The Secret of Reform

Similar was the case with another Islamist group, the Jamaat-e Islami of Pakistan, which repeated the same blunder, with greater intensity. In the era of President Ayub Khan, they assumed that the root of all the problems of Pakistan was the military government of President Ayub. They unleashed a tumultuous movement against this government, so much so that the government fell. But despite this, there was no improvement in Pakistan’s conditions. Later, too, Pakistan’s Jamaat-e Islami once again made the same mistake. It assumed that the government of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was the root of all evil. And with the help of other so-called ‘pro-Islamic’ elements, they launched movements directed to overthrow Mr. Bhutto, so much so that with the help of General Zia ul-Haq, in 1979, they succeeded in getting Mr. Bhutto hanged. However, the conditions of Pakistan continued to worsen. This experience with regard to the fallacious ‘root of all evils’ theory has been frequently repeated in present times. And every time, this theory has completely failed. The fact is that all forms of evil are related to thinking. The secret of reform is the transformation of human consciousness or thinking. Without this, no reform is at all possible.