Ulema and Pakistan Movement

The Muslims Renaissance in the sub-continent began with Shah Waliullah (1702-63) who started probing into the past and thinking in terms of the future. During the decline of Muslim power, Shah Waliullah emerged as an outstanding scholar-reformer who predicted a return to the original purity of Islam. He was not just a scholar of theology and law, but a social thinker with a keen sense for economic reforms. Without economic justice, he asserted, the social purpose of Islam could not be fulfilled. He emphasized the need for ijtihad, decrying the convention of closing the gates of ijtihad. He criticized the contemporary Ulema for their elaborate rites and rituals, which he believed, were not part of the Shariah, but un-Islamic innovations.[27]

Then came Sir Syed Ahmed Khan with his message that the Muslims could not progress without acquiring knowledge of modern sciences and technology. He asserted the simple truth that knowledge is not the exclusive preserve of any nation, it belongs to the whole mankind. Quickly he was dubbed a kafir (non-believer) by a section of Ulema. But Sir Syed Ahmed, in spite of all the calumny that was heaped on him, refused to be browbeaten. He maintained a valiant posture and succeeded in realizing the intellectual energy of a nation. As more and more Muslims got educated in the western sciences the hold of the Ulema over the Muslim community began to weaken.

The leadership of the Muslim community had passed out of the hands of the Ulema after the Rebellion of 1857. The Ulema stood aloof, except for the issuance of a fatwa, supporting the entry of the Muslims into the Congress, when Sir Syed Ahmed opposed it. The Muslim nation followed the political lead of Sir Syed Ahmad, in the nineteenth century and rejected the Ulema. But in religion they followed the Ulema and rejected Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Much the same happened in the 40's of the twentieth century. The Indian Muslims followed the political lead given to them by Jinnah (who could have been a knight like Sir Syed but he resolutely refused both title and office during the British rule) who had no pretensions to leadership in the sphere of religion. [28] The Muslim community was wiser than the ostensible defenders of its faith, culture and existence. It rejected their advice and followed others who were more realistic, more wide awake, better informed and more in line with the history of the community.[29]

After independence the conflict between the intellectuals with liberal orientation and the Ulema manifested itself in a judicial enquiry conducted by Justice Mohammad Munir in Lahore anti-Qadiani riots in 1953. The learned judge said something which the intellectuals and politicians had for long refrained to say openly. The enquiry findings, known as the Munir Report, publicized the fact that the Ulema were not only unfit to run a modern state but were deplorably unable under cross-questioning even to give realistic guidance on elementary matters of Islam. The court of enquiry was presented with the sorry spectacle that Muslim divines differed sharply on the definition of a Muslim yet each was adamant that all who disagreed should be put to death.[30]

At one point the report emphasized: " But we cannot refrain from saying here that it was a matter of infinite regret to us that the Ulema whose first duty should be to have settled views on this subject, were hopelessly disagreed amongst themselves." [31] The result of this part of the enquiry, however, has been but satisfactory, and if considerable confusion exists in the minds of our Ulema on such a simple matter, one can easily imagine what the differences on more complicated matter will be.

"Keeping in view the several definitions given by the Ulema, need we make any comment except that no two divines are agreed on this fundamental. If we attempt our own definition as each learned divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all others, we unanimously go out of the fold of Islam. And if we adopt the definition given by any one of the Ulema, we remain Muslims according to the view of that Alim but Kafirs (unbelievers) according to the definition of every one else." [32]

"The net result of all this is that neither Shias nor Sunnis nor Deobandis nor Ahl-e-Hadith nor Barelvis are Muslims and any change from one view to the other must be accompanied in an Islamic state with the penalty of death if the government of the state is in the hands of the party which considers the other party to be Kafirs. And it does not require much imagination to judge the consequences of this doctrine when it is remembered that no two Ulema have agreed before us as to the definition of a Muslim."[33]

The creation of Pakistan was the greatest defeat of the "nationalist" Ulema. But soon after the establishment of Pakistan power-monger Ulema raised their voice in the political field with new modulations. They argued that Pakistan was created to establish an Islamic state based on traditional Shariah law. However, the irony of the argument that Pakistan was founded on religious ideology lies in the fact that practically every Muslim group and organization in the Indian subcontinent that was specially religious -Islamic - was hostile to Jinnah and the Muslim League, and strongly opposed the Pakistan movement. [34] The claim of the Muslim League to be the sole representative of the entire Muslim community in India was gravely weakened by the opposition of the most important group of Indian Ulema. [35] A great deal of effort was devoted by Muslim League leaders to winning over the Ulema. Eventually they succeeded in doing so, but only partially, and only when the creation of Pakistan was just over the horizon.[36]

A claim that Pakistan was created to fulfill the millenarian religious aspirations of Indian Muslims is therefore contradicted by the fact that the principal bearers of the Islamic religion in India were alienated from the Pakistan movement. Conversely, the English-educated leaders of the Pakistan movement, not least Jinnah himself, were committed to secular politics. [37]

Some zealous religious activists are now attempting to distort the role of Ulema in the struggle for Pakistan. [38] As the old generation is gradually vanishing from the political scene of the country these Ulema are now being projected as the co-founders of Pakistan. "In some cases even the name of Quaid-i-Azamhas been eliminated and all the credit for the establishment of Pakistan is being bestowed upon these Ulema." [39] In recent years, there has been a systematic attempt by Mullahs and the rightist lobby to misrepresent Jinnah on Islam and they have tried hard to buildup an image of the father of the nation as a religious bigot. He is being projected by Mullahs, who once branded him as Kafir, as an Islamic fundamentalist.

In a TV discussion on Shariah bill in April 1991, two prominent Molvis of Lahore, Maulana Abdul Qadir and Mufti Mohammad Hussain Naeemi, implied that the Shariat bill was "the will of the Quaid. " They claimed that the rule of Quran and Sunnah was pledged by the Quaid and that Mullahs never opposed Pakistan since it was to be a religious rather than a national state. One of them said "was it not said that Pakistan ka matlab kia: La Ilahah Illallah." [40]

However, the fact is that this oft quoted statement is an election slogan coined by a Sialkot poet - Asghar Saudai. But it was never raised by the platform of the Muslim League. First and the last meeting of All Pakistan Muslim League was held under the chairmanship of the Quaid-i-Azam at Karachi's Khaliqdina Hall. During the meeting a man, who called himself Bihari, put to the Quaid that "we have been telling the people Pakistan ka matlab kia, La Ilaha Illallah." "Sit down, sit down," the Quaid shouted back. "Neither I nor my working committee, nor the council of the All India Muslim League has ever passed such a resolution wherein I was committed to the people of Pakistan, Pakistan ka matlab....., you might have done so to catch a few votes." This incident is quoted from Daghon ki Barat written by Malik Ghulam Nabi, who was a member of the Muslim League Council. The same incident is also quoted by the Raja of Mehmoudabad. [41]