HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF

By Ishtiaq Ahmed

The history is repeating itself from all aspects but at the moment I remember two things. If you just look at the 1857 war for independence means only 150 years back, it was British rule all over the subcontinent. And this rule was unlawful and wicked. They barged into Mughal king's palace on the pretext of providing medical treatment to the king and after the king was recovered completely, they were rewarded heavily by the king and also were given a state as gratification. This state they used as a source of moving further and secretly started expanding their boundaries. Not only this they also started calling in more their compatriots and increased their strength. With their wicked nature and evil designs they began declaring Muslim deserters and brought Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs against each other. By this way they made these strong nations weaker and able to raise voice against the Englishmen. They further intruded in the subcontinent and ultimately took over the control of entire subcontinent and made these three nations their slaves. They established puppet governments in different states by installing people of their choice. However, these nations woke up and thought the country, being ruled unlawfully by the Britishers is their country and that should take it back by making it free from their illegal possession. Then started movements and independence movement of 1857 was fought. Muslims played important role in this war and Britishers were also targeting Muslims mainly to eliminate them and later bring the situation under their control. For this reason they targeted "Ulama and Madaris and caused damages to the Quran and other religious books and publications. They destroyed a number of libraries, razed Madaris and hanged "Ulama to death with the trees publicly. It was the height of human rights violations that they put the Muslims alive in sacks and threw in rivers. Fired upon unarmed 'Ulama and other Muslims, threw them alive in fire, though there was no inhuman act and torture left that Muslims were not meted out by the Englishmen. But this is fact that the history repeats itself. In yesteryears, Hazrat Bilal (radhiallahu ta'ala ~anhu) was made to lie down on fire and today the people who love Hazrat Bilal (radhiallahu ta~ala "anhu) are subjected to the similar treatment and being tortured inhumanely. It may be startling for those who don't know, that vUlama-e-Keram who have been recently arrested are being transported from one place to the other by putting them in cages. These cages were made in a way that nobody could even lie down, nobody could even stand properly. This shows that the history repeats itself. But make sure that I have invited you to just look in the past only 150 years back. If we go about 1400 years back that was the era of our Holy Prophet, Hazrat Muhammad Sallallahu "Alaihe Wasallam. One day people came to Nabi Kareem Sallallahu " Alaihe Wasallam and apprised him of the fact that there has been nobody in their area to impart religious education to the people. Therefore they requested the Nabi Kareem Sallallahu 'Alaihe Wasallam to send some of Sahaba-e-Keram to their area who could impart religious education. On this request Nabi Kareem Sallallahu 'Alaihe Wasallam accompanied six Sahaba-e-Keram with them. These people had in fact come under a planning. When they reached their area they called their tribesmen and surrounded the Sahaba-e-Keram. Perceiving the situation the Sahaba-e-Keram pulled their swords out and there began a fight between these six and the entire tribe. In this battle four of Sahaba-e-Keram embraced Shahadah while the rest of two were take into custody. These two were Hazrat Habib (radhiallahu ta'ala "anhu) and the other was Hazrat Zaid (radhiallahu ta"ala ~anhu). When they were taken as prisoners, the tribesmen asked them if they would like

to call Nabi Kareem Sallallahu "Alaihe Wasallam here and so they would be set free in lieu of Nabi-e-Kareem Sallallahu "Alaihe Wasallam. They replied, they would never like if Nabi Kareem Sallallahu " Alaihe Wasallam would suffer a little pain in his feet. They said they would happily sacrifice their lives on the name of Nabi-e-Kareem Sallallahu "Alaihe Wasallam and embrace Shahadah. Later they were also hanged to death.

I read in the newspaper that our country denied political asylum to Mulla" Abdus Salam and instead arrested him. Later he was sent to Afghanistan and handed over to American troops. Americans asked him to tell them the whereabouts of Mulla "Omar and Osama, he replied, "If I knew, I would not have told them." Later, he was pressurized to give a statement on world television and declare that Mulla "Omar and Osama are terrorists and they were involved in September 11 incidents, he would be released and so he would be free to live either in Pakistan or the United States or any other country of his choice in the world and he would be provided all possible luxuries for his this statements otherwise a cage is ready for him also in Cuba. He was also warned that he would dealt strictly worse than what other prisoner Mujahideen are facing in case he did not accept their conditions. He was also told that after he would be expelled from Cuba he would be handed over to Rasheed Dostum and he know how to handle with Salam. The ' Americans said that the final decision is on you whether you would like to spend rest of your life along with your family happily or you accept the worst hardship for your loyalty with Mulla "Omar and Osama. Mulla Zaeef did not show any weakness at this moment and told Americans in toto," I cannot do this."

You have seen 'how history is repeating itself. There is still to come. May Allah bless us. Ameen!