“Who Will Stem The Rot?”

Nobody will. Everybody has to. Nobody “can (and should) command the Ummah and dictate ... to change ...”. We are past this (st)age. We should aim at living in the ‘world of ideas’ and not in the ‘world of personalities’. If we are awaiting one single individual we are again mistaken as we have been for long. The business is back to individuals and the individuals cannot shirk their responsibility. This is precisely what they have been doing – having the most beautiful and luxurious excuse that “we don’t have a leader” or “someone who could stem the rot”. Now the focus has to shift from community to individual. We have to reverse the order.

No need for filling out a form and forming an outfit or an organization – only to wait until it becomes a sect no shortage of which we are already suffering from. Far from it. We should NOT use the same ‘medicine’ which has made us sick. Let us live and die as individuals – connected to the vast ocean of humanity. This is the hallmark of spiritual emancipation. Otherwise we are bonded. We do not need any bai‘ah. Not anymore.

ALL those who know the rot (and have actually created and reinforced it) will have to stem it. They cannot absolve themselves from this duty. They should by no means wait for someone else to (mysteriously) arrive as if from nowhere and do what they could themselves have done. The job is to identify the gaps in our own thinking. Also, it is the time for smart work. Now there is no need to take to streets, I guess. Now “the heat and cold” has to be braved from the drawing rooms. Because the addressees are the learned and educated. It will have a ripple effect. This is a must if we have to reap the fruits at a mass level and not in an unduly longer time. It will take unduly longer if the individuals pass the buck. But then all those who will shift the responsibility – and will only wait for somebody else – will have to share the accountability (read blame).

The job is to be watchful about the speeches and writings. The job is to be watchful about any incoherence and self-contradiction in this write-up and in others. It is to be watchful about the emotive issues and our reactions to them. It is to be watchful about not blurring the difference between issues and non-issues. It is to be watchful about the relationship between one speech or writing and another. It is to popularize the fact that truth is free from self-contradiction. It is to tell all those whom we know and can reach to that we need to start looking for “the whole picture” and “thinking differently”. It is to tell the people that our concept of knowledge is gravely mistaken and that the knowledge is to develop a well organized body of ideas and creatively reach out to the unknown with the power of critical and scientific thinking. It is to tell the people that even though “thinking is the most difficult job on earth”, this is precisely what we are supposed to carry out if we want to remain and exist as human beings.

“Stemming the rot” requires that we think twice about our own notions. We think twice about our own emails. It requires that we analyze our own ideas and perceptions in a fresh, objective and dispassionate manner. It requires that we do not summarily reject a different perspective. We should, in fact, look forward to such avenues where we could see one more aspect which we tend to ignore. If we still want someone else to come forward and do the job then it means that we still believe in the short-cut. And we have not truly realized the fact that the longest is the shortest.

If the rot is everywhere (as of course it is because the educated, too, are not truly educated) then it has to be stemmed everywhere. We have to think of measures that the rot does not develop – in the first place. Therefore, the practice of “stemming the rot” needs to be institutionalized. Hence, the educational institutions will be the main focus. By introducing critical and scientific thinking component in our curriculum. By giving clear civilizational goals at a very early stage. The suggestion of introducing Arabic language and exposing all our children to it will end the culture of dependency. It will help do away with the divide between dunyaa and deen – our main problem. It will help stem some of the rots.

The individual is the focus now. He has escaped his responsibility so far. He has conveniently passed the buck to someone else in a never ending vicious cycle. The buck has hardly stopped anywhere. Because it has hardly stopped anywhere – and has resulted in a lot of rot – now it has to stop everywhere. Let us not give extra trouble to one or a few persons alone among us. This is itself a rot which we need to stem. It is, however, difficult for us because we nurse a romantic desire for a leader. Because we are a hero-worshipping people. And we ‘worship’ after they are dead. Then we flood the rivers with something related to crocodiles. We are a wonderful people on earth. I wish we could be and I am sure that we can. But currently:

payaam-e ‘aish-o-masarrat hamaeiN sunaataa hai

hilaal-e-‘eid hamaari haNsi uraataa hai