Feedback from readers

“Always write as if it matters, because if you do, it will.”

These were the parting words of wisdom I received from my Master’s project advisor at Columbia University. I try to stick to this advice, sometimes a little too seriously.

I recently exchanged emails with a friend of my father, who disagreed with a few things I wrote on my blog about Imran Khan. I rarely vent out my anger in public but this is one of those subjects that I get worked up about: the deafening silence of religious scholars in Pakistan when it comes to solving the real political, social & economic problems of the country.

My father’s friend wrote a very polite email to me, that I’m reproducing a slightly shortened version of here:

In your blog titled Shine on Imran Khan: Hats off to PTI supporters you wrote: In a dramatic show of force, Imran Khan gathered more than 100,000 supporters at a rally in Lahore.  His show of strength was meant to send a clear message: “Those in Raiwind and Islamabad should know that it is not a flood that is coming, but a tsunami.” You go on to write: Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this rally wasn’t Imran Khan but his supporters. Street power in Pakistan has been monopolized by chest thumping, bearded young men in the recent past. Imran Khan has managed to show a different side to Pakistan.

The two lines when put together seem to give the impression that "those in Raiwind" have something to do with "chest thumping, bearded yound men" on the streets. I am not sure how far you were thinking but on the outset it just looks like a factual mistake, maybe just a typo. Why? Because its common knowlegde that Raiwind is the markaz of Pakistani tableeghi jamat, and whereas you and I may not agree with everything about tableeghi jamat's methodology and beliefs, it remains a fact that they do not engage in politics, let alone do things like chest thumping on the streets. Perhaps you had some other place in mind when you wrote this article.

The other thing I beg to disagree with is more on a conceptual level. In your blogs, you seem to have mentioned music and dancing as if they are positive things witnessed in these latest political gatherings. If you go to the sources of Islamic knowledge (actually Shaykh Kamal's lectures available on his website provide a very good insight into these issues and Islam's take on them with proofs from Quran and Sunnah) you will find that for a Muslim such activities are not a means of earning Allah's pleasure. Making no assumptions about what's in Imran Khan's heart and whether he is going to turn out to be the saviour later on or not, if we look at our own view of things at this point in time then a question comes to mind. Do we believe that a Muslim individual or a Muslim nation can achieve success in the life of this world or the Akhirah by openly indulging in acts of Allah's disobedience. Agreed that socially things are pretty bad in our country and no one seems to be in sight who can fix all our problems, but how does that become an excuse for a Muslim to look away from His Creator and His expectations from us. In order to fix our state of affairs, does it not sound more sensible that we get the One Who is 'really' in Control, on our side, and seek His help in resolving our issues, or does it sound like a better choice to take matters in our own hands by displeasing Him through acts of His disobedience and then try to fix our problems by ourselves, without His Help?

I am sure you will agree with me that a believer's task is not to go after apparent results in this world, but to live a life of Allah's Obedience. As a shaykh I know puts it beautifully, for a momin, this life is the place of work (kaam ki jagah), grave is the place of rest (araam ki jagah) and the akhirah is the place of results and rewards (in'aam ki jagah), hence we don't get carried away by achieving results in this world. This implies that whenever the means adopted to achieve our goals interfere with the Deen we give them up and hold on to the Deen.

Its clearly spelled out in the Qur'an that "wa ma khalaqtul jinna wal insa illa li ya'bodoon", i.e. We did not create the Jinn and the human beings except to worship us. Obviously this does not mean that we have been created only to pray salat all the time as if that's the only form of worship, but rather that everything that we do in our lives must be done as a servant, 'Abd' of Allah, in a state of submission and oboodiah. Whether it be relationship within our homes or with people in our communities. Likewise our attempts to fix our country's problems must also be in line with the Shariah and Sunnah, not by putting them on the side and giving in to popular tastes or people's whims and desires.

In short what I am trying to say here dear brother Bilal is that we are all responsible for what we say and do. If Allah has put us in a position where people listen to us or read our writings, we must be very careful what we endorse and praise. Its a principle of our Deen that whoever calls to a good action gets the reward of the person who does that action and whoever calls to a bad action will be held responsible for the bad action that someone did as a result of his calling. With the same spirit, I decided to write this piece of naseehah to the son of a very pious and sincere colleague. I hope to be able to get more time to spend with you as I am sure there is even more good to your personality than what displays in your excellent writings.

I hope you will take it all only as a well wisher's advice who considers himself even more in need of your naseehah as well.

Requesting duas from both father and son…

I was touched by uncle’s pure intentions to help guide me but at the same time I felt that his arguments were reflective of many ideas that are creating trouble in our society. My response to him was as follows (again shortened, wherever possible):

JazakAllah for writing to me with your advice and words of wisdom. As Muslims, we seek Allah's guidance to help us find the truth. 

