Ideology of Pakistan

There have been several articles dealing either directly or indirectly with the Ideology of Pakistan. I was surprised to read an editorial in Business Recorder stating that; "General Sher Ali Khan (Retd), invented the term 'ideology of Pakistan' ahead of the 1970 elections". On 26th January 1948 it was reported on the front page of Dawn:
"Liaquat Ali Khan maintained that the Pakistan nation had no other message to give to the world except that of the great Prophet. The ideology of the Pakistan he said, should be to demonstrate to the world that the principles of Islam, over 1,300 years old, still hold good and furnish the only effective panacea for the numberless woes and miseries of mankind."
It may be recalled that the Quaid on the same day ie January 25, 1948 spoke in Karachi regarding the future constitution of Pakistan which was also reported on the front page of the Dawn of Monday January 26, 1948: "There are people who deliberately want to create mischief and make the propaganda that we will scrap it (the Shariat law)," he added. "Islamic principles have no parallel. Today they are as applicable in actual life as they were 1,300 years ago. Islam and its idealism has taught democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fair-play to everybody."
"Some of our non-Muslim friends do not quite appreciate when we talk of Islam. Islam is not only a set of rituals, traditions and spiritual doctrines, Islam is a code for every Muslim which regulates his life and his conduct in all aspects, social, political, economic, etc. It is based on highest principles of honour, integrity, fair-play and justice for all."
Here the Quaid explains in modern idiom that Islam is a DEEN and that religion (Mazhab) is a part of Deen-e-Islam. The Quaid understood the importance of this matter and in his famous speech at Patna on January 10, 1939 had said; "Many people misunderstand us when we talk of Islam, particularly our Hindu friends. When we say this flag is the flag of Islam they think we are introducing religion into politics...a fact of which we are proud. Islam gives us a complete code. It is not only religion but it contains laws, philosophy and politics. It contains everything that matters to man from morning to night. When we talk of Islam we take it as an all embracing word." (Star of India 11th January 1939).
The Quaid had a very clear and deep understanding of the Qur'an which comes out very strongly in his speeches. The Quaid was extremely conscious of the polity and the social order of Islam and believed that the Muslim community of British India had every right to live according to the percepts of Islam. He had learned a lesson - it was impossible to protect the interests of the Muslims of British India by mere sanctions and safeguards. Realistically a separate Muslim state was the only way that the Muslims could avoid forsaking their way of life (Deen-e-Islam). Thus the Quaid overtly changed his position between the years 1934-1937, first by rejecting the concept of a federation and thereafter demanding a separate state for Muslims of British India.
The Quaid believed in democracy based upon Islamic principles; "Democracy in the abstract was quite different from democracy as practiced. Democracy is like a chameleon, changing its complexion according to the environment. Democracy was not the same in England as it was in France and America. Islam believed in equality, liberty and fraternity, but not of the Western type." (Civil and Military Gazette, November 9, 1939).
In proclaiming this he was just not only stating his views but was projecting the views of the overwhelming majority of Muslims who supported the Muslim League. Simultaneously, the Muslim League rejected the concept of Western liberal democracy. This was stated by the Quaid in an article published in "Time and Tide" in England in January 1940.
With the unanimous adoption of the Lahore Resolution on March 23, 1940, the All India Muslim League forcefully started the struggle for the establishment of Pakistan. The Quaid and the front rank Muslim leaders like Nawabzada Liaquat Ali Khan, Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, Zafar Ahmad Ansari, Pir of Manki Sharif, Raja Sahib of Mahmoodabad, Nawab Bahadur Yar Jung, Raja Ghazanfar Ali, Mian Mumtaz Daultana and Nawab of Mumdot in their speeches stressed the distinction of Islam, that it is a Deen - a complete code of life and encompasses every aspect of human life including politics and economics. Two months after the passing of the Lahore Resolution Raja Sahib of Mahmoodabad on May 24, 1940 in his presidential address to the Bombay Provincial Muslim League clearly articulated the object of establishing Pakistan:
"They intend to work out their own destiny unhampered and undaunted by un-Islamic influences. The creation of an Islamic State - mark my words gentlemen - I say Islamic and not Muslim is our ideal."(National Archives of Pakistan, file No: 383, pp. 46 to 57) The speech of Nawab Bahadur Yar Jung in Karachi on December 26, 1943 at the Thirty-First Session of All India Muslim League (Presided by the Quaid) once again projected the same point of view:-
"The achievement of Pakistan will not be as difficult as its maintenance. Your Quaid-i-Azam has proclaimed more than once that the Muslims have no right to frame the constitution and law of any one of their States. The laws governing the constitution of a Muslim state are definitely laid down in the Holy Qur'an. There is no denying the fact that we want Pakistan for the establishment of the Qur'anic system of government." (Foundation of Pakistan 1970, page 485 to 487).
This speech establishes that the demand for Pakistan was for establishment of an Islamic state and not just the protection of the economic and political interests of the Muslims. Bahadur Yar Jung in the presence the Quaid (who was presiding) stated that; "Your Quaid-e-Azam has proclaimed more than once that the Muslims have no right to frame the constitution and law of any one of their States."
