Pakistani First & Muslim Last.

Musharaf was right: Pakistan First.

It may not be common history that some of the most influential religious scholars at the time of Pakistan’s Independence were against the whole idea of Pakistan. Some may find this ludicrous and consider this as the convenient fuel for their fire against the religious classes of the Pakistan. But not so fast – a clearer understanding is required. Consider the following:

Allama Mohammad Iqbal was and is rightly considered the visionary who came up with the whole idea of Pakistan. But he also understood – again, rightly – the difference between being purely nationalist and being a Muslim. It is in his own poetry that he, while elucidating on patriotism, ever so eloquently puts it:

yai jo pairahan hai iss ka who mazhab ka kafan hai
(the garb of patriotism is actually the death of religion)

A glancing eye would find this contradictory. But like I said earlier, not so fast please.

He was the one who went to England to call back the then disappointed Jinnah, to come and lead the Muslim League. (Iqbal sahib was in the Muslim League at that time, whereas Jinnah had left Congress after failed attempts towards Hindu-Muslim Unity). So why would someone who actually came up with the grand idea of a separate nation for the Muslim Ummah also go on record as saying that patriotism itself is the death of religion?

Nationalism Shastionalism

Strictly speaking, nationalism puts the country first. Nothing wrong with that. But it also puts the country second and third and last. It makes it OK for you to give your life and everything for the country. That. Is. Stupid.

I wouldn’t want to risk, much less give, my life for a piece of land. It’s Geography, for cryin’ out loud! (Of course, one’s country is one’s home, and defense of that home sometime does have right over our very lives, but that is for another post perhaps). But here’s where the plot thickens. This piece of land has value in terms of ideology. And ideology is one thing that Muslims live by, at least that is what I think Muslims should live by. How many of us have heard this being said, “Pakistan is the only country built on an ideology” ? It is this very ideology that makes this piece of land worth dying for. Yes, yes, I know that most of what is found in our leadership lacks even an iota of this ideology, but that’s a different topic.

Anyways, Musharaf was right: Pakistan First. Because Pakistan gives the much needed identity to the ideology. I know that one can’t help but wonder that perhaps we would have been better off without such an identity, but that is emotionally induced nonsense. This should give you a higher sense of duty to come out as a Pakistani, with renewed energy to perhaps try to live up to that ideology.

So, I am a Pakistani first, and in the last, but definitely not the least, a Muslim.

You must be – or rather should be – wondering that I have conveniently left out the minorities, the Christians, the Hindus, the Parsis, the Jews etc that so happily call Pakistan home. Not. So. Fast.
Pakistan first, religion last. And I would invite everyone here to see if their religion can be given preference is such a way. I know mine can.

(For all those who think that Quaid wanted a secular nation and a secular nation alone, please read more than one book and listen to more than one person. And if you think that being a secular nation is a sin, it would only do good to read even further)