It is a shame no energetic soul in all these years has compiled and published Zia ul Haq jokes for the benefit of posterity. In one such story, Zia’s parachute fails to open but he manages to cling to a tree branch. On looking down he is terrified to see that there is still a fair distance to hard ground. Anxiously, he looks around and shouts: ‘Koi hai?’ Suddenly a voice from the heavens answers: ‘Zia, let go of the branch.’ Horrified at the suggestion, he shouts again: ‘Koi aur hai?’
Human beings tend to ask many questions. It is also very human not to like answers to those questions – answers that do not conform to one’s notions of ‘correctness’. Especially on religion, there are any number of issues that bother men, which forces them to look for solutions. But when one such solution is provided, they invariably want something else – something convenient, preferably pleasurable, and that involves no hard work whatsoever.
A frequent observation: Somebody quotes a verse of the Quran and demands to know the rationale behind it. In nine cases out of ten, to know the rationale he probably did not need to read farther than three or four verses from the verse he is quoting, but he never read the Quran in the first place. When you give him the Quranic perspective (and he does not like it), you might as well be talking Swahili as far as he is concerned. He may also give the impression that you are making the whole thing up, which is not worth his consideration. He not only has no clue about the contents of the Quran, but he has no intention of changing that either. He has heard the ‘Quranic position’ on the issue somewhere (he does not recall where and does no care) and the fragmented information is good enough for him. Multiple copies of the Quran, with translations, can be found in his home, but he is not interested. Challenging the interpretation or even looking up the relevant verses apparently involves way too much hard work.
Add to it the unfortunate fact that any time somebody hears something he has not heard before, he feels it is too strange to even deserve an honest hearing. It does not matter if it makes all the sense in the world. On the other hand, extremely silly ideas which somebody has heard since childhood seem to him very sensible. Familiarity, then, not soundness becomes the test of things. Any wonder any conflicting view is not only rejected out of hand but often ridiculed as well?
Intelligence is a tricky thing in this respect, for intelligent men keep falling for the various isms on offer one after the other. Also, no amount of intelligence makes one immune from perennial human weaknesses like mental and physical laziness, intellectual dishonesty, prejudice, narcissism, self-righteousness, and arrogance. If anything, intelligence is likely to make a man more prone to some of these. It is no surprise then if a man goes astray; it is a miracle if he manages to keep on the straight and narrow.
Then there is the reverence for or allergy to certain scholars and schools of thought. Some years ago, there was a confusion in a friend’s extended family regarding whether irrevocable divorce had occurred between a man and wife. He was concerned about saving the marriage and I gave him a book with a relevant opinion by a certain scholar. He later told me that he could not even discuss the merit of the opinion, because the majority there was quite antagonistic to the scholar – in fact, as soon as he took the book out, one of the participants observed that its writer was wajib-ul-qatl! It is not only the case with jurisprudence matters, but the very foundations of religion are decided based on such biases. Consideration of views different to one’s own is hard as it is; it is impossible when it is an opinion of somebody one loves to hate.
The Quran talks repeatedly about the idol worshiping Quraish and how a potent motive for their insistence on their old ways was their reluctance to even contemplate that their forefathers could have been wrong. This latter attitude has survived in Muslims to this day. Fairy tales heard from parents in childhood continue to have a hold on a man when he is old and has children of his own. Many of the younger generation confuse respecting their elders with considering them their ideals in thought and conduct.
Intelligence is a tricky thing in this respect, for intelligent men keep falling for the various isms on offer one after the other. Also, no amount of intelligence makes one immune from perennial human weaknesses like mental and physical laziness, intellectual dishonesty, prejudice, narcissism, self-righteousness, and arrogance. If anything, intelligence is likely to make a man more prone to some of these. It is no surprise then if a man goes astray; it is a miracle if he manages to keep on the straight and narrow.
