THE CHALLENGE

By Javed Rashid

Hasan professed to believe in no

religion, he had a hazy idea that being a
“good" person was more important than
being a good Muslim. Muslim elite and
middle class response to freedom, from
colonial rule, was initially to equate
“liberal” morals as a sign of
modernity .Drinking, sex outside
marriage, having permissible attitudes
towards sex all were used as symbols of
modernism. Comics were used as signs
of belonging to the progressive modern
group .Smoking cigarettes also came
under the same iconology .All “in”
people were supposed to smoke and
drink and have liberal attitudes towards
sex and subscribe to Archie’s life
style .He did not bother to understand
his religion at all .
Partition and the creation of a new country
brought about the cruelest of materialist
societal structure .Corruption was the norm
and very soon nothing got done without
graft .This seemed to be the fate of most
newly independent states. The early days of
independence ,and for that matter the latter
periods, brought about wide corruption on
small and large scale ,with involvement of
the governing elite and the common man
.Corruption therefore soon became an
accepted and necessary part of the social
structure ,greasing of palms became
essential for any thing to get moving .Hasan
and his like abhorred this corrupt state of
society ,they did believe in ‘fair play’ and
progress by hard work ,these were idealistic
and un pragmatic thoughts of an ineffective
and powerless elite .
Hasan drifted along in his less than half
baked notions, he accepted little
responsibility and had little concept of
money .His father, a reasonably rich man,
provided a comfortable living and Hasan
could maintain his detracted superior
existence without doing too much.
Hasan’s serene trouble free existence
underwent a serious somersault .His father
fell seriously sick. He was hospitalized and
after extensive tests, his ailment was
diagnosed as cancer of the lungs.
Hasan loved his father and he spent most of
his time in the hospital, looking after his
father. This required that he spend nights
and a large part of the day in the intensive
care unit of the hospital .Hasan, in the six
months his father lived, witnessed quite a
few losing their battle and succumbing to
the icy clutches of death. These deaths and
the subsequent demise of his father caused a
lot a grief but it also seriously disturbed
Hasan’s world .His liberal , “modernistic”
world suddenly collapsed .He felt attracted
to religion , as his concepts could not help
him deal or understand death .
Hasan started praying five times a day and
started reading the Koran .Very soon he felt
the need to understand what the Koran
preached .The Koran is a fascinating divine
book , it answers doubts as soon as these are
raised .Hasan did find solace in the
teaching’s of the Koran and it also assisted
him in dealing with death .
While reading the Koran Hasan came across
Koran’s assertion that “We provide Rizak –
e – Halal to whosoever who seeks it “
Hasan’s doubting skeptical mental makeup
found this to be unacceptable .He reasoned
that in the society as corrupt and venal as his
it would be impossible to earn a living
without getting involved in some form of
corruption . He issued this as a form of
challenge to the Koran, he was sure that he
would win as it was not possible to exist at a
reasonable standard in his venal society
without doing something that was
religiously and or legally or morally
forbidden .He made this as the test case
.How could the Koran issue such a
statement, surely this was an error and he
felt very sure that he would be proven
correct. The gauntlet was thrown and
unknown to Hasan was accepted.
The trauma lessened its impact with passing
time and Hasan started to revert back to his
old ways .This however was not possible, as
the care free days were over .His, seemingly,
rich father was in reality barely
comfortable .Hasan inherited some property,
which however did not gave him regular
income .He got involved in the business of
earning a living, in this process he forgot the
challenge he had issued to the Koranic
statement.
The business that Hasan stumbled into was
construction of civil engineering
structures .This line of business was
exceptionally dirty ,contractors used less
than required materials , unfit and improper
materials are used ,the supervising officials
sought and extracted a hefty kick back
.Hasan was even more disadvantages as he
had very little capital .
Hasan struggled to find work for his newly
established firm .The construction industry
is and was dotted by large number of small
and large firms .The officials who manage
the contracts against which tasks are given
out, mostly, expect handsome kickbacks
.The main Drigh Road, as it was then
named, needed a bridge to ensure smooth
traffic flow over railway lines which the
road crossed .Aslam Khan the chief engineer
of the department was nearing retirement ,
the bridge contract was his last chance to
create the pile he wished for his
retirement .The allures of Shazia ,the buxom
dancing girls ,also had demands upon the
material wealth of Aslam .He ,Aslam , did
not expect the usual, registered contractors
to accede to his more than normal or unusual
demands .To ensure that his expectation be
met he required some manipulations be
made to the number and class of competing
firms . He managed to pre qualify a number
of small firms. This ofcourse was blatant
disregard of the rules and norms.
Hasan , who one morning, read the notice in
the newspaper, applied for pre qualification.
He did not expect any results from this .To
his great surprise his firm was allowed to
quote and to his even greater surprise he was
awarded the million dollar contract .By the
time Hasan got the contract Aslam had been
charge sheeted, on a different and earlier
transgression, and was sent on forced
retirement, much to his and Shazia’s
disappointment .He was succeeded by
Sharrif , an oddity in the corrupt
department , he was honest . Sharrif was a
insignificant looking , badly dressed man ,
very few people understood what he said as
he mumbled at great speed but he was
honest to a fault .Along with Shariff the
newly formed Government got interested in
the bridge contract , this being an election
promise , few of which are honored , was
important . The fact that there was to be a by
election on the seat vacated by the
incumbent, who had a heart attack the day
he was to take oath, did not hurt the bridge’s
cause .All of this meant that Hasan ,who
owned little more than a old motor car and a
brief case managed to successfully complete
a rather sophisticated contact without paying
any body any illegal amount or resorting to
corrupt practices .Hasan made a lot of
money most of which he gave back to the
tax authorities , who were ofcourse
disappointed . Hasan after completing the
contract was only a little more richer than
before but in the process he had acquired
and fulfilled a contract in one of the most
corrupt section of the economy , without
paying any bribes and without resorting to
malpractices .Round one to the Koran
,although Hasan did not realize the fact at
that time .
This was ofcourse not the only incident
,telephone connections , in those days ,
required a handsome bribe to be paid ,
Hasan ,for his office ,applied for two
connections .Along with his application he
mentioned the fact that he was working on a
project of “ national importance “ , much to
his and the telephone departments surprise
he got both connections sanctioned in a
week .Similarly pick up trucks were only
available after paying a hefty premium or a
bribe , but Hasan got his vehicles on the
same day without paying any extra amount .
There were instances where Hasan paid
bribe but surprisingly did not get what he
wanted, people would simply pocket the
money offered and not do the undue action
promised, a rather unusual occurrence as
there is some ethics even in thieves.
There were countless other such examples
where, surprising, he got things done
without any graft, which customarily
required some form of palm greasing.
Game, set and match to you know what
.Hasan only realized much later that his
challenge had been accepted and
successfully defended.