Nazar Allah Pe Rakhta Hai Musalman-e-Ghayoor
Mout Kya Shay Hai,Faqt Alam-e-Maani Ka Safar
Un Shaheedon Ki Diyat Ahle-e-Kalisa Se Na Mang
Qadar-o-Qeemat Mein Hai Khoon Jin Ka Haram Se Barh Kar
Aah, Ae Mard-e-Musakman Tujhe Kya Yaad Nahin
Harf-e-‘La Tad-Au Maa Allahi Ilahan Aakhar’
(For Muslim true, death has no dread
To realm of souls, he straight is led.
Don’t beg the Westerners for recoupment of the Martyrs’ blood
It is more precious and divine than the Holy Shrine.
Alas! the Muslim has forgot the lesson that to him was taught.
He was ordained to cry to none save to God Unique and One.)
Iqbal
Pakistan is witnessing unprecedented political turmoil. These are dark times and every day of turmoil brings us ever closer to oblivion. The most recent episode of the current tragedy unfolded a few days ago when peaceful protestors were gunned down by a government that rivals Nero in incompetence and callousness. As a reaction, many sympathizers of PTI on Social Media started advocating a boycott of the commercial products of military-linked industries. I would not get into the question of why the military of a country facing deep security and ease of business issues is running a colossal business empire today. I wish to delve into another topic: the Martyrs (Shuhada).
It is no secret that the true power behind the blundering and flimsy coterie of politicians masquerading as the “Government of Pakistan” is the Pakistan Army. Pakistan Army has been a controversial character in Pakistan’s history. It has been both hated and loved. Corruption, abuse of power, subservience to the West especially the Americans, involvement in the growth of controversial groups (termed mafias or militants by some), and an absolute refusal to cede any power are some of the factors that have brought hate to the military from the people. On the other hand, the virtues of discipline, professionalism, imparting a sense of security to most of Pakistan, a perception of being meritocratic (as compared to the rest of government institutions), and upholding “middle-class values” have brought love.
However, the most important factor in bringing love to the army has always been its Shuhada. The men who inspired legendary tales of valor and honor. Remember Captain Sarwar? The man who rushed into a fortified complex with a handful of companions and treated the thousands of bullets fired towards him with as much nonchalance as a third-world dictator expresses towards his people. Remember Muhammad Akram? The man who reenacted the Battle of Thermopylae at Hilli in East Pakistan. Remember Sher Khan and Ammar? The tigers of Tiger Hill whose bravery was even lauded by enemies. Unfortunately, the tales of Sarwar, Akram, Sher Khan, and Ammar masked some other tales. Who ordered an unsupported Sarwar to launch an evidently suicidal attack that was doomed to fail even with superhuman bravery? Why were the East Pakistanis rebelling so that Akram had to be there to be crushed by the rebels from behind and Indians from the front? Why were Sher Khan and Ammar fighting an unwinnable battle against impossible odds? The only answer that has been provided to inquisitive minds has been:
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Since the “someone” was never held to account, he continued to resurface again and again with different names. Blunders gave way to desperate situations, desperate situations led to heroics by the few and defeat for the many. Incompetents, traitors, and thieves love to hide. Lacking honor, they will hide behind anything, no matter how sacred or pure. The blunderers of Kargil hid successfully behind Sher Khan and Ammar, and some blunderers of 1971 hid behind Shabbir and Akram. As Albert Camus aptly put it: “Martyrs choose between being forgotten, mocked, or made use of. As for being understood – Never!”
The current political turmoil has caused a lot of unrest among the ranks of the powerful. As a result, they have been playing the “Shaheed Card” ceaselessly. A retired Brigadier responded to the boycott calls by declaring that the families of Shuhada are financially dependent on the military businesses and boycott will ruin them! With all due respect to the gentleman, many Shuhada families beg to differ. But that is beside the point. The more important, and sinister, thing is that the men in power seem determined to use the prestige of Shuhada for political aims. They seem to have a mistaken belief that the Shuhada are as much their property as the business empires whose boycotts are being urged by some. This only shows how callous and how ignorant they are! So, I will briefly try to explain what “Shahadat” is and how instead of trying to use it, they should fear the immense power enshrined in the concept.
