SENTIMENTS BASED ON NATIONALITY & RELIGION

Mohammad Tarique Khan

In the slogans being raised in 20^th century, the most significant slogan to eliminate the roots of Muslim Nation and divert Muslims’ opinions from the sanctity of religion was none but a treacherous slogan of Nationality and this very slogan, with which confusion was spread among people, wrapped also a lot of dignified intellectuals in its confusing wrapper, in other words, among the victims of deceiving slogans, there were peoples of various sects and creeds. A large number of the students studying in Islamic schools or Madrasas were also affected with such a poisonous tone and forgot .

قال اللہ و قال الرسول.

Before chanting such a slogan, they were familiar with the universal knowledge that all Muslims were brothers & sisters to one another; they also knew that Muslim community was like a body, they also knew that Muslim community was supreme to all beings but in spite of all they also remembered that nations were ascertained with their motherlands, and like this now they are misguided by some of our  so called reformers, after which they chant in continuation the chants of Motherland with a feeling  of being the citizens of their motherlands.

After the division of India in 1947, leaders of the nation of India kept working attentively on the agenda to make Muslim Community slave and servant under the feet of Nationality. The language, Urdu, was eliminated in its own home. The minority-characters of Uthmania University and Muslim University were brought to an end.

Mosques were devastated and changed into ruins. Nowadays efforts are being made in every possible way to launch a campaign to create an odorous atmosphere of hatred along the destructive roads of communal violence between Hindus and Muslims. Anti social elements or you may say in other words the satanic forces have their eyes on our mosques and seminaries; they make illegal attempts to tarnish the beautiful image of Islam.

Since the religion, Islam, is the true religion near Allah as our lord Allah has mentioned in His Book “the Glorious Qur’ân”, and also in this disturbing phenomenon, the same religion is regarded as the religion of peace, so, the anti social elements having a feeling of hatred & jealousy towards Muslim Community want to malign the status-quo of Islam. Everyday a new campaign against Islam is being launched. Now the campaign to convert the inhabited mosques into temples is going on in full swing. Thousands of Muslim youths are facing hardships of captivity.

No space at all is left which may be recounted as a comfort-zone for the Muslims living in India. Mob lynching, Apps to auctions of Muslim ladies, release of Bilquis’s murderers and their honors while releasing from captivity, harsh punishments and arresting on offering Namaz (prayers) etc are all such heinous things that appear to be the orders of the day, and in all such complications it also seems that Muslims are being threatened for not to consider them as the citizens of India in the same as others are considered.

Obviously the reality is that in Indian peninsula, Muslims ruled more than 1000 years but today Indian Muslims have no space or place to have a sigh of relief. Above all,  most of our Muslim leaders having weak Imaan in India are found claiming to be patriots in a flattering way with a view to please patriotic forces and in launching this campaign of patriotism, they misguide the peoples from nation telling them that they should give first priority to Nationality in comparison to follow the religious sentiments.

In the premises of such a critical situation, the tri-colored flags were hoisted with pump and show on thresholds of Allah’s Houses where sounds of        قال اللہ و قال الرسول  are glorified from morn till night. Our Muslim flatterers or Ulema claiming to be the leaders of Muslim Community in India strive more and more to divert common Muslims’ opinions from Islamic sentiments with an intention to prove them better patriotic in comparison to Hindus while on the other hand the fact is that you will never be considered as patriotic because you are terrorists by birth on horizons of religion.

You claim to be a follower of peaceful religion but they find your religion something else and not under logical frameworks of your claims; even then you honor them keeping in view that they will be your supporter in future.   Leaders of the majority as well as the Hindu saints breathing on soils of India also astonish to conceive how you claim to be patriotic when your actions are far away from your theories.

But in spite of all such critical situations the people being misguided by so called Muslim clerics are of the opinion that modern nations scattered across the world have their attractive attachments with homeland, so priority should be given to Nationality first of all; this is why they embrace the national slogans from the core of their hearts and deliver patriotic lectures on every auspicious occasions of Independence Day and Republic Day. Hiding heads inside piles of sands they think the storm will pass away but in the mirror of reality, to conceive like this is their foolishness.

In a nutshell, I mean to say that Muslims living in India are passing through critical situations in various aspects but if you peep through windows of realities to analyze the burning issues around them, you will often reach the conclusion that Muslims themselves are responsible for cutting their legs with their axes; they keep themselves far from the true teachings of the Scripture wasting their costly time in flattering the misguided leaders around them.

May Allah bestow upon our leaders (Ulema) the boons of understanding so that they don’t bury their followers under feet of Nationality! We should also not forget the base of our religion. The first identification of ours is our religion, and as far as the matter of nationality is concerned, it is based on the birth and the choice both, for instance, many centuries ago, Aryans came and settled here, in the same pace, Muslims, the followers of the Last Messenger of the God, came to Indo valleys and settled here.

Many of the non Muslims belonging to Aryan societies in India didn’t go abroad and settled here in India, so how can we call them to be outsiders, meaning to say such citizens who select a place to live in are called the citizens of that particular place (country). History reveals that in India, the original inhabitants of India were Dravins but it doesn’t mean that those who settled later on, coming from central Asia to India are not the citizens of this country.

We have our unity in our diversity, therefore we have to regard all the people living in India on levels of nationality but as regards to religion, we should always bear in mind that religion is our base and we can’t be recognized or identified in this world if we are not going to decorate ourselves with ornaments of the religion being followed by us since long. Nationality is preferable but religion remains always unparallel to other all assets.

From Mohammad Tarique Khan

Former Lecturer: King Saud University, Riyadh