Dreams, Greed, and the Question of Direction — Where is our community, wandering between halal and haram, heading?
By: Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada
Today, a sincere friend advised me
with good intentions:
“Khan Sahab! You write very well, but don’t write such bitter truth you’ll becoming controversial in the community.”
I simply asked: “Is what I write a lie?”
He didn’t stay silent and replied: “It’s the truth, but it’s dangerous in the current times.”
At that moment, the mystic inside me awakened. I remained silent for two days, kept thinking, and my heart took me to the doorstep of Bulleh Shah.
The same Bulleh Shah who likened the ego to an ox and life to a cart.
بلھیا جے ڈھگا سدھے راہ جاوے
گڈا ہچکولے کیوں کھاوے
Bullah je dhagga sidha raah jaave
Gadda hichkolay kyun khaave
Baba Bulleh Shah, in his poetry, compares the “ego” to the ox (dhagga) and the “body” to the cart (gadda). He says when the ego loses direction, the body too faces jolts in life.
(جے بچنا ای ٹبیاں کھائیاں توں
اینھوں زبح کرا قصائیاں توں
Je bachna ae tabiyan khaaiyan toon
Ehnu zabah kara qasaiyan toon
But until the ego is sacrificed, a person never truly comes to their senses.
And if one truly wants to be upright, then the ego, desires, greed, and compromises must be laid beneath the blade of sacrifice.
Baba Bulleh Shah’s poetry was bitter truth, and for speaking that truth, the clerics of his time issued fatwas against him. When he died, no cleric led his funeral prayer. A transgender individual took his body and buried it outside the city.
This is a historical fact. Yet his silent grave still speaks. The same grave which echoes:
بلھیا اسیں مرنا ناہی، گور پیا کوئی ہور
Bullah assi marna nahi, gor piya koi hor
Thus, it is a reality that the universe is not won by mere prostrations, but by truth.
So if I am disgraced for speaking the truth, then this disgrace is a better deal than the pleasure of my Lord.
The purpose of this preface is to say that some dreams are such that they begin from the alleys of one’s homeland and remain glistening in the eyes all the way to the highways of foreign lands.
When people come to America from countries like Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, they don’t just carry visas in their passports but also a piece of hope on which it is written: “The paradise of the world is here; we just have to reach it.”
Ninety-nine percent of these people come seeking light after escaping poverty, unemployment, injustice, and lack of opportunity.
Many of them, with tireless hard work, honesty, and patience, achieve positions that are worthy of being called truth.
But there are also some who want the fulfillment of dreams fast, urgently, and at any cost. These people do not search for the right path, but dig shortcuts and shortcuts often lead toward illegal and haram avenues.
In my forty years of journalism, I have closely observed every walk of life be it politics or business, religion or media, medical or law, construction or education, fine arts or finance—there have always been people chasing loopholes.
Those who suppress the truth and turn opportunity into embezzlement—
Thieves exist everywhere; it’s just that their methods are becoming more refined.
Small-scale fraud, manipulation, and rights violations have now become ordinary things.
Even the FBI doesn’t waste time on minor scams; it only comes when the circle of wrongdoing expands far beyond limits.
In this way, after coming to America, this journalistic life showed me a lot.
From the halls of justice to the rows of the mosque, from business class lounges to the back walls of restaurants. I saw faces everywhere that were once wrapped in the smile of piety but had been hollowed out from within by the termite of greed.
I myself have written reports in which accountants and businessmen looted the stimulus package by filing fake tax returns, turned government relief schemes into a joke, and turned their professions into businesses only for hefty commissions.
I have seen those doctors too who looted the Medicaid and Medicare systems, committed fraud worth millions of dollars, and then, to appease their conscience, hung Islamic calendars and hadith quotes in their clinics and performed Hajj and Umrah.
I’ve seen such businessmen as well who, by turning their workers’ hard-earned “overtime” into “regular hours,” kept suppressing their rights while filling up their own coffers while the laborers’ voices kept choking.
But time too brought them to the courtroom, and the law unveiled the mask of hypocrisy from their faces.
