This topic harmonizes with the holy name of Imam (r.a) because amongst the gifts and bounties given by Imam (r.a) to the nation the most significant gift is that Imam (r.a) revived its Islamic Identity which is the fundamental element of a nation.

The Universe is dependent on Identity

This topic being academic also adheres to philosophical fundamentals because in the vision of philosophy the existence and survival of entire universe and all its parts are at the mercy of its identity. If identity was not present then from galaxies to atom nothing would have come into the world of existence.

The secret of identity lies in the survival of existence and the entire universe is at its mercy. This is a law by creation under which the system of existence has been developed and is functional. A law similar to this has also been accomplished for the social system of human beings with a difference that all universal laws are by force. Allah (s) being a creator has established these laws and the creation has accepted these laws. The creation (other than human being) have no rights of denial for these laws and hence they are forced to come into existence under these laws and continue their existence as predestined. But the specialty of human society is that the laws established for it by Allah (s) are not forcefully imposed on human beings but instead these laws are taught to man. Allah (s) has given man bounties like intellect and wisdom than given the authority to accept these laws by his own will and pleasure; and the under the umbrella of these laws he should achieve his purpose of life and creation.

In both of these segments irrespective of being forced laws or in control laws for human society Allah (s) has sent heavenly books and respected Prophets for interpretation and exposition of these laws. Man should be taught these laws through Prophets and since man has to spend his life in this universe it is essential for him to identify and recognize these laws without which it is impossible for human being to live his life.

Justice - A universal law

Amongst all these laws is Justice, the world of existence has come into picture under this law of Justice and is established and perpetual due to justice. Since human society is also part of this universe hence it has also come into existence out of Justice. Though the justice of non human world is by creation and force whereas social justice is by choice. This means man himself has to establish Justice and the Prophets have also come to do the exposition of Justice by creation and establishment of justice by choice for human beings. As it is also mentioned in Islamic teachings:

بالعدل قامت السّماوات والارض

The purpose of arousing of Prophets is also mentioned as same in the Prophetic traditions and Holy Quran

لِيَقُومَ النَّاسُ بِالْقِسْطِ
and the balance that men may conduct themselves with equity
Surah Hadid - 65

The nation (Ummah) needs Identity

The examples of resemblance, similarities and harmonization present between the laws of human society and laws of non human creation also contains this common law of identity. This implies that in the world of non human existence if someone has to raise his head and desires to manifest his existence than he will have to establish his identity, adopt an identity and acquire an identity. Similarly it is established for human society as well that unless a nation develops its identity it cannot come into existence as a nation (Ummah) but instead it transforms itself into other forms and faces like community or a flock of sheep presenting a picture of non human society. A human society will never be able to acquire the physique and attire of a nation if it does not develops an identity inside itself.

The meaning of Identity

As such the word "Identity" is very commonly used but if the context under which we are discussing over here is not clear it will be difficult to understand this discussion.

"Identity" means developing a personality; the way all of us have developed a personality of our self at an individual level. This principle of establishing a personality for every human being is known as Identification. Similarly the word identifying is also very commonly used and specifically in sickness where we say that the disease has been identified but in literal terminologies understanding someone's personality is known as identification since diseases also have a personality just like other things.

Establishing a personality is an act by choice and will

Our body is a structure which has been created without out interference. There was no need for your consultation when creating your body irrespective of whether you are pleased or not with your looks and colour of body. If our faces would have been made with our advice than definitely our faces would be very irritating just like we see today what kind of changes we do with the natural creation on our body, sometimes by removing things which were made essential on our faces. Thus Allah (s) said that they are distorting their faces hence if I give the creation of body in their control what devastation they will do with it. So at least I should not keep their body structure in their control so that they look good.

لَقَدْ خَلَقْنَا الْإِنسَانَ فِي أَحْسَنِ تَقْوِيمٍ
Certainly We created man in the best make
Surah Teen - 4

The most important thing which forms the basis and foundation of man and due to which the humanity of human beings is preserved is personality. Allah (s) has created the skeleton and body but handed over the task of development of personality inside this body to man himself. We have not come into this world in a well made form, we are here to make ourselves. The things which we have to make in this world are not those which we have made till date like big buildings, towers and we are happy that we have made all these things, the bridges, hospitals, etc. We have not come in this world to make all these things though making these also is our need but not our purpose. The purpose was to make yourself and for making your self you have been given time and opportunity. It is like someone is getting married and instead of he dressing himself as bridegroom he starts to dress someone else as the groom. This little and one time opportunity was given to you to become a bridegroom so you groom yourself and leave others for they will be given a separate opportunity. Similarly this little opportunity window of 40 - 50 years given to us is to make our self and that too these days have been further reduced due to suicide bombings and terrorist attacks. Hence we have very little time and this is for making ourselves . The meaning of making our selves is to make our personality and our personal identity.

