In his extremely informative book 1971 — Fact & Fiction, Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi writes that Pakistan’s soul is bigger than its size.
This sentence made so much sense to me that I had to stop reading for a while and think about what I had just read. Pakistan’s soul is bigger than its size. Which meant that the idea behind Pakistan is larger than the land it occupies. As Pakistan was not created as a separate homeland for people belonging to a specific race, language, colour, tribe, or ethnicity, but rather for people, the Muslims, who wanted to live their lives as per the Quran and Sunnah.
I do not know whether our founding fathers fully grasped the depth of the idea of Pakistan that they were striving for. Maybe they just wanted freedom to practice their religious customs and rituals without fear of discrimination from an antagonistic Hindu majority. Maybe some, like Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had something broader in their mind, like an Islamic system of finance and governance. Or maybe even some were motivated by the greed of earning power, money, and position.
Maybe our founding fathers imagined and planned for it, or maybe they did not. But this is what we have today. A Pakistan that unites distinct nations — Punjabis, Sindhis, Pashtuns, Baloch, Muhajirs and others — by their belief in Allah and His final Messenger ﷺ.
Suddenly, we are in a position to not just freely practice our beliefs but also show the world the beauty of an Islamic way of life. How complete it is. How successful it can be. How Islamic values can organize society, economy, education, justice, family, politics, and morality. Pakistanis are now tasked to show how an Islamic system can protect the poor through Zakat and Ushr, and how minorities and non-Muslims can be protected with justice and dignity. How taxation can be fair and limited. How governance can be moral. How wealth can circulate. How power can be restrained. How can the law be above the powerful.
The more I think about it, the more I see it as a huge responsibility that has been placed upon us. History has seen much bigger Islamic empires such as the Banu Umayya, Banu Abbas, and the Ottomans with the same responsibility. They, too, held within their boundaries people who belonged to different races but were united by their belief in Allah and His final Messenger ﷺ.
But now, history has passed this baton to a much smaller and much less powerful country – Pakistan.
Additionally, this modern world has brought with it many new complex and intricate systems, like banking and finance, media and propaganda, mass education, modern armies, international law, technology, and nation-state politics. All of which has to be studied and structured in accordance with Islamic rules.
And in 78 years of our existence, how well have we done towards fulfilling this responsibility? Despite some pessimistic judgements, I do not see complete darkness. We have worked towards Islamic banking and Modern Islamic education systems. We have a professional armed force where soldiers can easily inculcate the glorious Islamic principles of Jihad and Shahadat. We have scientists, scholars, teachers, writers, businessmen, students, and ordinary people who can still dream the Islamic dream and execute it within their individual and social capacities.
Also, as we move towards 100 years of our existence, we must protect ourselves from forces that can take us away from the Quran & Sunnah. We must protect ourselves from our own laziness and lethargy. We must protect ourselves from corruption, nepotism, dishonesty, and the love of shortcuts. We must stop treating Pakistan merely as a piece of land from which we extract materialistic benefits.
We must raise our children with modern education, yes, but also with strong tarbiyyah. They must learn mathematics, science, finance, technology, and languages. But they must also learn what is right and wrong. They must know who they are. They must know why Pakistan was created. And how to defend that dream.
This divine purpose of Pakistan cannot be protected merely by slogans, flags, songs, or speeches. It has to be protected by living it every day. In our homes. In our schools. In our offices. In our businesses. In our politics. In our courts. And most of all in our characters and in our hearts.
Pakistan’s soul is bigger than its size.
But a soul must be protected.
That, perhaps, is the real test.
And that, perhaps, is the real Pakistan Dream.
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