Future of Islam in India – Part 3

Mohammad Yaqub Khan
Editor The Light

As discussed in our last, the various attempts made from time to time to revive the Sick Man of Islam in India did bring some relief, but they failed to accomplish the one thing that was needed – viz., to set lifeblood once more in circulation in the veins of the decadent nation of Islam. That has been the story of every ripple of revival that was set in motion, whether the Aligarh Movement of Sir Syed, the Khuddam-i-Kabba and Khilafat Movements of the Ali Brothers or the Muslim League, Red Shirt, Hijrat or Ahrar Movements. The reason was they all tackled the symptoms – not the malady itself. The malady, as pointed out in our last, lies rooted much deeper. The Musalman has lost sight of his supreme Destiny, his Goal, his Ideal and for the matter of that lost his very soul. There lies the canker which has sapped the life-juice out of him and brought about the bleak blight in the garden of Islam.

The magic touch of a burning glowing Ideal alone can bring the warmth of true life to the cold decadent bones of a nation. It was that magic wand which when just waved, made the Desert of Arabia blossom forth with a luxuriant growth of foliage and flowers and made a primitive nomad people, unknown to history, the torchbearers of civilization.

Just before our own eyes, we find that magic wand work a miracle in the hand of the German Dictator. Germany which till recently was panting for a mere breath of life, all of a sudden began to pulsate with a new life and breaking all bonds imposed upon her became a terror to those who had taken good care to give her a deep national burial. The miracle of Faith – Faith in the great Destiny of Germany! A living Faith alone is capable of giving life.

In our own homeland, India, the sister-community presents the spectacle of a sea agitated with a thousand and one currents and crosscurrents of life whereas side by side, Islam presents the spectacle of a stagnant pool, except perhaps for a stray current here and there which breaks in upon it from the neighbouring sea. Where lies the cause? In the presence of a growing Ideal in one case and in the lack of it, in the other.

Hindu India from Peshawar to far-off Malveshram pulsates with one universal Ideal – viz., Hindustan for the Hindus and revival of the Ancient Golden Age of the Vedas. The fire of this Ideal burns within the bosom of every Hindu, whether a porter at a Railway Station or a Premier in a Cabinet. That is what has given the Hindu body-politic the new life with which it pulsates.

Islam in India must rediscover that spark, the spark of a glowing Ideal, if she wants her dead bones to breathe with new life. That, nothing short of that, can set in the currents of true national life. Anjumans, Leagues, Societies, Parties, Poetry, Publications – they may be good in their own ways, but they can never give life. The heart of the Musalman must be warmed up by the glowing embers of an Ideal and you will see the Sick Man of Islam in India spring up to life.

What can that Ideal be? To a Musalman there can be but one Ideal – the world supremacy and domination of Islam. But here exactly lies the main difficulty. World supremacy and domination of Islam has lost all significance to an average Musalman. The enlightened section is only excited to a superior laughter at any such talk. Even the Ulema, supposed to be the standard-bearers of Islam, have lost that faith and that biggest centre of Islamic learning in India, Deoband, has turned to Anand Bhawan rather than to the Kaaba for inspiration. The irony, rather the treachery of the thing could not but rouse the ire of lqbal’s muse and he had to exclaim:

ز دیو بند حسین احمد! این چہ بوالعجبی است

(Hussain Ahmad of Deoband! what nonsense are you preaching to the Muslims)

The urge of life can only spring from the depths of one’s soul. The Musalman must either go the whole hog with the Hindu and identify himself with Hindu outlook, Hindu aspirations and Hindu ideology or he must dedicate himself heart and soul to the Ideal of Islam. A halfway house between these two conflicting Ideals can only lead to wavering, irresolution, and lack of vitality. But this is exactly what the Musalmans are not doing. The so-called nationalist Musulmans at the same time cling to Islam. This is self-contradictory. Indian nationalism derives its nourishment from the springs of Hindu faith and culture, as typified in songs like Bandemataram, Vidyy Mandar Scheme, Cow protection, Hindi, Non-violence, Vegetarianism, and many other things. A Musalman who joins the ranks of nationalism but is not prepared to assimilate this ideology is only a misnomer. He is a nationalist only in name. Then there is the other group—the League. This is based on a revolt against the Hindu ideology of nationalism. But at best it is a negative force and as such no life can spring from it. The League man is not prepared to take political and cultural Shudhi but at the same time he lacks all faith in Islam as the highest Destiny. This again is something inconsistent. To have a thing on your lips but not to live for it and die for it cannot lead to a throb of life. Life, as we said, can only spring from the depths of one´s own soul and an ideal, in order to prompt a true urge of life, must be rooted in the deepest depths of one´s being. But is this the case with the Musalman who professes to revolt against the Congress in order to protect Islam? It is not.

What is needed is a whole-hearted allegiance to the Ideal of Islam – no mere lip homage. Take the big guns of the League and hardly one of them is ever seen in a mosque. Contrast this to Gandhi, Malaviya and Moonje – the driving forces behind the Hindu Ideal. They are the walking embodiments of Hinduism, ready to uphold a superstition like cow-worship at the cost of life. If Gandhi and Co want the revival of Hindu Golden Age they are entitled to it, because they have faith in it.

They live for it; they fight for it; they die for it. So happens to be the law of God and the law of God is no respecter of creeds. Faith alone can lead to life – whether it takes hold of the bosom of a Hitler or Gandhi. Faith alone can move mountains. It was Faith that carried early Islam to the Himalayas on one side and the Pyrenees on the other. There can be no deception of the laws of God.

Do you honestly yearn for the revival of the glory that was once of Islam? We believe there is hardly one Musalman who does not – except perhaps the handful of those duping themselves with the word ” nationalism ”. Then the only way is to make that Ideal the very breath of our life. As Iqbal put it, it is one’s faith and culture that is worth living and dying for. That Islam is the highest Destiny, that with Islam it bound the salvation of the present social order, that Islam alone can save the present, materialistic civilization and narrow nationalism, that Islam alone can bring nation and nation together and bring peace and good-will to a distracted world – is this the faith that glows in your bosom? If not, your allegiance to the Ideal of Islam is a lip allegiance and lip allegiance cannot give the warmth of life. Mahatma Gandhi laces the fieriest ordeal of his life with the Gita. How many Muslim leaders put the same value on the Quran? The Mahatma converts his own or that of his host’s residence whenever he goes, into a Hindu temple. How many Muslim leaders have ever entered the door of a mosque? To say nothing of entering its door, how many are there who do not consider it beneath their dignity to do so? The Mahatma seeks light, guidance and inspiration from the Gita. But what of Musalmans? Their greatest religious luminary, the well-known Maulana Husain Ahmad, has carefully kept that Perfect Light, the Quran as a sealed book and seeks light from Wardha?

The future of Islam in India may very well be imagined. Its doom cannot but be a matter of time unless the Musalmans re-discover something of the olden love of and loyalty to Islam, a glowing faith in the great Destiny before it and a burning fervour to face life with that Ideal and death with that Ideal. Such whole-hearted allegiance to an Ideal alone can take a people to life and greatness.

M.Y.K.

(Friday, March 24, 1939)