The elements of Personality

Personality means development of such attributes in our self which leads towards our recognition and we are identified by those traits. It is like when we meet someone we introduce ourselves and when we introduce we talk about some of our current work , affairs etc like who am I ? We tell our name, parents name, our geography. All these are our identities, our names is our identity. It is possible that we would have included communism , our academic degree, our political status and many other self carved things. In short we want to tell the other party that this is me and this is my identity and with these things we are identified or in other words we have an upper hand over these things.

The difference between individual and social personality

The way we have an individual personality similarly we have a social personality as well. Similarly the community with which we are associated is our communal personality. Like this we have several identities, one individual, another social, communal. The way we are born from parents and being a child of particular mother and father is our association with that family and this is our family identity. Similarly we have identities related to our society, congregational and profession. These different titles is your identity or recognition, we have our personality from different aspects but in different forms, some are positive personality aspects, some negative personality aspects, some destructive personality aspects. The colour of our personality are various due to being positive and negative. And related to our personality and identity are our actions as well. Our actions, affairs and movements are all associated to our personality and identity.

Character and Speech - Mirror of Personality

Everything is dependent on our personality. The day our personality ends we will also perish. We in our actions are actually introducing our personality, the way Ameerul Momineen (a.s) says:

Human being is hidden behind his tongue; which human being? Not the body, which is in front of us. The body is not hidden behind the tongue instead our personality is hidden behind our tongue, below our eyes, inside our ears. Your personality is concealed behind all your actions. Thus when you speak you are not just expressing your voice you are also manifesting your personality. We are ourselves coming out from our tongues and mouths. Our personality is also falling out from our views. There is no need to ask about the personality, the name of parents and geography can be asked but those possessing deep and sharp vision estimate the personality of human being by just listening to his speech. As it is mentioned in the Holy Quran about the Prophet (s.a.w.s) that He used to identify people by  just looking at their faces. He used to identify their personalities by just staring at their faces whether he is a positive or a negative personality, whether he is a good or a bad personality.

In the same by talks and words a person gets manifested; what kind of person he is? what kind of personality he is?

Personality development sciences

Individual personality and creation of personality is a subject from Ethics. The science of ethics teaches us on how to make our personality. The science of jurisprudence which is known as "Shariah" (religious laws) is meant to polish our actions and deeds but the function of the science of ethics is to polish and decorate our personality. It balances your personality.

Amongst these science is one science which tells us about our social personality. An Ummah (nation) cannot come into existence and survive without a social identity. The system for human society which Allah (s) has established from the day of creation till the day of judgement is the System of Leadership and nation (Imamat and Ummat).

The system of Leader and nation (Ummah)- A divine and social system

If you look at Quran and the books prior to it, the teachings of Prophets and Infallible Imams you will see that the social system for man is that of Imamat (Leadership) and Ummat (nation). It is that system which did not approach and neither do we intend to come near it because we have made several alternative systems against it. This means we don't want the system of Moosa because the system bought by Moosa was that of Imamat and Ummat. Moosa tried a lot but people did not accept it but within a week Saamri gave them a system in the form of a calf which they easily accepted. Thus a calf is accepted easily but the system of Imamat and Ummat is not digested easily. There are two reasons behind this; one is that people are not oriented towards this system and second is that that theoricians and propagators of the system of calf are in abundance. The theorists for the system of Imamat and Ummat are not present who could express this system to us. Today the impression of Imamat which we have and the belief of Imamat in our minds is that of secondary form. This belief is the secondary aspect of the System of Imamat and not the complete system of Imamat. This system of Imamat has two major pillars, one that of Imam (Leader) and second of Ummah (nation). On one side Imamat will come into existence whose elements are mentioned by the Quran and specifically the Holy Prophet (s) has pointed towards the elements of Imamat. If you want to understand the Quranic interpretation of Imamat in very easy words than you should refer to the poems of Allama Iqbal and to a certain extent the picture of Imamat as painted by the Quran will come in front of you.

The second element of the system of Imamat is Ummat (nation) and Ummat also then has its own elements. What are the things required for a nation to come into existence? The function of Imam is to create a nation, polish it, architect it and keep it within its orbit and axis.

The creation of Ummat (nation) by the Messenger

The task accomplished by the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) looks ordinary but He (s) has done a very complex, tough and difficult job. We think that people did not knew the "Kalemah" and He (s.a.w.s) taught them the "Kalemah" with proper recitation method. The Prophet (s) said to them to say "There is no God but Allah". And was this the only difficulty that their tongues could not deliver the slogan "There is no God but Allah"? To say "There is no God but Allah" is not difficult.

What did you achieve if your tongue said "There is no God but Allah"?
If the heart and eyes are not Muslim, then there is nothing

The recitation of these words does not achieve anything and it was not that everything out of ignorance remained in its place and the Messenger made them Muslims by making them recite the slogan. The Messenger of Allah (s) transformed the face of this society which means he changed the identity of the society.

This nation had an identity and personality before which was made by the society. He (s.a.w.s) changed this personality and this task is so hard that the Messenger (s.a.w.s) declared this as Jihad-e-Akbar, the biggest crusade.

