ALI SUKHANVER
I am sure, during your early school days, most of you would have read the story, ‘The Wood-Cutter and his Sons.’ When the old wood-cutter was on his death bed, he asked his sons to bring a bundle of woods and break it without untying it; but the sons could not. The wood-cutter then asked them to untie the bundle and break the woods separately; the sons did it just in a few moments. From England to America and from China to Syria this story has ever been a very favourite one among the youngsters and in Pakistan too but unfortunately we in Pakistan never tried to learn any lesson from this story. On the other hand our friends in other parts of the world not only enjoyed its reading but also made its moral lesson the basic principle of their life. To tell you the truth; lack of unity is the most grievous problem of our society. Our enemies have learnt well how to ‘untie’ us and we are being broken into pieces like dried and lifeless logs of wood. It is the most urgent need of time that our religious scholars, our teachers, our poets, writers and journalists concentrate all their vigour on teaching us the importance of unity. One thing must always be very much clear to all of us that unity is the basis of any society. It takes no time in becoming Afghanistan or Iraq or Lebanon as these countries are the ever worst examples of internal social conflicts based on political, ethnic and sectarian differences. Life has become a hell in these countries and foreign invaders are simply enjoying these self-divided societies.
A few days back, I heard an officer of Karachi police talking to media. He was saying, “We cannot provide security to all people returning to their homes after Jumma prayer as they are thousands in number and we don’t have such a large army of policemen.” I was really shocked at this statement of the police officer. This statement won’t have been shocking to me if it were not about Pakistan, a country once known as the ‘Fort of Islam.’ It is really heart-rending if the namaziz need a security cover when they are in the mosques and when they are returning from the mosques; if the Muslims are not safe in a Muslim country where else they could be safe; it seems a million Dollar question. More painful is the fact that the western world blames that Pakistan is a safe haven for all Muslim militant organizations. From Taliban to Daesh and Al-Qaeda and from different Lashkars to different Sipahs, the western world says, all are born and brought up in Pakistan. If we accept this blame for a moment, the question arises; why in presence of so many powerful militant organizations which are a serious security threat to the world super powers, the Muslims are not safe in a Muslim country in Pakistan. The fact of the matter is that we are neither the terrorists nor the militants; we are simply a victim to the menace of mutual hatred. We lack patience; we lack forbearance; we lack tolerance. We have forgotten the basic social rule of ‘live and let others live.’ Things could be settled down to normal if we only start giving others a little breathing space. Unfortunately today’s Muslims are adopting the ways which never belonged to our forefathers. It has never been a principle of Islam to kill all those who don’t think the way you do. Islam gives freedom of thought, liberty of research and independence of decision. When we ignore the preaching of Islam, our enemies start stamping us as extremists. Our growing narrow-mindedness is making us a laughing stock. And this situation of the Muslims is not limited only to the Muslims in Pakistan; everywhere in all Muslim countries, situation is the same. Muslims are killing their own Muslim brothers and sisters everywhere. Who shall put a full-stop to this brutal game? The Muslims will have to realize that they could never be the rulers of this world unless they are united. Unity of the Muslims is the most dangerous threat to all anti-Muslim forces; that is why they keep on spreading new baits for the Muslims and unfortunately the Muslims swallow these baits very easily. Let us look back to the history. The Muslims had been dominating a large part of the world till they remained united. No one could ever defeat them militarily; they always remained undefeatable unless they lost their unity. More unfortunate is the fact that the Muslims never learnt a lesson from their past. They are still swallowing the same old bait. The enemies of Islam are successfully doing all possible to divide them on racial, ethnic and cultural grounds. If the situation remains the same, the Muslims would have no prominent place on the world map of tomorrow.