A battle for the soul of Islam

January 8, 2014

Updated: January 8, 2014 01:04 IST

Hasan Suroor

With Osama bin Laden dead and al-Qaeda in disarray, moderate Muslims were set to reclaim political Islam from extremists. But 2 years later, the Islam projected by extremists is back with a vengeance

One does not have to be a revolutionary poet like Faiz Ahmad Faiz to look at events in the Muslim world and lament at being deceived by the promise of a false dawn — as he memorably did at the time of Indian independence, “Yeh woh sehar to nahin jiski arzoo le kar, chale the yaar ke mil jayegee kabhi na kabhi.”

Barely two years ago around this time, the Arab Street appeared to be on the cusp of a historic democratic revolution that was supposed to define Islam in the 21st century. An Islam compatible and at ease with the democratic values of free speech and tolerance.

With Osama bin Laden dead and al-Qaeda in disarray, moderate Muslims were set to reclaim the much maligned political Islam from extremists. The sight of articulate young Muslims with their Blackberrys and iPhones yearning for change and pushing for a radical break with the past mesmerised the world. Even card-carrying Islamophobes were forced into rethinking their pet theories about Islam.

It was hailed as Islam’s belated Enlightenment moment — a heady time when even a minor street protest came to be celebrated as a sign of Muslim awakening. William Wordsworth’s paean to the French Revolution could well apply to the “Arab Spring,” “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!”

Its own making

Yet, all that seems so long ago now. The old terrifying face of Islam projected by extremists is back with a vengeance. The so-called jihadis have seized back the crucial edge in the battle for the soul of Islam. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that, unwittingly, moderate Muslims have thrown away the gains briefly achieved in those heady days in 2011.

Few revolutions in modern history have turned out quite so badly, and been so greedily devoured by its own children. Today, much of the Muslim world is in worse shape than before — a seething cauldron of hate and bigotry, and torn by sectarian violence. Crucially, for once, the “Great Satan” has nothing to do with what is going on there. There is no George W. Bush, no Tony Blair. Indeed, America has gone to some lengths to keep out of it even at the risk of alienating some of its European allies.

Revival of hostility

The mess is entirely of Muslims’ own making. It is the “Great Satan” within who is wreaking the damage. Islam is at war with itself, which is raging, simultaneously, at several levels — between moderates and extremists; between Shias and Sunnis; and between pro-West (Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies) and anti-West (Iran, Lebanon, Syria) Muslim powers.

Perhaps, for the first time since the emergence of political Islam in its present ugly form in the last century the target of hate is not the West. It is very much an intra-Muslim affair. The warriors as well as their targets are all indigenous. Mostly, it is Muslims fighting other Muslims with Christians often caught up in the crossfire.

One of the most disturbing aspects is the bloody resurgence of Shia-Sunni hostility. Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria all have been sucked into a cycle of Muslim-on-Muslim violence that makes the Catholic-Protestant troubles in Northern Ireland look like kids’ stuff.

In Iraq alone, more than 6,000 people were killed in Shia-Sunni violence in 2013 — “a death toll not seen since 2008,” according to the BBC. Across West Asia, a form of ethnic cleansing is going on with Shias being forced to flee Sunni-majority areas, and vice versa. The region is awash with refugees from both sects raising the spectre of a Palestinian-style crisis of the stateless/homeless Muslims.

It is reckoned that more than a third of Syria’s population has been displaced, with a knock-on effect being felt throughout West Asia. In Lebanon, the presence of Sunni Muslim refugees has put pressure on its already fragile sectarian balance. Tensions are being fuelled by the Shia militant group Hezbollah which is actively backing the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a fellow Shia from the Alawite sect. And all this is happening with the blessings of Shia/Sunni regimes aligned to rival sectarian interests.

It’s a proxy war with Shia Iran, Iraq and Syria in one camp, and the Saudis and their Sunni allies such as Qatar in the other. The ouster of the Mohammad Morsi government and the persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood have nothing to do with protecting Egypt from Islamist extremism or upholding secularism and democracy. It is Saudi Arabia flexing its Sunni muscles as it did when it helped crush a nascent uprising in Bahrain. (To avoid any perceptions of bias, let me declare that I am a Sunni.)

