I am not a liberal. In my view liberalism is a state of mind in which some room (or a great deal of it) is left for permissiveness. It is important here to express the term permissiveness. Permissiveness starts from your permission to your kids to steal, your young ones to drink, your ladies to drop their clothes in a desire to reveal the charms of their bodies for public view and pleasure, and your ownself to commit all the acts forbidden by God and Society—ranging from breaking traffic rules to obscene uninhibited corruption.
I was not born open-minded To me to be open-minded or broad-minded—ever since my age of comprehension—meant to be loose-minded—or at the worst to be mindless.
So I developed my prejudices right from my childhood. But all of my prejudices were in the defense of my own identity. Precisely why I had Hindu friends in my childhood. In fact when my family migrated to Ghotki (in March 1947) where my father was serving as SDO, a tutor was engaged for me to make up for the two years I had lost studying in Batala. In Ghotki I had to learn Sindhi and study new books.
My tutor was a Hindu. His name was Pamandas. Once while narrating to me the account of Sultan Mohammad Ghauri’s triumph over Prithvi Raj with the help of Raja Jaipal who had a score to settle with Prihivi Raj, Paman Das remarked: “Look Akbar, without the help of a Hindu ruler, Ghauri couldn’t have defeated Prithive Raj.”
My prompt reply was:
“Who was the Hindu Ruler who had assisted Mahmood Ghaznavi to bring down Somnath?”
My question made my Hindu teacher speechless. To be honest I had great respect for him. And he was quite fond of me. He was overcome with joy when I topped in the exams.
In Shikarpur I had two Hindu friends in Gopal and Krishin.
Personal relationship shouldn’t interfere with faith unless they became harmful to your beliefs.
As I have stated however, I am not only not a liberal. I am enormously narrow-minded when it comes to my love of my faith, and my devotion to the Man of all Men— the Last Prophet of God— who changed the destiny of this planet.
In this respect I have to make an interesting statement.
I hate Columbus— the man who is said to have discovered, the new world—the Americas.
It was in the year 1491 that the armies of Ferdinand of Castille and Isabella of Aragoon conquered Granada the last citadel of Islam in Spain. Columbus at that time had sailed towards the West. He had not gone very far when Ferdinend sent him the news of the conquest of Alhamra. In reply be overjoyed Columbus wrote to him.
“Long live Ferdinend the Great who has banished from Spain the curse of Mohammad” (Naoozbillah) .
The tablet hoisted on the grave of King Ferdinend in Castille reads:
“Here lies the Pride of Christianity who drove away the curse of Mohammad from Spain.” Naoozbillah.
If that prejudice and hatred can’t be reciprocated, then one has to be a superhuman.
I am not a superhuman. I have my weaknesses and prejudices.
