October 2011

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Is There Place For Sex Education In Pakistani Educational Institutions?


Sex education literally refers to awareness about the various studies regarding human sexual behavior, reproduction, birth control and other sexual activities. It pertains to the knowledge of all those health issues and complications that may result from sexual practices. It also includes the information about a safe and healthy post-marital sex life. In the present times, the topic of sex education is one of the most pressing issues all over the world and specifically in Muslim countries such as Pakistan. Some people argue that sex education should be given in the educational institutions in order to inform the youth regarding the health concerns that come up due to the sexual enterprises. On the other hand, the critics of sex education are of the view that if sex education is promoted in educational institutions, it will imprint immoral and unhealthy images on the minds of young generation. Although sex education is greatly opposed for certain reasons but considering its possible returns and relevance to social and cultural context of Pakistan, it should be a part of the Pakistan’s educational system on university level so that the youth is fully aware of the ill consequences of sexual intercourses and consequently avoid such ventures to have sound life conditions.
It is a matter of common observation that the social and cultural traditions in Pakistan are far different from those of the western countries. Unlike western people, Pakistanis are of quite conservative concepts regarding adultery (immoral relations without having a marital relationship). At times, such sexual relations come up with different ways of social discontent. The regular study of newspapers depicts that murders in the name of honor killing are rampant in Pakistani society. In most of these cases, issues are of pre-marital pregnancies. The couples are killed when the pregnancy of girls is revealed. Likewise, many girls attempt suicide because of getting pregnant before marriage. The main reason behind this social unrest and suicides is unawareness. Most of the youngsters do not have sufficient knowledge about the complexities attached with sexual intercourses. These adults lose their lives in the way of fulfilling their sexual needs without having much understanding of the evil outgrowths of sexual exercises.
Furthermore, most of the men in Pakistan are not mentally prepared to accept those girls as their wives who have already lost their vaginal virginity. These men consider the loss of virginity solely due to sexual intercourse; they are unfamiliar to the fact that virginity can also be lost as a result of certain other factors such as physical accidents, cycling, swimming and playing other physical games. The results of various surveys assert that many women are divorced every year in Pakistan soon after their marriages as their husbands come to know that they are not virgin. “A survey carried by ‘Al-Bannat’, a Non Government Organization (NGO) reveals that 123 girls were divorced in years 2006 and 2007 alone in N.W.F.P because their husbands came to know that these girls have lost their virginity before getting married. But 87 out of these 123 girls were innocent and had lost their virginities for certain other reasons.” (Abbas, 7-9). The lives of such girls are ruined due to the ignorance on part of their husbands. Sex education becomes essential to save the lives of such individuals from being marred.
Additionally, sexual affairs may become a source of transmitting highly noxious diseases that can be fatal. For instance Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) AIDS which is a deathly disease can be transmitted through unsafe sexual practices. Similar other diseases such as Hepatitis, anal cancer and other Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) which will be discussed below in detail may be carried through sexual intimacies. After analyzing the importance of sex education in reference to health concerns of the individuals, it becomes extremely necessary to include sex education in the educational curriculum of Pakistan.
Similarly, sex education explains safe methods and precautions of copulation after marriage. Ignorance from proper methods of post-marital sex gives rise to several infectious diseases. For instance an infectious disease of vagina is caused by performing sex during menstruation (menses periods of women). In this disease, excessive bleeding takes place from the vagina of a woman. Other sexually transmitted diseases are also carried through inappropriate sex processes. “Many times, I receive cases in which the married patients even do not know about the basics of sexual intercourse, resulting in various complications. For example some couples are even unaware of the notion that they must avoid sex during menstruation.” (Fayyaz) Furthermore, ignorance of the proper sex techniques after marriage also creates certain social issues. For instance, sometimes a husband is uninformed about the suitable sexual methods that are required to fulfill the sexual needs of his wife; consequently he is unable to satisfy his wife’s sexual desires. This is also one of the factors of immoral relations of the women with men other than their husbands. Therefore, sex education must be provided in order to avoid the risk of such mishaps.
Likewise, gay sex prevails specifically in rural areas of Pakistan. Young people do not know about the injurious impacts of gay sex. These homosexual activists think that their homosexual relations do not come up with such troubles as sex with opposite gender bring. They depict their lifestyles to be healthy but actually the situation is quite opposite. These people need to be taught that this kind of sexual activities result in various diseases such as Syphilis. “Syphilis is a venereal disease that is caused due to gay sex which can spread throughout the body over time. This disease cause serious heart abnormalities, mental disorders, blindness, and can eventually lead to death.”(11-12)
Moreover, in order to fulfill the puberty desires, the practice of masturbation (manual sexual stimulation) is very common in the young breed of Pakistan. They are unfamiliar to harmful aftermaths of masturbation in the long run. Medical studies reveal that masturbation causes one to become impotent in later life. It can lead to loss of sight, mental illness and reduced sexual performance. Besides its adverse physical impacts, it also gives rise to some social problems. The young generation then devotes more time to such unhealthy activities rather than concentrating on their studies and giving time to healthy physical sports. They need to be made aware of this curse.
On the other hand, the critics of the sex education argue that if sex education is promoted in educational institutions, it will corrupt the minds of young people and ultimately they will tend to practice sexual exercises. While reservations of the critics hold valid in very limited and specific cases but their view cannot form the strong bases that sex education must not become a part of the educational system of Pakistan. Here the critics completely ignore the notion that humans are rational by nature. They analyze both sides of picture and consider the cost and benefit analysis for every issue. This notion is a firm base for the argument in favor of sex education. Because youth will be aware of the highly baleful outcomes of sexual plays, these woeful doings will be avoided to a large extent.
Similarly, opponents of sex education present the view that providing sex education in the educational institutions to both genders together will exploit the environment of these academies. This expected unfruitful result of sex education can be made void by providing sex education to males and females separately and by same gender instructors. If lectures regarding sex are arranged in separate classes for both males and females, there will be no such unfavorable outcomes and in turn gains from these lectures will help students to lead their lives more effectively.
Another major argument, which is put forward by the opponents of sex education, is that when individuals reach the age of puberty, their parents or other family members teach them about the sexual matters. And similarly newly married couples are given instructions by their elders about the proceedings of marital sex life, so then there exists no need for formal sex education in educational institutions. This argument of the opponent side does have some logic but here this point is note worthy that not every individual’s parents or elders are medical experts who can also provide them with the medical aspects of sexual matters. Most of the troubles are caused due to ignorance from the medical aspects of one’s sexual actions. Formal sex education covers almost every perspective of the sexual features; resultantly sex education becomes a necessity towards grooming of the youth.
                 To Conclude, the 21st century is marked by rapid growth and every day, new avenues of knowledge are explored for better understanding of human nature. We may or may not find cure for a number of diseases but through little attention and open mindness can at least prevent further damage caused by those diseases. A fact that can never be undermined is that ignorance leads to undesirable results in almost every domain of life. The time is ripe to take covers off from one of the sensitive issues of sex education and as much possible the terrible consequences caused by ignorance.

