The Pakistani Spectator

The visit to Riyadh of a Pakistani Islamic Scholar of repute – Maulana Ihteram-ul-Haq Thanvi - remains a talk-of-the-town nowadays. The Maulana is a person of very soft and sweet demeanor and is an extremely knowledgeable on Islamic issues and a fine orator too. Last week end a public reception was hosted in the honor of the visiting Maulana at Riyadh Palace Hotel by Dr. Mansour Memon – a scion of the famous Memon family that is son of the former Chief Secretary of Sindh G. M. Memon. Dr Mansour Memon is a noted physician and a social worker of repute in Riyadh. This was a family event – that is both the spouses were invited.

Dr. Manosur conducted the program and informed the attendees that this reception was multi-pronged. He said it was meant to welcome to Riyadh the visiting dignitaries from Pakistan that included Maulana Ihteram-ul-Haq Thanvi and Javed Choudhry (the noted Urdu Columnist and TV host) and added that it was also a welcome-reception for His Excellency the Ambassador of Pakistan (Muhammad Naeem Khan) and the Deputy Head of the Mission – Khayam Akber – which was long overdue. Dr. Memon briefed the attendees a little about the visiting Maulana – covering some aspects about his life and achievements and then invited him to speak.

The Maulana began with a story of Aflatoon – or Plato as he is known in English. Plato as the Maulana described him was a very unsocial person who was known for avoiding meeting with people. His reason was that he believed “man” was the worst creation on earth that would cause damage to you at the first opportunity. That is why he would change his course and path if he saw someone coming his way. But one day he was travelling on foot and he saw a stranger going away forward at a far distance much ahead of him. Plato perceived and imagined that this stranger ought to be a good person. So he ordered his companion – his assistant – to rush towards that stranger and request him for his meeting with him. The secretary reached this stranger and requested him to kindly stop and meet with Plato. As Plato reached this stranger he shook his hand and asked as to who he was. The stranger replied that he was Moses – the Prophet of God. Plato was visibly pleased at this and then sighed that his guess was correct that this stranger was not an ordinary “man” – but someone special.

The Maulana continuing with his talk informed that Moses was one of the Prophets out of so many who hailed from and had the lineage initiating from Isaac – the son of Prophet Ibrahim. He further added that while all the Prophets came from Isaac, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the last and the only one who had his lineage from the other son of Prophet Ibrahim – that is Ishmael. Maulana continued to say that this was the month of Rabi-ul-Awwal in which Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born. According to him we should all upheld his teachings and be prepared to even fight for that should that becomes necessary. According to him Jihad is portrayed as terrorism which it is not. “Jihad is in fact waging fight or war against those who refuse to lead the life according to the teachings of God and his Prophets – especially the last Prophet Muhammad (pubh)”, he added. The Maulana called such people as “infidels’ and then went on to speak on this subject at length – often clarifying and explaining the misconception associated with the term Jihad.

Javed Choudhry – the noted journalist and TV anchor - then followed. He began with respectfully begging to differ with the Maulana on the issue of fighting the so-called infidels. According to him in today’s world there were at least 20 rudiments that any nation need to posses in order to become independent, sovereign, and/or attain respectability in the comity of nations. Some of these include that the nation should have reasonable literacy level, sound and self-dependent economy, should be strong militarily, should have high quality of human resource, discipline in the society in general, respect for and obedience of law, justice, good governance, vibrant civil society, able scientists, informed thinkers and intelligentsia, proactive inventors and discoverers, and so on so forth. Javed Choudhry opined that he often wonders why is it that none of the 57 Muslim nations were seen to have attained anything good in all or any of these rudiments that are thought to be so essential for able to at least stand on one’s own feet. According to him, the situation was that we, the Muslim nation as a whole, were dependent on all spheres of life on those who we wish to fight against.

He added that how could we fight those who are our providers – in finance, armaments, science & technology – in fact in everything that we use and on which our daily lives are heavily dependent on. He opined that it was an irony that we seemed to be oblivion of our limitations and the supremacy of our perceived enemies.  According to him it was high time we realized that we could not fight those who are much superior to us and are far ahead of us in all spheres of life. According to him most Muslims think that they can get ahead of others in life by only following the 5 pillars of Islam and not making or achieving any grounds on the 20 essential rudiments as mentioned in above. He also mentioned that in his opinion Islam and Quran were two different subject matters. He opined that in his opinion the Muslims of today were in fact the face of Islam and that this face was totally different from the teachings of Quran and the Prophet (pbuh). “That is why some say Islam is the best religion while the Muslims were the worst followers”, he added. He also added that when we visit the western countries we see them living a life that is perceived to be very close to the teachings of Islam. For example their city is neat and clean, they do not tell lies, do not cheat and do not unfairly treat others, practice business honestly, and they are kind and compassionate, etc. “After seeing all of these we often say that we see Islam in them although they were not Muslims”, he said. Javed Choudhry explained that we in fact see the teachings of Quran in them and not Islam. He concluded that to be respectable amongst the comity of nation we have to make significant headway in achieving those 20 essential rudiments. “And, those cannot be achieved by just doing lip service – we need to put our acts together and strive persistently like others – our perceived enemies - have in fact done”, he added.

Both these talks - from the visiting Maulana and Javed Choudhry – were appreciated and received well by the attendees which were evident from complete pin-drop silence during the same.

His Excellency the Ambassador of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia – Muhammad Naeem Khan- speaking on the occasion welcomed the two distinguished guests to Riyadh. He informed the visiting guests that the Pakistani community in Saudi Arabia in general and in Riyadh in particular loved their country. He said he found them to be very forthcoming especially at the time of trial and tribulations and cited from the supports that he received during his campaign for flood relief last year. He informed that the Pakistanis here extended an unprecedented support and helped raise a huge amount of 30 million Pakistani Rupees which were deposited with the government of Pakistan. He also informed that in his meeting with the Saudi officials he is very pleased to listen to their opinions about the Pakistani expats being the best of all. He also informed that the problems of the Pakistani community here were immense. That is why he said he would allocate one full day in a week dedicated to personally meeting with them and listening to their problems face-to-face. This way he would be able to serve them better.

At the end of the program Dr. Mansour Memon presented the colorful and elegant Sindhi Ajrak to the visiting Maulana and to Javed Choudhry while his father G. M. Memon presented the same to His Excellency the Ambassador – Muhammad Naeem Khan and to the Deputy Head of the Mission – Khayam Akber.
The program concluded with sumptuous dinner consisting of some of the Arabic and Desi delights. Photos for this event came via the courtesy of Sanobar Sani – a photo-journalist and senior member of Pakistan Writers Club-Riyadh