The New Nation - Internet Edition

Shah Abdul Halim

(From previous issue)

I went to visit the Mazar of Beri Imam Abdul Latif Al Malqab at 10.30 a.m. and offered Fatiha. I came to know from the people of Islamabad that he was great preacher of Islam. But I saw people in prostrate position in this Mazar which is Shirk and forbidden in Islam. People associated with Dawah are complacent with their work, but Shirk and Bidah committed in the Mazar only establishes how little work has been done.

I went to visit the biggest book sales center in Islamabad, 'Saeed Book Bank' at 12.00 noon. Indeed it is something amazing. The book sales center comprises of two floors totaling 18,000 square feet. The sale center is computerized and one can search whether a particular book is available or not, where it is shelved and how much it costs very easily. The entire subject wise book list can be seen in the website www. saeedbookbank.com that also depicts the cover of book. They also sell CDs where one can find the subject wise book list available for sale that also depicts the cover of the book. I purchased a book by Prof. Dr. Abdul Rashid Moten, 'Revolutuon to Revolution: Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan in the Politics of Pakistan'. Prof. Dr. Abdul Rashid Moten is my classmate in the Department of Political Science, Dhaka University and currently working as Professor in the Department of Political Science at the International Islamic University Malaysia. 'Saeed Book Bank' presented me a CD of their book list. I requested the owner of the 'Saeed Book Bank' to explore the possibility of opening a branch of the 'Saeed Book Bank' in Dhaka, if commercially viable. I suggested them, if they decide to open a branch in Dhaka; its book sales center in Dhaka should have Bengali books along with English books. This was the last engagement in Islamabad.

After that I had a quiet lunch with Khalid Rahman, Director General, of the Institute of Policy Studies Islamabad. During the lunch I repeated my earlier request to Khalid Rahaman to engage some friendly academicians from outside the movement for making empirical study to find out the reasons as to why the movement did not make anticipated headway and advancement.

Before leaving Dhaka for Islamabad I sent an email to Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad, Visiting Professor, International Islamic University Islamabad informing him my itinerary in Islamabad. But it later appeared that he did not check his email account and I thought he must be in U.S.A. When I visited Prof. Dr. Anis Ahmad, Vice Chancellor of Riphah International University Islamabad on the morning of 12 July 2008, I came to know from him that Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad is in Islamabad and got his telephone number from him and phoned him. He was sleeping. He phoned me back when I was preparing to leave Islamabad for Lahore. Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad wanted me to delay my departure for one day and stay with him. But it was too late and impossible to reschedule my departure as other brothers will be waiting for me in Lahore. I told him that we shall InshaAllah meet later in Dhaka.

I left Islamabad for Lahore at 5.00 p.m. by bus Sammi Daewoo Express. Protocol Officer Syed Azhar Ali was kind enough to remain with me till the bus left for Lahore. I am greatly indebted to Syed Azhar Ali who was always active to make my stay in Islamabad comfortable.

I reached Lahore at 10.30 p.m. Ameer-ul-Azem, Abdul Gaffar Aziz, Hafez Muhammad Abdullah and others warmly received me at the bus station. I reached the guest house at about 11.00 p.m. and had a quiet dinner. There was electric failure several times at night which is a regular phenomenon in Lahore.

The next day 13 July 2008 I met Ameer-ul-Azeem at about 1.00 p.m. and discussed with him about the present situation in Pakistan. He is of the opinion that U.S. is likely to try the current Bangladesh model in Pakistan. While talking about the media of which he is in charge on behalf of the Islamic movement Ameer-ul-Azeem informed me that they have launched a news agency, Islamabad based South Asia News Agency (SANA) having operational network throughout Pakistan.

I visited important historical sites in Lahore followed by Protocol Officer Hafez Muhammad Abdullah. It took three hours, between 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. I visited Badshahi Mosque and offered two Rakah Salah there and offered Fatiha at the Mazar of Allama Iqbal. I visited Minar-e-Pakistan, Shalimar Garden. Shalimar Garden seemed to me less taken care of than it was in 1969 when I visited Lahore as a student of Dhaka University. I also visited the Mazar of Sayyid Abul Ala Mawduui and prayed for the salvation of the departed soul.

Although I am not a admirer of Bangladesh architect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman but even then while in Shalimar Garden it came to mind that unless Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was great this way or other it would not been possible on his part to come to Lahore immediately after the liberation war forgetting the bloodshed and stand in the balcony of the Shalimar Garden along with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. This historic decision of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to come to Lahore to join the meeting of the Muslim heads of states and governments brought Bangladesh closer to the mainstream of the Muslim Ummah with its far reaching effects.

The Muslim nationalists in Bangladesh are not yet ready to accept Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as Bangabandhu or father of Bangladesh nation. But it came to my mind after leaving Shalimar Garden Lahore that Muslims nationalists in Bangladesh do recognize A. K. Fazlul Huq as Sher-e-Bangla and appreciate his contributions in the freedom movement despite the fact that Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Huq opposed Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on many occasions and also according to some if his scheme would have been successful, there would be no Pakistan. If the Muslim nationalists can recognize the contribution of Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Huq despite differences, what stops them to recognize Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as Bangabandhu and father of the new born independent and sovereign Bangladesh? Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had been assassinated long before. The question is how long he will bear the burden of killing by the Rakkhi Bahini, when our people will absolve him from the responsibility of the killing by the Rakkhi Bahani.

