India v Pakistan cricket: Who are you supporting?
Imagine Pakistan won that famous cricket world cup match against India in June 2019 - said to have been watched by a billion people. Imagine they then went on to win the cricket world cup.
A few days later, they are in Islamabad with Prime Minister Imran Khan - another world cup winning captain - who is beaming with a huge smile as he showcases the cup to the country. Across the nation, there are celebrations and mithai (sweets) flows freely.
Celebrations in Karachi
Imagine a man in Karachi, Ali Khan is watching all of this but does not share this national euphoria. His concern is about getting the expensive medicine his sick daughter needs and finding the next meal for the family.
Since the start of the year, as the rupee has been devalued, the medicine has become more and more expensive. Now, as the government implements the IMF loan conditions, prices are going up and for him government help is nearly non-existent. He thought to himself, what is there to celebrate?
Sport is a force for good
We are told that proof of this is that small countries are making great strides in the sporting arena against countries who invented those sports. After all, Afghanistan played in the cricket world cup in England and cricket was largely unheard of there a few decades ago. Nigerian ladies are in the women’s football world cup and Egypt and Nigeria played in the football world cup.
House on fire
So when the United Arab Emirates won an Olympic medal or Pakistan, Nigeria or Bangladesh win some big sporting event, we see days of celebrations. Actually, while we are busy celebrating, people in Kashmir are still being killed and brutalised, many in these countries are dying of preventable diseases and millions continue to struggle to find the next meal - in lands Allah (swt) has blessed with abundant resources.
We are people decorating a house while it is on fire rather than trying to put out the fire. We have become enthralled with a man throwing or kicking a ball better than another man while being wiped up into a patriotic and nationalistic frenzy.
What would Marx say?
Today, the global sporting calendar is better organised and coordinated than the best armies in the world. Without fail, there is a global sporting event every summer. It’s either the Olympics, the football world cup, women’s football world cup, the African Cup of Nations, and a whole variety of tennis, golf and other tournaments. The list is endless.
Karl Marx was wrong. Sports is now the opium of the masses - fed to us constantly. Like all drugs, you feel high for a moment and then come crashing back to earth and realise that the reality and your problems are still there.
It's all harmless fun
Tell that to Wasim Akram whose house was stoned by angry fans when the Pakistan team lost to India in the 1996 World Cup. Tell that to the businesses destroyed when some fans in Africa riot because they couldn’t watch Manchester United, Barcelona or ‘their’ team in far away Europe.
وَمَا الْحَيَوةُ الدُّنْيَآ إِلاَّ لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ وَلَلدَّارُ الاٌّخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لِّلَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ أَفَلاَ تَعْقِلُونَ
“And the life of this world is nothing but play and amusement. But far better is the abode of the Hereafter for those have Taqwa. Will you not then understand” [Al-Anam 6:32]
Apart from the harms of nationalism and patriotism which blindly turn people against other people, and even Muslim against Muslim, the reality is that much needed energy and resources become focused on attaining sporting glory. Energy and resources which should be utilised in addressing societies many problems - putting out the many fires in our house.
Setup by who?
Cricket, football and athletics as we know them today were not formalised in the east or the so called third world. The rules, associations and competitions were set up mainly in the West. Now, many countries claim they gained independence from the colonial powers yet blindly embrace many things that originate from the West - even to the detriment of their societies.
We have embraced much more than sporting tournaments from the West. Governments and some in Muslim countries have adopted capitalism and secular democracy as the only means to address our problems - even though many in the West now question these same solutions.
Nations want to be great at something
I understand that. So in what arena do you compete and want to be great?
In terms of solutions and visions for global problems, we are nowhere to be seen. This remind me of the Arabs before Islam. They were nobodies. When Rasul Allah (sallalahu alayhi wa salam) came with the message of Islam, the society was transformed when they embraced its vision.
Islam gave them a greater goal in life - a duty to implement the Islamic khilafah system and solutions from Allah Almighty, a vision to convey Islam to the rest of the world. A vision that made them rise above petty tribal squabbles.
وَكَذَلِكَ جَعَلْنَـكُمْ أُمَّةً وَسَطًا لِّتَكُونُواْ شُهَدَآءَ عَلَى النَّاسِ وَيَكُونَ الرَّسُولُ عَلَيْكُمْ شَهِيدًا
“And thus we have made you a just community that you will be witnesses over the people and the Messenger will be a witness over you.” [Al-Baqarah 2:143]
The embracing of that vision over centuries is what lead Muslim societies in the Islamic Khilafah state to create a great civilisation and the flourishing of medicine, science and all sorts of solutions which Europeans and others used to come and study and emulate.
The Quran still gives us that vision and mission in life and embracing that vision will let rise to the challenges facing us and will enable us to put sports in its proper place, because even sports has a role in an Islamic society.
When we again embrace and implement the Islamic vision, we can again become an ummah that leads others to good. Not a nation that gets drunk on the new opium of the masses - like everyone else.
Taji Mustafa