I have closely observed the entertainment industry too that’s a whole different tale. On one side was tax evasion, and on the other, innocent South Asians lost large amounts of money.
Bank loans, insurance claims, fundraising there’s a game going on in every field.
Even the fabric of religion has been torn apart.
I have exposed those clerics too who have turned the rope of donation into chains of commerce.
They are not clerics they are a “donation mafia,” who fill their own pockets in the name of zakat and charity. They take and give commissions from donation funds.
Mosques are their private estates. Their bank accounts show them as millionaires.
But all these stories reveal a painful truth that even here in America, some among us are still unwilling to give up deceit, even in a country where justice is not blind it is simply patient.
The FBI doesn’t waste time on every small case; it only grabs the necks of those who cross all limits and, in their greed, strangle the very dreams they once held.
Recently, in Dallas, the latest immigration fraud case by the FBI once again showed us the same mirror in which our face now appears blurred.
Individuals like Abdul Hadi Murshid and Muhammad Salman Nasir who perhaps once held small dreams are now having guns, jewelry, and bundles of dollars recovered from their homes.
In court, there is evidence charges have been presented against them under serious allegations such as visa fraud, money laundering, false advertisements, fake jobs, and conspiracy under the RICO act.
And now, a wave of fear and anxiety spreads through the community, as if everyone is looking in the mirror and asking:
“Am I in this too?”
This case is the story of their unlawful wealth—
But in pursuing it, they have jeopardized the future of hundreds of Pakistanis
Even though the victims had no fault at all.
This is not the first time.
As a journalist, I have seen such people in every field doctors, businessmen, religious leaders, presidents of organizations who stole, usurped funds, and built palaces of personal interest in the name of the community’s welfare.
Some were exposed, some are still living with grandeur in big mansions, in expensive cars, and with a coating of fake respectability.
But to move forward in America, the ladder of the unlawful is not a requirement.
In the Pakistani community of Texas, people like Syed Javaid Anwar from Midland Texas are still living examples who reached the pinnacle of hard work in oil business and investment.
Abdul Hafeez Khan of Dallas built an energy drink empire purely with effort and honesty. Similarly, Dallas’s multi-millionaire Amir Makhani who runs a charitable organization called Makhani Welfare in Pakistan through a self-help model and Abid Malik, who owns several gas stations, are always at the forefront of serving the community.
These are the people who advanced through hard work and also serve the community when they give with one hand, the other hand doesn’t even find out.
There are hundreds of such kind-hearted examples whom I have not only seen up close, but also recognized truly.
In this way, there are many more people in the community those who lived happily with less, remained satisfied in truth, and lived a life of dignity and many are still doing so.
I personally know many such doctors and successful businessmen who never chose any “shortcut,” and today, not only are they successful, but also symbols of respect and honor.
The difference is only of intention, of method, of priorities.
One path is filled with truth, sacrifice, and long-lasting honor.
The other is wrapped in shortcuts, unlawful gains, and temporary glitter but ends ultimately in darkness.
But the real tragedy is that we, as a community, consider such individuals “successful.”
The one who has money, big expensive cars these are the ones we consider honorable, whether their earnings are halal or haram.
He won’t pay your electricity bill, won’t cover your children’s school fees but will still collect likes and applause on social media based on these things.
Wherever I have appreciated the hard work and efforts of good people in the community, I have always exposed those who deceive the community.
Whether it’s the “Sultana Daku” who collects donations in the name of orphans and disabled and later builds her mansion behind Imran Khan’s residence in Islamabad. Or the blackmailers of Dallas who, under the name of “Restaurant Halal Review,” do everything haram and eat haram
They blackmail Pakistani restaurant owners through reviews under fake names and collect dollars.
The community knows everything who is involved with them, who gives them political and social shelter to cover up their unlawful greed,
And who is the only one who stands against this oppression, exploitation, and blackmailing.
The principle of Jago Times is clear:
We neither sell news nor honor.
We neither take advertisements nor make deals.
For years, I have been running this newspaper from the earnings of my business so that no one can point a finger at me, and so that I can write and speak the truth without fear.
That is why the commitment of Jago Times is clear:
We will neither bow, nor sell out, nor remain silent.
