In the last days of 1947, 4 Months after the birth of a Nation and 10 months before the death of a Founder, The Quaid e Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah addressed his citizens. He presented to them as he had before and would again, Pakistan’s National Motto and required characteristics. “We are going through fire: the sunshine has yet to come. But I have no doubt that with Unity, Faith and Discipline we will compare with any nation of the world. Are you prepared to undergo the fire? You must make up your minds now. We must sink individualism and petty jealousies and make up our minds to serve the people with honesty and faithfulness. We are passing through a period of fear, danger, and menace. We must have faith, unity and discipline”
Unity. Faith. Discipline.
Every Pakistani knows them, you’ll find them inscribed on little monuments, as highway markers, in songs and political slogans. However not many of us seem to realise how powerful a creed this is, especially for a nation in waiting..
Unity, to come together and stand together in mutual support.
Faith, to believe and trust, to have conviction and confidence.
Discipline, to follow a code of behaviour, to have order and most importantly self control.
Each of these alone is a virtue worth inculcating, each of these alone would be a welcome characteristic for any nation, each of these alone in its fullness could lead one to glory.
There is however a flipside, a warning in these words for those who would read it, It is as follows:-
Alone each is a virtue and all together, a powerful creed. However, if incomplete, the triad can become one’s undoing.
Take Unity and Faith, a united group with faith – in anything, be it religion or science or a political ideology – but without discipline is a mob. Random and chaotic it is at best ineffectual and at work a movement of anarchy and destruction. In Pakistan this is a common sight, visible whenever a religious party taps into the fundamentalist section of society, the entire nation teetering on the edge of mayhem.
In Faith and Discipline without Unity. A set of self possessed, ordered individuals with conviction and belief in what they are doing and why. These citizens have the will and ability to change the course of a nation, however alone in their silos even the best will remain inefficient. The unfortunate will be picked off one by one.
The saddest of all are the Disciplined and United. An ordered group, all together and in agreement but about what? With no heading and no belief the unity serves only to foster lethargy, the discipline imposing order for orders sake, liable to fall apart at the first hurdle. With no flag to fly under even the strongest army will be routed, mercenaries at the mercy of every machiavelli.
– Court of Jinnah