ISLAMABAD, Aug 18: Ashfaque Saleem Mirza’s Urdu book, Falsafa Kiya Hai, launched at the Pakistan Academy of Letters (PAL) here on Thursday, brought home the realization that philosophy had a role in understanding events, especially after the profound changes happened in the world after 9/11 and 7/7.
Karl Marx, the great German philosopher, is the focus of the book and has been installed as the most important thinkers of the world in relation to his theory of dialectic materialism. Prof Khwaja Masud, who presided over the function, electrified the occasion by declaring that Karl Marx was the widely read in the world at this moment.
He said Pakistan ought to acquire a lesson from Karl Marx’s philosophy of history and his theory of objective rationalization that aimed at changing the world according to rational ideas.
“This must be Pakistan’s needs. We must hurry about acquiring knowledge of science, technology, but bend it to the crucible of humane philosophy, which also is the teachings of our religion.”
He said the Muslim world would be best served if it also followed the spirit of renaissance and reformation, and that people must have direct access to Allah Almighty without an intercession of clergy since Islam had no place for organized clergy.
Time has now come to promote search and enquiry, he said and added that Ashfaque Saleem had come up with the same findings in his unique book on philosophy.
However, there came a mild enquiry from Prof Yusuf Hussain, who argued that the philosophy of Marx had been overtaken by a new kind of post-Marxist thinkers who believed in the concept of civil societies with little space for the working class or the 550 million people of the world, who live below the poverty line.
In this line of reasoning, had not the author gone over to the neo liberalists’ side who propagate these views, he asked?
Qazi Javed, the resident director of PAL at Lahore who had written the introduction of the book, said it was probably the first book of its kind written in Urdu. “But Ashfaque Saleem has also introduced a new controversy in the corpus of philosophic literature by declaring that metaphysics or heavenly thoughts are not included in philosophy.”
This indeed was the reasoning of the writer, who said certain established philosophers were not essentially philosophers but either theologians (present on the scene since ancient times) or Mutakalimeen who came after the advent of religion.
In Pakistan, he saw no evidence of any true philosopher and catalogued such eminent persons as Khalifa Abdul Hakeem, Qazi Aslam, C.A. Qadir, Dr Hameeduddin, Ghulam Sadique and Saeed Sheikh among those who had merely elaborated the thoughts of great philosophers.
Ashfaque Saleem received handsome compliments from a host of speakers including Khwaja Masud, Iftikhar Arif and his two friends Mustansar Javed and Shamim Akhtar Saifi.
“This is a handy book of philosophy, in which we get a synopsis of all important philosophers as well as commentary on materialist theories of Karl Marx,” Iftikhar Arif said.
Chief guest Mustansar Javed dwelt on the youth of Ashfaque Saleem Mirza while Shameem Saifi said the study of Karl Marx had been the passion of the author since his college days and he had now fulfilled his life’s desire by presenting his ideal to Pakistani readers.