Without a Country
Al-Risala (English), April 1991, p. 25
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
Without a Country
1991 4 April 25 Without a Country (227) Ali Zakaria AI-Ansari, Kuwait’s ambassador to India, and former ambassador to a number of other countries, suddenly received the news on August 2, 1990, that Iraq had sent its powerful army into Kuwait and had annexed it to Iraq. The Times of India correspondent, Mr. Chidanand Rajghatta met the Kuwaiti ambassador in his palatial home in New Delhi on August 19, 1990. He reports that the sixty-year old Mr. AI-Ansari was in the state of mental agony because, due to all communication links being cut off, he had no news of his wife and two children in Kuwait. But even worse were his feelings at being without a country; “More than a week after mighty Iraq’s sudden aggression against his country, the 60-year old envoy is yet to overcome the shock and trauma of losing his country overnight. One evening it was there, and on the morrow.. gone.” (p. 20).
Prior to death everyone belongs to a country. But, after death everyone will become a man without a country. Everyone will go through this experience, not just for a temporary period of time, but for all eternity. The wise man is one who is prepared for this eventuality before death; who can realize when he sees a country being taken away from others, that one day his own country too will likewise be taken away from him
