KARACHI, Jan 7: Feudalism is the root cause of all the problems in Pakistan and without doing away with it no real and meaningful change could be expected in our society, said noted scholar Dr Israr Ahmed, founder of Tanzeem-i-Islami, here on Sunday.

Delivering a lecture at the Faran Club, he said that current politics in Pakistan was nothing but a game of musical chairs of landlords.

Dr Ahmed said that though he was a non-political person, but lauded the Muttahida Qaumi Movement for its opposition to feudalism. He further said that changing the nomenclature from Mohajir to Muttahida was also a welcome development and sign of political maturity on part of their leadership as unity was the need of the hour.

He said that traditional nationalism based on the concept of a common homeland could not unite them, as Pakistan was created on the negation of this very concept. He said that the two-nation theory completely rejected the concept of nationalism based on common homeland, language, culture and ethnicity.

He suggested that Islam was the only binding force that could pave way for lasting political unity amongst people of Pakistan.

Dr Ahmed noted that initially both Allama Iqbal and Quaid-i-Azam advocated Muslim-Hindu unity, but the bitter experience of Hindu chauvinism in later years opened their eyes.

He said that it was the influence of the philosophy of Allama Iqbal that Quaid-i-Azam himself preached for the revival of Islam from 1939 till his death. In this context, Dr Israr extensively quoted various published speeches and statements of the Quaid-i-Azam.

The scholar paid rich tributes to Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maudoodi saying that Maulana Mudoodi effectively explained poetic and philosophical thoughts of Allama Iqbal in his writings.

Tracing back the history of enlightened moderation in the subcontinent, he said that King Akbar himself wanted to dilute and change Islam through his invented Din-i-Illahi, but Hazrat Shaikh Ahmed Sarhandi successfully foiled this conspiracy through his teachings. He said that Islam began to lose its real spirit, when Muslim rulers adopted monarchy and feudalism. He asserted that both monarchy and feudalism were against the spirit of Islam.

Dr Ahmed said that Islam always advocated a strong welfare state and in the era of Hazrat Omar (RA) the state used to fix allowance for babies even before they were born. He said that state welfare system in those days were even better than what we saw now in the Scandinavian states.

Referring to a study of Rand Corporation, he said that the western thinkers wanted to divide and compartmentalise Muslims. He said that they had divided Muslims into four major categories: those with a social and political programme for the revival of Islam (fundamentalists), stereotype Moulvis (traditionalists), those wanted changing Islam according to wishes and whims of the West (modernists) and secularists.

He said that the West wanted to eliminate fundamentalists, isolate traditionalists, provide funds and media platforms to modernists and encourage secularists.—PPI