IS TABLIGH WORTH WHILE?
Mohammad Yaqub Khan
Editor : The Light
No other word in our national vocabulary stands to-day at a greater discount than Tabligh i.e., propagation of the light of the Holy Quran, the express purpose for which the Holy Prophet ﷺ was commissioned as a prophet.
Rummage the columns of the Muslim press – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly – scan the statements of our politicians and leaders, dip into the pages of the publications with which the market is flooded and you will hardly come across any mention of Tabligh, as if it is a thing of the least significance in the economy of our national reconstruction. The only notice which an event of such international import as the Eid celebration at Woking (England) evoked in the Muslim press of Pakistan was to focus attention, as we pointed out in a recent issue, not on the good and great work of Tabligh that is being done there, but on the Pakistan Premier and other celebrities from the Islamic countries. Not a word was wasted on the importance of the institution itself which, and to be sure, is very far reaching and possibly historic.
National reconstruction, economic, industrial and educational, raising the standard of life of the common man – these are the popular slogans of the day. No one would deny the paramount need of these national reforms. But behind these slogans there lurks a subtle but a very deep danger. The average man, especially the young man is turning away from God and making material advancement and physical well-being the be-all and end-all of human existence. And this kind of outlook on life is the direct negation of Islam.
The intelligentsia in Pakistan, especially the rising generation, are fast becoming Communist-minded, their much-vaunted lip homage to Islam notwithstanding. Even those learned in religious lore, the Ulema, such as Maulana Maudoodi are giving a political and economic bias to religion to catch popular fancy. Islam and Islamic State have become with them interchangeable terms. There are others, such as the so-called progressive writers, who see in Islam nothing but the economic uplift of the underdog. As said before we have no quarrel with these tendencies, so far as they conduce to the uplift and well-being of the common man – a thing equally dear to Islam. But we do say that like the Western people we are also shifting the centre of gravity of our national life from the moral and spiritual values to the physical and material values of life. And this is certainly the direct antithesis of Islam. Not only that, this gradual elimination of the higher values from the picture of our national life is bound to land us into the same predicament with which the West, notwithstanding its scientific material advancement, finds itself faced today. Growing misery in the midst of growing amenities of life – this is the sum and substance of Western civilization with its emphasis on the material values of life.
Muslims are following the West inch by inch in this respect. They are actually aping the West. Politically we may have thrown off the yoke of Western domination. Mentally we are still wedded to London and Moscow rather than to Mecca. The Quran may have a sentimental value for us. But to all intents and purposes, it has ceased to grip our imagination as a driving force of life, individual or national. For that force we have more faith and confidence in systems of Western coinage than the message of the Quran.
This is the real reason behind the cold apathy of the average Muslim towards the question of Tabligh. It is considered a sheer waste of time and money. Tabligh in the Western countries is specially looked upon as a wild goose chase. What can you teach the West, it is said, when you are yourself in the grip of an ignominious existence? If Islam is really the wonderful alchemy which transmutes the base metal of life into precious gold why this all-round degradation which has marked Muslims for its own, not only in this sub-continent but the wide world over. In this country, millions of Muslims were done to death and dishonoured by a handful of Sikhs. In Palestine, the united strength of the whole of the Arab world is quivering before an upstart Israel State which is but a speck on the map of the country. Iran, Afghanistan, even Turkey – they are mere nonentities, standing on borrowed legs. Is this the much-trumpeted elevation of life, it is argued, which Islam has wrought in the destinies of its millions of followers? How does it lie in your mouth and tell Europe, which in contrast to this decadent stagnant world of Islam is pulsating and buzzing with life and is the nerve centre of civilization, that it must turn to the Quran for light and life?
We are by no means overdrawing the picture. These are exactly the lines on which an average educated Muslim thinks. That there is much force in these musings of the Muslim mind must be readily admitted. That compared to the West, the world of Islam is sunk in the lowest depth of ignominy in every walk of life is a fact too palpable to be ignored. While pleading guilty to these charges, however, the fact remains, that the world needs the light of the Quran more than anything else, that the Quran is the top priority of the times, that the Quran is more important for the true felicity and well-being of man than all the inventions of science put together, that but for the Quran all these amenities and comforts of life which science has bestowed on modern man can not extinguish the fire of hell that is burning within the heart of humanity as a result of the materialistic philosophy of life, that the Quran alone is the cool water which brings solace and cheer to the heart of man, even in the midst of the darkest adversities, that the Quran alone can restore that balance between the spiritual and material values of life which has been upset by the lop-sided development of the modern civilization.
This is no wishful thinking. This is no blind faith. This is no fanatical dogma. This is the cry of the times. Over-emphasis on the material values of life has wiped the higher meaning of life completely out of the picture. That is what is wrong with modern humanity. The path to a new order of things where peace and prosperity and happiness of heart rather than comfort of the body should reign supreme has to be explored along these lines that is to say in rediscovering the spiritual significance and restoration of spiritual values of life. And the Quran the Word of God, alone furnishes the unmistakable clues to those values.
That is the significance of Tabligh. The West needs it as much as the East. The greatest strength of Pakistan itself lies in Tabligh – i.e. repeated emphasis on the moral and spiritual values as propounded by the Holy Quran. We must repeat that no amount of din and dust of national reconstruction raised by our political leaders can take the barque of our baby state to a haven of safety unless at the helm of the barque is set the rudder of the Word of the God to pilot it through the numerous rocks and shoals that beset the course of national reconstruction. If the Qaid-i-Azam’s struggle for the attainment of Pakistan was crowned with success it was because, through his God-given insight and sagacity he guided that struggle in the light of some of the fundamentals of Islam. Now with the attainment of that Pakistan our task has become more difficult, and more intricate. And never was the correct Quranic light in greater demand than today to guide our struggle of national reconstruction. This is the significance, the import, the national value of the institution of Tabligh. The Ahmadiya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore, the organization which runs Islamic Missions in Europe and America is holding its Annual Conference on December 25, 26, and 27. It shall be the main objective of this Conference to explore ways and means to shake and shatter this dead wall of apathy towards Tabligh and rouse Muslims to the role which Tabligh alone is capable of playing in the reconstruction of our national life and national state of Pakistan.
M.Y.K.
(The Light – Wednesday, December 1, 1948)
