By Dr Wasim Ahmad,
There is a discussion currently going on initiated by a request “Please respect our ‘Ulama”. We should respect all human beings – including the ‘traditionally’ and ‘modern’ educated. Having said that, please allow me to assert that respect is earned more than requested for. Do we ever need to start a campaign for increased awareness about the importance of sun, air, water and light etc? We don’t.
Not realizing the fact that we have to discover the laws of nature and use them for our benefit we start fighting with the same. Why don’t we argue that we should give respect to our ‘modern’ educated? Why don’t we campaign for giving respect to our scientists and engineers? There is something missing here. Our very assertion and request that we should respect our ‘Ulama shows an inherent weakness. Instead of trying our best to find out the reasons of this weakness and removing it we start a misplaced campaign. Again it reinforces the fact that we learn wrong lessons from the right stories. The law of nature is that we give respect to those who are not easily replaceable. In order to cross-check this law of nature we just need to look around ourselves.
There is a locality in Bombay of wealthy Muslims. They had an Imam who in one of the Friday sermons spoke quite openly about those who do not give Zakat. He warned of its consequences. Before the time of Salaat al-‘Asr, the Imam was dismissed. After the dismissal he resolved to “expose” everybody. My question is why he did not expose those very people earlier? Anyhow, after his dismissal, many others made a beeline for the same position. What does it indicate? It indicates that our ‘Ulama of today are easily replaceable. If this is the case then we are fighting a losing battle. But we are used to fighting such battles. Because we don’t think twice about what we say, write and do.
On the other hand, I would like to understand how will the ‘Ulama be able to EARN genuine respect by continuing the deep divide between deen and dunyaa? By carrying on with the division between deeni and dunyaawee ‘uloom? How will they earn genuine respect by contributing to the marginalization of Indian Muslims? How will they earn the well deserved
respect by not speaking a language which the masses understand?
How will they earn genuine respect without educating the masses that the latter do not need to depend upon them? How will they earn genuine respect without instilling in the minds of Muslims the real concept of knowledge? How will they earn genuine respect without communicating with the ‘modern’ educated and taking them along in all the worthwhile efforts and not considering them counterparts or ‘others’?
How will they earn genuine respect without thinking seriously how to teach Arabic to ALL the Muslim kids and not only to 3-4% of them? How will they earn genuine respect without giving a clear direction and a VISION to the Muslims that holding Qur’an in the Right Hand and most modern scientific and technological advancements in the Left Hand they need to and can become leaders of the world?
How will they earn genuine respect without issuing the fataawaa which are prospective in nature and NOT retrospective? How will they earn genuine respect without making us look forward and not backward? How will they or anyone else earn genuine respect by quoting more and relating less? And applying even further less? How will they earn genuine respect while being conditioned to a lot many factors and merely living in the past? How will they earn genuine respect while bringing to the market that currency which was current in some past century?
Let us start from the fact that respect is earned. It is not requested for. If we will believe in this law of nature we will do our best to make the situation better by making whatever adjustments required. If we are really interested in giving genuine respect to all our educated we need to create that educational environment wherein they actually earn it by contributing their maximum to the life – as a whole.
While we do not look favorably at those who “pontificate” from the “luxury of their offices and apartments via the Internet”, we very piously want the same ‘Ulama – about whom we are campaigning for more respect – to continue living in the same condition as they are living in today. The fact that no amount of request is going to change the law of nature does not concern us.
The historical role which the ‘Ulama have played is duly recognized. Those among them who deserved the respect they got it. If they did not get it they did not worry about it either. During their time, too, the same laws of nature were in place. A parallel here is the role of not just the ‘Ulama but the entire Muslim Ummah in the past. That role itself becomes a sad commentary on their (our) current predicament. Invoking the role in the past is an argument that does not go in the favour of ‘Ulama now. Just as invoking the significant contribution of Muslims in the past does not go in their favour. It only reinforces the fact that we learn wrong lessons from the right stories.
The request for respect for ‘Ulama is symptomatic of our collective mind-set wherein we are asking (beseeching) for respect from all the nations of the world without realizing that we actually need to EARN it. When we don’t get it – as indicated by the increasingly stricter screening at airports –we get frustrated. Some of us take to the short-cuts ignoring another law of
nature that the longest is the shortest. Our problems are compound. Not one. Not two. But many.
(The writer is Dept Head of Islamic Studies, Preston University, Ajman, UAE)