WHICH WAY NATIONAL REGENERATION?

IN her address at a Prophet’s birthday meeting at Karachi, Miss Fatimah Jinnah paid a glowing tribute to the Prophet ﷺ of Islam (may peace be on him) and calling attention to the daily deepening crisis of modern civilization despite the wonders of scientific achievements, reminded the present-day frustrated, bewildered groping humanity that a way out may yet be found in the path of moral and spiritual values blazed by the Prophet ﷺ. The Khatoon-i-Pakistan very rightly denounced imperialism, and the misery that came in its wake. The economic age which has dawned on the ashes of imperialism, she observed, and which is supposed to supply the panacea for human ills has not improved matters. The discontent and unrest is still there, perhaps in a more accentuated form. But in the midst of this all-pervading gloom, she said, ”all is not darkness” and a way out is still there in the life and teachings of the Holy Prophet ﷺ, “provided we are prepared to mould ourselves according to his teachings.” This provise, to our mind, constitutes the crux of the whole problem. That the life of the Prophet ﷺ and those of his comrades are shining and will ever shine on the firmament of history goes without saying. History is still rubbing eyes at that wonderful phenomenon, which like meteor shooting through space leaving a luminous trail behind, illumined the pages of history and disappeared for good. It has failed to produce the like of it since or before. The noble band of men and women who came into impact with the Prophet’s personality was so thoroughly metamorphosed into something of celestial beings that for their great deeds they appear as so many legendary figures. But if history was ever stranger than fiction it was this epoch of early Islam.The trouble with us is that while we talk of this springtide of our history and culture, we do not mean to live by and for those values.That is what makes all the difference. While this early Islam forged links of a universal brotherhood, present-day Islam presents the spectacle of universal disintegration. All that is left of that wonderful cementation of human society is a house torn into sects and section and sub-sections of sub-divisions within each of these – each one at loggerheads with others. And yet we are so loud in our praises of the Prophet ﷺ and his way of life. Were there among the Muslims of the Prophet’s Day any of the sects and sub-sects that we have today become? There were just plain Muslims whose whole creed lay in just two sentences:

That there is a God and that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is His Messenger.

These two words summed up the entire theology of the early Muslims. They lived in direct daily contact with God and the Prophet ﷺ – two live sources of inspiration. This spark of faith has been smothered in the heaps of books – so called religious books – and a whole bundle of rites and rituals. As it was said of old, whereas this kind of man-made chains of law kill, the spirit gives life, unless these chains arc broken asunder, and all this theological debris cleared off, and the unity and brotherhood which was the hallmark of early Islam, is rediscovered we may sing praises of the Prophet ﷺ but cannot claim to be truly treading along his blessed footprints which alone can give life.

The Quran is commonly believed to contain mere guidance. One gentleman who is considered the latest apostle of the Quranic lore sees in the Quran nothing but ”signposts” to tell us, where we find ourselves at a momentous cross-roads of life – which way to go. This shows how utterly we have lost all grasp on the very core of Islam. The Quran is much more than mere guidance. It is spiritual nourishment; it is a tonic, a vitality, a dynamism, an inspiration, a sustaining power in the face of life’s ups and downs, and trials and tribulations. Of what avail can a mere ”signpost” be to a wayfarer who lacks the heart and the energy to forge ahead along the route the fingerpost points to? The Quran was revealed to the Prophetﷺ piecemeal, the process extending over a period of 23 years, with this express purpose. In the arduous vicissitudes that confronted him in the course of his struggle against the forces of evil and darkness, the Word of God came not so much to guide as to buck up and cheer up. The forces of evil are bound to be routed – this is main theme of the Quran. This is not guidance. This is inspiration. This is the live spark of faith. This is the ”armour” of the fighter in the cause of truth, his shield against all attacks. This is the function of revelation in the life of man.To our mind, the root cause of all human troubles lies in losing grip on this live personal contact with God. But for such a live contact with the Source of life, there can be no self-purification, no self-fortification, no morally or spiritually adjusted life.

Miss Fatimah Jinnah has very rightly reminded Muslims that the secret of the success of early Muslims lay in organisation and collective effort. Before the Hijra, she recalled, the Prophet’s preaching fell mostly on deaf ears. After, Hijra when Muslims ”organised themselves and launched a collective campaign, thousands and thousands of un-believers embraced Islam within no time”. It is true that a compact brotherhood was Islam’s greatest gift to Muslims. But the question of questions is: How was that organized life made possible? The answer lies in what we have said above. To them Islam meant a live contact with God – deriving light, inspiration, strength, from the Quran and the Prophet’s ﷺ  example. This made the whole game of life, with all its problems and threats created by the forces of opposition, a thrilling adventure which they enjoyed. They often went without food and faced untold hardships. But their hearts were full of peace and beamed with the sunshine of joy because of their faith that they were actors in a great Divine drama out to establish God’s will on earth.

Here lies the root remedy of all human ailments. Unless modern man rediscovers this live personal contact with God, he is bound to perish despite his Sputniks. In our own country, under the inspiring leadership of the Qaid-e-Azam we became a compact nation and a force, which enabled us to carve a State out of air. Today, we have so many organisations – political, social and economic – but who can say that with all this mighty array of material forces, we are a united and progressive nation? And the reason? The reason lies in the lack of that live spark of faith in some cause or ideal which alone can cement a people, make life meaningful and imbued with moral values which cannot possibly be manufactured in any human machinery, and which no wealth or power can buy.

This is the sole lesson that the Prophet’s life has to teach; but this is exactly the lesson which the Muslims are determined not to heed. But slogan-mongering can be no substitute for the real stuff, which as Miss Jinnah emphasised, rightly lies in moulding our lives on the Prophet’s pattern.

M.Y.K.

The Light, October 16, 1958