World or the Hereafter is ruined !
HISTORICALLY, such an event must have taken place in Pakistan every now and then, or under a well-organized plan to target Islam and Pakistan, once again a tragic and reprehensible incident has taken place in a private factory in Sialkot in which a Sri Lankan manager was tortured and burnt to death by his employees for blasphemy.
Infuriated people claim that the victim had hurt their religious feelings. The facts about the causes and motives behind the tragedy will be revealed after the inquiry report.
However, this tragic incident has created an atmosphere of outrage across the country and the Sialkot incident is being condemned by every school of life, including top government figures, heads of state institutions, and leaders of political and religious parties.
Undoubtedly taking the law into one’s own hands by an angry mob and punishing a person by imposing a court of law may not be acceptable to any school of life, but it remains to be seen what the factors behind such incidents are? Muslims all over the world have long been suffering from persecution and mental, spiritual and physical torture not only in the United States and Europe but also in their own countries.
Those who call them narrow-minded, extremists, fundamentalists and terrorists have also included comrades and strangers.
The feelings of those who have a deep respect for Islam are sometimes hurt by blasphemy of the Last Prophet (PBUH) and sometimes their feelings are hurt by blasphemy against the Holy Qur’an. Muslims can tolerate everything, but blasphemy of the Prophet (PBUH) and the Quran is unbearable.
The reason behind most of the incidents of blasphemy in Pakistan is that the perpetrators of this heinous crime have full backing and acceptance of the world and they are usually not punished for what they have done.
If the court convicts, the international pressure comes and the government forcibly sends the convicted criminals abroad with dignity and respect, where they have the opportunity to spend the rest of their lives in luxury.
There is no doubt that ordinary Pakistani Muslims are the victims of extraordinary sensitivities due to the bitter experiences of the past.
Forgetting the teachings of the Prophet (PBUH) and accusing a Muslim or a non-Muslim of insolence and disrespect, people started judging on their own merits.
In the Islamic system of justice formulated in the light of the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), every accused has the right to be cleansed and to testify in his favour.
Our religious affiliation and the scholars also taught their followers and did not consistently explain that a Muslim is bound to meet the requirements of justice in all circumstances and that no one has the right to transgress the legal limits set in enmity or opposition.
Muslims around the world claim to love the religion of Islam but fail to acquire knowledge of Islamic teachings.
It is the result of not being aware of Islamic teachings that Islamic boundaries are being crossed; Pakistan is already notorious that here minorities are discriminated against on religious grounds.
Laws enacted in respect of sacred figures and books are being used by people for personal gains, political ends and factional interests.
Incidents like Sialkot reinforce this propaganda and further expose the weak behaviour of the religious class.
Is conviction at the hands of mobs a requirement of Islamic teachings and acceptable practice in the light of the Prophet’s (PBUH) teachings?
Absolutely Not; then what is the use of the word in the misfortune of a person who, on the Day of Judgment, berefts the love of the Prophet (PBUH)due to some deliberate or unintentional act and the Prophet (PBUH) becomes a plaintiff against his own Ummah on the charge of oppression and deprivation of rights against non-Muslim subjects? We had to improve the world, but how will our world improves; even our hereafter is ruined!
—The writer is a regular columnist, based in Lahore.
