A statement that has stuck to my mind since I was a young man, continues to have its influence on my life and behaviour even today.
It was a statement that Allama Iqbal gave in his reply to an interviewer’s question soon after his famous Allahabad address in 1930 in which he had launched the concept of a separate homeland for Indian Muslims.
The occasion was a convention of the All India Muslim League which at that time looked utterly leaderless because of the Great Quaid’s temporary departure from the political scene.
The question that was put to Allama Iqbal was: “Why don’t you take over the leadership of Muslim League?”
The answer was prompt.
“I lead no party and I follow no leader.”
Of course the role of Allama Iqbal as ‘the lighthouse of ideology’ was far more important than that of a mere political leader. Not meaning thereby that he didn’t realize the importance of the Muslim League being led by some one worthy of the high responsibility. It was Allama who had written to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah to abandon his self-imposed exile to London, and return to the sub-continent to provide leadership to the Indian Muslims.
If I had to name one person outside the great luminarries of Islam (who led the charge in the seventh century AC) whom I regard as my spiritual mentor, it is Allama Iqbal . The Quaid, I adored as the Father of the Nation and a Leader among the Leaders.
I did get into a kind of ramance with ZAB in the late 1960s, because of his advocacy of the dreams I’ve cherished since my childhood—-dreams of Pakistan’s emergence as a leader of the World of the Crescent in its struggle for re-emergence. This romance was rudely terminated because of the events of the early 1970s. But since then I have learnt that great men do have great faults. It is futile to try to discover infallibility in mortals.
The other mortals who have ruled my sentiments are Air Marshal Asghar Khan, because of his integrity of character, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan because of the pride he has brought to our flag and Imran Khan because of the hopes he has unleashed.
On the night of the 15th of April 2012, I took Imran Khan to Dr A.Q Khan’s residence with a hope that these two great sons of this soil would not disagree on the need to join hands in a grand national effort to pull Pakistan out of the jaws of decay and doom.
My hope didn’t prove to be ill-founded.
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