Islam in Danger
Mohammad Yaqub Khan
Editor The Light
The cry ” Islam in Danger ” has of late been so much in the air, yet we are inclined to think, there is something fallacious about this cry.To our mind Islam and danger can no more go together than the sun and darkness. When the sun rises, darkness disappears. That is exactly what the Quran says about Truth and un-truth:
وَقُلْ جَآءَ ٱلْحَقُّ وَزَهَقَ ٱلْبَـٰطِلُ إِنَّ ٱلْبَـٰطِلَ كَانَ زَهُوقًا
” Say; the Truth has come and falsehood gone; indeed falsehood is something evanescent.”
(Al-Isra (The Journey by Night) 17:81)
That is the verdict of the history of Islam. The Prophet ﷺ stood alone in the face of a whole people ranged in opposition to him. But his heart was never for a moment weighed down by the fear of failure. On the other hand, in moments of darkest despair, when, humanly speaking, all seemed to be lost, his heart glowed with the brightest rays of confidence in the ultimate triumph of Islam. What could be a moment of greater danger in his life than when hiding in a cave for his very life he was almost overtaken by those who had set a prize on his head? But did his heart at all give way to despair? Not for one passing moment! ” Grieve not!” he consoled his companion Abu Bakr, ” “Indeed God is with us.” In fact the rays of optimism illumined his heart in proportion to the gloom and darkness of conditions around him. At the battle of Ahzab all the clans of Arabia had entered into an alliance against him and had marched in full force against his little band at Medina. But this moment of greatest danger was to him a moment of the greatest triumph of Islam. In the sparks that shot from the boulder, while digging the ditch around Medina, he saw that the keys of the treasures of the two mightiest empires of the day, Persia and Rome, were placed in his hands!
In the light of this, we refuse to believe that Islam can ever be in danger. Difficulties there are bound to be in the path of Truth, right Himalayan difficulties. But they can never crush Islam. On the other hand, as the history of Islam testifies, these mountains of difficulties must blow to pieces when coming into conflict with Islam.
How then to explain the cry of “Islam in Danger” that is on the lips of an average Indian Musalman? If the Congress ever comes to dominate this country, Islam will get submerged under the rising tide of Pan-Hinduism with which the whole of Hindu India pulsates. Hindu culture would gradually take the place of Islamic culture and in course of time, all vestige of Islam may disappear from the soil of India as it did from that of the Spain of old. This is the significance of this cry, this the fear that haunts the mind of the Musalman. The fear is not without justification. Hindu India is avowedly out to establish Hindu domination in India. They shout from house-tops that Hindustan is the land of Hindu faith and Hindu culture. Responsible Hindu leaders have solemnly declared from presidential chairs that the Hindus constitute the nation in India as the Germans in Germany, whereas the Musalmans occupy the same position vis-a-vis the Hindus, as the Jews of Germany in relation to the Germans. These are the dreams that the modern-minded Hindu, whether of the Mahasabha or the Congress brand dreams. These are not empty dreams either. They have mobilized all their national forces and resources to bring about the consummation of this ideal. The Musalmans, on the other hand, present the spectacle of a house divided against itself. Without a national ideal of their own, some of them have already started selling their souls to the Hindus and reconciling themselves to the role of camp-followers. The fear therefore that haunts the imagination of the Musalman is not without foundation. If things continue as they are and nothing happens to stem this course of events, who knows that the story of Spain may not be repeated in India? In the face of this danger, which unfortunately is too real, we still refuse to subscribe to the cry of “Islam in Danger.” Islam can never be in danger. Islam is meant and bound to triumph. The cry is based on a fallacy which the Musalman must realize if he would yet avert that impending doom.
What is that fallacy? It lies in the confusion between Islam and what goes by that name among the present-day Musalmans. What goes by the name of Islam is hardly worth that name. It is Islam in name, not Islam in fact. Islam in fact is a vital force that must always triumph. But what we have in our hands is an Islam in name. It is therefore not Islam that is in danger. It can never be. Islam and danger are a contradiction in terms. Islam is another name for the conquest of danger. What is really in danger is not Islam but what passes for Islam.Friends would excuse us for this blunt speaking. But it is no use blinking facts. If there is one chance still left of averting the apprehended doom it is the realization of this fact. The Musalman, we know, is very sensitive on this point. He resents it as an insult if he is told that he has not much of Islam in him. But here exactly lies the root cause of the whole of the wrong. The moment he opens his eyes to this fact, will be the turning point in his history.
