65. 21st Century Global Is At Ion

280 Emporium Current Essays Emporium Current Essays 281 Since time immemorial snow has been melting at the peaks of the Himalayas and its waters funding its way through the fertile .plains and valleys of the Indian Subcontinent. Around its winding rivers have emerged some of the oldest civilisation of the world. Alexander the great has tried his luck here and so have the Turks from the north-west, the Persians from the West and the Arabs from the South. The Indian Subcontinent has been a global village much before America was discovered and Europe was still living in a tribal society. It was thus no surprise that when Lenin and Trotsky were marching down the streets of Moscow with their rag tag peoples army in the beginning of the century or when Herzog was presenting his ill-fated Zionist resolution in Geneva or when the last Muslim Khalifa in Istanbul was being harassed by the allied powers after the fist world war, their reverberations were acutely felt in our Subcontinent. Communism and Zionism had started in the 20th century with a big bang and survived the Fascist era of the 1930's and 1940's. We had fired our global shots through the shoulders of the Ali brothers in the 1920s, the mind of Allama Iqbal in the 1930s and the personality of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the 1940s. The conceptual globalisation of the 21st century with all its ramifications had begun. From concept to country and beyond What is the meaning of Pakistan? Two generations have gone by - one which created this country and the other which inherited it. Both have answered this question in their own peculiar May. Now the mantle has been given to our generation. The born free generation, who have unshackled their thought process and relived the subjugated Pakistani soul to search meaning for itself. We have gone through the bureaucratisation of our concept in the 1950's, the militarisation of it in the 1960s', the politicisation of the 1970's, the usurpation of it in the 1980's and the powerisation of it in the 1990's. Decades have gone by without conceptualisation of our beloved country. This has been our greatest dilemma since we arc one of the very few countries of the world which was created through a concept as envisaged by our intellectual leaders and not through the barrel of the gun. Twentieth century has revolved around three major concepts -- communism, Zionism and Islam. The globalisation of communism covered half of this century and is now facing away into history. The Zionist flag was erected in the middle of this century has been the

creation of more than fifty Muslim countries spanning several continents of our globe. We have piaycd a dominant role in ; this phenomena of the ever emerging Muslim states on the world scene. The new globalisation based on moral values, human dignity, peace within and peace without has begun. This is our beginning of ' the 21st century, much different and in, variance with that of Alvin \ Toffler's. The fallacy of God God and man -- man and God, a pure and pristine • relationship has been described in various scribes by poets and philosophers, by scholars, intellectuals, prophets and priests in their own special say. This bonding between the Creator and the created has gone through several interactions starting from Adam to our own times. The simplest of the relationship has been distorted I beyond recognition when placed at the hands of the so-called ( religious leaders who have monopolised it for their own bigoted : purpose. There are no intermediates between God and man - man this process of surrendering one's will to our Creator is termed Islam. ( The Jews and their rabbis claim to have their monopoly r over this relationship, the Christians and their priests try to '• describe the relationship through the holy Trinity and the Muhammadans are Gghting amongst themselves to have their own stakes in it. God and man -- man and God has taken a back seat in this struggle for self-supremacy. We are not Muhammadans alone

but Muslim. This has to be understood loud and clear. Mankind of the world - unite under the banner of Islam, i.e., the surrender to the will of the Creator. We are the third and last generation of Muslims ( the ones who have surrendered) after the first Muslim ' generation (Jews) and the second Muslim generation (Christians) have gone by. For more on the subject, read "The Lecture," i.e., AIQuran. f; \ Searching for the Pakistani soul I. The Indo-Pak Subcontinent, throughout its long history, has [. served as a catalyst of change. In the recent past in our recorded •L282 Emporium Current Essays history, two movement - one extrinsic and the other Intrinsic, have had iar«g term regions! connotations, the influence of which lasts till today. I he intrinsic influence flowed from Central Asia, Persian Empire and the Arabian Gulf to enter our Subcontinent and then reach to China and the South East. The intrinsic movement started from the seal of Taxila near Islamabad through Mahatma Buddha and spread to the Japanese sea and beyond or. the Eastern frontiers. Civilisations have come and gone in our Subcontinent but what has remained is their Jeep imprints in the sand dunes of time', Abraham (Peace Be Upon Him) may have picked up his hammer to destroy Idolatry and introduce the Divine laws for making thousands of years ago yet the largest number of practising idolaters in the world today are found in our Subcontinent. The Mongols and the Huns may have spilled blood in the Euphrates, the Tigress and the Indus rivers on their march to greener pastures but what they have left behind in their intellectual endeavours are revered by mankind till today IUM! would be fully understood by the evolutionary man of tomorrow. Stalwarts like Maulana umi, IbneRushd, Imam Ghazali, A!-Birumi, Ali Hujvairy, Mian Mir, Shah Farid, Euley Shah, Nizamuddin Aulia and their likes are being continuously studied in this tradition and their message being conveyed to mankind for their "Unity and Purpose'.

The Pakistani should searching has to be carried out with this traditional background, f n the global quagmire of 'Information Super Highways, Internet, artificial intelligence, biocybernetics, robotics' and computer revolution, our spiritual moorings have to he rediscovered for our own good and that of the whole mankind in general. 21st century thus appears to be a challenging period for us in which the Alvin Toffler of the West will be pitted against the Ibne-Khaldocms of the East. Jagjivan Ram, the Indian Defence Minister in 1971 may have given a thumping speech in the Indian parliament on the eve of December 16, 1971, in their finest hour proclaiming the death, destruction and disintegration of Pakistan. But can a soul be captured, destroyed and made to surrender? A new Pakistan emerged in the West as well as in the East of the Indian Subcontinent. Did Bangladesh join India, the so-called victor in the last conflict? Certainly not ~ this proved the existence of the Pakistan soul. Ands as our Deputy Prime Minister shouted at the world body in New York during the 1971 conflict that the West and Soviet Union may be colluding to the disintegration of one Pakistan they are inviting new Pakistan to be created in their midst. The Emporium Current Essays 283 •Chcchneyas and Bosnia's are the glaring examples of these predictions not long ago. The Zionist-Indian bridge head has already been lid engulfing the major portion of the Muslim world. The three dimensional planning has already been completed and only a spark is required to ignite it. But we have added the fourth dimension to it -- that of our Pakistan soul. For this, one doesn't have to search anymore. This was already depicted amongst the peoples of Pakistan during the last gulf war in 1991. It is as clear as day light in the conflict of Chechneya, Kashmir, Palestine, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Algeria and several other Muslim countries. This strategic bridgehead has in fact incited our should and unleashed it which recognises no geographical our soul' and unleashed it which recognises no geographical boundaries, requires no visa to travel and is everywhere yet nowhere and cannot be captured and imprisoned through the three dimensional power equation. The fight for the survival of our value system in the 21st century has been brought nearer to our homes and is challenging us on our face. Tlte 21st century scenario Pakistan has already fired the spiritual shot in the middle of this century, the reverberations of which would be felt in the 21st century with all its vicissitudes. This concept was introduced in the sea of secularism, communism and Zionism, Whereas, all these phenomenon were divisive in nature which produced a bi-poiar world in which we spent most of this century, ours would give rise to a uni-polar world of the 21st century of peace and human dignity; of mutual respect and moral values; and above all reestablishing the broken link of man and God - God and man.