An exchange of thoughts like this, even when we disagree with each other, is part of a process through which we strive to seek the truth. I'm grateful that you took the time and energy to give me such structured feedback.

Now, let me share my responses to some of your concerns.

With regards to the point about Rawind, I was referring to Nawaz Sharif’s center of operations in Rawind and not the Tableegi Jamaat. It’s common knowledge that the Tableegi Jamaat are not political and in the context of my blog post, I was referring to the tsunami about to hit the political forces in the country. My statement was quoting Imran Khan’s warning to Nawaz Sharif in Rawind and Zardari in Islamabad. Hope this clears up the point. However, thanks to your feedback, I’ll be more careful in the future so that my writing doesn’t create opportunities for this type of confusion.

With reference to your second point, I respectfully disagree with you at a conceptual level. In actuality, the way that you have phrased your questions I can either agree with you or be guilty of disobeying Allah. Therefore, it's important for me to highlight that I agree with you when you stress the importance of obeying Allah but I disagree with the way your questions have been positioned and I’d like to challenge some of the assumptions underlying your analysis.

Advocating a world where we abide strictly by the ‘Shariah’ is the right thing to do, especially from the safe distance of another country. However, this analysis ignores the context in which I was writing.

I'm writing from a city where countless men, women and children were shot dead in the last few months on the basis of their ethnicity. I’ve gone to sleep for days on end to the sound of gun fire in the background. For a leader like Imran Khan to get people to reject violence (esp in Karachi), and get them to substitute guns for music, even for a day, is worthy of appreciation in our context. Would it be better if a religious leader was able to unite these groups in a ‘Shariah’ complaint manner? Yes, but no such religious leadership is coming to the forefront and I’d argue that this is precisely because of the position advocated in your email:

“I am sure you will agree with me that a believer's task is not to go after apparent results in this world, but to live a life of Allah's Obedience. As a shaykh I know puts it beautifully, for a momin, this life is the place of work (kaam ki jagah), grave is the place of rest (araam ki jagah) and the akhirah is the place of results and rewards (in'aam ki jagah), hence we don't get carried away by achieving results in this world.”

I have a fundamental disagreement with this world view. If God-fearing, educated and moderate religious leaders give up their responsibility to society in the name of protecting their Akhirat, then we will see religious extremists monopolize public discourse on religion and alienate society from religion & from religious solutions to problems. This is exactly what is happening in Pakistani society right now.

Instead of shying away from Pakistan’s problems, religious leaders and people like you, who are God fearing and knowledgeable about the affairs of Deen & Dunya, need to step up and deliver constructive solutions to the problems we’re facing in Pakistan.

Instead, too many religiously minded people, me included, have focused for a long time on the imposition of ‘Shariah’ as a panacea to Pakistan’s problems, ignoring ground realities. Meanwhile, religion continues to be misused by extremists, causing violence, intolerance and fracturing our already divided society. For the sake of simplicity I’m not going to get into the debate between sects about whose ‘Shariah’ is the right ‘Shariah’ since everyone believes there is only ‘one correct’ version of the ‘Shariah’ and only their version can be correct.

As a personal choice, I’ve decided not to abdicate my religious duty to serve & improve society until 'Shariah' is introduced. I'm making a deliberate choice to engage with the political parties and landscape currently on offer in Pakistan rather than holding out for a utopian state of affairs where everything is Shariah compliant. This is especially true because the strongest religious force currently advocating shariah in Pakistan is the Taliban, who are doing it by holding a gun to our heads and I simply don't support that. Other religious leaders are simply quiet and I believe contributing to the confusion by staying quiet.

This unforgivable silence by religious leaders makes me really angry and I'm sorry if my anger came out very strongly in this email. I genuinely respect your insights and opinions. But I sincerely hope that religious leaders begin engaging with the current public discourse rather than thinking that they are above all this since they are dedicated only to saving their Akhirat. This is against the spirit of the type of life our Prophet lived.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on what I've shared above, with the possibility of publishing our conversation on my blog for the benefit of others.

P.S. That’s it for now. I look forward to uploading his response to my email when I receive it.

Sights, sounds & observations from the PTI rally in Karachi

To cut a long story short, participating in PTI’s jalsa on Sunday was a transformative experience for me. Originally, I didn’t want to go because I don’t agree with everything Imran Khan has to say and felt his policy platform was too vague. Plus, there was a small chance that a bomb would go off or something could go wrong. This was Karachi after all.

The tipping point came when Imran Khan positioned this rally as an opportunity to usher in a new era of peaceful politics in Karachi. Sitting with friends the night before the rally, we made an impulse decision to attend. “You’ll tell your grand children that you were a witness to history in the making,” my friend remarked as he made his case for us to attend the rally. 

