MAKE URDU LANGUAGE SUCCESSFUL AND GREAT — AGAIN!

My grateful thanks to all those who write to me from time to time — for whatever reason — if
anyone ever does. 
Some people want to know what I do and, in some oblique sort of a way, who I am. 
The quick answer is: I am nobody. 
Or, a better answer is: I am nothing. 
If you don’t understand what I am saying, read the Qur’an. 
Or at least the epic poem The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson. Good Catholic stuff, I
think.
Pay attention to some of the language and expressions used. Eye-opening, really! Mind
popping if you want to say.
As a result, I am perfectly content, actually delighted, with the fact that I have neither name,
nor fame.
No one knows me. And fewer people still probably really care about who I am or what I do.  
Because of that, quite frankly, I never cared much for standard, formal, canned, pre-
speech introductions by the organizers of the so-called Islamic events, meetings and
conferences. 
Or for generally well-meaning but largely meaningless clichés like “Well-Known Scholar”
before or after my name.
Strictly academic gatherings and encounters are a different matter, as they have a set of rather
well-established rules that are uniformly observed and upheld by qualified, long-term
practitioners. 
Noam Chomsky is a “well-known” scholar: linguistics and other things. Father of
the Linguistic Revolution, if there is or was such a thing, whatever it is.
So is Stephen Hawking. Theoretical physics and all kinds of other things. 
Now, these are among the great and “well-known” scholars of our times. 
Great thinkers and researchers and theorists, both of them. And they have made an impact on
the academic turf they chose to enter. 

And they are understood and appreciated and valued by other scholars of merit in their
respective fields.
But Islam and “scholarship” in modern times? It is almost like an oxymoron. 
Ours is no longer the age, and ours in no longer the nation, and we are no longer the people,
of Bukhari or Abu Hanifa.
Or Ibn Sina (Avicenna) or Farabi or Ibn Rushd (Averroes).
Or even Iqbal or Maududi or Abul Kalam Azad from Undivided, Pre-Partition India that
comprised of present-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Or Saeed Nursi of Turkey.
As Muslims, we now populate the Fool’s Paradise inhabited by charlatans and thugs and
mercenaries.
And ranks are liberally sprinkled by paid agents and operatives, who exploit the name of
Islam to make easy living and hoodwink and bamboozle Muslims.
And report to their Masters, wherever and whoever they may be, local or foreign. 
But this much is true about me, maybe, among other things: 
I have spent a lifetime figuring out some of what is wrong with the world. And with Muslims
in particular. 
And how to fix some of that stuff, to the extent I, or anyone else, much, much better than me,
can.     
And how to help the world move forward and be a better place for all: regardless of race, religion,
gender, nationality, education or income level.
It is for that reason that among my specializations happens to include the following: the
science and art of Theory Construction, and Model Building, and Theory Testing, and
Validation, and Program Planning and Implementation.
And all this at every conceivable level that is within the purview of my skills and competence.
That means two things:
a) One, understanding how and why things are the way they are. 
b) Two, if any of those things are not the way you want them to be, what are your plans
to get them to where you want them to be.
Simple stuff, right? 
But, trust me, as they say, my entire life went into preparing for these things, and in acquiring
the intellectual and emotional tools to achieve my goals. 
And I specialized in not just studying and understanding the problems as they exist, both for
Muslims and for the world in general, but also in what to do about it all — about helping
Muslims as well as the world in general to solve their problems and be able to cope better
with them.

Allah’s blessings that he guided me and he blessed me with whatever knowledge and skill
types and levels he saw fit and that, in his wisdom, I needed to accomplish my objectives.
Allah’s mercy is boundless and his bounties are abundant.
So, the two issues — both quite important and distinct — are: 
a) Understanding what the problems are. With both Muslims and the world in general.
b) Deciphering and testing possible solutions for those problems.
So, it has been a lifetime of painstaking research, investigation, studying, sense-making and
model-building and testing and validation and implementation and execution.
And all the heartache, frustration and disillusion — and occasional euphoria and dejection and
depression — that go along with this stuff.
That has been the ongoing story of my life.
And that is a brief introduction of who I am, and what I do, and why I do it.
In other words, I am the whole world’s Unsolicited Worrier and Unpaid Professional Fixer-
Upper.
That means I am Everybody’s Personal Headache and Pain in the Neck. For, I want everybody,
Muslim or non-Muslim, male or female, local or foreign, to do the best they can, and to be the best
they can be, both in this Worldly Life as well in Next Life, which is the Life after Death.
What people call the Hereafter!  
One such problem that has been on my mind forever, as they say, is how to bring the Urdu
language back to life: How to make the Language of Urdu once again the kind of robust and
vibrant cultural instrument that it deserves and needs to be and that it once was, not so very
long ago.
And how to fill the hearts of all with the love of this most amazing, powerful, sweet, delicate
and sensitive language.
This is a lifetime of hard work for a whole army of scholars, thinkers, social activists and
leaders. And not a quick job assignment for one or two overexcited individuals. 
But regardless, what I realize is this: The way to bring Urdu back, if we can do it at all, is to
create a plethora of incentives and motivations and uses and opportunities all around. 
And, as part of that, we need to set young minds on fire with the love of Urdu language. And
with the help of God Almighty, it is possible to do it: Inshallah.
Every successful businessman works from a model that he builds for his business. Let us start
with that. There must have been a good reason why Allah chose a group of Business
People to be the first addressees of his Deen of Islam. 
What we need to do for Urdu also is to build a Perfect Model, as it were, for making Urdu a
successful practical language. 

The same Business Model and the same logic and expertise that made Islam a household
word around the world now need to be extended and transferred to the mission of infusing a
new life into Urdu language.
For, Success is a universal value and the universal model for success is the same across a
wide range of venues, platforms and fronts. According to one Urdu poet, Iqbal, the model for
universal success can be summed up as follows:
                     “Yaqeen Muhkam, Amal Paiham, Mohabbat Faati-he Alam.”
Paraphrase:
“Unshakable Faith!
Ceaseless Toil!
Boundless Love!
There is not a Success these three together cannot achieve!”
If Iqbal’s Model has any validity, and it does indeed, then making Urdu one among the more
vibrant and popular and successful languages of the world should not be all that difficult.

END