The creation of Pakistan on August 14, 1947, is a historical moment not just for people of the Indian sub-continent but in terms of modern Islamic history as Pakistan was the first nation-state established based on religion, namely Islam. However, after 70 years of existence, Pakistani society remains divided over the character of the state that the Father of Nation, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah envisaged for Pakistan, either an Islamic/Muslim state or a secular state.
The main evidence that liberals and secularists provide that Quaid desired a secular state was his August 11, 1947 address to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. However, I believe that Quaid’s August 11th speech was in line with basic Islamic principles and traditions that have been the practice since the time of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), in particular the Misaaq-e-Medina (Constitution of Medina). Many scholars believe that Misaaq-e-Medina was the first written constitution and formed the basis of the first Islamic state.
The following excerpts from the Quaid’s August 11 address are the evidence used by the liberals and secularists to support their argument that the Father of the Nation envisioned a secular state:
“If you change your past and work together in a spirit that every one of you, no matter to what community he belongs, no matter what relations he had with you in the past, no matter what is his colour, caste, or creed, is first, second, and last a citizen of this State with equal rights, privileges, and obligations, there will be no end to the progress you will make…. You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed — that has nothing to do with the business of the State. …We are starting in the days where there is no discrimination, no distinction between one community and another, no discrimination between one caste or creed and another. We are starting with this fundamental principle: that we are all citizens, and equal citizens, of one State. Now I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal, and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus, and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”
However, reading the above excerpts, a knowledgeable person of Islamic history could easily argue that this is similar to the Misaaq-e-Medina in both letter and spirit. One of the foremost scholars on Quaid-e-Azam, the late Professor Sharif al Mujahid has related Quaid’s August 11 speech to the principles and rights mentioned in the Misaaq-e-Medina. If we consider the State of Medina that came into existence from the Misaaq-e-Medina as Islamic/Muslim then Quaid’s August 11 speech is not a major deviation from the great traditions of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and the early generations of Muslims. A look back at Islamic history shows that Islam does promote values of equality, tolerance, justice, and fraternity.
Just like Abraham Lincoln believed America was a great experiment in democracy, Quaid believed that Pakistan would be a great experiment in Islam and a model of practicing Islamic principles in modern times. “We do not demand Pakistan simply to have a piece of land but we want a laboratory where we could experiment on Islamic principles.” Quaid-e-Azam (In 1946, at Islamia College Peshawar). Likewise, in a message to the Frontier Muslim Students Federation (June 15, 1945), the Quaid spoke: “Pakistan not only means freedom and independence but the Muslim Ideology which has to be preserved.”
On a visit to Hyderabad Deccan in August 1941, Quaid describes an Islamic state, “Fundamentally, in an Islamic state, all authority rests with Allah, the Almighty. The government business is conducted according to the entire Quranic principle and injunctions. Neither ahead, nor a parliament, nor an individual, nor an institution can act absolutely in any matter. Only the Quranic injunction controls our behaviour in society and politics. In other words, the rule of Islamic democracy is indeed the rule of Shariat laws.” This is a clear vindication of Shaheed-e-Millat Liaquat Ali Khan and the Objectives Resolution of 1949.
Addressing the Karachi Bar Association on the occasion of Eid Milad un-Nabi in January 1948, Quaid reaffirmed that the future constitution of Pakistan would be based on Shariat, “Why this feeling of nervousness that the future constitution of Pakistan is going to be in conflict with Shariat Laws? Islamic principles today are as applicable to life as they were 1,300 years ago. I could not understand a section of people who deliberately wanted to create mischief and made a propaganda that the constitution of Pakistan would not be made on the basis of Shariat.” A similar message was given on the same day by Shaheed-e-Millat Liaquat Ali Khan at Badshahi Masjid, Lahore, “Pakistan nation had no other message to give to the world except that of the great Prophet. The ideology of Pakistan nation should be to demonstrate to the world that the principles of Islam, over 1300 years old, still hold good and furnish the only effective panacea for the numberless woes and miseries of mankind.”
I dream to see that Pakistan envisioned by Quaid, Allama Iqbal, and Liaquat Ali Khan of the creation of the premier Islamic welfare state where the poor and downtrodden of society are taken care of by the State in the best of Islamic traditions and ethos of compassion, kindness, generosity, and tolerance as taught to us by Rasool-e-Karim (SAW) and the Khalifa-e-Rashidun and advocated by Quaid and Liaquat Ali Khan.
For idealists and believers of Quaid-e-Azam’s Pakistan like myself, the cause will always endure and the dream shall never die.
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