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BEWARE
OF THE EMERGENCE OF A EUROPEAN OR AMERICAN ISLAM
Shaykh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi [ra]
This
speech was delivered at the Islamic Centre of New Jersey
on June 4, 1977. Introducing the speaker, the Egyptian
scholar, Dr. Sulaiman Duniya eulogised the services
of Indian Muslims to the Arabic language and Islamic
sciences and said that non-Arab Muslims had taken an
equal part in the propagation and presentation of Islam
with the Arabs, if not greater. He also stressed the
universal character of Islam, claiming that it transcended
geographical and political boundaries.
Friends and Brothers, It is my good fortune to meet
you at this great Islamic Centre, This is my first visit
to North America. Before it, I used to read and hear
about this land and the progress Islam was making in
it. I had, also, some knowledge of the religious inclination
and solicitude of the Muslims who had taken up residence
here. But I did not imagine that I would be meeting
so many of my religious brethren in this far-off country
or witnessing such a keen interest and enthusiasm for
Islam.
On coming here I realised that Islam was trying to obtain
a foothold in the United States which enjoyed the position
of leadership in the contemporary world owing, largely,
to its phenomenal advances in the fields of science
and industry. By the grace of God, Islam has made its
debut in. this part of the world and is making a steady
headway, and, God willing, the day is not far when an
Islamic society will be established here.
It is, of course, a good augury for Islam and a matter
of joy for the Muslims, but I, also, have some misgivings
by reason of what little knowledge I possess of history.
The establishment of an Islamic society so far away
from the centres of Islamic faith and civilisation is
open to grave risks and can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Dr. Sulaiman Duniya, from whose writings 1, too, have
profited, has very aptly remarked that Islam is not
exclusive to any country. I wholly agree that Islam
is not a territorial faith, yet, it also needs a distinctive
environment, a congenial climate, and a predisposition
that may transcend personal, cultural and intellectual
standards and give forth, as one would say, the aroma
of Islam. It requires an Islamic homeland for it is
neither a mystical doctrine nor a philosophy nor a collection
of soulless beliefs and rituals, but a real, living
and all-embracing faith.
Islam, at once, is comprehensive of Idea and Action,
Morality and Monetary Dealings, and Emotion and Intellect.
In the same way, it, also, is a special kind of natural
inclination and a peculiar state of mind. It embraces
all the manifold aspects of human personality-spiritual
and material, moral and physical, emotional and intellectual,
and personal and social. It casts a man into a new mould.
Whoever embraces Islam with an open heart believing
it to be the chosen faith of the Lord and the Last of
the Divine Messages will get cast into the mould of
Islam. He will be transformed so radically as if be
had been born anew because Islam is a complete and eternal
plan of life which comprehends all the aspects of change
and revolution and perfection and beauty. Islam is not
a wooden dogma or a traditional religion, but a faith
that permeates through the inmost recesses of the heart
and soul.
If the true image of Islam is present before the mind's
eye, it would be evident that it is not something that
can, simply, be transmitted through the written or spoken
word or seen in the books, but a typical way of thought
and a distinctive state of feeling. Hence it passes
judgement about the goodness and badness desirability
and undesirability of things. as is related about the
holy Prophet that he liked or disliked many things.
He, for example, liked to begin every good act with
the right hand so much so that be started combing his
hair from the right side or when he wore the shoes,
he began with the right foot. Similarly, there were
many things that gave him pleasure or made him annoyed
and uncomfortable. Islam, in fact, is an Apostolic of
empyreal way of life that has come down from the heaven
of heavens and the Divine Messengers have been its bearers
and custodians, and they have left it behind as their
legacy.
This is why, God had described Islam as Sibghatuilah
(Colour of Allah). Were it only a body of doctrines
or a code of conduct it would not have been called Sibghat
which denotes a mark', 'a colouring', and a distinguishing
feature'. This can be possible only when Islam draws
a clear line of demarcation between one man and another,
between one life, character and temperament, and another
life, character and temperament, and brings out clearly
the difference among the standards of things and values
of life. The criterion of Islam is quite different from
the criterion of Infidelity. Hence, you will find warnings
in the compilations of the Traditions and Sunnah of
the Prophet against the Age of Ignorance and its practices.
For instance, sometimes, it is said about a thing that
it is a practice of the Age of Ignorance, and, sometimes,
that is very much like the zealotry and arrogance of
those days. It is set forth in the Quran;
(O ye women); Bedizen not yourselves with the bedizenment
of the Time of Ignorance. (XXXIII : 33)
But why ? The Age of Ignorance having ended long ago,
for what purpose did the Quran call upon men to shun
it? It was because Ignorance was a definite way of life
and had its own values and standards for judging the
goodness and badness, lawfulness and unlawfullness of
things, and it was a way of life which the Lord viewed
with disfavour. It is mentioned in the Traditions that
God looked at the earth and was displeased with the
Arabs and non-Arabs who dwelt on it except for a few
People of the Scripture".
