I used to attend my father’s dairy business. Our shop sold milk, curd and other milk products. A lot of Christians were among our customers. We would ask them to hold out their pots and we would pour out the milk or curd into them taking care that our ladled cup does not touch their pots. They would either consume the milk on the spot or carry it home. In doing this I was just copying my elders who had told us that the Christians and Hindus were by nature dirty and unclean and direct contact with them must be avoided. I was a child and did not understand what the real dirt and filth could be.
But we had reserved a much more contemptible treatment for Baba Naino, quite an elderly gentleman from our locality. He had kept a mud cup in our shop. Every morning he would take that mud cup, dust off the grime, rinse it with water, collect some milk from me or my father and consume it. Following this he would again rinse it and place it in the same corner and go away after paying the price. No one ever taught me that this attitude was totally contrary to philosophy of human equality.
Having finished my college, I spent a few years in an Arab country. I was amazed that no one behaved in the fashion we did in Pakistan. Arabs did not discriminate between Hindus, Muslims and Christians. It set me thinking as to why we behaved in this manner when Arabs, the original recipients of the message of Islam, had no qualms in sharing the same utensils with others. Was it not the same message that illuminated our hearts? Shouldn’t we love our Hindu and Christian brethren the same way the Arabs did and continue to do.
I went through the Holy Prophet’s life. I found him maintaining the most cordial relations with the Jews, Christians and the pagans.
There were more shocks in store for me. Sometimes when some Hindu or Christian friend greeted me with Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah (Peace and mercy of Allah be upon you), it would plunge me into a dilemma. I had been told not to reply with the standard Walaikum Assalam to people who were non-Muslims. I would not go into the juristic ramifications of the issue. But I am ashamed on the contemptuous manner I treated the elderly Baba Naino who deserved respect from all of us.
I believe that a lot of our Hindu brethren were moved with the manners and etiquette of Muslim Sufis when they came to India. These Sufis had personified the Islamic character so fully that they exuded the warmth of humanity from their very behaviour. This bore natural attraction for everyone who suffered from social inequality in the Indian subcontinent.
Palestine and Syria came under the Islamic conquest in the early period. Did the Muslim demolish the churches there? Not at all.
Nearly 10 million Coptic Christians are part of Egyptian population. Copts have been part of Egyptian nation ever since the rise of Christianity.
I have begun to question as to why we treat the non-Muslims the way we have been doing. Are they (Hindus and Christians in Pakistan) any less patriotic than Muslim Pakistanis? I find no element of unpatriotic attitude in them.
I therefore question as to why Pakistani society does not treat them as equals. Why is that they do not receive human equality? We all owe an answer.
The author is a degree students in Karachi University. The article was found on Internet and has been translated from Urdu.
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January 2012 |