The history of mankind proceeds in great periods, in universal cycles, which for their part are divided again into ages- the aeons. The ongoing universal cycle began with Adam. Adam was a Prophet, a Manifestation, and before him there were other Divine Messengers of whom nothing has been handed down to us. Within the period that began with Adam, the religions of mankind that we know today, came into being.
According to the Holy Quran, God sent Messengers to all peoples and He made known His Will and His Truth through them. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad (PBUH), were the central figures of the Adamic cycle. Every single one of these Manifestations introduced a new aeon within which their teachings and commandments were the ultimate moral standard, both for individual and the society of the particular culture.
Thus history has a tools. It is not to be seen as a circle, an endless recurrence of becoming and passing away. But it is not linear either, as Christianity often sees it, moving from a point at the beginning to a point at the end. The recurrence of the same events always takes place on a higher plane; the course of world history resembles a spiral.
“YEH KAENAT ABHI NATAMAAM HAI SHAYAD KEH AA RAHI HAI DAMA DAM SADAE KUN FA YAKUN” (Iqbal)
Trans: This universe, it seems, is still incomplete
A ‘Voice’ keeps saying consistently-make and complete.
All the religions of mankind are included in the history of religious salvation; all have their origin in God and are but different reflections of the same truth. Despite the variety in their appearance and expression, in language and terminology, in metaphors and laws, they have common basis e.g., the unchanging central core of God’s religions.
God did not Manifest Himself in a human temple, once and for all in the past, but in cyclic intervals: God has sent down His Messengers to succeed Moses and Jesus, and He will continue to do so till “the end of that has no end”, so that His grace may, from the heaven of Divine bounty, be continuously vouchsafed to mankind.
This idea is familiar to Hinduism and Buddhism and is connected with the concept of avatar (coming down). Christianity already sees the beginning of the salvation of man in the Prophet’s old Covenant. Islam has the concept of progressive revelation most clearly. The chain of successive Divine Messengers is, as it were, the bassoostinate of the Quran. (Abu’ A’ la Mawdudi, “Towards Understanding Islam, PP. 33-41).
Thus previous development has always been confirmed, but in all the religions people claim that their own religion is final, its Manifestation unique and its message unsurpassable. For Christians the Jewish Prophets attained their perfection in Jesus Christ; for the Muslims Muhammad (PUBH) represented the end of all revelation and the Quran is God’s final message to mankind. However, Bahai believe that God will continue to send His Messengers even after their Prophet- Baha’Ullah, who does not represent the final stage.
Attempts by man to reform religion are doom to fail in the long run. Fundamental renewal, radical in the true sense of the word, can only come from God. The history of religion shows that God had spoken to men precisely at times when they had reached the nadir of their degradation and cultural decadence. Moses came to Israel (the slaves of Pharaohs), when they were languishing under the yoke of Pharaohs. Christ appeared at a time when Jewish faith (as it is) had lost its power and had become rigid, and the culture of antiquity was in its death throes. Because of his blessings, His followers calling themselves Christians emerged almost simultaneously along with Jesus Crucification, while Jews remained obversely revetted to the days of mann o salva and the Kingdom of David. What if Christ and not David were to come again? This is the reason why the scattered Tribes (Diaspora) named by the Christendom, from US to Russia, as aliens, were pushed out from country to country, for about two thousand years; and they were looked at with contempt and disgust, because they used to create intrigue wherever they went.
Muhammad (PBUH) came to people in 570 AC; the people who lived in barbaric ignorance at the lowest level of culture and into world in which the former religions had strayed away far away from their origins and nearly lost their identity. No religion believes in the other, except Islam, beginning with the Abrahmic religions, it affirms that God sent his Messengers to every nation all over the world. The Prophets thus sent for guidance, numbered one lakh twenty four thousand of them.
One can not perceive the essence of religion, of its power, of its achievements, of one examines only those who throw about their chests claiming to be following it. When they followed the essence of their religion, they achieved indescribably much. But they reached the end of the road the moment they perturbably demolished the edifice of their cultures, though they were the guiding stars, for a long time, of their peoples. Inevitably, they became whimsical and hated others, forgetting that all men were created equal and every body including themselves was equal before law. Thus injustice was perpetrated victimising all and sundry. And then we saw: “Have they not seen how many generations We destroyed before them, which indeed return not unto them”. (36:31). Also: “It was but a single blast and Lo! They were extinct”. (36:29).
The way of life (Deen) must be followed. The ‘do and don’ts’ have been clearly spelled out. Just imagine how many tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes have gone through during 2005 up till 26 October! Yes Abraha’s elephants were killed by small pox because the scientists say so; but what about what the Holy Quran says? : “Read thou in the name of thy Lord Who created, Created man from a clot of blood.” (96: 1-2). The Holy Quran is the only authentic revealed book. It is a Miracle of Muhammad (PBUH) given to him by God for: “Falsehood can not come at it, before it or behind it. (It is) a revelation from the wise, the Owner of Praise.” (41:42). And it is bound to stir your heart and soul, to know more about what is contained in the Quran, if, straightaway, you proceed to read “The Bible; the Quran And Science”, by Maurice Bucaille. Yes it’s a Miracle; you will yell out.

