By observing the universe through the laws of cosmos, it feels like freedom is an entity which is hardly needed for survival. After all, it is only due to the restricted movement of the planets and stars that we exist. Any derailing from their paths will only bring doomsday instead of Independence Day. The universe seeks order but man, on the other hand, seeks freedom to establish the choicest institutions of his life. Little does he realise that freedom will more likely lead him astray than set him on the right path.
The right to freedom of a culture, a nation, a boundary, a social order or a disorder has been so articulately advocated by western philosophy that many imprudent people came to regard it as the highest duty of man. However, the colour and flavour and the shroud and slogan of freedom could not free the minds possessed with wisdom as they knew what it actually meant. Iqbal refers to nationalism as the plunderer of Prophets (PBUH) structure of deen, dividing God’s creation unjustly into nations and uprooting the actual Islamic concept of universal brotherhood. The cult of nationalism has also been strongly denounced by intellectuals like R. N. Tagore and G. B. Shaw in their writings. In the wake of the recent JNU row, the Indian academia referred to nationalism as a rotten ideology.
The highest duty of man is towards mankind and as humanity shares common ancestry, nothing is more desirable than creating a culturally diverse, politically decentralised and functionally integrated global realm based on a system of social justice. However, it is easier said than done. We are in dire need of fostering a social psychology as was done by our Prophet (PBUH) in the past, due to which he was the most influential human being. For instance, Ibn Batuta travelled from one end of the Islamic realm of Spain to China, communicated in one language and could even be accepted as a judge in the distant Maldives.
Nationalism is a reaction to the universalising and anti-authoritarian tendencies of the divine enlightenment for which the greatest human souls have sacrificed a lot. Did not Hussain (A.S) shun his birth right of accession to his fathers throne coupled with allegiance given to him by the people in order to maintain the peace treaty with Muawiya and avert any hostilities to the masses? Did not our Prophet (PBUH) prefer migration from his motherland to stick to his mission of shunning orthodoxy without shedding blood? Small people have wishes and great people have aims. In the same conformity, the people of wisdom in Kashmir, who were apprehensive of the kind of bloodshed and rights violation, had suggested to put this issue on the back burner so as to not let a single right to freedom seize all other human rights. Those who can foresee can judge what to overlook and what to look after but those whose IQ is less than the room temperature need to be shown their own acts in the mirror to prove that their vision is blind and their calls uncalled for.
These so called visionaries marry models and preach us purdah. They own hotels and we yearn for homes. In board results, the Burhan kins come out with flying colours. All, but he himself, in his group get martyred the very next month after joining. These are open secrets that we cant fathom. There is a big lesson for the kids and teenagers that, despite being highest in character, our prophet was accorded prophet hood at the age of 40, not 14. Let charming radicals like Burhan not befool those who have seen with their naked eyes how the eve teasers and road side Romeos are the front runners in the protests against Babri-Masjid demolition in the university campus, drug addicts raising hue and cry against shooting of Indian movies and stone-pelters on Fridays missing the most important religious obligation, the namaz, in the name of Azadi and Islam. They call it an Islamic movement yet turn it into a mockery.
Forget the miscreants, one wonders as to why Kashmiri lawyers, who are apparently the most pro-azadi among the professionals and therefore most expected to plead for Afzal Guru, chose to plead for issues like safety of Khyber milk and quality of cement. Are they a bar association because they bar the entry of meritorious candidates into government services by repeatedly entering the pleas of mediocre individuals seeking jobs in the name of Azadi by abrogating every new service rule of India in the context of article 370? Ask them how many cases of human rights violation in Kashmir has any of them taken up so far and the harsh reality will reveal itself.
Those who attribute waywardness in the youth to Indian movies prefer to keep mum on the countless cases of dowry deaths and domestic violence against Kashmiri women as they are not able to assign any Indian link to it. If they ever get time from issues like beef ban and azadi, then let them know that Khanyar has been re-labelled as Khoonyar due to the recent incident of burning a poor lady alive. If the death of a teacher during polling duty should not be mourned, then why celebrate the life of sons struggling hard to get entry into the Indian cricket team? Preaching martyrdom and freedom for Kashmiri youth and choosing elite schools for their own wards can never be convincing.