Written By: Muhammad Azhar Khan (LUMS)


Renaming of North West Frontier Province as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa


Anything that exists in this universe has an identity which imparts meaning to its existence. For human beings, the identities are of their tribes, ethnicities and their ancestral lands. Recent primordial and modernist theories on the subject of ethnic nationalism may not be effective in describing the origin and classification of people into particular ethnic groups but they are surely successful in providing a detailed micro and macro analysis of how ethnic identities are politicized to achieve political power. This quest for political power is founded in the urge for ethnic preservation and protection of identity. Thus a historical analysis of political history provides us with examples where ethnic groups demand for recognition through historical names and languages. For example in 1971 East Pakistan which is now an independent state of Bangladesh, was separated from West Pakistan. Along with other factors of separation most common were the issues of nationalistic and linguistic identity. Similarly since the existence of Pakistan, there has been a debate of identity across its various groups of inhabitants for themselves and their respective territories. In the past two decades, the issues of nationalistic identity got much more acerbity. This debate was mostly upon the issue of renaming one of its provinces North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Although renaming of NWFP as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa (KPK) is a controversial debate, however it was a demand of the majority of its inhabitants and they considered it a victory in the process of attaining their identity, furthermore this renaming is in the favor of national interest as scenarios before the renaming process were taking the direction of early 1970s as East Pakistan separated on the basis of nationalistic issues.
The demand of renaming the province NWFP as Pukhtunkhwa (land of Pukhtuns) was a demand of majority of the people of NWFP who are Pukhtuns. This fact is evident from the results of 1998 census and 2008 elections. “The 1998 census showed that 73.9 per cent of NWFP’s population spoke Pashto and are Pukhtuns, 3.86 per cent, largely in Dera Ismail Khan, spoke Saraiki, 0.97 per cent Punjabi, 0.78 per cent Urdu, 0.04 per cent Sindhi and 0.01 per cent Balochi. 20.43 per cent people listed in the “Others” column obviously included speakers of Hindko (believed to around 18 per cent), Chitrali, Gojri and other languages. While 99.1 percent of the 3.176 million population of federally administrated tribal area (FATA) of NWFP, declared Pashto as their mother tongue and called themselves as Pukhtuns.” (qtd. In “PAKISTAN-CENSUS”)  Furthermore, in 2008 elections, the point of renaming the province was the top most manifesto of Awami National Party (ANP) which won majority seats in KPK in general elections of 2008 and formed the government. The manifesto of ANP has been mentioned in the Dawn Peshawar edition of 17th Dec, 2007, which as follows: “The Awami National Party (ANP) has announced here today its election manifesto in which it has been said that it would change the name of the NWFP province to Pukhtunkhwa after coming into power.” (3) Moreover, a survey carried in the province predicted that majority of the voters of ANP voted for it in order to rename the province and attain their identity in the form of changing the name from NWFP to Pukhtunkhwa. As a renowned journalist and anchor Mr.Safi said “My team carried a survey throughout the province KPK, and it was inferred from the statistics of the survey that 89.7 percent voters of ANP voted because they strongly favored the renaming manifesto of the party.” (16)
Likewise, other parties which got majority votes after ANP and won considerable number of seats in KPK assembly also supported the renaming. They gave their votes in the national assembly and senate for resolution in the favor of renaming NWFP. “Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Jamiat Ulema Islam JUI (F), Pakistan People’s Party (Sherpao), Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional and Baloch nationalist parties too, went along with ANP in renaming NWFP.”(Khan, 34) The only party which opposed the renaming was Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) but it has least representation with only 6 out of 124 seats in KPK assembly.
             On the other hand, the critics are of the view that people belonging to other ethnicities such as people of Hazara division, Chitral and Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) are also a part of KPK, so renaming NWFP as KPK has emotionally made them hurt. Here the fact must be noticed that in a democratic system, the majority consensus over an issue is the basic necessity for it to become a part of constitution and the majority consensus over the renaming has been proved by the statistics of 1998 census and 2008 elections. Furthermore, in a democratic system, the legislatives are the representatives of the people, and the legislatives from the Chitral and DI Khan which are ethnic majority areas other than Pukhtun have strongly supported the new name of the province. These legislatives were Saleem Khan of PPP from Chitral and from DI Khan, were Molana Fazlur Rehman of JUI (F) and Deputy Speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi of PPP. Moreover, in order to reveal the representation of such minorities in Hazara, where they are in a relatively larger proportion, the prefix Khyber has been added to the name Pukhtunkhwa. Khyber refers to the very famous historical Khyber Pass that passes through the Hazara belt and enters Afghanistan. So renaming NWFP as Khyber Pukhtunkhwa has also represented the minority ethnic existence in the province.
Similarly, the Pukhtuns, who constitute the majority in Khyber Pukhtunkhwa, considered the renaming of their province as their basic right. One of the main factors for this Pukhtun’s mentality was the names of other provinces of Pakistan which predict definite identities. Pukhtuns felt it a strong discrimination towards their identity. Pukhtuns were of the view that the state of Pakistan is not willing to bestow them the rights which citizens of the state deserve, among which identity was considered to be the most essential and basic right. They termed the renaming issue solely the issue of their identity and so further delaying this process was growing the seeds of violence in their hearts. As one of the most famous journalist of Pakistan Mr. Rahimullah Yusufzai said in his article The Case for Pukhtunkhwa: “The debate on renaming the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) is serious business because it concerns the identity of its people and their place in the federation of Pakistan.” (The News, 33)
Another major reason of the Pukhtun demand of renaming the province is that since 15th century, this Pukhtun majority belt of sub-continent was known by the word Pukhtunkhwa and also with similar names of Paktia and Pushtunistan before 15th century. As Dr. Ahmad Hasan Dani, a well known historian, archaeologist and Ex-Director of the Islamabad-based Center for the Study of the Civilizations of Central Asia said: “Culturally there is no doubt that the land of NWFP was called Pukhtunkhwa in Pashtu literature since 15th century (we have a trace of literature since that time only) (Dawn, 7).” Likewise this fact is also evident from a poetic verse of Ahmad Shah Abdali who wrote it in 18th century. He said:
 “The thorn of Delhi no more sustains its’ value in my eyes
   When I remember the mountain tops of my beautiful Pukhtunkhwa.”  (Safi, 16)
On the contrary, the opponents of this change in the name of NWFP, argues that it was solely the political motives of ANP since its existence that provoked Pukhtuns to demand for a change in the name of their province. It is a matter of fact that the ANP represented Pukhtuns in the renaming issue but it cannot be inferred that it was ANP that was involved solely in provoking people of NWFP to fight for changing the name of NWFP. The reason is that the history of ANP is traced back earliest to Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan commonly known as Bacha Khan and he was born in 1890, while the name Pukhtunkhwa was used in 15th century and before. It was changed later in the British colonial rule on Sub-continent. So Pukhtuns were demanding the name “Pukhtunkhwa” on its relevance to that historical context. “Pukhtuns demanded the renaming of NWFP as Pukhtunkhwa, citing historical references both dating to the time of Greek historian Herodotus and later to Emperor Shahabuddin Ghauri and then” (Khan, 34)
Furthermore, the renaming issue resulted in a serious trouble which was definitely causing a significant harm to the national interest. This problem was the inefficiency, which was caused in the performance of KPK provincial assembly. The provincial assembly of KPK was inefficient in contributing their efforts to solve other national issues. In Pakistan legal system, the provincial assemblies act in collaboration to the National assembly in order to carry out the government affairs, so a proper active role of provincial assembly is extremely necessary towards establishing an efficacious government writ. But looking towards the past provincial assembly tenures of KPK, it is vivid that almost none of the elected assembly worked efficiently or completed its tenure according to the regulations of democracy. Most of the times, the reason behind this inefficiency was the controversy of renaming. The examples to this fact are the tenures of KPK assembly in 1990s that are stated below.
In 1994, the Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML) coalition government was put down because of the distances that came in between the two ruling allies upon the renaming issue. This scenario produced an extreme unhealthy political environment in the province and the trend of horse trading (selling of vote by a legislator within the assembly) took place. The horse trading trend is considered to be a very undesirable act in the politics because vote is sold for money. Despite of the fact that majority seats were won by ANP in 1992 elections, they offered high government offices including the Chief Minister office to PML on the condition that both parties will collaborate in centre towards the renaming of the province. But afterwards PML tried to procrastinate the task of fulfilling constitutional requirement to rename NWFP. This situation produced favorable conditions for Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) to horse trade the members of PML and to take charge of the government. This political game produced a feeling of discontent and uncertainty in the hearts of Pukhtuns of KPK. Similar situation again took place in 1997 when again the coalition between the then partners ANP and PML broke up in NWFP and Baluchistan provincial assemblies on the renaming issue. “In 1997, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, with which Asfandyar Wali’s Awami National Party twice shared power, one again refused to support the amendment of renaming NWFP, leading to the collapse of their coalition government in the NWFP and Baluchistan.”(Yusufzai, 8) After this, the agenda of Pukhtuns regarding the renaming of NWFP gained more strength and the concepts of Pukhtuns turned extremely stern in this matter. Consequently Pukhtuns started talking of even separation from Pakistan to become a separate state or merge into Afghanistan. This fact is evident from the controversial signboards put up in the Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Sarai Nurang districts and also on the Indus Highway in Kohat district of KPK. These signboards had the maps of “Greater Pukhtunistan” printed on them in which NWFP was shown as a part of Afghanistan.
            But today, as the renaming issue has been solved, it has been observed that other important national issues which were essential towards pure democracy and national unity have also been solved. Most of these problems held unsolved in the previous democratic governments. In the past governments, for supporting any amendment in constitution, the Pukhtun legislators of KPK assembly used to put the condition of renaming NWFP, and so was a prominent reason of delay in solving these issues. One of these issues was the 18th amendment in the constitution of Pakistan, which is passed with mutual consensus after the renaming condition has been fulfilled. Through this 18th amendment, ways for a dictator have been blocked in the constitution of Pakistan and the powers have been shifted to the Prime Minister from the President. These are some of the basic requirements of parliamentarian system of Pakistan.  Similarly the mutual consensus has been reached upon the National Finance Commission (NFC) award which remained unsolved for more than one decade. NFC award refers to the distribution of financial assets and resources among the provinces of Pakistan by the federal government.  Consensus upon NFC award is extremely necessary for unity of the nation. As Dr. Ashfaque Hassan Khan, dean and professor at NUST Business School said in his article The NFC Award: “The federal and provincial governments have developed a landmark consensus on the Seventh National Finance Commission (NFC) Award after 13 long years. The historic consensus could not have been achieved without the rare display of mutual understanding, accommodation and magnanimity of all stakeholders” (Dawn, 7)
            On the contrary, the critics argue that since Pukhtuns have been given their identity in the form of renaming NWFP, the demand of the people of Hazara division to create a new province Hazara must also be fulfilled. But the point must be noted that to create an autonomous province, there are constitutional requirements that must be attained. Those requirements are population, assets and production requirement, and consensus of majority people that comprise that particular province. If Hazara division has met these requirements then the people of Hazara division has the right to demand for an autonomous province and their demand must be fulfilled through a legal constitutional process. However, currently the situation predicts that Hazara division has not met these conditions; the fact is evident from the results of following statistics. Hazara division comprises of six districts which are Abbotabad, Haripur, Battagram, Kohistan, Mansehra and the new district of Kala Dhaka since 28th January, 2011. The population of Hazara division is 4.5 million and the districts of Battagram, Kohistan and Kala Dhaka together contribute around 2.8 million to the figure 4.5 million. These districts demand a separate Abaseen division for them and have opposed the idea of becoming part of Hazara Province. “The people of  Battagram, Kohistan and Kala Dhaka districts would be happy to remain part of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa after getting a new administrative division by the name of Abaseen comprising Battagram, Kohistan and Kala Dhaka districts” (Yusufzai, 8).
            To conclude, it is a most important fact that to attain a national core doctrine (a principle that connects ethnic, cultural and liberal concepts of nationality), it is necessary to incorporate the demands of all centrifugal forces that may lead to the disintegration of a society. These forces are mostly evident in the form of ethnic, cultural, class based or religious nationalism. As Sinisa Malesevic in her paper “Nationalism, War and Social Cohesion” argued that the political and social stability of a nation state depends upon the establishment of firm ideological institutions. These institutions are shaped by rising ethno-nationalist movements. Thus it is evident that renaming of N.W.F.P was a core, unfulfilled political and cultural demand of the Pukhtun ethnic population of NWFP. It was a necessary and pragmatic step initiated by the provincial government and approved by federal government keeping in view the long term positive consequences of this act. Firstly, by satisfying the political demand of Pukhtuns, a way has been paved by the federal structure for reinsertion of the long marginalized and isolated Pukhtun population into the mainstream nation building process. And secondly, constitutional demand for a federal structure in Pakistan, where provinces enjoy political autonomy has been practiced and a step towards democratization has been taken.

