Who was the real Jinnah?

Every year on Christmas Day we celebrate Jinnah's birthday, although no one can be sure that he was born on 25 December, or even in 1876. He studied in the Sindh Madrasatul Islam of Karachi, where his date of birth is recorded as some other date. As his father was illiterate, I doubt if he had recorded Jinnah's date of birth. A relative once told me, "Jinnah gave a false date of birth, so he could have lied when he said he was born in Karachi". 

One piece of fiction that has reduced Pakistan to such a mess today is that the country was made in the name of Islam. Not many know that when he was expelled from the Aga Khani sect (for marrying outside the community), Jinnah had chosen the Khoja Shia branch of Islam even though he could easily have joined the Khoja Sunni sect (the majority Muslim sect in the subcontinent). Obviously he didn't know (at least in 1919) that Shiaism is very different from the majority sect. Later, he didn't know that the Qadiani (or Ahmedi) sect could not be termed an Islamic sect. One of his staunch advisors was Choudhri Zafrullah Khan, a very able and learned lawyer who later became the first foreign minister of Pakistan. When asked why an Ahmedi was one of his favorites, he said, "I do not consider him a non-Muslim". One of these days, this statement of his will become familiar to Pakistanis and they will become disillusioned with Jinnah, if they aren't already (as Deobandis think Shias are non-Muslims).

Even though I admire Jinnah, sometimes I can't help thinking he wasn't well-informed about Pakistan. Consider his appalling statement (in Dhaka, of all places) that Urdu would be the national language of Pakistan. Obviously he didn't know that Bengali was the mother tongue of almost all East Pakistanis, or that less than ten percent of West Pakistanis spoke Urdu (he himself couldn't speak a sentence in Urdu). 

In Zia's days, they dubbed Jinnah's speeches in Urdu, so most of my young relatives are surprised when I tell them that he could speak only English and Gujrati. I won't be surprised if some future  government decides to make a painting of Jinnah with a heavy beard. 

Again, Jinnah was a staunch secularist (his speech three days before 14 August 1947 proves this). When he said that Pakistanis were free to go to their temples, churches, mosques and gurdawaras, it must have shocked those who heard him, as he had been talking only about Islam and Pakistan in his speeches during most of the years before 1947. Even though the Pakistan Resolution of 1940 does not once mention Islam, and even though the Resolution spoke about several states instead of one, somehow it ended up with just one country that is supposed to have been made in the name of Islam. And the way minorities are treated in the country you can't help blaming Jinnah for not giving a secular Constitution while he was still alive. Had he done so, East Pakistan would still have been a part of the country today. Unfortunately it was not meant to be.