The national resilience of the Pakistani people is to be judged by the degree of their consciousness and commitment to guard their values, traditions and honour called the ‘national purpose’, or the raison d’être, as the French call it. National purpose is sacrosanct and sublime. Quaid-i-Azam first of all preferred to affirm his own faith, belief and commitment to the cause of Pakistan.
On October 22, 1939, while addressing All-India Muslim Council, he said:
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“I have seen enough in my life, experienced the pleasures of wealth, fame and life of repose and comfort. Now I have one single ambition, to see Muslims gaining freedom and rise to the pinnacle of glory. It is my very ultimate wish that when I die, my conscience and my Allah may testify that, Jinnah never betrayed Islam and that he relentlessly struggled for the freedom of Muslims, to forge institutional discipline among them and strengthen their resolve. I do not wish to get acclamation or reward from you. I only nourish the desire that, my heart, my faith and my conscience, all bear testimony till my death that Jinnah, ‘you contributed your share for the resistance against Islam and my Allah proclaim that “Jinnah you were a born Muslim, lived as such and died, quite steadfastly, holding the banner of Islam against the evil forces.”
After Pakistan was created, Quaid-i-Azam provided the guidance and defined the parameters of our national purpose, on the following occasions:
1- First Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, August 1947. “You may belong to any religion or cast or creed - that has nothing to do with the fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state….Now keep this as your 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 of Pakistan.”
2- February 1948 at Malir Cantt. “You have to safeguard our Islamic Democracy, based on social justice and for the furtherance of the principles of Islamic equality and brotherhood; social equality and unity are the cardinal principles of our deen and our civilisational and cultural values.”
3- March 23, 1948, at Chittagong. “I can say with conviction that our system of governance shall be based on the foundation of basic principles of Islam, which shall be democratic. These principles are applicable in our lives now as these were 1,300 years ago.”
Source: The Nation
