‘Subcontinent always a bastion of pluraism’

Karachi
The social fabric of society also influences the collective mental health of the people in it, nothed historian Dr Mubarak Ali said on Saturday.
“The subcontinent has always been a pluralistic society,” he maintained, while presenting his paper “Religious tolerance in the subcontinent” at a seminar held on Saturday at the United Medical and Dental College in collaboration with the Dow University of Health Sciences.
“Going back to history, we come across the two noted models: a pluralistic society and a monism society,” he said. “The former stands for an inclusive society while the latter believes and promotes a monotheistic narrative.”
He noted that in fact, Babar`s will to his son, advising him to abolish sacrifice of cow and respecting the Hindu traditions, showed the degree of consideration to pluralism.”
Dr Ali was of the view that Akbar had put Babar`s will into practice due to which both the Hindus and the Muslims could simultaneously enjoy a symbolic status of peace and power till the time of the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. The seminar was held on the topic of ‘Mental Health and Spirituality’.
The event was kicked off by the welcome note of Dr Shehla Alvi, who set the momentum of the event by looking into the insight of Quran in relation to the mental health.
Quoting Surah Al-Baqarah`s verse number 286, Dr Alvi said it had summed up the general focus of human being when present in isolation with Almighty Allah.
Brig (retd) Prof Khalid Mehmood emphasised the importance of mental illness by sharing one of his exchanges with the Late Hakim Muhammad Saeed, in which the latter claimed that 40% of his patients developed physiological issues due to mental illness.
Islamic scholar Dr Mohsin Naqvi while presenting his paper ‘Understanding Mental Health in Muslim Jurisprudence’ said, “The faith is deeply linked with crime and sin; however, both the legal and faith based ideological entities often intercept with each other.” “There is a distinction between killer and serial killer; the latter`s case must be looked into through an in-depth psychological logic,” he said.