Need we dwell at any length on this point to prove our contention? Why, take that most vital element in the message of Islam – the brotherhood of Musalmans. This may be put down as the sum and substance of the mission of Islam. But is there a Musalman who can say that in our daily life we have not trampled upon this very essence of Islam? Just go to Lucknow to see how Muslims are behaving towards fellow-Muslims. What is taking place at Lucknow is going on all over India. Instead of brotherhood there is actual hatred between one Muslim and another. The Hanafi hates the Wahabi more than the worst man on earth and that is the story with every sect and school of Islam. There is hardly an exception. The Ahmadiyya Movement appeared as the last on the scene to proclaim once more the universal brotherhood of Islam. Before long however it succumbed to that universal malady of Musalmans, was split into two camps which look upon each other as the worst of creation under the sun! Universality of Islam has been lost in the diversity of the sects and schools. It is like missing the wood for the trees. Instead of brother-making we use our so-called Islam for kafir-making. This is our daily pastime. There is hardly one Muslim who has not been dubbed kafir. The founder of the Khaksar Movement has certainly done no mean service to Islam by calling upon the Muslims to close up their ranks and organize themselves into a well-knit body. But a Committee of the Ulema was set up the other day which formally declared him as outside the pale of Islam. The Ahmadiyya Movement has founded Islamic Missions in Europe, built Mosques there, translated the Quran into a number of European languages and rendered heaps of Islamic literature in those languages, disseminating the same in those lands. Above all, for the last quarter of a century they have been hammering on the great Islamic teaching that all Musalmans are one brotherhood and that whoever recites the Kalima is to be regarded as a fellow-brother in faith. Yet a member of this Movement is regarded by almost all the other sects of Islam as an Arch-Kafir. The Shias of Lucknow consider it a short cut to Heaven to send curses on Abu Bakr and Umar. They have sent 10,000 to the jails to win this holy right of publicly cursing these two greatest pillars of Islam. The Ahmadi believes that Heaven must be looked for in the very dust of the footsteps of these two most resplendent luminaries of Islam. But he is the worst of kafirs.
This is, however, just by way of illustration. Turn the searchlight on any other phase of a Muslim’s life and you will, if you have the courage to look unpleasant facts in the face, find the same story. Do leaders of Islam who are shouting themselves hoarse that Islam is in danger care a brass button for Islam? How many of them have ever visited a mosque, save perhaps to deliver a propaganda lecture? How many ever care to open the Quran and seek light and inspiration? If they have all the solicitude for Islam they shout to have, what have they done to advance its cause? Have they founded just one mission to propagate that Truth? The Christians have thousands of missions in all parts of the world. What have those who shout ”Islam in danger” done to carry that Last Word of God to humanity? The fact is they consider it all rot to talk of Islam. The late Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din was actually ridiculed by this very class when he took the message of the Quran to the coast of Europe as a daydreamer. And this in the face of the Quranic injunction making it incumbent on every son and daughter of Islam to propagate this message.
It is all a hypocritical cry, to say that Islam is in danger. Islam can never be in danger. The moment Islam appears on the scene, true Islam of the Prophet’s ﷺ own brand, all dangers and difficulties are found to evaporate. It is non-Islam, or a counterfeit Islam that is in danger. The Congress can do no harm to Islam; only if Islam in its true sense is there. The greatest danger of Islam is the so-called Musalman himself. It is a false cry, a hypocritical cry that Islam is in danger. The fact is we do not care a hang about Islam. If we did, things would be quite different. If a small nomadic nation of camel-drivers could become the torchbearers of civilization by the golden touch of Islam, the 90 million of Musalmans in India have no cause for alarm, only if they have the same spark of Islam in them. This is the long and short of the whole story. Let Mr.Jinnah and Sir Sikandar make it a point to say their Friday prayers in the mosque, let them recite the Khutba and lead the prayers themselves, let their daily lives proclaim their concern for Islam and they will create a force that would sweep all hostile forces before it. Mr. Jinnah the other day declared – “I was born a Muslim, I am a Muslim and I shall die a Muslim.” That is the sort of stuff that is needed. If only that devotion is carried to every department of life by the leaders of Islam in India the history of Islam in India would take quite a different course. Islam would no longer be in danger; for it can never be in danger. The cry of “Islam in danger” that is on our lips is a false and fallacious cry. Islam is a force that is destined to sweep everything before it. All we need is to re-discover that force.
M.Y.K.
(The Light – Thursday, August 24, 1939)