The Purpose of Education is Purification and creation of Personality

Personalities and identities are developed with utmost difficulty and then changing them is more difficult. The purpose of education is to invent a personality inside human being; the purpose of education is not just degrees. The deprivation which education is suffering by the hands of human being today has not happened ever before. The purpose of teachers is to invent a personality and identity in their students and pupils.

Creation of Personality - A Prophetic Act

The purpose of education is not to prepare employees and the most difficult thing is to build a communal identity, change a communal identity for which not everyone is eligible to do. Every Saamri can do a good job of taking advantage from the senselessness of communities and no big talent is required to do so. The capabilities of Moosa were much greater than Saamri than why was Moosa not successful but Saamri got success? The reality was that Moosa's capabilities were much greater but the task was very difficult. Moosa wanted to change the identity of slavery of a community to that of an identity of freedom. Iqbal says that slave communities never leave slavery, they never come out of it. If it was easy to leave slavery than the community of Iqbal would have been the foremost ranked communities of the world. This is the reason for the different efforts which Iqbal has put to get his community out of slavery no one else has done but this slavery has become a part of their personality and changing personality is difficult. The function of Saamri is not to change personality but instead to take advantage from a falsely created identity. Saamri did not change the identity of anyone, he read and analyzed the personality of the community understanding the weakness of this community. Then he took advantage from this weakness. Allah (s) has not sent Prophets as sages, Sufi's and ascetics just like the impression we have about Prophets. Their task was not to give spiritual blows and hymns like sages, Sufi and ascetics, they were guides for the nation. Allah (s) has not handed over the nations to Sages (Saadhu;s) and Sufi's . But for those who do not value Leaders they are worthy of being handed over to Sages (Saadhu). Thus the duty of Prophets is to change the incorrect personality and identity of communities made by Pharaohs, Namroods and Qaroons ; and then replacing these false identifications with divine identification. The duty of Prophets is to change these slavery, lowly, abased and disgraced personalities into eminent identities. The process of making these personalities is Identification (Tashakkhus). We get excited after doing few prostrations and start to dream about Houries whereas in Paradise the Houries would be trembling by looking at the dirty lustful intentions of this worshipper. What kind of thoughts and imaginations we have in our minds? It is evident when only the name of Allah is on our lips and something else in the heart then this is what happens.

It is not that religion is very difficult , it is quite easy but is not so simple the way we have thought about it. It has some depth in it. It is not that we have been told to pray five times a day, do fasting for one month, give few pennies to beggars and you will become the best person in this world. You cannot become a best person like this; this only happens when a change happens from inside. These prostrations should become our signs of identification and it should not happen that our personality becomes something else.  It remains a negative personality and man still remains occupied in doing prostrations.

The purpose of Prophets was to give an identity to the nation (Ummat). They came to give the nation (Ummat) a divine and religious identity which means to change the incorrect identity of the society replacing it with a pure Islamic and divine identity. Human being has many personalities and societies also have their identities made from before like the people living in Mecca at that time had a social identity which is today referred to as Ignorance. They are till date referred to by that identity like the historians when discussing about them say as the era of ignorance because this was their identity.

Communal and Geographical Identity

As against religious or divine identities the identity which is common amongst Muslims is that of community. For communism Imam Khomeini (r.a.) said that this is the biggest idol made by the hands of man which they worship. Allama Iqbal says:

کہمسلم نے بھی تعمیر کیا اپنا حرم اور
تھذیب کے اذر نے ترشوائے صنم اور
ان تازہ خداؤں میں بڑا سب سے وطن ہے
جو پیرہن اس کا ہے وہ مذہب کا کفن ہے

"Muslims made their own sacred house
but then the Uzr of culture also carved its own idols
Amongst these fresh Gods the biggest is nation (watan)
Whose attire is the shroud for Religion"

Worshipping region and country is also a big idol and these are also identities of our personality. When we identify ourselves to someone with the title of region or nationality then these become our identity and part of personality by which we are recognized and Allama says that nationality and nation is a big idol carved by our own hand. Allama says that amongst the different Gods which we have carved by our own hands the biggest one is nationality and its attire and signs of identification is the shroud for religion. Religion is wrapped in the attire of nationality and buried. Communism is also a God in whose attire religion is wrapped and buried. And in the place of religion the identity of community gets developed.

