The Fourth Phase : After Freedom
We now pass on to the fourth phase of our
history, during which almost all the Muslim leads liberated themselves from
foreign political domination.
Unfortunately, however, political power and
economic control have passed in all these countries into the hands of those who
have little knowledge of their religion and less pride in their cultural
traditions. Indeed, most of them treat all the traditions of the Muslim nation
with contempt and think that the Muslims will be unable to make any progress in
life and to achieve an honorable position in the comity of nations if they adopt
the Islamic way of life and stick to Islamic principles and values. To them, the
only road to redemption and progress lies through wholesale adoption of Western
ideas, theories and values. This is indeed their considered opinion; and it
could hardly be otherwise, for, their education and training was designed to
produce precisely this kind of attitude and approach. The alien rulers
deliberately fostered and strengthened such elements and pitched them in key
positions in all departments of life. This happened morn or less in all the
Muslim countries. The wars of liberation were fought in the name of Islam, but
after the people had won the hard way, through untold sufferings and sacrifices,
Islam was practically thrown overboard.
The latest instance in point is that of
Algeria. After its Muslim population had succeeded in liberating its homeland
through super-human sacrifices and at the cost of hundreds of thousands of
lives, the leaders suddenly proclaimed that Algeria would be a secular,
socialist state. Turkey, Pakistan, Tunisia and Egypt have witnessed more or less
similar phenomena during the past few decades, Take Tunisia, for instance. The
Muslim bulk of its population were called to battle in the name of Islam, and it
was for the sake of the Faith that they challenged French rule and ultimately
overthrew it through a struggle in which they had to make very heavy sacrifices.
But soon after the war had been won, President Bourguiba told the Muslims that
their fasting in the month of Ramadan adversely affected production. Mr.
Bourguiba thus tried to undermine the faith of the Muslims of Tunisia much in
the same way as the Soviet Union. The contention that fasting hampers production
is obviously aimed at abolishing the institution of fasting, for nearly all the
relatively young and able bodied members of a community are engaged in
production, and the old and the sick are anyhow exempted from fasting.
Much to the chagrin of the groups that wield
power in the Muslim lands today, the truly religious elements have survived
everywhere. They know the principles and doctrines of Islam and the injunctions
of God and His Prophet. They know what Islamic culture and civilization really
mean. Unfortunately, however, these people lack the education and training
necessary for effective governance and efficient administration in the present
conditions. These elements share the sentiments and aspirations of the common
Muslims, who are confident that, if voted to power they will not seek to
undermine Islam, and foist an un-Islamic way of life upon them. But on the other
hand the people fear that these elements will not be able to lead the nation,
run the affairs of state, take care of the administration, organize the
dispensation of justice, manage the finances of the country and conduct its
foreign relations. And the people have good reasons for their misgivings and
fears about the religious elements' abilities and capacities in these spheres.
The average Muslim is bewildered and stands
miserably divided between his inherent loyalty to Islam and lack of confidence
in the practical abilities of the elements that stand for the establishment of
the Islamic way of life. It is true that the bulk of the people in any Muslim
land have little knowledge of their religion, that they are morally weak and
their conduct and habits are generally repugnant to the principles of Islam.
Nevertheless, as I have pointed out earlier, the extraordinary force of the
original Islamic movement is not yet completely spent, and the spark that
survives is still capable of kindling the flame of an Islamic revival. For
instance, you may ask even the most corrupt and depraved Muslim whether he
regards drinking, adultery, gambling or bribery as permissible or proper for a
Muslim. There can be no doubt about the answers, which will clearly prove that
the values of the common Muslim have not changed at all in spite of his moral
decline and degeneration. These values have gone into his blood and become a
part of his very being. Or, ask an average Muslim what he thinks of a dance by a
semi-nude woman: he will undoubtedly refuse to agree that it is in accord with
the spirit of Islamic culture. The average Muslim is no doubt ignorant; he
hardly understands the Qur'an and knows practically nothing of the Hadith.
Nevertheless his thoughts and beliefs still reflect in some degree the moral
notions and cultural concepts that have survived down the generations in the
world of Islam. In spite of his ignorance and moral degeneration, the average
Muslim still tends naturally to look at things in the light of his communal
traditions and to form his opinions accordingly. Almost all Muslims all over the
world have some basic notions about Islam and its values, which, however vague,
are essentially correct. In Pakistan as well as in Turkey, in Iran as well as in
Egypt and Algeria, Muslims believe more or less in the same common Islamic
values. And it is not possible to persuade any large body of Muslims, anywhere
in the world that the values of the modern West have anything in common with
Islamic values.
Moreover, although the average Muslim may not
have any considerable knowledge of Islam, there is no doubt that ho is enamored
of it. Recent developments in the world of Islam have proved it beyond a shadow
of doubt that Muslims can be aroused and inspired and induced to make sacrifices
only in the name of Islam; no other call can appeal to them. A Muslim can lay
down his life only if he is sure that he is doing it for the sake of Allah and
will be rewarded for it with a place in heaven. A Muslim who is not inspired by
this belief will not be persuaded to lay down his life and will indeed be the
most cowardly of men.
Unfortunately, however, political leadership
and state power has, in all the Muslim countries, passed into the hands of
elements who, in opposition to the manifest sentiments and aspirations of the
people, seek to set national life in a direction contrary to the Islamic way of
life. If conditions are otherwise favorable, they seek to achieve their
objective openly under the banner of secularism-as they did in Turkey under
Mustafa Kemal. Elsewhere, they continue to pay lip service to Islam and try to
foist Western values and culture upon the people in the name of Islam. But
fortunately, it is not possible for them to mislead the bulk of the Muslims in
any country. However ignorant or degenerate a Muslim people may be, they cannot
be persuaded to accept any manifestly un-Islamic belief, idea or practice as
Islamic.
In Turkey and the Soviet Union, attempts to
de-Islamize the Muslims were accompanied by such violence and cruelty as we in
this country would find it difficult even to imagine. In Turkey, for instance,
thousands of people were killed only because they were not prepared to change
their headgear. Since the Western hat introduced by the new rulers was not
available within the country, condemned stocks were imported from Europe. Thus
this great 'reform' was introduced at the point of the bayonet, and the rulers
went so far as to impose martial law to enforce the desired change. But in spite
of all this oppression, we find that the average Turk is as good a Muslim today
as he ever was. This has established conclusively that the Turks cannot by any
means be made to abjure Islam and accept any way of life repugnant to it.