Written By: Muhammad Azhar ( LUMS)

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case, 1951

There are incidents in the history of every nation which have profound future implications. In many cases, such incidents are controversial and are always a matter of debate and discussion among different sections of a society. The Rawalpindi conspiracy case is one such unfortunate event in our post-independence history which has impacted our political and, to some extent, social history. After a lapse of six decades, the event ought now to be analyzed objectively in order to learn useful lessons from it as the dust of emotions and sentiments has settled down. In the following paragraphs I will try to give a short summary of the “story” which is called Rawalpindi Conspiracy case and then I will touch upon the questions such as what were the issues at the time when such a conspiracy against the state institutions was planned and how big Rawalpindi conspiracy case is, in its real significance to the history of Pakistan.


The central character of the case was Major Gen Akbar Khan who was serving as a brigadier at the time of independence. Soon after independence, the war broke out between Pakistan and India on the issue of annexation of Kashmir. Akbar Khan led the regular army and civilian tribes against India in the war, whereas General David Gracy was the C-in-C of the Pakistan Army. In fact, Gracy was not in favor of Pakistan's deep involvement in the war. As a consequence, Pakistan could only succeed in occupying some parts of Kashmir. This situation disheartened Brig Khan who was an extremely brave soldier. He was highly frustrated over Pakistan's acceptance of ceasefire and thus turned against the state policy on the Kashmir dispute. He used to express his wrath against the ceasefire indiscreetly in the presence of all and sundry. His spouse, Begum Nasim was the daughter of a renowned woman leader of the Muslim League, Begum Jehan Ara Shahnawaz. She was also highly critical of the government policies. Khan's boldness combined with frustration incited him to make a plan of overthrowing the incumbent government. At that time, Liaquat Ali Khan was the PM and Khawaja Nazimud Din was the governor general. The regime had put severe sanctions on the communist Party of Pakistan which was not permitted to take part in political activities. Due to her family background, Begum Nasim had vast political connections and Faiz Ahmad Faiz was among her friends. Faiz was the editor of the then “Pakistan Post” and was ideologically committed and a great sympathizer of the communist party. Hence, the frustration of both Akbar Khan and Faiz pushed them closer to ousting the incumbent regime. Consequently, Khan convened a meeting at his place in Rawalpindi on February 23, 1951 which was attended by Faiz, Syed Sajjad Zaheer, the then secretary general of the party, and Muhmmad Hussain Ata, another leader of the party. Besides civilians, Akbar Khan, Lt Col Siddique Raja and Maj M Yousaf Sethi were present in the meeting. According to the proposed coup d’état presented by Khan, both Governor General and PM were to be arrested; the GG was to be forced to dismiss the PM and his government. After dismissal of the government, Khan was to form the new government which was to organize general elections in the country. The new government was to allow the communist party to participate in the political process and as a return, the party was to welcome and provide support to the new government. The Daily under the editorship of Faiz, was to provide the editorial support to the new government. According to official sources a police offices who was a trustee of Gen. Khan leaked the information about the conspiracy and hence they were arrested


