Manto’s Letter to Tariq Jamil

Dear Maulana,

Hope all is well. For days, had been planning to pen you a letter. One reason to dispatch you a letter was: the Hooris were urging me to write to you. The poor creatures know no other language but Arabic. The way you delineate them, embarrasses them indeed…becharian sharam say pani pani ho jati hain. Ever since your erotic descriptions of Hooris have gone viral in the heavens, the angels have been staring, let me say lustfully, at the Hooris. Poor Hooris are indeed upset over a wave of sexual harassment enabled by your sermons.

There is, however, one more reason to pen you this letter. For the last seventy years, Pakistan’s ruling elite has charged me of obscenity (truth always appears to them either as obscene or treachery). No doubt, I explored sexuality as a topic of Urdu literature and subject of art. Pity, the Nawa-i-Waqt school of thought could trace sexuality even in such short stories as ‘Khol Doo’ and ‘Thanda Gosht’. Is art an obscenity when it screams out a protest against mass rapes and genocidal madness?

It is therefore, I yelled in Toba Tek Singh: Upar di gur gur di annexe di bedhiyana di moong di daal of di Pakistan and Hindustan of di durr phitey mun.

Maulana! You are however indeed impressive. The situations and positions that you describe in your pious sermons on Hooris, would not have occurred to the most imaginative pornographer. Yet, neither Nawa-i-Waqt nor Orya Maqbol Jan have ever protested. This is indeed an achievement in a country where I was in the dock thrice on the charge of obscenity.

Maulana! I like you also because you do not hate women from the red light districts. All my life was spent agitating against their exploitation. There is, however, a difference between two of us. Your problem is that these poor women are living the life of ‘sin’. I damn care about sins. My problem is this society that requires red light neighborhoods.

My problem is the nobleman that buys his secret paramours a villa in the DHA while generously donating millions to the mosques and madrassas. I am afraid such hypocrites donate money to your Tableeghi Jamaat too. I suggest, you should clearly announce in your next video sermon that the Tableeghi Jamaat will not accept any donation from ill-gotten money or a capital accumulated through the exploitation of poor workers and peasants.

You should also clearly state that you would not offer prayers in the mosques build by Baharia tycoon. Maulana! I have always wondered: How people can build mosque with blood money? I never understood this practice of bribing Allah.

And sorry about the media frenzy about you. But, if truth be told, Maulana you too spoke only half truth. Commercial media, no doubt, is a pack of lies. But you should also have pointed out that there are alien forces that have turned media into a pack of lies. A Letter to Maulana Tariq Jamil on Coronavirus

And by the way, forgot to ask: when the infidels have the anti-Covid vaccine ready, will you go for a shot or you plan to trust your Tauba Istaghfar. I suggest, go for both. Don’t rush to the heavens, Hooris notwithstanding. Life is not as exciting here as in Pakistan for a successful mullah. Guide your Tableeghi followers in particular to avoid contracting corona by staying home.

Lastly, let me also thank you for your performance at Ehsas telethon recently. Through your moving Dua I was able to understand that corona virus was caused by an ensemble of dishonest media, cruel judiciary and immodest women. Look at Trump the Dump, he has been vilifying our sweet friend China for the ‘Wuhan virus’.

Take care.
The late Saadat Hasan Manto

(This essay was originally written in Urdu for Daily Jeddojehad. For Urdu Text