The leaderless Tahrir Square “revolutionaries” have been a casualty of a wider quasi-religious struggle among major Muslim powers for supremacy. Rather than setting the agenda for a “new” Egypt, they have ended up serving others’ agendas. First the army used them to get rid of Hosni Mubarak by portraying itself as the defender of the revolution, and then to suppress the Muslim Brotherhood which, as the only organised political force in the country, posed a threat to its influence.

The failed Arab Spring is an object lesson in how not to organise a revolution. Contrary to the romantic notion of a spontaneous revolution, it is actually a cold beast which needs credible leadership, a high level of organisation, a coherent ideology and a clearly thought-out plan for afterwards. Instead, what we saw on the Arab street was only idealism and anger. No leadership, no organisation and no alternative script.

This allowed all sorts of elements with their own agendas — the army, dodgy dissidents at home and abroad, and extremists — to step in and hijack the show. The only exception is Tunisia where after initial chaos, Ennahda, a well-organised moderate Islamist party, has been able to provide a semblance of stable democratic alternative.

Insecurity of Christians

And what about Islam’s fabled respect towards other faiths?

There has been an alarming increase in anti-Christian violence with attacks on churches, Christian homes and businesses without any apparent provocation. In Egypt, the minority Coptic Christian community is living in fear after a series of attacks allegedly by Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Hundreds of churches and other properties belonging to Christians have been destroyed or looted apparently because the Coptic Pope Tawadros II spoke in support of military rulers. In Syria, Christians have been attacked by anti-Assad forces who accuse them of supporting his regime.

Christians all over West Asia feel insecure and there is a climate of fear. There are reports of large-scale “Christian flight” from the region with almost one-third of Christians having fled Syria alone, it is claimed. The Christians being targeted are not western expats; they do not represent western interests. Not that it would have made attacks on them any more legitimate. They are historically settled communities — as Arab as any Muslim Arab in terms of their historical roots in the region. Understandably, there is deep concern about the future of Christianity in the land of its birth.

Prince Charles, one of the few high-profile friends of Muslims in the West and who has done a lot of work to promote Muslim-Christian dialogue, has voiced his dismay. He told an interfaith audience in London recently that he had spent 20 years trying “to build bridges between Islam and Christianity to dispel ignorance and misunderstanding.” But these bridges were now “rapidly being deliberately destroyed by those with a vested interest in doing so.”

He urged Muslims, Jews and Christians to unite in “outrage” against the turn of events in the region.

Beyond the disappointments of the false Arab dawn, however, is the broader question of the existential crisis facing Islam in the land of its birth. Given its regressive trajectory, liberal Muslims, especially, will be right to worry about the shape in which Islam emerges from this crisis. It doesn’t look good.

hasan.suroor@gmail.com

Copyright© 2014, The Hindu

Towards a progressive interpretation of Islam

January 11, 2013

Updated: January 11, 2013 02:05 IST

A. Faizur Rahman

In the Koranic conception, marriage is the bonding of two minds which cannot be achieved simultaneously with more than one woman.

The Delhi court judge who rejected bail to a maulvi in a forcible marriage case was right in saying that there is no blanket sanction for polygamy in the Koran

In a significant judgment pronounced last month (in State vs. Nadeem Khan case) Delhi’s Additional Sessions Judge Dr. Kamini Lau called upon religious heads, priests and maulvis “to ensure that the religious texts are progressively interpreted and to confirm that it is only those beneficial practices which are in the best interest of all sections of humanity which are encouraged and observed.” She was dismissing the anticipatory bail application of a Maulvi accused of forcibly marrying a young Muslim girl to an already married man who raped her soon after the Nikah. The judge’s remarks, which form part of her eloquent 14-page order, were in response to the maulvi’s defence that there was nothing illegal about his performing the Nikah because the Shariah permitted a Muslim man to have four wives at a time.

The importance of Dr. Lau’s order lies in her scholarly refutation of the medieval belief that polygyny enjoys blanket sanction in Islam. Citing Muslim scriptures the judge avers that “polygamy is neither mandatory nor encouraged but merely permitted. The Koran’s conditional endorsement of polygamy stresses that self-interest or sexual desire should not be the reason for entering into a polygamous marriage” because the original purpose of allowing this practice was “to protect the social and financial standing of the widows and orphans in their community.”

