The New Year – Janurary 1, 1932
With this issue the Light steps into the 11nth. year of its life. The mere fact, however, that we have added one more year to our life is not a matter either for satisfaction or pride. The life of a paper, like that of a man should be measured not in years but in the amount of work done. It is not length but depth that should constitute the merit of a life.
Judged by this standard we do not know how far the Light has justified its existence. It is for the reader to say whether the full one decade of its life which it has completed has been well spent. All we can say, as we turn in retrospect and survey these years, is that never in the course of its life so far, has the Light swerved from the high ideals that it has before it.And as we turn this new page of our life, we can only do so with the fresh resolution that we shall disfigure it by nothing low, nothing small, nothing petty, nothing unworthy. Unswerved by frowns, unelated by smiles, we shall see that the flag of Islam flies topmast, we shall see that nothing is allowed to lower that flag.
It may not perhaps be out of place to recapitulate in brief, as we put our shoulder to the wheel for another year, the ideals which have uniformly inspired the columns of this paper:
1.Islam and little mindedness are incompatible. Islam is as wide as the wide, wide universe and comprehends within its sympathies the whole of humanity, irrespective of what creed labels they bear. We consider fanaticism or exclusiveness as the very negation of Islam.
2.We believe in no sects in Islam. Sectarianism is the very negation of Islam. The Sunni, the Shia, the Wahabi, the Ahmadi are only so many schools of thought, differing only in the details which do not at all matter. Difference of opinion among the Musalmans must be a source of blessing, says the Holy Prophet ﷺ. Recognising this great Truth, we believe that honest differences among the various schools of Musalmans, rather than degenerate into the present-day bitterness and animosity, should contribute to the general health of the Muslim society. It is one main plank of our programme therefore to eradicate the virus of sectarianism from among the Musalmans.
3.We honestly believe that with an average Musalman, religion has become a mere dead dogma—a bundle of lifeless rites and rituals, forms and formulas terms and trappings. The spirit has been lost and like the Pharisees of the time of Jesus, long-drawn faces, flowing beards, scrupulous observances of rites are all that pass for piety. We are out to deal a rude shock to that delusion of Musalmans and open all eyes to the spirit, the kernel, the essence, the message that runs underneath all forms but for which religion is a misnomer, not worth a brass button.
4.We believe, the youth of Islam are the only hope of Islam. Old fossils to whom robes are more than the body, body more than the soul are past cure. Hence our aim to instil the youth of Islam with a three-fold feeling of Islam—Love of Islam, loyalty to Islam, pride in Islam.
5.Last but not least, we wish Musalmans to take a worthy place in the comity of nations. It is a libel on Islam to say that it looks down upon this worldly life and its amenities. A Musalman was intended to occupy a place of honour in the struggle of life. Islam and slavery are incompatible and emancipation of the motherland from foreign rule is one of the highest of virtues. In the present struggle for freedom, we therefore, wish to see the Musalmans – at the forefront. While, however, every movement aiming at breaking the bonds of India has our blessing, we cannot shut our eyes to the other equally great danger of pan-Hinduism which, unfortunately has seized such a wide-spread hold of Hindu mentality. We wish to see the Mussalman throw off the yoke of the Hindu as much as of the Englishman and stand on his own legs as a free self-respecting man.
These, in a nutshell, are the sentiments and aspirations with which the labours of the Light are inspired. Were it not for the ever-ready sympathy and support we have had from those in agreement with these ideals, we confess we would have accomplished but little. Now that we are embarking upon a new lease of life, we are as usual cheered up by the thought that in the arduous struggle before us we have at our back the sympathy and support of a large number of friends and sympathisers. While wishing them all a happy new year we pray that we may be granted strength to work and labour together for another year, for the same high visions and high ideals which have so far characterised our joint struggle.
