About a hundred years ago, Allama Iqbal gave a lecture at Aligarh University calling for Reform and Ijtihad within Islam. That lecture along with five other lectures that he delivered at universities in Madras and Hyderabad were included in his 1930 book titled, Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. Unfortunately, most of Iqbal works in English language were ignored just like his Persian poetry by Indian and Pakistani Muslims after his death. Pakistanis particularly have focused on his Urdu poetry fit for Qawalees at shrines. I am reminded of his lectures after reading some of the comments made by my friends on my last post dealing with pagan practices.Peshawar Massacre of innocent children has shaken Pakistan at its core but the reaction from the Government has been so fraudulent that a man like Iqbal would be rolling in his grave. He would certainly not approve of the Speaker of National Assembly and Chairman of the Senate lighting pagan style candles for those Shuhada or the ex officio Foreign Minister of the country leading a candlelight procession (see the attached two photos) for them. Even worse has been the machinations and ploys of the Prime Minister. Most politicians are accomplished actors with some theatrical flair for character acting. This PM cannot even act well and will fail any audition. He is shown in the attached photo presiding over the National Action Plan with his top level steering committee. This Cabinet Committee is meant to deal with the Taliban terrorists. It should not come as a surprise to you that these are also the individuals who until last month wee the principal backers, supporters, and sponsors of Taliban in the country. These men made the multi-year deal with Taliban not to do their terrorist attacks in Punjab. God knows what they allowed Taliban to do in return. I have written about the futility of military courts to deal with Taliban problem as long as their ideology is not refuted at the religious and philosophical level in the light of Quran and Sunnah. Iqbal had spoken about the pagan influences on Indic Islam and he had highlighted the works of Ibn Taymiyyah and Imam Wahab. They were both reformists of their time whose influence in Pakistan was not felt until ZAB opened the country to Gulf influences and then Zia capitalized on it during his long dictatorial tenure. My friends love to pick on the Lal Masjid phenomenon and Mulla Abdul Aziz on my FB page. What they do not understand is that Lal Masjid is not an isolated phenomenon. Wahabi reformists within Islam frown upon pagan practices prevalent in Pakistan and these give them oxygen to fight against all non Islamic rituals and those who practice. Candlelight processions instead of prayers and reading of Quran for the Shuhada is exactly what can trigger a backlash and undermine the fight against terrorists. What Pakistani Government needs to do is to evaluate the performance of all the so called Islamic institutions that were set up in the country under the Constitution to promote a proper Islamic perspective. They have proven themselves as a gross failure. I would abolish the Islamic Ideology Council and Federal Shariat Court to begin with. Other than working for the enslavement of women, they have accomplished nothing over the last half century. We should have a real healthy debate about a true Islamic vision for the country. Studying Iqbals vision will be a good start. Dr. Muhammad M. Awan 12/28/14
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 16:24:44 +0000
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