While visiting the Badshahi Mosque I noticed that beside the mosque there is a Shikh Temple. No body in Pakistan objected having a Shikh Temple next to the historic Badshahi Mosque which is there from the time of the Mughals. It only establishes the tolerant attitude of the Muslim rulers and masses. It also shows how deeply Muslims believes in peaceful coexistence, pluralism and multiculturalism than the fundamentalists Hindu Indians who destroyed historic Babri Mosque.

I visited Association for Academic Quality -AFAQ- at 11.00 a.m. Hassan Suhaib Murad, Rector of the University Management Technology Pakistan is the AFAQ chief. The previous day I personally talked to him over telephone and fixed our meeting. But he could not attend the meeting because of an important business in the University. Abdul Hamid, Manager Research Operations and his colleagues received me. These people are extremely hospitable. They gave me a briefing on AFAQ activities and the criterions they maintain to preserve the standard of the schools. AFAQ is indeed doing good work and I look forward for increasing collaboration between this organization and its counterpart in Bangladesh doing similar work. What I suggested AFAQ is that it can establish its chapter in Bangladesh (AFAQ has plan establish its offices in several Muslim countries) or take two persons from Bangladesh and train them for two years so that after the training they themselves can establish such a center in Bangladesh.

They showed me a film on the activities of AFAQ. I asked Abdul Hamid if very senior leaders of the Islamic movement have seen the film to which he said yes. I then made some comments on the positive aspect of the film. I also pointed out several technical mistakes of the film. In the film the word Muslim, Islam and Allah were all pronounced like westerners. That was not proper. In the film they also mentioned a Hadith without referring the name of the book, from which they took it. We always fight that Hadith should be quoted with reference but this failure shows that we do forget to follow what we say. I also commented that since the use of music in the film has not been objected by the senior leaders who have seen the film, I presume that the movement has allowed the use of music at least in the side organizations.

A lady is seen in the film in full Nikab teaching other ladies in full Nikab. There was no man. This covering of face by the women in the film was not natural. Women do not cover their face in front of other women.

In the film there is excessive use of veil including Nikab and I explained to them the opinion of the Sheikh Adil Salahi, an eminent Arab Islamic scholar who is the Director of Islamic Foundation U.K. of which Prof. Khurshid Ahmad is the Chairman and author of another 850 page mammoth work 'Muhammad: Man and Prophet'. Commenting on the verse 24 (Sura An Nur): 30-31 wherein both men and women have been asked to lower their look when fall on the opposite sex Sheikh Adil Salahi in his regular weekly column 'Our Dialogue' in Saudi daily Arab News wrote: The instruction of the verses quoted above is that both men and women are required to keep their eye cast down, so that when they meet each other, neither should men stare at women nor women at men. The natural question that arises is why man should lower his gaze if the face of woman is totally covered? From the text of the verses it is clearly evident that the face of the woman is not to be covered and, therefore, man has been advised to lower his look.

I also quoted the opinion of Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdul Halim Abu Shuqqah on the aforementioned verse in which he said that the intent of the Law Giver is that women need not cover face. He said that if the intention of the Law Giver was to cover the face of women than He would not have asked men to lower gaze [Abdul Halim Abu Shuqqah, Rasure Juge nari Shadhinata (Bengali tr. of Tahrirul Mar'ah Fi Asrir Risalah), pp 79-80, Vol.IV, Bangladesh Institute of Islamic Thought (BIIT). Dhaka, 2006]. But the people in AFAQ seem to be reluctant to give an ear to anybody's opinion other than Moulana Mawdudi.

Since AFAQ is working in the field of education, I advised them to read the book 'Islamization of Knowledge: General Principles and Workplan' by Ismail Raji al Faruqi, a publication of International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), U.S.A. I told them that the book is available with Prof. Khurshid Ahmad and the Institute of Policy Studies Islamabad.

Abdul Hamid, Manager Research Operations of AFAQ also gave me a CD on the teaching of Arabic alphabets to the children. After coming to Bangladesh I have seen it. It is really a wonderful production that can be used to attract children to the learning of Arabic. AFAQ has really done an appreciable work.

I visited Iqbal Academy Pakistan at 12.00 noon. The Academy has a magnificent building over 5.5 acre land. It is a huge building of 5000 square feet each floor. It has a wonderful multilingual book library of 5000 titles- Urdu, Persian, Arabic, English and French. Fifty persons are working in the Academy of which seven are researchers. It has 91 books on Iqbal published in English in addition to books in Urdu and other languages and 8 Audio-Video CDs. The Director of the Academy Muhammad Suheyl Umar was not there and I was received by Irshad ul Mujeeb Sheikh, Assistant Director. It was a nice meeting and a pleasant occasion. I am indeed grateful to Irshad ul Mujeeb Sheikh for the way he received me. I found him very warm. He presented me a set of books on Iqbal in Urdu, Persian, English and other languages. He also presented me Journal of the Iqbal Academy in Pakistan, both in Urdu and English. I accepted whatever was in English. I brought with me 'Tulip In The Desert'- a selection of the poetry of Muhammad Iqbal, 'Stray Reflections'- private notebook of Muhammad Iqbal, 'Iqbal' by Mustansir Mir, 'Iqbal: An Illustrated Biography' by Khurram Ali Shafique and 'Iqbal Review' - Journal of the Iqbal Academy Pakistan. Irshad ul Mujeeb Sheikh also presented me a telefilm titled 'Iqbal: An Approach to Pakistan' in addition to three documentaries on the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal - 'The Life and Poetry of Allama Iqbal', 'Allama Ibqal' and 'Iqbal - Poet of the East'.

(To be continued)