Historical context

Dr. Lau is absolutely right in her analysis. Indeed, except conditional polygyny, the Koran frowns upon all types of non-monogamous relationships within in and outside marriage. Significantly, polygyny itself finds mention just once (4:3) in the entire Koran. Yet Muslim men have abused it over centuries without appreciating the spirit behind its exceptional sanction, which is clearly contextualised in the historical conditions of the time when a large number of women were widowed and children orphaned as Muslims suffered heavy casualties in defending the nascent Islamic community in Medina. Even a simple reading of verses 4: 2, 3 and 127 will show that it was under such circumstances that the Koran allowed conditional polygyny to protect orphans and their mothers from an exploitative society.

Verse 4:2 warns caretakers against devouring the assets of orphans either by merging them with their own, or substituting their “worthless properties for the good ones” of the orphans. And, if the caretakers “fear that they may not be able to do justice” to the interests of the orphans in isolation, the next verse allows them to marry their widowed mothers — on the condition that the new family would be dealt justly on a par with the existing one. For those who are not up to it, the instruction of the Koran was: “Then [marry] only one.”

The sanctity of taking care of widows and their children is further emphasised in 4:127: “And remember what has been rehearsed unto you in the Book [in 4:2 and 3] concerning the orphans of women to whom you give not what is prescribed, and yet whom you desire to marry...” This proves that verse 4:3 is not a hedonistic license to marry several women.

Furthermore, the Koran idyllically describes the marital couple as “spousal mates” created to find “quiet of mind” (7:189) and “to dwell in tranquillity” (30:21) in the companionship of each other. In fact, verse 7:189, which traces the origin of man to a single cell (nafsan waahida), refers to the wife in the singular as zaujaha, thereby emphasising monogamy. Thus, in the Koranic conception, marriage is the emotional bonding of two minds which cannot be achieved simultaneously with more than one woman.

Restricted in many countries

For this reason polygyny is severely restricted in many Muslim countries and totally banned in Tunisia and Turkey, a fact pointed out by Dr. Lau in support of her judgment. In Pakistan for instance, Sec. 6 of the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961 states that no man, during the subsistence of an existing marriage, can contract another marriage without the permission in writing of the Arbitration Council — a body consisting of representatives of each of the parties to a matter dealt with under the Ordinance — which would grant the sanction applied for after satisfying itself that the proposed marriage is necessary and just.

The Indian Muslim community is perhaps the only Islamic society in the world where utter confusion prevails insofar as the proper definition of Shariah is concerned. Judge Lau brings this up saying, “… in democratic India, it is time to clear certain misconceptions and misgivings regarding Islam. Merely because the Muhammadan Personnel Law does not stand codified, it does not in any manner entitle a violator/ accused to get away with an interpretation which suits his convenience.” Once again she has hit the nail on the head. One fails to understand why the Muslim clerics have always sought to straitjacket the time-transcending polysemic phraseology of the Koran and restrict its meaning to outdated medieval hermeneutics. It is no wonder that a verse in the Koran (25:30) visualises Prophet Muhammad as complaining to God on the Day of Judgment that after his demise his followers had circumscribed the comprehensive message of the Koran.

In this context, one is reminded of the valiant attempt made by the great 14th century jurist Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi of Muslim Spain who in his celebrated legal treatise al-Muwafaqaat fi usool al-Shariah developed the concept of Maslaha (public good) as an essential element of his doctrine Maqaasid al-Shariah (Goals of the Shariah) which he formulated to make Islamic law adaptable to social change. Shatibi argued that an inductive analysis of the injunctions of the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet would reveal that Maslaha is the universal principle that permeates Islam because, the divine intent behind societal sharaa’i (laws) is the masaalih (benefits, good) of the people, both immediate and future. Therefore, any law that does not have Maslaha as its basis cannot be attributed to the Lawgiver.

Surprisingly, even a staunch traditionalist like Ibn al-Qayyim agreed with Shatibi. In his I’laam al-muwaqqi’in he wrote: “The Shariah is all justice, kindness, masaalih and hikma [wisdom]. Hence, any rule that departs from justice to injustice…from Maslaha to Mafsada is not part of Shariah…” It can, therefore, be stated with a fair amount of certainty that the stagnation of Islamic law in India is a result of ignoring the relevance of public interest in lawmaking. It is time Muslim theologians realised that any interpretation of Islam that is amoral, unfair and inconsistent with principles of natural justice and social ethics, cannot claim to represent the Divine Will, and therefore, does not deserve to be epitomised as the Shariah.