At that time some big developments were progressing. Firstly, the people of Morocco were involved in the independence movement against the French. Thousands of people mostly students used to come on roads and supported the Moroccan movement against the French. They also demanded to end diplomatic relations with French imperialist regime and to support the Moroccan movement diplomatically. Hence a great portion of population had problems with the foreign policy of Pakistani government and it seemed that the newspapers at that time such as the Pakistan Post were supporting the people against the state. This implied that this newspaper is creating an environment of distrust and contradiction of ideology between the state and the people . The government of Pakistan led by Liaqat Ali Khan was very much irritated by the activities and the statements of these newespapers and people against the state. As the editor was Mr.Faiz who was ideologically committed to communist ideology, the state started to keep a close eye on those people who were regarded as close colleagues of Faiz. And this was at this time that General Khan, his wife and Begum Jehan Ara Begum were supposed to have relations with Faiz. Secondly, Kashmir issue was being discussed in the UN. The people of Pakistan were frustrated about this issue and the proceedings of the case in the UN and it seemed for Pakistanis that the leadership of the state is not able to get the rights of the state. Hence General Khan and the left might have found this occasion suitable to catch the support of the people against the state. Thirdly, those were the days when Muslim league had been speculated as not coming according to the people’s expectation. Also that Muslim league has lost its support as a populist party. And this may also be an answer to the question regarding the vanishing of Muslim league from Pakistan’s political scenario after independence. At that time i.e February to April, 1951, political parties were preparing for the upcoming provincial assembly elections. So this might be considered to be a very good chance for Muslim League to exploit their support by ambushing the “core” of their party and to win the next elections. Hence, we see from the newspapers of those days giving statements about speculations that Azad Pakistan party and Miss. Fatima Jinnah to win the Punjab elections and Muslim league to lose. Fourthly, there were people from the lower strata such as the laborers and the landless workers protesting against the government for not giving them the suitable relief. All of these instances carry us to completely opposite side far away from those facts given to us by the state. Here the hypocrisy of the state is exposed very clearly when we see that the government of Pakistan made a special court and tribunal to try the suspects of the conspiracy and hide the court proceedings from the common man. It also seems that the state is not fully prepared to carry out such arrests such as newspapers at that time were reportng that the “state is yet deciding to arrest or not to arrest Air Commodore Janjua”. Other things which may be useful are the statements of the centrist newspaper Dawn and populist newspaper Pakistan Post during the commencing elections in Punjab. For example Dawn reported that “Muslim league swept elections in Gujranwala and Sargodha”. On the other hand Pakistan post reported that “in Lahore all seats have been won by either Azad Pakistan Party or other non–Muslim league party and that Muslim league party is losing all over the Punjab”. Also newspaper report that “some parties were protesting against the results of elections in Sargodha and Gujranwala”. Here we see that the election is contested through power over newspapers and it seems that even the party of Quaid-e-Azam who was responsible for the making of Pakistan is not behaving honestly. From here we see that the very foundations of our political system were flawed and no one was ready to work for the common man. Fake conspiracy cases were filed against those who were acting against the institutions because the state was west oriented and was not doing those things which it was supposed to do. This conclusion is supported by Miss. Fatima Jinnah when she stated in a rally that “people should vote in favor of those who are the real followers of Quaid”. From this she meant that we should not vote for Muslim league because it had changed its very purposes from the day when Quaid died. History is witness of the fakery of this conspiracy as General Akbar was latter appointed as the Chief of National security in Zulfiqar ali Bhutto’s regime.


The conspiracy was big in terms of its significance to the state. Because the military and the elites in bearucracy were waiting to capture the state machinery because the politicians were not working for the people. Hence later we see that army claims to protect the institutions of the state and the rights of the people. Martial laws are mere the reflectory images of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case 1951. Nowadays when we talk about the inability of the state to tackle the problems of the people we forget these thoughts were wandering in the minds of the people when we had Liaqat Ali Khan as our Prime Minister. So its merely the continuity we see in our history. Later we saw further some successful  coups in 1958 ,1969,1977,1991 and some unsuccessful attempts in 1973 and 1995 which was because of the same reasons for which the 1951 conspiracy case emerged.


About The Author: Asif Bahadur is a current student of   Economics/Political Science at lums. His areas of interest includes  Economics, Philosophy and Computer Science. He is also a very good football player and plays for a his hometown football team.

