Month of rich blessings

Karachi, from being called the city of lights, in the last few years has transformed into the city of targeted killings, extortion, street crimes and at times, random blasts. However, there is something about Ramazan that brings this city closer to humanity, care and love for all.

Where is the data to back this claim? Well, any day, just half an hour before Iftar, go and visit the roads of this city. Road after road and street after street, you will find eating spreads on footpaths filled with people who cannot afford food or are en route home but cannot make it in time for Iftar.

Where does this food come from? A few spreads are sponsored by welfare organisations and trusts while others, the ones in the poorer localities are sponsored by an invisible hand or the people who live there.

And urban legend states that Karachi is vulnerable to a number of natural catastrophes but the sadqa and zakat that this city generates for the poor, pushes all the evil away.

Another legend positions that since the city is bathed in innocent blood on many occasions, the sins will one day cause the destruction of Karachi – a school of thought mostly believed in by the rightists. However, the optimists’ counter narrative holds that the city’s elite splurges so much money on the poor in alms that all these fouls are averted without causing any damage.

And since in Ramazan the benefit promised by Allah for doing one act of good is multiplied, the people of the city and as heard and read the whole country, indulge in activities which cause relief for the poor.

Moreover, targeted killings, extortion cases and to a certain degree, street crimes also diminish, thus creating an environment of peace and tranquility.

After spending 25 years in the business hub of Pakistan, I have come to this conclusion that the people of Karachi, and most probably all of Pakistan, if given a situation where they gain some after losing some, can go to any extent. If channelled properly, this energy could and actually is being utilised to help the needy. And, in Ramazan, the greed to gather as much naikis as possible further stimulates this vigour to indefinite proportions.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2016.