[...] This cup of tea was served by: R O N I N [...]

other than conquering and conquests, MBQ left behind little of lasting worth.

moreover, there are allegations of looting and forcible marriages (read rapes) of the local hindu populace.

what pains me is that conquerers like him are etched in every pakistanis brainwashed historical memories - i don’t wish to detract MBQ, and don’t doubt his honesty. but what purpose did he serve?

islam wasn’t spread by his conquest, his efforts only helped inflate the coffers of the Umayyad dynasty. the true heroes of islam, the men and women who spread this religion and to whom we must be grateful are anonymous for the most part, overlooked completely.

did MBQ leave behind any works of art?any thesis of knowledge? any infusion of new philosophy within islamic thought? his invasion didn’t even leave behind a stable outpost of the empire…

once again, that doesn’t diminish his bravery, skills or military achievements. but i feel it is grossly unfair to lionize him as the point where “pakistan’s” official history begins. and i feel that such a confused notion of our own past has a lot of bearing on our present.

i would love to hear some of my questions answered, because i am not a complete cynic, and would be refreshed to know that i was wrong about my opinion of this man.

Thank you for reading karachikhatmal.

This article does not focus on MBQ’s heroics in the field of battle (notice the first para ends with “blah blah blah what not”.)

What this article does focus on is the end of MBQ and his decision not to fight back the caliph for the greater good of the muslims (his clan).

Yet you must realize that none of our heroes are (or ever can be) perfect. Everyone has skeletons in their closets, but that should not stop us from gaining inspiration from their well-known accomplishments.

As far as your opinion on MBQ goes, I feel you are expecting too much from the poor kid. I doubt he knew anything about art or philosphy, so expecting him to leave behind any such things is unfair. MBQ was given a job by his superiors (Hajaj bin Yousuf) which was to free the kidnapped Arab women and children and punish the perpetrators (Dahirs army), which was exactly what he did. (How many of us do the jobs given to us with utmost determination?)

Furthermore, it was MBQs conquest which helped establish the first Muslim ruled colony in the sub-continent (modern day Nawabshah), where the pious men and women (which you have mentioned) dwelled and promoted Islam from.

Lastly, MBQ did’nt do whatever he did for your opinions sake. Hence it is wise to reserve MBQ’s judgement for Allah alone.

I was waiting for the authors response so that I could comment
I really appreciate the fact that instead of over glorifying a certain individual the author has actually extracted out an attribute that we can apply in our lives.
This for once makes Islam and its teachings open to all. We need more individuals who believe in simplicity rather than tangling ourselves in over tangling ourselves :). overall a gud read

Nice work but brother i think you need to do some more research on this guy anywayz thankfully its not social studies book lesson and like zayed hamid’s zionism stuff thumbs up for that.

The author is truly a brilliant guy who answered such a confusing comment in a simple manner…Hey Shabz….nice article….Although it is not a social studies book but through these kind of articles we find new dimensions of learning new thing…

lets separate religion from history.MBQ represents arab expanionism instead of islamic faith and ideology what ever it was .so lets correct the basic facts………….
this is falsifying the history that a woman cried for help when captured by pirates and hajjaj sent his troops to save her.actually it was third expedition,ealier expedition under adil tufh had miserably failed.
arabs had attacked sistaan ,iran and egypt without cries of any woman…a grand son of imam hasan had taken refuge in court of dahir.hajjaj wanted him back to kill him.secondly they needed land and money like all invaders.it was for this reason that MBQ looted forts,enslaved the kings wives and daughters,killed all soldiers of enemy army after surrender and defeat.their sisters wives and childern were also enslaved and all of them were sent to hajjaj as booty .however merchants and non military people were left for trade and farming .Islam and no other religion allows such ruthless killings of prisoners of wars and raping their women.
ummayed were against banu hashim.they had killed hussain and zubair mercilessly.so hajjaj worst of them all would not send his troops to save a crying woman who was bound for pilmigrage of karbala. so the entire story of crying woman is a tailerd by the author of chachnamh who belonged to hajjaj,s tribe. chahnamah was cosidered as a fiction for more than a thousand year . an english historian was the first to consider it history.
i admire and praise sindhis who are proud of their defensive history.we the punjabis proudly disown the only punjabi defender and hero raja porus.their love for invaders is so immense that they name their childern after them.you would not find a porus in any corner of punjab but you will come accross,sikanders,babers,qasims,hamayuns,aurangzebs, and shajehans in each street . i hope my comments are not with talibaani spirit.

Nice article sir! but the comments by our brother Punjabi raised quite a few questions which if left unanswered will undermine the article manifold.

i totlly agree wid shshbaz sheikh mbq have don gr8 thngs n 1 must appreciate dat