Friday, 26 January 2018

The third aspect of Islamic Revival



The third and the most important aspect of the revivalist process concerns the role of the organisations and societies that have established for the sole purpose of Islamic resurgence. Such groups have been working under different names in many Muslim countries, but their efforts and aims are essentially identical and they form variegated aspects of a single movement. Among these parties the ‘Al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun which originated in Egypt had become the centre of attention and religious aspirations for many because of the intense fervour and the wide range of its influence. But even in the aspect of the all-round process of revival, the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent excels other Muslim areas.

The late Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was the first person to summon people towards the movement of reviving the spirit of Islam, and so deserves to be called the founder of this movement in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent. In the earlier part of this century he sounded in the pages of his magazines ‘Al-Balagh and ‘Al-Hilal a clarion call for the establishment of Divine sovereignty and the formation of ‘Hizbullah’, the party of Allah (SWT), for this purpose. His distinguished style of writing and oratory, especially during the course of 'Khilafat Movement’ made him popular throughout the subcontinent. His impassioned call and charismatic personality conquered the hearts of millions of Muslims. But soon after, for reasons known only to Allah (SWT), he left this great mission and joined the Indian national congress. For the rest of his life he dedicated himself to the politics of Indian nationalism with utmost sincerity and perseverance.

Of the many reasons for this spectacular change in the life of Maulana Azad, one crucial factor might be his extraordinary intelligence. He was admittedly a genius, and geniuses are usually not men of action. Incidentally, some trace of this is found in one of his sayings: ’We have committed the crime of wearing the cloak of piety and the blanket of vagrancy at the same time. Also, neither he was formally qualified from any well-established religious seminary, nor was he acknowledged as a religious scholar. Hence, the scholars were not ready to accept him as a leader or heed his advice. At that time the religious divines had a firm grip on the Muslims of India, so he found all doors closed to him to lead the Indian Muslims in efforts to bring about an Islamic revolution. Professor Yusuf Saleem Chishti confirmed this in his anecdote about Maulana Azad. After performing the preliminary work of Quranic dissemination laboriously and with utmost zeal for about ten years, he planned to take a step further in co-operation with late Mufti Kifayatullah and late Maulana Ahmed Saeed, in 1922, at a conference of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind held in Delhi. Maulana Azad addressed first and through his excellent oratory was able to rouse and motivate the audience to action. Then, Maulana Ahmed Saeed spoke and said,  After the death of Shaikh-ul-Hind, the chair of the leadership of the Indian Muslims has remained unoccupied. Presently, we have a greater need of an Imam-ul-Hind than a Shaikh-ul-Hind10. Now think over and find out the most suitable person for that chair, and become his disciples to launch the struggle for Islamic revival afresh”. But Allah (SWT) had not decreed this to be so. Moinuddin Ajmeri, a great and renowned scholar, got up and directly addressed Abul Kalam Azad by saying “Judge yourself candidly how much are you really worth”. From these opening words, it is obvious, what would have been the tone of the rest of the speech. Disappointed and dismayed, Maulana Azad withdrew himself from his religious mission and soon after he joined Indian National Congress.
[*10 The word Shaikh traditionally referred to a person with deep spirituality and extensive knowledge of religious matters. Whereas the word ‘Imam is broader in connotation in as much as it connotes a person with qualities of political and social leadership as well as accomplishment in purely religious disciplines.]

Even long after Maulana Azad left the field, the echo of his clarion call continued to resound vibrantly in Muslim India. And within ten years a courageous young man named Syed Abul A’la Mawdudi founded the Jamaat-e-Islami. He regarded Abul Kalam Azad as dead’ because he has forsaken his mission. Maulana Mawdudi then recreated this mission with great determination and brought out a monthly journal similar in name to Azads exegesis of the Holy Quran,Tarjuman-ul-Quran. Through this journal, he presented to the Indian Muslims a plan of action to achieve the same ideals of the sovereignty of Divine Law and regeneration of the faith.

Maulana Mawdudi had less enthusiasm than Abul Kalam Azad. He was intelligent, but not a genius. Yet he was comparatively more diligent and industrious. For the first six or seven years he continued to work individually with great patience and perseverance. For some time he also worked in an institution called Darul Islam and finally laid the foundation of Jamaat-e-Islami in 1941 and thus started a well-organised effort. Before the establishment of the Jamaat he criticised severely the stand of those religious divines who were in the Indian National Congress or were supporters of it, and he by his forceful arguments showed that their association with the Congress would extremely jeopardise the interests of both Muslims and Islam in India. Then he also criticised the nationalistic politics of Indian Muslims with strong arguments, and proved that their policy was contrary to Islamic ideological principles. His own Jamaat-e-Islami was founded on the highest idealistic level of true Islamic principles. The manifesto of the Jamaat-e-Islami consisted of the following:

1.   Islam is not a religion in a limited sense; it is a complete code of life or deen’, a perfect ideology. By its very nature it demands total application on all spheres of life.

