Question
Our religious scholars frequently issue a statement that the whole Pakistani population of 150 million desire an Islamic system. Is it not an exaggeration, definitely not based on reality? What is the moral standing of this statement?
Answer
These are political statements, not worthy of discussion. Politicians frequently claim that a gathering had tens of thousands of people, whilst in reality there may only be a few hundreds. We are oblivious to moral standards during such exaggerations. One of the basis of piety in the Qur’an is to be absolutely truthful. Our public attitudes belie this. We frequently build a mountain of a molehill, and use slander just in order to criticise others or attract attention. This is a human weakness. Our government officials and those in opposition remorselessly accuse each other of murder. Our training in the religion has remained limited to a few acts of worship, neglecting its reprimand against suspicion, backbiting and false accusations. The Qur’an reprimanded the people on blindly accepting the accusations against Hazrat Aisha (rta), questioning the lack of scrutiny. In our animosity, we spread rumours. The Prophet (sws) said, “It is enough for a person to be a liar to propagate anything that he/she hears without due investigation.” The Prophet (sws) declared the life and honour of a believer to be as sacred as the Ka‘ba. What was the underlying thought? Just that we would ponder a thousand times before commenting on another. We ignore it outright. This attitude is an expression of this social disease. There would not for a single instance be another system if our whole population sincerely desires shari‘ah. These are merely political slogans. Our society is deprived of education, religious and otherwise. We have neglected it. I was just reading about the British Prime Minister. He stated his three main priorities. I expected him to enumerate them. I was surprised to hear him state education, education and education. I wish our Muslim leaders had the same attitude.
This question was answered by Mr Ghamidi in Deen-o-Danish, an online TV session hosted by Dr Muneer Ahmad aired on Dunay TV. The text has been rendered into English by Mr Dhu al-Nurain.
Answered by: Javed Ahmad Ghamidi
Date: 2015-02-03
