The Second Phase : Kingship and its
Let us now proceed to discuss the second phase
of our history. This phase started with a rapid expansion of Islam over a vast
part of the globe. The number of conversions to Islam during the period was so
large and its speed so fast that their education and training became a serious
problem and a difficult task. Despite the fact that persons
of exemplary conduct existed and they were
indeed the embodiment of Islamic teachings and the charm of their personality,
their moral excellence and their flawless character, deeds and behavior
attracted everyone who came i& -contact with them to the extent that even
the Quran is witness when it declares that the call was so irresistible that
whole flocks of people were swept into it. But it was not physically possible to
induce in these millions of converts the same radical transformation which the
earlier Muslims had gone through. Consequently, the proportion of Muslims who
fully understood the principled of Islam and faithfully followed them in life
began to decline. On the other hand, there was a rapid increase in the
proportion of Muslims who had earnestly embraced Islam but did not fully
understand it and were therefore unable to mould their lives completely in
conformity with the principles and precepts of the Faith. This state of affairs
eventually brought about a political upheaval which swept away the institution
of caliphate and established kingship.
Different writers and thinkers have attributed
the substitution of kingship for the Caliphate to various causes. To me it seems
the change was due to the fact that the number of Muslims with a full and proper
understanding of the principles of Islam had declined rapidly with the passage
of` time; so had the proportion of Muslims whose character and conduct were in
perfect conformity with the tenets and precepts of the Faith. On the other hand,
the number of Muslims who did not properly understand the principles increased
so enormously that it soon became impossible to save Muslim society from the
harmful effects of their ignorance, deficient understanding and moral
weaknesses. Consequently, the Caliphate gave way to kingship, and this phase of
our history extended over several centuries. It is. not possible for me in the
course of this brief address to discuss in detail all the influences at work
during that period of our history and analyze various elements and factors.
involved. 1 shall confine myself to a few major consequences of the change which
have continued to be reflected in the: condition of Musalmans down to the
present-day. In other words our "present" bears the influence of our
"past".
The first and the most harmful result of the
establishment of kingship was that the leadership of Muslim Millat split into
two sections. During the days of the Prophet and the Right-guided Caliphs the
leadership of the Muslim community was centered at one place. All affairs of
life-spiritual, moral, intellectual, cultural, political or philosophical were
held and directed by a common authority. The political affairs of the community,
the dispensation of justice, the administration of the State, the conduct of
war-all were being organized and directed from a common center. And the very
persons who controlled all these varied activities, were also the spiritual,
moral and intellectual leaders of the community. The entire leadership of the
Ummah was centered at the place. But the advent of kingship resulted in a rift
in this leadership : while political control remained in the hands of the
rulers, in the spiritual, moral and intellectual spheres, leadership passed to
the theologians, the jurists and the Sufis. The jurists became the religious,
moral and spiritual leaders and guides of the Muslims, and the kings assumed the
political leadership of the community. This bifurcation of leadership was
inherently pernicious and was in any event bound to have disastrous consequences
for the community. What made it worse was that, political power, following the
logic of its nature, sought to extend itself beyond the political sphere and to
control and direct the life of the community in all the fields-religious, moral,
intellectual etc. The religious scholars, the jurists and the Sufis, for their
part, were not prepared to tolerate any interference in ethical or religious
matters that might be repugnant to the spirit or principles of Islam and tend to
corrupt the religious or moral life of the people. This conflict between the
political and religious leaderships resulted in mutual estrangement and
hostility, which has continued down to the present day.
Kingship no doubt brought a host of evils in
its wake, but even during that period, the Muslims did much better than other
nations in corresponding portions of their history. Indeed the Muslims produced
a larger number of good, God-tearing kings than did any other community. But,
while one must give these virtuous kings all the praise that is due to them,
there is little doubt that, on the whole, the natural and necessary consequences
of the system of kingship were detrimental to the interests of Islam and the
Muslims. One very harmful effect of the system was that the Muslim kingdoms
shirked their duties as the upholders of the cause of Islam and confined
themselves, more or less, to the conquest of new lands and the realization of
tribute from the conquered peoples. Their failure ultimately resulted in
conditions that have caused grave and lasting harm to Muslims in a large part of
the world. For instance, take this sub continent. Many of you here must have
migrated to Pakistan from territories which were under the sway of Muslims for a
long as eight hundred years-for instance, Delhi and the surrounding areas, East
Punjab, U.P. and the Deccan. If the Muslim rulers of these territories during
the middle ages had done their duty to Islam, and taken it upon themselves to
spread and propagate the Faith, you would not have been forced today to abandon
your hearths and homes. To the limited extent that Islam did spread during the
centuries of Muslim rule in India it was due to the efforts of the theologians
and the sufis. The rulers not only made no contribution towards the spread of
Islam, their behavior and conduct generally tended to thwart the expansion of
the creed. By their .tyrannical rule and oppressive policies, by their bullying
and high handedness, by the their dissolute living and otherwise immoral
conduct, most of the kings and lesser potentates tended to alienate people from
Islam rather than make the Faith popular; only a few of them could boast of
character and conduct that would induce non-Muslims to join the ranks of Islam.
These few exceptions no doubt deserve all praise, but it is obvious that, on the
whole, kingship caused grave harm to the cause of Islam.