Shaheed is translated literally as witness. According to Islamic beliefs, a Shaheed is one who offers all he has in the service of Allah and seals his sacrifice with the supreme act of sacrificing his life for Allah. As a reward, Allah offers him immortality and a place among the most exalted of his creation. Anyone who fights for personal glory/wealth or any cause other than Allah’s can’t be termed a Shaheed. Since the motives of a man are known best to himself alone, very few, if any, can be declared to be confirmed Shaheeds. Whenever someone is called a Shaheed in this world, this word is uttered just in hope and prayer that the said person be granted this exalted status by Allah. No worldly power can arrogate to itself the authority to confer the status of Shaheed on anyone. This practice, if followed, makes it impossible to abuse the concept of Shahadat for political means. That is why throughout Islamic history, most Muslim governments have ignored this key aspect of the philosophy of Shahadat. However, I don’t know of any polity and society that has made a mockery of Shahadat like ours!
Unfortunately we, as a nation, are addicted to lying. We lie to others but worst of all we lie to ourselves and then believe those lies. We tell ourselves that we are the best Muslims and humans on the planet and anyone who opposes us is the devil. I personally know of a moneylender who exploited his victims with exuberant interest rates. He was murdered by one of his victims and a few days later I saw a big board declaring him a Shaheed on the street where he lived! Had his murderer been hanged, I am sure he would also be given a similar status by his friends and family! The point of narrating this anecdote is that we are so desensitized about the mockery of the concept of Shahadat that we never seem to realize how insulting this abuse is to the real Shuhada in particular and to Islam in general. Everyone in Pakistan just learned to disregard the non-military claims of Shahadat as a matter of fact due to this attitude. The honest judge, the conscientious doctor, and the upright journalist could never get this status in the public eye even if they had merited it because of this desensitization.
But, the military Shuhada were a different matter. There were verified accounts of their valor (at least for some of them). The public perception regarding military Shuhada was never skeptical because the military had always made sure to fortify its Shuhada with facts. Even the most cynical Generals were wary of getting too cavalier about the Shuhada as they represented the most important bond of trust between the army and the public. When Musharraf used the Shuhada of Kargil to cover up his monumental blunders, he had the sense to not overuse the card. Instead, he combined it with rhetoric against corrupt and treacherous politicians to win popular legitimacy. The current regime, in another one of many developments yet unseen in Pakistan’s history, has chosen to throw caution to the wind and cynically invoke the Shuhada at all times despite the absence of a recent war with India (the only war that is publicly perceived to be above domestic politics of all kind). It has also been involved in manufacturing Shuhada with politically convenient doctored stories for propaganda purposes. This has resulted in a delegitimization of the military Shuhada by many Pakistanis for the 1st time in (West) Pakistan’s history.
This delegitimization, if completed, will render the concept of Shahadat in Pakistan obsolete. As a result, this will completely and irreversibly delegitimize the Pak Army and also destroy one of the strongest foundations of Pakistan’s Islamic ideology. Every state and polity needs heroes and the only untainted public heroes we have are the Shuhada. Cynical abuse of Shuhada will shatter the very fabric of the nation and plunge it into a crisis that might instigate a civil war in Pakistan! Such are the stakes but the men in power are behaving like their predecessors did when the last time Pakistan faced a full-scale civil war. Yahya and his coterie treated the lives of both soldiers and civilians with nonchalance and disdain. Consequently, irreparable damage was done to Pakistan, its army, and its people. It seems that the current regime is bent on replicating that tragedy on an even bigger scale by ensuring that everything held sacred is trampled and discredited before it succumbs to its inevitable and ignominious demise.
Lastly, I want to make it clear to the men in power that they should take account of the forces they are playing with before continuing their abuse of the Shuhada. A Shaheed is a witness of Allah and Allah Himself is the guardian of his honor. No one knows exactly what kind of immortality the Shuhada possess but this only makes their immortality more awe-inspiring and formidable. As mentioned in Surah Tauba, the Shuhada are bound in a sacred covenant with Allah himself. Only someone who doesn’t believe in Allah or the hereafter can dare to trifle with the Shuhada. Only someone who doesn’t fear the wrath of Allah can claim to “own” the Shuhada and then use them for lowly political games. Here, I want to openly caution the PTI as well. The PTI leadership is also bent on creating its own “Shaheed narrative”. If the PTI leaders truly consider their slain workers as Shaheeds who died serving a Divine cause, then they would be hard put to justify their own flight from the “field of battle”. The Pakistani civil and military elite, morally corrupt to the core and endowed with a malicious sense of enlightenment, loves to hide behind and exploit ideologically driven people who are ready to sacrifice themselves for a higher cause. It loves to create narratives of Shahadat to hide its own incompetence, inferiority complex, cowardice, cynicism, and moral bankruptcy. It is only able to do this because it is completely ignorant of the power of Shuhada and the concept of Shahadat. If only it could understand the terrible power at work here, it would not have dared abuse the concept of Shahadat as a political point scorer. But then it would not be a rapacious elite condemned to slavery in this world and damnation in the next!
