Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: Islam Teaches That the Foundation of A Godly Religion Is Humankind's Oneness, Not Its Division and Enmity

By Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam 15 October 2022 Azad Founded the Hizbullah (Party of God) Organization in His Youth, Which Was a Revivalist Movement in Its Doctrines and Principles Main Points 1. 1-Azad is one of the prominent personalities of the sub-continent, a somewhat forgotten literary and political genius who has so many aspects in his life, and his thoughts are so dimensional. 2. 2- Hindu-Muslim unity and integrity of the country was a cherished goal of Azad. 3. 3- On the Partition of the country, Azad finally became a lonely adverse voice while the trio, Gandhi, Nehru, and Patel gave in to the demand of Pakistan. 4. 4-The division of Pakistan itself revealed that Two Nation Theory was a flawed Idea. ------ Maulana Abul Kalam Azad ------ Muhyiddin Abul Kalam Azad is one of the prominent personalities of the sub-continent. Azad, a somewhat forgotten genius, has so many aspects in his life, and his thoughts are so dimensional that it is too difficult to talk about his persona in one essay. Azad was born in Makkah on November 11th, 1888, to Khairuddin and Alia Begum. He was named Muhiuddin, yet his title Abul Kalam suppressed his real name. In his childhood, Azad composed poetry and prose writing, so he assumed "Azad" as a pen name, which afterward became a part of his name. Azad, a scion of a prominent family and a beloved boy to his elder brother and three elder sisters, married Zulekha Begum. Who died when he was in jail for the cause of the freedom movement. A child was born to him and died in childhood with no issue after him. Along with writing in Urdu from the age of 10-11, he began to compose poetry when he was a child. Many poetry collections used to be published back then from various cities where he had been published regularly. Then in 1899, he himself began to produce a poetic collection named "Nerang Khyal" from Kolkata. Only eight issues of it were published then it was stopped. After that, Azad gave up composing poetry and focused on prose writing. When he started writing prose, his prose made many spellbound as the greatest poet of Urdu Ghazal Hasrat Mohani gave vent to his opinion: (When I saw the prose of Azad, I lost amazing flavour in my poetry) Abul Kalam was dext in different fine arts, especially in Music, apart from being an expert in traditional Islamic sciences; Quran, Hadis, Sirah and Islamic history, world history, Sufism, and apart from his expertise in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, English, and French, etc. He has to his credit several magnum opuses like Tarjuman ul Quran, Tazkira, Ghubar e Khatir, Collection of speeches, and India Wins Freedom. In his youth, he was full of enthusiasm, fervent, and foresight in political views, while you can see a feeling of peace, silence, and seer-like soreness in his old age. There is no parallel for Azad's Urdu prose except that of Rashid Shaz, to an extent in our age. What spells and appeal mind capturing was his writing Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi sheds some light on that: "I haven't forgotten his essay about a war in Tripoli where he described how Ghazi Enver Pasha, the Turk warrior, arrived, how he looked at the bodies of the martyrs, and his impression. The frightened flock of nightingales, the coming of the great warrior on the battlefield, and, most all, the prose of Azad all worked together to create a telling impact and gripping energy that once ignited with fire and made one genuinely cry". (Shakhsiyat Number of Afkar e Milli). Al-Misbah, a weekly published in January 1901 by Azad, didn't last very long. Then, in 1903, he was chosen to serve as a subeditor for the daily Khadung Nazar, which was run by Nobat Roy. After working with it for a year, he quickly sought his own way. From Kolkata, Azad published Lisanus Sidq, a monthly journal, in November 1903. According to Malik Ram, this monthly publication sparked a revolution in Urdu journalism. Azad was under the impression of sir Syed Ahmad Khan at a young age, yet this impact ended by itself in later years with his vast readings. Azad's free-thinking, enchanting style, and fantastic beauty moved the veterans like Shibli. He sent for him to Lucknow, where he was staying those days. In his company, Azad served as sub-editor of the Al-Nadwa journal, which Shibli was editing. How Azad lived there can be understood by what Ali Nadwi narrates: This happened so often that Shibli wanted his beloved disciples to write on a subject. They tried and came up with enormous amounts of information on the same, but Shibli was not satisfied. Azad, sitting nearby and observing all of this, would approach him and ask him what he wanted. Shibli would give a brief input, and Azad would begin writing. After reading what he wrote, Shibli was prompted to yell: "Yes, this is what I wanted." (Afkar ka Shakhsiyat Number P6 July 2005) The editor of Al-Hilal was under 24 years old when its first issue was released on July 13th, 1912. This was a movement as much as a magazine. Maulana Mahmood Hasan Deobandi (Shaikh ul Hind) once said of the magazine, "We were all forgetful of the actual cause; al-Hilal had awakened us (Tazkira, P:15) Al-Hilal was different and unique in every way. From the standard features to the contents, it stood out. It did not copy others in any minute detail, but it gave the impression that it was being copied. (Ibid P 13) Even today, there are thousands of publications and magazines in Urdu. None of them had the impact that Al-Hilal had. Yet, Al-Risala (edited by the late Maulana Waheeduddin Khan) devised a novel, free-thinking, straightforward approach, and style. Azad concentrated on human oneness in his words and acts. He stated: Islam teaches that the foundation of a godly religion is humankind's oneness, not its division and enmity. God's apostles taught that since you are all descended from a single man, and He alone provides for you, you must only worship Him and coexist peacefully as a unit. (Ibid, vol. 1, p. 48.) Azad, in the chapter number 1 of the Quran; Al-Fatiha's commentary, Ummul Kitab, provides a very extensive explanation of his unity ideas. Because of this, the clergy with religious bias accused him of preaching religious