Rationality And Faith: According to Leo Tolstoy and Dr Ali Shariati


Rationality is the mental ability of humans to observe natural phenomena and then contemplate on them on the basis of reason. Rationality can prove or reject certain behaviors, phenomena or hypothesis on the basis of explanation of cause and effect, good or bad and true or false. Rationality is the basic differentiating characteristic of humans and animals. Tradition and science both accept the importance of rationality in our lives. Different philosophers from very different times have tried to answer the question of validity or the importance of reason and rationality in finding the true, good, and beautiful. Leo Tolstoy and Dr.Ali Shariati also tried to answer the same question. Rationality is not the only way of finding the true, good and beautiful but it is an important source of knowledge which along with faith can lead us to what is true, good, and beautiful. In this paper I will discuss in detail what these two authors argued about the importance and limitations of reason in finding the true, good, and beautiful and the questions which they considered important to be answered. In first part of the paper I will discuss the arguments of Leo Tolstoy and Dr.Ali Shariati regarding rationality and that will include the importance and limitations of rationality. It will also attempt to discuss the basic questions regarding life which according to both of them were very important and throughout this discussion I will discuss the validity of superstition or miracles which very much related to rationality. Towards the end I will discuss that how our education system helps or hinders our search for true, good and beautiful.
            Leo Tolstoy lived a life of a very rich man. He gained fame and wealth through what he wrote for his readers. He in his work A Confession wrote about his ambitious past life and his thrust for wealth, fame and glory. He committed bad things in gaining what he wanted but at the end he was not satisfied with his life and he started to find solution for his dissatisfaction. He felt ashamed when he recalled the time in which he regarded themselves the leaders and teachers of this world. He loathed the way he was living his former life because he considered comfort to be the real purpose of life. Disillusioned with his state of life he started to observe the lives of men of his times, both believers and the unbelievers. Questions arisen in his mind regarding life. Questions which he considered easy, “childish” and simplistic to answer were found to be very difficult to answer. Those questions were: what is good and what is evil? What is life for? What does it lead to? Why we live without any aim when we know that after all I will perish and death will annihilate all that I am making for myself or my children? Is there any meaning in my life that the inevitable death awaiting me does not destroy? Why should I live, why wish for anything, or do anything? What will come of my whole life? (Tolstoy 13).He starts to find answers for these questions and he first goes to experimental science and then abstract science or philosophy.
            Tolstoy did not find the answer to his question about life in experimental science. Though experimental science was praised everywhere for its research and ‘progress’ but it was unable to help him in finding those very basic questions of life. Science can do better when it works in those fields which are unrelated to what he wanted to find. But when science attempts to find the answers to his questions regarding life its results are vague and unclear as he describes, “I understood that the clearer they were the less they met my need and the less they applied to my questions.”(Tolstoy 22). Science only can say that:
            “You are what you call your ‘life’; you are a transitory, casual cohesion of particles.
The mutual interactions and changes of these particles produce in you what you call
your “life”. (Tolstoy 25).
Experimental sciences gave him some laws and principles governing life such as the law of evolution which states:
“Everything develops and differentiates itself, moving towards complexity
and perfection, and there are laws directing this movement. You are a part
 of the whole.”(Tolstoy 24).
 At first when he is young and his muscles are developing he finds himself as part of the same system but when he grows older and he finds that his muscles are weakening and his teeth falling, he finds in the laws of science a great contradiction. The other type of science i.e. the abstract science also tries to answer the questions in these words:
“All humanity lives and develops on the basis of spiritual principles and ideals
which guide it. Those ideals are expressed in religions, in sciences, in arts, in
forms of government. One should consider himself a part of humanity, and
therefore his vocation should be to forward the recognition and the realization
 of the ideals of humanity.” (Tolstoy 33).
Tolstoy argues that if universe as according to abstract science is infinitely developing then there must not be a meaning of our lives. Tolstoy is not satisfied with what both sciences tried to give him to answer his questions regarding life. He argued that the stupidity and contradictions of science is because it cannot be used to answer the questions regarding life. In his views, experimental science was mostly concerned with the material phenomena and abstract science was mostly concerned with the essence of things. According to Tolstoy, both sciences are unsuccessful to answer his questions of life.
            Tolstoy then tries to find the answers in words of great men having great minds, who had already tried to answer the same questions regarding life. These men were Buddha, Solomon, Schopenhauer and Socrates. He finds their answer valid just like Socrates said:
“We approach truth only inasmuch as we depart from life when preparing for death.
For what do we, who love truth, strive after in life? To free ourselves from the body,
and from all the evil that is caused by the life of the body! If so, then how can we
fail to be glad when death comes to us?”(Tolstoy 28).
He finds them valid because he observes that even the believers of his time who fear death and sorrows of life and they wish for material comfort in their lives. He argues that these comforts are meaningless as one lives his life in a circle, earning for buying food again and again only to preserve his material body. He argues that these comforts are meaningless because death (which is the ultimate reality) will annihilate all those comforts one day. As Solomon says that:  
“All that is in the world — folly and wisdom and riches and poverty and
 mirth and grief — is vanity and emptiness. Man dies and nothing is left
of him. And that is stupid”. (Tolstoy 29).
Tolstoy argues that if life is evil and if it is a joke then we should end this evil and try to run away from this evil towards a state that is true, good, and beautiful. It is better to end this life and end this joke. The only way to escape this evil and joke is to commit suicide. According to Tolstoy there were four ways to cope with a situation like this. First, don’t try to know that life is senseless and evil. A second way was to know the meaning of life but do not think for the future. Third was to end this life so that there exist no evil. Fourth one was the way of Solomon, to know that life is senseless and vanity and still keep on continuing to live in a tormenting position. He finds himself in this fourth condition which he describes as very contradicting. He thought that because reason is higher than all things, then it should manifest the existence of life. But now in this condition, reason is compelling him to end his life. Other contradiction was that Milliards were living even though they knew that their lives were senseless. He started observing the working-folk or the Milliards. They lived even though they had sorrows in their lives and accepted what life was giving them. They justified their life and death with clear arguments. Tolstoy felt ashamed when he came to know these people. Because he was applying his conclusion about life to few people only who had comforts in their lives, not to those who lived working and doing labor with sorrows and miseries in their lives. He finds that reasonable knowledge excludes life while the majority of population which lives without having reasonable knowledge manifests that there is a type of knowledge which compels them to live. That knowledge is irrational knowledge and is called “faith”.
            Tolstoy argued that faith makes people to believe in those super-natural beings and superstitious phenomena e.g. miracles which are rejected by reason. To have faith for Tolstoy was to reject reason or rationality. He argues that rational knowledge has been beneficial to him only to the extent that it indicated to him that it should include finite and infinite in the question regarding life. The real answer came from the irrational knowledge or faith which included the unity of finite and the infinite within the answer. Faith makes it possible for people to live their lives knowing the meaning of life. Faith is knowledge of the meaning of human life in consequence of which man does not destroy himself but lives. Faith is the strength of life. If human beings understand the illusory nature of the finite, they must believe in the infinite. Without faith they cannot live. Faith remained to Tolstoy as irrational as it was before, but he could not but admit that it alone gives mankind a reply to the questions of life, and consequently it makes life possible. The superstitious beliefs which are rejected by rationality and experimental sciences such as the conception of an omnipotent God, the divinity of soul and men’s conception of moral goodness are the conceptions formulated in the hidden infinity of human thought; they are those conceptions without which neither life nor they should exist.
            Dr.Ali Shariati also discusses the issues related to the questions of true, good and beautiful through his work Hajj (The Pilgrimage). I selected Dr.Ali because his arguments about rationality and superstition are very much alike to that of Tolstoy’s arguments. His main concern in finding true, good, and beautiful was to know about the validity of rationality and faith. Equally important for him were the sequence of knowledge, consciousness and love and the limitations of rationality in finding the true, good and beautiful. He is also interested to find the significance of Umma (the community) in reaching to Almighty Allah.
At the start of Hajj, Shariati says that people from all over the world come to Mecca to offer the great pilgrimage. They come for pilgrimage not only because this is a religious obligation but also because they want to perfect and purify themselves. They are here to exercise death before actually experiencing it because they all know that all of us have to experience the same fact. As Quran says:
“To Allah we belong and to Him is our return”. (Quran II: 156 & XLII: 53) (Shariati 23)
So this is a preparation state where people come and prepare themselves for the life of eternity. Man is reminded of the final meaning of his life. He is reminded that you have to prevent yourself from the bad behavior of money, sex, greed, aggression and dishonesty. To go for pilgrimage is to approach Allah and to approach Allah is to honor oneself with the blessings of perfection, beauty and dignity. All these people belong to different tribes and different cultures but when they approach Mecca they become one Islamic community. Here at Miqat they wear simple white dress called “Ihram”. Ihram is to signify that nobody is distinct and nobody is discriminated. All of the people belong to the same community. “Allah's way is the way of the people.”(Shariati 15). Therefore for approaching Allah we must do whatever we can for the welfare of the community even if we are to face sufferings, captivity and exile. In other words, to approach Allah you must first approach people. This negates the ideals of rationality which are individualism and selfish accumulation of wealth. Moreover, Ihram has white color just like Kaffan which symbolizes death.
            Dr.Shariati in order to explain the conflict of love and rationality takes the example of Hajjar who is the mother of Hazrat Ismail. Allah had ordered Hazrat Hajjar to go to the dessert of Mecca and stay there. But Hajjar had a child who needed milk. Hajjar also needed support as she was a woman and the helpless mother of Ismail in the lonely dessert of Mecca where there was no water. Shariati argues that Hajjar came here because of the love of Allah and Allah had promised to give her comfort. But when she reaches there, she finds no water therefore she starts running in the desert between the mountains of Safa and Marwa to find water for her child. When she comes back she sees that a stream of water has emerged because of the movement of the child’s feet. Dr.Shariati argued that Hajjar came here because of love for Allah but when she didn’t find water she started to use her reason. When Zam Zam (the water) emerged this clearly demonstrated a lesson to the whole humanity. That lesson was that:
“To find water by "love" not by effort but "after the effort". (Shariati 22).
 Zam Zam still remains the manifestation of that lesson. The lesson is that we should use our reason and effort but the ultimate decision comes about on the basis of faith and love. And because of that effort by Hajjar, her actions are repeated now by every pilgrim in the Hajj in the form of Say’y and Tawaf. Allah also gave her a place in His house near Ka’aba. It is because of her love for Allah that this place was not given to any prophet but her. The lesson also serves to solve the contradiction between superstition and rationality. Now miracles are not the things to be judged on the basis of reason and rationality, even the very existence of this universe is a great miracle.
                Shariati also takes the shape of Ka’aba to show that what metaphysics and philosophy have not been able to find the very nature of God he himself has shown in the shape of Ka’aba. Shariati argues that Ka’aba the Qiblah for all the Muslims creates an impression in the minds of all the people that it must have an architectural ornamentation on it. But when they approach it they find it empty of such ornamentation or visualization. They only see a cubic room which signifies that Allah has no shape, direction and color. He is unique. The very structure of Ka’aba is unique. It has six directions but symbolizes no direction.
            Shariati discusses the love of Hazrat Ibrahim for Allah-Almighty. Shariati argues that Ibrahim was rebellious against the idolaters like Nimrud and his own father who was an idol-maker. Nimrud punishes Ibrahim by putting him into a giant fire but because of his love for Allah, Allah helps him. He is saved from the heat of fire because Allah takes the heating and combusting ability of fire. This manifests the same thing that even though reason may say that you should not rebel Nimrud because he may put you into fire or kill you but love on the other hand says that whatever happens, it happens only because of the will of Allah. And this is here we see the limitation of reason very clearly. Would he not been able to rebel against Nimrud he might have done mistake. Allama Iqbal says:
Bey khatar kood para aatish e Namrood mein ishq
Aql  hei mah’ve tamasha-i lab-e-baam abhi
Love dives into the furnace of Nimrod without any hesitation
Logic is still standing dumb-founded
Ishq farmooda e qasid se subuk gaam e amal
Aal samjee hi nahi maanee e pegaam abhi

