Jinnah told his son Mohammed Ali, “There are only two ways to learn in life.” “What are they, dad?” he answered. “One is to accept your elders’ advice and follow their recommendations exactly, believing in their wisdom and superior knowledge.” “And, father, what is the other way?” “The alternative is to follow your own path, learn from mistakes, and experience life’s harsh knocks and kicks.” Pakistan’s founder, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, always went his own way until the very end of his life.
A hero’s life is characterized by moments that exemplify their independence and self-awareness. It is possible to characterize a hero’s journey as a monomyth, a cyclical pattern in which the hero sets off on an adventure, leaves the everyday world, confronts and overcomes adversity, and returns changed and with the elixir that can save or heal his people. Freedom and independence are central to Quaid-i-Azam’s monomyth; they constitute the very pulse of his voyage.
Jinnah’s ancestry also suggested a natural disobedience to convention. Born during the Indian Rebellion in 1857, his father, Jinnahbhai Poonja, later left his hometown of Paneli in search of better opportunities in Gondal and then Karachi.Quaid-i-Azam is not merely a title or a person’s name; it is a byword for bravery, freedom, and independence.