The Almighty disliked Ignorance; He cursed it, and declared
it undesirable for the bondmen. Hence, it was said:
Bedizen not yourselves with the bedizenment of the Time
of Ignorance. And, also:
When the unbelievers got up in their hearts heat and
cant : the heat and cant of Ignorance. (-XLVIII : 26)
Whenever the sacred Prophet noticed a trait of Ignorance
in a Muslim, he took exception to it, saying: 'You are
still under the influence of Ignorance'. For instance,
when he saw an illustrious Companion like Abu Zarr Ghifari
ill-treating his slave and beating him up, the Prophet
observed : "The inclination towards Ignorance has
not yet gone out of you". The worthy Companion,
on his part, was so deeply affected by the rebuke that
he, at once, started treating his slave like an equal,
and gave him to eat and wear what he ate and wore himself.
Had Islam not been possessing a distinctive character
and temperament, the Lord would not have used the word,
Colour, in respect of it.
The Colour of Allah : and who is better than Allah
at Colouring. (II: 138)
Exhorting, further, the bondmen to follow the Apostles,
the Lord proclaimed, giving out a long and lustrous
list of Divine Messengers:
And We bestowed upon him Issac and Jacob; each of them
We guided; and Noah did We guide aforetime; and of his
seed (We guided) David and Solomon and Job and Joseph
and Moses and Aaron. Thus do We reward the good.
And Zacariah and John and Jesus and Elias. Each one
(of them) was of the righteous.
And Ishmael and Elisha and Jonah and Lot. Each one of
them did We prefer above (Our) creatures, with some
of their forefathers and their offspring and their brethren;
and We chose them and guided them unto a Straight Path.
Such is the guidance of Allah wherewith He guideth whom
He will of His bondmen. But if they set up (for worship)
aught beside Him, all that they did would have been
in vain. (-VI : 85-89)
And. again : Those are they whom Allah guideth, so
follow their guidance. (-VI : 91)
Afterwards, the Lord determined that the command was
exclusively with regard to the Prophet Mohammad whose
life was a perfect model for mankind and an ideal example.
The following words were thus. addressed to the Believers
through the holy Prophet :
Say, (O Mohammad, to mankind); If you love Allah, follow
me; Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. (-III:
31)
Islam is more sensitive than any other faith. It is
enough for a man to call himself a Christian, and, after
it, he can adopt whatever social, cultural or intellectual
standards he likes. A friend of mine once said to an
educated Hindu gentleman. "My brother, if a Muslim
is asked who is a Muslim, he unhesitatingly replies
that whoever recites and believes in the holy Kalima
of Laa ilaaha Iliallaah, Mohammadur rasuluilaah (There
is no deity save One God. and Mohammad is His Apostle)
is a Muslim. This affirmation sums up the whole of Islam.
Now, what will your answer be if the same question was
put to you concerning a Hindu ? I do not want a long
and exhaustive reply because there are enough books
in my library by the help of which one can understand
the Brahmin or Vedantic philosophy. I have only a few
minutes to spare and I want you to explain Hinduism
quickly". My friend related that the Hindu gentleman
paused for a while, and, then, said : "A Hindu
can believe or refuse to believe in anything. If a person
calls himself a Hindu, he is a Hindu, and, after it,
it does not matter what he believes in or rejects. He
remains a Hindu".
But it is not the same with Islam. As I have said, it
is a highly sensitive faith and is more quickly affected
by things that are inimical to it than any other religion.
Its limits are marked out very clearly. It leaves no
one in doubt about itself In concrete, well-defined
and clear-cut terms it makes it known that this is Islam
and this is Infidelity; this is Islam and this is Ignorance;
this is lawful and this is forbidden; and this is where
Islam ends and Infidelity and Apostasy begin. Such an
explicit concept of Apostasy, perhaps, does not exist
in any other faith. In Islam, to be an Apostate is a
mortal sin, the very thought of which makes the hair
stand on end. It is stated in a Tradition that ,the
sign of perfection in faith is that the idea of going
back to Apostasy, after a man has embraced Islam, is
as repugnant to him as being thrown into the fire."
When such is the disposition of Islam, the responsibility
of the Muslims who are settled in Europe or America
becomes much greater. Had Islam, like the other faiths,
been only a body of beliefs and practices, it would
have been different, but if it is a Colour and a programme
of life, and stands, also, for a state of feeling and
awareness, and is much more sensitive than the other
religions as well, and calls for a fundamental change
in the values and ideals of things, the matter becomes
far more complex. We can, therefore, not rest content
with reading books and treatises, however, weighty they
may be. Books, of course, are necessary but we cannot
cultivate the Islamic spirit wholly through them, nor
develop the Islamic mood and temperament. Our real need
is an Islamic region, an Islamic Colouring and an Islamic
environment in which we can see, hear and feel Islam
directly. Personal contacts; social intercourse and
the adoption of the Islamic mode of living are its essential
conditions. We should go to places where the Islamic
way of life and Islamic society are present in any measure
and we can have some experience of Islam as a living
force.
