If the nations dig up their identity, only the piece of land survives and if the ideology disappears, the flag becomes only an ongoing cloth.
Are we the successors of Baghdad’s civilization or is our ideal kingdom in Medina? Is our relationship connected with the Gulf tribes or is we with the generation of Chandra Gupta Maurya? Is Mohammed bin Qasim our hero or does our heart beats on resistance to King Dahir? Do we hope that Turks will lead Umah or want new lights from Medina? Do we consider the sacrifices of Bhagat Singh as a part of our history or is our pride limited to Ghazi Almuddin Shahd?
In the daily life of any nation, when questions arise, “Who are we?” “Where did we come from?” Where else to go? “So it is not only a matter of history or religion, it is a matter of identity and also to the future map. Such a debate actually gives rise to a collective consciousness that determines the ideas, values and priorities of any nation.
History is read not only for pride, but also for guidance. Identification is not only the beginning of the past, the current future is the basis and direction, and if a nation forgets its history or starts making its identity suspicious, it not only cuts the past, but also wanders into the fog of the present and then the future gets out of its hands as if the sand was. Identification is a mirror in which the nation determines its position, its thoughts and their priorities. This identity tells us who is our hero, what is our vision, what are our values, and how do we want to live life?
The nation whose history is blurred is shaken and the future disappears. This is why in a society like Pakistan, these questions seem to be “historical debate”. In fact, a nation is a case of existence. They decide whether our education, law, politics and morality will be based on ideology. And if the matter is lost then the rest of the system will remain the same, ie half -covered, half secular, half emotional and three -quarter of confusion.
Now look at the past. The fact is that the Islamic identity of the Muslims of the subcontinent played a central role in the partition of the subcontinent and the establishment of Pakistan. In global politics, Pakistan’s trend has always been towards Muslim Ummah’s civilization. That is, our heart beats for Türkiye, Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, every country where the half calls. But here comes the story, which we can call “intellectual cuts”. There are some local intellectuals who tried to experience a little in the field of cultural identity.
For example, these gentlemen have arguments that we have been on the same earth for thousands of years, so we are culturally Hindi and only pulling a border has not changed our civilization or Pakistan is not a civilization, but it is a combination of various regional civilizations, so there will be a final identity.
There is more complexity where some people also see the concept of Muslim Umm as a dream of the same state, and then it remains a dream, because the misinterpretation of identity is actually limited to being emotional by looking at Turkish plays or giving relief from development in Dubai. Therefore, it is more important than the ego of these arguments that we ourselves understand the meaning of “civilization” and not only understand it, but also start taking it seriously, because it is the point where all causes the fall.
We have civilization often limited to language, clothes, food or music. That is, if there is a quorum, biryani, or qawwali, it is believed that civilization has survived. While civilization is an idea, a spiritual and moral base on which the nation’s ideological life, its institutions, laws and values are established.
Look at Western civilization, the United States, United Kingdom, Australia are all different countries, but they have the same moral, social, economic, religious and scientific structures. Similarly, Islamic civilization is also a global civilization, which is free from the imprisonment of language, race or geography and adds more than seventy countries to an intellectual unity, whether Arabic or Bengali, African Drum or Turkish Sufi music.
Now come to the land of Pakistan where history has made a long journey. The Indus Valley Civilization, Vedic period, Iranian, Greek, Mauria, Buddhist, Hindu, Mughal, English, all left their marks here, but culturally the journey that affects our collective consciousness is similar to the attacks of Mahmud Ghaznavi. After that, Muslim governments remained for eight hundred years. Then the nineteenth century came and the ideology of nationalism was born. Now the matter came out of this case, “Who is the king?” “What is the nation?” And this was the time when two clear ideologies emerged in the subcontinent. Indian nationalism, which was based on Hindu -Majority Identity, was based on the concept of Islamic civilization.
The division of the subcontinent was a conflict between these two civilizations. It was not only a war of economic security between the two countries, but it was a decisive dispute between two ideas of life and remember that civilization is not a government or political institution, it is a spiritual, intellectual and cultural identity as West is a civilization, even if twenty countries are a civilization.
Similarly, in the Muslim world, there is a political division, but cultural unity. Civilization is not based on culture or history, but on the ideology of life which teaches us about questions that I am. Where did I come from? What is the point of my life? And since most Pakistan obtains these questions from Islam, Pakistan’s cultural identity is Islam, we should see Islamic civilization not only as a “state” but as a global cultural identity, which is a nation on intellectual, moral and spiritual.
Pakistan is not just a geographical state. It is an intellectual representative of Islamic civilization. If we understand this civilization with its spirit, then we will not only see our identity clearly, but will also have a destination of the possibilities, problems and unity of the Muslim world, but as a Pakistani, today our biggest illusion is that we are worried. The heart beats somewhere, the intellect goes somewhere else, and the process operates with one third.
The main reason for this intellectual chaos is our collective unprofessional mood. We neither practically understood our civilization nor adopted it, nor implemented its values in the training of our children or in the educational, legal or economic system at the national level. As a result, the physical development of the Western world has started hurting us because a child stands in a toy shop and just wants to get everything, without realizing that these things have a theory, a style and a complete cultural thinking. We have banned our relations with our civilization only on Friday’s sermons, Taraweeh of Ramadan and sometimes emotional slogans.
The result is that we were away from any possible option, and gradually we started filling this difference with Western, Hindi and secular ideas. Sometimes through films, sometimes through courses, and sometimes through media. Thus we have lost our intellectual direction between arguments and emotions and are becoming more prone to further partitions and confusion. Some people call themselves representatives of Punjabi civilization, some Baloch traditions, some are lover of modernity, some are followers of traditions and a national collective cultural identity in this cycle is coming to us day by day.
We have to accept that even today there is a cultural unity in the Muslim world. This unity is our greatest strength, but unfortunately we have raised only slogans instead of using this power. We have to ask ourselves a question. Will our generations only listen to stories of Western successes? Or will we be able to give them a cultural path which is based on knowledge, character, self -feeling and justice? The real problem is not what the problem is.
The question is, how long will we regret seeing the mirror? If we really have to give an idea to a new generation, then education is not only a degree, vision, the economy has to build on the principles of justice, media has to be cultural awareness, a source of the house of the House, and young people will not be real media, real media, real world. It should now be decided that we will either revive civilization and illuminate the future, or frame the lifeless, soundless, ineffective past of hereditary and hang only on the walls.
