Redefining Self Perception

Hussein, like most Ismailis, had four portraits hanging on the focal wall of the living room. One of them was that of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a main architect in the carving of Muslim majority provinces to form Pakistan. The demarcation of boundaries was drawn in the boardroom with Mountbatten, the last of the British viceroys, and Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India. Jinnah was of Ismaili heritage. Pakistan, a crescent of pride for Hussein, was also forged with the help of Imam Sultan Mohamed Shah. He not only helped found the Muslim League in 1905 to represent Muslims in India, but he was also the first honorary president of the League. This political party spearheaded the creation of Pakistan in 1947. The other two portraits were those of Imam Sultan Mohamed Shah, who passed away in 1957 and entrusted the Imamate tradition to pass on to the present Imam, Prince Karim Aga Khan. These two portraits reflected the continuity of worldly as well as spiritual leadership of the Ismaili community. The last portrait was that of Julius Nyerere. His portrait may have been there out of respect or confirmation of one’s solidarity with African self rule, lest he would be ostracized. Most likely, the politicized leadership may not elicit as much reverence as religiously based political leadership, as in the case of Mughal emperor Akber in the 15th century, or more recently, in the case of the Pope or Dalai Lama. Hussein believed in the absolute authority of the Imam in governing his life, and therefore, Nyerere’s political authority for him was temporary and secondary. There was no contest in his mind as to who he would obey unconditionally.

His son Firoz’s impression of Pakistan, during his scouts’ Jamboree visit to Pakistan in the sixties, may have evoked in Hussein a desire to make Pakistan his homeland after Julius Nyerere’s socialism axe fell on even small businesses and dwellings. His policies dampened the spirits of Hussein and other Ismailis, like Suleman Ladha and Abdul Rasul Visram, as agents of social change. They were dukawallas in Dodoma and would go beyond their preoccupation with business to give back to the community. They would adopt many local African orphaned children and school them.

Hussein’s small flour mill, which served the villagers, remained closed after it was nationalized. The main reason behind the failure to administer nationalized schools, enterprises and banks was the lack of local skills and ability. Also, the government rhetoric behind nationalization was aimed at mobilizing black Africans’ mass support, which was probably interpreted as a quick and fair means of equitable distribution of wealth and resources. However, greed and corruption marred progress in a literacy-lacking nation. Educational reforms introduced by Nyerere would take a few decades, but not with Swahili as the official language.

Firoz’s young mind was impressed with Pakistan’s socio-economic progress under Ayub Khan in the sixties. In 1958, the US-backed army led by him imposed martial law administration on the citizens of Pakistan. In the minds of many Pakistanis, ten years of Ayub’s rule were leading to the gradual prosperity of Pakistan. Firoz did not witness the aftermath of post 1968 Pakistan. Many also argued that Ayub Khan missed the window of opportunity to introduce socioeconomic reforms through education and cultivate a civil mindset. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto exploited this weakness in Ayub’s government and aroused the emotions of the masses to demand roti (food), kapda (clothes) and makaan (shelter). The ensuing riots and protests led to the military takeover of the young nation again under Yahya Khan. Under him the war between India and Pakistan in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan. The physical distance of a thousand miles of hostile Indian territory between East and West Pakistan as well as a cultural and ethnic gap between the two Pakistans shattered the dreams of building a united nation. On top of this unbridgeable gap, the domination of the West over East Pakistan was seen by the latter as a continuation of Colonialism.

Meanwhile, Hussein’s fifth son Mohamed had gone to Pakistan to study Engineering in 1966, followed by         Diamond in1968, and Nargis in 1970. Mohamed studied at Islamia College. Once a year he would catch a train from Karachi to Thatta in Sindh province with some friends to attend a pir’s mella or spiritual leader’s fair. Tens of thousands of people would congregate every year to be blessed by the pir and hear stories about the miracles performed by the pir. One of the narrated miracles was about the pir who rode his horse through the eye of a needle and escaped his pursuers. This story connoted the power of faith in overcoming worldly difficulties. Mohamed attended the congregations for jaman or mass supper consisting of Sindhi goat pilaff and camel meat.

