IQRA NOT ONLY MEANS “TO READ” BUT IT ALSO MEANS, “TO LEARN, TO FIND OUT, TO DIG OUT, TO SEARCH AND TO RESEARCH” – ALTAF HUSSAIN

WHY WE DO NOT EXERCISE THE RIGHT OF JUDGMENT THROUGH CONSENSUS TO ADJUST WITH THE CHANGES AND NEEDS OF TIME

HUMAN CLONING WOULD BEGIN ONE DAY AND HUMAN BEING WILL BE PRODUCED

DESIRE IS NOT A BAD THING WHEREAS GREED AND LUST IS AN ANIMAL ACT AND HAS NO LIMITATIONS

 

London – 7 November 2000

 

Mr Altaf Hussain, Founder and Leader of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), has stated that any act or worship void of its true spirit, is useless, unbeneficial and fails to achieve desired objectives. He was addressing a study circle of MQM workers at the International Secretariat in London.

 

Mr Hussain said that the human body is considered dead without its soul and likewise all the worships, which are void of its true spirit, are lifeless worships and ineffective.  To offer prayers is instructed in Islam.  But do we offer our prayers according to its true spirit or do we offer our prayers as a mean to go to heaven and to keep away from hell?  We should ponder why it is an obligation to offer prayers. What is its real cause and purpose? The Allah Almighty is not dependent on our bowings and prostrations.  Neither His Greatness increases when we say, “Allah is Great”, because His Greatness is independent.  The truth and reality is that when one bows down in front of Allah during the prayers then he is actually admitting the existence of a supreme being.  Thus, the process of bowing and prostration during prayers negates the ego, arrogance and haughtiness of the human being.  When we accept the Greatness of Allah and that only He is the Master, then we are confessing that amongst the human beings no one can be the Master or can enslave others.  While offering prayers, everyone stands in the same prayer row, irrespective of being a king, slave, rich or poor.  Thus, the prayers teach us to do away with any distinction between the rich and the poor and establish equality of all human beings.  It also teaches us not to become Master of anyone and not to bow down in front of anyone who wishes to enslave us forcefully, irrespective of his or her power.  Because our heads should only bow in front of the Allah Almighty because only He is the powerful and greatest and would remain forever, whereas all the other powers and human beings are mortal.  A person who wholeheartedly accepts the Greatness of Allah Almighty neither suffers from the superiority or inferiority complex because he does not consider any other person greater than himself nor he considers himself to be greater than others.

 

Mr Hussain further said that all the Prophets and Messengers of Allah came to this world to reform the humans and end the oppression.  No religion is bad; it is the humans, who make it bad for their personal interests.  The religious decrees and verses are twisted to achieve illegitimate personal interests.  These religious decrees and verses are distorted by deliberately presenting them out of context with a view to conceal its true spirit.  Some so-called religious leaders present the following Quranic verse against the MQM: 

[3.103] And hold fast by the covenant of Allah all together and be not disunited.

They however, do not explain what is the meaning of disunity.  “Disunited” is derived from difference and disunity will always be present where disparities are created – where some receive 56 percent and other do not even get 2 percent, some are called patriotic despite dividing the country and others are labelled as traitors and anti-State despite sacrificing millions of lives for the country.  The struggle of MQM is to end such disparities and is according to the above-mentioned verse of the Holy Quran.  But the so-called religious leaders distort this Quranic verse and present its twisted version to issue religious decrees against the MQM.

 

Mr Hussain said that the first word of the first vahy (revelation) upon Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was “Iqra”, which means to read.  We all know that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was “ummi” (illiterate) and could not read or write.  Then the question arises that why the first word, which was revealed upon Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), was “Iqra”.  When we ponder upon this then we come to the conclusion that Iqra not only means “to read” but it also means, “to learn, to find out, to dig out, to search and to research”.   Mr Hussain said that it is written in the Holy Quran,

[45.13] And He has made subservient to you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, all, from Himself, most surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect.

