Imran Khan, the insurance policy of our establishment.

 

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful

A while back our establishment probably wanted him to die. But now they want him alive probably more than he himself wants to. What changed? Appointments made by Trump. I am not interested in who he nominated as Attorney general or Secretary of health etc, these are important for ordinary Americans but not for us. For my perspective following three are important.

Secretary of state: Marco Rubio, a hawk when it comes to Afghanistan and China. Wants to maintain military presence in Afghanistan to keep an eye and possibly foment trouble in China.

Secretary of defense: Pete Hegseth, served in Iraq and Afghanistan, earned two Bronze stars. 

National security adviser: Michael Waltz served multiple tours in Afghanistan over the course of his military career, which spanned several years, cumulatively amounting to significant time in-country as part of his military service.

Look at this triangle and place it next to the fact that India has largely refused to toe the American line regarding confrontation with Russia and China. The only place left for any adventure regarding China is Afghanistan/Pakistan. The problem, from American point of view, is that Afghanistan is now under Taliban rule. So how to dislodge Taliban? Use Pakistan. Who will oppose that in Pakistan? That is where Imran Khan becomes useful. Our establishment will convince Americans that if we release him, he will throw a spanner in their project and as such it is better to keep him in prison. They don’t want Imran Khan dead either because what other wolf there is to threaten Americans with? NS, FR, BZ?

P.S: In the coming weeks and months you will see how Taliban will be labelled as Khawaraj in religious circles especially in Deobandi ecosystem. This is important for mollifying the Deobandis after all Taliban are their intellectual children. The Baralvis don’t like Taliban anyways and will happily join any effort to dislodge them.  

The Necessity of Teaching Science & Technology in our Madaris: Science & Sectarianism

 

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful.

Science & Sectarianism

Sectarianism is a big issue in Pakistan, and I don’t want to go into its negative ramifications, we are all aware of it. I, along with few other people, started a yearlong software development course for ulema (graduates of our seminaries) in 2017. Details of this course are available at www.isdp.info  During these years I became acquainted with hundreds of ulema from all over Pakistan belonging to different sects and madaris (seminaries). The program requires a certain level of English and math. My initial presumption was that since these ulema deal with complex calculations involving laws of inheritance they will have the required math skills necessary for our program. But I was disappointed to find out that a good portion of them could not calculate the average of the two numbers.

Money, Consumerism and our Future

 This is a multipart presentation in which I discuss how money is created by banks, how consumerism creates false needs and how these two seemingly isolated aspects of capitalism merge to fool ordinary people to buy things that they don't need with money that they don't have.

Remaining parts of the presentation are as follows: 

Part2, Part3 Part4 Part5 Part6 Part7, Part8

Part9, Part10, Part11, Part12 Part13 Part14

Our Establishment, Karl Marx, and Winston Churchill

 

Every semester I give a presentation in my university titled “Materialism and our Education”. During the presentation I ask my students if they have heard of Karl Marx and almost always it is less than 5% who answer in affirmative, and out of those only one or two know about his ideas about private property and/or Das Kapital. When I ask them about Winston Churchill almost all of them know about him. At first, I was a bit confused about this bias but my confusion was eliminated when I read the English textbook for 12^th class. That book contains one full chapter on Winston Churchill, in

Capitalism, Environment and Sharia

 

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful

Capitalism, Environment and Sharia

Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said

"If the Final Hour comes while you have a shoot of a plant in your hands and it is possible to plant it before the Hour comes, you should plant it." “The believer is not he who eats his fill while his neighbor is hungry.” “There is a reward for serving any living being.” “If a Muslim plants a tree or sows seeds, and then a bird, or a person or an animal eats from it, it is regarded as a charitable gift (sadaqah) for him.”

The above, and many more similar hadith, clearly require us to be guardians of nature, be conservators of resources, and strive towards sustainable living not just for us but for the entire earth.  Unfortunately, the world we are living in is going in the opposite direction. I won’t waste your time in detailing the environmental disasters that we are all witnessing on a daily basis but will go straight to the fundamental reason for it : Capitalism.

شیعہ سنی تقسیم

 

