Your Excellency Mr. President, the dear respected chairman of Meshrano Jirga, the current and former cabinet members, the members of both houses of the parliament, advisors of the president, directors, governors, academic cadres, lecturers, scholars and civil society representatives, tribal elders, youth and friends – Assalamu Alaikum!
I welcome you all on behalf of my family and the Kakar History Foundation and sincerely thank you very much for your coming.
It has been said that if you want to collapse a nation then destroy its history. Respecting the history of a nation is actually preserving the identity and values of that nation.
The fact that you have highly paid homage to Muhammad Hassan Kakar in his life, as well as after his death, and have also attended this gathering, it means that you haven’t only honored his personality but in fact, you have honored the history of Afghanistan. Thank you again!
Other scholars and lecturers will talk here about Muhammad Hassan Kakar’s scholarly and academic achievements and Respected Liwal Sahib will have a speech regarding the Kakar History Foundation but I would like to share with you just a few memories of his which are the best lessons that I have ever learned.
First of all, I learned from him that if the will of a person is strong enough and they make necessary efforts, they can achieve any specific goal. My father was born in a remote, retrogressive village of Laghman province. He was only a child when he first lost his father and then lost his mother. He had many problems but nevertheless he went to school and later graduated from Kabul University’s Literature Faculty as a first position holder.
While he was unable to buy books, he would rent them and have them handwritten in one night to have a copy with himself.
After Kabul University, he studied at major universities of the world, such as at London’s Harvard and New Jersey’s Princeton. Some other international universities published his books, thus making him achieve the highest position in his career.
The second important lesson was that we should have unparalleled love towards our soil and country and that we should consider the interests of the country in our every action.
Mohammad Hassan Kakar considered all his achievements and successes due to the blessing and love of the country and people and always thought that he owed his success to them.
He loved his countrymen and people so much that he did not want to leave the country despite many dangers and threats and would say: “I have become a historian because of this country. Now that history is being made here, how can I leave the country?” Because of this unconditional love, he went to jail.
Till the end of his life, he thought of his country, wrote about it, and made many efforts to bring peace to this country.
He believed in and was very confident about Afghanistan and Afghans, saying that if the United States was the great power or superpower in the world, the Afghans were the great power in Afghanistan and if they are united among themselves, they can decide their own fate.
Another thing that I learned from my father was that one should remain honest in every situation and speak the truth at all times.
He did not like pretension and he did not even want to attract attention to his scholarly and academic titles. He liked to sign off at the end of his books by only writing ‘Mohammad Hassan Kakar’.
He said: “I do not want anyone to read my books because of my titles. In my opinion, it is important that the books’ contents themselves determine their nature and importance.”
He also did not like unwarranted admiration, saying: “Instead of praising me, read my books and writings; critique them and spread them to others.
My father believed that we Afghans are an integral and inseparable part of humanity and the world, so in order to develop and become better human beings, we must look at the world’s experiences, knowledge and shared human values and learn from them, as well as utilize them in our lives.
Perhaps on this basis at a specific point of his life, he began to research and translate the ideas of the world’s greatest thinkers. He tried to bridge the young generation of Afghanistan through the bridges of ideas with the world’s spiritual heritage.
At the same time, he emphasized that every person should have the right to learn in their mother tongue and work for their native language.
In the last few years of his life, I asked him a question: “Don’t you want to write about the history and people of Afghanistan in English for international people anymore?”
So he told me: “My children I have grown tired and on the other hand, our own language and culture have a right over us. When writing in English, I look for words but when I write in my own languages, words and concepts come to me in an inspirational way.”
Mohammad Hassan Kakar believed in humanity and humanitarianism. He didn’t deem life limited to a continuous pursuit of work but he wanted to have human relations, care for relatives and friends, as well as enjoy art, music, and sports.
Lastly, the last moments of my father’s death were also a lesson for me – that is if we practice human principles in our lives, we would not be afraid of death. During his last days in this world, he remained very calm spiritually and didn’t complain to anyone. He thought that he didn’t owe anything to people and surrendered to the will of God by leaving this world with spiritualistic tranquility.