It is not mentioned in this verse that there are signs for the Muslims but it says that there are signs for the knowledgeable.  Those who acted according to the spirit of these Quranic verses, learned, searched the hidden treasure trove and pondered upon any proposed theory instead of issuing decrees of infidelity it became Einstein, Newton, United States of America, China, Russia, Japan, Europe etc.  Whereas those who refused to ponder upon these verses became the 45 Islamic countries, and dependent upon the Europe and America.  As a result, these Islamic countries today do not seek the assistance from Allah Almighty; instead they seek the assistance from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

 

Explaining the scientific reasons behind Iqra (i.e. learning, search and research) Mr Hussain said that the human mind is divided into three parts, which are conscious, subconscious and super-subconscious.  Whatever one sees, listens to, feels or experiences travels to his conscious.  One begins his thought process when one ponders upon the experiences, incidents or feelings.  When one cannot find answers to certain questions from the conscious then one searches the subconscious to retrieve the answer.  Similarly, when one fails to retrieve an answer from the subconscious then through deep thinking process one enters into the super-subconscious and retrieves the answer from there.  The super-subconscious of a human being is the treasure trove, which stores all the information and knowledge of millions years of human evolution.  The entire wealth of knowledge and information is transferred into the human being through “genes” at the time of his or her birth.  All the inventions of the world, i.e. airplane, computer etc, and the ideologies have evolved from the same portion of the human mind.  For example, a question arose in the conscious mind of Newton that why this apple fell downwards?  When the conscious could not provide the answer, then Newton continued to ponder and through deep thinking entered into that part of his super-subconscious, which contained the answer to the question, and retrieved the answer that it is the “gravitational force”, which pulled the apple downwards.  This is the actual meaning and interpretation of “Iqra”.  Mr Hussain said that the Almighty Allah has stored a huge reservoir of knowledge and information in human mind.  Whosoever acts on Iqra, ponders, searches and learns becomes Newton, Archimedes, Einstein, Ghalib, Shakespeare etc.  Therefore, everyone could retrieve information and knowledge from the God gifted treasure-trove, which is already hidden in the mind.

 

The super-subconscious mind is made up of different faculties.  One of these faculties is the faculty of future, which for any reason if becomes active or activated then the person begins to visualise future events.  It sometimes happens while “dreaming” during the state of “deep sleep”.  Also a few people visualise future events and happening during epileptic fits because during these fits the electrical current of the human mind gets disturbed and during this chaos the portion dealing with the future becomes active and that person sees the future events.

 

Mr Hussain said that “static” is the sign of death.  A static thing remains stationary whereas the time moves on.  Humans, society and the universe undergo the continued process of evolution.  Therefore, Islam allows for ijtehad (exercise of judgment) to keep in pace with the continued evolutionary changes.  Ijtehad is also essential to seek answers to the questions arising from inventions and changing social values.  However, sadly, we have abandoned Ijtehad and therefore, as a result of the narrow-mindedness of the so-called religious elements the scientific inventions such as television, radio etc have been declared as haraam (forbidden).  On the other hand, these same elements never miss an opportunity to come on the television and give interviews to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) or the Cable News Network (CNN).  Now the question is when we silently reject the old interpretations through our acts then why we do not exercise the right of judgment through consensus to adjust with the changes and needs of time.  We also have to free our minds with such so-called religious ideologies and shortsightedness, where other views are not tolerated and religious decrees of blasphemy and profanation are issued.  It should be remembered that only Allah Almighty would judge us on the Day of Judgment and not these so-called maulvis (religious scholars).

 

When scientists professed for the first time that the earth was round, the clergymen demanded to burn them alive, alleging that the hypothesis was against the teachings of the church.  Today, the hypothesis, “earth is round”, is an accepted universal actuality.  Therefore, by ignoring the judicious contemplation, the rulers in Islamic States have put to use the so-called religious scholars to exploit Islam for their personal gains.  Similarly, if yesterday someone would have claimed that it is possible to give birth without the contact between a male and a female then nobody would have believed it.  However, today “cloning” is a scientific fact and through this process, Dolly Sheep has already been produced without mating of a male and a female.  Today, ban has been imposed on human cloning but the cloning is a scientific invention and its spread cannot be stopped.  Mr Hussain predicted that human cloning would begin one day and human being will be produced.

 

Mr Hussain quoted the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as saying, “acquire knowledge, even if you had to go as far as China”.  It is common knowledge that China does not provide Islamic education. We understand that China did not offer Islamic teachings.  Therefore, the suggestion to travel to China, an advanced centre of learning at the time, for education, implied wordly knowledge.  But instead of following the teachings of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), we split the scientific and religious knowledge into two.  Mr Hussain said that despite the human evolution, several animal instincts are still present in humans, such as greed, lust etc.  There is a clear difference between greed, lust and desire.  Desire is not a bad thing whereas greed and lust are animal act and has no limitations.  Thus, workers of the Movement should refrain from greed and lust, gain knowledge, study revolutionary literature and view revolutionary films because one acquires great knowledge and courage by studying the struggles of other revolutionary movements of the world and correspondingly – “idea breeds idea”.