When I see piles of filth all around, boiling septic tanks, blocked road, shopping bags coming out of cars running on roads, in which there are peals of fruits or wrappers of biscuits and candies, cattle tied up in parks, dung, and throwing ones building material along the road, breaking an already broken road further, stealing bricks from old, historical buildings, and breaking a broken thing further, this has become a common trait of our society. The British gave us best buildings and constructed infrastructure.
We could not sustain it. And all of this was the responsibility of people in the government, of people with authority that they take care of it. Is filth in the streets, throwing it at such places where there are no containers, or when a place is not prescribed for it; is this a fault of the government too? To give another jolt to a falling wall is also a cunning act of the government? Filth in parks or tying cattle over there, or to throw the dung of cattle on footpaths in such a way that all the flower beds or grounds appear dirty? Whose fault is this after all? Believe me please! This is not the fault of the government; this is the fault of the people.
Ok, so it’s not your fault, it’s my fault. After all when shall we develop individual responsibility? I have seen so many government water taps that have been installed by corporation or the municipality. Water is gushing out of them, and it is being wasted without any concern. The heart burns. The government has installed street lights. There are switches installed with them. Nobody is ready to switch them off. In the darkness of the night, in daylight, it is running continuously. When this light gets turned off, we come out on the streets, that this government be overthrown. The politicians should be hanged. Why does the mall road of Lahore block? Why do people protest? Please remember! What the wise man of the world said is true. The nation that is not going to take proper responsibility of its obligations, and shall always keep on claiming its rights in the form of protests and hunger strikes, that nation shall always remain under arrears, unsuccessful and shall keep on infighting. This infighting happens in the name of sects, religion, territories, skin color, and language or in the name of small and petty issues. We should be concerned of our responsibilities.
I went to a house of Lahore railway that was a huge house made on five canals. I was astonished to see its construction. The British had developed this with a lot of diligence and honesty. That was no more a house but a ruin, whose doors were broken, whose windows did not have glass, and they were stained, a part of the roof of veranda had fallen down. I asked was it like this from the beginning? That person said, “I have just gotten it allotted in my name as I am an employee of Pakistan railway. All the people who lived here before used it but no one looked after it or maintained it, because it was not their own, it belonged to the government.” I shall never be able to forget those words, because a government property should be looked after with greater care than a personal thing, because millions of Pakistani people have a right in this. And millions of people have a share in it. If we had taken care of that house that has been developed with a wonderful manner and is quite cold in summer and quite cozy in the winter. Its verandas, its roofs stop the heat. Its construction is a marvel and it is quite necessary for the body and health. But our indifference and our hypocrisy made it a ruin. Is this a fault of the government too? Is this a fault of the people with authority? Do we have to come out on streets due to this? We have to protest? Such a protest that blocks the roads? Those women who are going to hospital in an ambulance and who are suffering from the pangs of delivery, those patients whose breaths are breaking and they have to necessarily reach the emergency ward, they die on roads? Should we not look at our duties that what am I obliged to do? Or do I have to fight the battle of our rights on the name of a union?
I met an old man who was of the times when Rustam and Sohrab, when those factories were on their climax, he was a president of the union in that factory. His tears did not stop. He was crying. His house was a museum of illnesses, his generations were disobedient, and his kids would hold his collar and slap him. He showed me the signs of beating himself. In his life there was poverty. His children were fighting against each other and had gone to courts. They had turned to hospitals and his generations were handicapped. They were crippled and lame. Where ever the daughters got married, their lives were infernal. When his daughters-in-law came, they made his house a hell. He said to me. After listening to your sermons I have felt that I was the president of the union over there.
This is of a time when Rustam and Sohrab cycle and the factory were on the peak. As a president of the union I could get every illegitimate demand approved. Otherwise the factory shall be closed. I would threaten them to burn the factory. We had broken things many times. We used to persuade the owners about our demands. In those times we used to incur losses of lacs of rupees daily, that is equivalent to crores of rupees according to the present times. At last they would be persuaded and would accept our illegitimate demands. I was a lion over there. I was a king. I hoarded piles of wealth in my house. Because whatever I wished would happen, because I was the president of the union. But today I have felt that whatever I did, I bought hell for my generations. While dying I might go to hell, or maybe Allah might forgive me. But what should I do about the hell that is here in my life before I die? My house, my life, my generations, my destiny, my luck, everything has broken. I am quite worried! I remain lost from inside. And I remember every such moment when I acted wrongly with the owners and treated them with excess and oppression. Is there a way that I can be forgiven?
Readers! Till what time this oppression shall remain in our society? That we call the battle of our rights? Why are we creating loss for our generations? Is this also a fault of the government? Should the prime minister and the president of the country be hanged again in open? They collar should be stretched? They should be abused? Please remember! I am not taking sides with any government, politics is not my profession, whoever comes on throne, and I shall have the same demand from myself and you as well.
I Become Happy: Sultan Mehmood Ghaznavi said to Ayaz! Tell me a sentence that when I say it while I am happy, I become sad, and when I say it when I think about it when I am sad, I become happy. Ayaz said: “This moment shall also pass” (Muhammad Bashir Tahir)
Excerpt from the Weekly Sermon
A Sermon of Peace and Spirituality
Sheikhul-Wazaaif, Hazrat Hakeem Muhammad Tariq Mehmood Majzoobi Chughtai
The Cause of Displeasure of Allah
Hazrat Muhammad (ﷺ) said: Any person, man or woman, who would act miserly in spending for a cause that can be a reason for attaining pleasure of Allah, then he would spend a lot more than that in such a place that is a cause of displeasure of Allah. And a person who shall postpone going to Hajj (pilgrimage) for a worldly purpose, he shall observe before the fulfillment of his desire that people have come back from pilgrimage. And a person who shall refrain from helping a Muslim, he shall have to indulge in a sinful act, in which there will be no reward. (Fazaail-e-Hajj, p. 32). The Whole World: Hazrat Muhammad (ﷺ) said, “A person who is at peace at his/her home, and Allah Almighty has given health to his body, and the food for one day is available to him, so he possesses the whole world.