We will raise the truth, expose the unlawful, and stand with every voice that carries the lamp of honesty in its heart.
We have never aligned with fake representatives, fraudsters, or blackmailers nor with those who, in the name of zakat, charity, or religion, collect money through donations while on social media they pose as ambassadors of virtue behind revolutionary poetry, Quranic verses, and hadith.
But in reality, these are the same people who, under the banners of political and charitable organizations, and by using verses as shields, spread the wings of their self-interest and then, by posting heart-soothing quotes, try to cover their greed.
But the truth is these people are like witches, such witches who do not spare any home.
Whatever wealth they lay hands on, they swallow it and don’t even burp.
On the pages of my life, I’ve also seen faces drenched in the glitter of wealth but inwardly hollow, wounded, and decaying.
Those who devoured others’ rights, built palaces with unlawful income either became trapped in incurable diseases, or the same children for whom they bought hell turned away and disowned them one day.
Here in America, most tongues repeat one sentence:
“We came here to make money.”
But rarely do hearts carry the intention that we leave behind something better, something true, something worthy of pride.
Earning money and dollars is not a sin if it carries the fragrance of integrity.
But sadly, from clerics to capitalists, the majority have become worshippers of money.
I’ve seen those multi-millionaires up close too those who live in palaces made of gold but couldn’t stay loyal, even to their own blood.
On one side is the mansion; on the other side of the city, a son roams hungry, chasing dreams.
This is not the downfall of wealth it’s the downfall of the heart.
This loss in the glare of wealth is not just the tragedy of a few individuals it is a reflection of our entire community.
Whether it’s the Dallas immigration fraud case, or the stories of those who ran blindly chasing dreams of becoming rich overnight. All teach us one common lesson:
These shortcuts, these deceptions, this greed have now become a collective disease in our community, one that is consuming our very soul.
Now the time has come to interpret our dreams not through shortcuts but through hard work, patience, and integrity.
Otherwise, the distance between halal and haram will shrink to just one arrest, one illness, or one isolation.
And when these thoughts echo within the heart, then this voice of Bulleh Shah descends into the soul…
بلھے نوں سمجھاون آیاں، ناں بلھیا کرینوں
ایویں گلاں کر گیاں، ناں لبھیا کرینوں
Bulleh nu samjhaavan aaiyaan, naa Bullhia kareenon
Aevain gallan kar gayaaan, naa labhya kareenon
Bulleh is being approached to be advised: “Don’t do this, Bulleh.”
You kept saying such things don’t do this, Bulleh.”
This is that gem from Baba Bulleh Shah’s poetry which compresses centuries of contradictions into two lines.
Bulleh Shah is saying that people of the world scholars, preachers, judges, and the so-called “wise” ones—come to advise him, try to stop him, counsel him:
“Bulleh! What are you doing? These things you speak of—love, freedom, truth—they are dangerous for you. Be silent. Adapt to the situation.”
But Bulleh Shah dismisses them all with a smile and replies:
ایویں گلاں کر گیاں، ناں لبھیا کرینوں”
Aevain gallan kar gayaaan, naa labhya kareenon
“I kept saying such things — the things you called useless, futile, and dangerous. And I found the One (God) whom you searched for your whole lives through rituals, worship, and advice but failed to find.”
Thus, this verse is a satire on the whole system that cages the search for truth inside rituals, replaces the honesty of the heart with the convenience of speech, and tries to silence every truthful voice by labeling it “inappropriate.”
Here, Bulleh Shah isn’t just speaking for himself he is representing every sincere soul who stands against society’s hypocrisy.
One who unmasks the spiritual poverty hidden behind the veil of superficial religiosity, and who seeks God not within the walls of a mosque, but in the truth of the heart.
This verse teaches us that those who speak the truth are often alone but that same loneliness brings them closer to God.
Those who remain slaves to customs and traditions never truly find God only keep searching for His name.
Baba Bulleh Shah rejected the molds of traditional affirmation (“haan”) and in that rejection, he discovered truth.
He stepped out from the society’s need for approval and stood firmly in the “no” of reality—where no person remains, only the Divine.