The causes for defeat and success of communities

1. The laws of defeat

Amongst the laws of defeat and success there is no interference of Faith, Piety and being good or bad. Defeat and success have their own laws and principles which Ameerul Momineen (a.s) has pointed towards in Nahjul Balagha. Ameerul Momineen (a.s) addressed his army and said there are certain traits present in you which would become the cause of your defeat whereas there are certain  traits in the army of our enemy due to which they will achieve dominance over you. This was the prophecy of Ameerul Momineen (a.s)

After reading this sermon it looks like this was not delivered 1400 yrs before but delivered just 14 days before for our community. The picture illustrated in this sermon is of today. In this Sermon Ali (a.s) says that I have been informed that one terrorist of Ameer-e-Shaam (Muawiya) has aggressed inside Yemen overtaking it whereas my representative in Yemen has ran away from there and has reached Kufa. Ali (a.s) says:

I have been informed about this event and By Allah! I say that very soon these people from Damascus will snatch away power from you because

They are on falsehood but united hence they will dominate you

You are on truth but divided

The dominance will not just be of those who are on truth whereas those on falsehood won't be defeated just because they are on falsehood. The dominance is of those who are united and defeat is of those who have divisions and dissensions amongst them. Then he said:

They are obedient and followers of their leader on falsehood whereas you are disobedient of your righteous leader (Imam).

Hence dominance is not just of those whose leader (Imam) is righteous but instead it is of those who are followers and obedient of their leader.

They return the trust assigned and handed over to them

Whereas you are treacherous. If I give you a clay pot to preserve as trust that also you will break its handle and then return to me, which means you will return it with treachery.

Thus dominance is of those who are trustworthy and defeat is of those who are treacherous.

Then he said that they are populating and reviving their centres and cities whereas you are isolating them.

These four things are proof for dominance and defeat. You should also add this other tradition along with these four things that the community which achieves dominance is the one possessing a high level personality , one whose identity is great and elegant. But a community who has made its identity lowly and has put on a different attire will perish and it has to perish. It has no rights to live in this world irrespective of being on truth or falsehood. The dependency of communities is on their personality identification. These are the principles of victory and defeat whether we accept it or not these laws won't change. You can keep on saying that your book is Quran, your God is Allah, Your Qiblah is Kaaba which is the house of Allah, our Holy Prophet (s) was so great; and all these are correct but since you have dissension amongst yourself you will be defeated.

2. The significant points for the progress of communities

The first point is that only those communities are granted grounds for progress who possess an identity and the second point is that the identity should be such that it has an upper edge over other communities. Every community has its identity. The culture with which we are associated leaves a big impact on our identity like the Indian culture which dominates us has a class system of upper and lower class. The communities which don't prefer to remain low and maintain an esteemed identity will achieve privilege. The greatest of identities is not communism, regionalism and nationalism but instead that system which is from greatest of all essence. This divine system is the religion of Islam and man cannot have two contradictory identities at one time. It is the hypocrites who are referred to as possessing dual personalities or some people develop this feeling of dual personalities about themselves which is incorrect, a sign of impurity and hypocrisy.

Islamic Identity is the Philosophy of Rituals in Islam

There is only one identity of Muslims and that is the one given by the Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.s). All the religious rituals (practical laws) have only one philosophy. All the rituals and practical acts which we do has only one common wisdom behind it. Though we have carved many wisdoms out of our own thoughts but the best wisdom are those which are expressed by the divine essence, the Prophets and the Holy Imams. These are the appropriate wisdoms of religion and correct philosophies and this is where we need to understand religion.

Everything comes out from inside which means you have to nurture and raise the faculties kept inside man by Allah (s.w.t); these need to be aroused. Everything has a Philosophy and wisdom behind it. The understanding of religion should start from this point exactly the way Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s) did. He made people understand the philosophy of religion for ten years in Mecca and then after migrating to Medina for ten years again he made people understand religion after which people were able to grasp what he was saying.

The wisdom behind forbidden acts

Something which the doctor says as harmful become forbidden; second is something which is harmful to intelligence is also forbidden. Intoxication is harmful for intelligence, music is harmful for intelligence, Novels and illusions are harmful for intelligence, Imaginations and dreamful things are harmful for intelligence. These things destroy intelligence, makes it weak and anything that wastes your intelligence is forbidden. Those things which incur losses on your intelligence are forbidden but those things which destroys your personality and identity, which results into a downfall of your personality and perishes your identity, which makes you loose your Islamic and religious identity are amongst biggest of forbidden things which Allah will never forgive.

The revival of personality is revival of human nation (Ummat)

Allah (s.w.t) says:

One who gives life to one self has given life to entire humanity

And one who kills one self has murdered entire humanity. This shows how great this act is of giving life to someone. If giving life to a diseased body is equivalent to giving life to entire humanity then how great will be the achievement of giving life to the personality of man.

What is the thing which has destroyed the Islamic personality of Muslims and who are those people who did this work?

3. The internal and external dangers on the Identity of Muslim nation

At present there are two big dangers from outside and few internal dangers are present within Muslims which are not damaging the body but the heart of Muslims. They are wasting the identity of Muslims and the Muslim nation has lost and loosing its identity.

A. External dangers

Two external dangers are listed below:

1. Globalization is one big external danger

Today the world is interested towards globalization which means we should end or collate all local things thereby making a global system. One global political system, one global economic system, one global culture, one global governance and one global merchandise system. Everything should be such that the entire world transforms into one system which should be controlled from one control room. They have made attempts to do this and still attempts are ongoing and wherever they have experienced difficulties they tried to remove it with might. At present the wars that are imposed on Islamic world somewhere in the name of terrorism or democracy or freedom are all promotion of globalization which they have themselves termed it as clash of civilization. The eight big civilizations and many other small cultures should be terminated into one common culture and civilization across the globe.

