Shahnawaz Farooqi is a Pakistani journalist and a commentator. Farooqi writes columns for Daily Jasarat Karachi and articles for Weekly Friday Special.
Farooqi’s areas of interest include English and Urdu literature, poetry, political science, religion, and the West. He also writes poetry suffused with anguish at the spectacle of the struggling Muslim tradition in the face of the end of times. An admirer of Allama Iqbal, Maududi, Quaid e Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he is a strong opponent of the ideology of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.
He also delivers lectures on television and at various universities. He is member of advisory boards of many Pakistani periodicals and magazines.
In your editorial on the subject of faith versus technology, you wisely argue that faith is ultimately more powerful and transcendent than technology. You state that “faith is the technology of the righteous people and technology is the faith of skepticism” and wonder, “is faith alone enough to face the power of technology?”
Such a question sadly diminishes both sides. It makes the United States out to be a machine, devoid of faith or heart. And it makes Pakistan and Afghanistan victims to the machine, devoid of the choice to rely on anything except their faith – to endure for the sake of endurance.
It is well and good to place one’s faith in faith. Given the choice between faith and technology, I would also choose faith. The important question has to do with the essence of this faith.
You conclude that “faith is a very strong force as it teaches people to wait for the outcomes of their efforts to show up. The wait for a war result is more important than the war itself.” What sort of result does this faith desire? Is it merely to outlast the United States? Is it to see the U.S. defeated? Is it to know that if defeated, one went to his death not forsaking his faith?
I agree that technology is often an outgrowth of impatience and even laziness. We want things faster, easier and cheaper. But human dynamics are never simple nor easy. We are slowly realizing that the only way to win the “long war” is through meaningful engagement and dialog. Then what? What if the conflict is ultimately not one of faith versus technology but faith versus faith? At least we’d be forced to engage face to face.
For me, the “war result” that my personal faith desires is to sit beside my alleged adversary and find what unites us rather than what separates us. Does not Islam seek the same?
Robert Hill
Kabul, Afghanistan