2.   Ibadat’ or worship in Islam is not merely the performance of rituals and canonical prayers, but total obedience to Allah’s commands.

3.   Muslims cannot be considered merely as a nationalistic group. They constitute a Muslim Ummah, the people of Allah’. The bond that unites them is their faith. Their foremost aim should be to bring about a change in the whole world according to their faith and to put the Islamic system of life into practice.

4.   The Majority of non-Muslims of the present world are legally non-Muslims. Actually they are not to be considered non-Muslims as they have not been invited to Islam and hence the question of acceptance or rejection does not arise.

5.   The majority of Muslims in the world are Muslim only legally and through parentage, not by genuine faith. The fundamental religious beliefs of Islam are not at all deeply entrenched in their minds and hearts, nor do their actions show abiding faith in the Islamic code of law.

6.   The fostering of the national interests of Muslims, the protection of their political rights and the struggle for their political independence have little to do with the genuine revival of the faith and an Islamic renaissance.

7.   The real task before the Muslims is two-fold: first they must summon mankind to the worship of Allah (SWT) and total obedience to Him, without any distinction of caste, colour or creed and to invite them to accept the ideological principles of Islam. Secondly, the energies of those upon whom Allah (SWT) bestows the courage to embrace Islam with full commitment, must then be consolidated and pooled in a well-organised group to struggle systematically for the establishment of the sovereignty of Allah’s command and the supremacy of the Islamic way of life11.
[*11 It is noteworthy here that, after the establishment of the Jamaat-e-Islami, Maulana Ameen Ahsan Islahi joined the movement and contributed his distinctive Quranic thought. Then the term ‘sovereignty of Allah’s command (Hakoomat-e- Ilahiya) was altogether dropped and instead the purely Quranic terminology of establishment of Deen (Iqamat-e- Deen) and ‘testifying to the truth (Shahadat-e-Haqq) began to be used in Jamaat’s literature.]

8.   In this struggle an educational and ideological revolution occupies the primary place. After this a practical and moral reform should be instituted, along with social improvements. Lastly, a change of governmental structure should be established.

We take this position to be tinged with extreme radicalism and idealism but at the same time we consider it ideologically and basically correct. Together with other revivalist efforts, the rise of such an ideologically pure’ movement was the need of the time. We must praise Maulana Mawdudi that he and his associates remained firm on this stand continuously for six years in spite of sarcasm, ridicule and tough opposition meted out to them by all. This movement offered fine and perhaps rare examples of dedication and it formed a brilliant chapter in the history of devotion to the Islamic cause. In this way, the true task of the revival of Islam, the task which had been blue-printed by Maulana Azad, was in fact initiated in earnest and for some time carried on by Maulana Mawdudi.

But most unfortunately, Maulana Mawdudi and his Jamaat-e-Islami did not remain firm on this programme. In 1947 the national movement of Indian Muslims met with success and an independent homeland for them, called Pakistan, came into being. It was thought now that in this new state a political movement in the name of Islam could be started for achieving the envisaged goals. Maulana Mawdudi thus abandoned his fundamentalist position regarding the slow-paced and step-by-step methodology of Islamisation, although no ideological revolution or tangible moral change had occurred in the society. The Jamaat plunged actively into the field of politics, hoping to guide and reform the Pakistani government along Islamic lines and capture political power itself. On the contrary, with the passage of time, their expectations were hopelessly disappointed, and gradually the whole movement bogged down in dirty politics, failing to heed the Quranic warning:

But he clung to the earth (Al-Quran 7 : 176)

The Jamaat-e-Islami was also forced to compromise on principles and sometimes altogether sacrifice its pure Islamic ideals for political expediency. At first the Jamaat assumed that a truly pious government could be established just by raising the slogan of Islam and by dint of their own prowess. When other political parties offered co-operation, it was turned down with great indifference and disdain. But the result of the Punjab election of 1951 shattered this self-confidence. After that it was thought that the Jamaat could overcome the obstacles before it through alliance with other religious groups. But soon this also proved impractical and unfruitful. When, even after all its compromises, the religious ideals upheld so far by the Jamaat proved too demanding to win wide-spread public support, it descended to a still lower level of political action, and a struggle was launched to go forward in the name of democracy and for this joined hands with avowedly secular political parties. During General Ayub Khan’s regime that lasted eleven years, the Jamaat thoroughly dedicated itself to the ‘worthy’ task of restoration of democracy. But after the downfall of Ayub Khan, the later government proved astonishingly even more corrupt and undemocratic than the old one.

