Nadwi on Maududi: A Traditionalist Maulvi's Critique
of Islamism
By Yoginder Sikand, TwoCircles.net
The late Sayyed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (or Ali Miyan as
he was also
known) was one of the leading Indian ulema of modern
times. A noted
writer, he headed the famous Nadwat ul-Ulema madrasa
in Lucknow from
1961 till his death in 1999. He was associated with
several other
Indian as well as international Islamic organisations,
a mark of the
high respect that he was accorded among Muslims all
over the world.
Maulana Nadwi's wrote extensively on a vast range of
subjects,
including on Islam and politics. On this issue, his
views underwent a
gradual process of change and maturation, beginning
with his early
association with a leading Indian Islamist formation
and later making
a forceful critique of some crucial aspects of its
understanding of
Islam. His views in this regard point to the
little-known yet rich
internal debate among Indian Muslim scholars about the
relationship
between Islam and politics, particularly on the
question of what
Islamists describe as an 'Islamic state'.
In 1940, Maulana Nadwi came under the influence of
Sayyid Maududi, the
founder of the principal Indian Islamist outfit, the
Jamaat-i Islami.
Maududi, along with the Egyptian Syed Qutb, may be
said to be among
the pioneers of contemporary Islamism. Soon after
joining the Jamaat,
Maulana Nadwi was put in-charge of its activities in
Lucknow. This
relationship proved short-lived, however, and he left
the Jamaat in
1943. He later wrote that he was disillusioned by the
perception that
many members of the Jamaat were going to what he
called 'extremes' in
adoring and glorifying Maududi as almost infallible,
this bordering on
'personality worship'. At the same time, he felt that
many Jamaat
activists believed that they had nothing at all to
learn from any
other scholars of Islam. He was also concerned with
what he saw as a
lack of personal piety in Maududi and some leading
Jamaat activists
and with their criticism of other Muslim groups.
Maulana Nadwi's opposition to the Jamaat's
understanding about Islam
and politics, which it shared with most other Islamist
formations,
comes out clearly in his Urdu book Asr-i Hazir Mai Din
Ki
Tahfim-o-Tashrih ('Understanding and Explaining
Religion in the
Contemporary Age') which he penned in 1978, and which
won him, so he
says in his introduction to its second edition
published in 1980,
fierce condemnation from leading members of the
Jamaat. Here, Maulana
Nadwi takes Maududi to task for having allegedly
misinterpreted
central Islamic beliefs in order to suit his own
political agenda,
presenting Islam, he says, as little more than a
political programme.
Thus, he accuses Maududi of wrongly equating the
Islamic duty of
'establishing religion' with the setting up of an
Islamic state with
God as Sovereign and Law Maker. At Maududi's hands, he
says, 'God',
'The Sustainer', 'Religion' and 'Worship' have all
been reduced to
political concepts. In this way, Maududi, Maulana
Nadwi says, sought
to incorrectly suggest that Islam is simply about
political power and
that the relationship between God and human beings is
only that
between an All-Powerful King and His subjects.
However, Maulana Nadwi
says, this relationship is also one of 'love' and
'realisation of the
Truth', which is far more comprehensive than what
Maududi envisages.
Linked to Maulana Nadwi's critique of Maududi for
having allegedly
reduced Islam to a mere political project was his
concern that not
only was such an approach a distortion of the actual
import of the
Quran but also that it was impractical, if not
dangerous, in the
Indian context. Thus, he argued, Maududi's insistence
that to accept
the commands of anyone other than God, including of an
elected
government, was tantamount to shirk, the crime of
associating others
with God, as this was allegedly akin to 'worship', was
not in keeping
with the teachings of Islam. God, Maulana Nadwi wrote,
had, in His
wisdom, left several areas of life free for people to
decide how they
could govern them, within the broad limits set by the
Islamic law or
shariah, and guided by a concern for social welfare.
Further, Maulana Nadwi asserted that Maududi's
argument that God had
sent prophets to the world charged with the mission of
establishing an
'Islamic state' was a misreading of the Islamic
concept of
prophethood. The principal work of the prophets,
Maulana Nadwi argued,
was to preach the worship of the one God and to exhort
others to do
good deeds. Not all prophets were rulers. In fact,
only a few of them
were granted that status. Maulana Nadwi faulted
Maududi for what he
said was 'debasing' the 'lofty' Islamic understanding
of worship to
mean simply 'training' people as willing subjects of
the Islamic
state. In Maududi's understanding of Islam, he wrote,
prayer and
remembrance of God are seen as simply the means to an
end, the
establishment of an Islamic state, whereas, Maulana
Nadwi argued, the
converse is true. The goal of the Islamic state is to
ensure worship
of God, and not the other way round. If at all worship
can be said to
be a means, he added, it is a means for securing the
'will of God' and
'closeness to Him'.
If the 'Islamic state' should then simply a means for
the
'establishment of religion' and not the 'total
religion' or the
'primary objective' of Islam, it opens up the
possibility of pursuing
the same goals through other means. Maulana Nadwi
refers to this when
he says that the objective of the 'establishment of
the faith' needs
to be pursued along with 'wisdom of the faith', using
constructive, as
opposed to destructive, means. Eschewing 'total
opposition', Muslims
striving for the 'establishment of the faith' should,
he wrote,
unhesitatingly adopt peaceful means such as
'understanding and
reform', 'consultation' and 'wisdom'. Critiquing the
use of uncalled
for violence by some groups calling themselves
'Islamic', Maulana
Nadwi stressed the need for 'obedience', 'love' and
'faith' and
struggle against the 'base self' (nafs). Muslims
should, he wrote,
make use of all available legitimate spaces to pursue
the cause of the
'establishment of religion', such as propagating their
message through
literature, public discussions, training volunteers,
winning others
over with the force of one's own personality and
establishing contacts
with governments.
Maulana Nadwi's critique of radical Islamism points to
the rich
theological resources contained within traditional
Islamic thought
that can be used to fashion alternate understandings
of the
relationship between Islam and politics in a far more
sensible way
than most Islamists have articulated hitherto and
which have caused
untold havoc in the name of Islam.
Book Info: Sayyed Abul Hasan 'Ali Nadwi, 'Asr-i Hazir
Mai Din Ki
Tahfim-o-Tashrih, Dar-ul 'Arafat, Lucknow. 1980
edition.
--
Sukhia Sab Sansar Khaye Aur Soye
Dukhia Das Kabir Jagey Aur Roye
The world is 'happy', eating and sleeping
The forlorn Kabir Das is awake and weeping
Sukhia Sab Sansar Khaye Aur Soye
Dukhia Das Kabir Jagey Aur Roye
The world is 'happy', eating and sleeping
The forlorn Kabir Das is awake and weeping
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