Modernists and the Muslims

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, the founder of Aligarh Muslim University, died over a century ago. And much before he died, he was called an infidel, a Kafir, by some ulama. The emphasis on the word, some, is not without reason. Indeed only some of the ulama had called him Kafir. Allama Shibli Nomani and Maulana Hali, too, were ulama who proudly worked with Sir Syed Ahmad Khan.

And yet since that unfortunate time, the Muslim community, particularly the ulama, have continuously been condemned as intolerant. The condemning tribe not only includes the non-Muslims but also a fair number of Muslim intellectuals whose uncritical approach deserves to be censured.

Sir Syed Ahmad Khan lived in a highly disturbed and emotionally charged conditions. In such situations people tend to show intolerance, even fanaticism. The reason is simple. That every body is not Sir Syed. In fact, most people are the children of their age, and only few are able to see the shape of things to come. Sir Syed was ahead of his time and, therefore, faced problems. It was not unique with him, for men of calibre and foresight are usually meted out the same kind of treatment.

Sir Syed took the Fatwa of Kufr in its stride and went on accomplishing the great task of serving his community and the nation. He did not condemn his people as intolerant but continued to work for them. But the later-day self-serving intellectuals are never tired of calling the Muslim community as intolerant that bitterly opposes modernity and, therefore, remains backward.

The purpose here is not to prove that the Muslim community has no weaknesses or shortcomings. But to condemn it as opposed to modernity is perhaps a bit unfounded. In fact Muslims have not failed modernists as much as the modernists have failed them. Let us see how it is true.

While the British and other Europeans were giving democratic rights to their people, they were also enslaving the people, specially of the third world, at the same time. Their championship of modernity, liberty and equality etc. was, therefore, dubious. For if you are a true believer of modernity, liberty equality, human rights and other such values, you would never adopt a policy of double standard, one for the people at home and the other for the colonized ones. If modernity means liberating people from the shackles of backwardness, then how its champion, the West can believe in and practice colonialism and imperialism?

Today’s champions of modernity and liberty etc. are no different. How can we justify the reprehensible American invasion of Iraq and what they have been doing there in the name of modernity?

The Muslim champions of modernity have also not fared better than their Western friends or masters. Ever since the end of colonialism, the Muslim societies have mostly been ruled by the modern-educated Muslims. Their modern education or championship of modernity did not bring democracy, liberty and equality etc. to the societies they are master of. In fact, in many cases they have acted as dictators, denied their people the benefits of modernity and violated the rights that they should have enjoyed as normal human beings. Sharto of Indonesia, Ayyub Khan of Pakistan, Shah of Iran and Jamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt were such rulers who pretended to be modern but always violated the human rights of their people specially of the men who opposed their views and policies.

The intellectual champions of modernity also present a pitiable picture. We have the example of Prof. Fazlur Rahman whose deep scholarship is beyond question. He was a great champion of modernity, and wrote extensively on this subject. And yet this great champion of modernity was willingly associated with a dictator like General Ayyub Khan who did not believe in democracy, the foremost political by-product of modernity. And unlike the modernist Fazlur Rahman, the ulama including Maulana Maududi were the main leaders of the movement for restoration of democracy in Pakistan. Many more modernist-Muslim intellectuals from Pakistan to Egypt have indeed been supporters of dictatorship. Now think how this people can inspire the Muslim society the world over.

[January, 2005]