'Confusion in Party Strife & Taste of Violence'

(Actually a heavy loss of lives and properties caused by political, racial, communal and sectarian disputes in Karachi, the biggest city and financial capital of Pakistan, have prompted me to write this article but the contents can be applied on similar situation everywhere in the Muslim world. When the people choose to be disobedient to Allah and His Messenger, then no law of any land, except that of Devil, remains venerable and worth obeying for them:
Munir Ahmed Khalili)

Only in last three decades millions of innocent Muslim elders, women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Bosnia Herzegovina and Kashmir became the victims of warring powers in the Muslim world. And it seems not going to stop. Every time a new plot is invented as pretext for a new action somewhere in the Muslim countries. Enemies are after all enemies and nothing better can be expected from them. But the agonized moans rising in our own cities and towns and horrors and affliction brought about by our own people are not less than those created by the outsiders.

The cities become epitomes of knowledge and culture and also hubs of thriving economy when there is peace and a stable law and order situation. Karachi, the financial capital and the largest city of Pakistan, once used to be the house of great religious scholars, educationists, journalists, poets, writers and artists, now the people live there in an endless haunted condition. Sometimes ago Beirut was a terrible example. Now for last about two and half decades Karachi has risen to be the worst in this rank. Violent riots, target killings, extortions, robberies, blockade and torching the shops and buses is rampant there. Ethnicity, communalism and sectarianism have reared their ugly heads.

The most agonic and painful aspect of the situation is that for last sometime all the three coalition partners in federal and Sindh government have organized groups of perpetrators, fighting to take control of different areas of the city. The area in the control of one group is ‘no go area’ for the others. Every partner tries to pillage maximum money through the mafias under its umbrella. Apparently they condemn the heinous crimes committed there but none of them is ready to bring the offenders and lawbreakers to justice because they are source of the flow of illegally hoarded money for lower to upper level of the leadership of these ruling partners.

So due to free hand given to the killers and looters the situation is exactly similar as Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, be peace and blessings upon him, told: “The day of Resurrection will not be established unless situation of ‘Harj’ befalls.” “What is this ‘Harj’ O Messenger of Allah?” The companions asked. “Murder, Murder.” He repeated these words while replying. In most of the cases, neither the killers know why they are taking the lives of the innocent people and nor the victims know why they are targeted.

Our Holy Prophet, be peace and blessings upon him, is reported to have dissuaded sale of the weapons during the disorder and trouble situation but here in these circumstances the weapon mafia patronized by the ruling parties comes out with huge supplies of deadly firearms.

Coming of the double faced people over the heads as rulers is one of the signs of the Last Day. The Holy Prophet, be peace and blessings upon him, is reported to have said: “The Day of Judgment will not be established until the hypocrites come over rule and lead the entire Ummah.” (Musnad Imam Ar-Rabe’i)

Apart from the hypocrisy of the ruling elite, majority of the professors, teachers and trade unions, bar associations, doctors and other professional organizations, intellectuals and writers circles are also overwhelmed by an expedient impassivity and fearful silence over the awful situation in the city. These diligent and astute people make an influential segment of civil society but their deadening aloofness makes the situation much more serious. Their adulation and fawning, out of their inertness and submissiveness, itself another way of hypocrisy, becomes a stimulus factor in rise and spread of the crimes. In one way or the other almost entire society is blameworthy.

Islam, as a vibrant and life-giving ideology, is a source of unity while sectarianism, communalism, racism and linguistic and economic discriminations divide and lead to hatreds and clashes. The idea of ‘brotherhood’ on the ground of Islamic Faith emanates directly from the Holy Quran. When the Faith is clouded, naturally as punishment their body as a community is fractured and they split and clash on the basis of devilish beliefs and ideals. The situation we are facing is exactly as told in the Quran:

“Say: “He (Allah) has power to send torment on you from above and from under your feet, or to cover you with confusion in party strife, and make you taste violence of one another.” See how variously We explain the Ayat, so that they may understand.” (Al-Ana’m: 65)