My comments on South Asia, threatened by Hindutvadi onslaught

Muhammad Ali Jinnah has been so prophetical in his remark about the fate of Muslims in India. Over the decades, India continues to prove that minorities like Muslims don't belong there. One after another all the princely states were acquired by the Indian Union government. Even the state of Kashmir with overwhelming Muslim majority has lately been grabbed, which violated even India's own constitution. Under the names Gau-raksha, Muslims continues to be lynched by the pujaris of Hindutva while the criminals go free. Most of the Muslim-sounding Indian towns and cities have already been renamed to wipe out any connection with India's Muslim-ruled past of nearly a millennium. Under the populist, majoritarian agenda, many historical mosques have been demolished and made Hindu sites. Even the Taj Mahal and the shrines of great Sufis like Moinuddin Chisty are not safe from Hindtuvadi onslaughts. 

Worse yet, for decades, RSS/HM/BJP ideologues have been claiming that Bangladesh ought to have been acquired by mother India to address the so-called shrinking Hindu population there. Forgotten there is the mere fact that Bangladeshi Hindus, in spite being less than 10% proportion, occupy almost four times their share in government jobs in Bangladesh while Indian Muslims who comprise nearly 15% of population today, their share in government jobs is less than two percent. Who is getting discriminated here! Even then, if some educated and prosperous of BD Hindus feel that it is better for them to immigrate to India, the Middle East or western countries who is stopping them? They have found ways to launder money also, which made it easy to resettle in our global village. 

And now, millions of Muslims living in adjoining north-eastern corridor states of India face push-back to Bangladesh while sadly, the government seems nonchalant about their fate considering such threats are all internal matters of India. Even Mamata Banerjee is more concerned about the fate of these Bengali-speakers in Assam than we ought to have been! What's wrong with our leadership? If they don't speak out against India's Hindutvadi aggression that affects the lives of millions of Bengali-speaking people in Assam (let alone monumental crimes committed by Modi and his bigots from Kashmir to Tripura), who will speak out for our people? Is not safeguarding people part of the constitutional duty imposed on leadership?

As I have repeatedly stated, the Muslim experience in the post-colonial construct has been one of utter disappointment and betrayal at the highest level. We have failed to produce leaders that are aware and serious about their particular role to safeguard the people and their accountability also to God. They have forgotten or are ignorant of the responsibility of guardianship that comes with leadership. Consider, e.g. the Prophet's (S) warning:

Each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about your guardianship.  The leader/ruler is a guardian (over the people he leads/rules), and the man is a guardian over the people of his house, and the woman is a guardian over her husband's house and children.  So each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about your guardianship. - Muhammad (S) [Bukhari, Muslim: narrated by Abdullah Ibn Umar (RA)]

Nearly  14 centuries ago, Caliph Umar (RA) said, “Should a lost goat die in the Shat al-’Arab I tend to think that Allah, the Most Exalted, will question me about it on the Day of Judgment.”

 [Hilyat’ul Awliya wa Tabaqatul Asfiya: Abu Na’im al-Asfahani]

Mind that the Prophet (S) said if there were to be any Prophet coming after him, it would have been Umar (RA), and yet Umar (RA) was afraid of his accountability before Allah on the Day of Judgment. Compare that attitude of Umar (RA) with those of our rulers today! They disgrace our people!

Let me relate another story from Imam Ghazzali's book:

Abdullah bin Dinar (R) relates, "Once I was walking with the Caliph Umar (R) near Mecca when we met a shepherd's slave-boy driving his flock.  Umar said to him, 'Sell me a sheep.'  The boy answered, 'They are not mine, but my master's.'  Then, to try him, Umar said, 'Well, you can tell him that a wolf carried one off, and he will know nothing about it.'  'No, he won't,' said the boy, 'but God will.'  Umar then wept, and sending for the boy's master, purchased him and set him free, exclaiming, 'For this saying thou art free in this world and shalt be free in the next.'" - [Kimiya-yi sa'adat]

Our leaders today behave as if the public treasury is their inheritance that could be wasted anyway that they like. They forget that it is a trust imposed on them to manage properly. 

After the khilafat was gone, dynasty became the norm in the Muslim world before the current Godless leadership profilerated to add to our wounds and misery. Yet, we find past rulers who sought advice of pious advisers so that they could rule without violating their trust. They considered the leadership task a trial and not a means to enrich themselves. 

When Umar ibn Abdul Aziz (R) was appointed caliph during the Umayyad rule, he summoned Salem ibn Abdullah, Raja' ibn Hayat and Muhammad ibn Ka'b.  "I have been afflicted with this trial.  What am I to do, for I know this high office to be a trial, even though men count it for a blessing?" - He asked.  They advised, "If you wish tomorrow to escape from God's punishment, look upon aged subjects as though each one were your father, and regard youthful subjects as your brothers, and their children as your own sons, treating them in all respects as one does one's father, brother, and son." - Fudayl ibn 'Iyadh (R) [Tadhkirat al-Auliya']

As I said many times, politics has betrayed our people for too long. We have trusted and made icons and idols of people who have betrayed our trust and continue to do so. It all starts with us. As the Prophet (S) said, As you are so will be your leaders. 

Enough said!