This is the big danger for Islamic identity which is like wild elephant. Today the satanic globalization is increasing because those who should have presented Islamic Globalization are indulged into other things.

Imamat and Mahdivayat is the Islamic system of globalization

In reality the ideology of Mahdaviyat is the globalization system of Islam. The system of governance which Allah (s) has made is the best system and that is the system of Imamat (Leadership) and Ummat (nation). This is the perception of Islamic Globalization which we have turned into fiction tales. We have placed Imam Mehdi (a.t.f.s) in Bermuda triangle and have ourselves started to dream, indulged into insensible acts, started the drama of meetings with Imam (a.t.f.s). There are shops and businesses setup to get us into such things. We have left such a beautiful global system and have become promoters of satanic globalization. One objective of this globalization is to destroy the Identities of nation and world should become attentive towards it.

Attempts of preserving identity in West and China

The people of West have realized that as an outcome of globalization our western identity will be demolished. This is the reason that Britain has not yet become part of Euro. It says that with this the identity of Britain will be lost, the historical personality will be lost. They want to make their own separate system and even Europe wants to have its separate system so that the European identity is preserved. China is that nation whose priority concern is its identity even before its economy. China has been the poorest nation, it was captured by Japan and then by Britain but still China never allowed its identity to slip out and it always maintained its personality.

The negligence of Muslims and its cause

At present Muslims are the most negligent because the centre of Muslims is with Arabs who are the most senseless creation on earth today. The Pharaohs made the Pyramids of Egypt which is the identity of Egypt. Things changed with time and Egypt went under control of many others but still it did not allow its inheritance which is the identity of Egypt to obliterate and also preserved it. The question is whether the Pyramids which is the graveyard of Pharaohs deserves more significance or the place of Wilayat of Holy Prophet (s.a.w.s)? The land on which the greatest of all persons stepped they destroyed its footprints. If you do not have faith on this Prophet and do not respect him but at least preserve it as your communal inheritance. There is no bigger treasure than this for you but still you destroyed these one by one. If you visit Mecca and Medina you will see big five star hotels of Jews and Zionists but you won't find the places of remembrance of Prophet , his progeny and his companions. If there was something they destroyed it. This was your identity in the world. As Allama Iqbal says:

"When infidelity starts to rise from Kaaba, then how Muslim Identity can remain."

When the centre itself looses its identity then how can Islamic Identity be seen in other areas?

They snatched away everything from these Arabs by giving them two things; women and alcohol. And more than anything they took their identity. And as result of Arabs loosing everything Muslims also lost everything. A handful of Jews and Zionists in Israel established a state against millions of Muslims and then started to humiliate them.

According to Allama Iqbal:

 فکر عرب کو دے کے فرنگی تخیلات
اسلام کو حجاز و یمن سے نکال دو

"By giving Western thoughts to Arabs
Eradicate Islam from Hijaz and Yemen."

This is how they made Muslims without any personality and identity. Their identity and personality has been lost and whatever humiliation you do for a person who lacks a personality it is ineffective. Those who do not show any reaction are without personality, those who do not show any self respect are lacking personality.

The promoters of Western civilization and culture have the biggest objective of destroying the identity of Muslims whereas Muslims are loosing their personality out of their own hands and this is a big danger.

2. The second external danger: Secularism

The second danger for the Islamic identity of Muslims is that of Secularism. Secularism means non religious system which is becoming the basis of destruction of Islamic identity of the Muslim nation.

The Internal causes of downfall of Identity

The internal danger and threat for Islamic identity are those religiously forbidden acts present amongst the entire nation. Anything which results into wastage of intelligence is forbidden like heroine, drugs, alcohol are all forbidden. Similarly communism, hereditary worship, land worship, personality worship are also forbidden because it results into wastage of Islamic identity. The religious identity is lost due to these and these are big forbidden things. Allah might forgive robberies and forbidden food but these sins won't be forgiven by Allah (s) because uncompensated losses are incurred by these. These forbidden things are the cause behind downfall of nations.

The elements adulterating identity in Pakistan

There are several causes for adulteration of the Islamic identity in Pakistan. The meaning of distortion over here is that the name should remain Islamic but it should be deviated to an extent that no signs of Islam should be seen in it. This is the distorted religious identity where all Muslims either watch as silent spectators or are cooperating with adulterators.

The biggest example of adulteration of Islamic identity is the existence of Taliban. It is such a blood thirsty and accursed group that got birth in Pakistan for which no references are seen in history. We don't know when this bad omen will get away from us and it might take centuries to wash this filth out from Pakistan.