Our beloved Prophet (S.A.W) has said, The Iman of a person is not true unless he loves for himself what he wishes for others. When Sheikh Abdullah met Hawari Boomaddin in Algeria, the latter showed him the 11 graves of his family members, all of whom had laid their lives for the cause of their nation. After coming to know about Sheikhs family, he warned him of never being able to accomplish his mission. This proved so right. Not only is our movement lingering but the children of freedom fighters do not hesitate to shake these same blood soaked hands in the name of Government formation. According to Mr Geelani, anything less than laying ones life for the cause of Azadi will be a treachery. Then how is it that among a lakh lives laid so far, there is not a single Ibn-Geelani? How dare such people claim to be the vicegerents of the prophet (S.A.W), who sacrificed even the last member of his family, the 6-month old Ali Asgar in the field of Karbala? Charity begins at home, yet Mr Geelani, who does not trust Delhi over talks on Kashmir, entrusts them with his ailing health.
If freedoms facilitate the establishment of Islam, then what stops the liberated and independent Muslim nations to have a caliphate? What does Mr Geelani have to say about the execution of 47 Muslim clerks challenging the monarchy of Arabs? Pakistan too was taken from India in the name of Islam, perhaps to live in peace. But the present condition of Pakistan is nowhere near peaceful. Dr Zakir Naik is a sufficient example for those who want to secede from India to preach their faith. He has done what a centurys long Muslim rule in India could not do.
Despite grave misinterpretations and all our disastrous acts in the name of Islam, it is by the grace and mercy of Allah Almighty that the intellectual upsurge in this school of thought still continues. Verily, with us or without us, will HE have HIS job done. Some of the modern day rulers in India have accepted being inspired by the unparalleled social justice exhibited by Omar al-Khattab (R.A). Gandhi has said on record that if India is to prosper, it is to be ruled by a person like Omar. Romila Thapar, a well-known historian of India, has established this fact in her books that Indians are the sons of a son of a Muslim Prophet Noah (A.S). Similarly, Munusmriti by many has been portrayed as Mavae Nuh. Yet another theory coming to the surface is that there is a high likelihood of Brahma in India being the corrupted form of Ibrahim, who had raised his voice against all kinds of orthodoxy, especially in fire worshipping communities.
If India is inflicting injuries on us, it is because we are slaves to them. What made Hitler torture his citizens? Freedom is not a divine entity which can prevent nations from having ruthless rulers or economic debacles or even natural calamities. Even if we are factually right in seeking freedom and somehow manage to get it, what will change other than the nationality of our I-cards and passports? We shall continue to be the same people, devoid of rights and ignorant of duties.
Setting things apart may seem to be a solution but setting them in order is surely a solution. There is a reason that our Prophet (PBUH) was purposely chosen by the Almighty from the barbaric idolatrous Arabs rather than from the learned generation of prophets. It was done to set an elaborate example of transition without disintegration and to rule out all excuses in the name of a separate history or geography. The message of Islam is that of universal brotherhood, which is over and above the crooked human doctrines of nationalism, shedding human blood in the name of freedom, communism, disintegrating the parent country into 11 parts or democracy.
In India’s struggle for independence, we get to read more about social and religious reforms than fighting with the British. Even a casual student of history can tell us that considering the expansive reach of the colonial system from South America to South-east Asia and everywhere in between, decolonisation had become inevitable for the colonisers post World War 2. Freedoms were thus granted rather than fought for. Even the British did it hurriedly for India in 1947 well before the drafted plan of 1948. Solving a human problem by making a compromise is better than maintaining it with whatever principles. So let us start facilitating demilitarisation by getting freed of freedom. Moreover, with the Bhuddist Ladakh and the Shaivite Jammu having already traced their ancestries to the nearby Indian states, two-third of the referendum already stands done.
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