Ourselves
NOTES AND COMMENTS
A word of explanation as to this new journalistic venture is perhaps hardly necessary. The need for one such magazine has long been felt by the leading lights of the community. Whereas a daily newspaper looks to the daily struggle for the existence of a people, meeting the situations that crop up from day to day, it is beyond its power and province to take a more comprehensive view of the life of the people as a whole, give shape and form to its aspirations and ideals and watch, direct and control the various tendencies that have any bearing on the ultimate destiny of the people. That is the sphere and function of a periodical magazine, hence the Muslim Revival’s inauguration.
Revival! This is the word that sums up the aims and objects, the ideals and aspirations of the Muslim Revival. The world of Islam, alter centuries-long spell of listlessness and stupor is astir with a new life. The old attitude of indifference to the struggle of life is undergoing a new orientation. A universal tide of awakening has swept over the length and breadth of the vast world of Islam, and those on the vanguard of Muslim thought and life are dreaming new dreams. Once more has the conviction got hold of the mind of Islam that Islam is certainly not the spent force that, judging from the general withering of life among the Musalmans, it was supposed to be, that it has yet a great role to play and a contribution to make to the destiny of mankind. The Muslim Revival is just a ripple of that tide, a spark of that conviction – the harbinger of the Glorious Dawn which is in sight.
Such being the goal before it, the Muslim Revival will note all the salient currents and crosscurrents of life and thought in human society – social, political, economic, cultural, and religious. It will attempt to be a mirror of the onward march of humanity in the various spheres of life and show against that background what the contribution of Islam must be towards the sea of human life. It will be the business of the Revival to see that rather than stand on the boundary line and watch the game of life as an idle spectator, Islam plunges in the thick of the game and becomes once more the power and force in human affairs that it used to be.
Above all, the Revival aspires to be the torchbearer of the humanistic culture of Islam. It is by their cultures that nations live and die. The untouchables of India, as our learned contributor, S. Wajid Ali Sahib points out are what they are not as a result of their political subjugation by the Aryans; they owe their present miserable lot to their disloyalty to their culture. Rightly does Dr. Sir Muhammad Iqbal emphasize this when in the course of his Presidential Address, published in this number, he observes:
Dr. Sir Allama Iqbal
“Patriotism is a perfectly natural virtue and has a place in the moral life of man. Yet what really matters is a man’s faith, culture, and historical traditions. These are the things which, in my eyes, are worth living for and dying for.”
It is our conviction that the culture of Islam is bound up not only with the life of the world of Islam but also with the true good of human society at large. Therefore, it will be the mission of the Revival to present an enlightened exposition of that culture and interpret its meaning and message to mankind at large.
Before closing this personal note, we wish to confess we are not unaware of the fact that in bringing out this first number, we have not been able to quite come up to our own expectations. But this is perhaps the inevitable handicap of every “first attempt.” As we get along, we hope to add to the utility and attractiveness of the production by enlisting the cooperation of a wider circle of prominent writers and by the appreciation and encouragement of friends and supporters. We must also express our gratitude to all the friends who have helped us with their valuable contributions to the present number.
Editor: M.Y.K.
The Muslim Revival, March 1932