Taliban is the cartoon of Islam which means if Islam is distorted and presented then its face will be that of Taliban. The Supreme Leader has termed Taliban as the cartoon of Islam. This is one form of distorting the face of Islam and there are other ways also but this one is clearly evident to us.

Why was the cartoon of Islam made in Pakistan?

It is an important question as to why Taliban came into existence in Pakistan? Why the cartoon of religion was made so easily in Pakistan? Do you also know who are those who made this cartoon? They saw the absence and lack of one thing in Pakistan which was the non presentation of true and real face of Islam. This nation has till date not seen the true, beautiful and enlightened face of Islam so that they could differentiate between the distorted and true face of Islam. Thus whatever is presented as religion they embrace it and this is the secret behind success of enemy and till the time this cause is present in future also such things will be done. America, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan; these three experts gave birth to this accursed group and till the time these Saamri's are present such things will keep on happening.

The Islamic Identity of Muslims in the vision of Allama Iqbal

Allama Iqbal diagnosed this as the pain of his community that the Muslim nation had no religious identity. The selfhood of Iqbal was not that of Sufism. The selfhood expressed by Islam was the Islamic identity of Muslims. This was the desire and pain of Iqbal. Iqbal and Imam Khomeini are not made out of lectures they are made out of pains. They both possessed pain, the pain which did not allow both of them to sit silent, the pain which did not allow them to rest. The pain which made Iqbal raise these appeals and the pains which made Imam Khomeini (r.a) raise complaints were common.

The desire of Allama and Imam Khomeini

The desire of Allama was that this nation should once again acquire an Islamic Identity and he was also contented that this will happen. And eventually this desire of Iqbal, this hope of Iqbal and the falcon of Iqbal was born who returned the nation its lost identity. The name of this personality is Khomeini the great. Imam Khomeini (r.a) cannot be just identified with few of his verdicts and certain memorable incidents it needs time to recognize him. In this century and era one who turned the skin of Ummah, one who got fruits out of the efforts of Prophets, the desires of Infallible Imams (a.s) were fulfilled with his efforts, whose existence accomplished the invocations of Imams (a.s). He was the person who returned back the identity of nation (Ummat). This same Ummah who was becoming something else once again was introduced by its Islamic Identity.

The cure for the pains of Ummah

At present in medical science there are few visions present from which people are getting treated. One is Allopathic way in which there are doctors, clinics and hospitals where surgery is done. Another way is Homeopathic way by which also treatment is done, then there is one ancient Unani way in which treatment is done with herbs. And then there are followers of Sages (Sadhu's) who try to get treated by them.

So where should the Ummah get treated from? One are those people who are blowing and giving amulets. They ask people to recite supplications, invocations to solve the problems. You should not misinterpret that supplications are something wrong, they have their own philosophy , wisdom and are essential. But for solving the problems of Ummah this is not the way.

One method of resolving difficulties of Ummah is Welfare activities by which you should serve food to hungry, etc just like Abdul Sattar Eidhi who is the leader of this thought and there is no one greater than him in welfare activities. He has global services which are worth appreciating and cannot be denied. They also claim this method as a way to resolve the problems of Ummah.

One method is that of Sir Syed which is to teach English to Muslim Ummah, make schools and academies, send children to foreign countries for jobs and higher educations then by these things the Muslim nation will progress.

Then there is one method of treatment of the pains of Ummah expressed by Allama Iqbal and the same was expressed by Imam Khomeini (r.a). This method is where you need to get back your lost identity and till the time your lost religious and Islamic identity is not reinstated none of your problems will be resolved.

The significant elements for reinstating Islamic identity

The things that make the personality of a religious and Islamic society are:

1. Thoughts: The first thing for the creation of personality of the nation are thoughts. The community that does not possess thoughts does not have any personality and a community lacking personality or identification ends up in devastation. This is natures law. The beliefs are also part of thoughts.

2. Inclinations: The different inclinations and orientations present inside man also have fundamental relevance in giving shape to man's personality. According to Maulana Room, O brother ! What are you? He says if you are weighed then you are few kilos of ribs, few kg of bones , few kilos of meat. But this is not you instead your reality is your thoughts, your visions and your inclinations. You are not the name of this collection of Ribs and bones.

3. Habits or Faculties: We use the word Habits but the scholars call them faculties. This implies those traits that enter our existence by becoming habits. These are the significant elements of our personality. The way our body is made of flesh similarly our personality is made out of habits. In order to understand the body genetic science is applied similarly to understand a personality inclinations and orientations are seen. His habits and faculties are seen to assess what kind of attributes have become part of his existence. First he was cheating others for self interest and now he cheats out of habit. It is like the proverb" A thief can stop robbing but won't leave cheating" Why? because robbery is his act but cheating is his personality and this will only end by changing his personality.

4. Civilization and Culture: One more effective element in making the personality of human being is the culture under whose umbrella he accomplishes many things. The land where we are born is also our mother; the one who physically gave birth to us is also our mother but more than this mother is those mothers who gave birth to our personality and in whose laps our personality was nurtured. Thus personality comes into existence through four mothers; Culture, Society, Inheritance and History.

