by Gulrukh Tausif

Created on: April 24, 2009   Last Updated: April 14, 2010

Muhammad Ali Jinnah : A great Muslim leader

"'Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the world. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation-state. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.'

(Stanley Wolpert, biographer)

Today we all know Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the founder of Pakistan, the man who achieved freedom for the down trodden Muslims of the sub-continent from the ruling British Empire and thwarted the plans of the Hindu majority who dreamt of ruling in its place once the British had departed. From Jinnah, he became Quaid-e-Azam, "the Supreme Leader" and the first Governor General of Pakistan.

But to really understand what made him a charismatic leader - a person who was able to unite millions of oppressed and fragmented people to become one voice, one demand and ultimately one nation - we need to look beyond his titles and heed his words and actions which show us what a great leader he truly was.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah's personal resources were his sound education, his razor sharp intellect, and his steely determination to succeed. "Failure is a word unknown to me," he once said. As a lawyer he used these qualities to win famous legal cases. Historians tell us that people crowded the courtrooms just to hear him speak. He was a great orator, always neat, well groomed and well prepared. He would enthrall his audience - judges, jurors, lawyers and spectators - with his clear cut arguments and quick thinking. He became one of the most successful and sought after lawyers in Bombay just a few years after starting his practice there.

"Although without Ghandi, Hindustan would still have gained independence, without Jinnah there would have been no Pakistan in 1947."

(John Biggs-Davison, British politician)

Later, neither the power of British viceroy nor the tactics of Hindu Congress leaders, his own failing health nor the lack of resources could shake his resolution to achieve a separate country for the Muslims of the subcontinent. His dedication to his cause was so complete that he kept the extent and the details of his illness a secret from everybody. In spite of his serious health problems, he worked and traveled endlessly throughout India to organize the Muslims of the subcontinent.

"We are a nation with our own distinctive culture and civilization, language and literature, art and architecture, names and nomenclature, sense of values and proportion, legal laws and moral code, customs and calendar,

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