Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 147
147 Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, etc. Thus, the y do not possess any power. Unless they come together and unite with each other , it is useless to point out that the collective number of Muslims in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan , and Indonesia, is greate r than the population of the United States of America. The United States of America are united among themselves. Muslims N eed to be U nited Muslims are not uni ted ; i nstead they are divided into small nations. A significant number of Muslims are under foreign rule, and they have not h ad a chance to consolidate their powers for an extended period of time. Take the example of a peon ; h e starts saving money in his youth. If his salary is fifteen rupees , he survives on ten rupees, setting aside an amount of five rupees each month. After a year, he manages to save sixty rupees. He invests this amount and after one year he earns a profit of five rupees. The next year, he collects another sixty rupees and after two years, he has one hundred and twenty - five rupees. As a result, after forty years when he retires, he has saved three thousand to four thousand rupees. To the contrary, when an ICS officer [Indian Commission Services] starts working, even though his salary is four hundred rupees a month, he does not save an y money as he has [just] started employment. Similarly , in spite of being greater in number , Muslims are weak. Their independence is recent. They have not yet seen a time when collecting some furniture for their homes or saving money benefits them in the future. The amount of money a small European nation possesses is greater than that of the large st Muslim nation. This is because the European nations have been independent for the past two to three hundred years and have been saving money. Take Belgium as a n example. I ts population is only three to four million however its economy is far better than that of Pakistan. The same is true of Holland. I ts populatio n is approximately equivalent to that of two districts in Punjab, Lahore , and Multan. H owever, it s revenue is much greater than the revenue of Pakistan because they have been saving and investing money for profit for the past two to three hundred years. Look at where one country of two to three hundred years is and where a new ly founded nation is that is still in the process of establishing itself, wh ile their financial situation is so weak. Even i f Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Indonesia, and Pakistan were all to join together, how can there