A History Lesson for Mr Khan
By Syed Kamran Hashmi
Westfield, IN
Old habits never die. With time, if we do no tame them down, they would grow so strong that they may end up, by themselves, defining our personalities. Lying is one of those habits, trust me, which would not wither away easily, requiring special efforts and focused personal attention to be subdued.
Alas, the Chairperson of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan and the most provocative speaker nowadays suffers from the same problem (of mendacity). It manifests itself quite often when he, in his heart, is convinced by the merit of his argument and is attempting to make a point. Let me elaborate: listen to some of his interviews and soon you would notice that he keeps on repeating a particular catchphrase again and again. Everyone does that, there is nothing wrong with this. What is the problem? None, as long as it is true. The problem arises when he incorrectly attributes that expression to an important historical personality - Muslim or otherwise - without doing any background investigation, confirming the source of the phrase or even using his own common sense.
By doing so, I am not sure if the former cricketer-turned-politician-turned-revolutionary is able to make his point but what he says gets recorded, replayed and reproduced as an evidence of his lack of understanding of the core issues and may be his inability to solve the problems of common people. No, I do not think it is just an academic debate, nor it can be shrugged off as a matter of little importance. For people like me, it depicts a personality trait, a dangerous characteristic of a leader who would use any technique-no matter how low it is-to demonstrate the accuracy of his claim.
Not many people I have met in my life, I must admit, are so sure about their self-righteousness, as he is, even when they are wrong. My disagreement with his politics and his stance on election rigging notwithstanding, I still appreciate his confidence, arrogance and absence of any sign of remorse. He makes these statements in front of thousands of people as if he has heard the heroes utter those words himself, leaving no space for ambiguity and equivocation. The truth, nevertheless, unfolds the other way when one starts looking for the source or tries to confirm its validity.
Few years ago, when he was supporting the then Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Imran would tell the baseless story in his interviews about Sir Winston Churchill who, while attending a high level meeting, had allegedly said in the middle of the Second World War that as long as the courts are working in his country and providing justice, England could never be subjugated.
That story was catchy, no doubt about that. But, unfortunately not all catchy stories are true. This was the case with this story as well. Yet, the Chairman kept on telling the story to the people of Pakistan on national television till the time an explanation from Mr Richard M Langworth, an expert on this issue and editor since 1982 of Finest Hour, The Journal of Winston Churchill, was published in Daily Times on July 13, 2012 in these words:
"The statement or key phrase from it is not among his 15 million published words (books, articles, speeches, private papers). He might have said it to someone in the judiciary, but I find no evidence. And his writings are studded with sentiments about why democracies win wars over dictatorships."
Lately, I have observed, Imran is using Hazrat Ali Ibn e Talib’s (RA) name for his political objectives. In his speech that he delivered on the second day of Azadi March, while addressing his supporters, Imran told them a quote attributing to the Fourth Caliph(RA) who according to the Chairman had said, “Never let a trader/merchant become your ruler because they will make money for themselves first….”
Like his previous story about the British Prime Minister, this phrase also seems to be untrue and absent from both the reliable Shia and Sunni sources. The reason is evident to any student of history: the respectable Calpih(RA) himself belonged to the family of merchants (including most likely himself).
As a general principle we all agree that traders should not conduct personal business while in power. But, how can we expect such a quotation from the most venerated follower, the son-in-law and the most knowledgeable companion of the Prophet(SAW) in this case? Not only his father and grandfather, the Prophet (PBUH) himself was also a merchant as well as a ruler. How could we miss that piece, regarding the profession of the Prophet, of history from our minds? In addition, the third Caliph of the Muslims Hazrat Usman (RA) was also a renowned merchant of his time. There are many authentic ahadees [the sayings of the Prophet (SAW)] which deal with the honest practices of business and encourage the Muslims to adopt those fundamental principles for being successful. Other quotes which reflect the importance of business in the economy can also be found easily. Knowing these fundamental facts, can we just call the former cricketer naive and excuse him for using religion to gain short-term political support?
Unlike Islam, as far as I remember, it was Plato who wanted to divide the society in into three groups: philosophers, guardians and workers that included both the farmers and the traders. Compared to the top two professions, he did not think very high of the last group and said, “Woe to the nation whose traders become politicians.”
Similarly Hinduism has classified society through its caste system into five groups: Brahamin, Kshatriya, Vaishiya, Sudra and Pariah. Vaishiyas, the traders fell in the middle, at number three in this arrangement. Nonetheless, Islam had an entirely different vision about people. It did not malign any profession or disrespect any trade. The only virtue that distinguished one person from another in its teaching was the fear of God. Everyone, regardless of one's means of living, was otherwise equal and equally reliable, respectable and eligible to rule.
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