Friday, 5 January 2018

A Survey of Present Revivalist Efforts - Rise and Decline of Muslim Ummah



A Survey of Present Revivalist Efforts

As a matter of fact, no period of degradation and degeneration in Islamic history is without attempt to reform and rejuvenate the Muslim Ummah. In every epoch and in every country, people of sublime determination were born who performed the gigantic task of reformation and reconstruction, as their times demanded. But all such efforts were made before the Twentieth century. In these efforts the real objective was not the revival of religion, but its defence and protection. The magnificent edifice of Islam had not yet been demolished. The real spirit of religion might have faded to a considerable extent, but the social and cultural system that Islam had established in the world was still intact. Islamic Sharia (Divine code of Law) had actually been in practice in all Muslim countries. Hence the main goal of reform had been to maintain and preserve the system of Islamic beliefs and practices in their original form, so that external and foreign influences may not attenuate and distort the faith.

This is the reason why upto the time of Shah Waliullah of Delhi, the great Indian divine, (d. 1763), the endeavours of all the reformers of the Muslim Ummah remained limited to the fields of education and theology, and their goal was simply clarification and rectification of religious doctrines and beliefs. If they stepped forward beyond this boundary, it was at the most for the purposes of edification of character and conduct, purification of the soul and spiritual training. Before the Nineteenth century the efforts of none of the reformers of Islam assumed the shape of a political or armed movement.7
[*7 One reason for this was that the Prophet (SAW) had issued severe restraints regarding armed rebellion against Muslim rulers. As long as Islamic Sharia was being upheld by them and no apparent infidelity was being committed, no armed opposition was possible in spite of their personal sinful actions or due to their oppression or tyranny.
This is why when these conditions changed and the government was snatched from the Muslims and non-Muslim nations became their rulers, Islamic revivalist efforts became militant. A glorious example of this is furnished by Shah Waliullah and his family under whose auspices the Movement of the Martyrs’ was initiated in India.]


This is why some people regard the work of previous reformers as partial, and they are surprised that during the fourteen centuries of the history of the Muslim Ummah, not a single radical and full-fledged reformer (‘Mujaddid Kamil’) was born. It is clear, however, that though the building was crumbling it had not yet been demolished completely, and hence an altogether new structure was not required. Only partial restoration was needed.

As has been explained in detail, the crumbling mansion of the Islamic Ummah tumbled down in the beginning of Twentieth century, and Islam and Muslim Ummah both reached the lowest ebb of deterioration in Muslim history. Though there are now hundreds of millions of Muslims, in the word of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW), they are like jetsam on the surface of flood-water with no value or substance. Our practice of Islam and fidelity and adherence to Quran has reached the state predicted by the Prophet (SAW) in the following Hadith:

There will come a time, when nothing will remain in Islam except its name, and nothing will remain of reverence to the Quran except its style of writing.

Therefore, according to the law of Providence, when our condition became so degraded, radical attempts to revive Islam were initiated.

Some basic facts should be kept in mind in connection with this process of revival. Firstly, it is not something simple or straightforward. It has many facets, and each is being worked upon either by individuals of high determination or organised groups. Seemingly they are separate from each other and sometimes even in conflict. In reality, however, they give strength to each other in the overall process of revival and renaissance. Secondly, the task of Islamic resurgence and the revitalisation of the Islamic Ummah will not be completed in short span of ten or twenty years, but will be accomplished gradually after overcoming many difficulties and obstacles as is mentioned in the Quran:

Ye shall surely travel from stage to stage”.
(Al-Quran 84 : 19)


Every stage of this revolutionary process has its own importance. When one looks back at the efforts undertaken at earlier stages, they might appear trivial or even to some extent misguided, yet their value for their own time cannot be denied in principle.  

Thirdly, in this all-encompassing struggle for revival, many individuals play an important role, but ultimately they are less effective then the organised groups. These organisations and groups too lose their unique significance in the wider spectrum of Islamic movements, and finally the particularities of all movements are lost in the all-encompassing surge of the process of revival. These facts have often not been respected in the past, and consequently many individuals have aspired to become the ‘Promised Mahdior the ‘Perfect Renewer of the faith. In the wake of these claims a variety of heresies have appeared and because of them a good many positively constructive efforts have been doomed.


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