A Need for Translation of Words into Actions

Islamic Republic of Pakistan has been at a decline and we can relate ourselves to the devolution that we have experienced over the years. A state created in the name of Islam and built on the idea of Islamic practicing and teaching can ever be so deviated from its natural fitra to return to one God. History is a witness to the fact that no nation has declined but due to the affliction of eternal strife. What is amongst us that has led this nation to a decline?

It is the changing ideology and influence of the world that is driving us to the door or destruction. Really, the dilemma our nation faces today is that it is so highly impressed by the customs and culture of the West that we reject the Pakistani and Islamic culture, and in the words of Marcus Garvey, “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without its roots.”

A revolting mindset exists in our society, but the negativity in it is that from a long time, following the western trends and etiquettes has been considered far more superior than adapting the morals and values of the Pakistani culture. This psychological disease is so widespread that our nation is at serious loss because we do not realize the beauty and the crowning benefits of our customs and culture that have mostly been derived from our one religion and one way of life whom Allah (swt) describes as “Perfect”.

The intuition between Islam and the Pakistani culture is so well weaved, that implementing it can lead us to a standard of living and dying much higher than the one we follow.

The perfection Islam brings to our culture and its superiority over the western culture can be settled by comparing the simple essential; language, clothes and eating habits. The use of casual and slang linguistics in the western world seeks no boundaries to age or gender, whereas our beautiful language Urdu (originating from Arabic) addresses the elderly with respect and the young and the weak with tender love.

Further, the western culture promotes cleavage and wearing of revealing clothes, as a symbol of freedom and intellect, whereas as Tawakkul Karman responds to queries about her Hijab in the following words proving the Islamic ethics right. “Man in early times was almost naked, and as his intellect evolved he started wearing clothes. What I am today and what I am wearing represents the highest level of thought and civilization that man has achieved, and it is not regressive. It is removal of clothes again that is regressive back to the olden times.”

We are a blind nation as the effects of western imperialism and that is what we have imposed on ourselves. They tell us to wear high heels, we wear high heels, they tell us to wear low heels, we wear low heels, they tell us to wear “Baggies”, we wear baggies, they tell us to wear “Tights”, we wear tights, they wear the jeans half way down their back side and we start wearing the jeans the same way, but have we ever thought that nobody wants to see the colour of our boxers? Yet we claim to base our lives on rational and logical arguments. We do what they tell us to do, because knowingly or unknowingly we have made them our role models and we need to go back and start making our own people, our role models.

If we look at our communities, how defunct and divided they are and this is a reflection of the confusion that we have been bought up to with the influence of the west. We know how to blame others, blame others without realizing the fact that when we are pointing a finger towards someone, there are 3 fingers of the same hand pointing towards us, teaching us that in order to succeed we need to change and blame ourselves, for when we will blame ourselves, we will surely change ourselves. When we translate our talking into actions we will be able to change ourselves and change the World. If revolution came through talking then we would have had a revolution every hour but what we have learned from our rich history is that the men of action are men of revolution.

The West may have obstructed our thinking but it has not blocked our brains, and we need to think and perform together in order to attain a life worthwhile.

Western culture may have been labeled free, liberal and human but the Pakistani culture is based on the ethics of Islam which are complete and absolute.

Islam has been the way of life that when Abu Bakr (R.A) followed, he bought the two superpowers of the day to their knees and when Umar ibn khattab (R.A) followed, he provided us with examples of economics, prosperity and management of the state that we could never find elsewhere. These people are the ones whom Allah (SWT) is pleased from and we need to follow these examples as role models that will lead us to a united and functioning nation that will stand together with its own identity (Insha Allah).

Immad ud Din

Sec F