In March 1949 PM Liaquat Ali Khan in the Constituent Assembly stated; "I would like to remind the House that the Father of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam, gave expression to his feelings on the matter on many occasions, and his views were endorsed by the nation in unmistakable terms. Pakistan was founded because the Muslims of the subcontinent wanted to build their lives in accordance with the teachings and traditions of Islam."
The above quoted speeches of Bahadur Yar Jung (of 1943) and Liaquat of 1949) give the dimensions of the ideology of Pakistan. In 1945 before the last elections in British India the main issue was United India or Partition and Pakistan. Some of the speeches of the Quaid clearly establish that the Muslims were voting for the Islamic State of Pakistan:-
"Islam is not merely confined to spiritual tenets and doctrines or rituals and ceremonies. It is a complete code regulating every department of life, collectively and individually." (Message on Idd November 1945) "The Muslim demand Pakistan, where they could rule according to their own code of life and according to their own cultural growth, traditions and Islamic Law." (Dawn 22, November 1945).
"Our religion contains a code of life in the conduct of every department and we want to live according to the same ideals but the Hindu leadership is bent upon establishing 'Ram Raj' and treat Muslims as a minority." (Dawn 28, November 1945). "The League stood for carving out states in India where Muslims were in numerical majority to rule there under Islamic Law." (Address to students of Islamia College, Peshawar, November 1945; page 253, Speeches and Writings of M. A. Jinnah, Jamiluddin Ahmad).
The four pre-election speeches of the Quaid quoted above establish that he wanted Islamic Law to be enforced in Pakistan. The Quaid's fingers were on the pulse of the Muslims therefore, his speeches give not only his own views but reflect the aspirations and views of the majority of the Muslims who almost unanimously voted for Muslim League - Islamic State of Pakistan.
Quaid's speech of August 11, 1947 "I cannot emphasise it too much. We should begin work in that spirit and in course of time all these angularities of the majority and minority communities the Hindu community and the Muslim community because as regards Muslims you have Pathans, Punjabis, Shias, Sunnis and so on and among Hindus you have Brahmins, Vashanvas, Khatris, also Bengalese, Madrasis and so on - will vanish. Indeed if you ask me this has been the biggest hindrance in the way of India to attain freedom and independence and but for this we would have been free peoples long ago.
Therefore we must learn a lesson from this. You are free; you are free to go to your temples you are free to go to your mosques or other places of worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with business of the state." The straight forward meaning is that; there is total freedom to belong to any religion without any interference from the state. This is exactly what the Qur'an tells us;
"There is no compulsion in religion." (Surah Al-Baqra: 2-256)"To you your religion and to me my religion." (Surah Al-Kafirun: 108-6). The secularist interpretation of the August 11, 1947 speech would be in contradiction of all the speeches where the Quaid and all the leaders of Pakistan Movement clearly stated that they wanted Pakistan to be an Islamic State. Furthermore, if one interprets the speech to indicate that the Quaid wanted Pakistan to be a secular state, then it follows that Jinnah and his associates had been lying for the past thirteen years - 1934 to 1947, to the Muslims of British India. Even the sworn detractors acknowledge the truthfulness, moral uprightness, integrity and honesty of the Quaid. No one can accuse him of hypocrisy and duplicity or using Islam to achieve a political objective. The outright rejection to use amorous letters between Edwina and Nehru clearly demonstrates the Quaid's values.
Stanley Wolpert calls this speech a reversal and transformation of Jinnah; "What a remarkable reversal it was, as though he had been transformed overnight once again into the old 'ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity' that Sarogni Naidu loved." The problem in accepting Wolpert's interpretation of Jinnah's so called reversal is that one would be at total loss to explain his subsequent speeches. Jinnah was consistently a man of principles from which he never wavered. To accept Jinnah's reversal on August 11 and then another reversal on October 30, 1947, just three months later is not only inconsistent with Jinnah's character, but is also illogical. In his speech on October 30, 1947 at a huge rally in the University grounds Lahore Jinnah stated:
"If we take our inspiration and guidance from the holy Qur'an, the final victory I once again say will be ours. You have only to develop the spirit of Mujahids. All I require of you now is that every one of us to whom this reaches must vow to himself and be prepared to sacrifice his all, if necessary, in building up Pakistan as a bulwark of Islam and as one of the greatest nations whose ideal is peace within and peace without." (Dawn October 31, 1947).
This speech totally contradicts the secularists interpretation of the speech of August 11, and so does the speech of January 25, 1848 which has been quoted above. Jinnah's broadcasts to peoples of Australia and USA in February 1948 further amplified the Quaid's vision of Pakistan.
In his speech to the officers and men of the ACK ACK Regiments in Malir on February 21, 1948 and the speech at Sibi Darbar the Quaid said; "Now you have to stand guard over the development and maintenance of Islamic democracy, Islamic social justice and the equality of manhood in your own native soil."
"Let us lay the foundations of our democracy on the basis of truly Islamic ideals and principles. Our Almighty has taught us that 'our decisions in the affairs of the State shall be guided by discussion and consultation'." (speech at Sibi Durbar on 14, February 1948).
In the speech at Sibi the Quaid is articulating in his own words the Ayat-38 of Surah Ash-Shura. Jinnah made several thousand speeches and statements spread over a period of about forty years (1908 to 1948), there is not a single speech or statement in which he has said anything in favour of secularism. On the contrary, there are over two hundred (200) speeches expressing his Islamic orientation out of which only a few have been quoted above.