According to Allama Iqbal the secret of making personality which means what does a man need to acquire perfection?

چہ باید مرد را طبع بلندی مشربِ نابی
دلِ گرمی نگاہ پاک بینی جان بے تابی
"What does a perfect man need, an elevated nature, a pure drink of ideology
A warm heart, a purified vision and a restless soul"

Similarly according to Iqbal what are criteria's of a leader who constructs personalities?

نگاہ بلند، سخن دلنواز، جان پرسوز
یہی ہیں رختِ سفر میرِ کارواں کے لئے
" Elevated vision, heart pleasing words, a passionate self
These are the amenities of journey for the leader of caravan"

For a nation (Ummah), "Mashrabe Naab" means a pure religion and elevated nature which means high level of courage is required. Iqbal spent his entire life in elevating the courage of his nation, like he always asked his nation to fly high and do not fly low like house flies, you should fly like a falcon.

تو شاہیں ہے پرواز ہے کام تیرا
تیرے سامنے آسماں اور بھی ہیں
"You are a Falcon, your duty is to fly
You have many skies in front of you"

Iqbal has been telling to me and you that why are you sitting on piles of garbage like house flies? You are a falcon and not an insect who lives on dead corpses and impurities.

Shaheed Sadr has written in one of his historical analytics that you know what was the crisis that took place in the era of Imam Hasan (a.s)? Imam (a.s) took the governance and leadership in his hand , then went out for a war and later after negotiation handed over everything to his opponents and enemy, Why did Imam (a.s) compromised with a barbaric enemy?

The nation (Ummah) which Imam (a.s) inherited was victim of a crisis. It was a victim of personality crisis, it has lost its personality and identity. And within its personality what was lost the most was its conviction and determination. That nation was not a possessor of conviction. The more Imam (a.s) used to elevate their courage they were demonstrating further lowliness. Imam (a.s) used to talk big and the people used to get afraid. The way we are, What kind of leader is desired by us? One who can get us out of prisons and courts, one who finds jobs for us, gets us promotions, resolves our routine difficulties and gets us out of hardships. The leaders made by Allah (s) are opposite to this. You should see what the leader has done in Iran. He made hundreds of thousands  beautiful youth  captives , martyrs and handicapped, created difficulties for many. And this is what is a true leader. The Imam of Iqbal is one who:

موت کے آئینے میں دکھا کر رخ دوست
زندگی اور بھی تیرے لئے دشوار کرے

ہے وہی تیرے زمانے کا امامِ برحق
جو تجھے حاضر و موجود سے بیزار کرے

" By demonstrating the face of beloved (Allah) in the mirror of death
He makes your life more difficult and unbearable.

He is the righteous Imam of your era
One who frustrates you from the materialistic world."

If the leader of a nation is of elevated courage, full of conviction whereas the nation is non willing than the correct picture of Imam and Ummat (nation) is not made and this was the situation with Imam Hasan and the nation of Imam Hasan. Imam was full of conviction whereas Ummat (nation) without any conviction, Imam had high intentions whereas Ummat (nation) was having lowly intentions. And all this was because the Ummat (nation) has lost its personality and Identity.

5. Desires: One activator in making the personality of man is his desires which play a big role:

تیری دعا ہے کہ ہو تیری آرزو ہو پوری
میری دعا ہے تیری آرزو بدل جائے
" Your supplication is that your desires should be fulfilled
whereas my supplication is that your desires should change"

You are mourning that your desires are not getting fulfilled whereas I am crying that why don't you change your desires? What kind of abased desires are these? We say in our gatherings to send salutations for the health and well being of believers but we never ask to send salutations for the sake of martyrdom.

6. Abilities: Man makes his personality out of his created abilities. Those nations are great who possess big abilities and great capabilities. Those nations who only give birth to blind followers can never reach anywhere. The nation where youths of high conviction and innovations are born that nation develops a personality. The nation is formed with the accumulation of such individuals.

7. Purpose and Objectives: For creating personality of a nation a big fundamental element is that of purpose and objectives. Spending and wasting time is the work of flocks of sheep who graze for the full day and in the evening lie down somewhere. This is not a nation; a nation has a purpose, an objective, one who has inherited a trust and wants to pass this trust to further generations. A nation has an Islamic and religious identity.

8. Movement: Movement plays a significant role in the personality of nation (Ummat). Stagnancy and Stillness obliterates the personality of a nation, it breaks and devastates. Movement makes nations perpetual and it is movement which makes a nation survive.

9. Reaction: The personality of a nation is recognized by its reaction. What does this nation do at the time of examinations of its personality. The circumstances in Pakistan are grievous but what is more sorrowful is the reaction of people. In all these events the nation has not presented itself appropriately and did not give proof of its esteemed personality. In regards to the religious and Islamic personality of the Muslim nation in the secrets of selfhood Allama Iqbal says:

دربیان اینکہ اصل نظام عالم از خودی است

Allama says that the basis of the entire system of world is on Selfhood which means on the basis of personality and identity.