oneness. (Wahdat e Adyan) (Ibid P 152) Azad jeered at the discrimination based on ethnicity and familial background: "The deity of pride in the family is a rotten reminiscent of the period of ignorance in the world, which Islam, among other things, has smashed. It is most probable that tomorrow a new convert Dalit may get the highest position due to his righteousness, while the children of Shaikh ul Islams(grand muftis) cannot. This will happen in the future, yet we see in today's world that actions make many small things big and vice versa." Tazkira P,25) Maulana Azad had been trying wholeheartedly to achieve the goal of unity between Hindus and Muslims, and for national integrity, he went to the extent that : "If an angel comes down today in clouds and standing on Qutub Minar of Delhi, would announce that freedom might be given you within 24 hours. Provided that you must give up thinking about Hindu-Muslim unity, I will give up the freedom but not the idea of unity among Muslims and Hindus."(Khutbate Abul Kalam Azad p, 261) Azad founded the Hizbullah (Party of God) organization in his youth, which was a revivalist movement in its doctrines and principles. Additionally, he designated Daees (deputies)in various locations to commit people into his imamate (leadership). Later, after taking into account the local and world circumstances, he abandoned this idealistic notion of revivalism. Another young person, the prolific and burgeoning Urdu writer Maulana Maududi, took the notion without mentioning Azad's name. (See Israr Ahmad Jama'at-e-Islami ki Tarikh ka Aik Gumshuda Bab.) Instead, he was inclined to introduce the revolutionary Quranic teachings to the people of the subcontinent. Apart from his exegesis, Azad wanted to write a detailed prologue to his commentary, as he mentioned this in many places. However, most probably, he did not find a chance to do that due to his total involvement in the freedom struggle and long periods of incarceration. And if he had, it would have been lost. Malik Ram averred that a lot of his manuscripts, including the second volume of Tazkira and a biography of Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal, had been lost. Azad was so well-versed in the classical Islamic sciences that, even today, one would be astounded by his prodigious reading habits and comprehension of Arabic and Persian literature. He gave a speech to a group of Arabic and Persian experts in Lucknow when he was Education Minister following independence. His address was instant and tantamount to being an academic gift having a retrospective review of our past and present, leading to an outline for a future action plan. If only the Ulama and clergy could understand its meaning and foresight and rise above their rigid and narrow mind-set, the situation would have been better today. Azad's writings beautifully combine romance and reason with emotion and realism. When some of his friends insisted on writing his biography, he spoke about his life in Tazkira's final pages using gestures, idioms, and asides. Nevertheless, he did spread hints from Belles Letters, but to the question of his biography, he concluded by saying, "half of my story is hope, and half is grief. I used to have nothing but hope, but now I regret everything." Although not all of what he wrote was preserved, what was left tells you about a tremendous mind, a vivacious and exuberant temperament, a fresh mind, and a literary genius. Azad was more knowledgeable about both new and old knowledge, which set him apart from other Ulama. He conducted a thorough analysis of modern politics and concluded that, given the subcontinent's context, communal politics had no place in this region. Because there is a democratic current in the world, opposing this will be anachronistic politics that will have no effect. Therefore, the only viable solution for India would be a single, secular, democratic state that resolves all controversial issues, including communal concerns. However, most anxious and agitated Indian Muslims trusted the Anglicized aggressive barrister M. A. Jinnah. They paid no attention to the warnings and advice that realists like Maolana Madni and Azad gave them. The sad division of the nation was the result of this. With that, the Muslims of India were split into three groups, which resulted in great bloodshed, painful migration, and enduring resentment, mistrust, and hatred among the subcontinent's inhabitants. Being aware that there are a substantial number of communal leaders in the Congress, Azad bemoaned the communal mind-set, particularly of UP Chief Minister Sampurnanand and home minister Vallabhbhai Patel in his book India Wins Freedom. Especially in the last 50 pages (which was released after his death. However, in my opinion, Maulana Azad's conception of the unity between Muslims and Hindus was based more on his own speculative imagination than on ground realities. He was so enamoured with the Congress that he failed to realize the inner currents among many of its members. In the beginning, Gandhiji was also adamant about not succumbing to the demand of the Partition, yet Nehru and Patel somehow convinced him to. One day, to Azad's surprise, he found himself lonely because the trio; of Gandhi, Nehru, and Patel finally gave in to the Partition. Following the Partition, he correctly encouraged Muslims to join Congress rather than forming their political party. Even though it was a smart move in the immediate wake of Partition, Muslims were required to form either a political party or a political pressure group after that, but sadly, they failed to do so. It was not long before Pakistan itself was divided into Pakistan and Bangladesh. And on the wake of the division of Pakistan due to linguistic and ethnic disagreements, it turned out that the Partition of the country did not solve any problem of the Muslim community; instead, it aided more to the cart. Azad's advice to his community to accept the One Nation Idea was the better solution to the Hindu-Muslim mayhem than the defective and unsuccessful Two Nation Theory. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef is a Research Associate with the Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India, AMU Aligarh. URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/kalam-azad-godly-religion-humankind-oneness/d/128180 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism