The religious groups that opposed Pakistan’s creation in 1947 — namely, the JUIF and the JI — are closing ranks for a common cause: opposing military action against the Taliban and undermining Pakistan’s rebirth as a moderate Muslim democracy
The ongoing military operation against Taliban insurgents in Malakand Division is more than a matter of national survival: it is Pakistan’s last chance to rid itself of the self-induced cancer of violent jihadi politics, and reclaim Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan as a democratic state in sync with rest of the world.
However, it is important to note that the religious parties that opposed Jinnah’s Pakistan 62 years ago are now trying to subvert the struggle for reclaiming Pakistan. This was amply reflected at the All Parties Conference held at the Prime Minister’s house in Islamabad on May 18. While the main national parties supported military operation against the Taliban, the Jama’at-e Islami and the Jamiat-e Ulema-e Pakistan (F) opposed it, leading some Conference participants to note that these “religious parties were opposing the military action because of their ethnic and religious affinity with the Taliban,” as reported in this paper. (May 20)
Even so, there is nothing new about the pro-Taliban, pro-Al Qaeda stance of the JUIF and the JI. In the past, security forces have apprehended or gunned down Al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists in the homes of JI and JUIF members in Rawalpindi and Zhob, where the terrorists were hiding. Indeed, for leaders of JI and JUIF, Osama bin Laden is a hero of Islam and attempts to portray him as a terrorist are part of conspiracies against Islam.
One only has to recall the reaction of this religio-political lobby during the Musharraf era to an ad the print media carried portraying bin Laden and Al Qaeda leaders as “religious terrorists”. Reacting to the ad at a public meeting, the JUIF information secretary asserted that “Osama is a hero to Islamic world and the Musharraf government would not get any sympathy by branding him a religious terrorist”.
On his part, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, then Amir of the JI, described the ad as part of an international conspiracy in which “Pakistan’s government had sided with the Zionists’ agenda”. He went on to argue that “bracketing of Islamists with terrorists (was) a Zionist conspiracy because Islam is fast spreading in Europe and America”. (The Nation, July 2, 2002)
However, it is intriguing that many Pakistanis, especially in the religious right, continue to see the September 11 attacks against America as part of an Israeli conspiracy to discredit Muslims — even after key Al Qaeda leaders have virtually owned up to the 9/11 attacks. In fact, in a website interview last year, Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al Zawahiri accused Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah of “trying to discredit Al Qaeda network by spreading the conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the 11 September attacks”. “The purpose of this lie,” Zawahiri went on, was to suggest “that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hit America as no one else did in history.” (The News, April 24, 2008)
At the same time, Zawahiri denounced the peace deal on Swat last month, describing it as part of an American strategy “encouraging Pakistan government to make deals with Taliban across the border with Afghanistan”. However, confident of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan’s loyalty to Al Qaeda’s agenda for violent global jihad, Zawahiri warned that despite the deal “the problem will not end...It will escalate”.
No wonder, then, that the TTP was quick to ‘escalate’ the problem: it turned the Swat agreement on its head and invited Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omer to “settle” in Swat. At the same time, Taliban militants moved into Buner and Lower Dir, instead of laying down their arms as required by the Swat agreement between Taliban godfather Sufi Muhammad and the government.
Clearly, the breakdown of the deal was a deliberate act rooted in the Taliban-Al Qaeda agenda for pushing violent jihad across Pakistan in the name of sharia. Indeed, as the Taliban made clear, enforcing sharia law was not to be confined to Malakand Division, as Sufi Muhammad had assured the government, but “across Pakistan and the whole world”, as Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told CNN in a telephonic interview.
Given these home truths about the Taliban-Al Qaeda nexus, the religious right’s argument — that military action could have been avoided had the government given the peace deal a chance — carries little weight. Indeed, if there is “an international conspiracy to change the geography of Pakistan”, as JI leaders claimed last Friday at a press conference in Islamabad, such conspiracy seems rooted in a global jihadist agenda of turning Pakistan into a base for a Wahhabi-Salafist Caliphate.
The fact of the matter is that the Taliban insurgency is spurred by a religiosity where terrorism and assassination are religious traditions; concepts that Al Qaeda ideologue Abu Mu’sab al Suri brought from Muslim Brotherhood camps in the Middle East to the Taliban training camps in Afghanistan where he was an instructor. These ideas continue to be flaunted in jihadist CDs celebrating beheadings of their opponents in Pakistan.
Ironic as it may seem, perhaps no leader in the Muslim world had a deeper grasp of the dark side of Al Qaeda and Taliban than former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. This is reflected in Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy and the West (Schuster, 2008), the book she completed on the day of her assassination on December 27, 2007.
Indeed, her observations on the insurgents in northwestern Pakistan and their hatred for democracy encapsulates the present crisis of Pakistan — where “Al Qaeda and Taliban operate...with impunity, arrogance and brutality.” For Bhutto, the answer to the crisis lay in strengthening democracy, which “removes the oxygen from the air of extremists. They understand this better than anyone else and deliberately target democratic forces as a strategy for expanding their goal of an obscurantist Empire, which they call ‘Islamic’. Muslims such as myself reject the notion that Al Qaeda, the Taliban, or extremists are the real face of the Muslim masses.” (p.208)
In a sense, then, the ongoing battle for Pakistan reflects a contestation between two opposite narratives: on the one hand, Pakistan as a modern democratic Muslim state spurred by an egalitarian spirit of Islam as envisioned by Jinnah; on the other, Pakistan as a launchpad for a theocratic Islamic caliphate envisioned by a trinity of Arab terrorists — the Saudi bin Laden, the Egyptian Al Zawahiri and the Syrian Al Suri.
Here, the religious groups that opposed Pakistan’s creation in 1947 — namely, the JUIF and the JI — are closing ranks for a common cause: opposing military action against the Taliban and undermining Pakistan’s rebirth as a moderate Muslim democracy.
In the long battle that lies ahead, it is imperative to rally around Jinnah’s legacy to confront jihadi terror, which has wormed its way into Pakistan and destroyed Afghanistan.
(Suroosh Irfani is an educationist and writer based in Lahore)
5/26/09
North Korea fires missiles after nuclear test
SEOUL: North Korea reportedly fired two short-range missiles on Tuesday, in a move set to heighten tensions after its latest nuclear weapons test drew global condemnation.
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to consider the options after Pyongyang's test of a nuclear device on Monday, which some estimates said was almost as powerful as the atom bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Council called the test a ‘clear violation’ of international law and immediately began working on a resolution that could impose new sanctions on the secretive North, which has now tested two nuclear bombs in three years.
‘This resolution should include new sanctions in addition to those already adopted because such behaviour should have a cost and a price to pay,’ said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the deputy French ambassador to the United Nations.
Following the UN condemnation, the North launched one ground-to-air missile and one ground-to-ship missile into the sea Tuesday off its eastern coast near the city of Hamhung, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
‘Intelligence authorities are analysing the motives for the firing,’ it quoted a South Korean government source as saying, adding that each missile had a range of 130 kilometres (80 miles).
In April it test-fired a long-range rocket that critics say was in fact a ballistic missile, and on Monday it test-fired three short-range missiles after the nuclear blast.
Russia estimated the force of Monday's underground nuclear explosion at up to 20 kilotons, far more powerful than the October 2006 test that announced the impoverished communist state had joined the club of world nuclear powers.
The North said the latest test would ‘contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism, and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the region.’
North Korea has repeatedly said it needs a deterrent to ward off an attack by the United States, which it believes wants to topple Kim Jong-Il's regime.
Almost six years of disarmament talks have not stopped its nuclear drive.
Some analysts have suggested that Kim is using the nuclear test to strengthen his hand at home, and so could be even less swayed than usual by more sanctions or international criticism.
The 67-year-old was widely reported to have suffered a stroke last August, prompting speculation overseas about the succession. The North's position has noticeably hardened since then.
‘This is part of Kim shoring up support for his regime among the inner circle and the public,’ Peter Beck, a Korea expert at the American University in Washington, told AFP.
‘The internal domestic dynamic is taking precedence over external factors.’ Even China, a permanent member of the Security Council and the North's sole main ally, was strongly critical of the latest test —which North Korea had pledged to carry out because of previous censure from the Council.
‘Disregarding the common objections of the international community, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has again tested a nuclear device,’ China's foreign ministry said in a statement.
‘The Chinese government expresses its resolute opposition to this,’ it said.
US President Barack Obama, whose initial overtures to the North since taking office in January have been met with official hostility from Pyongyang, condemned what he called its ‘reckless’ atomic test.
‘North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile programmes pose a great threat to the peace and security of the world,’ he said. The North Tuesday reiterated complaints that Obama is no better than his predecessor.
‘The present US administration is talking about what it called a 'change' and 'bilateral dialogue' but it is, in actuality, pursuing the same reckless policy as followed by the former Bush administration to stifle the DPRK (North Korea) by force of arms,’ said the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun.
Foreign ministers from Asia and Europe meeting in Hanoi were set to condemn the nuclear test as ‘a clear violation’ of six-party agreements and UN resolutions, according to a draft text.
South Korea announced it was joining the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative, an international effort to curb trade in weapons of mass destruction that involves some 90 nations and includes military exercises.
North Korea had previously said that it would see the South's participation as a declaration of war.
5/25/09
George Galloway - Palestinian Rights / Israel
George Galloway = Israel is a terrorist state=worse than Nazi Germany !!
Unlike many politicians who would rather stay on the safe side, even if that means betraying their conscience, George Galloway represents a rare breed of morally-guided politicians who are willing to call the spade a spade even in the face of danger and brutality.
The British lawmaker has displayed immense courage in speaking up against crimes and injustices inflicted by Israel, the United States and their European allies in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine.
In 2003, Galloway was expelled from the Labor Party when a party body decided that the strong statements he had made in opposition to the invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies had brought the party into disrepute.
Unshaken and defiant, Galloway then co-founded the Respect party, a new leftist-leaning coalition with a number of small groups.
Galloway had castigated the horrible genocide of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who died as a result of the draconian sanctions imposed on that Arab country and enforced by the United States.
In 2006, when the West and several Arab regimes were utterly silent, or colluding with Israel, Galloway spoke up loudly and eloquently against the barbaric Israeli aggression against Lebanon which utterly destroyed civilian homes and infrastructure, especially in southern Beirut, and killed hundreds of innocent civilians all over Lebanon.
In so doing, he exposed the nefarious war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel, including the dropping by the Israeli air force of millions of cluster bomblets all over southern Lebanon for the express purpose of killing and maiming Lebanese peasants, farmers, shepherds and children for many many years to come.
Now, the brave gentleman has arrived in the huge besieged concentration camp known as the Gaza Strip, leading an aid convoy of food and medicine for the thoroughly tormented people of Gaza.
Interestingly, his auspicious arrival coincided with the occurrence of the annual anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) who said "one of the greatest forms of Jihad, is to utter a word of truth in the presence of tyrant."
"I am here to meet the heroes of Palestine’s resistance, the government of Palestine, the people of Palestine," Galloway told reporters as thousands of jubilant Palestinians turned up to greet the man and his companions.
"I have entered Palestine many times but the most emotional of these is after the 22-day genocidal aggression against the Palestinian people," said Galloway, who kneeled down to kiss Gaza ground.
"We are all Palestinians"
Unafraid of upsetting Israel, its criminal-minded allies, quislings and hangers-on, Galloway said what most politicians in the capitals of Europe and North America, not even in the Arab-Muslim Middle East, wouldn’t dare say, namely that Hamas is the legitimate Palestinian government and that the Palestinian people’s will ought to be respected.
Galloway denounced former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a staunch supporter of the Hamas-isolation policy.
"He doesn’t represent the British people," said Galloway.
Blair, like most other western politicians and officials, remained utterly silent as Nazi Israel was raining white phosphorus bombs on Gaza recently, killing, maiming and incinerating thousands of innocent civilians, including hundreds of children, whose only "crime" was their enduring vigor and determination to live and be free.
On behalf of the Palestinian people and all free-minded men and women around the World, I salute you for being a voice for the voiceless and for speaking up loudly, eloquently and defiantly for truth and justice.
5/24/09
Tyranny of Trends
Charty Durrant writes about The Tyranny of Trends. In her view, fashion
is the antithesis of sustainability. Many of our economic and
environmental problems are the consequence of our desire to show off, to
impress. We are obsessed by our egos, and the desire for glamour is a
world problem. As Oscar Wilde said, "Fashion is a form of ugliness, so
intolerable that we have to alter it every six months"!
When I was at the Economic Forum in Davos, the then President of South
Africa, Thabo Mbeki, spoke about his dreams for the new South Africa
where everyone was able to own cars, computers and TV sets. From the
floor I asked Mr Mbeki, "If people in South Africa, Brazil, China, India
and the rest of the world attempt to own personal computers, cars, TV
sets and the latest fashion in clothes, like the Europeans and Americans
do, then we will need the resources of three or four planets. Mr
President, we haven't got three or four planets; we have only one. Isn't
it time for Europeans and Americans to free themselves from their
obsession with fashion and consumer goods rather than Indians, Africans
and Chinese aspiring to the wasteful Western lifestyle? Can we not
design a lifestyle of elegant simplicity which is just, fair and
sustainable?"
My question was heard in stunned silence. Mr Mbeki appeared to be taken
aback for a moment. Perhaps he was not expecting anyone in that
gathering to question the quest for higher living standards. After a few
seconds of reflection Mr Mbeki replied, "We cannot turn the clock back
to an egalitarian, pastoral past; we are in the age of technology,
progress and development. We cannot allow our people not to enjoy the
same comforts and conveniences which European and Americans take for
granted. I want to bring high living standards to our people in South
Africa and I am sure governments in India and South America want to do
the same. There are plenty of resources to go around!"
Of course there was no opportunity to take the debate further, but the
two contrasting worldviews were there for everybody to see.
SIMPLICITY IS PART of the 'perennial wisdom'promoted by many great
thinkers and visionaries. Although sometimes people think simplicity
means a kind of 'hair-shirt' lifestyle, that is not my view. Simplicity
is a positive quality; when things are simple they are well-made, they
last indefinitely, they are made with pleasure and they give pleasure
when used. It was E. F. Schumacher who said, "Any fool can make things
complicated, but it requires a genius to make things simple."
Simplicity requires less ego and more imagination, less complication and
more creativity, less glamour and more gratitude, less attention to
appearance and more attention to essence.
Trendy, fashionable consumer-oriented lifestyles are the cause of a
threefold crisis. The first is the environmental crisis, where
over-exploitation of resources causes climate change. The second is the
social crisis, where resources are appropriated by the few, and large
numbers of people are deprived of their essential rights: consumerism
causes poverty and social injustice. The third is the spiritual crisis:
the crisis of disconnection and loneliness. Consumerism and addiction to
'fast-fashion'undermine the values of friendship, family,
neighborliness and humility.
The economic downturn and financial crisis offer us an opportunity to
re-examine the culture of consumerism and the fashion industry. It is an
opportunity to explore ways of living which offer elegance, contentment
and creativity.
The article by Charty Durrant is timely.It would be too much to expect you to practice but if you can you will feel liberated.
Our biggest dilemma ...
Our biggest dilemma is that we don't know who our enemy is. This ignorance has made ourselves our own biggest enemy. We have no doubt that India is our declared enemy. This clarity has served us well as we have prepared ourselves mentally and militarily to defend against any Indian-imposed war of aggression. Today we are a nation armed with nuclear arsenal thanks to the clarity about our neighbor's aggressive designs against our integrity. What we have not understood and recognized is the enemy in the guise of a friend. Most people in Pakistan agree that America was behind Liaqat Ali Khan's assassination. We all know Kissinger threatened Bhutto saying he would be turned into a horrible example and he was.
We all know the promised 7th Fleet never reached to save East Pakistan which was ostensibly allowed to turn into Bangladesh. We are still clueless how Zia and the rest of our top army brass were killed in a plane crash? We have hundreds, if not thousands, of people at the helm of affairs in all departments and institutions, both in public and private sectors, in all strata of society that are their active and silent agents. They are working in their masters' interests all the time. We are virtually held hostage, our integrity, sovereignty and prestige are all in their hands. Shouldn't we try to stop it all here? Let us be our own friend and not our own worst foe.
China bigger threat than Pakistan: India
India faces a greater threat from China than Pakistan because New Delhi knows little about Beijing’s combat capabilities, India’s air force chief told a newspaper in an interview published on Sunday 24-05-09.
The world’s two most populous nations fought a brief but brutal war over their 3,500 km (Himalayan border in 1962, and both sides claim the other is occupying big but largely uninhabited chunks of their territory.
India has also been pursuing closer relations with the United States, something that worries China.
China has a standing army almost three times the size of Pakistan’s, according to official figures and defence industry estimates, but it is the lack of knowledge about China’s military that concerned Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major.
‘We know very little about the actual capabilities of China, their combat edge or how professional their military is,’ Major told the Hindustan Times newspaper.
‘They are certainly a greater threat.’
Although India and China have signed a treaty to maintain ‘peace and tranquillity’ along their disputed frontier and agreed to find a political solution to the row, talks have hardly made progress even as their business ties boom.
India blames the lack of progress on China’s claim over the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, in particular over its Buddhist enclave of Tawang. New Delhi says it cannot part with populated areas to settle the border dispute.
5/23/09
5/21/09
5/20/09
Gwadar - Pakistan
Gwadar- yesterday’s small fishing village has rapidly emerged as an international Deep Seaport City today. It is a good move by the government to declare Gwadar a Duty Free Port and free economic zone, keeping in view the significance of the region. This has not only enhanced its commercial worth manifold, but has also accelerated the pace of development to an incredible extent. By virtue of its finest location, development projects, recreational programs and government’s special attention, it will soon turn into a city that can be comparable with cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai. Gwadar, the western port city of Pakistan, has already got the attention of economic planners. It has an immense strategic lure. It lies near the Straits of Hormuz, gateway to the Gulf through which 40 percent of the world’s oil passes. The port also has a great commercial attraction. It lies 1,250 miles from Xingjian, a landlocked western province and latecomer to China’s economic boom.
Pakistan identified Gwadar as a port site in 1964. However, it was only in 2001 that significant steps were taken toward making this proposal a reality, when China agreed to participate in the construction and development of the deep seaport. The development of Gwadar could bring economic gains in a backward Balochistan. The infrastructural development of the province could make it an attractive investment opportunity. Meanwhile, land prices around Gwadar are said to be shooting up.
Geopolitical importance:
The Gwadar deep-sea port emerges as a place of great strategic value, enhancing Pakistan's importance in the whole region, extending from the Persian Gulf through the Indian Ocean to Southeast Asia and the Far East.
Gwadar is located on the southwestern coast of Pakistan, close to the important Straits of Hormuz, through which more than 13 million bpd of oil passes. It is strategically located between three increasingly important regions of the world: the oil-rich Middle East, heavily populated South Asia and the economically emerging and resource-rich Central Asia.
The construction of the Gwadar deep-sea port is just one component of a larger development plan which includes building a network of roads connecting Gwadar with the rest of Pakistan, such as the 650 km Coastal Highway to Karachi and the Gwadar-Turbat road (188 km). This network of roads connects with China through the Indus Highway. Pakistan, China, Kazakhistan, Kyrgizstan and Uzbekistan are developing extensive road and rail links from Central Asia and the Chinese province of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea coast.
The Pakistani Government has initiated several projects, with majority financial and technical assistance from China, to develop Gwadar's strategic location as a goods transit and trade point. The primary project is the construction of a deep-sea port at Gwadar to enable high-volume cargo movement to and from the landlocked Central Asian states. The new port will also encompass conversion facilities to allow for the movement of natural gas as a part of plans for a termination point for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan natural gas pipeline. The secondary project is a coastal highway connecting Gwadar to Karachi, whose $200 million cost will be completely financed by the Chinese. Gwadar will serve as a port of entry for oil and gas to be transported by land to the western regions of China.
The project's fate is tied to the decentralization of government in Pakistan.[10] If an agreement is brokered with the Baluch, the Pakistani military will gain a strategic depth southwest from its naval base in Karachi that has long been vulnerable to blockade by the Indian Navy. China is going to be the beneficiary of Gwadar's most accessible international trade routes to the Central Asian republics and Xinjiang. By extending its East-West Railway from the Chinese border city of Kashi to Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest, Beijing can receive cargo to and from Gwadar along the shortest route, from Karachi to Peshawar. The rail network could also be used to supply oil from the Persian Gulf to Xinjiang. Pakistan's internal rail network can also provide China with rail access to Iran. Rail access will however be hampered somewhat by differences in gauge: China and Iran - 1435 mm; Pakistan - 1676 mm; Central Asia - 1524 mm
Future:
Nature has put its fascinating illusion in Gwadar, so as Government of Pakistan is taking its keen interest to develop Gwadar on the International Principles to focus the eyes of Tourists. Mainly Gwadar is being settled as a tourist resort as well as free port. Gwadar is now destined to be the most important upcoming coastal town located on the inter junction of the three most strategically and economically important regions of the world that are oil rich Middle East, South Asia where one- fifth of world population lives and the Central Asian Republics endowed with mineral wealth and an educated and highly skilled and disciplined workforce.
The government on Wednesday May 20, 2009 declared Gwadar Port as Tax-Free Zone.
The decision would help improve economy, provide jobs to the people and boost developmental and trade activities.
5/19/09
The Spirit of Muslim Culture
The Spirit of Muslim Culture:
(Allama Muhammad Iqbal)
‘Muhammad of Arabia ascended the highest Heaven and returned. I swear by God that if I had reached that point, I should never have returned.’1 These are the words of a great Muslim saint, ‘AbdulQuddës of Gangoh. In the whole range of Sufi literature it will be probably difficult to find words which, in a single sentence, disclose such an acute perception of the psychological difference between the prophetic and the mystic types of consciousness. The mystic does not wish to return from the repose of ‘unitary experience’; and even when he does return, as he must, his return does not mean much for mankind at large. The prophet’s return is creative. He returns to insert himself into the sweep of time with a view to control the forces of history, and thereby to create a fresh world of ideals. For the mystic the repose of ‘unitary experience’ is something final; for the prophet it is the awakening, within him, of world-shaking psychological forces, calculated to completely transform the human world. The desire to see his religious experience transformed into a living world-force is supreme in the prophet. Thus his return amounts to a kind of pragmatic test of the value of his religious experience. In its creative act the prophet’s will judges both itself and the world of concrete fact in which it endeavours to objectify itself. In penetrating the impervious material before him the prophet discovers himself for himself, and unveils himself to the eye of history. Another way of judging the value of a prophet’s religious experience, therefore, would be to examine the type of manhood that he has created, and the cultural world that has sprung out of the spirit of his message. In this lecture I want to confine myself to the latter alone. The idea is not to give you a description of the achievements of Islam in the domain of knowledge. I want rather to fix your gaze on some of the ruling concepts of the culture of Islam in order to gain an insight into the process of ideation that underlies them, and thus to catch a glimpse of the soul that found expression through them. Before, however, I proceed to do so it is necessary to understand the cultural value of a great idea in Islam - I mean the finality of the institution of prophethood.2
A prophet may be defined as a type of mystic consciousness in which ‘unitary experience’ tends to overflow its boundaries, and seeks opportunities of redirecting or refashioning the forces of collective life. In his personality the finite centre of life sinks into his own infinite depths only to spring up again, with fresh vigour, to destroy the old, and to disclose the new directions of life. This contact with the root of his own being is by no means peculiar to man. Indeed the way in which the word WaÁâ (inspiration) is used in the Qur’«n shows that the Qur’«n regards it as a universal property of life;3 though its nature and character are different at different stages of the evolution of life. The plant growing freely in space, the animal developing a new organ to suit a new environment, and a human being receiving light from the inner depths of life, are all cases of inspiration varying in character according to the needs of the recipient, or the needs of the species to which the recipient belongs. Now during the minority of mankind psychic energy develops what I call prophetic consciousness - a mode of economizing individual thought and choice by providing ready-made judgements, choices, and ways of action. With the birth of reason and critical faculty, however, life, in its own interest, inhibits the formation and growth of non-rational modes of consciousness through which psychic energy flowed at an earlier stage of human evolution. Man is primarily governed by passion and instinct. Inductive reason, which alone makes man master of his environment, is an achievement; and when once born it must be reinforced by inhibiting the growth of other modes of knowledge. There is no doubt that the ancient world produced some great systems of philosophy at a time when man was comparatively primitive and governed more or less by suggestion. But we must not forget that this system-building in the ancient world was the work of abstract thought which cannot go beyond the systematization of vague religious beliefs and traditions, and gives us no hold on the concrete situations of life.
Looking at the matter from this point of view, then, the Prophet of Islam seems to stand between the ancient and the modern world. In so far as the source of his revelation is concerned he belongs to the ancient world; in so far as the spirit of his revelation is concerned he belongs to the modern world. In him life discovers other sources of knowledge suitable to its new direction. The birth of Islam, as I hope to be able presently to prove to your satisfaction, is the birth of inductive intellect. In Islam prophecy reaches its perfection in discovering the need of its own abolition.4 This involves the keen perception that life cannot for ever be kept in leading strings; that, in order to achieve full self-consciousness, man must finally be thrown back on his own resources. The abolition of priesthood and hereditary kingship in Islam, the constant appeal to reason and experience in the Qur’«n, and the emphasis that it lays on Nature and History as sources of human knowledge, are all different aspects of the same idea of finality. The idea, however, does not mean that mystic experience, which qualitatively does not differ from the experience of the prophet, has now ceased to exist as a vital fact. Indeed the Qur’«n regards both Anfus (self) and ÿf«q (world) as sources of knowledge.5 God reveals His signs in inner as well as outer experience, and it is the duty of man to judge the knowledge-yielding capacity of all aspects of experience. The idea of finality, therefore, should not be taken to suggest that the ultimate fate of life is complete displacement of emotion by reason. Such a thing is neither possible nor desirable. The intellectual value of the idea is that it tends to create an independent critical attitude towards mystic experience by generating the belief that all personal authority, claiming a supernatural origin, has come to an end in the history of man. This kind of belief is a psychological force which inhibits the growth of such authority. The function of the idea is to open up fresh vistas of knowledge in the domain of man’s inner experience. Just as the first half of the formula of Islam6 has created and fostered the spirit of a critical observation of man’s outer experience by divesting the forces of nature of that Divine character with which earlier cultures had clothed them. Mystic experience, then, however unusual and abnormal, must now be regarded by a Muslim as a perfectly natural experience, open to critical scrutiny like other aspects of human experience. This is clear from the Prophet’s own attitude towards Ibn Âayy«d’s psychic experiences.7 The function of Sufism in Islam has been to systematize mystic experience; though it must be admitted that Ibn Khaldën was the only Muslim who approached it in a thoroughly scientific spirit.8
But inner experience is only one source of human knowledge. According to the Qur’«n, there are two other sources of knowledge - Nature and History; and it is in tapping these sources of knowledge that the spirit of Islam is seen at its best. The Qur’«n sees signs of the Ultimate Reality in the ‘sun’, the ‘moon’, ‘the lengthening out of shadows’, ‘the alternation of day and night’, ‘the variety of human colours and tongues’,10 ‘the alternation of the days of success and reverse among peoples’ - in fact in the whole of Nature as revealed to the sense-perception of man. And the Muslim’s duty is to reflect on these signs and not to pass by them ‘as if he is dead and blind’, for he ‘who does not see these signs in this life will remain blind to the realities of the life to come’.9 This appeal to the concrete combined with the slow realization that, according to the teachings of the Qur’«n, the universe is dynamic in its origin, finite and capable of increase, eventually brought Muslim thinkers into conflict with Greek thought which, in the beginning of their intellectual career, they had studied with so much enthusiasm. Not realizing that the spirit of the Qur’«n was essentially anti-classical, and putting full confidence in Greek thinkers, their first impulse was to understand the Qur’«n in the light of Greek philosophy. In view of the concrete spirit of the Qur’«n, and the speculative nature of Greek philosophy which enjoyed theory and was neglectful of fact, this attempt was foredoomed to failure. And it is what follows their failure that brings out the real spirit of the culture of Islam, and lays the foundation of modern culture in some of its most important aspects.
This intellectual revolt against Greek philosophy manifests itself in all departments of thought. I am afraid I am not competent enough to deal with it as it discloses itself in Mathematics, Astronomy, and Medicine. It is clearly visible in the metaphysical thought of the Ash‘arite, but appears as a most well-defined phenomenon in the Muslim criticism of Greek Logic. This was only natural; for dissatisfaction with purely speculative philosophy means the search for a surer method of knowledge. It was, I think, Naïï«m who first formulated the principle of ‘doubt’ as the beginning of all knowledge. Ghazz«lâ further amplified it in his ‘Revivification of the Sciences of Religion’,10 and prepared the way for ‘Descartes’ Method’. But Ghazz«lâ remained on the whole a follower of Aristotle in Logic. In his Qist«s he puts some of the Quranic arguments in the form of Aristotelian figures,11 but forgets the Quranic Sërah known as Shu’ar«’ where the proposition that retribution follows the gainsaying of prophets is established by the method of simple enumeration of historical instances. It was Ishr«qâand Ibn Taimâyyah who undertook a systematic refutation of Greek Logic.12 Abë Bakr R«zâ was perhaps the first to criticize Aristotle’s first figure,13 and in our own times his objection, conceived in a thoroughly inductive spirit, has been reformulated by John Stuart Mill. Ibn Àazm, in his ‘Scope of Logic’,14 emphasizes sense-perception as a source of knowledge; and Ibn Taimâyyah in his ‘Refutation of Logic’, shows that induction is the only form of reliable argument. Thus arose the method of observation and experiment. It was not a merely theoretical affair. Al-Bârënâ’s discovery of what we call reaction-time and al-Kindâ’s discovery that sensation is proportionate to the stimulus, are instances of its application in psychology.15 It is a mistake to suppose that the experimental method is a European discovery. Dü hring tells us that Roger Bacon’s conceptions of science are more just and clear than those of his celebrated namesake. And where did Roger Bacon receive his scientific training? - In the Muslim universities of Spain. Indeed Part V of his Opus Majus which is devoted to ‘Perspective’ is practically a copy of Ibn Haitham’s Optics.16 Nor is the book, as a whole, lacking in evidences of Ibn Hazm’s influence on its author.17 Europe has been rather slow to recognize the Islamic origin of her scientific method. But full recognition of the fact has at last come. Let me quote one or two passages from Briffault’s Making of Humanity,
‘. . . it was under their successors at that Oxford school that Roger Bacon learned Arabic and Arabic science. Neither Roger Bacon nor his later namesake has any title to be credited with having introduced the experimental method. Roger Bacon was no more than one of the apostles of Muslim science and method to Christian Europe; and he never wearied of declaring that a knowledge of Arabic and Arabian science was for his contemporaries the only way to true knowledge. Discussions as to who was the originator of the experimental method . . . are part of the colossal misrepresentation of the origins of European civilization. The experimental method of the Arabs was by Bacon’s time widespread and eagerly cultivated throughout Europe’ (pp. 200-01). . . .
‘Science is the most momentous contribution of Arab civilization to the modern world, but its fruits were slow in ripening. Not until long after Moorish culture had sunk back into darkness did the giant to which it had given birth rise in his might. It was not science which brought Europe back to life. Other and manifold influences from the civilization of Islam communicated its first glow to European life’ (p. 202).
‘For although there is not a single aspect of European growth in which the decisive influence of Islamic culture is not traceable, nowhere is it so clear and momentous as in the genesis of that power which constitutes the paramount distinctive force of the modern world, and the supreme source of its victory - natural science and the scientific spirit’ (p. 190).
‘The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence. The ancient world was, as we saw, pre-scientific. The astronomy and mathematics of the Greek were a foreign importation never thoroughly acclimatized in Greek culture. The Greeks systematized, generalized, and theorized, but the patient ways of investigation, the accumulation of positive knowledge, the minute methods of science, detailed and prolonged observation, experimental inquiry, were altogether alien to the Greek temperament. Only in Hellenistic Alexandria was any approach to scientific work conducted in the ancient classical world. What we call science arose in Europe as a result of a new spirit of inquiry, of new methods of investigation, of the method of experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of mathematics in a form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and those methods were introduced into the European world by the Arabs’ (p. 191).
The first important point to note about the spirit of Muslim culture then is that, for purposes of knowledge, it fixes its gaze on the concrete, the finite. It is further clear that the birth of the method of observation and experiment in Islam was due not to a compromise with Greek thought but to a prolonged intellectual warfare with it. In fact, the influence of the Greeks who, as Briffault says, were interested chiefly in theory, not in fact, tended rather to obscure the Muslims’ vision of the Qur’«n, and for at least two centuries kept the practical Arab temperament from asserting itself and coming to its own. I want, therefore, definitely to eradicate the misunderstanding that Greek thought, in any way, determined the character of Muslim culture. Part of my argument you have seen; part you will see presently.
Knowledge must begin with the concrete. It is the intellectual capture of and power over the concrete that makes it possible for the intellect of man to pass beyond the concrete. As the Qur’«n says:
‘O company of djinn and men, if you can overpass the bounds of the heaven and the earth, then overpass them. But by power alone shall ye overpass them’ (55:33).
But the universe, as a collection of finite things, presents itself as a kind of island situated in a pure vacuity to which time, regarded as a series of mutually exclusive moments, is nothing and does nothing. Such a vision of the universe leads the reflecting mind nowhere. The thought of a limit to perceptual space and time staggers the mind. The finite, as such, is an idol obstructing the movement of the mind; or, in order to overpass its bounds, the mind must overcome serial time and the pure vacuity of perceptual space. ‘And verily towards thy God is the limit’, says the Qur’«n.18 This verse embodies one of the deepest thoughts in the Qur’«n; for it definitely suggests that the ultimate limit is to be sought not in the direction of stars, but in an infinite cosmic life and spirituality. Now the intellectual journey towards this ultimate limit is long and arduous; and in this effort, too, the thought of Islam appears to have moved in a direction entirely different to the Greeks. The ideal of the Greeks, as Spengler tells us, was proportion, not infinity. The physical presentness of the finite with its well-defined limits alone absorbed the mind of the Greeks. In the history of Muslim culture, on the other hand, we find that both in the realms of pure intellect and religious psychology, by which term I mean higher Sufism, the ideal revealed is the possession and enjoyment of the Infinite. In a culture, with such an attitude, the problem of space and time becomes a question of life and death. In one of these lectures I have already given you some idea of the way in which the problem of time and space presented itself to Muslim thinkers, especially the Ash‘arite. One reason why the atomism of Democritus never became popular in the world of Islam is that it involves the assumption of an absolute space. The Ash‘arite were, therefore, driven to develop a different kind of atomism, and tried to overcome the difficulties of perceptual space in a manner similar to modern atomism. On the side of Mathematics it must be remembered that since the days of Ptolemy (A.D. 87-165) till the time of NaÄâr ñësâ (A.D. 120-74)nobody gave serious thought to the difficulties of demonstrating the certitude of Euclid’s parallel postulate on the basis of perceptual space.19 It was ñësâ who first disturbed the calm which had prevailed in the world of Mathematics for a thousand years; and in his effort to improve the postulate realized the necessity of abandoning perceptual space. He thus furnished a basis, however slight, for the hyperspace movement of our time.20 It was, however, al-Bârënâ who, in his approach to the modern mathematical idea of function saw, from a purely scientific point of view, the insufficiency of a static view of the universe. This again is a clear departure from the Greek view. The function-idea introduces the element of time in our world-picture. It turns the fixed into the variable, and sees the universe not as being but as becoming. Spengler thinks that the mathematical idea of function is the symbol of the West of which ‘no other culture gives even a hint’.21 In view of al-Bârënâ, generalizing Newton’s formula of interpolation from trignometrical function to any function whatever.22 Spengler’s claim has no foundation in fact. The transformation of the Greek concept of number from pure magnitude to pure relation really began with Khw«rizmâs movement from Arithmetic to Algebra.23 al-Bârënâ took a definite step forward towards what Spengler describes as chronological number which signifies the mind’s passage from being to becoming. Indeed, more recent developments in European mathematics tend rather to deprive time of its living historical character, and to reduce it to a mere representation of space. That is why Whitehead’s view of Relativity is likely to appeal to Muslim students more than that of Einstein in whose theory time loses its character of passage and mysteriously translates itself into utter space.24a
Side by side with the progress of mathematical thought in Islam we find the idea of evolution gradually shaping itself. It was Ja`hiz who was the first to note the changes in bird-life caused by migrations. Later Ibn Maskawaih who was a contemporary of al-Bârënâ gave it the shape of a more definite theory, and adopted it in his theological work - al-Fauz al-Asghar. I reproduce here the substance of his evolutionary hypothesis, not because of its scientific value, but because of the light which it throws on the direction in which Muslim thought was moving.
According to Ibn Maskawaih plant-life at the lowest stage of evolution does not need any seed for its birth and growth. Nor does it perpetuate its species by means of the seed. This kind of plant-life differs from minerals only in some little power of movement which grows in higher forms, and reveals itself further in that the plant spreads out its branches, and perpetuates its species by means of the seed. The power of movement gradually grows farther until we reach trees which possess a trunk, leaves, and fruit. At a higher stage of evolution stand forms of plant-life which need better soil and climate for their growth. The last stage of development is reached in vine and date-palm which stand, as it were, on the threshold of animal life. In the date-palm a clear sex-distinction appears. Besides roots and fibres it develops something which functions like the animal brain, on the integrity of which depends the life of the date-palm. This is the highest stage in the development of plant-life, and a prelude to animal life. The first forward step towards animal life is freedom from earth-rootedness which is the germ of conscious movement. This is the initial state of animality in which the sense of touch is the first, and the sense of sight is the last to appear. With the development of the senses of animal acquires freedom of movement, as in the case of worms, reptiles, ants, and bees. Animality reaches its perfection in the horse among quadrupeds and the falcon among birds, and finally arrives at the frontier of humanity in the ape which is just a degree below man in the scale of evolution. Further evolution brings physiological changes with a growing power of discrimination and spirituality until humanity passes from barbarism to civilization.24b
But it is really religious psychology, as in ‘Ir«qâand Khw«jah Muhammad P«rs«,25 which brings us much nearer to our modern ways of looking at the problem of space and time. ‘Ir«qâ’s view of time-stratifications I have given you before.26 I will now give you the substance of his view of space.
According to ‘Ir«qâ the existence of some kind of space in relation to God is clear from the following verses of the Qur’«n:
‘Dost thou not see that God knoweth all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth? Three persons speak not privately together, but He is their fourth; nor five, but He is their sixth; nor fewer nor more, but wherever they be He is with them’ (58:7).
‘Ye shall not be employed in affairs, nor shall ye read a text out of the Qur’«n, nor shall ye do any work, but We will be witness over you when you are engaged therein; and the weight of an atom on earth or in heaven escapeth not thy Lord; nor is there aught27 that is less than this or greater, but it is in the Perspicuous Book’ (10:61).
‘We created man, and We know what his soul whispereth to him, and We are closer to him than his neck-vein’ (50:16).
But we must not forget that the words proximity, contact, and mutual separation which apply to material bodies do not apply to God. Divine life is in touch with the whole universe on the analogy of the soul’s contact with the body.28 The soul is neither inside nor outside the body; neither proximate to nor separate from it. Yet its contact with every atom of the body is real, and it is impossible to conceive this contact except by positing some kind of space which befits the subtleness of the soul. The existence of space in relation to the life of God, therefore, cannot be denied;29 only we should carefully define the kind of space which may be predicated of the Absoluteness of God. Now, there are three kinds of space - the space of material bodies, the space of immaterial beings, and the space of God.30 The space of material bodies is further divided into three kinds. First, the space of gross bodies of which we predicate roominess. In this space movement takes time, bodies occupy their respective places and resist displacement. Secondly, the space of subtle bodies, e.g. air and sound. In this space too bodies resist each other, and their movement is measurable in terms of time which, however, appears to be different to the time of gross bodies. The air in a tube must be displaced before other air can enter into it; and the time of sound-waves is practically nothing compared to the time of gross bodies. Thirdly, we have the space of light. The light of the sun instantly reaches the remotest limits of the earth. Thus in the velocity of light and sound time is reduced almost to zero. It is, therefore, clear that the space of light is different to the space of air and sound. There is, however, a more effective argument than this. The light of a candle spreads in all directions in a room without displacing the air in the room; and this shows that the space of light is more subtle than the space of air which has no entry into the space of light.31 In view of the close proximity of these spaces, however, it is not possible to distinguish the one from the other except by purely intellectual analysis and spiritual experience. Again, in the hot water the two opposites - fire and water - which appear to interpenetrate each other cannot, in view of their respective natures, exist in the same space.32 The fact cannot be explained except on the supposition that the spaces of the two substances, though closely proximate to each other, are nevertheless distinct. But while the element of distance is not entirely absent, there is no possibility of mutual resistance in the space of light. The light of a candle reaches up to a certain point only, and the lights of a hundred candles intermingle in the same room without displacing one another.
Having thus described the spaces of physical bodies possessing various degrees of subtleness ‘Ir«qâ proceeds briefly to describe the main varieties of space operated upon by the various classes of immaterial beings, e.g. angels. The element of distance is not entirely absent from these spaces; for immaterial beings, while they can easily pass through stone walls, cannot altogether dispense with motion which, according to ‘Ir«qâ, is evidence of imperfection in spirituality.33 The highest point in the scale of spatial freedom is reached by the human soul which, in its unique essence, is neither at rest nor in motion.34 Thus passing through the infinite varieties of space we reach the Divine space which is absolutely free from all dimensions and constitutes the meeting point of all infinities.35
From this summary of ‘Ir«qâ’s view you will see how a cultured Muslim Sufi`intellectually interpreted his spiritual experience of time and space in an age which had no idea of the theories and concepts of modern Mathematics and Physics. ‘Ir«qâ is really trying to reach the concept of space as a dynamic appearance. His mind seems to be vaguely struggling with the concept of space as an infinite continuum; yet he was unable to see the full implications of his thought partly because he was not a mathematician and partly because of his natural prejudice in favour of the traditional Aristotelian idea of a fixed universe. Again, the interpenetration of the super-spatial ‘here’ and super-eternal ‘now’ in the Ultimate Reality suggests the modern notion of space-time which Professor Alexander, in his lectures on ‘Space, Time, and Deity’, regards as the matrix of all things.36 A keener insight into the nature of time would have led ‘Ir«qâ to see that time is more fundamental of the two; and that it is not a mere metaphor to say, as Professor Alexander does say, that time is the mind of space.37 ‘Ir«qâ conceives God’s relation to the universe on the analogy of the relation of the human soul to the body;38 but, instead of philosophically reaching this position through a criticism of the spatial and temporal aspects of experience, he simply postulates it on the basis of his spiritual experience. It is not sufficient merely to reduce space and time to a vanishing point-instant. The philosophical path that leads to God as the omnipsyche of the universe lies through the discovery of living thought as the ultimate principle of space-time. ‘Ir«qâ’s mind, no doubt, moved in the right direction, but his Aristotelian prejudices, coupled with a lack of psychological analysis, blocked his progress. With his view that Divine Time is utterly devoid of change39 - a view obviously based on an inadequate analysis of conscious experience - it was not possible for him to discover the relation between Divine Time and serial time, and to reach, through this discovery, the essentially Islamic idea of continuous creation which means a growing universe.
Thus all lines of Muslim thought converge on a dynamic conception of the universe. This view is further reinforced by Ibn Maskawaih’s theory of life as an evolutionary movement, and Ibn Khaldën’s view of history. History or, in the language of the Qur’«n, ‘the days of God’, is the third source of human knowledge according to the Qur’«n. It is one of the most essential teachings of the Qur’«n that nations are collectively judged, and suffer for their misdeeds here and now.40 In order to establish this proposition, the Qur’«n constantly cites historical instances, and urges upon the reader to reflect on the past and present experience of mankind.
"Of old did We send Moses with Our signs, and said to him: ‘Bring forth thy people from the darkness into the light, and remind them of the days of God." Verily, in this are signs for every patient, grateful person’ (14:5).
‘And among those whom We had created are a people who guide others with truth, and in accordance therewith act justly. But as for those who treat Our signs as lies, We gradually ring them down by means of which they know not; and though I lengthen their days, verily, My stratagem is effectual’ (7:181-83).
‘Already, before your time, have precedents been made. Traverse the Earth then, and see what hath been the end of those who falsify the signs of God!’ (3:137).
‘If a wound hath befallen you, a wound like it hath already befallen others; We alternate the days of successes and reverses among peoples’ (3:140).
‘Every nation hath its fixed period’ (7:34).41
The last verse is rather an instance of a more specific historical generalization which, in its epigrammatic formulation, suggests the possibility of a scientific treatment of the life of human societies regarded as organisms. It is, therefore, a gross error to think that the Qur’«n has no germs of a historical doctrine. The truth is that the whole spirit of the ‘Prolegomena’ of Ibn Khaldën appears to have been mainly due to the inspiration which the author must have received from the Qur’«n. Even in his judgements of character he is, in no small degree, indebted to the Qur’«n. An instance in point is his long paragraph devoted to an estimate of the character of the Arabs as a people. The whole paragraph is a mere amplification of the following verses of the Qur’«n:
‘The Arabs of the desert are most stout in unbelief and dissimulation; and likelier it is that they should be unaware of the laws which God hath sent down to His Apostle; and God is Knowing, Wise.
‘Of the Arabs of the desert there are some who reckon what they expend in the cause of God as tribute, and wait for some change of fortune to befall you: a change for evil shall befall them! God is the Hearer, the Knower’ (9:97-98).
However, the interest of the Qur’«n in history, regarded as a source of human knowledge, extends farther than mere indications of historical generalizations. It has given us one of the most fundamental principles of historical criticism: Since accuracy in recording facts which constitute the material of history is an indispensable condition of history as a science, and an accurate knowledge of facts ultimately depends on those who report them, the very first principle of historical criticism is that the reporter’s personal character is an important factor in judging his testimony. The Qur’«n says:
‘O believers! if any bad man comes to you with a report, clear it up at once’ (49:6).
It is the application of the principle embodied in this verse to the reporters of the Prophet’s traditions out of which were gradually evolved the canons of historical criticism. The growth of historical sense in Islam is a fascinating subject.42 The Quranic appeal to experience, the necessity to ascertain the exact sayings of the Prophet, and the desire to furnish permanent sources of inspiration to posterity - all these forces contributed to produce such men as Ibn Ish«q,43 ñabarâ,44 and Mas‘ëdâ.45 But history, as an art of firing the reader’s imagination, is only a stage in the development of history as a genuine science. The possibility of a scientific treatment of history means a wider experience, a greater maturity of practical reason, and finally a fuller realization of certain basic ideas regarding the nature of life and time. These ideas are in the main two; and both form the foundation of the Quranic teaching.
1. The Unity of Human Origin. ‘And We have created you all from one breath of life’, says the Qur’«n.46 But the perception of life as an organic unity is a slow achievement, and depends for its growth on a people’s entry into the main current of world-events. This opportunity was brought to Islam by the rapid development of a vast empire. No doubt, Christianity, long before Islam, brought the message of equality to mankind; but Christian Rome did not rise to the full apprehension of the idea of humanity as a single organism. As Flint rightly says, ‘No Christian writer and still less, of course, any other in the Roman Empire, can be credited with having had more than a general and abstract conception of human unity.’ And since the days of Rome the idea does not seem to have gained much in depth and rootage in Europe. On the other hand, the growth of territorial nationalism, with its emphasis on what is called national characteristics, has tended rather to kill the broad human element in the art and literature of Europe. It was quite otherwise with Islam. Here the idea was neither a concept of philosophy nor a dream of poetry. As a social movement the aim of Islam was to make the idea a living factor in the Muslim’s daily life, and thus silently and imperceptibly to carry it towards fuller fruition.
2. A Keen Sense of the Reality of Time, and the Concept of Life as a Continuous Movement in Time. It is this conception of life and time which is the main point of interest in Ibn Khaldën’s view of history, and which justifies Flint’s eulogy that ‘Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine were not his peers, and all others were unworthy of being even mentioned along with him’.47 From the remarks that I have made above I do not mean to throw doubt on the originality of Ibn Khaldën. All that I mean to say is that, considering the direction in which the culture of Islam had unfolded itself, only a Muslim could have viewed history as a continuous, collective movement, a real inevitable development in time. The point of interest in this view of history is the way in which Ibn Khaldën conceives the process of change. His conception is of infinite importance because of the implication that history, as a continuous movement in time, is a genuinely creative movement and not a movement whose path is already determined. Ibn Khaldën was not a metaphysician. Indeed he was hostile to Metaphysics.48 But in view of the nature of his conception of time he may fairly be regarded as a forerunner of Bergson. I have already discussed the intellectual antecedents of this conception in the cultural history of Islam. The Quranic view of the ‘alternation of day and night’49 as a symbol of the Ultimate Reality which ‘appears in a fresh glory every moment’,50 the tendency in Muslim Metaphysics to regard time as objective, Ibn Maskawaih’s view of life as an evolutionary movement,51 and lastly al-Bârënâ’s definite approach to the conception of Nature as a process of becoming52 - all this constituted the intellectual inheritance of Ibn Khaldën. His chief merit lies in his acute perception of, and systematic expression to, the spirit of the cultural movement of which he was a most brilliant product. In the work of this genius the anti-classical spirit of the Qur’«n scores its final victory over Greek thought; for with the Greeks time was either unreal, as in Plato and Zeno, or moved in a circle, as in Heraclitus and the Stoics.53 Whatever may be the criterion by which to judge the forward steps of a creative movement, the movement itself, if conceived as cyclic, ceases to be creative. Eternal recurrence is not eternal creation; it is eternal repetition.
We are now in a position to see the true significance of the intellectual revolt of Islam against Greek philosophy. The fact that this revolt originated in a purely theological interest shows that the anti-classical spirit of the Qur’«n asserted itself in spite of those who began with a desire to interpret Islam in the light of Greek thought.
It now remains to eradicate a grave misunderstanding created by Spengler’s widely read book, The Decline of the West. His two chapters devoted to the problem of Arabian culture54 constitute a most important contribution to the cultural history of Asia. They are, however, based on a complete misconception of the nature of Islam as a religious movement, and of the cultural activity which it initiated. Spengler’s main thesis is that each culture is a specific organism, having no point of contact with cultures that historically precede or follow it. Indeed, according to him, each culture has its own peculiar way of looking at things which is entirely inaccessible to men belonging to a different culture. In his anxiety to prove this thesis he marshals an overwhelming array of facts and interpretations to show that the spirit of European culture is through and through anti-classical. And this anti-classical spirit of European culture is entirely due to the specific genius of Europe, and not to any inspiration she may have received from the culture of Islam which, according to Spengler, is thoroughly ‘Magian’ in spirit and character. Spengler’s view of the spirit of modern culture is, in my opinion, perfectly correct. I have, however, tried to show in these lectures that the anti-classical spirit of the modern world has really arisen out of the revolt of Islam against Greek thought.55 It is obvious that such a view cannot be acceptable to Spengler; for, if it is possible to show that the anti-classical spirit of modern culture is due to the inspiration which it received from the culture immediately preceding it, the whole argument of Spengler regarding the complete mutual independence of cultural growths would collapse. I am afraid Spengler’s anxiety to establish this thesis has completely perverted his vision of Islam as a cultural movement.
By the expression ‘Magian culture’ Spengler means the common culture associated with what he calls ‘Magian group of religions’,56 i.e. Judaism, ancient Chaldean religion, early Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Islam. That a Magian crust has grown over Islam, I do not deny. Indeed my main purpose in these lectures has been to secure a vision of the spirit of Islam as emancipated from its Magian overlayings which, in my opinion, have misled Spengler. His ignorance of Muslim thought on the problem of time, as well as of the way in which the ‘I’, as a free centre of experience, has found expression in the religious experience of Islam, is simply appalling.57 Instead of seeking light from the history of Muslim thought and experience, he prefers to base his judgement on vulgar beliefs as to the beginning and end of time. Just imagine a man of overwhelming learning finding support for the supposed fatalism of Islam in such Eastern expressions and proverbs as the ‘vault of time’,58 and ‘everything has a time!’59 However, on the origin and growth of the concept of time in Islam, and on the human ego as a free power, I have said enough in these lectures. It is obvious that a full examination of Spengler’s view of Islam, and of the culture that grew out of it, will require a whole volume. In addition to what I have said before, I shall offer here one more observation of a general nature.
‘The kernel of the prophetic teaching,’ says Spengler, ‘is already Magian. There is one God - be He called Yahweh,60 Ahuramazda, or Marduk-Baal - who is the principle of good, and all other deities are either impotent or evil. To this doctrine there attached itself the hope of a Messiah, very clear in Isaiah, but also bursting out everywhere during the next centuries, under pressure of an inner necessity. It is the basic idea of Magian religion, for it contains implicitly the conception of the world-historical struggle between Good and Evil, with the power of Evil prevailing in the middle period, and the Good finally triumphant on the Day of Judgement.’60 If this view of the prophetic teaching is meant to apply to Islam it is obviously a misrepresentation. The point to note is that the Magian admitted the existence of false gods; only they did not turn to worship them. Islam denies the very existence of false gods. In this connexion Spengler fails to appreciate the cultural value of the idea of the finality of prophethood in Islam. No doubt, one important feature of Magian culture is a perpetual attitude of expectation, a constant looking forward to the coming of Zoroaster’s unborn sons, the Messiah, or the Paraclete of the fourth gospel. I have already indicated the direction in which the student of Islam should seek the cultural meaning of the doctrine of finality in Islam. It may further be regarded as a psychological cure for the Magian attitude of constant expectation which tends to give a false view of history. Ibn Khaldën, seeing the spirit of his own view of history, has fully criticized and, I believe, finally demolished the alleged revelational basis in Islam of an idea similar, at least in its psychological effects, to the original Magian idea which had reappeared in Islam under the pressure of Magian thought.61
Allama Iqbal
Iqbal
Iqbal is the best articulated Muslim response to Modernity that the Islamic world has produced in the 20th century. His response has three dimensions:
A creative engagement with the conceptual paradigm of modernism at a sophisticated philosophical level through his prose writings, mainly his The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam which present his basic philosophic insights
His Urdu and Persian poetry which is the best embodiment of poetically mediated thought, squarely in the traditional continuity of Islamic literature and perhaps the finest flowering of wisdom poetry, or contemplative poetry or inspired poetry in the modern times.
As a political activist/ social reformer― rising up to his social responsibility, his calling at a critical phase of history.
PAF
Pakistan Air Force was born on 14th of August 1947, with the independence of Pakistan. The growth of PAF is a story of unusual struggle and sacrifice. A tiny auxiliary Service, with a small number of personnel and insignificant equipment, emerging as a powerful weapon of the country’s defence, was a thrilling phenomenon. The dedication of its pioneers shaped the future of a force, destined to gain respect, after proving its worth in the wars of 1965 and 1971, against much larger enemy, India. The story of PAF is a tale of development, despite heavy odds and limitations. It is the narration of a nation’s desire, for preserving its freedom, through the use of technology and willpower, working side by side.
Pakistan Air Force made a humble beginning with two fighter and one transport Squadrons, a negligible infrastructure, non-existent command structure, and almost nil maintenance facilities. All it had was the courage and determination of a handful of its personnel, who left no stone unturned, in shaping PAF into the Air Force of today.
Jinnah's Pakistan
Jinnah’s Pakistan
Mr. Jinnah’s presidential address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan
August 11, 1947
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I cordially thank you, with the utmost sincerity, for the honor you have conferred upon me – the greatest honor that is possible to confer – by electing me as your first President. I also thank those leaders who have spoken in appreciation of my services and their personal references to me. I sincerely hope that with your support and your co-operation we shall make this Constituent Assembly an example to the world.
The Constituent Assembly has got two main functions to perform.
The first is the very onerous and responsible task of framing the future constitution of Pakistan and the second of functioning as a full and complete sovereign body as the Federal Legislature of Pakistan.
We have to do the best we can in adopting a provisional constitution for the Federal Legislature of Pakistan. You know really that not only we ourselves are wondering but, I think, the whole world is wondering at this unprecedented cyclonic revolution which has brought about the clan of creating and establishing two independent sovereign Dominions in this sub-continent. As it is, it has been unprecedented; there is no parallel in the history of the world. This mighty sub-continent with all kinds of inhabitants has been brought under a plan which is titanic, unknown, unparalleled. And what is very important with regards to it is that we have achieved it peacefully and by means of an evolution of the greatest possible character.
Dealing with our first function in this Assembly, I cannot make any well-considered pronouncement at this moment, but I shall say a few things as they occur to me.
The first and the foremost thing that I would like to emphasize is this: remember that you are now a sovereign legislative body and you have got all the powers. It, therefore, places on you the gravest responsibility as to how you should take your decisions.
The first observation that I would like to make is this: You will no doubt agree with me that the first duty of a government is to maintain law and order, so that the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the State.
The second thing that occurs to me is this: One of the biggest curses from which India is suffering – I do not say that other countries are free from it, but, I think our condition is much worse – is bribery and corruption. That really is a poison. We must put that down with an iron hand and I hope that you will take adequate measures as soon as it is possible for this Assembly to do so.
Black-marketing is another curse. Well, I know that black marketeers are frequently caught and punished. Judicial sentences are passed or sometimes fines only are imposed. Now you have to tackle this monster, which today is a colossal crime against society, in our distressed conditions, when we constantly face shortage of food and other essential commodities of life.
A citizen who does black-marketing commits, I think, a greater crime than the biggest and most grievous of crimes. These black marketeers are really knowing, intelligent and ordinarily responsible people, and when they indulge in black-marketing, I think they ought to be very severely punished, because the entire system of control and regulation of foodstuffs and essential commodities, and cause wholesale starvation and want and even death.
The next thing that strikes me is this: Here again it is a legacy which has been passed on to us. Along with many other things, good and bad, has arrived this great evil, the evil of nepotism and jobbery. I want to make it quite clear that I shall never tolerate any kind of jobbery, nepotism or any any influence directly of indirectly brought to bear upon me. Whenever I will find that such a practice is in vogue or is continuing anywhere, low or high, I shall certainly not countenance it.
I know there are people who do not quite agree with the division of India and the partition of the Punjab and Bengal. Much has been said against it, but now that it has been accepted, it is the duty of everyone of us to loyally abide by it and honorably act according to the agreement which is now final and binding on all. But you must remember, as I have said, that this mighty revolution that has taken place is unprecedented. One can quite understand the feeling that exists between the two communities wherever one community is in majority and the other is in minority. But the question is, whether it was possible or practicable to act otherwise than what has been done. A division had to take place.
On both sides, in Hindustan and Pakistan, there are sections of people who may not agree with it, who may not like it, but in my judgment there was no other solution and I am sure future history will record is verdict in favor of it. And what is more, it will be proved by actual experience as we go on that was the only solution of India’s constitutional problem. Any idea of a united India could never have worked and in my judgment it would have led us to terrific disaster. Maybe that view is correct; maybe it is not; that remains to be seen.
All the same, in this division it was impossible to avoid the question of minorities being in one Dominion or the other. Now that was unavoidable. There is no other solution. Now what shall we do?
Now, if we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous, we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor.
If you will work in co-operation, forgetting the past, burying the hatchet, you are bound to succeed. If you change your past and work together in a spirit that everyone of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste or creed, is first, second and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be on end to the progress you will make.
I cannot emphasize it too much. We should begin to work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities, the Hindu community and the Muslim community, because even as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on, and among the Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashnavas, Khatris, also Bengalis, Madrasis and so on, will vanish.
Indeed if you ask me, this has been the biggest hindrance in the way of India to attain the freedom and independence and but for this we would have been free people long long ago. No power can hold another nation, and specially a nation of 400 million souls in subjection; nobody could have conquered you, and even if it had happened, nobody could have continued its hold on you for any length of time, but for this. Therefore, we must learn a lesson from this.
You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State. As you know, history shows that in England, conditions, some time ago, were much worse than those prevailing in India today. The Roman Catholics and the Protestants persecuted each other. Even now there are some States in existence where there are discriminations made and bars imposed against a particular class.
Thank God, we are not starting in those days. We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State. The people of England in course of time had to face the realities of the situation and had to discharge the responsibilities and burdens placed upon them by the government of their country and they went through that fire step by step.
Today, you might say with justice that Roman Catholics and Protestants do not exist; what exists now is that every man is a citizen, an equal citizen of Great Britain and they are all members of the Nation.
Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.
Well, gentlemen, I do not wish to take up any more of your time and thank you again for the honor you have done to me. I shall always be guided by the principles of justice and fair play without any, as is put in the political language, prejudice or ill-will, in other words, partiality or favoritism. My guiding principle will be justice and complete impartiality, and I am sure that with your support and co-operation, I can look forward to Pakistan becoming one of the greatest nations of the world.
I have received a message from the United States of America addressed to me. It reads:
I have the honor to communicate to you, in Your Excellency’s capacity as President of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, the following message which I have just received from the Secretary of State of the United States:
On the occasion of of the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly for Pakistan, I extend to you and to the members of the Assembly, the best wishes of the Government and the people of the United States for the successful conclusion of the great work you are about to undertake.
When you read this and look at today’s Pakistan, 60 years later, EVERYTHING that Jinnah warned us against is now in Pakistan…. and politicians use the great Quaid’s name to justify anything that they are doing.
Before you follow or elected anyone, make sure that they don’t have the qualities that Jinnah said would destroy Pakistan. We now need to work hard to TAKE BACK PAKISTAN to follow Quaid-e-Azam, Allama Iqbal and Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, and Liaquat Ali Khan’s vision of Pakistan, which has been polluted.
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