37. How can Muslims in Pakistan realize their mistakes and why are they not receiving God’s help?

I was born in a village in UP, which had a road that used to go from Shahganj to Azamgarh. A lot of times I observed in 1947 (when the Pakistan Movement was going on), Muslim youth used to walk on road with banners like ‘Pakistan ka Matlab kya, La ilaha illallah!’ (What does Pakistan mean? It means there is ‘no god but God’). ‘There is no god but God’ is the Islamic creed which determines a person’s entry into Islam.

I was thinking that Muslims by singing these words had promised: “O God! Give us Pakistan and we will spread your word everywhere in the world!” This is what they meant by the above slogan. But after the formation of Pakistan, they started fighting amongst themselves. Cricket has a term called ‘sledging’, and when two teams are playing and one team is showing better performance, then the losing team lashes out such provocative remarks that the momentum of the winning team is compromised. Similarly, this momentum after the creation of Pakistan was hijacked by some untoward elements and they went about indulging in negative talk – complaining and speaking of oppression – that this became the common line of thought. In other words, a ‘political sledging’ was carried out and the people of Pakistan were trapped in by these hijackers. As a result, the momentum of Pakistan was devastated.

I once went to Iraq where a Pakistani Shiite was also visiting. He was a senior person and had migrated from Delhi to Pakistan. I said to him that you have seen both pre-Partition Pakistan and post-Partition Pakistan. What is your experience? He started weeping and said:

What has become of us? Earlier we used to fight on a ‘Hindu vs. Muslim’ agenda, while today we fight on a ‘Sunni vs. Shia’ agenda.

The slogan of La ilaha illallah was what had created the momentum for Pakistan. And it seemed that what had been said in the Hadith regarding the spread of Islam all over the world would become a reality through Pakistan, but this did not happen and the tempo remained unavailed.

May God give the people of Pakistan wisdom to revive the momentum and the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. They have an opportunity even today as they are spread out across practically all countries of the world. Till now they were earning only dollars, now they should stand to disseminate the message of God so that they are able to catch the train that was missed long ago.