(A. Faizur Rahman is secretary general of the Islamic Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought. E-mail: faizz@rocketmail.com)

Copyright© 2014, The Hindu

Jihad most misunderstood concept of Islam: Historian

 

TNN Jan 4, 2014, 06.57AM IST

CHENNAI: Jihad normally evokes images of bearded men shaking their fists, smoke bellowing from two towers and hooded men wielding grenade launchers. "So ingrained is the fear of the word that my lecture in Chennai almost got cancelled after some people raised concerns over jihad being the topic," historian S Irfan Habib said on Friday.

In the city to deliver a lecture organised by the Islamic Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought, Habib, a historian of science and political history who holds the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad chair at Delhi's National University of Educational Planning and Administration, questioned the stereotypes and the propaganda shrouding Islam.

"Believers have started taking religion so seriously that it has become an obsession," said Habib. The 60-year-old who has authored several books on the history of science quoted from the Quran, saying the text primarily promoted independent thinking. "Ijtihad — independent thinking and reasoning — was given priority, but over the years radicals have conveniently buried this term and pushed for collective thinking, which continues to be the way of life for many who follow the religion."

Ruing that Islam had moved from being a religion to a ritual of sorts for many, he blamed leaders who interpreted the scriptures based on their convenience. "It is sad that many Muslims in the country don't know Arabic and hence the real meaning of the texts eludes them. The Quran must be translated into local languages, that way the scriptures won't be an enclave of the select few," said Habib.

"The problem is people are too scared to question. That should not be the case. By not questioning negativity shrouds Islam," he said.

"Everything is a jihad — pursuit of education, earning a living and fighting your egos. But, now, it is the most misunderstood concept of Islam," Habib said.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-01-04/chennai/45859810_1_s-irfan-habib-quran-islamic-forum

India Muslims Correct Jihad Misconceptions

 

OnIslam & Newspapers

Saturday, 04 January 2014 00:00

"Everything is a jihad — pursuit of education, earning a living and fighting your egos,” historian S Irfan Habib said.

CAIRO – Indian Muslims have organized a special lecture to correct misconceptions about the most misunderstood Islamic concept; jihad.

"Everything is a jihad — pursuit of education, earning a living and fighting your egos,” historian S Irfan Habib said in a lecture organized by the Islamic Forum for the Promotion of Moderate Thought, Times of India reported on Saturday, January 4.

“ But, now, it is the most misunderstood concept of Islam," he added.

Habib, a historian of science and political history who holds the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad chair at Delhi's National University of Educational Planning and Administration, questioned the stereotypes of Islam and Muslims worldwide.

"Believers have started taking religion so seriously that it has become an obsession," said Habib.

Authoring several books on history of science quoted from the Qur’an, the 60-year-old historian said the Noble Qur’an primarily promotes independent thinking.

"Ijtihad — independent thinking and reasoning — was given priority, but over the years radicals have conveniently buried this term and pushed for collective thinking, which continues to be the way of life for many who follow the religion," said Habib.

"It is sad that many Muslims in the country don't know Arabic and hence the real meaning of the texts eludes them. The Quran must be translated into local languages, that way the scriptures won't be an enclave of the select few," he added.

The Muslim historian encouraged non-Muslims to contact their Muslim friends to get the true and proper meaning of Jihad.

"The problem is people are too scared to question. That should not be the case. By not questioning negativity shrouds Islam," Habib said.

"So ingrained is the fear of the word that my lecture in Chennai almost got cancelled after some people raised concerns over jihad being the topic," he added.

There are some 140 million Muslims in Hindu-majority India and they have long complained of being discriminated against in all walks of life.

Jihad is often stereotyped by Western media as meaning “holy war”.

But Muslim scholars have repeatedly affirmed that the word Jihad, which is mentioned in the Noble Qur'an, means "struggle" to do good and to remove injustice, oppression and evil from society.

