A Dream forgotten…

With his back bent a little, holding a magazine in one of his wrinkled hands and walking very slowly, he emerged from the corner of the street. He met me on the way and while talking to me, for the first time ever, I noticed how he has faded from the last time I saw him. His brows were dark with the unspoken concerns, the lines on his forehead were telling me a different story all together. The story that made me realise how he has been disappointed through years. And the way his shoulders seemed -heavy under a huge invisible burden -making his back to bend a little, it seemed as he is tired of carrying that burden with him, that he’s disappointed with others for not sharing that burden with him. He realised that the burden he is carrying, the responsibilities that are weighing him down cannot be tranfered to the next generation or the one after that. Being in his eighties he feels that he has lost his identity…

     He was a part of a dream. He helped in making that dream a reality. But soon it was shattered but the people who saw this dream with him, continued to hope and pray that maybe someday they would be able to perfect the imperfections of it. Someday they would be able to say that this is the perfect realisation of that dream. But now that he has been through all those transitions, his heart breaks at every moment into more pieces knowing that everyone has failed to understand the beauty and purpose of that one dream that they saw when their lives were at their prime. And now when he realises that he, though outlived his friends, will still never be able to even see one step towards the realisation of that dream his heart breaks altogether into soo many minute pieces that there’s not way they can ever be put together…

It’s not just his story. A young woman, on the eve of migration was separated from her family, was forced to marry in a different religion. She lived in constant torture and agony of not knowing if her parents were alive or were they put to death. She lived in constant hope of reaching that land which was sacred to her. But all the while she was contented that atleast other women have a chance to live a better life in that country. She thought that the land which was drawn on the map of the world by the blood of her loved ones, will provide justice to other people. She thought her sacrifice, the sacrifice of her parents and others would not have gone in vain. On her deathbed, she wishes to go and see, just for once, what that country is like for which they all have sacrificed even their own self-respect…

What was that dream?! “A madman’s dream!” A dream that filled with hope the hearts of men who had suffered ineqaulity and injustice at the hands of Hindu majority and the British Raj. It was a place where they thought they will be able to live their lives according to the word of Allah. A place which would be known as the country etched onto the world in the name of Allah just like Madina, and they took pride in it and they sacrificed their sons, daughters, loved ones in doing that. What is it now?! What happened to that babe which they nourished and nurtured with their own blood? What happened to that justice and equality?! What happened to that law of Allah which was to be implemented?! What happened to that freedom which they wanted- to pray in a Masjid without a pig being thrown at them?!

Pakistan – Islamic Republic of Pakistan. A place where women are tortured to death by the government and we do not raise a finger! A place where Masjid is being attacked by the government and we do not raise our voices! A place where we are subjected to criticism if we follow the way of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alaihe Wasallam) and we cannot explain it to them and the very fact that we need to explain it is unfathomable! A place where we put more emphasis on secular European educational system than our own teachings of Quran and Sunnah and we take pride in it!

Pakistan was a blessing from Allah. And there’s a Hadeeth that if you donot thank for the blessing and do not give it it’s due respect, that blessing will be taken away from you. With a world which is waiting to tear you apart like a savage dog, this haven is slowly being taken away from us…