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How can PML-N involve Mosque
in uplift activities.
By
Dr Ghayur Ayub
In the initial period of Islamic history mosque played a sixfold role.
Primarily, it was a center for worship and secondarily it was a focal point for
political, judicial, educational, social, and health activities. These
activities, were taken away, one by one, as the original Islamic governance of
Khulafa-e-Rashideen was converted into Turkic and Iranian style monarchies by
Omayyad and Abbasid dynasties.
As a result, political activities were shifted to the caliph’s Darbar
giving first blow to the identity of mosque. The second blow came when parallel
judiciary system of Mozalim was introduced in Qazi's court in 8th
century AD. This was followed by the third blow when schools mushroomed in 9th
century AD as a result of unprecedented proliferation of Ahadith in response to
caliph's decision to compile them. With mushrooming of schools and the
associated upsurge of sectarianism, the social activities slipped out quietly
from mosque giving it the fourth blow. Before talking about the next blow, let
us look at the link between health and mosque.
It is a historical fact that mosque was used as center for health
activities in the first few decades of Islamic regimes. For example, in the
first holy war of Badr, when the casualties arrived in the city they were taken
to the mosque for treatment. This practice carried on later in peacetime. The
first female who offered her services as a nurse and bandaged the wounded and
looked after the sick was Ku’aiba Bint Sa’d Al Aslamiyya. A special tent was
erected for her in the mosque for the purpose. One of her patients was an
important companion, Sa’d Ibn Mu’adh, who suffered a spear wound in the battle of
Khandaq. Umayyad Caliphs knew that the mosque being a powerful tool could be
used by the patients and their relatives as propaganda front against the
government, so they took away this facility giving the fifth blow to the
mosque.
Thus mosque was left only with one activity of worship. The second
Caliph gave it a spiritual impinging by introducing Taraweeh during the month
of Ramadhan. But with passage of time worship and its spiritual contour changed
to matter-of-routine rituals because of control and thus interference by the
caliphs over the custodians of mosque. This was final and the most damaging
blow to the mosque as the control trickled down to interest groups in the
following centuries. Today, we find all mosques are taken over by the interest
groups and used only for rituals or hate-dispersing propaganda. Thus, mosque
which was the hub of Islamic teachings of peace and fraternity is dubbed by the
enemies of Islam as the center of terror. There may be falsified exaggeration
in this propaganda but it does carry some weight. The reason being that over
the centuries, the political custodians of religion denuded the mosque from its
six accolades one by one which were bestowed upon by the conceiver of Islam
(PBH).
It would be naive to suggest to give back all the lost laurels in their
totalities to the mosque at this juncture, but it would also be gullible not to
return some of these essentials in one form or another. And that's where the
spiritual aspect of health as defined by WHO comes in mind which can play
important role in activities of mosque relevant to the present day needs. How?
The idea was provided by an NGO run by a Pakistani
psychiatrist trained in Guys Hospital, London. He involved a mosque and its
attached Madrisa in healthcare activities by extending its premises and opening
an out-patient facility and a day-care operation theater where patients of all
color, creed and religions were treated free of charge. Most of the doctors and
specialists were either part timers or volunteers. The Imam of the mosque who
was also the head of the Madrisa engaged his staff and students in out-patient
department and out-reach preventive healthcare activities. One could see a
refreshing change in the mindset of the imam, his staff and students involved
in helping the ailing humanity. Equally refreshing was the thought that those
students were the future imams of mosques spread all over Pakistan. The scene
brought back the memories of original notion of mosque in early days of Islam.
After knowing about the NGO, the then PML-N government
sent a team to study the project and make a feasibility report whether it could
be made a WHO-sponsored pilot activity. After a few visits and discussions it
appeared to have positive potentials. In consultation with local WHO, the
health ministry prepared a concept paper. Then, a team funded by WHO was sent
to Cairo where it had meetings with the highest authority of East Mediterranean
Region of WHO at its Regional Head Quarters. In those meetings its wider impact
on the society was discussed against the background of fundamentalism/terrorism
which was surfacing in Pakistan. After deliberations, the concept paper was
accepted in principle and was converted into a project document for Pakistan. Finally
it was decided that the final agreement would be signed at Islamabad between
the ministry of health and a high-powered WHO team on October 18, 1999.
The plan of PML-N government was to start the
WHO-sponsored activity in four provinces as pilot projects and run it for four
years and see its impact on the mindset of Imams of mosques, the staff and the
students of attached Madrisas and the community. If the results were
satisfactory both for the custodians of mosques, Madrisas and the community,
then the government would own it by incorporating it in Five Year Plan.
Four days before the signing ceremony, Nawaz Sharif
government was packed and with that, the activity was buried. This was two years
before the mosque and Madrisa came under stringent global scrutiny after 9/11.
If the activity was given chance to flourish, Pakistan could have become a
leading player to show the world that mosque is not what it is portrayed by the
enemies of Islam by proving it practically.
Now that the PML-N government is in place, can it retrieve those files
in the ministry of health which were set aside by the Musharaf government and
revive the project which has potential benefits of not only involving the
mosque in socio-health activities but help in blunting the propaganda drummed
by the world media against the mosque, the Madrisa and Islam.
The
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