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The Macabre Wealth

In 630, famine fell upon Arabia. By the time whole Arabic peninsula had been conquered by the Muslim armies and was living the most prosperous period it had ever seen. The supposedly intimidating conquerors kept to themselves. They relied on what they brought with themselves and were kind, upright and just. Now the time would test them again. The riches of the land couldn’t feed its denizens from the unruly famine. Wells dried up, food became a dream and cattle began to die.

Aid was sought from wherever one could muster it. Appeals were made and promulgated to four corners of the Islamic empire to soul their souls. It was these times when the shoulders that carried the brunt of this burden, Caliph of the Muslims, Omar bin Khattab RA passed by a nomad’s tent. Therein sat an elderly woman who offered him the hospitality as was the custom of the good bygone days when people had some sense of fellowship.

She carried on with her womanly ramblings about everything when she cursed the Caliph Omar bin Khattab RA for his irresponsibility. Apparently she thought it was his fault that he could not feed the poor of his jurisdiction. Despite his own ascetic living, this magnificent ruler in human history broke into tears. “How is he to know that someone living in such ruins need help?”, he asked solemnly. The woman looked at him not knowing who he was and retorted, “What kind of a Caliph is he if he doesn’t know how his subjects live under his reign?”

He shuddered and never ate a full meal until everyone had it in his reign again. Such were the people who brought us the religion that we take for granted. A panacea that has been reduced to fit a column in a consensus form.

Pakistan is the only nuclear power that was founded with the vision of having a homeland for the Muslims. Just like the battle of Badr, it divided brothers, uncles, sons, and daughters. The migration from darul kufr was made to a destitute land where people had to fight penury and woe to make a living for themselves. Guides turned out to be the con men and this time it didn’t take white foreigners to undertake the carnage. English had lived here long enough to breed an illegitimate dynasty of their own with a darker skin tone.

From private torture cells to judicial conniving and oligarchy to divide and rule, they plundered and looted their own in cold blood. As literacy rate took a nose dive to bottom their own offspring went back to countries where their real fathers came from. Money dipping with peasant blood bought them chartered planes, finest meals and luxurious yachts. Haute couture and dining manners were taught lest they bring with them the incivility of the human waste they set upon eliminating hundreds of years ago through colonization.

As they practiced their Machiavellian plots, the people became so desensitized and demoralized that they started accepting it as a pre-fated situation. Subtle words with delicate nuances were invented for the pleasure of these corrupt wolves.

Sharjeel Memon, one from the same lineage recently returned home after two years of escapade from the law along with arguably the most corrupt man on earth, Asif Ali Zardari, ex-president of Pakistan. He is allegedly guilty of defrauding public exchequer of Rs 3 billion. Man gratuitously shared his pillage with the voracious judiciary who set him free. People waiting to earn brownie points came out on streets and coronated him with a gold crown calling it the victory of the veracity. While people are dying under his nose in Thar desert from drought, waiting for the death that they wish came earlier than the inexorable agony they live through each day he basks in the radiation of his golden crown.

Islam came to this region with Sufis and merchants and erudite savants who literally took off the shirt off of their back to feed the poor and the heart-broken. It dignified the locals by talking them out of worshipping stones and slaughtering others to please innumerable gods. What a tragedy it is to see their kin ransack whatever they gave to this land. Haven’t they read or believed what Allah says in Quran?

“Has the time not come for those who have believed that their hearts should become humbly submissive at the remembrance of Allah and what has come down of the truth? And let them not be like those who were given the Scripture before, and a long period passed over them, so their hearts hardened, and many of them are defiantly disobedient.” Surah Hadid (57–16)

About Minhaaj Rehman (17 Articles)
Minhaaj Rehman is a consultant, writer, and speaker with multilingual skills. Currently, he contributes to The News, More Magazine, ProPakistani, etc. He writes on diverse topics ranging from technology to education and politics to travel.
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