A True Voice
The task of inviting people to God is so very vital that if it is abandoned, the whole Muslim community will lose all value in God’s eyes. When this task is left undone, all other tasks, if undertaken, will prove to be ultimately futile and can never result in Muslims gaining respect and honour.
The noted Arab reformer and scholar Sayyed Rashid Rida (1865-1935) visited India in 1912 at the invitation of the Nadwatul Ulama, a leading Islamic seminary in Lucknow. He also visited the Darul Uloom at Deoband, where he spoke at length to the students and teachers of the madrasa. In his address, he drew the attention of the Ulama to the task of preaching Islam. He pointed out that there were people who worshipped idols in India, others who worshipped trees and stones, and others who worshipped the moon, the sun, stars, and so on. If the Muslims had a good team of missionaries, he suggested, they could succeed in preaching Islam among such people. These missionaries could also strive to remove misunderstandings about Islam, but he added that they needed to be well-aware of the important issues of modern philosophy. (Al-Jamiat Weekly, Delhi, February 6, 1970)
Undoubtedly, what Sayyed Rashid Rida suggested was proper, but not a single Indian Muslim religious scholar appeared to consider this suggestion worthy of attention. Besides Sayyed Rashid Rida, there were other perceptive individuals who, at this time, sought to draw the attention of the Ulama to the fact of how necessary it was to abandon useless political involvement and to devote their energies instead to constructive, result-oriented work. However, the opinions of such people made no impact, so Ulama’s caravan rushed headlong onto the path of destructive politics.
One reason for this was that the Ulama had begun to consider criticism abhorrent, almost as if it were a sin. They did not attempt to discuss the points raised by Sayyed Rashid Rida seriously. Most of the Ulama only knew what they deeply revered as the practice of their predecessors or ‘elders’. Because the opinions of people like Sayyed Rashid Rida were construed as being a criticism of their predecessors, hence they were rejected. It was unthinkable for the Ulama to rethink the methods their predecessors had adopted, critique them, or adopt any other methods but the ones that their ‘elders’ had used.
An illustration of this is found in the life of Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi (d. 1831), who is considered by his admirers as a leading Muslim religious scholar of India of his times. Maulana Mir Mahbub Ali (1866-1911), his companion and disciple, later began to differ with Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi when Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi declared an armed jihad against the Sikh rulers of Punjab. Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi declared armed jihad based on divine illumination or inspiration (kashf). When Maulana Mir Mahbub Ali learned of this, he remarked, “Sayyed Sahab, the basis of jihad is consultation.” In other words, he suggested that the decision to launch armed jihad ought to be taken based on consultation among those responsible for such a serious decision, rather than based on someone’s kashf or dream.
After this, the men in Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi’s camp turned into inveterate opponents of Mir Mahbub Ali. Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi’s response to Mir Mahbub Ali’s comment was to say, “Your obedience ought to be [in the form of] silently listening—maintaining such silence as that of the mountain that stands before me.”
Mir Mahbub Ali did not accept Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi’s orders, so he left him and decided to return to his homeland. At this, Sayyed Ahmad Barelvi declared, “He who leaves me and heads back to his homeland shall lose his faith (iman).” (Maulana Ismail Dehlvi aur Taqwiatul Iman by Maulana Shah Abul Hasan Zayd Faruqi, pp. 86-87)
In Islam, decisions about collective affairs are based on mutual consultation, or shura (The Quran 42:38). Such consultation leads to healthy decision-making. A climate where criticism and differences of opinion are accepted is a must for proper consultation. However, because the present-day Ulama do not accept criticism and differences of opinion, there is no genuine shura in their circles.
When the British were ruling India, there were other communities besides the Muslims, and many of them indulged in various forms of shirk, associating others with God. Now, from the perspective of the Shariah, the first responsibility of the Ulama ought to have been to launch a movement based on the worship of God through kind words and gentle guidance and exhortation, infused by a genuine concern for the people’s welfare. However, if you examine the history of the last three hundred years, you will find that there was not even a single Indian Muslim religious leader who was conscious of this urgent need and who drew the attention of the Muslims to it. This task of inviting people to God is so vital that if it is abandoned, the Muslim community will lose all value in God’s eyes. When this task is left undone, all other tasks, if undertaken, will prove to be ultimately futile and can never result in Muslims gaining respect and honour.
At the time of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, the Muslims were politically dominant, so it would have been relatively easy to call them to the worship and service of God. However, the Ulama were not able to use this opportunity. They made no genuine efforts to this effect.
British rule was formally established in India in the middle of the 18th century. In pursuit of their political interests, the British adopted a policy of maintaining a balance between the different religious communities in the country. Accordingly, the Muslims and other communities acquired an equal status. In this period, too, there were ample opportunities for the Muslims to engage in dawah work, conveying God’s message to people, but here, the Ulama made no use of them.
