Repairing Azad’s vision: A.I. saiyed
October 11, 2008: The Indian Express
Few would deny that the bomb blasts that shredded the peace in our towns in recent times are a crime against humanity, and events should compel us to think hard about solutions. While there have been no dearth of debates, remonstrances and pontifications through the media, it is painful that though we have been suggested solutions by the bushel, none have really served to address the roots of the problem. The Muslim community has been insular and has been struggling with hidebound approaches to the problem; the truth is that only they can rescue themselves.
I do not claim that a Muslim identity always helps make things smoother. In 2002, when the riots were searing Gujarat, I was joint director of the Gujarat police academy. A mob of around a thousand people stopped my official car, and someone in the crowd noticed the nameplate on my chest, and shouted. My driver, a Hindu, was quickwitted enough to somehow race the car through roadblocks to safety. At another point, in 1992, I was deputy commissioner of police in Ahmedabad and was told that Chief Minister Chimanbhai Patel wanted a Muslim police officer to manage the post-Babri Masjid demolition troubles in Surat. I replied: “When I put on the uniform, I am not a Muslim police officer. I am just an officer, and my caste and creed stay at home.¶ I was not asked again.
Yet, all that cannot obfuscate the real malaise, which is within.
Many years ago, the late Maulana Abul Kalam Azad had aptly, metaphorically, depicted his agony when he addressed a Friday congregation at the Jama Masjid in Delhi: “Do you remember that when I hailed you , you cut off my tongue; I picked up my pen and you severed my hand; I wanted to move forward and you cut off my legs; I tried to turn over and you injured my back.¶
That statement cast light on the blurry tunnel vision of Indian Muslims and their aversion to prudent advice. Maulana Azad obviously had a sense of foreboding about the community even in those days, before Partition. Many decades later, Muslim communities are still in rudderless boats, sans a proper leadership or awareness, with no real hopes of surmounting their problems.
The so called “Indian¶ Mujahideen have accepted the responsibility for the recent heinous acts. But to what defensible extent are they truly Indian, or even truly mujahideen? A single phrase from the Hadith would suffice to explain the actual philosophy of Islam: Hubul Watan, Minal Imaan. It means “Love for your country is part of your imaan¶. To add to that, there is the concept of ibadaat, which means “servitude¶ towards that which is not confined to specific times of prayer or ritual, but which spreads over a lifetime and is constant, so that it encompasses each and every action of one’s life and good deeds in the world created by the Almighty.
Muslims need to question themselves about their present plight all the more now. Why is this happening to us? A big reason is that we lack true education. We recite the Quran but never try to understand it in the true sense — even if that is attempted, the Maulvis often teach a travesty of it. The words kaffir and jihad have been completely misconstrued. Even if we want to understand our religion, we need a rational and scientific approach. Transformation and change are the inescapable demands of the present. We need to abandon obscurantism , and at least apply common sense — and understand that a person without academic qualities cannot be expected to explain scriptural verses in their true sense.
We need to learn that it is only when we respect others that we get respected. And that no political fomentation or chicanery should be allowed to mislead us.
These, and a lot more open interaction with others, with a positive mindset, could really bring about the change that we desperately need. And none of this is forbidden in Islam.
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