This icon of existence and this world of existence are all from the secrets of selfhood and identity. Whatever you see and witness is an outcome of selfhood, these are the results of the identity of personality.

This implies that when the identity and personality of this universe manifested itself than this world of existence came into existence.

Allama intends to say that the way this world of existence came into existence was that Allah (s) gave it an identity and personality. The world of existence than manifested its personality and identity due to which this universe came into existence and all these colours are due to this. Then he says after this that if a drop develops selfhood inside it turns into a pearl. This drop has a personality inside it and when this drop of water goes inside the shell it comes out after becoming a pearl.

 اس جہان کی حیات خودی کی طاقت سے ہے
لہذا جتنی استقامت ہے اتنی زندگی ہے
" The survival of this world is from Selfhood
Thus the span of life is equivalent to perseverance"

So how did this drop of water turn into pearl? Allama says what has happened is that till the time the personality of this drop of water did not get manifested it remained a drop of water. But when it entered the shell it spent some days in isolation and then this drop realized its personality and the moment its personality got manifested it became a precious pearl. Similarly the Muslims are drops who have a precious pearl concealed inside them which is in the form of personality. You should make it like a shell nurturing a pearl and when it exposes itself the entire world will see is inward essence. Then he says after this that wine has no selfhood inside it, it has no personality inside it. If it had personality than it wont be dependent on water.

What is the secret of firmness and perseverance of a mountain? He says that the greatness and grandeur of a mountain is out of its selfhood and at the mercy of its personality. The day this mountain leaves its selfhood and personality it will turn into dust. Today it is difficult to cross this mountain but the day its selfhood is lost it will become a desert stampeded by animals and camels. This implies that the communities which are getting stampeded today, those who have floods inside them today and are getting ruined were at certain time before like mountains. It was difficult for others to even look at their peaks but why are they abased today? Why caravans are passing over them today? because they have lost their selfhood.

Why do waves rise in oceans? This is ordinary water but when its tides feel that I am present in this ocean but there is no one to see me, I have no movement thus it develops the feeling of personality inside it. And then with this feeling of personality it develops an elevation inside it and it tells the people sitting on the shore that be careful that this ocean is not having just frogs and fishes I am also present inside it. This is the picture of selfhood for a nation. In the formation of selfhood or personality the purpose of man plays a crucial role.

Allama says that the selfhood of personality develops with purpose. The survival of life lies in purpose and demand. The role of knowledge is also to manifest this demand.

Life is the name of exertion, it is the name of quest and desires. Life lies under desires.

You should make purpose your desires, make dignity your desires and then keep this desire alive inside your heart  so that you do not turn into a tomb out on dust but instead you become a candle who fulfils the desires of others. By looking at you people should know that this is possible. Today the personality of Imam Khomeini (r.a) is like this only whereby the weak and feeble also got courage by looking at him and realize that all this can happen with empty hands as well.

This materialistic world is established on desires and the innate nature of every thing in reality is the trustee of desires.

Every heart is passionate with desires, which means the heart in which desire is present is in ecstasy.

What is desire? The function of desire is the same as that of Khizr. Man is Moosa and desire is Khizr. The way Khizr by expressing the secrets to Moosa made him more perfect the desires also play the same role of Khizr for man.

O the community who is not aware about the secret of life , who is stranger to life, Rise and drink the wine of purpose and then Rise again in ecstasy. That purpose which is clear like dawn and that which burns everything else to ashes other than God.

That purpose which is higher and beyond skies and which steals the heart. We are alive by the fire of purpose inside us. The community which cannot develop a purpose inside them are dead communities. 

Today if we are alive, the Messenger (s.a.w.s) has made us a nation, the book which made us a nation, the Ahlulbayt (a.s) who made us a nation, how did they do this? Till the time a nation has a purpose in front of them and that too a new purpose gets created at every step only that nation remains alive. But the nation who drifts away from purpose becoming a victim of daily life chores and his purpose of life just becomes turning morning to evening and evening to morning then no one respects this community. Allah has told Messengers to leave them:

 …سَوَائ عَلَیْہِمْ ََنذَرْتَہُمْ َمْ لَمْ تُنذِرْہُمْ لاَیُؤْمِنُونَ
Leave them for they will never receive guidance from Allah.

ِنَّ لاَیَہْدِی الْقَوْمَ الْفَاسِقِی
ِنَّ  لاَیَہْدِی الْقَوْمَ الظَّالِمِینا
ِنَّ ا لاَیَہْدِی مَنْ ہُوَ کَاذِب کَفَّار

Allah does not guides such communities who have left the path of Allah. May Allah bring that day when this nation on this land also becomes victorious and prestigious, a nation with personality, a nation with conviction and a nation who just like its lush green past awakens with a lush green future. And May Allah bring that day when this nation also witnesses the days of comfort so that it can create a purpose for itself and than reach that purpose.