analysis of so called Islamisation of Pakistan and how it had shattered Jinnah’s dream of modern and progressive Pakistan. He writes, “In less than three decades we had four ‘minorities’, each a little less Pakistani than the so-called Muslim majority. During this year alone Christian citizens had to take asylums abroad because even after a court had acquitted them of blasphemy charges, their safety was not assured; an Ahmadi was beaten to death inside a government building, and scores languish in prisons without trial. If he were to appear in my dream how shall I convey our shame to the lean old man whose life and work we celebrate every year with much fanfare and enthusiasm.” One can read the whole article in the link given below:
http://www.bitsonline.net/eqbal/articles_by_eqbal_ view.asp?id=6&cid=2
Dear Adnan Siddiqui,
Please note that your views are wholely irrelevant to the discussion here.
1. We’ve established what kind of state Jinnah wanted. If you think that the concepts given by Jinnah as quoted hereinabove, equal an Islamic state, good for you… but the vision stays the same.. and many like myself consider it secular. If Islam favors these principles, then Islam favors secularism.
2. I don’t care what George Jacob Holyoake said… he wasn’t born till the 19th century… whereas the concept of a separation of church and state has been around much longer than that… with Rhode Island formally putting this into writing as early as 1650s.
3. The issue is not about whether Islamic principles can be a source of secular law… all secular democracies of the west are essentially based on Judaeo-Christian sense of morality… the issue here is whether a Non-Muslim can be considered an equal citizen of the state or not… Jinnah thought a non-Muslim or non-believer could be as good a Pakistani as a Muslim…
4. Jinnah was against raising doctrinal issues because they divided Muslims around sectarian lines.
dear YLH!
Lets just quit wasting time about the term “secularism”.Atleast you and me both agree with that secularism was actually concept of seprating a religon from state business,right?I disagree with that too and I am not in favor of sepration of religion from state business.Please keep in mind that we are talkig about Islam here not christianity.I asked you before that do you equate Islam and Christianity or other religion?.You guys would have done researched that bible laws were not liked by aethists of America in late 60s and they demanded to exclude religous content from textbooks later it become a law to keep religious matter aside.Now A simple but a direct question,Do you guys believe that Islam is NOT capable to deal with non-muslims’ life and can not provide security,izzat and other necessary things required to lead life?If you say Yes then fine then no reason to extend this debate further but at the time same time it looks kinda funny that people claim that they are muslims too.I as muslim believe that Islam has 100% capability to deal with state business where non-muslims also lead life.There are several stories of Islamic history where non-muslims used to live under muslim law.I dont have any doubt that Islam cant protect minorities.Yes if i was a christian then i also favored keep religious matter seprately because I have read verses of different bible versions[old and new testmants] and sevral verses of Matthew,Deut,Numbers,Jhon and what not dont appear in favor of minorities,even for their own people[i quoted verses somwehrre on this site]
I have not met any muslim yet who is 5 times regular,read quran,follow islam and claim he is wiling to keep islam aside from state business.if one claims like that either he never read Quran and other sources or a liar.”Muslim” is not a award that it is given to someone,its all about practising a religion.There is no partial thing in Islam that one pick something which is good for him and leaves other.There is a very famous verse of Quran(2:85) which says that one has to completely enter into Islam or just ignore it.I fully believe tht Islam is unlike Christianity[which many non-muslims believed as well] and we dont need to throw iSlam aside and forumulate our own state laws.If one does feel that Islam is like christianity and cant handle state business then say without hesitation rather hiding under cover of secularism or anything else.Usually such people prefer to choose things from Islam, like I have met people who dont give Zakat,dont believe in salat,dont believe in shariah by saying that it was only for desert land 1400 yeas back and in last they say “I am a muslim”.
The core problem is that we dont consider ourselves educated unles we adapt some western stuff in our life and those who dont adapt are labelled as “Mullahs”.No offense but for me such people are very confused souls.At one side they want to keep their bonding with Islam so that they are not cursed by society and on other hand they believe in following west which would make them super.In urdu there are idioms like Adha teetar Adha bater etc etc.Intresting thing is that GOOD things of west are never adapted like their honesty,integrity,patriotism,discplined etc etc.we choose residue of their culture and life style.
In conclusion,If I am living in a state governed by non-Muslim religious law and is providing me all facilities and rights then I am more happy to live under such laws rather I prefer sepration of state and religion.I am sorry from all of you for yet another long post.Hope it wouldn’t happen again.Thanks again!
p.s:YLH,Read “principals of secularism” to understand what is secularism and 1867 was not mentioned his DOB it was the year he gave a public address abot secularism laws.