Today is August 11, and the speech which Jinnah delivered on this day in 1947 was a landmark in a long process towards spiritual democracy which started with the birth of Islam. While presenting the concept of Pakistan in 1930, Iqbal had stated:Indeed the first practical step that Islam took towards the realization of a final combination of humanity was to call upon peoples possessing practically the same ethical ideal to come forward and combine. The Quran declares, "O people of the Book! Come let us join together on the ‘word’ (Unity of God), that is common to us all." The wars of Islam and Christianity, and, later, European aggression in its various forms, could not allow the infinite meaning of this verse to work itself out in the world of Islam. (Read complete text of the Allahabad Address)
Hence, according to Iqbal, Pakistan was supposed to be a step towards “a universal social reconstruction” where people from different faiths could combine without losing their respective beliefs and, together, they may evolve “a new Adam and a new world for him to live in.”
Jinnah’s 11 August Speech comes as a natural sequel to this: “Now, I think we should keep that in front of us as our ideal and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State.”
Next: we shall see why this may not be possible through secularism.
Makes sense and things can be seen in different realities.
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