These congregations did not sit well with the Sunni Muslim clergymen who had been attempting to hijack the political process in Pakistan since its creation. Initially, most of them were against the creation of Pakistan on the basis that the Muslim loyalty to the nation and its laws enacted by people through democracy were antithetical to their interpretation of theocracy in which total loyalty is due to Allah and Islam. Therefore, its governance is based on God’s laws as given expression in the Quran and sunnah. The ulama or clergymen, in such an Islamic state would then legitimately become locations of God’s authority on the basis of their interpretation of what God wills. Shia Imams and Sufi teachers or pirs are thus competitive locations of God’s authority vis-à-vis the Sunni ulama.

According to Mawlana Mawdudi, the chief of a formidable Islamic revivalist movement, the universe is governed by the will of God. A Muslim has been endowed with reason and freedom to choose to live according to that will. God has laid down a Shariah (Islamic law) for him to govern his life with. A Muslim is, therefore, one who submits (Islam) to the laws of God as laid down in the Quran and Sunnah. To submit to any other system of law (such as a man-made law), or another entity such as a nation or a man, is to commit the grave sin of associating a partner with God (shirk). Shariah, according to Mawdudi, is a complete system which touches aIl aspects of an individual as weIl as collective life. Shariah ensures that faith does not remain merely a personal and private affair but “social actions and attitudes of Muslims who must strive to the creation of an Islamic society”. Muslim society should not make the mistake of separating religion from the state as the West has done by excluding “aIl morality, ethics, or human decency from the controlling mechanism of society.”

The problem with this position is that of reason versus revelation or science versus religion. It is the reason that the ulama utilize to argue the superiority of faith or revelation. The fact that they only can interpret what God wills is putting human reasoning ahead of revelation. Also, this mode of thinking stifles creativity, innovation, and discovery as these are also arguably the creation of Allah. Political development and democracy in which laws are enacted by humans for humans are also the creation of God.

The other problem that appears from this growing Muslim consciousness is the problem of freedom versus determinism. For instance, women’s position in an Islamic state is inferior to that of men by virtue of limitations imposed on their mobility, dressing, and careers, as in the case of Iran and Afghanistan. The Islamic state, in other words, and in the case of Pakistan, would be a Sunni theocracy or dictatorship.

The history of Pakistan is checkered with attempts by religious groups in undermining the secular political process since its creation. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was a secularist. He studied law in England. His justification of Pakistan’s existence on the basis of Islam was interpreted by the religious right as the establishment of an Islamic state. The term Islam is as enigmatic as Christianity or any other religion. The tenets of Islam define it, but they are like a skeleton. The body or mass that fills the skeleton make up varieties of Islamic experiences of different Muslim groups determined by local customs and geography. For example, the Muslims of Indonesia or Malaysia adhere to the basic tenets of Islam, but they differ from Talibans of Afghanistan in defining the role of women in nation building. Also, there are Sufi and syncretic Muslim groups who believe in the cultivation of the inner self to approximate God consciousness. Shariah law is zahir (external and formal), not batin (inner). They have hugely different world views from shariah orientations.

The attempts by conservative and revivalist Muslims to impose a monolithic Sunni worldview undermined large segments of populations including the Shia Muslims, Sufi, and syncretic groups, as well as liberal or moderate Muslims. In 1954, they rattled the nascent nation by attacking Ahmaddiya or Qadiani Muslims who inhabited the city of Lahore. Many lives were lost, and many structures were destroyed. The ensuing riots were a show of power to destabilize and challenge the government in declaring those non-Muslims. They claimed that the Ahmadi reformist founder, Mirza Gulam Ahmed had breached the fundamental belief of Islam in the seal or finality of Prophet Muhammad. At the time, a very astute and respected foreign minister of Pakistan, Chaudhery Muzzafarallah Khan, was an Ahmadi. He was replaced soon after the riots in 1954. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s government declared them to be non-Muslims in 1974 in seeking the ulama support. Bhutto blundered also by nationalizing schools, banks, and majority of industries. He thus cut Pakistan’s economic lifeline and foreign investments. He declared Friday as holiday in place of Sunday.

