Dreams, Hopes, and the Road Ahead

“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau

For far too long have I suppressed my inner conscience and ignored the callings of human values. But the growing darkness in the world that threatens our very existence has grown dark enough to allow me to see the faint flicker of humanity that still burns deep within the heart. To be a witness to one’s own humanity is the most powerful experience for an individual. It was as if I sat in the Cave of Light, and just when the darkness of the night enveloped my entire reality I was awoken to still higher truths. Overwhelmed and renewed; dams destroyed; I have drowned in the ocean of humanity, and melted beneath the fire of human responsibility. “My theme makes me bold, makes my tongue more eloquent.” No longer can I remain silent in the face of oppression and persecution! No longer can I remain stagnant and still amidst a milieu of tyranny! No longer can I live and ignore the injustice, violence, and murder committed against innocence! To do so would be to sacrifice my humanity at the altars of power!

Many things have gone wrong in our society, and most continue their course. The murder of 80 civilians in Bajaur at the consent of the Pakistani government is nothing less than terrorism! To bomb people without the due processes of law and justice is the most heinous act of barbarism, and the clearest evidence that modern man is becoming even more primitive than his ancestors. Then we have the case of selling the Bundal and Buddo Islands to a foreign company for the development of a “modern” city. The displacement of an indigenous people, destruction of traditions and lifestyles, erosion of the environment, and a growing disparity between the rich and the poor – these are the consequences of modernity! For how long will the people of Pakistan sit and remain silent? For how long will the people in a position to bring about affective change fail to live up to their human responsibilities?

We often look to the West for guidance. Let us therefore discover the true meaning of modernity as it historically unfolded within the fabric of Western societies. Bound by the chains of dogma and doctrine; unable to explore their own creativity; and increasingly becoming victims of power structures, modernity found its roots in such great thinkers as Descartes, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Galileo, Newton, Kant, Locke, Nietzsche, Rousseau, Darwin, Marx, Aquinas, Adam Smith, etc. It was a time to reconnect with the Greek tradition. It was a time to discover the secrets of human nature. It was a time to develop new ideas on knowledge, morality, politics, economics, science, religion, nature, and human history. Great people wrote great works during a great time in human history to lay the foundations of modernity! And modernity, my friends, is based on the principles of equality, justice, freedom, and human dignity. In fact, modernity was best summed up by the founding fathers of the United States of America when they wrote in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are equated equal; that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights of which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This is modernity!

If we wish to be modern, history asks of us not skyscrapers, big cars, cell phones, and 54 TV channels. To be modern is to understand that we are all brothers and sisters united by a common bondage and accountable to a Merciful and Compassionate God! To be modern is to respect the sanctity of human life and dignity! To be modern is to know that all human beings are endowed with certain non-negotiable rights, and to stand up for these rights is not only a right but a responsibility! To be modern is to be enlightened. To be modern is to challenge the past, confront the present, and shape the future. To be modern is to be wisely optimistic, courageously hopeful, and infinitely creative! To be modern is to possess dreams of a better, more prosperous, equitable, and peaceful world; and then pursue them. It is only on these universal truths and values that any stable society can be founded upon. Anything else is merely an illusion of prosperity; a flimsy structure that will be knocked to its knees in the slightest breeze.

But something more dangerous then any nuclear bomb, any ecological disaster, any war, any disease, any ethnic cleansing has taken place against the youth of Pakistan. We have been deprived of that God-given gift that only youths possess and all else admire: the gift of idealism, of dreaming, of ever remaining hopeful, of always believing in the prospects of a just and peaceful world despite all the ugliness that permeates our lives. We have been robbed, abused, and violated! We have been dehumanized! One of the most fundamental of our human rights was taken away from us! Will no one come to our rescue? Will no one help us recover our lost dignity and self-respect? What about the youth themselves? Will we so easily give up the fight? Will we let ourselves be used and abused as tools by the powers that be? Or will be rise to become the people we are meant to be?

The greatest lie that man has told his fellow man is that he is powerless. This is exactly what those who benefit from our powerlessness want us to believe! So now every youth has a guitar in his arms and a rock star in his dreams. Those who want to maintain the status-quo don’t want us to stop, pause, and examine ourselves. They don’t want us to ask the important questions of who we are and why we are here. They don’t want us to know, because the answers will bring revolutions that will shake our history. But for too long have the answers been suppressed; for too long have we been deluded; for too long have people suffered at the cost of power and ignorance. It is time to shatter them both! It is our purpose to stand up for the truth! We are the masters of our fate, the captains of our souls!