Also a Pashto poet Rehman Baba says:
“With their only one step they reach out to the vestiges of the Arsh
I have observed the speed of those Darwish (Sufis)”
            Shariati also discussed another instant when Ibrahim was ordered to sacrifice his son for the Love of Allah. This is a superb example of the contradiction between rationality and superstition. This also clearly shows the limitations of rationality. When Ibrahim sees in his dream that he is sacrificing his son Ismail in the way of Allah-Almighty, he asks himself, is that the message from Allah or a mere superstition? Ibrahim does not carry out the sacrifice because he uses reason as a guide. But after the sacrifice appears again and again in his dreams, he calls his son and discusses the matter with him. Ismail comes to know the state of mind of his father. He accepts what Allah wants from him. Ibrahim binds his eyes with a cloth and ties the hands and legs of Ismail and starts cutting the throat of Ismail with a knife. But the knife does not cut it rather Allah sends a sheep from heaven which is sacrificed in place of Ismail. Allah only wanted to test Ibrahim because Ismail was his very big weakness. As is written in Quran:
Even the love for your son is a way of "testing" you! (Quran VIII: 28) (Shariati 53)

This shows the ultimate love of Ibrahim for Allah and in return Allah rewarded him not only in this life but also in the life after his death and now Muslims sacrifice animals on the that day every year.    
            Dr.Shariati also found some very significant meanings in various actions apart from Twa’af and Sa’ay. For Example he argued that the sequence of Arafa’at, Mashar and Mina demonstrates us that how knowledge, consciousness and love are arranged in a sequence. From Arafa’at we get that because there is light therefore we can observe things and gain knowledge, experience and objectivity. In Mashar we have no light therefore we have time to think and improve the ability of consciousness, insight and subjectivity. Now consciousness is between science and faith. In Mina we get that faith or love when the pilgrims stay there for greater time. And it is here when he argues that if you totally depend on knowledge then you will become the prisoner of nature and reason. But if you rely on wisdom, consciousness and faith (the lights that were kindled on earth by the prophets) ,you will get a kind of  knowledge which will lead you to your self-discovery. This is the knowledge which will make you closer to Allah-Almighty (Shariati 55). Other faculties of science like sociology, anthropology and mathematics will help you to learn knowledge about society, culture and mathematical formulas but they cannot help you in finding yourself. Because science can help to liberate you from society and historical facts by simply learning sociology and history, but because man has his own unique instincts therefore science cannot liberate him from those instincts. The arguments of Dr.Shariati and Tolstoy about superstition and rationality are very much alike, if one talks about gaining knowledge from Muslim Umma the other focuses on the Milliards respectively. Both of them argue that if you totally rely on rationality you are liable to fall. Both of them emphasize that rationality is a supplement to the knowledge of faith. Both see religion as the right path to live life and imply that we have no choice in our material life but to embrace one religion, we don’t have the choice of not believing in a supernatural deity or Divine Being. The limitations of reason for Tolstoy are very severe and that is of suicide, which most of people according to him commit seeing no meaning in their life.
            Our teachers in the education system faces the same problem that even though they know that death is the ultimate reality and that we are liable to fail in what is the real exam of life if we do not know the real meaning of life and the real knowledge about things in this universe. They continue to push people away from that real path. Even though we have real knowledge in the form of tradition and religion, the teachers teach us to prepare for gaining the worldly gains. They teach us to make our lives better but again and again the vicious circle of gaining food and comfort and consuming it continues (also according to Tolstoy and Shariati). We are taught here feminism and that Islam is a patriarchal religion in which woman has no rights but we are prevented to study the story of Hajjar. As Shariati says:
“From among all humanity: a woman, From among all women: a
slave, and from among all slaves: a black maid!”(Shariati 24)
And that woman has been given a place near Ka’aba. How can feminism talk about the rights of women when we have such a clear example of a slave which is given this much honor? Again, we are taught about Environmentalism and we are prevented from the knowledge that nature can only be saved if sacredness prevails in nature. People can better preserve environment if they know that it is sacred. We are given the education of liberalism and individualism which creates bad human behavior like pride, greed and jealousy in us. Even we are aware of the straight path towards true, good, and beautiful we are still running in the opposite direction forgetting about all the consequences which will follow if we remained on the same wrong path. The biggest hindrance in the way of contemporary students is the very education system which compels the students to follow the wrong path. It creates the incentives and environment for the students that they are compelled to laugh at tradition and miracles. They regard all the super natural divine beings (regarded by religion as sacred) as superstitious. They are taught to loath the religious people on the basis of reason and rationality. In other words reason is given the top priority and faith is pushed aside. That is what Tolstoy and Shariati negate in their works and they regard this attitude to be viciously mistaken and leading the whole mankind towards the dragon of ignorance. In order to prevent the lives of all human beings from falling victim to that dragon we should make necessary changes in our education system either we would continue to follow the wrong path.
Written By: Asif Bahadur ( LUMS )