On reaching Karachi by Sirdhana ship after six days, in 1967, Diamond erolled in the university to study philosophy, psychology, and Muslim history. In the evenings, he pursued the study of Sufism under Prof. Jawad Al Masqati. He found history boring and devoid of how ideas in history affected the societies. Also, the teaching of the history of Muslims was biased with a view to glorify Islam rather then to honestly learn from its mistakes. The study of Sufism, on the contrary, was geared towards becoming God or nature conscious. This consciousness would then help oneself to acquire categories to understand others. More importantly, its two-pronged approach to be simple, and less desirous of wordly things, would pave the way to experience the truth or reality. In Sufi terms, one must lose the self to immerse in higher self. Imam Sultan MuhammadShah called this state wahdat al wujud or unity of existence. Thus, the study of philosophy and logic would aid in the understanding of the spiritual or metaphysical experiences.

After completing his master’s program, he started teaching at the City College and at the tariqah board. While teaching, he met Yasmin and got married.  She also started teaching chemistry at women’s college. But her mobility was being restricted by the growing Islamic consciousness. Confirming to the evolving dress and behaviour Muslim code was becoming difficult. One day, Yasmin and Diamond were sitting on the rock watching the ocean waves splash against the jutting landscape and holding hands, when under-cover police approached them and handed them a ticket. Just a few months before leaving for Canada in 1977, their first son was born. He was name Hussein by his grandfather.

Hussein was unaware of the deteriorating situation in Pakistan in the early seventies. He sought advice from the community leaders whose leadership position was legitimized by wealth rather than qualifications. There was urgency in their advice: “If you can leave the country today, then do not wait for tomorrow.” This probably reinforced what was latent in his heart. When actions or decisions are executed based on the advice of those in authority, then one is most likely exonerated from the negative consequences of decision making. In other words, the responsibility of decision making is shouldered by others and not by the actor thus avoiding guilt and accountability. The community leaders’ advice, he believed, was representative of the Imam’s guidance. He boarded Sirdhana for Karachi in 1971, unaware of the simmering internal as well as external conflict with India. Sirdhana was a British company-owned ship. It was a cargo as well as passengers’ vessel. It had three levels of accommodations. He could afford only the third level or class fare to India. At this bottom level, there were metal bunk beds to sleep on and a kitchen that served mostly Indian food. Contentment was his companion as he made friends easily. He did not feel alone or regretful. He spent most of the daytime on the deck watching the waves and flying fish. He went to the hull only to sleep. His two suitcases and two boxes contained his precious possessions, which happened to be Gujarati books on religion, like Noor-e-Mubin (ever-living light or guide) and frmans of Imams. The other Asians fled the country with large sums of money or had money already stashed abroad before the exodus. Hussein continued to be a good religious simpleton.

While many Asians, including Khojah Ismailis, were boarding the ship, a reporter interviewed some of them about why they were leaving the country. Some Ismailis, not aware of the political implications, replied that their Imam had instructed them to. Their faith in the local community leadership implied their faith in the Imam. This level of trust in the local leadership, while being most likely the cause of fomenting a close-knit group, also apparently led to faulty decision-making processes. Their authority or credibility was not legitimized by their merit but by parochialism and wealth. This has continued to plague the community even today.

In 1971, while Hussein was on his way to Karachi, war erupted between India and Pakistan for the second time over the separation of East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh. The War of 1965 was fought because of a dispute over Kashmir. During the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Kashmir’s Hindu ruler opted to join India against the wishes of the majority Muslim population.

