Might is not right: Mowahid

The Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minister, Mowahid Hussain Shah, on Sunday stressed the need for Muslims to hold fast to the rope of hope. "This we can do by looking back at the rich and inspirational Muslim heritage, and by emulating the legacy of the dervish who exemplified simple living and lofty thinking," he added.
He said this while speaking at a well-attended memorial function held in the Washington area to commemorate spiritual elders, which was hosted by Faqir Naqvi, a Washington-based entrepreneur.
Despite sizeable presence in the United States, he said Muslims do not have adequate presence in the thinking and opinion-making professions of media, academia, and law.
Mowahid said: "affluence has not amounted to influence." Seeking revenge and pursuing riches has been the bane of our society, and this is precisely what the dervish shunned, he stated.
In this context, he named saints and sages like Nizamuddin Aulia, Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti, Farid Ganj Shakar, Data Sahib and Bulleh Shah, who dominated their eras but whose wealthy contemporaries no-one remembers. "They well understood that worldly power and presence is temporary.
Muslims, he said, "are fortunate to have a classic example in Hazrat Imam Hussain (AS) as an inspirational role model of submission before the Almighty and defiance against injustice and tyranny, which is the core Islamic message."
He said, "Hazrat Imam Hussain (AS) considered right is might, and not might is right, and, he paid the supreme sacrifice to ensure that Islam remains immortal." This message lives on as, even today, "Muslim land may have been occupied in Kashmir and Palestine but Muslim people have not been conquered," he added.
Syed Zulfiqar Kazmi, a noted scholar, stressed the need for pursuing interfaith dialogue, to clear misperceptions. He said Hazrat Imam Hussain (AS) believed in dialogue. Forced to live a life of cowardice, he preferred to lay down his life, he added.
Allama Malik Sakhawat Hussain, chairman, al-Mahdi Foundation New York, in his scholarly remarks dwelt at length on the philosophy of life and death. For believers, he said, the philosophy is death and life, and not life and death.
Life, he said, was a fine balance of four elements - dust, water, air and fire, and referred to verses of Holy Quran, Ahadis and Islamic practices.
He said the gravitational force for spirit is the sky, while for 'body' (matter) it is the earth. Islam describes death as mere travel from one condition to another - and those who live for the goodwill of Almighty are divine, and they never die.
Earlier, Faqir Hussain Naqvi, bureau chief, 'Khabrain' introduced the speakers.