The Utility Of Philosophy For Saint Augustine and Al-Ghazali In Their Lives


Philosophy is a Greek word which means “love of wisdom”.It has been defined as “Investigation of the nature of causes or principles of reality, knowledge or values based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods” (Philosophy, answers.com). Both Al-Ghazali and Saint Augustine searched for true knowledge which is independent of the individual. They studied philosophy very thoroughly to know the answers to the basic questions of life. The time and circumstances of both are different and they are considered among the most influential people of their faiths. Their quests were not easy and hence they faced hardships and difficulties in their quest for the true, good and beautiful. This essay will look at how philosophy contributes towards the true, good and beautiful describing the benefits and limitations of philosophy in helping Al-Ghazali and Augustine in their way towards true, good and beautiful. Also it will differentiate between the attitudes of both scholars towards philosophy and its overall effect on their lives. Since their circumstances were different both of them had different motives to study philosophy. Hence they will be explained separately to have a good grasp of the contribution and limitations of philosophy in their lives.
            First we take Augustine. Since his father Patrick was a Pagan and his mother Monica was a catholic, he was very greatly affected by the behavior of his parents. Monica a Catholic Christian always wanted her son to follow the right path and she wished that her son be prevented from the evils of this world. His father, on the other hand, wished for him to be educated. As he studied he learned the skill of oratory and rhetoric and he was considered to be one of the learned persons of his time. Then he realized that the knowledge gained for the sake of worldly gains is fakery. Also he realized the academics of his times are more interested in form rather than content.  Augustine was also involved in the worldly pleasures such as going to theatrical shows and pursuing sexual adventures. When he is grown and recalls those adventures especially the stealing of pears, he clearly argues that it was not because of their beauty or good taste but because of his company. It was because of that company that he had a longing for evil acts. Later he also classifies the reasons for doing evil, like that of stealing pears, for pleasure, pride, and curiosity.  At that time since Augustine wanted the true knowledge about evil and since during his adolescence he wanted to “love and to be loved” he committed much evil (15). He later converted to Manichaeism but as he learned more he found flaws with the Manichee Faith. At that time he could not explain those flaws and this led him to keep practicing Manichaeism for nearly ten years. It was after he read the Neo-Plotonic philosophy that he answered all those questions which were in his mind. Though he also found flaws in Neo-Plotonic philosophy for not praising God and containing atheistic components, he found it closely compatible with his new faith i.e. Christianity. He found this philosophy in the works of Cicero and Plotinus.
Now we can explain the difficulties Augustine was facing in the way of his quest towards truth, good, and beautiful. When Augustine started to think about God and His existence he was puzzled. Explaining the form and essence of God has been a very important issue for the ancient and medieval philosophers. Augustine at first thought that God is like a gas filling every thing in the universe because everything that exists is because of the existence of God arguing that he is “the life of the life” (12). Hence everything contains God with respect to its size i.e. smaller objects contain lesser part of the God and larger objects contain larger parts. He started to read philosophy and the first book he read was the works from an ancient philosopher, Cicero. Later he continued reading texts which he thought may help him to find the true, good, and beautiful. Augustine longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardor in his heart. He was unable to believe a God actually not in a material form. The belief in a spiritual being for Augustine was very difficult. At that time he was practicing the faith of Manichees, who claimed to have the true knowledge of God and beings. They expressed God in terms of heavenly bodies like stars and planets. Since then he was more interested in content than form so he prevented himself from falling victim to the deception of the rhetoric of the Manichees. When he had studied philosophy he was ready to answer the criticisms of the Manichees and hence freeing his soul of the puzzles. The following paragraph shows how he answered those questions with the help of his understanding of philosophy.
The most famous, Manichee challenge concerns the nature and source of evil. If God is supremely good, and if he is also all-powerful, eternal, and the cause of all existence, how can evil exist? Where can it come from except God? At the very least, why can't God eliminate it? They argued that there is a conflict between God and evil. The second Manichee challenge concerns the form of God as being corporeal. This question also challenges the idea of God as omnipotent and omnipresent. In the Manichee view, God is limited, he is not everywhere, and does not control everything. The answer Augustine introduces to these first two challenges is Neo-Plotonic in essence. Augustine argued that God is Being itself, the most pure and supreme form of existence. Everything else is God's creation, and fits into a descending scale of being; the further something is from God, the less true existence it has. In short, the further away from God something is, the more evil it is. Heaven is close to God, and comes very close to having his full, unchanging Being. Human souls or minds are a step further down, and bodies and other material things are at the bottom of the pile. This idea allows Augustine to answer the Manichee question of evil as follows: "evil has no existence except as a privation of good, down to that level which is altogether without being (36)". Evil is just a name for a lack of true existence, a label for how far a thing (or person) has wandered from unity with God. It’s helpful here to recall Augustine's theft of the pears, which demonstrates that each sin is really a twisted or incomplete attempt to be like God. Because of the lust for domination he did this stealing. Thus, evil is not some dark substance that exists in conflict with God; it is simply the extent to which something in God's creation has turned away from Him, the extent to which a thing (or human) is unaware of its existence in God. In a significant sense, Augustine argues that there is no evil.
Now we see that philosophy has made his job much easier. Had he not studied Neo-Plotonic philosophy, he would have been unable to answer the questions of Manichees. Philosophy has given him the reasons of doing right and wrong. Augustine also argued that since spirit is good it longs for good and since material body is evil it longs for evil i.e. the worldly beings. When he is in grief because of the death of his close friend he realizes that it was the relation to material being which caused him to be in this grief. Hence he wanted to have an immortal relationship and that could only be possible with an immortal being like God. Here he gets the strength for the belief in a spiritual God which is omnipotent and omniscient and he observes things which he sees as impossible to be explained through reasons or words. Even though philosophy has changed the whole course of his life from Paganism towards Manichaeism and then towards Catholic Christianity, we should not conclude that philosophy always led him to the right path. If Augustine hadn’t studied Cicero and Neo-Plotonic philosophy he would have been remained in the same ignorant path of Manichaeism, the path which he loathed at the latter years of his life. He would have been left without any significant answers to the questions that why we do evils? What is the nature of evil?. It was after he read philosophy that he observed and knew something that was compatible with his thinking. Hence philosophy may lead to a very opposite and far away place from the true, good, and beautiful. This understanding of philosophy was valued most by Al-Ghazali for his search for the true, good, and beautiful.
Now we take Al-Ghazali as an example to describe the contribution of philosophy in his life in finding the true, good, and beautiful. Al-Ghazali was a great scholar in the greatest center of learning in his time. He questioned servile religious conformism. Al-Ghazali had heard from the Apostle of the God –God’s blessings and peace be upon him!-that “every infant is born endowed with the Fitra then his parents make him Jew or Christian or Magian” (9). So he also wanted to know the true meaning of the original Fitra. Later when he was teaching in Baghdad he realized that his teaching is for gaining fame and glory that he was on the wrong side. He wanted to know the true knowledge about religion and life. He defined true knowledge as that knowledge that is free from any error hence it must not accompany a possibility of error. Now it was a very difficult job because there were many sects and every sect claimed to be true on the basis of its own interpretation. A little mistake might have led him into the wrong path. So he started to gain true knowledge through the sense data and reason Judge. He found that the thing which senses signals to us as true is the same sense data that is rejected as false by the reason judge. Hence it forced Ghazali to think of another stage which may in turn rejects what the reason judge is saying. That he found in the state of sleep. When a person is sleeping, all his senses are suspended and yet he believes in what he sees as a dream but as he is awakened he realizes the fact that it was not the truth.