The underlying problem of the conflict between India and Pakistan was the use of religion by elite nationalist leaders educated in England. They mobilized the masses to demand independence from the British. Initially, the independence movement was coined as the independence of India for Indians, not for Hindus or Muslims. Hindus interpreted Gandhi’s popular non-violence movement as Swaraj for Bharat, or self-rule for the Hindu Nation. Muhammad Ali Jinnah demanded a separate state of Pakistan for the Muslim-majority provinces.

While the elites sat in the board rooms with the departing British Governors, drawing boundaries dividing the people based on faith, the Hindu and Muslim extremists hijacked the emotions accompanying the birth of two nations. Hindu and Muslim friends and neighbors turned against each other. Since then, India and Pakistan have not freed themselves from the non-rational fury of the extremists. While this fury in India finds expression in communal riots, it has paralyzed the state-building process in Pakistan.

During the partition, Hindus and Muslims killed each other in hundreds of thousands while fleeing from either India or Pakistan. Since then, the role of faith and religion has failed to bring about social and economic changes. Freedom from colonialism was replaced with the chains of dogma. Seeds of Hindu-Muslim religious politics were planted within each country, spending much more on arming and defense than on education and social reforms.

Both countries initially left their economic sectors in the hands of wealthy investors, thus breeding and widening the gap between the rich and poor. Capitalism, as a workable economic system, was adopted by many emerging nations with the view that the wealth at the upper level would trickle down to uplift the poor. This ideology had been very suitable for the Western countries, who were colonialists for over a few centuries, but not for the newly emerging nations with no experience in regulating wealth and its flight from it. The educated middle class in India and Pakistan has always been on the run to migrate to the West, causing a major brain to drain. Bhutto tried to stem the leak. But his socialist policies undermined the American sanctioned military power base that forms an essential element in Pakistan’s governance formula. The other two parts of the equation being the British inherited civil service sector and zamindars or landowners who could sway the opinions of peasants. Bhutto was himself a zamindar turned politician.

Sirdhana was diverted to Bombay or Mumbai and landed at Karachi port after one month of ceasefire. Upon landing in Karachi, Hussein initially felt at ease and free. He blended in with the majority. It was a subtle change in self-consciousness, from being a visible minority in an African setting to being a mainstream brown man amid a huge Ismail population. He was so intrigued watching the camels, donkeys, and horses sharing the road with colourfully decorated trucks and contemporary cars. He would stand at the corner of the street observing how they navigated avoiding each other. He was also fascinated by rickshaws zigzagging in between the variety of transport modes.

On attending the Jamatkhana services in a very conspicuous building in the Garden area of Karachi, he noticed that the ginans that contained Hindu terminology, such as hari (Hindu lord) and naklanki avatar (the final divine teacher) were modified with Ali or Imam. The Ismailis, under the leadership of Prince Karim Aga Khan embarked on creating impactful humanitarian projects, including those related to health, education, agriculture, and architecture. These humanitarian gestures served the general Pakistani population despite opposition from the extremists on the grounds that the Ismailis were attempting to proselytize the general population. In fact, the Ismailis had stopped converting non-Ismailis. More significantly, the Ismailis tried to divert the attention of extremists by avoiding political engagements. Also, they organized public events like eid milad e nabi or the Prophet’s birthday, where many Sunni and Shia ulama were invited to speak and where the Ismailis flaunted publicly their belief in the fundamentals of Islam – tawhid or Unity of Allah, khatam e nabuwah or the finality of the Prophet Muhammad, etc., to appease the extremists.

The Aga Khan did not hesitate in emphasizing in his public speeches that pluralism and diversity in Islam must be cultivated globally. This resonated well with the liberal and minority Muslims. He also argued that there was no conflict between science and religion. That knowledge does not belong to the west or the east. It is universal and can be adopted by the Christians or Muslims within their own cultures.

After a month or so, Hussein, like other Ismaili migrants, started searching for entrepreneurial opportunities and settle down so that he could call Fatma to join him.

