Hope Never Dies

 

Written By: Nav KA (United Kingdom)

"Be it Attar, or Rumi or Razi or Ghazali Nothing
is attainable without tears in the twilight of dawn" Allama Iqbal.

I am a British born Pakistani and my love and passion for Pakistan is as intense as anyone’s.  Distances don’t matter if you love something so much.

We hear much about Pakistan in the media, corruption, protests, deaths, raids, terrorism, military action but we seldom so hear about the beauty of Pakistan. A nation state born from a dream, a dream so powerful it forced out colonists and mobilised millions in the largest human migration in history, a dream so dear to Pakistani’s it lives on today. This dream was Allama Iqbal’s legacy. This is Pakistan.

Allama Iqbal, better known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan (The Thinker of Pakistan) was the inspirational leader and ideological founder of Pakistan who helped mobilise the Muslim people behind Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Not for religious segregation or oppression but for a future based on Religious ideals of Peace, Justice and Ethics.

The quote above, one of my favourites, refers to aspiring to many great thinkers but it also talks about the fact you can not attain anything unless you make a habit of rising in the hours of dawn where the creative twilight is enveloping the earth. The dawn is a period of time where the sun shines on a new day for a new beginning, a time of prayer and a time of solitude after sleep.
This is exactly what Pakistan is going through, having experienced the long periods of sleep in its history. The people have arisen against ineptitude and from their sleep of passiveness for a better dawn for Pakistan.  Looking at those on the streets, one see’s the many faces of the youth, the old, the poor and the rich side by side, sweat and tears for an old hope.  Revolutions start with those desiring a better tomorrow, typically through the youth of a nation. Allama Iqbal called the youth: “Shaheen” (Falcon). Like a Falcon, Allama Iqbal compared them to the astute vision, the flight and the character and attitude of a Falcon. Allama’s call emphasised 'deed' rather than 'idea'. He categorically stated:

“"Your world is (only) the one which you create yourself,
Not these stones and bricks, which are in sight"”

For those who criticise the mass protests over the last few weeks in Pakistan should remember that they call for nothing more but the betterment of Pakistan; a return to the dream which unites the nation, the request to act on the ‘idea’ of Pakistan. Regardless of any ones political affiliations, the protests have amassed the youth on to streets with the passion and instinct for the Ideals of Equality, to the Ideas of Humanity and Fairness for all. How can we stand against them when they only wish to build a better brighter nation we all hold dear?

The Shaheens of Pakistan have finally awakened, the wind of change have already started to blow. This is a season of hope- the old hope for Justice and Fair Prosperity.  Over 60 years on from independence, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die. I say, fly Falcon fly and pull the stars down. Hope never dies.