A MEETING WITH Dr.ALLAMA IQBAL

When all those things that General Musharraf had said were flashed by newspapers, I once again got surprised and thought that the wretched people of Pakistan might not be cheated another time. I placed the anthology of Allama Iqbal?s poetry under my pillow and got absorbed in the thoughts of Iqbal. Suddenly I dreamt that I was sitting in audience to Allama Iqbal. The awe of his personality was overpowering me. Allama was sitting in reclining chair and I was staring at him sitting on the carpet. A Hukka (An indigenous smoking device also known as hubble bubble) was placed near him. He took a draw and said to me, Young man. Why are you so disappointed? The problem that is disturbing you today has been disturbing me for the last one hundred years. But I had found out the solution to this problem seventy years ago. Didn?t you find it in my anthology?? Lost in the spell of his personality and the force of his voice I kept looking at him. He said,? Understand what I say. If we collect the brains of two hundred seven or two hundred fifty donkeys, will they match the human intellect? I replied while shivering, How can donkeys have the human intellect and qualities of leadership? Allama looked at me intently and said, ?Why are you sitting on the carpet ( pointing towards the sofa) Why don?t you sit on the chair?I got up and sat on the chair. He said, Go and give my message to the people of Pakistan. Tell them that if they want democracy then should elect the people to the parliament or assemblies after thorough scrutiny. If you will have shop keepers, traders, capitalists and selfish people to look after their own interest in the parliament then what can you expect them to do for the nation?

Allama Iqbal said that for traders, shop keepers, industrialists and capitalists Chambers of Commerce and Industry are enough. In the parliament and provincial assemblies you need intellectuals who share the pains of the people and knowledgeable personalities who are devoted to the service of the nation. Hadn?t the great leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah and I told the nation how to select their leadership? Hadn?t we laid the standards for national political leadership?

Trembling I told the Poet of the East, Learned Doctor, the nation is in great trouble. The people involve the nation sometimes in socialism, sometimes times in Islam and another time in democracy and the 140 million find out after two and a half to three years or some times after ten or twelve years that they have been again deceived.? On this Allama stood up in anger and started strolling in the room. Controlling his anger he said,? That nation which does not hold its accountability every morning and evening will the same fate.

To the Muslim nation of which I am an ordinary individual we and the learned clerics have always told that they should not get lost in the spell of the good words of some body rather you should see whether the one who is preaching is also acting on it or not. If he is acting on that then what is the result. If you are acting on it and the result is good then you should continue doing it. If the result is not good then you should do appraisal of both the saying and practice and see where have you faltered and correct your mistake. The nation which will not do self appraisal would be deceived time and again, We have done our duty, now it is up to you and the individuals of your nation.

Having said this Allama got up to go. I said respectfully I am a student and am quite young. Please order me what should I do. I am living with my family in Japan but my faith, my emotions and my heart weep at the plight of 140 million people. I am a helpless and weak Pakistani. Please tell me the solution to the problems that Pakistan is facing at present.? On listening to my question Allama Iqbal stopped for a while. He looked at me intently and said,? Your helplessness and sincerity are both quite evident. .Are the 140 million people united as a single entity? Are they one nation?? This was a very difficult question. Fearfully I said ,?O philosopher of the nation, I was not there before 1947 but my father and grand father tell me that for achieving Pakistan the Muslims of the sub-continent were united and their struggle was due to zealous and imaginative political leadership . You gave the philosophy and political perspicacity was provided by Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. But after the establishment of Pakistan people became Pathans, Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis, Baluchis and now they have become Muhajirs. A nation got divided into five or six nationalities. Bengalis bade us good by. Among us castes, clans, tribes and family links have become dominant. Instead of being one we .now stand divided into scores of nationalities, castes, clans and tribes. And still we call ourselves as Muslims. But all this has not happened due to the fault of the common man. The common man still believes in one nation theory but our leaders have entangled the people in such a riddle that we are now involved in the prejudices of regional, provincial and linguistic nature. We are no more one entity.

On this tears trickled from Allama?s eyes. He said, Why did you come to me to tell this story. You should have let me live in the misconception that we are the servants of a nation called Muslims. You live in Japan. Don?t the Japanese have castes, clans and tribes? I told him that, ?there are too many of them but every one likes to be called a Japanese rather than being identified after his clan or tribe.? Allama Iqbal said with a sigh, Look Hinduism is not a single religion or nationality. People living there have thousands of faiths but Hindus today introduce themselves as Indian nation. People belonging to hundreds of faiths and races have become a nation. Don?t our Pakistani Muslim brothers feel any remorse or shame on knowing this? Why not those intellectuals who have become millionaires by selling my name teach the common man as to what is a nation? Have you forgotten the story of a woodcutter which is taught to the pupils of fourth or fifth standard.? On this I submitted that firstly they have changed the syllabi and secondly every province has its own curriculum. The syllabus for Shiites is different. Ahl-I-Hadis want their own syllabus. Barelvis and other sects are demanding a separate syllabus for them. Some body wants that Pakistan should be made a Sunni state and others say that the religious principles of Ahl-I-Hadis should be enforced. But the factual position is that the people in power have tried to keep away Pakistan from only one thing that is education. In today?s developed world Japan has 100 percent literacy, Africa has 100 percent, Sri Lanka has 100 percent, Bangladesh (ex- East Pakistan) has 90 percent and India has 60 percent literacy rate but in Pakistan the official figure of literacy rate is 26 percent which is a lie.. Actually the literacy is not more than six or seven percent.

On this Allama got worked up and stated ,Look, this is the condition of that nation whose prophet Muhammad(PBUH) had said that I am a city of knowledge and ordained that seek knowledge even if you have to go to China.? Then he looked at me and said,? What can I do? Go and tell General Musharraf the military leader of Pakistan that if he wants Pakistan to prosper he should spread education in Pakistan particularly technical education. Far reaching revolutionary changes should be made in the education system .It is education that can again unite this scattered and frustrated nation. Do you remember what Shiekh Saadi had said 1200 years ago?:
The illiterate can not identify God
But here there are so many things to set right. It is due to the lack of education that Pakistani nation can not identify right type of leadership. Go and spread this message in the nook and corner of the country that if an ignorant and uneducated man can not identify God how shall he tackle the complicated issues of the nation and country.
I said, O philosopher of our time you..
Allama Iqbal continued, Don?t bother. You have told me the ailment of the Pakistani nation. This is a fatal disease. Unless you try to cure this disease you can not cure other diseases. The disease of ignorance has overpowered the Pakistani nation. Tell General Musharraf that if this time God has given you the leadership of this lost nation then start its treatment from the right disease and that is ignorance and illiteracy. As the clouds of ignorance would dispel the nation would emerge in its true glittering self. It is due to the rust of illiteracy that the nation is a victim of sectarianism. And it is due to this rust of ignorance that they have forgotten the message of the prophet(PBUH). This nation needs education and due to lack of education it does not have realisation of its status and importance. You should drown every citizen of this country in the ocean of knowledge so that all the rust could be washed out.

I was still present in the audience of the Allama Iqbal (RA) that my elder son woke me up and said, Papa! Why are you unusually sleeping so long? . Were you upset during the night? Or you went to sleep late?And at that moment my Japanese wife came in smiling with a cup of tea. I looked at both of them intently. My wife is highly educated and is an equal partner in my business activities. My children are also intelligent. I told Allama Iqbal in my heart that in my home we are following your order .I shall convey your message to the Pakistani nation with great fervour and shall also pray to God to bless this prayer with his acceptance, Amen.