E-mail: mzamanmalik19@hotmail.com

Pakistan on road to prosperity & progress
Khalid Khokhar

Although Pakistan’s economy is on path of recovery and growth, yet it confronts uphill challenges like distribution of growth, extension of basic amenities to the common man, creating more employment opportunities, controlling inflation and developing infrastructure, which it hopes to overcome with better strategy and management marked by prudent economic policies. Haruhiko Kuroda, the President Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appreciated the management of Pakistan’s economy, but forecasted in the recent report that higher oil prices, heavier monsoon rains, growing inflation, will depress the growth rate from 8.4 percent to 6.5 percent in fiscal year 2006. Accordingly, the government is pursuing structural reforms to improve its macro-economic fundamentals. In order to facilitate this ‘home grown agenda’, ADB would provide development assistance worth $3.72 billion to Pakistan over the next three years. This will help the country sustain high economic growth and reduce poverty.
The economic reforms carried by the government over the past six years have created a favourable environment for investors. Pakistan’s economy is based on three pillars of deregulation, liberalization and privatization which offers huge opportunities to local and foreign entrepreneurs. The government is providing a level playing field to both domestic and foreign investors and there is no restriction on remittance of profits back home. The government is focusing on building airports, ports and roads to reduce traveling time. The telecom is one of the fastest growing sectors in Pakistan’s economy and almost half a million mobile telephones being added every month. The automobiles is another booming sector. The country produced half a million motorbikes in 2005 and the demand is surging. Pakistan attracted a record $1.5 billion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the fiscal year to June 2005 and is aiming for double that amount this year. Pakistan wanted to capitalise on its proximity to the oil-rich Middle East region to attract investments and meet its energy needs. Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) pipeline project is being considered. Similar pipelines are being planned from Iran and from Qatar. Besides the three pipelines, Pakistan is also planning a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminal in Karachi as part of its energy sector initiatives, which had implications for regional geopolitics. If India and Pakistan both can be beneficiaries of this, it will help the overall peace process. In order to maximize investment in the country, “President’s Investment Initiative” has been approved to streamline business climate for attracting US $27 billion foreign investment over the next five years.
The current government’s wide-ranging structural reforms marked by consistency and continuity in policies have transformed Pakistan into a stable and resurgent economy. Foreign debts burden has been declined to 32.5 per cent, foreign currency reserves stand at an all-time high of almost $13 bn, the Karachi Stock Market (KSE), has crossed the psychological barrier of 8,000 points, per capita income has increased to 12% and now it is $736, foreign workers’ remittances have grown at $4.2 billion per year, and sharp decline in public debt to 61.7 per cent of the GDP, are some of the milestones for the country.
Despite the economic achievements, Pakistan has not become self-complacent and is aware of the future challenges. One of the great challenges faced is to pursue economic growth with people sitting in the driver’s seat in the growth process. The government has launched the Khushhal Pakistan programme to implement a community-driven development initiative across the country to realize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, focusing on the weaker and more deprived communities. Both the practitioners (policy makers) and participants (general masses) complement the economic growth process. Pakistan is a country of hundred and fifty million people whose potential are second to none in the world and it has proved that everything is possible with sheer hard work and commitment. So let us make an accord with ourselves to work together to achieve Pakistan’s true and great potential.

Pakistanis in Indian jails
G. G .Khan

While India and Pakistan are engaged in putting into place a number of Confidence Building Measures to create an environment of trust and confidence, the miserable plight of a large number of Pakistani nationals, languishing in subhuman conditions of Indian jails over minor offences, has emerged as a major area requiring urgent action by the two Governments. According to the Indian weekly the Outlook, at present there are 611 Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails, majority of whom is suffering because of minor immigration infringements like visiting cities not authorized in the visa. In any other country such errors of omission or commission would lead to the maximum penalty of deportation but in India the slip can prove fatal. The magazine has chronicled the plight of a Pakistani family, the Hashmis, whose five members including two ladies made the mistake of going for sightseeing to Taj Mahal Agra. The family paid the price of landing into the jail where it is not known when and if they shall break out of the misery that befell them for an innocuous excursion. The atrocious jail conditions are evident from the fact that twenty four prisoners Pakistani prisoners have lost their mental balance.
A major stumbling block in repatriation of this hapless lot of the prisoners is the procedural inefficiencies of Indian jail officialdom, which have made identification process an issue in itself. According to the Outlook, out of a total of 611, the Indian Government has provided consular access to 389 Pakistani prisoners while the cases of the remaining are pending approval of the Indian Government. Pakistan’s Ministry of Interior has only been able to correlate and confirm identification of 173 prisoners out of these 389 cases while the remaining identifications are pending for want of adequate information. Pakistani officials complain that Indian Authorities do not provide them the requisite information which would facilitate speedy identification. For Instance the name and father’s name of the prisoners that is held by them in their photograph on a slate in front, is in Hindi language – a scripture that is not familiar and can’t be read by a majority of Pakistani officials. Similarly the documentation provided doesn’t provide basic information e.g. the date, place and circumstances of arrests, the status of victim’s case in Indian Courts and most noticeably his home address. This results into inordinate delay in identification and confirming the nationality of the prisoners; a procedure which forms the basis of initiating the cumbersome process for their repatriation.
The majority of the Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails are rotting there over minor charges like overstaying visa’s duration, carrying unauthorized currency, visiting tourists spots in cities not mentioned in visa or simply straying over the border through mistake. Such aberrations are common place around the world. Yet in the context of ingrained hostility marking the history of strained Indo-Pak relations, these infringements assume out of proportion menace and severity. According to observers, the ongoing campaign in the Indian Media, over the death sentence awarded by courts to Manjeet Singh for killing scores of innocent people through bomb blasts in Pakistan has indirectly served to highlight the miserable conditions of these petty ‘criminals’ who constitute the majority of Pakistanis rotting in Indian jails. The punishment meted out to these individual is far severe than the ‘crime’ they committed. This aspect of human misery requires immediate attention by the Indian Government.