The Responsibility
In 1957 after the death of his father, Pir Muhammad Karam Shah took on the responsibilities of the Khanqah (place for spiritual retreat) and the Madrassah. He proved himself to be a highly capable administrator, a brilliant teacher and an eminent scholar. He had a vision, he wanted to make education his primary concern. To establish an educational institute that would produce religious scholars, Imams, teachers all dedicated to the cause of Islam. This is how he saw things in Pakistan:
“After completing my education, I looked around and found a disturbing situation. I saw that the burning lamps of Islamic civilisation and culture were being extinguished one by one by the storms of the West. The bright colourful flowers, which were decorating the garden of Islam were wilting. Whatever the Muslims were able to save from the attacks of capitalism were now under attack from socialism, which wanted to pull out the roots of love of the prophet (peace be upon him) and Islam from the Muslims. These were external threats, which surrounded the Ummah from all sides. Had the internal situation been any better we could hope to face these external threats successfully. However the internal conditions of the Ummah was even more bleak and dangerous. Disunity and sectarianism were ripe.”
The Ahlu-Sunnah-Wal-Jamah, the major group representing the orthodox Sunni’s were in a lamentable state; disorganised, helpless and voiceless. He wanted to do something about the pathetic situation and says “I knew I could not alone alleviate this apathy. In order to connect this situation I needed some comitted people who would support and help me. Such people who could fight the evil forces. Men whose knowledge would be vast and whose character spotless as the sun and whose farsightedness would shake the Stannic world. People who would be hardworking, carers of the poor and the needy.” He passionately believed that through education and right leadership things would improve.
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