Next in the life of the holy prophet comes the importance of planning. Planning is necessary to make an alternative system that can change a broken one. The subordinates don’t realise how they could also plan and organize themselves to get back their fair rights. This is however a basic implication of teachings of Islamic ‘taqwa’. If one wants to be called a “Muttaqi”, one must stand against unfairness, no matter how imminently widespread it is, or also, no matter how disconnected it is from you. That’s what Prophet SAW did.
Before being a Muslim, as a human, could he have chosen not to go through all the trouble that he did went through, simply accepting to lead a docile and average life. In fact as we know of him now, he was a member of a very respected, elite political family. Individually, he would have lived quite well. But being a “muttaqi” himself, he saw an unfair system in place and he simply said No. He stood up against the cruelty practised then. Note here please that he did not start protesting the very first day. Instead he devised a careful plan, made a well-thought out strategy. That’s what a person with taqwa does. (S)he does not react in the heat of the moment. Instead, a person having taqwa keeps a cool mind and thinks about the bigger picture. The takeaway here is that Planning before committing to any purpose is a non-skipable part of being a “muttaqi”.
Bringing the discussion back home, what do we do when faced with such catastrophic economical, ethical and well, all sorts of .., catastrophes! Rational dictates we stand up against it as described earlier but ... how exactly? The answer is explained here in points, the first of which is “by deciding a clear target”. After carefully identifying the root cause of the problem, and planning on eradicating it, the 2nd step is to identify your one crystal clear target. What is wrong in Pakistan? Illiteracy? Corruption? Nepotism? Lawlessness? Dishonesty? Election Commission? Political parties? Who is your target? This is where you rationally select a target which must must be the root cause of all existing problems. Army? Supreme Court? USA? Lotacracy? What is that one thing that can make all the other bad things start working for the betterment of Pakistan? This is the step where you set a target. Carefully, rationally, calmly. This is the 2nd step. Identify a single root target of your revolution.
After that comes the point that dictates the formation of a party. This step is when educated and rational people who have passed through the gruel of a common person’s adverse living conditions, they start to expand their ideas upon a wider circle and human beings being truthful and positive at hearts by nature (no matter how much dirt on their morale, a human is always attracted to universal truths like honesty and truthfulness), these masses with basic human nature still alive in them began to follow this focused, goal-oriented, hustle-based rationale ideology. People are naturally attracted to what is logical. Then this group of people who have decided to rise against the persistent unfairness, observed and carefully deduced a single target, these people make what is in terms today called a “party”, They educate and integrate more people to their idea. And one fine day, with the power of the masses on the back of this group of people, they topple the unfair system once and for all. This is called a revolution.
Have you ever seen a ship without an anchor? Imagine it for a second; and answer the question, Will it be stable? No right! It will shadow the movements of the water, going where the waves take it. Such a ship then, even though it is a separate materialistic entity, not a useful thing. It can’t transport stuff. No one will buy a ticket from their hard-earned money to board such a ship to travel anywhere. This is an example of our existing political parties.
You are invited not to trust me but think it over in your head. Spend some time on it so you can better understand whether the existing political parties in Pakistan are stable? Have they not been existing with support of a third entity, always? Be it USA, Army or electable. These ships have no anchor. History is filled with the conversions of these parties from pro army to against it, pro molvis to against them, even they formed a coalition together when it came a time to oppose PTI (this strictly is not in favor of PTI, Imran Khan’s conversion in Army’s involvement and regarding Perveiz Elahi should serve the proof clearly that he is also a man without any principle). These ships have no stability. What is the anchor to a political party?
Anchor to a political party is its philosophy and ideology. The solutions to any incoming problems and guidance to tread all dangerous grounds is always found in the philosophy of a political party. Now, do any political party in Pakistan have an ideology? Whenever you hear of a political party here, what do you hear? Protests? Sit-ins? Boycotts? And if no one remains, who is the power given to? Army. Each one of us who is like … 15, has lived through martial law. Do martial law or political parties have any educated, well-thought-out, historically-proven philosophies or ideologies on their backs to dictate a country like Pakistan? This hard work which is vital to control and provide for the welfare of millions of average human beings is overlooked by PPP, PMLN, PMLQ, JUI, PTI, MQM, ANP and other parties in Pakistan, and whenever martial law is imposed, the ruling dictator considers himself the God. Philosophy is considered obsolete and redundant in day to day life of the working class as well as ruling class of Pakistan. This country has become a sitting duck for any powerful person to become the decision maker of 25 million average citizens. The 2nd most important thing in any Revolutionary party, after an ideology, (and a crucial part of taqwa be it individual or societal), is discipline. Quran states how often a small party dominated over a larger one by holding onto a single philosophy with a discipline that made them the strongest of all. These people don’t distract from their set target, can’t be bought by any incentives, can’t be stopped by fear, and don’t agree on anything less than their target and they succeed. How is this made possible? Continuing to find a solution leads these people to paths that are difficult to tread and the determination to do so makes people disciplined. Everyone in a revolutionary party has to follow hierarchy, learn the manifesto, again and again and again until they assimilate themselves into the wider body of the party that works to bring the largest possible good to the widest possible populace. This last sentence is what anchors a revolutionary party to the ground and not be like the ones we see today, ships without anchors being led to the parliament by electibles having a few people on their side. This is not a small target. But doing this massive tasks means that somewhere along the way, you also realise how strong you truly are.