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم

اس مضمون کا مقصد شیعہ سنی تقسیم کو ختم کرنا نہیں ۔کیونکہ پچھلے تقریبا ساڑھے تیرہ سو سال سے دونوں طرف کے مذہبی علما، طاقتور سیاسی اور عسکری شخصیات اس مقصد میں کامیاب نہیں ہو سکے ۔ چنانچہ ایسی کوئی بھی کوشش لا حاصل ہے۔ جو کام ہم کرسکتے ہیں، بلکہ ہمیں کرنا چاہئے وہ یہ ہے کہ اس کی حدود واضح کی جائیں۔ کیونکہ اگر ہم ایسا نہیں کرتے تو اس کے نتائج تباہ کن ہوں گے۔شام (ساڑھے تین لاکھ ہلاکتیں)، عراق(ساڑھے چار لاکھ ہلاکتیں) اور یمن(ایک لاکھ تیس ہزار ہلاکتیں) میں ہونے والی فرقہ وارانہ جنگیں اس بات کی واضح مثال ہیں کہ اگر فرقہ واریت کا یہ جن بوتل سے باہر نکل آیا تو کیا کچھ ہو سکتا ہے۔ہم اس وقت غیر یقینی صورتحال سے دوچار ہیں، کیونکہ امریکہ ، افگانستان مین اپنی شکست کا ذمہ دار پا کستان کو ٹہرا رہا ہے اورBJP کی حکومت میں بھارت بھی پاکستان کو آگ میں جلتا ہی دیکھنا چاہے گا۔اس تنا زعتے کو محدود کرنے کیلئے ہمیں دو بالکل واضح نکات کو تسلیم کرنا ہوگا: پہلی بات تو یہ کہ ہم تاریخ کو تبدیل نہیں کرسکتے۔جس نے جو بھی کہا یا کیا، اب  وہ تبدیل نہیں ہو سکتا، ایسے تمام حضرات اس دنیا سے جا چکے ہیں اوراب ان کا مقدمہ اللہ تعالی کی عدالت میں جا چکا ہے۔اللہ تعالی جو مناسب سمجھیں گے ان کے بارے میں فیصلہ کریں گے۔اب ہم ان کے بارے میں کوئی فیصلہ جاری نہیں کر سکتے۔ قرآن و  سنت میں مسلمانوں سے ایسا کوئی مطالبہ بھی نہیں کیا گیا۔دوسر بات یہ کہ قرب قیامت کی علامات میں سے امام مہدی  کی آمد کو خاصی اہمیت حاصل ہے۔ شیعہ حضرات تو اس بات پر پختہ یقین رکھتے ہیں کہ وہ بلاشبہ اہل بیت میں سے ہوں گے، جبکہ سنی حضرات اس  بات پر اتنا پختہ یقین نہیں رکھتے۔ لیکن دونوں حضرات اس بات پر یقین رکھتے ہیں کہ جب وہ تشریف لائیں گے تو کوئی مسلمان بھی  ان پر عدم اعتماد کا اظہار نہیں کرے گا، بلکہ انہیں تمام مسلمان متفقہ طور پر اپنا راہ نما تسلیم کر لیں گے۔سوال یہ ہے کہ جب تک وہ تشریف نہیں لاتے ہمیں کیا کرنا ہوگا؟ میرا خیال یہ ہے کہ ہمیں اس تین رکنی منصوبہ اپنانا چاہئے:

1)   اپنے فرقے کی تعلیمات کے مطابق عمل کریں اور دوسرے  فرقے پر طنز نہ کریں

2)   ایسے تمام عالموں اور ذاکروں کے بیانات سننے سے گریز کریں جو دوسرے فرقوں کے بارے میں  منفی ذہنیت اور نفرت پھیلاتے ہیں، اگر ہم مندرجہ ذیل اقدامات کریں تو یہ مقصد بڑی آسانی سے حاصل کیا جا سکتا ہے:

ان کی تنظیم اور جماعت کو چندہ نہ دیں

ان کے سوشل میڈیا چینلز  پر نہ جائیں، نہ ہی انہیں سبسکرائب کریں۔ یقین کریں ایسے لوگ صرف سوشل میڈیا پر پذیرائی چاہتے ہیں

3)   ایران اور سعودی عرب کو فرقہ وارانہ بنیادوں پر سپورٹ کرنا چھوڑ دیں، اوپر بیان کی گئی تینوں مثالوں میں ان دونوں ممالک نے اپنے اپنے فرقے کو سپورٹ کیا، جبکہ خود ایک دن بھی آپس میں نہیں الجھے ۔ایسی  رپورٹس بھی ملتی ہیں کہ ایران نے پاکستان سے شیعہ نوجوانوں کو شام میں لڑنے کیلئے بھیجا اور سعودی عرب نے سوڈان ی نوجوانوں کو یمن میں لڑنے کیلئے بھیجا۔

میرا خیال ہے کہ اگر ہم ایسا کرلیتے ہیں تو ہمارے  یا ہمارے بچوں کے پاس امام مہدی کی قیادت میں لڑنے کا بہترین موقع ہوگا، ورنہ ان کی آمد سے پہلے ہی ہم آپس  میں لڑ کر خود کو ختم کرلیں گے

Shia Sunni Divide

 

In the name of Allah the most Beneficent and Merciful

The purpose of this writing is not to “resolve” the Shia-Sunni divide. Religious scholars, very powerful political and military figures, from both sides, in the last 1350 years were unable to achieve this resolution so it is a futile attempt to do so. What we can and must do is to manage it, because if we don’t then the consequences will be devastating. Just look at sectarian based conflicts in Syria (350,000 killed), Iraq (450,000 killed), Yemen (130,000 killed) as examples of what can happen if this jinni is let out of the bottle. Our current situation is very precarious because America is blaming Pakistan for her defeat in Afghanistan, and India under BJP rule, would really want to see Pakistan up in flames. To manage it we need to consider two obvious points. First, we cannot change history. Who ever did what he/she did or said whatever he/she said is not going to change, they are all dead and in the presence of Almighty Allah. It is up to Him to judge them as He sees fit. It is absolutely not our position to pass judgement. Nowhere in Quran or Sunnah we see such demand being made from Muslims. Secondly, from an Islamic eschatology(end times) discussion the arrival of Imam Mehdi is very important. Shia firmly believe he will be for sure from ahl-e-bait but Sunnis are not very sure about him being from ahl-e-bait. But both are sure that when he arrives no Muslim will doubt him, and he will be declared as unanimous leader of Muslims. The question is until he appears what should we do? I think we should adopt following three part plan.

1)    Follow your sect but don't taunt another sect.

2)    Avoid all those maulanas or muftis or zakirs who spread negativity and animosity towards other sects. This can be done very effectively by:

a.     not donating to their organization

b.    not viewing and subscribing to their social media channels like Facebook, Youtube etc. Trust me such people really crave social media attention.

3)    Stop supporting Iran and Saudi Arabia on sectarian basis. In all three earlier mentioned examples both countries supported their respective sectarian based proxies but did not directly fight with each other for a single day. There are reports that Iran sent young Shia boys from Pakistan to fight in Syria and Saudi Arabia hired Sudanese boys to fight in Yemen.

I think if we follow this plan, we or our children have a good chance fighting kufar under the leadership of Imam Mehdi otherwise we have a good chance of killing each other before his arrival.