Jannat & Jahannum

Jannat and Jahannum


Pondering the Cosmos is weighty stuff at any time. But sometimes it is complicated further by the same words conveying different meanings to different people. The Pakistani jihadi connotation of the Urdu for Heaven and Hell, namely Jannat and Jahannum are such words.

But understanding the Pakistani jihadi take on Heaven and Hell could hold the key to their fantabulous thinking. It can explain the ghastly and savage use of 13 year-old suicide bombers in Afghanistan, for example. And it may also shed light on the missing purity of intent behind another much abused Urdu word: Shaheed.

These are special, revered, mystic words. They are understood differently by those who follow the inclusive Sufi tradition, as do the vast majority of Muslims in India, and those, across the border, who get their vengeful perspective from Saudi-financed Wahhabi Madrasas and hard-line theological Ulooms.

Almost every Islamic terrorist grouping, including the Taliban and the Al Qaeda are spawned, trained or supported by persons with this mindset. It is this blood-thirsty, “Infidel” murdering version of Jannat and Jahannum that is universally understood and subscribed to in the Pakistani Armed Forces and the ISI.

So fine as the words are, they need to be understood just as men on Lahore streets do. But words, as we know, often mutate in transmission, let alone translation. They wing across languages and races, cross oceans and continents, picking up sights, smells, angers, hurts, defining memories, and inevitably, the winds of change. They can also be deliberately twisted to suit political or ideological purposes.

Thus it is, that an indoctrination and radicalisation process has been maturing and marinating for over two decades already. Because, it was about then that Pakistan began recruiting its rank and file from the Madrasas--ever since the late President Zia Ul Haq’s drive towards a more focussed and calculable Islamism with the tacit backing of Saudi Arabia.

The Islamisation was instituted, ostensibly, as backlash, after Pakistan’s earlier experiments with democracy; even if it did profess Socialist, Nationalist and anti-Indian sentiments. But this democratic interlude ended because it dared to lean less than expected on the Armed Forces, and even less on support from the Maulvis and Ulemas.

When Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was eventually overthrown, not only did the Army take over once again, but his rule was characterised as deviant and louche. He was called corrupt, apostate (ridda), and was thought to be altogether deserving of meeting his end on the gallows.

The jihadi notion of Jannat, that is attracting so many young followers, is more than Heaven, that spacious “Mansions in the sky” home of a Christian heavenly father. Jannat here means a hedonistic Paradise, where all austerities and sacrifices on Earth are eternally compensated. It has great physical beauty and tangible perfection. It is green and well watered. It contains an inexhaustible chorus line of nubile and well-endowed nymphets, wiggling with welcome and promise.

This Jannat then surely has the greater power to lure the credulous than the flat Biblical vision of Heaven with its lyre-playing angels in curls and hoary retainers with white eyebrows. Besides, the afterlife in Christianity is daunting, with the very real prospect of Judgement Day looming large.

As for Hell, the Anglo-Saxon Latinate conception of Hell was also formidable once, backed by an Inquisition and torture-laden Witch-Hunts. It terrified the ignorant and unlettered. But today, its intolerance and barbarism is gone. But gone also is its retributive artillery. It stands emasculated by Science, Logic, Mockery, Modernity, and most of all, by a general abandonment.

Hindu Hell? Hard to tell what and where it is, especially when you put it in context of a religion based on reincarnation. And Hindu Heaven? Perhaps it is closest to an Open Forum of Gods and Goddesses, major and minor, demi-gods, Devlok, Demons, Apsaras. It is, without doubt, the greatest do-it-yourself karmic opportunity in the Cosmos.

But if Hindu Heaven is an obscure and under-signposted Parlok , and its Hell is determined by your own thoughts and deeds, there is no such vagueness in the Pakistani lexicon.

The jihadi idiomatic meaning of Jahannum is not just Hell but hell-fire and Perdition. But, the key point is that you don’t go to Jahannum for murdering the Infidel. In fact Jahannum is specifically lying in wait for “disbelievers”. So you go to jihadi Hell, however virtuous you may seem, only if you are Apostate.

So, to the simple-minded and rough hewn, the jihadi Jannat and Jahannum shooting match may well appear to have far greater spark. Particularly if one is very poor and turning terrorist looks like a viable career option. After all, it offers guts and glory, respect, money, guns, women. It cossets flotsam and jetsam. It imbues the neglected with meaning and purpose. It paints gaudy visions of Martyrdom and Paradise.

But nobody in Pakistan’s jihadi circles, identified as the “epicentre of terrorism” seems to notice the deeply anachronistic and medieval nature of a religious war in the “free choice” ambience of the 21st century. If they did, they would be moving fast to prevent their inevitable descent into the very bottomless Jahannum they seem hell bent on prescribing for others.

But then, theirs is an unhinged fanaticism, as bizarre as Hitler’s manic vision, and it too has world domination as its goal. And here again, would be martyrs to this “grand cause” are standing in line. They are eager for battle because they are convinced that a world dominated by Western values has become effete and too decadent to defend itself.

But the worrisome part is that this kind of thinking is not the wild and woolly fantasy of an illiterate frontier tribesman. On the contrary, it is the brain-washed and covertly defended assessment of senior state actors in the Government, Army and its instruments. This, despite all Pakistan’s red herring sophistry, designed only to mislead and bamboozle.

It is a mad gambit, but like other mad gambits, quite convinced in itself. Otherwise, Pakistan and its terrorist hordes would be aware of the looming threat of certain annihilation as the world hardens its stance. But the Jihadis, like all fanatics, will not be reasoned with. To them, it is a confrontation they expect to win against the odds. That they won’t, is mere Infidel talk, and at complete variance with what their religious conviction tells them.

(1,058 words)

15th December 2008
Gautam Mukherjee

Also published in The Pioneer as "The terrorist's faith" on Wednesday, 17th December 2008 and online at www.dailypioneer.com. Also archived at www.dailypioneer.com under Columnists.