In 1967 Ghulam Abbas, arguably Pakistan’s finest short story
writer, wrote a story called ‘Hotel Mohenjodaro’ that never ceases to
amaze me. It was almost as if Ghulam Abbas had a crystal ball.
Looking into it, he saw clearly into the future and wrote of
what we are experiencing today. Abbas sets the scene in Pakistan’s future in the
closing years of the 20th century, in a hotel called Mohenjodaro which has 71
storeys. Pakistan is about to become the first nation to reach the moon.
On the 71st floor of the hotel, in the famed hanging garden, a
grand reception is taking place. Ambassadors and delegates from all countries of
the world are gathered to see this phenomenal human achievement. As the
Pakistani astronaut, praising Allah and saying "Pakistan Zindabad", lands
his spacecraft on the moon, there is music and dance. Messages of congratulation
pour in from all over the world. It is a proud day for Pakistan.
The next scene is set in a mosque many miles away. A mullah
speaking to his congregation declares that some kafir Pakistani has violated the
divine law by landing on the moon. Soon this cry is echoed all over Pakistan.
The mullahs are able to stir up enough religious frenzy that the government is
forced out of power and there is an Islamic revolution. Soon thereafter an amir
is elected on the basis of adult franchise and an Islamic government is
instituted. All forms of modern inventions, technology, music, art forms and
other ‘evils’ of western civilisation are banned. Arab dress is made compulsory
and Arabic is legislated to be the national language of Pakistan. All knowledge
except Islamic knowledge is declared evil and universities, schools and
libraries are destroyed. Women are strictly secluded from the mainstream and men
are appointed their guardians.
Soon afterwards however, the mullah rulers of the country are
divided into several ‘colours’ that have their own exegesis of Islam. Soon
thereafter there is infighting that quickly turns into a civil war. As rape,
pillage and destruction of mosques continue, the amir is martyred by one
faction, leading to total chaos. Taking advantage of this situation, the armed
forces of a neighbouring country invade.
The final scene is set in a desert. A few tourists are being led
on camels by a tour guide. At one point he pauses and says, "This is the spot
where, before the enemy struck, stood the Hotel Mohenjodaro with its 71 storeys."
This story was prophetic on many levels. In 1969 the US became
the first country to reach the moon and it was decried by the mullahs in the
Muslim world as a great kufr (sin of unbelief, infidelism). However, the
most striking part of Abbas’s prophecy was the coming of the ‘Islamic’
revolution and his description of life under mullah rule. We have seen how a
modern Muslim country like Iran was suddenly sent into medieval times by its
mullahs. The same almost happened in Algeria. Life under the Taliban is
strikingly similar to that described by Abbas three decades earlier.
Islamisation and Arabisation under ‘General Zia ul-Batil’ in Pakistan did come
true and in Peshawar the ruling mullah coalition’s behaviour had an eerie
similarity to the mullah coalition that takes over Pakistan in the story. The
sectarian violence that we have seen in Karachi is exactly how Abbas described
it. What is left is an invasion by our enemy.
Ghulam Abbas was a believing Muslim but never an intolerant one.
As a self-proclaimed Iqbalian, he was wedded to the idea of Muslim modernity and
its positive role within the greater world. Pakistan in his time was still a
liberal and tolerant country where the edicts of the mullah, the notorious
fatwas, were ridiculed and freethinking was encouraged. Amazingly, in the period
between 1947 and 1979, before the imposition of the draconian Section 295C
(mandating the death penalty for "use of derogatory remarks, etc in respect of
the holy prophet"), only six cases of blasphemy were instituted in all of
Pakistan and all six of them were laughed out of court.
Ghulam Abbas however could read the undercurrent. He could see
that the visible development and progress that the Government of Pakistan
flaunted shamelessly was uneven. Hence Pakistan could reach the moon in the
future of his imagination but its masses would still be illiterate and ignorant,
susceptible to the false religious frenzy that the mullah was capable of.
Clearly, this was the message of the time, that had Pakistan’s youth then rally
round socialist causes and parties.
We must learn a lesson from Abbas’s prophecy and stop this decay
before it consumes us, as Pakistanis and as Muslims. Even Islam as a faith has
no real conception of clergy. Repeatedly, the Koran calls upon Muslims to live
their own lives without interference from holy men and witch doctors. Then why
are we tolerating the mullah in the name of Islam?
The mullah is no defender of Islam. He is a parasite sucking the
very lifeblood out of our faith. Obscurantism and retrogressive values will lead
us nowhere but to total destruction. We will be humiliated and, in the words of
the poet, Iqbal, "Tumhari dastan tak bhi na hogi dastanon mein (Your
history will not find a mention in history books)."
Muslims the world over should decry this unnatural priesthood
conferred upon the mullah. As my hero, Jinnah, once said, "Every Muslim should
be his own priest", so let us reclaim as Muslims our intellectual heritage from
the clutches of the diseased leech that the mullah is. Our future lies in
complete rejection of mullahdom. Only then can we march into the modern world
with our heads held high.