The spread and expansion of Islam in these
parts of the world was due almost entirely to the example and endeavors of the
ulema, the sufis and other men of virtue and character. Their efforts, however,
had some very obvious limitations. They could at best influence people with
their deeds and words, show them the right path and exhort them to follow it.
They could not possibly ensure the proper education and training of the hundreds
and thousands of people who were embracing Islam. This was the business of the
rulers, who had little interest in the matter. If they had only cooperated with
the preachers of Islam, and made suitable arrangement for the education of those
whom the preachers were drawing into the fold of Islam by their voluntary
efforts, things would have shaped quite differently. As it was, the endeavors of
the preachers were assisted and sustained only by the philanthropists; who set
up religious trusts and established schools. Obviously, this could not be an
effective substitute for government action, without which it was not possible to
liberate the converts from the shackles of ignorance and superstition and
develop them into true Muslims.
The harmful effects of this grave deficiency
in the education of Muslims during Muslim rule in India have persisted down to
this day. The bulk of the Muslims of this country are still soaked in archaic
superstition and shaked by rites. and customs inherited from their pre-Islamic
past. Their knowledge of Islam is poor and defective and their life is vitiated
by persisting influences 'of Hinduism and Buddhism and various other influences
rooted in their un-Islamic past. In other words our past still dogs our steps
and vitiates our present.
Another evil that developed amongst the
Muslims during that period was the growth of racial, tribal and national pride
and prejudice. The malady had its origin as far back as the Omayyad regime and
grew rapidly thereafter; later,. it continued to erupt and spread from time to
time like an epidemic, and destroyed various Muslim empires in different parts
of the world. It was this deadly malady that brought about the ruin of the
Omayyad Empire, vitiated the life of the Arab tribes, destroyed the Omayyads in
Spain and ultimately caused the annihilation of the Muslims in that land. Nearer
home, it was responsible for the destruction of the Mughal Empire and of the
Muslim States in Deccan. God and his Prophet had urged the Muslims to unite
through their common belief in the Islamic creed, and to be brethren unto one
another. Unfortunately the Muslims generally tended to forget and ignore the
injunction and to relapse into racial, ethnic and regional prejudices. This
prejudice, which proved the bane of the Muslims everywhere in the world, is
inherent in the system of kingship. During the period of kingship in the history
of Islam, the kings themselves exploited to the full the racial and other
prejudices, among their people. The Omayyads, for example, were challenged and
ultimately destroyed by the Abbasids, who instigated the Persians against the
Arabs with a view to promoting their own interests and replacing the Omayyad
Kingship with their own.
Racial and national prejudices not only played
havoc with the old Muslim empires, they are still corrupting and poisoning the
life of the people of Pakistan. Not long ago, the Muslims of the sub-continent
united in the name of Islam and rallying around its banner, achieved a singular
triumph in the establishment of Pakistan. But no sooner had the victory been
achieved than the old racial and ethnic prides and prejudices began to re-emerge
and reassert themselves : we again began to think in terms of race and language
and region, as Pathans or Punjabis, Bengalis or Sindhis. This, if the history of
Islam is any guide, is an evil portent for the nation.
Another malady that had its origin during the
period of kingship, and continued to spread thereafter was the erosion of the
Muslim's loyalty to Islam and the Millat and its ultimate replacement by loyalty
to the self and the clan or family. Islam had originally abolished all loyalties
based upon race, language or nationality, and replaced them with a single,
absolute loyalty-to God, His Prophet and the Faith. It was on the basis of this
supreme loyalty that Islam sought to build the character of the individual. But
during the period of kingship this loyalty soon began to weaken, and since it
was the foundation of public morality and private character, its weakening
naturally resulted in the growth of selfishness and self-promotion. In the
absence of ideals and higher loyalties, people are not willing to make any
sacrifices and everyone is interested merely in feathering his own nest or
promoting the interests of his family or clan. This was what happened in Muslim
society during the era of kingship. It became a mercenary society in which the
services of mercenary soldiers or administrators were available to anyone and
material comfort assumed paramount importance in the life of the individual as
well as the community. The Muslims provided mercenary soldiers on a large scale
for the armies of different non-Muslim and States principalities. For instance,
the Mahrattas who were among the deadliest enemies of Islam in India, had a
large number-of Muslims in their armed forces. Later, Muslims joined the British
forces in larger numbers and helped the invaders to conquer the land. In fact,
the British did not have to bring in a large army from overseas : they could
find within the country both the soldiers that they needed to conquer it and the
civil servants that they needed to run the administration. None of the local
mercenaries seemed to ponder for a moment whom they .were conquering the land
for, or whom they were administering it for. The reason was that the Muslims had
ceased to have any loyalty higher than their loyalty to themselves or their
families or clans-a loyalty which must in the final analysis turn human beings
into soulless and heartless mercenaries.
In course of time, this pernicious process
affected the entire Muslim world, ultimately destroying all the Muslim States
from the Philippines to Morocco and paying the way for the Western domination.
This domination was by no means an accidental development : it was the result of
deep-rooted historical causes which I cannot discuss in detail here. I have only
briefly indicated the causes that were responsible for our decline during the
second phase of our history and led us into the third phase-in which nearly all
the Muslim States fell victims to Western
imperialism. The few that did not pass directly under the sway of the West like
Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan-were reduced to a state that was practically worse
than slavery.
