Muslim Religious Nationalists and Communal Forces Are Birds of the Same Feather: South India Is Becoming A Cauldron Of Islamist Communalism

By Grace Mubashir, New Age Islam 24 February 2023 The Neo-Islamist Organizations Are Fanning The Idea Of Islamic Governance Accentuated By Sharia Law, As Seen From The Dodgy Cyber World ------- Disenchantment among the educated youth and easy access to the online world of insidious religious ideas make the combination a trigger for Islamist violence. Apathy on the part of governments to act swiftly and absence of mainstream religious leaders in actively espousing a progressive, pluralist theology of religion compounds the issue. The region saw the migration of 23 youths to the "fabled" land of ISIS and incipient signs are on rise tellingly about the impending crisis. Salafism and ideas of Maulana Maududi on Islamic state are being propagated. The communalisation helps fringe organizations politically, as evident from the action of SDPI in supporting a murder accused in Praveen case standing as candidate to upcoming Karnataka legislative election. The neo-Islamist organizations are fanning the idea of Islamic Governance accentuated by Sharia law, as seen from the dodgy cyber world. This article critically analyses the issue from practical and scriptural understandings. Along with honest faith, good deeds, good intentions and social obligations are included in the life plan proposed by Islam. The social position put forward by Islam is to obey the Creator and Sustainer Allah and accept the ultimate worship and submission to Him alone while accepting the rulers in a way that does not contradict this basic idea and is in line with the conditions of public good and virtues. Just as good deeds such as prayer and fasting are external acts of worship to Allah, entertaining guests, feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and comforting the afflicted are acts of worship to the Lord. This means that the religious practices proposed by Islam have a wide range. We have spoken about the performance of obligations to individuals. But the religious position is to stand for the common good of the society and the nation, consisting of individuals, and to cooperate with the political and administrative systems and not to destabilize the regimes that reinforce them. To practice religion and become an Islamic state is not a religiously valid idea. Such an idea was put forward by some who came with an extreme position. Jamaat-e-Islami fuelled this school of thought. In that way they have blown away the beauty of Islam. They theorized that the mission and goal of a Muslim's life is nation-building; and that the establishment of the administration and the activities for it is an inescapable obligation of the Mus lim. The radical actions of founding leader Syed Abul Ala Maududi led at least a small minority of Muslim India to radicalism. Maududian ideals, which depicted mosques as military bases, and congregational prayers as part of military training, were no small insult to the Islamic community. Neither the Qur'an nor other scriptures teach schools of thought that view religious identities as purely national concepts. Maududi says: 'Similarly in prayer and sounding the divine trumpet five times a day, when the army of Allah hears that sound, it is to show that we are ready to carry out the commands of Allah and come running alertly from all sides when hearing the sound... So we hear the sound of the divine trumpet only five times a day and run to the divine base (in the mosque) and commanding them to gather together is a great favour that Allah has given them... and when you stand in line, it will be like an army standing ready to serve before their King' (Khutubat). The fact is that extremists were inspired by this idea of Maududi who introduced Islamic rituals as military training in order to establish that it is the duty of Muslims to build a religious state. There are small groups here who act in the name of Islam and present terrorism and organize themselves in that way. The roots of such groups can be seen reaching back to the Jamaat. It can be understood that some groups are trying to deal with the extremists introduced by Jamaat-e-Islami in the 1940s. Their reasoning is that Islam ia State and their mission is to establish it. In fact, what they have done is to reduce the whole of Islam to vested interests. Islam has clear political views. Islam has a policy that protects the life, property and dignity of man and also includes the necessary instructions for achieving the prosperity of the nation and its citizens. The politics of Islam upholds the vision of enjoining security for the needy and the orphan, the laws necessary to eradicate poverty and the social obligations to be fulfilled by the rich. For this beautiful project to be implemented, Muslims need to be religiously and ideologically cultured. Or lead a real religious life. That is the history of Islam. Apart from that, they do not advocate and work for nation building. The scriptures do not say that an Islamic state is necessary for religious life. It does not teach that the goal of Muslim life is to build a religious state. However, there are precepts that Islamic values should be lived in as much as possible in any environment. 'They are the ones who, if We provide for them on earth, perform the prayer, give the alms, enjoin good, and forbid evil' (Al-Hajj 41). People flocked to Islam after seeing and experiencing this life. The mission of Islam in history is not to convert all kinds of people in a land. When the Holy Prophet (PBUH) reached Madinah, the agreement he made with the Jews there is proof that Islam accepts and treats everyone as a part of the nation. This agreement was also a message to stand together against the enemy of the nation. Conquest by force is not the style of Islam. The Prophet and his followers come with more force to those who had beaten them cruelly. The tribal lords who were starving and deprived of food were standing there trembling. Those who broke their teeth in front of the Prophet at Battle of Uhud were also in Makkah that day. It was a golden opportunity for Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his Companions to take revenge. But the words spoken by the Holy Prophet (PBUH) were the words of human liberation and mercy that the world has never seen - 'You are free.' What a beautiful approach! This is how religion conquered people's minds. It was not a forced conversion. The reason is that you need to know the true belief and take it voluntarily. 