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Why Imran Khan is the One for Us
‘The best (Jihad) is a word of justice to an oppressive ruler.’ (Muslim, Abu Daud)
A saying of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) worth reading by Pakistanis today. While we’ve grown to fit our stereotypical mould - a throng of disgruntled, submissive citizens, we do uphold our religious compliances, and this is our chance to prove the theological mettle that we love to peddle.
We may believe it isn’t worth our time, but the Quran states:
"And why should you not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? Men, women, and children, whose cry is: 'Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from You, one who will protect; and raise for us from You, one who will help.' (4:75)
Needless to say, that cry runs so rampant that it has become a persistent buzz in our audition; it manifests itself in the child who has his arms chopped for trespassing, and taxes that form half the price of products. Islam gives the right to protest, and while an elite minority might not be fully acquainted with it, authoritarian oppression has transgressed barriers of tolerance for the majority of Pakistan. It is worthy of notice that Khan is not inviting civil disobedience, and though we tend to make the line between protest and just that particularly thin, this is something that your religious convictions exhort you to be part of.
‘Despite being a member of the Assembly, Khan wants to sabotage democracy.’
This is a statement issued by yet another self-righteous, honourable Pakistani. Muhammad Kamran, a petitioner who pled that Khan wanted to create anarchy by staging the event. The last clause is as fascinating as it is inexplicable. Allow me to expatiate.
The 2013 elections have earned us a very honourable place on Wikipedia’s ‘List of Controversial Elections’, where the winning party itself complained about electoral rigging. A minute representation is NA 256. According to a report by NADRA, over 57,000 votes could not be verified in the constituency where 5,893 duplicate and 1,950 fake votes were cast. These facts make the prevalent democracy that forms the foundation of present-day government seem somewhat, if not entirely, sabotaged.
Allamah Abu -Mawdudi writes, ‘Islam does not regard it right that an individual may put up a false show of setting up a legislative assembly and by means of underhand tactics (fraud, persecution, bribery) gets himself and men of choice elected in it.’ Conversely, maybe it’s time to loosen our allusions of a successful democracy, and participate in something that may make them reality.
Question that remains is: Why Imran Khan? What distinguishes him from the infamous ‘Inqalaab Baba’ stationed in Canada?
Here’s a story: A girl dangling dangerously close to the line that demarcates ‘giving up’ after 3 months of social seclusion by previously rendered ‘best friends’. That was, of course, until, she heard of an individual that started off with a political party that comprised of an unimpressive single seat (not surprisingly himself), and today has 350,000 eligible-to-vote members. A change that eclipsed 20 years, and a torn family.
It gave her the motivation to rescue herself and find herself dizzyingly on top of those that made her cry in the pillow all night long. Alexander-the-Great said, ‘An army of sheep led by a lion is worth more than one of lions led by a sheep.’ He missed the most rewarding combo, a force of lions led by one – a lion not just on a ballot box but one in practice, - which we could be, if we chose to be led by Khan.
‘You have to guard over the maintenance of democracy, social justice and equality in your native soil. With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve.’ The Quaid, 1948.
If that was true for Pakistanis then, it is even truer for us today. Don’t think it’s futile. Is this not worthwhile? Is it not worth marching for, living and dying for? We want change. We need it. And we can do it. An observation of our lives reveals that. A father that debates solutions to the scourge of terrorism and inequities of taxation all in his lounge. A woman that hauls matkas on her head, mortgaging her life to enrich her family’s. The social worker that laments being termed a Western stooge. An old man that ponders over the sorry condition of his homeland, wondering where it all went wrong. Even the language teacher who just can’t get your name right.
One thread that binds them all.
One man to take the journey.
Imran Khan.
Why Imran Khan is the One for Us By Alizah Hashmi
‘The best (Jihad) is a word of justice to an oppressive ruler.’ (Muslim, Abu Daud)
A saying of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) worth reading by Pakistanis today. While we’ve grown to fit our stereotypical mould - a throng of disgruntled, submissive citizens, we do uphold our religious compliances, and this is our chance to prove the theological mettle that we love to peddle.
We may believe it isn’t worth our time, but the Quran states:
"And why should you not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? Men, women, and children, whose cry is: 'Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from You, one who will protect; and raise for us from You, one who will help.' (4:75)
Needless to say, that cry runs so rampant that it has become a persistent buzz in our audition; it manifests itself in the child who has his arms chopped for trespassing, and taxes that form half the price of products. Islam gives the right to protest, and while an elite minority might not be fully acquainted with it, authoritarian oppression has transgressed barriers of tolerance for the majority of Pakistan. It is worthy of notice that Khan is not inviting civil disobedience, and though we tend to make the line between protest and just that particularly thin, this is something that your religious convictions exhort you to be part of.
‘Despite being a member of the Assembly, Khan wants to sabotage democracy.’
This is a statement issued by yet another self-righteous, honourable Pakistani. Muhammad Kamran, a petitioner who pled that Khan wanted to create anarchy by staging the event. The last clause is as fascinating as it is inexplicable. Allow me to expatiate.
The 2013 elections have earned us a very honourable place on Wikipedia’s ‘List of Controversial Elections’, where the winning party itself complained about electoral rigging. A minute representation is NA 256. According to a report by NADRA, over 57,000 votes could not be verified in the constituency where 5,893 duplicate and 1,950 fake votes were cast. These facts make the prevalent democracy that forms the foundation of present-day government seem somewhat, if not entirely, sabotaged.
Allamah Abu -Mawdudi writes, ‘Islam does not regard it right that an individual may put up a false show of setting up a legislative assembly and by means of underhand tactics (fraud, persecution, bribery) gets himself and men of choice elected in it.’ Conversely, maybe it’s time to loosen our allusions of a successful democracy, and participate in something that may make them reality.
Question that remains is: Why Imran Khan? What distinguishes him from the infamous ‘Inqalaab Baba’ stationed in Canada?
Here’s a story: A girl dangling dangerously close to the line that demarcates ‘giving up’ after 3 months of social seclusion by previously rendered ‘best friends’. That was, of course, until, she heard of an individual that started off with a political party that comprised of an unimpressive single seat (not surprisingly himself), and today has 350,000 eligible-to-vote members. A change that eclipsed 20 years, and a torn family.
It gave her the motivation to rescue herself and find herself dizzyingly on top of those that made her cry in the pillow all night long. Alexander-the-Great said, ‘An army of sheep led by a lion is worth more than one of lions led by a sheep.’ He missed the most rewarding combo, a force of lions led by one – a lion not just on a ballot box but one in practice, - which we could be, if we chose to be led by Khan.
‘You have to guard over the maintenance of democracy, social justice and equality in your native soil. With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve.’ The Quaid, 1948.
If that was true for Pakistanis then, it is even truer for us today. Don’t think it’s futile. Is this not worthwhile? Is it not worth marching for, living and dying for? We want change. We need it. And we can do it. An observation of our lives reveals that. A father that debates solutions to the scourge of terrorism and inequities of taxation all in his lounge. A woman that hauls matkas on her head, mortgaging her life to enrich her family’s. The social worker that laments being termed a Western stooge. An old man that ponders over the sorry condition of his homeland, wondering where it all went wrong. Even the language teacher who just can’t get your name right.
One thread that binds them all.
One man to take the journey.
Imran Khan.
Why Imran Khan is the One for Us By Alizah Hashmi
