Hero-worship

ARTICLE: Turkish epic TV serial Dirils Ertugrul, made on the life of a 13th century nomad tribal warrior, has taken the non-Arab Muslim world by storm. There are however historical, political and cultural reasons for there being lack of a similar response in the Arab world. This huge and unprecedented viewership of the serial, which has 488 episodes over 5 seasons, literally runs into hundreds of millions in the Balkan-Bengal region, is mainly due to a simmering desire and hope of a promised hero who would eventually end the dark night of hopelessness, humiliation, oppression and tyranny that has been looming over the Muslim world for the last three hundred years. The Muslim mind has been conditioned by the varying literature and rhetorical sermons about a messiah who shall appear on the scene and redeem them from their miseries and will fight against injustice. This belief keeps the candle of hope burning in this severe adversity and utter darkness. But this phenomenon has also practically paralyzed the Muslim mind which has surrendered to the demons of ignorance. A majority of them are strangulated by the pythons of inaction and octopuses of incredulity. They are unable to appreciate the reality that the world belongs to those who excel in learning, believe in action, beseech piety and practice fairness and justice. Muslim reformists, including Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Dr Allama Muhmmad Iqbal, Jamaluddin Afghani, Mohammad Abduh and many others repeatedly emphasized the importance of learning not only of Western disciplines and sciences but also attainment of excellence of knowledge in the Muslim tradition. They also impressed upon Muslims to convert their knowledge into action and ultimately regain self-confidence and status lost somewhere. But their message fell on deaf ears.

Today the entire Muslim world is in flames and subjugated politically, economically and culturally in several ways. Despite having the greatest asset of a young population, natural resources, oil, gold, iron and highly fertile lands from Malaysia to Morocco and from the snowy lands of Russia to the Cape of Good Hope, Muslims inhabit all continents but owing to their social, moral, political and economic decline, Muslim societies around the world are in utter decline and decay. A lot has been written about it. The main causes of this historic fall can be attributed to the same saga of greed, intrigue and betrayal which are fully depicted in that serial. During the last six hundred years, three great Muslim empires fell. Reasons for their fall and causes of this weak Muslim mind which fell prey to these pernicious evils are answered in the occasional appearances of the famous sufi-spiritual characters of Ibn Arabi, an Arab Andalusian scholar, mystic, poet and philosopher and his disciples in that epic play. A political system built on faith in God and justice vanished when its foundations were eaten by the worm's intrigue, greed and betrayals, ignorance and infighting. This epic decline or fall is itself a subject of great interest and study for the orientalists and European historians. Muslims writers have only occasionally touched upon this subject.

Certainly, like all known epic works of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Firdausi's Shahnama, Hafeez Jalandhri's Shahnama-e-Islam and several others similar works in other cultures and languages, like Mahabharata and Ludovico Ariosto, there is definitely a fictional content in this serial too as pointed out by some of its critics but even those pundits who are intellectually influenced by the 'values' promoted by the West, could not find any substantive fault in the main theme of this serial except the bloodshed, swords and 'cruelties' of the hero. Unfortunately, these enlightened moderates purposely promote a particular agenda and hardly mention the most barbaric savagery of the allied forces and their vassals inflicted upon the Muslims during the last several hundred years. Their hate for Islam is thinly veiled. They turn their deaf ears and blind eye to the wise message beautifully conveyed through the character of Shaikh Mohiuddin Ibne Arabi, and others characters who make their entry at the most critical stages of the play and reassure and repeat the eternal message of love, piece, mercy, justice and fairness preached by Islam and present true face and teachings of Islam. Fraud, trickery and outright lies, however, are now the part of the character of almost every man walking on the streets famous of cities of Islamic lands. The sectarian, linguistic and cultural wedge in the breadth and length of the world of Islam has destroyed its unity, peace and honour.

With few exceptions, today, the Muslim world is in the clutches of puppets and vassals who plundered, looted and syphoned resources of the Muslim states and stashed them away in Swiss and American bank accounts. They either live or have expensive villas in the Western capitals. They deliberately kept their masses in abject poverty and ignorance so that their rule is prolonged. They have disfigured and defaced true image of Islam which is built on universal values of love, justice and humanity.

Syria, which was conquered by the Muslims in the earlier period of Islam and remained a cradle of culture and learning and preserved its Byzantine-Sasanian orientation and subsequent Muslims innovations, today literally presents the picture of doomsday. The devil of sectarianism, the old rivalries of empires and foreign interventions have turned this once the jewel of the Middle East and the Fertile Crescent into a graveyard. Kashmir and Muslims in India are under a constant threat of forced conversion and extinction. Afghanistan, that was once the land of great rulers and warriors, has been ravaged by wars one after another. The dagger of Israel has been thrust into the heart of Islam, but they can do nothing. Yemen, Palestine, Libya and several other Islamic countries in Africa and elsewhere are in distraught. Any attempt at Muslim unity is preempted by the forces of destruction and evil.

The importance of heroes in the history of mankind is reflected in the writings of historians, authors and poets. Greeks, Romans, Sasanadis and Arabs, Muslims, Christians and Hindus and all others have had their heroes. Heroes are in fact embedded in human psyche. Thomas Carlyle, for example, in his famous work 'On Heroes, Hero-worship and the Heroic in history referred to various heroes in history.

The Muslim world today needs more than one hero in all walks of life who can disseminate and preach the message of love, peace and humanity and who firmly believe in their faith and have the conviction of alleviating the abject subjugation of the Muslims across the world. They have the moral and social courage to cool down the flames of wars and unite the Muslims of the world. Allama Iqbal in one of his couplets of his fifth poem in Zarbe Kaleem said:

An Abraham by the age is sought to break the idols of this Hall: The avowal of God's Oneness can make all these idols headlong fall.