Muhammad PBUH presented his philosophy and formed a disciplined party, and then began his struggle. Interestingly, non-believers did not have any problem in being led by Muhammad PBUH. It is in the history books. They actually argued against forming a political party. They raised questions on the teachings of PBUH when Ali RA and Bilal RA would sit equally. This equality was a bone of contention for the leaders of then, and for the leaders of now. Even now, MPAs and MNAs are bought and sold in elections like Muhammad was offered the leadership of Arab, the woman of his choose and the money that won’t ever end. His historic reply was “If you place the moon in my hand, and the Sun in the second one, I won’t leave what I am doing”. This was the discipline. This leader then went on to be the prophet of the world's fastest spreading religion.
This is how we will get ready to get rid of economic classes too. And study if you can and you’ll realise this is taqwa itself. This is tazkiya-nafs. Because a human can give up his relatives for a cause that he believes in. Even parents can be challenged to follow what one believes in. A hard working man can spare some change money for what he has a thorough belief in but for a human to give up himself, his time, his energy for a purpose, that is the most difficult thing. It is vital thus that each member of the revolutionary party who is going to be a leader of, say, just one person in the future, has to go through a hustle and grind so (s)he knows and acts consciously when need be. This is tazkiya-nafs. “Me” goes at the end from within a human being; and rightly so, because “me” is a creation of one's own self. We love what we create! For this to go, one needs tons of discipline. On this level, one is able to love justice and have the courage to say No to what is unjust, for himself/herself or others. This is how we can achieve the levels of “Va-la-qad-krramna-bani-adam” (17:70 Quran). These are the levels of “companions of the Prophet PBUH” who were defined as “stars” by the holy prophet himself, “follow any one of these and you’ll succeed”.
Is any party in Pakistan teaching this? Is anyone molvi/mufit/molana teaching the power of analysis and questioning? Giving slogans and showering money on their followers to chant these slogans is not politics. “Ya-ayyu-hal-muzammil; Qummil-li-la-illa-qaleela (73:01 Quran) is politics. Such is the power of politics that it fascinates once you understand the importance of it. To serve is the purpose of humanity and that is literally a politician’s job. To stay awake when others sleep so they may get a better, more comfortable and more easy day tomorrow than today, when you care about them and go out of your own way for this, and you choose this life and you get paid for it by their taxes, this is politics. (I would be a big fool here for saying this but is there anything more romantic than true politics!) Trends on twitter today are not in the least political, they are simply a blame game. The language used when two workers from the same party get in a confronting situation is often filthy and demeaning. But this is no politics in the first place. This is a mockery of a serious and responsible institution for the benefit of those who do it, and keep stained like now.
A revolutionary party is filled with people who practise taqva and tazkiya-nafs. That is the very reason that they get so powerful when it comes time to achieve its target. PTI, PPP, PMLN or whoever is the ruling party of a corrupt political system have leaders that leave their party if you don’t offer them money or power or both. If their workers can’t organize a huge “jalsa”, they’ll be scrutinized. But a revolutionary party and its members have no concern with their power or position or the number of people they command. (As an example, and only as an example, I was the chief secretary of NUST branch of UP and I’ll be resigning from tomorrow … This is how the members of a revolutionary party view leadership; a responsibility and nothing else. If you can’t do it, step down). Any random member of a revolutionary party is either a full-fledged leader or one in the making. They don’t concern themselves with the fact how many people are listening to them. A single one willing to understand the ideology and walk with a revolutionary is more valuable than a thousand ready to chant slogans but not understand its ideology..
Lastly, will the masses be willing to follow a revolutionary party? Okay, here’s a quick question:
When are they not?
Right now (2022) in Pakistan, 60% of the population is youth willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of this country. These middle class people living in and around major cities really want their Pakistan to be at its best. What is lacking? A proper leadership is lacking. This is how we can verify it: Name any 5 top tiered political leaders of Pakistan right now? Are any of them revolutionary as described above? Still when offered an alternative way out in the form of PPP (2009) and PML-N (2013) and PTI (2018), these masses followed all of these leaders. (Leaders who interestingly had been a part of all these parties when they were in power to enjoy this ministry or that from every party). Concludingly, we need a proper group of intellectual leaders who don’t have to borrow any ministers from outside. Creating leadership is difficult but necessary at this point for Pakistan.
I would invite you to take the first step of becoming a rational, logical human being. Don’t worry as you are under no pressure (obviously) to do it for anyone but yourself. Ask questions. Commit to the belief that what is unjust is unjust no matter if it's your dad doing it or your bully’s dad. For further information and if interested, you can fill out the survey form in the menu up top. A member from UP will reach out to create a dialogue with you and provide guidance for next paths. I am Awais Alam from United Pakistan.
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