'There is no coercion in religion' (Al-Baqarah). It is seen that the Qur'an asks: 'If your Lord had so willed, all the creatures on earth would have believed. Are you forcing the people to become believers?' (Yunus 99). The ideas propagated from isolated corners against these messages and political visions of Islam, which are universally praised, do not contain the essence of true religion. All these are the machinations of political Islam. It is very dangerous. They are misusing the holy religion for political interests. It is necessary to realize that communalists who spread the word that Hindus are in danger and their rights are being taken away by others have a political agenda, and those who think that they can gain political interests by spreading fear even on trivial issues and putting the community on edge, are also dangerous. It is clear that the source of energy for the terrorists are those including Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who destroyed the remaining good things of the Islamic Caliphate and brought the existing regime to power. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was building the western interest of creating Islamophobia. That is why he had no intention of destroying the religious heritage even when it was declared as an Islamic administration. It was also in the interest of the imperial powers to destroy the morale that the Muslims possessed from their heritage. This is what Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the Salafis who followed his thought did. The dangerous thoughts and religious polity raised by Ibn Abdul Wahab, Maududi, Ali Shariati etc. and the talented renaissance dancers who sing the same are giving impetus to the communalists. Those who incite fear inside and outside and misuse religions for political interests are not two sides of the coin, but the same side. Realization and caution are essential that they have political agendas beyond community love. Is The Establishment Of An Imam Compulsory? One of the established goals of Jamaat-e-Islami is the establishment of a religious state. It is a dangerous ideology that works under the guise of secularism. Many times, this agenda of the Jamaat has fallen apart. Whole of South Asia has realized that. They said it covertly and openly through word-of-mouth of preaching. They highlighted the quote 'Nasbul Imami Wajibun' (Establishing an Imam is obligatory) as a basis for that. Is the establishment of an Imam an obligatory duty for Muslims as the Maududists argue? Does this remark confirm Maududi's Hukumat e Ilahi (establishment of divine rule)? The above reference is about Imam al-Alam, who is designated for the global Muslims as a whole. And not an imam confined to the borders of a region or nation as Maududi thought. The circumstances in which the appointment of this kind of Imamul Alam is mandatory, from who, when, how, and everything has been explained in great detail by the scholars with Nazbul Imami Wajibun. This has been mentioned in detail in religious books such as Shahrul Aqa'id and Shahrul Maqasid and about a dozen religious books such as Tuhfa and Mughni. Moreover, many books dealing only with this subject are not rare. The Ahkamussultaniyyah (rules of governance) of Imam Mawardi (RA) and Abu Ya'la (RA) are important in that. Only when read along with that explanation can the proper interpretation of the Islamic concept of Imamat be properly understood. But the Maududists have buried all those explanations for their own narrow interests. Otherwise, all the Islamist movements known under the label of religion, including Jamaat-e-Islami, have grown up by extracting only a little of what they need from the Islamic scriptures such as the Qur'an and Hadith, hiding its true essence and misinterpreting it. There is a precise methodology for determining Imamul Alam. The Imam is to be established by a joint pledge of allegiance (Ahlul Halli Wal Aqd) of all the lands inhabited by Muslims in the world. There are several conditions for one to be chosen as an Imam. Only those who have fully assembled them can be in this position. Being a Muslim from the Quraysh tribe, doing righteous deeds, deep knowledge of Islamic injunctions, not having speech, hearing and sight limitations, not having any disabilities that can hinder the activity with agility, good judgment and administrative skills, bravery etc. are the conditions that the Imam must have. Each term hereof shall be construed herein beyond its literal meaning and shall have the broadest meaning that it technically includes. Imam Mawardi (ra) explained 'to be righteous' as follows: 'He must be righteous. Credibility should be easy. Stay away from things that raise doubts. Avoid mistakes completely. To be exemplary in liking and anger' (Ahkamussultaniyyah). There are also conditions for the managers who appoint the imam. Skill in finding the most suitable person, in-depth knowledge of Imamat and being righteous are important in it. This becomes an obligatory duty of Muslims only when there is a person who meets all the above conditions and all conditions suitable for appointing him as Imam exist in the Muslim world. Scholars believe that after the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate, there may not be a favourable situation in the Muslim world to establish Imam al-Alam. Therefore, scholars have said that the Muslim world will not be blamed for not establishing an Imam. Allama Farhawi underlines this in his book Hasiyatunnibrazi (p: 664-668). The teaching of religion is that every believer is not obliged to restore this religious position which has disappeared automatically in the course of time. But the terrorist movements are taking up arms with Muslim youth under the mistaken belief that the restoration of the Khilafat is a duty. It has no religious basis except as a politically motivated idea. That being said, no matter how hard the Maududists look, they cannot find anything in Islamic scriptures that supports their 'Hukumat-Eilahia'. Because there is no such thing in Islam. It is a pure misinterpretation that Abul A'la Maududi twisted the Islamic precepts in the first half of the 20th century for his own ambitions of power. Islam is comprehensive. It is a code of ideas that can be applied in any situation. The scriptures tell us exactly how a Muslim should live in a fully Islamic environment and where he cannot practice his religion openly. The Makkah life and Madinah life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is an open textbook in this regard. Maududi's interpretation is that the religious practice of a Muslim will be complete only when he lives in an Islamic state and therefore it is necessary for every believer to spend his life and death for the construction of an Islamic state. For that he defined Deen as State. The Jamaat literature propagated that 'Deen really means the state, Shariat means the legal system of that state and Ibadat is to live life according to that legal system' (Khutubat p: 378). Maududi saw religion as a way to power. For a Muslim there is no need for an Islamic state to live according to religious practice. Islam has given him precise guidelines to adjust his religious life according to the circumstances. He is only commanded to do what is possible. 'Allah only commands what is possible' (Quran 1: 286). ----- A regular columnist for NewAgeIslam.com, Mubashir V.P is a PhD scholar in Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia and freelance journalist. 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