His advice inadvertently triggered one of the best decisions of my life.

It’s difficult to capture the energy of the crowd at the PTI rally in writing. There were people & PTI flags as far as one’s eye could see. “Please stop climbing the electricity poles,” pleaded one of the PTI speakers, trying to bring order to the sea of people that had thronged the venue. “You may electrocute the electric pole with all your current.”

This was Pakistan at its very best; men, women & children of all ethnicities and economic classes breaking the shackles of fear and coming together to support a political candidate who thinks peace in Karachi is the key to a prosperous Pakistan. There was music, there was dancing, there was laughter and above all, there was a palpable sense of hope. It was unlike anything I’ve experienced before in Pakistan.

Every time a pushto or a sindhi song would play, the tsunami of people would roar unanimously and dance without any discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or economic class. Every speaker would talk about bringing together Pashtuns, Sindhis, Balouchis, Punjabis and Urdu speaking folks under one banner. We are all Pakistanis they would say. 

Almost every leader wished Pakistani Christians a Merry Christmas. This was the politics of inclusion, diversity & tolerance. This was the need of the hour in Pakistan. And it wasn’t just talk, the roaring response of the tsunami was visible proof that PTI is already beginning to unite people who would otherwise be at logger heads with each other. Instead of brandishing guns to show their support, people waved colorful PTI flags. 

Shah Mehmood Qureshi said it best when he remarked that after years of disillusionment, he finally saw hope in the young people around him. There was a sparkle in their eyes. Karachi doesn’t want bloodshed or target killings he said; today Karachi-ites are here to spread the message of love. 

When Imran Khan took to the stage, the crowd was on fire. Imagine young pathan men gushing over Imran like teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert. It was a magical moment. It could turn out to be one of the most pivotal moments for politics in Karachi in our generation. 

As Imran Khan announced another high profile defection to his party from the PPP, a young man in the audience quipped “ab thori deir mein khabar aye gi kai Quaid – e – Azam nai bhi PTI join kar li hai.”

Imran Khan’s speech was a class act of both political maturity and populist acumen. He said he didn’t want to make any hateful statements against any political party. But he had to respond to Nawaz Sharif who challenged him to a 10 over match recently. “Please arrange this match quickly,” a beaming Imran told Nawaz. “You may not have enough men to make a team at this rate,” he quipped as he referred to the high profile defection of PML-N heavy weight Javed Hashmi to PTI. 

More importantly, Imran promised policy papers documenting PTI’s stance on every important issue from the economy to education in his speech. He pointed out that naysayers have challenged him all his life but he has proved them wrong every time; from winning the cricket world cup to developing his cancer treatment hospital.

In a moving anecdote, Imran told the story of a young man from DG Khan who sold his mobile phone to fund his trip to Karachi to attend this rally. It was an anecdote that serves as a window into many similar stories; people flew in the Lahore, Dubai, London and America to attend this rally. There was even participation from handicapped people on wheelchairs.

The rally was meant to set Karachi and Pakistan on a new trajectory in the course of history. By that measure, PTI’s rally yesterday was a smashing success. Imran has single handedly managed to change the course of our national discourse on Karachi, for the better.

Even without taking a political position, it’s clear that Imran Khan is one of the only leaders in Pakistan whose success is contingent on bringing Pakistanis together rather than dividing them along ethnic & political lines. And that deserves support from all Pakistanis, regardless of our ethnic, economic or political affiliations.  

New Year’s Resolutions for Pakistan

Three days ago, I attended a seminar on “New Year’s Resolutions for Pakistan’s Economy” at IBA and the speakers appeared to fracture into two schools of thought. 

The first school of thought, led by Saad Khan (Vice President, American Business Council) argued that Pakistan needs to develop a long term “vision” for economic uplift. The second school of thought, led by Ishrat Husain (Former State Bank Governor) argued that Pakistan already has many “visions” parading around as white papers in the system, what Pakistan needs is implementation, implementation & implementation. 

All of us like to make New Year’s resolutions. Some want to lose weight, others want to quit smoking. Almost everyone wants to fight their demons and become a better person. The New Year is a chance to get a fresh start on life. Despite the fact that most of us fail to live up to our resolutions, we never fail to make new resolutions. 

Pakistan is no different.

Imran Khan & the 2013 elections promise a “fresh start” for Pakistan. Imran Khan has a bold vision that almost everyone can buy into; he promises to end corruption and offers that as a panacea to solve all our problems. 

The question most of PTI’s critics have is a simple one: does Imran Khan have the discipline and the political muscle to implement his vision or is this another New Year’s resolution that looks good on paper but will never be brought to life?

