Central Amir of Minhaj-ul-Quran International, Sahibzada Faiz-ur-Rehman Durrani, has said that the worst power outages, skyrocketing inflation and prices of eatables, unabated wave of terrorism, and widening gulf between the haves and have-nots are the signs of Allah’s annoyance with us. He said that we have forgotten our identity and become accustomed to living in slavery of the exploitative forces. God, he said, does change the destiny of people unless they do something to set themselves back on the path of reform.

Religion and politics are integral to each other and the fault of the Pakistani nation is that it has reduced religion to performance of mere rituals and accepted the thugs and corrupt people as its leaders. He said that real democracy lies in entrusting the true representatives the responsibility of looking after the interests of masses. He further added that traditional political and religious leadership does not possess the capacity and ability to change the destiny of the nation. “Our people need to bring forward such a leadership as could play the role of a bridge between secular and religious viewpoints,” he held.

Faiz-ur-Rehman Durrani expressed these views while addressing the Friday sermon in the central Mosque of MQI in Lahore.

He said that when God gets annoyed with a people, He increases its problems. The concentration of political and economic power in a few hands and consequent disempowerment of teeming millions suggests that people have not learnt a lesson from the past and are adamant to tread the beaten track. He said that the nation needs to make major decisions at individual and collective levels to get rid of raging problems. Democracy, he concluded, cannot take root unless people raise a voice for it and play their due role in its strengthening.