CHIT CHAT
if not completely, and that has helped him avoid making a hypocritical impression on his fans, at least. The same cannot be said about the many actors, actresses and artists, who only assume an Islamic getup for Ramazan with no thorough sense of religious teachings whatsoever or how and what they are meant to discuss about Islam on national television. The commercialization of Ramazan remained a hot topic this year and these shows, countless in number, came across as much a popularity game for celebrities as a ratings rat race for channel owners. But perhaps the biggest criticism was how unequipped these celebrities are to debate on religion and how they instead end up making a mockery out of it. Jamshed, however, disagrees.“ Iqbal once said,‘ Zamane ke andaaz badle gaye, naya raag hai saaz badle gaye. Khirad ko ghulami se azaad kar, jawanon ka peeron ka ustaad kar’. Religion isn’ t anyone’ s personal property. You are just as much a Muslim as I am and similarly our celebrities. But an artist already understands the responsibility of being in front of the audience and the camera. And when he / she is made to sit on this pedestal in Ramazan, they are aware that they have to speak and act in a certain manner, which is also a way spiritual cleansing, and so there is no harm in it. All they should do is sit alongside a group of religious scholars, who guide them and ensure that whatever message they are sending out, it’ s authentic. If they just make a scholar sit in place of the celebrity, people wouldn’ t want to listen to him either, and now everyone also wants to criticize the celebrity, then whose fault is it then? Them or us?” Jamshed questioned, while also supporting the format of these religious shows. Often conceptualized in a game show format, these transmissions are fi lled with mundane antics that result in a string of sponsored gifts that range from household items to 24 karat gold. And while these are pitched as an act of faith and a way of celebrating the spirit of the Holy month, many have argued that they do little but inculcate greed in people, who line up for registrations months in advance.“ Giving gifts is an essential part of our religion and according to Hazrat Ayesha( RA), our Prophet Muhammad’ s( SAW) charitable efforts during Ramazan would increase like the intensity of winds on a stormy day,” he justifi ed with the anecdote.“ Unfortunately, our nation is famous for being beggars across the globe but through this we are giving an impression that no we are not freeloaders; we believe in distributing and sharing our wealth. I agree that sponsors get a lot of mileage from these shows but there is also a lot of spending involved as well. I have also been a sponsor so I know that a tremendous amount of money goes to these people so it’ s not easy. Besides how rich can a person get with a couple of kurtas or a can of oil? Only one out of a thousand gets a motorcycle or a car but such acts build a stronger community.” A similar concern and heartfelt love for his nation is what led Jamshed back into the world of music last year, where he collaborated with Shahi Hasan and Junoon’ s former band member, the‘ soul’-ful Sufi Salman Ahmed, for the song‘ Chand Sitara’. The song marked one of the biggest reunions in Pakistan’ s musical history but fell fl at on the ears for it just did not feel organic. At the same time, it pushed Jamshed under signifi cant scrutiny – what’ s he doing singing when Islam doesn’ t allow music?“ The idea developed around the time when the Peshawar carnage happened and I, myself, was being accused for blasphemy by a certain faction of our society which I believe has no credibility whatsoever,” Jamshed revealed.“ It was a rude shock for me that the people of my country can think about me in such a way. I was really heartbroken so I called Shoaib Mansoor and suggested that we do something to wake up our nation; to revitalize them. He told me that he has already shared something that would interest me, with Salman, and that I should have a look at it. When I did, I fell in love with it. Salman had already made a tune for‘ Chand Sitara’ and I wanted to sing it so we recorded it at Shehzad’ s studio without the drums or the melody in the background. But then Pepsi wanted it and they wanted to produce it as a proper soundtrack. I felt that if this was the only way our nation would feel motivated then so be it because the point was to stimulate them.” Even though, it seems that Jamshed’ s sole intention is to do good for society and his country, obstacles have been far too many – sometimes it’ s his own, draconian statements that make liberals disapprove of him as a fi gurehead, and sometimes these come in form of looming threats to his life. Yes, as hard as it may be to believe for the more liberal clout, Jamshed too is a victim of our growing intolerant society. Yet he disregards the word in itself. He believes the better way to approach this is to focus on acceptance fi rst instead of tolerance.“ Every time someone decides to speak up for peace and goodwill, people will stand against him. That happened with Prophet Muhammad( SAW) when he embraced Islam and travelled to Medina and that’ s exactly what’ s been happening ever since the beginning of human race. And that is why I feel the word tolerance needs to be replaced with acceptance. Nobody in this world can tolerate each other; even siblings and spouses can’ t, let alone strangers. It’ s just not possible but what they do is accept each other as they are. We cannot change each other hence it’ s better to learn to accept one another whatever the differences maybe. Even abroad, the Jews and the Christians don’ t see each other eye to eye but they still live together in the same society. Acceptance is what our society needs the most. All sects need to accept each other and believe that if one has the right to live then so does the other,” Jamshed stressed. As I said earlier, Junaid Jamshed is a lot different from what we knew of him in the‘ 90s. It’ s obvious that Jamshed’ s personality has experienced a paradigm shift of
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