Let Us Be Muslims. Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi
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it will not show the time. If you wind it but not according to the method prescribed, it will stop or, even if it works, it will not give the correct time. If you remove some of its parts then wind it, nothing will happen. If you replace some of the parts with those of a sewing machine and then wind it, it will neither indicate the time nor sew the cloth. If you keep all its parts inside its case but disconnect them, then no part will move even after winding it …
Imagine Islam like this clock … Beliefs and principles of morality, rules for day-to-day conduct, the rights of God, of His slaves, of one’s own self, of everything in the world which you encounter, rules for earning and spending money, laws of war and peace, principles of government and limits of obedience to it – all these are parts of Islam…
[But now] … you have pulled out many parts of the clock and in their place put anything and everything: a spare part from a sewing machine, perhaps, or from a factory or from the engine of a car. You call yourselves Muslims, yet you render loyal service to Disbelief, yet you take interest … which un-Islamic gadget is there that you have not fixed into the frame of the clock of Islam.
Despite this you expect the clock to work when you wind it!13
The parable of the clock not only serves to explain the ‘holistic’ nature of Islam – which no intellectual discussion could have explained so lucidly – but it also symbolizes Sayyid Mawdudi’s own contribution to Islamic resurgence: according each part of Islam its due place, infusing it with its true meaning, relinking all of them together.
III
What does Sayyid Mawdudi say? He talks, as we noted in the beginning, about things which are central to Islam: faith and obedience, knowledge and righteous life, the present world and the world to come, the Prayer, Fasting, Almsgiving, Pilgrimage and Jihad. But is this not what every religious writer and preacher talks about? So, what is so unique about his discourse? The question is legitimate. Let us see if we can answer it.
No doubt he explains and expounds their meanings and import, too, in a manner which in itself is distinctive and uncommon. But more significantly, and this is central to the importance of this book, he imparts a radical quality to all these elementary everyday themes by renewing their original intent and meaning and by making them relevant to our lives.
How does he do that? Firstly, he restores each part to its rightful place in Islam. Secondly, and this is his unique contribution, he restores the vital links between them which long since have snapped in our minds and lives. Iman and Islam, Dunya and Akhira, Prayer and Fasting, all are there; but each in its own orbit, each in its compartment. Indeed we have become almost habituated to treat each of them as a separate entity. So, even if each part is in its place and is not deformed, even if no foreign part has been fitted to it, to borrow his own metaphor, they do not make the ‘clock’ of Islam work because they are disconnected. He draws them together and tells us how to link them. Immediately, what was insignificant and irrelevant becomes central, the very destiny of life. Thus, despite his themes being familiar and ordinary, despite their being devoid of elaborate, elegant, oratorial dress, they make an enormous impact.
The richness, strength and range of Sayyid Mawdudi’s themes are indeed immense and profound. But we can easily trace seven such vital links which he re-establishes.
First, he links life, and remember the whole of life, with Iman. Iman becomes the centre of life, which does not accept anything less than total commitment to the One God. This Iman, for long, we have made irrelevant to real life.
Second, he links our actions with Iman, and therefore, with life. In his understanding, there can be no true Iman without actions.
Third, he links acts of ritual worship or ‘Ibādāt – in the sense of five pillars – with Iman as the seed from which they grow and with actions as the branches into which they blossom. They are the stem which must grow out of Iman and produce its crop of righteous life.
Fourth, he connects the outward form with the inner spirit; if ‘forms’ do not yield the desired fruits, they are devoid of spirit. Outward religiosity hoisted on empty hearts has no value in the sight of God.
Fifth, he links Jihad with righteous life by emphasizing its position as the pinnacle and culmination of everything God desires of us, the highest virtue – and thus with Iman and life. To be true Muslims, we must be Mujahids.
Sixth, he links history with Iman. Iman is no more a mere metaphysical and spiritual force; it is the fulcrum of history, it is the determinant of destiny. Thus history becomes crucial for Iman, and therefore for life. We can no more sit back passively; we must try, actively, to change history, that is, wage Jihad.
Seventh, he links this-world with the Hereafter, as a continuing process. Without striving to fulfil the will of God in the present life, we cannot reap any harvest in the next.
Our previous discussion about Sayyid Mawdudi’s style has already shown, to some extent, how he achieves the above task. But let us reflect a little more on some salient features of what he has said.
Iman. The question of Iman lies at the heart of Sayyid Mawdudi’s entire discourse here. It is what the whole book is about; on it everything is centred. Indeed the entire contents of this book can be summed up as an echo of just one Quranic Ayah:
O believers, believe (al-Nisā’ 4: 136).
The meaning of Iman is well-known. What has gone wrong is that it has become irrelevant or peripheral to the actual lives lived by the believers. This has come to pass because of many factors. Iman has come to be taken for granted as a birthright; it has become confined to the mere utterance of the Kalimah; it has been put into a corner of life; it has been made innocuous and ‘safe’.
All this Sayyid Mawdudi strongly refutes: Being a Muslim ‘is not something automatically inherited from your parents which remains yours for life’.14 ‘Being born in Muslim homes, bearing Muslim names, dressing like Muslims and calling yourselves Muslims is not enough to make you Muslims.’15
For, ‘no one is an Unbeliever or a Muslim simply because of his name. Nor does the real difference lie in the fact that one wears a necktie and the other a turban’.16 Similarly, ‘mere utterance of six or seven words cannot conceivably transform an Unbeliever into a Muslim, … nor can it send a man to Paradise instead of Hell’.17
There is no compulsion to recite the Kalimah. But, having recited it, Sayyid Mawdudi stresses, you have ‘no basis whatsoever to make claims like “life is mine, the body is mine, wealth is mine”. It is absurd … You have no right to move your hands and feet against His wish, nor to make your eyes see what He dislikes …’.18 Also, ‘you have no right to say, “My opinion is this, the prevalent custom is this, the family tradition is this, that scholar and that holy person say this”. In the face of Allah’s word and His Messenger’s Sunnah, you cannot argue in this manner.’19
Sayyid Mawdudi is a great iconoclast, for no idolatry can ever co-exist with true Iman. But his chief concern does not lie with idols of stone, of natural objects. It lies with the idols of self, of society and culture, of human beings which so often become gods in hearts and lives.
What is Islam? ‘To entrust yourselves completely to God is Islam. To relinquish all claims to absolute freedom and independence and to follow God’s will is Islam … To bring your affairs under God means to accept unreservedly the guidance sent by God through His Book and His Messengers.’20