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The quadrangular enclosure, which has a total area of 61 acres, is protected by a grilled
boundary wall on all the four sides. It makes a rough parallelogram, measuring
1,645 feet on the eastern side along Shahrah-i-Quaideen but only
about 1,400 feet on the opposite side along M. A. Jinnah Road while each
of the remaining sides is about 1,575 feet. The corners of the parallelogram
are rounded off for the smooth flow of the traffic. Four gateways lead
into the enclosure. The oldest is the one that opens the car passage direct
to the northern steps of the mausoleum. The second is on Shahrah-i-Quaideen,
giving an approach from the old Exhibition ground, and hence is popularly
known as Numaish Darwaza. The main entrance, reserved for VIPs, is on
that part of M. A. Jinnah Road that passes west of the mausoleum. There
is a fourth small gateway for the visitors coming from Guru Mandir side.
The two small gateways open the approaches towards the main entrancewhere
all vechiles, except VIP cars, must stop at the parking place.
A beautiful avenue from the main entrance opens up a picturesque view of the mausoleum
that is perched higher up at the other end. The avenue on either side
is lined by bottle-palms, lit at night by reflectors concealed in the ground, alternating
with ordinary palms with leafy branches. The curved trunk of the bottle-palms,
with its haphazard engravings caused by the whim of the visitors, gives,
in darkness, an effect of a false obelisk. In the middle of the avenue
there is a series of fifteen rectangular water pools, each seperated by
a grassy patch and one lying a step above the other. The inside of the
pools is faced with blue tiles in order to give the semblance of blue
colour to the water. In the middle of each pool two tapering marble fountains
gush forth chutes of water as if in a string of pearls. The tapering stem
of the fountain is relieved with angular and semi-circular flutes.
Shaded by the bottle-palms, the paved passage, one on either side of the rectangular
pools, runs up step by step to the foot of the massive platform that bears
the mausoleum. This is the passage for all the people. They walk up slowly,
admiring the marble purity of the mausoleum, and are drawn nearer and
nearer by the tall archway of its opening. There is, however, a circular
path for the VIP cars that skirt this beautiful avenue and stop right
at the bottom of the platform, from where one can witness far beyond in
the distant horizon the complex of city houses and buildings. The location
of the mausoleum at this height presents this wonderful spectacle. However,
the mausoleum does not lie in the middle of the enclosure. It is situated
slightly to the north-east, about 900 feet from the main entrance, 950
feet from the side of Shahrah-i-Quaideen but only 435 feet from the opposite
northern side. As a result, the enclosed space is asymmetrical. But the
mausoleum, which occupies the highest spot, has its foreground levelled
to a gradual slope towards the main entrance. This is a deliberate contrivance
to make the visitors, who are stepping up on the path, feel the grandeur
of the monument and realise the greatness of the man buried high up.
Behind the mausoleum, the old ditch still hangs on with a rising ground towards the
boundary wall. The ditch slopes down towards M. A. Jinnah Road and the
space in this quadrant beyond the old VIP gate is lush with greenery and
shady trees for the frolics of romantic lovers. The back side on the east
remains rough and stony, but the remaining area on the south has rows
of tree plantation for shade, interspersed with baradaris for the convenience
of weary visitors. There is an attempt to keep nature's vagaries in tune
with the roughness of the sandy soil and make the monument grow out of
this virgin bosom of the earth.
The mausoleum stands alone by its own right within the enclosure with only the beautiful
avenue made by man as if for ceremonial passage from the main entrance
up to the tomb, on which the visitors climb step on step until they reach
the base of the platform, where they take off their shoes in the eastern
style of respect, move up the stairs, walk on the mosaic-laid platform,
pass through the high archway, and finally stand in reverence before the
grave in the tomb chamber - the end of the fatigue of walking and the
fulfilment of a long desire with graceful solace.
Courtesy: Prof. Ahmad Hasan Dani, Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad
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"In a nutshell, Patient Welfare Society wants to join - and lead - others in helping the world see. One way we achieve
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Pakistan... read more
Surah An-Nahl, xvi. 114
Jinnah
was the most Westernised political leader in all the annals of Indian
Islam; no other Muslim political leader could match him in terms of
modernity and a modern outlook. He was completely at home with the milieu
in cosmopolitan Bombay and metropolitan London. He also married a Parsi
girl, so unconventional for a Muslim leader at that time, though after
getting her converted to Islam. During his chequered career, Jinnah
came in contact with an exceedingly large number of non-Muslim leading
personalities and a host of British officials, more than any other Muslim
leader and had interacted with them for some four decades - before he
underwent a paradigmatic shift. Jinnah was also a man who minced no
words, stood no humbug, and called a spade a spade. He held political
rhetoric in high disdain; he preferred political wilderness to playing
to the gallery. Such a man could not possibly have gone in for an Islamic
orientated discourse unless he felt that the Islamic values he was commending
were at home with the values underlying modernity, that Islam was in
consonance with progress and modernity. During the debate on Islam and
secularism, this is a point that has lain ignored.