It is according to Al-Ghazali “an affect of light which God Most High cast into his breast” that he conducted his search for true knowledge (16). Then he decided that there are four categories of those who seek true knowledge. These were (1) the Muttakallimun who claim that they are the men of true judgment and reasoning (2) the Talimites who claim to be the recipients of knowledge acquired from their infallible Imam. (3) The philosophers who claim that they are men of logic with proofs (4) The Sufis who claim to be men familiar with the Divine presence and of mystic vision and illumination. From the science of Kalam, Al-Ghazali concluded that Kalam is good for its own aim but because its purpose was to protect the orthodoxy from the innovators it was not adequate for his aim. From the Talimites, Al-Ghazali concluded that they gain knowledge from the infallible Imam, Ghazali answered them that our infallible imam is Muhammad -God blessings be upon him-that he has perfected the teaching for his community. Now the absence or death of the Imam does not matter, so there is no need of an infallible imam. Now as Al-Ghazali is an Islamic theologian, his belief in the God Most High, the revelations and the Last day was very strong and that is manifested when he writes in his autobiography that he was severely ill because he “was wandering between the pull of the worldly desires and the appeals of the afterlife, for six months” (Al-Ghazali 56). Hence Ghazali’s attitude towards philosophy is totally different from what Augustine had. Because Al-Ghazali knew that people involved in the science of Kalam were unsuccessful in negating the arguments of philosophers because of the spacious arguments of the Muttakallimun which were because of their insufficient knowledge about the science of philosophy. So he wanted to study philosophy first so as to have the right reasons for believing or rejecting in what the philosophers of his time were saying. So studied philosophy so thoroughly that he became the most learned in that time in the science of philosophy. His attitude to start the study of philosophy was to negate the arguments because he knew that they were based on disbelief, even though the concept of God before his quest of true, good, and beautiful was different after the quest. Al-Ghazali was a believer from the very start and remained the same after his quest but the nature of his belief has now changed. While Augustine was impartial as he was not bound to one faith, we see that he was a Manichee for Ten years and then he studied Neo-Plotonic Philosophy and then he converted to Christianity. Indeed it was a very risky job because he might have been pushed into a wrong path if he had not continued to read philosophy.
After Al-Ghazali studied philosophy for three years he could easily see the flaws of their arguments. For Ghazali there were many categories of philosophers and his extent of the study of philosophers is manifested through his book “The incoherence of philosophers”. It is not that Al-Ghazali considered all philosophers to be wrong since there were different purposes of different categories of philosophy. Also there were differences in those categories with respect to time. There were some shared attributes which were common to all categories of philosophy. These he classified as (1) that part of their work which is based on disbelief (2) a part connected to innovation (3) a part which cannot be repudiated. He does not prevent us from studying those philosophers as he argued that a believer rejecting mathematics will give an impression to another person who knows the marvels of mathematics that Islam is based on wrong beliefs. He may also think that if Islam is right then how the mathematical philosophers knew these marvelous things. He was able to see the innovations of the philosophers in moral matters. If he didn’t know the science of philosophy he would not have been able to pinpoint the flaws and the innovations of philosophers like Aristotle, Ibne-Sina and Al-Farabi etc. And that is the reason that he emphasizes more to study the sciences before critiquing them because our critique will be as wrong as our study is insufficient. Because of the study of philosophy he negated the three arguments of the Metaphysical philosophers with the help of the teachings given in Quran and traditions. The arguments of the philosophers were (1) only spirits will be assembled on the last day and not their corporeal bodies (2) that God knows universals and not the particulars (3) That world is eternal.
Philosophy was very useful for Al-Ghazali because he just like Augustine realized with the help of philosophy that everything cannot be explained through reasons. He argued that above the reason there is another stage that is the seeing of the unseen. That seeing of the unseen is through the “eye” which God Most High gives to the observer i.e the prophecy. Through the light of prophecy he sees those things which cannot be explained through the narrow range of words or reason. From here he questions the need for prophecy. He had a great insight into this premise because he had read philosophy so he searched for it. Hence he came to know at last that true knowledge can only be gained by experience and practice. First you get knowledge then you practice it and with practice you start to believe in what you know and practice. Because the way to get the true knowledge is to cleanse the heart from worldly desires and that is through fruitional experience and practice so that heart (the center of the soul and the source of true knowledge) gets adorned with the remembrance of God. That’s how prophecy has a need of existence to guide people towards reality. Now he also got the reasons of the disbelief of most of the people in the revelations, prophecy and other things. That he argued was because they themselves had not experienced the same thing therefore they were unable to explain it and therefore they say that it doesn’t exist and regard it to be superstitious. He argued that if these things are superstitious how then you can explain true dreams. According to Ghazali true dreams are only a part of the whole existence of prophecy hence it might quite be possible that every person is getting signals from his God in the form of true dreams. Hence true dream is example of the light of prophecy.  Apart from that philosophy also helped him to recognize the true philosophers and the status of a philosopher according to his works. Philosophy helped him to separate right from wrong. That was because of philosophy that he realized that argumentation should not be for the sake of argumentation but it should be for the sake of gaining truth. Through philosophy he was able to see the faults of philosophers.
As for the limitations of philosophy for Al-Ghazali are concerned they are explained by him very thoroughly. First of all he argued that one man accepting the marvels of mathematics may argue that as the mathematicians know these things their disbelief is manifested by their good knowledge of mathematics. Ghazali argued that these people are misled because the fact that they are skillful in one faculty does not necessarily make them heir to other faculties of knowledge. Other limitations which he argued were also very serious. He said that a person who is more skilful in philosophy will say that I know better than other people so I don’t need to follow the same conformism hence I can handle it. For example, a man may say that I drink wine because I know how to handle its bad effects. From the arguments given above, one should not take the impression that philosophy is the cause or the result of disbelief, because we see many believers in the philosophical discourse nowadays.
Philosophy has been advantageous in giving guidance to Al-Ghazali and Saint Augustine in many ways as discussed above. It has limitations and can hinder the quest for true, good and beautiful. But without studying philosophy the possibility of reaching out to truth decreases. If Augustine and Al-Ghazali had not studied philosophy, it was quite possible that they would have been pushed into the darkness of disbelief by the marvelous rhetoric and arguments from the wrong people. The position of Al-Ghazali very much appeals to me because he is determined from the very outset that he would not lead his life in servile conformism and that he must study every science so that he may understand the purpose of his life and religion with satisfaction. Concluding, philosophy played a very significant role in shaping what they were at last and it contributed to their extremely influential works for which we still give credit to them.
Written By: Asif Bahadur ( LUMS )