Apart from being a shelter, Pakistan is what I believe will represent me wherever i go, whatever i become in the future. If I, with the help of Almighty Allah, achieve all my dreams, what will define my origin will be Pakistan. It is my identity. In the modern world, we demand multiple types of freedom. Unfortunately, the biggest freedom, the one which we have as a nation is always taken for granted.

Muhammad Ali

HOME - it's the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word "Pakistan". It's not only a word for me, it has a whole set of feelings attached to it. From growing up listening to stories of our elders about the struggle they went through attaining it to my own feelings that blossomed as I became a proud citizen. For every time I see my country in pain my heart breaks and bleeds but yet it manages to provide me with my identity. Pakistan is my individuality, without it I am nothing but a nameless being. Pakistan is my shelter, my identity, my pride, my home!

Aleema Khan

The Islamic Republic is a strange country when at war in the era of fighter jets and tanks their opposing troops stated this after their loss in the battlefield: "An army with swords gave us enormous losses. Light emanated from their swords." During that very war, a Pakistani Urdu daily received a letter from Madina Munawara, that read: "The day when Lahore was attacked, same night two people from Madina had this dream, The Holy Prophet (PBUH) is going on horseback. Humbly they asked where are you going in such hurry Prophet of Allah? He (PBUH) replied, ’I am going to Pakistan for Jihad.’" (Excerpts from Alakh Nagri by Mumtaz Mufti)

Strangely enough Pakistan is the only country to have ever been created in the name of Islam... like ever... and it was through Pakistan's creation that Allah fulfilled His promise on to us: “And remember when you were few and oppressed in the land, fearing that people might abduct you, but He sheltered you, supported you with His victory, and provided you with good things – that you might be grateful.” (Holy Quran 8:26) 

No war! yet close to 14 million people were displaced and more than two million lost their lives or went missing... just imagine the gallons of blood that went into her creation.

During the creation of Pakistan, Abdul Hafeez Shirazi was a military officer in Pune, India. After the creation of Pakistan, like many other mohajirs (immigrants), he too faced a lot of troubles and miseries; eventually, he became severely opposed to Pakistan and vowed to do whatever he could to destroy it. When he reached Pakistan, one night he saw this dream (narrated in his own words): "It was a military surrounding, someone told me that the Holy Prophet (PBUH) has arrived; I presented myself in the Holy Prophet’s blessed presence and said, ‘O Prophet of Allah (PBUH)! We have been ruined because of this Pakistan’s creation!’. On hearing this, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) replied: ‘Abdul Hafeez! This country came into being through my dua (prayer) and Allah Almighty’s order and I have given its command to Sultan Mehmood Ghaznavi; this country will remain till the Day of Judgment سایۂ خدائے ذوالجلال....

(From 'Mubasharaat-e-Pakistan' by Alhaaj Zahoor-ul-Hassan Qadri, pg 72)

Suphia Sarwar