Karen Armstrong, the prominent and prolific British writer on all three monotheistic religions, has criticized stereotyping the Arabic word "jihad" as merely meaning holy war.

http://www.onislam.net/english/news/asia-pacific/467695-india-muslims-correct-jihad-misconceptions.html

From displacement to disappearance

January 2, 2014

Updated: January 2, 2014 01:03 IST

Farah Naqvi

Camp after camp has been forced to disappear in Muzaffarnagar by the official authorities. The people displaced by the communal riots are now in small shanty settlements, 10 tents here, another 10 tents half a kilometre down the road

On December 26, 2013, a large group of visitors entered the Loi relief camp in Muzaffarnagar district, Uttar Pradesh. Loi camp — a festering sea of displaced and despairing humanity, with tattered tents and slush as far as the eye could see, where children stare without even a hint of the smile that can sometimes hide deep in children’s eyes. The occasion was that a member of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) had come to see the situation at first hand. Activists from the Joint Citizens’ Initiative (JCI), a collective of non-governmental organisations (NGO) working in these camps for over two months — were also present. The full array of local administration was in attendance — the additional district magistrate, the chief medical officer (CMO), the tehsildar and others. A meeting of survivors took place and a cacophony rent the air. “We are being threatened and pressured by the administration to ‘clear off government land.’ Do not remove us from here. We have no place to go.” Even those whose names have appeared on lists entitling them to compensation said this. They said the promise of money in a bank is not the instant equivalent of a home, with a roof, livelihood or security. “Where should we go today in this freezing cold? Compensation on paper doesn’t mean we move on to a street with small children overnight. Give us time to rebuild our lives, our communities. And why just fling compensation at us? Arrest the guilty. Give us security,” they said. Survivors who have not been deemed fit for any compensation were even more desperate to stay.

Assurances and upheaval

Administrative assurances were given that no one would be forced to leave. Official promises were made of milk, medicines and firewood in the days to come. The CMO admitted that in the first two months of the camp’s existence, the administration had not distributed any milk. But since news of children dying went viral, one milk powder tin has been given to each family, he told us, clearly proud of this largesse. One left the camp that evening somewhat reassured that the visit had bought these internally displaced people some time — a few extra weeks or months in which to get help; for NGOs to bring doctors to examine the 72 pregnant women in the camp (at least eight of them due to deliver any day now); to treat those sick; to distribute books, get admit cards and seek transfers of exam centres for young people so that they can give board exams and not lose a year of their life; to explore reconciliation for those willing to return; to try and help those who have got nothing from the government get some of their due. A few more weeks or months of shelter….. is that too much for survivors to ask for the enormous process of seeking rehabilitation and restitution after being torn so violently from their homes, roots and histories?

But, next morning, thumbing their collective noses at the survivors, the NCM, and at the constitutional contract between citizen and state, the same array of local officials arrived, this time with a JCB excavator. In what is nothing less than an act of unconscionable State terror, they uprooted tents of all the displaced families whose names had appeared on the Rs.5 lakh compensation list. As a final act of viciousness, they dug large pits where the tent had stood, making sure it could never be re-pitched. Overnight, the Loi relief camp had become half its size. Pitted with holes. Many of its former residents scattered to the winds. Human debris.

In this first round of bulldozing, the administration only removed families from nine identified villages where much of the murder and sexual assault had taken place. Only these nine (out of over 140 villages affected by the violence) are entitled to Rs.5 lakh “displacement” compensation per family, given after they sign an affidavit saying they will not return to their village, not occupy government land, and not live in a relief camp. Having extorted this commitment from frightened citizens, whom the state failed to protect, the same state is now determined to enforce this affidavit. (The Rs.5 lakh is given only to the head of the family, regardless of family size. If you shared a family choolah in your erstwhile village, this is all you collectively get, even if there are sons who are married, each with independent families and separate ration cards.)

No justiciable framework

Rs.5 lakh may sound like a decent sum — after all, those displaced are by and large poor people. But break it down and it’s a pittance. Land prices in host villages (where relief camps had sprung up) have escalated with the expectation that riot survivors will be forced to buy land there. What was Rs.1,000 per guz (yard) has gone up to Rs.3,200. Buy a plot of 100 guz and there goes a chunk of the grand Rs.5 lakh, with little left for construction costs, and nothing left with which to eat.

Besides, money alone does not mean reparation, rehabilitation or restitution. How should scattered survivors rebuild the shared community that was once theirs — a village with a chaupal, a school, a playground, a graveyard, where their ancestors are buried? A village that holds the cultural inheritance that was theirs to give to their children, and to their children after that? A place called home? All this and more has been lost. All this and more needs to be regained. This is the debt owed by responsible states to their citizens when it fails to protect them. But in India we have neither the heart nor the vision. No law, no policy, no justiciable framework for internally displaced persons affected because of violence. So, State governments decide capriciously how much money to throw at people, whom to give it to, and whom to leave out.

