First of all I want today to wish Happy Christmas to those of my fellow countrymen whose faith happens to be Christianity. It is not just because they are honoured citizens of Pakistan that they are owed our sincere greetings on this auspicious day which is regarded to be the day Jesus Christ the son of Mary was born. It is also because they happen to be, as per the teachings of Al Quran and the Holy Prophet (PBUH), the People of the Book.
Christ to us – those who call themselves Muslims – happens to be one of those Messengers of God who came to the world to purify and to revive the Faith of Abraham – the common father of the world’s three monotheistic faiths – i.e Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The believers of these three great faiths are all, the people of the Book – also the descendents of the same Patriarch – the father of Isaac and Ismael.
In fact the followers of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), the last of the Messengers of God, do not regard their faith i.e Islam as a new religion. In our view Moses and Jesus – both too were the torch-bearers of Islam which was the religion Abraham had preached.
Thus it is that the birthday of Jesus Christ is as sacred and as joyous an occasion for us, the Muslims, as for the Christians.
The 25th of December however has, for the people of Pakistan a special significance due to another reason too. On this day was born the man who was destined to father a new country on the map of the world which was to be named Pakistan, and of which we today happen to be proud citizens.
Proud?
The term does raise an automatic question mark.
Proud of what?
Of all those decades lost to self-proclaimed Messiahs and self-appointed dictators?
Of the character of all those practitioners of politics because of whom a popular perception frequently cropped up that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians?
Of all the corruption that has made the corridors of power stink in each era – whether thoroughly authoritarian – or formally democratic?
Of all the killing that is going on, in either the name of Islam, or in pursuance of the cause of America’s war on terror?
Of all the acts of lawlessness that have been committed by those entrusted with the task of enforcing law?
Of all the songs our military dictators have sung in praise of ‘the reformed’ democratic orders they have imposed on the country?
I am not being cynical.
Of course we can’t but be proud of the country that was won for us by the man born on this auspicious day. I have a firm and unflinching belief in the destiny of this country. It was born to lead the world of Islam to the goal of Muslim Renaissance. It is already a Nuclear Power. And it is positioned so strategically that it is bound to bounce back in the worldview for all the right reasons – one of them I am sure will be its role in making democracy the chosen system of governance in the world of the Crescent.
That I believe was the role the man called Mohammad Ali Jinnah, revered by us as the Quaid-e-Azam – born on this date – the 25th of December – had envisioned for Pakistan.
Of that role, we must feel proud.
And to play that role we must strive.
The 8th of January 2008 will be an excellent occasion for us to bury beneath the dust, all the dreams and designs of those who have desecrated the vision of the Father of the Nation.
01-05-2014