Between Sanity and Insanity

"I have paid the price for being free. I have no regrets," Zen spoke to his friends for the last time. From the precincts of the trial court he was being taken to the mental asylum. He was calm and composed. Before entering
the Police van he said, "I respect other people’s faiths and beliefs.

Forgive me my friends if I ever hurt you inadvertently."

As Police van moved away, Zen raised his hands and waved at his friends. He was handcuffed. A group of antagonists who believed Zen was an infidel and a blasphemous, raised slogans against him. They shouted for his execution,

"Zen ko phansy do (Hang Zen)."

Some of them had brought a big banner that warned the Government of grave consequences if Zen was set at liberty. Pakistan is a country of the faithful and not for the faithless. But for the heavy contingent of the Police and Rangers, the zealot antagonists would have lynched Zen. He was whisked away. The fiery zealots then talked to the journalists and gave vent to their charged emotions, "Pakistan was not created for the atheists."

One of the agitators raised his fist and angrily said, "Pakistan is citadel of Islam in which kafirs like Zen shall not be tolerated."

A Police inspector politely advised Zen’s friends to leave. As they entered the vehicle, a rock hit the rear windscreen and smashed it. The driver hurriedly took them away from the rabble-rousers.

After release from the mental asylum, Zen’s trial will reopen. Many people believe he will be sentenced to death. He is alleged to have committed unpardonable sin of blasphemy. One can conveniently getaway with ten or 15
or even more murders in Pakistan, but not blasphemy. It is the most heinous crime that renders the blasphemous to die either at the hands of the State, or at the hands of the pious people who lynch him to death. His body is then
stoned, spat at and is mutilated.

Till his induction in the blasphemy case, Zen was an engineer in the Systems Development Centre. He was a lively person bestowed with immense sense of humour and innocence of a child. What colleagues liked most about him was
that he never ever interfered in the personal life of the people in the office, or elsewhere. Owned by a multinational media company, the office atmosphere at the Systems Development Centre is at par with any international organization in the developed countries. There is no gender bias in the Systems Centre. More than 30 percent of the employees are women. Most of them, like their male colleagues, are foreign qualified.

Among the employees, a few have taken it upon themselves to purge the Systems Centre of impurities. They maintain very strong reservations against the women employees. One day during prayer-cum-lunch break, Abdool Bhai, a pious employee remarked, "I wonder why women expose their ankles and heels by wearing short shalwars! It provokes."

Zen was sitting on an adjacent table. He smiled, and asked, "By the way Abdool Bhai, why do you expose your repulsive ankles and ugly heels?"

"How dare you mock at Sunat-e-Rasul?" Abdool almost pounced upon Zen and flattened him on the floor. The colleagues intervened and saved Zen from threshing. But it was not an end to it.

An innocent utterance triggered ordeals for Zen, and landed him in trouble. Abdool Bhai lodged a FIR against Zen for blasphemy at the nearby Police Station. As if it was not enough, Abdool Bhai headed for the Press Club, and
addressed the journalist. In his tirade, he accused Systems Development Centre of harbouring blasphemous like Zen. Next day Zen was arrested and produced before Antiterrorism Court. The judge remanded him to a special squad for interrogation.

No one knows what kind of torture was perpetrated on Zen during his 15-day interrogation. After 15 days when he was produced before the judge he was a different Zen.

"Do you believe in God?" The judge inquired.

"How can you sit in judgement upon the relationship between a man and his God?" He looked at the judge, and said, "I am not answerable to you. I am answerable to Him, and Him alone."

The judge leaned over, and asked, "Is it true you neither prayed nor raised hands in dua even for once during the 15-day interrogation?"

"My God doesn’t require to be informed. He is all knowing," Zen said and added, "He knew what was I going through."

"Are you Muslim?" The judge suddenly asked.

"I was born in a Muslim family." Zen calmly replied, "Had I taken birth in a Christian family I would have been a Christian." Zen paused for a while, and said, "But then, my God would have remained the same, omnipotent and all
knowing, Creator of all that goes on in the universe."

The judge adjourned the court for about 30 minutes, and retired to his chamber. After 30 minutes the judge returned to the court, occupied his chair and announced, "The accused is referred to the psychiatrists, neurologists and other doctors in the mental asylum."