More displacement

What if you do not belong to these nine villages, and are not entitled to Rs.5 lakh as compensation? Tough luck. You have no business being scared, or trying to live on government land. So, you too are being asked to leave — from Loi, Shahpur, Jhaula and other camps. Go home, go pitch a tent on another roadside, go to another State, or take a boat to another country. The Uttar Pradesh government only cares that you do not collectively sit like an eyesore in anything that can be called a relief camp, for it is identifiable, is irrefutable evidence of large-scale human misery, of state failure, and, in election season, an open invitation to political opponents.

Camp after camp has been forced to disappear. But where are the internally displaced persons? Look closer where the camps once stood and you will find them. In small shanty settlements, 10 tents here, another 10 tents half a kilometre down the road, 20-odd tents along the talab in Loi village. It is the same story in Shahpur. The “camp” has disappeared. Its people are now part of India’s great slum story, their tent clusters dotting the countryside of Shahpur village, here today, gone tomorrow; their permanent addresses unknown.

Remember, these nine are the villages where most of the main criminal cases have been filed — and the Rs.5 lakh is beginning to seem sinister, like hush money. Is this the message — take the money and disappear? The result is that no witnesses will be found, and criminal justice will not be secured. Is that what’s really going on? In Kutba, one of the nine villages designated for “displacement” compensation, where eight people were killed, only five arrests have been made. Warrants are out for another 36 people. Over three months after the violence, the police appear unable to find them.

Even after counting the dead, there are so many more disappearances in Muzaffarnagar — the relief camps, riot survivors and the accused. And this is just the beginning of election season in India’s most populous State.

(Postscript: At the time of writing, December 30, 2013, the Loi relief camp had been emptied of all but a handful of tents. The effect of the JCB excavator could be seen in the way scared survivors began pulling down their rickety tents and creeping away in the days following December 26, in search of other innocuous hiding places. A police picket has appeared at the camp entrance to make sure they do not return. This has been their second forced displacement.)

(Farah Naqvi, a writer and activist, is a member of the National Advisory Council. The views expressed are personal. E-mail: farah.naqvi64@yahoo.com)

In search of Prophetic Islam

December 23, 2013

Updated: December 23, 2013 21:08 IST

A. Faizur Rahman

JIHAD AND OTHER ESSAYS: Asghar Ali Engineer; Pub. by The Book People, an imprint of Olive, East Nadakkavu, Kozhikode-673011. Rs. 595.

Muslim orthodoxy has always claimed Islam to be one of the most misunderstood religions in the world. The insinuation here is that non-Muslims have not put enough effort to find out what this religion really stands for. The truth is, if responses to Islam have fluctuated between bewilderment and phobia, Muslim theologians are to be largely blamed. Their conflicting expositions on what constitutes the shariah have confounded not just non-Muslims but Muslims too. For example, one set of scholars legalise triple talaq which renders a woman instantly divorced on the pronouncement of the word talaq thrice by her husband, even if he happens to be drunk; while another group considers this method illegal. Confusion also prevails over the legality of marrying minor girls. There are scholars who shockingly justify the marriage of eight year old girls to forty year old men, even as others condemn this practice. Then there is the mystique of jihad. Does it mean “holy war”, or is it a democratic struggle against social injustice? Opinions diagonally vary. There is also no unanimity among the scholars on the correct definition of the word kafir. Most of them use it, without any basis of course, to refer to all non-Muslims. But Muslims have also been branded kafirs (apostates) liable to be killed; mainly to suppress dissent or to put down other schools of thought.

It was left to the reformist scholars throughout history to make sense of this mindboggling theological discord and demystify Islam to the world. One such personality was Asghar Ali Engineer, the renowned Mumbai-based social activist who cudgelled against anachronistic interpretations of Islam. He unfortunately passed away in May 2013 just before the launch of Jihad and other Essays which is a collection of 42 of his articles on various Islamic issues including jihad, ijtihad, burqa, compassion, gender equality, freedom of religion, commonalities between Islam and Hinduism, Indian Muslims, Islamic secularism and the absence of democracy in the Muslim world.

