The Art of Possibilities

In the modern world, politics is known as the art of possibilities thereby understood as the art where a politician is "officially" permitted to tell lies and mold the situation to his/ her own benefit. This type of political practice allows a politician to take a U turn if the situation gets against his stand on any issue, permits him to play with the words and interpret any of his own statements as it suits the situation. 

The question is that is this type of politics stays within the bounds of ethics, morality and truthfulness? In Pakistan, especially, politics is generally treated as an art of fraud, false promises, baseless claims and giving false and impracticable hopes to the general public. Politicians, therefore, are generally known as "Dream Merchants" who use the expectations and hopes of people for their own benefits and personal gains. Their slogans and claims during the election campaigns and while addressing the public are full of lies which are never fulfilled after they get the votes from public and come into power.

Pakistan, so called "Citadel of Islam" is being ruled by an elite class consisting few hundred families who have shaped politics as such that its fruits are not reached to anyone outside the elites. General public is just there to vote for them and after the election no one even bothers to get back to them to address their issues. So called democratic leaders do not exercise democracy within their parties and all the political parties are being ruled through dynasties. People are made to obey their leader to the extent of worship and no one in the party can dare to differ from whatever is said by the party leader. 

The practice of telling lies, making false promises and breaching the trust of people is against the basic principles of Islam. Islam categorizes its followers in 3 groups namely Muslims (submitters), Momins (faithfuls) and Munafiqs (insincere). In accordance with the Islamic teachings, this insincere cadre of people will be in the lowest level in the hellfire. The signs of there people as described in a Hadith (the saying of Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alyehi wa aal e hi wasalam)) as described in Bukhari (Book 1, Vol 2, Hadith 32) are: -

• Whenever he speaks, he tells a lie.
• Whenever he promises, he always breaks it.
• If you trust him, he proves to be dishonest (if you place something under his custody trusting him, he won't return it).

In the light of above signs, it is to be judged if today's politics is the art of possibilities or sheer act of insincerity for which the announced reward is the lowest grade in hellfire.