Adil Najam
This picture is interesting at so many levels.
The official caption reads: “Pakistanplayers pray after winning the ICC Women’s World Cup 2009 round two group stage match between Sri Lanka and Pakistanat Manuka Oval on March 9, 2009 in Canberra, Australia.”
What should one comment on? The achievement of the Pakistan women’s cricket (we have written earlier about Urooj Mumtaz Khan, who was again instrumental in this victory). The significance of the women’s team’s achievement when the men’s team is in doldrums. The fact that this was against Sri Lanka, given the horrible incidents of last week. Or just the gesture of gratitude and prayer (and whether this was synchronized for the cameras or spontaneous!).
I will leave the commenting to our readers.
I put this up, because seeing the picture I felt good at the news. Felt good for our womens’ team. And felt good that at least there is some hope for Pakistan cricket. Most of all, because I think its a great picture.
Yes, Akbar and Jinnah were special, in very different ways. Yet Akbar had a forerunner in Sher Shah, and Jinnah in Sir Syed. Again, in very different ways. In Jinnah’s case, especially, he took an idea still at its formative stages, and, single handedly, turned it in to a fully fledged reality. It’s not his fault that we, his successors, reversed it. Jinnah, encouraged by what Sir Syed had started, defied the prevailing crisis of confidence. We need someone who can do that today. Otherwise, we’ll see capitualtion after capitulation to the likes of Fazlullah and Baitullah.
Excellent points Usman… the only issue I have is that in the cases of Akbar vs. Aurangzeb and Jinnah vs. Zia, the persona and the intellectual makeup of the man in question had a big role to play in addition to the eras they were variously in p0wer… but I agree with your general premise… it definitely has a role to play in our current obsession with ritualism…
Nostalgic, read the history of Islam (or several other religions). Read it over smaller or bigger time ranges. Read it in the regional or globall context. You will find that whenever Muslims have been strong and prosperous, they’ve been less worried about outward and rhetorical religious symbolism. They’ve produced world leading thinkers, scientists and progressive societies and developed rich and vibrant cultures. Realised their religion and spirituality in its true sense without feeling any absurd need to wave it around. They’ve put the guidance in to practical use, instead. Whenever muslims have faced reverses, failure and a crisis of self-confidence, they’ve ultimately tried to find refuge in hiding behind a bloated, exaggerated rhetoric and facade of religion. Look at Indian history and contrast Akbar with Aurangzeb. In Pakistan, compare Jinnah with Zia. Or even Bhutto of 1967/8 with that of 1976/77. This coorelation between self-confidence and reducing religous rhetoric and rigidity and advances in Islamic thought, and crisis of confidence and increasing rhetoric and closing minds applies even to muslim minorities. Look at the Indian muslims. Compare the backward British Pakistani community with the more successful American Pakistani community. Apply this to any number of muslim countries today, and you will find it to be true. If not religion, then you will find the scoundrel seeking similar refuge in the mere rhetoric and exploitative exaggeration of nationality. Indeed, both bloated religion and nationality are the refuge of the devious, the incompetent, and the failed… more often than not.
Well, its just that the urge to wear our religion on our collective sleeves is quite a recent phenomenon… Where has the urge come from? What is the urge? Why now, after a thousand years or so of being Muslim? Is it an attempt to prove something or the other to the rest of the world, or to ourselves?
There are other manifestations of this too, besides the sajdas… young women deeming the shalwar kameez inadequately modest and resorting to the ninja look for instance, the profusion of beards on young men, and the refusal to persevere with the traditional Khuda Hafiz as a parting greeting…
I don’t “get” it…
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wearing one’s religion on one’s sleeve if that’s what one wants to do. Dinesh Kanaria says “Allah ka shukar hai” and “Insha’Allah”. He is happy to be called “Danish” instead of the original “Dinesh”. The only time he has not able to join in is when the team is saying namaz. It’s all fine.
But just a thought. No criticism. How does it make us better muslims or the country more Islamic by calling it the “Islamic” Repucblic of Pakistan? There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling it that, if that’s what we want. But what do you think is more Islamic… closer to the true nature of the Prophet (PBUH): Insisting on calling the country the “Islamic Republic” making it very clear that all living within it are fully included as equal citizens? Or, out of generosity of spirit, and no other compulsion, whatsoever, to voluntarily ‘sacrifice’ our right to call our country “Islamic Repubic” in order to make sure, out of sheer Islamic generosity, that no non-muslim Pakistani child ever feels even slightly less included or equal than any other Pakistani child? It’s just a question. Better muslims and better humans than I would know better.