Mardin symposium

But jihad is by far the most discussed subject in this compendium. It figures in the title of no less than six essays in different contexts in which Engineer takes great pains to explain that jihad, out of the 41 times it is mentioned in the Quran, has not once been used in the sense of holy war either against the Muslims or non-Muslims. The Quranic words for war are qitaal and harb. As further evidence, Engineer refers to the important conclave of top Islamic scholars, held in March 2010 in the historic city of Mardin (Turkey). The subject of the Mardin meeting was the controversial ‘Mardin fatwa’ issued by the 14th century Muslim theologian Ibn Taymiyyah, which proclaimed jihad against the Mongols despite their conversion to Islam on the grounds that they could not be true Muslims because they followed the ‘man-made’ Yasa code instead of the shariah. Over the centuries, this fatwa had been misused by Muslim extremists to justify violence against non-Muslims and also other Muslims by declaring them apostates at the slightest difference of opinion. The Mardin symposium was an attempt to neutralise this. Its New Mardin Declaration inter alia condemned the moral vigilantism of radicals and called upon Muslim scholars to analyse and assess “ideas that breed extremism, takfir (labelling fellow Muslims as unbelievers) and violence in the name of Islam.” Citing this, Engineer exhorts Muslim youth to focus on education to avoid falling prey to extremist ideologies. The ulama and Muslim intellectuals, on the other hand, are asked to shift their discourse from jihad to ijtihad (independent reasoning), and through ijtihad transcend all existing schools of Islamic law and develop a unified law applicable to all Muslims thereby giving a “greater meaning to the otherwise hollow slogan of Islamic unity.”And such a law is possible, argues Engineer, only if prominence is given to the four most fundamental values promoted by the Quran; justice (adl), benevolence (ihsaan), compassion (rahmah) and wisdom (hikmah). He laments the fact that no Muslim state or society today follows these values. Indeed, theologians have circumscribed Islam to some selected aspects of the shariah such as the dress code for women, hudood laws (laws of fixed punishments), blasphemy laws and so on. And if Islam is to be unshackled from the hobbles of medievalism the Prophet’s liberation theology is the only way out.

In the article Muhammad (PBUH) as Liberator Engineer points out that the Prophet was more than a teacher and spiritual guide. His primary Quranic mission was to liberate humanity from ignorance, superstition, oppression, slavery and injustice. In fact, even before messengership was conferred on him, the Prophet, along with several tribes, was part of a confederacy called Hilful Fuzool in Mecca whose aim was suppressing violence and injustice, and protecting the rights of the weak and the poor.

Engineer explains how, using the very first command (Iqra or, Read) revealed to him, the Prophet liberated the Arabs from the darkness of ignorance and illiteracy. In fact, the change in Arab attitude toward knowledge and rationalism was so radical that within a century an intellectual glitter surrounded the Islamic world while most of Europe was experiencing a phrenic blackout. And, the barriers of colour, status and race were brought down so fast that a liberated black slave, Bilal, saw himself being elevated to the high position of a muezzin (prayer caller), an honour coveted by many free and “racially superior” Arabs. Not to mention the freedom that was granted to women from the slave-like treatment that was meted out to them by the Arab male. The Prophet, through the Quran, also liberated the Arab society from economic injustice. Back-breaking usury was abolished and only honest trade was permitted. Speculation was banned, and the rich were asked to contribute at least one-fortieth of their annual income to a common fund for the benefit of the economically challenged members of the society.

Yet another glorious aspect of the Prophet’s liberating message was the openness, tolerance and respect for other religions. Muslims were not just asked not to differentiate between divine prophets, they were also warned that there was no compulsion in religion. Engineer equates this attitude of Islam to its compatibility with secularism wherein people of all faiths and ideologies are allowed to live in peace and harmony, subject of course to no group forcing its way of life on another. As an amazing example Engineer cites the framework of governance the Prophet signed with the people of Medina soon after his migration to that city. This historic constitution known as Meesaq al-Madina upheld the right of all citizens to their respective religions. Included in this agreement was the most tolerant clause, “the Jews of the Banu Auf shall be considered as a community (ummah) along with Believers [that is, Mulsims]; for the Jews their religion, and for the Muslims their religion.”

In short, it is the argument of Engineer that unless Muslims revive the spirit of Islam found in the Universalist message of Prophet Muhammad, their future is bleak. Jihad and other Essays offers a wonderful insight into what this message is. It serves both as a guide for the perplexed and an effective antidote to the disinformation campaign of the Islamophobes.

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