Diamond helped organize a trip for a group of Ismailis from Tanzania, in search of business opportunities, to some rural villages of Sindh near Hyderabad. They visited a few farms and ginning cotton seed oil cottage industries. In the evening, they attended the Jamatkhana in a village, Tandoyar. The inhabitants of this and surrounding villages were Hindus of lower caste and who were farm workers. They had chosen to convert to the Ismaili faith after the partition. They could relate better to the syncretic orientation of the Khojahs than the Sunni Muslim puritanical inclinations. As a visitor from outside the country, Hussein was invited to sit near the congregation officials, Mukhi and Kamadia. He was asked to lead the prayers which he was elated to recite.

Once he was back in city of Karachi, he had difficulty understanding how businesses survived making a profit of pennies. The large population base and highly competitive edge seem to keep the small dukas surviving. Also, he heard the story of an immigrant’s attempt to buy an existing towel stall in a busy mall. The owner of the stall had urged all his friends and relatives to line up to buy towels during the buyer’s observation period of sales and operations. As soon as he bought the stall, he was hard pressed to close it and take a loss. One of Hussein’s nephews, Akber, bought a truck full of dates, and, on the advice of the seller, he stored it in cold storage so that he could sell the lot out of season at a higher price. He lost quite a bit of money. Some Tanzanian Ismail migrants resorted to being carriers of plain Indian saris which fetched higher prices in Pakistan. The Pakistanis and Indians could not travel in between the two countries. Tanzanians could. These saris were then handcrafted and designed intricately by Pakistani embroidery artists.

Hussein decided to make a trip, with his daughter Nargis, to see the rest of Pakistan. He noticed that Pakistan’s inheritance of five provinces was another major hurdle in the nation-building process. These provinces were like different countries with different languages and cultures, namely, Sind, Punjab (being dominant in army, governance, and economy), Baluchistan, Pathans (with large swaths of lawless land called Waziristan), and the Northwest Frontiers Territories, situated in the Hindu Kush mountains of the Himalayan range. Pathans occupied areas both in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Taliban in Afghanistan are Pathans, and this further complicated Pakistani politics.

Hussein was fascinated with Pakistan’s beautiful landscape in the north. They stayed a few days in a picturesque Himalayan valley of Swat. On his way back to Karachi, a bearded man asked him why he, as a Muslim, did not have a beard. His question surprised Hussein. Before Hussein could respond, the man continued to preach that those who did not practice sunnah of beard-keeping will not enter heaven. Hussein, just short of opening his mouth and cause the ire in him, wondered if this man’s God was a male or a female and if God is occupied with these petty human conditioned choices.

Hussein, like many Ismaili migrants, were soon getting disillusioned at the prospect of being able to start dukas in Pakistan or find employment. He realized that fierce competition and aggressiveness characterized the businesses. Whereas six thousand people lived within one square mile, competing for limited resources, only a small number of people lived in a similar space in Tanzania. The former utilized the inherited Muslim structures of dressing, conducting business, communicating, etc.; the latter was more laissez-faire. Also, Hussein was noticeably young when he first laid his feet on mainland Tanganyika. The culture and language were common between Zanzibar and Tanganyika. Also, now he was fifty-six. In those days, people did not live exceedingly long. He looked relatively old. He decided to return to Fatma and his home.

Meanwhile, Mohamed travelled to Germany as he could not find employment after his marriage to Tasleem. He also went back to Dodoma and became a science teacher. His wife joined him from Pakistan and their first daughter Shelina was born. They migrated to Canada in 1976 and settled in Alberta the following year. Their son Zul and their daughter Alia were born in Edmonton. Mohammed worked as an engineer in the city’s water department, and Taslim worked for the police department. While Shelina and Alia pursued health affiliated carriers, Zul became a developer and currently directs a bunch of hotels very successfully.

Nargis got married to Mohamed Nathoo and migrated to Canada with their son Karim. Alykhan, their second son was born in Canada.