To speak and act against oppression, persecution, violence, and tyranny is to realize one’s own destiny! We are powerful! We are completely and totally capable of changing the evils that exist in our societies! Not to believe so is not to acknowledge one’s on humanity! We were created as caretakers of this planet, enjoining the right and prohibiting the wrong! Do you know where you belong? You belong where even the wings of Gabriel burn! You belong where no other creation of God has gone before. You belong at that beautiful place where there is only God, and the heart does not fail to comprehend what it sees. God is our destiny, my friends. All else is merely a step towards that ultimate goal! If we could only understand what it means to be human! Not even time and space can confine us if we wish to rise up and awaken ourselves to our inner potentials. Do not belittle yourselves by thinking anything impossible! As Iqbal said:


With reason as your shield and the sword of love in your hand,
Servant of God! The leadership of the world is at your command.
The cry, Allah-o-Akbar, destroys all except God; it is a fire.
If you are true Muslims, your destiny is to grasp what you aspire.
If you break not faith with Muhammad, We shall always be with you;
What is this miserable world? To write the world’s history, pen and tablet We offer you.**

We must realize the dangerous times we are currently living in. The moral and ethical fabric of our societies is slowly being unraveled, and the human values that condition our survival are being increasingly threatened. For how long can we continue to survive before it is too late? How long can we continue to disregard all universal values and natural laws before we realize we are standing in our own graves with no way out? We must once again regain our humanity by advocating all those principles which define us so. Otherwise, we have failed to live up to our historical task. Many will say that such talk is youthful idealism. It is foolish optimism, and lacks any tinge of practicality and reality. Is it not practical to be long sighted? Is it not practical to consider the consequences of one’s action before executing them? Is it not practical to examine the perils that face us as a whole, and to suggest remedies for our mutual survival? Is survival not the most paramount of practical ideals? And is not what I say and urge others to do solely so that we may not perish in the midst of our own rage, violence, hatred, and inhumanity? The battle for truth, justice, equality, and freedom; for life and liberty; for land and property, this is the most practical of all battles, the most reasonable of all efforts, and the most noble of all human endeavors!

Others will say that it is a loosing battle. There is no point. The world cannot be changed, societies cannot be reformed, and we must continue living our lives as sad spectators. What would our world have been like if the prophets, leaders, and thinkers in our history had thought the same thoughts? What would Makkah have been like if the Prophet resigned himself to meditations in a cave? What would South Africa have looked like if Nelson Mandela had not fought against all existing odds for the liberation of his people? What would the Indian subcontinent have looked like if Gandhi, Jinnah, Iqbal, and Nehru had not thought that it was possible to free their people from foreign occupation? That it was a lost cost? What would America have looked like if Dr. Luther King and Malcolm X had decided that there was no point in raising their voices against racism, segregation, and oppression? What would the world have looked like if the middle class people who successfully led the anti-slavery movement in England had decided that for such powerless and ordinary people like them it was useless to fight an institution that the greatest military power in the world supported?

Our dreams have not been stolen. They are only veiled. A friend recently told me all her dreams and ambitions had died. Dreams don’t die, only people who dream do. Our dreams and hopes are still alive, vibrant, and rich. They are only waiting for us. Waiting for us to rise and grab them. History too is waiting; waiting for us to respond. And above all else, God is waiting; waiting to see when we will live up to the greatness of our purpose. All the forces in the world and beyond that conspire towards truth and good are waiting, silently calling, and beckoning us towards ourselves.

Destiny is within our grasp! Our most defining moment is upon us. But what is needed is not necessarily a gigantic act of awakening, a cataclysmic act of will. Small, simple steps towards a better society are often times the most powerful and effective. Working as individuals and small groups at the grassroots to inform, educate, and enlighten oneself and others of the perils of today in order to construct the peace of tomorrow is the challenge of our generation. But right now more than action we need belief. We need to reawaken that dormant spirit within us that allows us to believe in our own infinite potential. We need to believe in our humanity by believing in our ability of transforming our societies and changing the course of human destiny. We need to believe! Therefore, let us embark on our journey for truth, liberty, and equality with the knowledge and hope that we shall prevail! We must never lose our hope and belief in the possibility of a great, beautiful, lovable, and peaceful world. Only belief will sustain our dreams, and only dreams will sustain our humanity. That is the road ahead.