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Pakistan
Islam in Pakistani Society
Islam was brought to the South Asian subcontinent in the eighth
century by wandering Sufi (see Glossary) mystics known as pir
(see Glossary). As in other areas where it was introduced by Sufis,
Islam to some extent syncretized with preIslamic influences, resulting
in a religion traditionally more flexible than in the Arab world.
Two Sufis whose shrines receive much national attention are Data
Ganj Baksh in Lahore (ca. eleventh century) and Shahbaz Qalander
in Sehwan, Sindh (ca. twelfth century).
The Muslim poet-philosopher Sir Muhammad Iqbal first proposed
the idea of a Muslim state in the subcontinent in his address
to the Muslim League at Allahabad in 1930. His proposal referred
to the four provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and the NorthWest
Frontier--essentially what would became the post-1971 boundary
of Pakistan. Iqbal's idea gave concrete form to the "Two Nations
Theory" of two distinct nations in the subcontinent based on religion
(Islam and Hinduism) and with different historical backgrounds,
social customs, cultures, and social mores.
Islam was thus the basis for the creation and the unification
of a separate state, but it was not expected to serve as the model
of government. Mohammad Ali Jinnah made his commitment to secularism
in Pakistan clear in his inaugural address when he said, "You
will find that in the course of time Hindus would cease to be
Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious
sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual,
but in the political sense as citizens of the State." This vision
of a Muslim majority state in which religious minorities would
share equally in its development was questioned shortly after
independence. The debate continued into the 1990s amid questions
of the rights of Ahmadiyyas (a small but influential sect considered
by orthodox Muslims to be outside the pale of Islam), issuance
of identity cards denoting religious affiliation, and government
intervention in the personal practice of Islam (see Constitutional
Beginnings , ch. 1; Islamic Provisions , ch. 5).
Data as of April 1994
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