How do we resolve the tension between developing a vision and having the discipline to execute it? If you don’t execute your vision, does it mean that you didn’t believe in it in the first place? And if that’s true, why do we develop visions to begin with?

Specifically for Pakistan’s case, why are politicians so big on “visions” and short on precise plans to achieve those “visions”?

The answer is simple. “Visions” are meant to inspire and bring out the best in us. Plans on the other hand are cumbersome and require hard work to be executed. Politicians, like us on the cusp of a New Year, like to believe that we can bring out the best in us without working on the discipline needed to achieve our goals. 

Based on the seminar and the subsequent unpacking of ideas for this blog post, I’d propose the following to be Pakistan’s New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Developing a clear vision for our future that inspires all sections of society – Imran Khan trying his best to do a good job here
2.  Creating a plan of action that charts the specific steps needed for success – No one is doing this, yet.
3.  The discipline to execute plans & make sacrifices – this needs to be part of all our New Year’s resolutions.

I’ll end with this beautiful quote that puts the tension between vision & execution into context:

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”
Henry David Thoreau

Shine on Imran Khan: Hats off to PTI supporters

I’ve always respected Imran Khan’s reputation as a cricketer, humanitarian and play boy. As a politician, I’ve always thought he was a bit of a fail. That changed tonight. 

Imran Khan has arrived – with a bang.

In a dramatic show of force, Imran Khan gathered more than 100,000 supporters at a rally in Lahore.  His show of strength was meant to send a clear message: “Those in Raiwind and Islamabad should know that it is not a flood that is coming, but a tsunami.”

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this rally wasn’t Imran Khan but his supporters.

Street power in Pakistan has been monopolized by chest thumping, bearded young men in the recent past. Imran Khan has managed to show a different side to Pakistan. Women thronged Imran Khan’s rally in colorful Shalwar Kameez, some even brought their young children along. There was no flag burning or violence at this rally; instead there was music. The traditionally unresponsive elite class came out in strong numbers to participate in this political rally.

This is a remarkable achievement for Imran Khan. 

To be fair, Imran still has a long way to go. His politicking is high on rhetoric and short on substance (he needs to unveil a specific policy agenda rather than campaign on sweeping promises). 

However, it’s very important to take a moment to give Imran Khan and his supporters credit where it’s due. 

Imran Khan may or may not win the 2013 elections but as a country, Pakistan will certainly win from the momentum and energy that his campaign will bring to the elections. 

This is good news for all Pakistanis regardless of our political affiliation. And PTI supporters deserve a pat on the back for making this happen, despite all the odds.

On falling off a cliff

There is something so beautiful about falling flat on your face. Its God’s way of reminding you who’s in charge.

Perhaps it’s not a good idea to get too personal on a blog. But then again, this is a subject that needs a plurality of individual voices to kick start a debate.

Pakistan’s national discourse is dominated by religion and yet there are many who struggle to define their relationship with God. 

For those who’ve had life experiences validating their belief in God, the expectations are clear. Individuals should submit their will to God. But what happens, when despite their best intentions, individuals fall short.

There are three traditional responses for this; fight, flight or attempted ignorance.

Ignorance is the easiest of the three options. “It’s only natural to have some weaknesses,” you can tell yourself, “just look around.” This enables us to go about our daily lives while incorporating some religious rituals to keep us grounded. The false promise of a mini Junaid Jamshed style born again conversion at the age of 40 makes it easier to forgive today’s transgressions. “Not thinking too much about it” totally works as long as the gulf between belief and action remains manageable.

Fighting can be fun too. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a complete religious make over? It’s an attractive offer: new friends, a renewed sense of purpose and the chance to give up some worldly responsibilities, in the name of God. Alas, the initial effort to kill old habits can be a downer and sometimes even a show stopper but it’s almost always worth the effort – until you decide you’ve had enough and want your old life back. (To be fair, some people do manage to fight their way out of the pull of “worldly desires” and achieve spiritual contentment & success, with some degree of permanence. Kudos to them.)

Flight gives you the rare opportunity to do what you want without having to justify things to your conscience. It can be incredibly liberating. The beauty of this is that you feel as if you can get away with it. But the party comes to an abrupt halt when the distance between belief and action becomes so large that you fall off the proverbial cliff and wake up one day not being able to recognize yourself. 

What should one do when they lose their center? What should one do when they lose themselves?

The answer is as simple as it is confusing. You pick up the pieces of your faith and re-build your center. It takes hard work, patience and will power. But why would anyone repeatedly climb a cliff only to end up falling off it again? Perhaps this is the point of life itself.

Fight, flight & ignorance are our most visceral reactions to failure. As individuals and as a society, we need to learn to balance these impulses better. 

From the ashes of failure, success always has a real potential to rise.