At present we do not intend to write a historical essay, or to predict the future of Jamaat-e-Islami. The most important aspect of this matter in which we are interested here is that due to the persistent deviation in the objectives and methodology of the Jamaat-e-Islami, there remained in the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent no vanguard for a purely Islamic revival. Till the present time, no effort has been made to fulfil this vital role which had been envisioned by Abul Kalam Azad and his 'Hizbullah' and taken up for a time by Maulana Mawdudi's own Jamaat-e-Islami, which is now moribund. The process of revival is still going ahead slowly on a political and national basis, and the activities of Muslim scholars and divines have increased in their own particular sphere. But a purely religiously motivated and radically active movement for the transformation of society no longer exists.

This change in the basic principles and methodology of the Jamaat-e-Islami was brought about in 1947 when Pakistan came into existence as a separate homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent. For about ten years Jamaat continued to forge ahead on the basis of its own momentum, and many of its sincere supporters were not even aware of this shift in Jamaat's ideals and policy. But by 1957 this discrepancy gradually became painfully apparent and a severe protest developed over the party's program. Consequently, the majority of the senior members as well as some of the rank and file left the Jamaat. Among the junior members who resigned from the Jamaat was also the writer of these lines. The outgoing senior members then devoted themselves to their own private projects, but the present author could not erase the fond memory of the 'paradise lost' engendered upon his mind under the impress of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

He was only twenty-five when he left the Jamaat. He was not a scholar, nor did he have much experience. So he passed ten long years in suspense, hoping that someone from among the former senior members would come forward to initiate the movement anew. But perhaps Allah (SWT) had not willed it so. In 1966-67 he gathered up his energy and determination, and decided to devote himself to the Quran, in remembrance of the Quranic verse12,

"Verily, this Quran guideth unto that which is straightest"
(Al-Quran 17 : 9)
[*12 It is interesting to note that this verse of the Holy in Surah Bani Israel comes just after those verses which delineated the resemblance between the Jewish people and the Muslim Ummah, which have been discussed in this track. The outline of Jewish history began with a reminder to them of their own sacred Book, the Torah: 'We gave the scripture to Moses (AS) and We appointed it a guidance for the children of Israel' (17 : 2). This section ends by referring to the Quran. As Jewish community had been established on the basis of a Book of Revelation, after their condemnation the new community (Ummah), that of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was established on the basis of another scripture, the Quran. The renewal of this Ummah must therefore be based upon the Quran, getting back to its message and living by its teachings.]

And so the present author started on his own work of Islamic 'dawah', inviting people to Islam by educating them in, and calling to, the Quran. Allah (SWT) accepted this humble service and, starting from small study circles of Quran, in a matter of few years in 1972 the Markazi Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Quran (Central Society of the Servants of Quran) was constituted in Lahore, Pakistan. Two years later, he announced the formation of 'Tanzeem- e-Islami' for the revival of Islam in its pristine purity.

He is fully aware of the fact that he does not possess the genius or talents of Abul Kalam Azad, nor the capacity and industry of Maulana Mawdudi. He is neither a brilliant orator nor a uniquely skilled writer. But, thanks to Almighty Allah, he remained fully conscious of his duty throughout, and this awareness constantly keeps him restless. The sense of the trust he bears to Allah (SWT) has compelled him to take a plunge into the arduous task of calling people to Allah (SWT).

Those who are bereft of the courage and ability to think above their sectarian prejudices and limited personal idiosyncrasies are surely not capable of responding to this call. But those who can dedicate themselves to a cause after considering and approving its fundamental ideals and objectives should consider our message seriously. It is incumbent upon them to judge our standpoint and efforts candidly and with an open mind. And if they find it based on truth and sincerity, co-operate with us wholeheartedly and with full determination, in any case, we, in our humble way, have taken a leap and are determined to march forward in our mission:

"IN THE NAME OF ALLAH BE THE COURSE AND THE MOORING"
(Al-Quran 11 : 41)
(Prayer of Noah (AS) as he launched the ark, and of pilgrims as they set out for Makkah)
End





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