For this reason, the company of. Muslims and truthful
Believers is necessary to the extent that God felt the
need to tell the sacred Prophet, whose life was a model
of perfection, to seek the company of pious and warmly
devoted bondman.
Restrain thyself along with those who cry unto their
Lord at morn and evening seeking His countenance; and
let not thine eyes overlook them, desiring the pomp
of the life of the world; and obey not whose heart We
have made heedless of Our remembrance, who followeth
his own Just and whose case hath been abandoned. (-XVIII
: 28)
When such was the case with the sacred Apostle we can
imagine how important it would be for common Muslims
like us to spend some time with the truthful and the
pure in heart.
Oh ye who believe! Be careful of your duty to Allah,
and be with the truthful. (-IX : 119)
The Islamic society here being in the initial stages
of evolution, we must not neglect our duty towards it.
I am confident that, by the grace of God, this infant
society will not only endure but, also, flourish and
attain maturity and the means and opportunities of training
and discipline will be available to it which are nothing
but faith and belief, study and investigation, learning
and culture, and good company and exertion. Those who
make sincere efforts for the glory of the Divine Faith,
for them the Lord opens the doors of wisdom, faith and
discernment that are beyond human imagination.
And for those who strive in Us, We surely guide them
to Our paths, and lo, Allah is with the good. (-XXIX
: 69)
Such, in brief, are the responsibilities you owe to
the society you have founded in this country. It would
never have come into existence had you not migrated
to America and taken up residence here. Now, with it,
you should, also, take pains to assure that it develops
into an ideal Islamic society and does not remain confined
to the ideological sphere alone because, as we know,
Islam is not merely a social, political or economic
concept, but before all this, it is an indivisible and
indissoluble creed that permeates the whole existence.
It is a state of mind and a design of life. The Islam
of the holy Companions possessed all these attributes.
They were Muslims by all standards, spiritual, moral
and practical, and criterion for all things. Hence,
it was said by Abdullah bin Masud that what the Muslims
consider good is good, also, in the judgement of God".
According to the authorities, the word Muslims' here
denotes the Companions. It will, thus, mean that what
the Companions hold to be good is good also in the sight
of the Lord and what they, collectively, regard bad
is bad.
Islam and the Quran demand of the Muslims to be the
criterion of truth and virtue. They should possess a
genuine Islamic disposition so that the Americans, here,
can see distinctly the difference between their own
society which is being driven mercilessly by Materialism
and the Islamic society that is pure, healthy and dignified-a
society which spends its nights in prayer and repentance
and days in seeking honest sustenance and rendering
selfless service to mankind.
The creation of such a society will, positively, lead
to the victory of Islam. On seeing it, the American
will exclaim that the real joy of living is in the Islamic
society and not in his own, and advance towards it instinctively
and curse the stinking environment in which he has been
brought up.
I fear the day, in America as elsewhere, when we will
withdraw into our shells and get entangled in the labyrinth
of study and research, and our connecting links with
the real fountain-head of Islam and with the Islamic
centres will be broken where, in spite of all drawbacks,
Islam is, still. alive, and the springs of Islamic warmth
and eagerness will dry up within us. It will be, then,
that the American Islam, European Islam, and the Japanese,
Iranian, Indian and Pakistani Islams will emerge, making
it impossible to distinguish one from the other. They
will be as different from each other as an American
is from an Asian, or a Japanese from an Afghan, and
Islamic societies will appear whose mental attitudes
and natural inclinations and values will be widely apart.
We should take up the challenge and get ready to meet
the threat now when the things have not gone far and
the Islamic leaders, are, to some extent, active and
effective. The wisdom behind the obligatoriness of the
Haj Pilgrimage and the congregation of the Muslims,
with all their different social. cultural and linguistic
characteristics, at a particular place and at a particular
time, is that nothing about Faith remained vague or
unclear and stock was taken, at the same time, of the
Muslims of the world and their Islamic lineaments and
local innovations and un-islamic influences they might
have accepted owing to the negligence and apathy of
the Ulema or as a result of living together, for a considerable
length of time, with other peoples and communities could
be ascertained and plans evolved for their eradication.
As Shah Waliullah has admirably put it, "Had the
Haj not been there, the Islamic faith and the Muslims
of the East and the West would have been the victims
of change and alteration, like the other religions,
and it would not have been discovered for ages."
So, brothers, beware of the emergence of a local or
territorial Islam and the establishment of Islamic societies
that are devoid of the spirit of Islam and built upon
foundations that are not genuinely Islamic.
Believe me, it is not a figment of my imagination. I
attach the highest importance to it, and, I am sure,
when you will go home and think over it you will appreciate
the gravity and magnitude of the danger I have indicated.
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