Who Is a Muslim? Amid The Anti-Ahmadiyya Tirade, This Question Acquires Immense Importance
By
Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
28 July
2023
Amid The
Anti-Ahmadiyya Tirade, This Question Acquires Immense Importance
Main
Points:
1.
The Andhra Pradesh Waqf Board passed a resolution in February, declaring
the Ahmadis as non-Muslim; a resolution of the Jamiat Ulama e Hind supports
that AP Waqf Board.
2.
The Munir commission report interviewed various Ulama but none of them
could agree on a singular definition of who was a Muslim.
3.
The history of Takfirism goes back to the roots of Islam; it is very
much part of the contemporary Islam.
4.
Muslims need to be vigilant against such tendencies in their midst, else
they might go down the Pakistan way.
------
In February
this year, the Andhra Pradesh Waqf Board passed a resolution which declared
that Ahmadis were outside the pale of Islam. Thankfully, the high court
suspended the resolution after the Ahmadis implored the judiciary. Ironically
enough, the minority affairs ministry has now jumped into the controversy by
telling the Andhra government that such resolutions amount to “hate speech”,
reminding the Waqf Board that “it had no jurisdiction to determine the
religious identity of any community”. I say ironical because the same ministry
maintains radio silence on hate speeches against the Muslim community,
emanating from the Hindu right wing. Whatever the intentions of the ministry,
it is a welcome step that they have intervened in favour of the Ahmadis, who
are a marginalized Muslim group in India. Unlike in Pakistan where they have
been declared non-Muslims, India still recognizes them as one of the many
groups which comprise the mosaic of Indian Muslim society.
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But the
issue hasn’t been put to rest yet. The Jamiat, led by Arshad Madani, endorsed
the decision of the Andhra Waqf Board, thereby reiterating that in their eyes,
Ahmadis were non-Muslims. The Jamiat argued that on this issue, there was
consensus within the Umma. A couple of months ago, the elder Madani had earned
brownie points within sections of Muslims by stating that Om and Allah were one
and the same. Muslims who hailed his statement as a great leap forward in inter-religious
dialogue will do well to go back and listen to his speech once again in order
to makes sense of what he really said and why. A man who does not tolerate
Ahmadis can never be expected to make bridges with the Hindus.
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The more
important question though is this: Is there any way in which a Muslim can be
defined? As the anti-Ahmadiyya madness gripped Pakistan, the government
constituted the Munir-Kayani Commission in 1953 to look into this question. The
committee asked the leading Ulama of the time “to give their definition of a
Muslim, the point being that if the Ulama of the various sects believed the
Ahmadis to be Kafirs, they must have been quite clear in their minds not only
about the grounds of such belief but also about the definition of a Muslim.”
After listening to various Ulama, Justice Munir writes in the report: “But we
cannot refrain from saying here that it was a matter of infinite regret to us
that the Ulama whose first duty should be to have settled views on this
subject, were hopelessly disagreed among themselves.”
Justice
Munir further submits: “Keeping in view the several definitions given by the
ulama, need we make any comment except that no two learned divines are agreed
on this fundamental [definition of a Muslim]? 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 ulama, we remain Muslims according to the
view of that alim but Kafirs according to the definition of everyone else.”
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Also Read: Why
Should Any Muslim Object To Pranab Mukherjee Attending An Ahmadiya Convention?
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Outlining
the dangers of combining religion and politics, the report states: “The net
result of all this is that “neither Shias nor Sunnis nor Deobandis nor
Ahl-i-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 of the
consequences of this doctrine when it is remembered that no two Ulama have
agreed before us as to the definition of a Muslim.”
In a
nutshell, Justice Munir told us that the Ulama had failed to arrive at a
consensus as to how a Muslim could be defined. Secondly, if the Ulama were to
be taken seriously, then there will be nothing but bloodshed in the country. It
becomes clear that there cannot a single definition of a Muslim from
theological point of view. In other words, a singular theological definition of
a Muslim is nearly impossible. The only way therefore is to define it
sociologically. We have to take the self-definition of a person or a community
and give it due legitimacy. Thus, if an Ahmadi thinks that he is a Muslim, then
the wider society should not have any problem in accepting him as one.
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It is
important to recall the report of Justice Munir today as we are faced with the
menacing threat of Takfiri ideology. Normally, Muslims associated Takfirism as
some very extreme form of Islam followed by terror groups like the ISIS. But if
they look closely enough, Takfirism is rife as an everyday practice within our
societies. What senior Madani is doing is nothing but indulging in Takfir. In
his case, it is the Ahmadis who should be thrown out from the fold of Islam.
And, he is in August company.
For the
longest time, the Barelvis, following Ahmad Riza, declared Deobandis as Kafirs.
He even got support for his sectarian opinion from the Ulama of Hejaz.
Deobandis, not to be left behind, accused Barelvis of being grave worshippers
and hence compromising the cardinal principle of Tauheed in Islam. But the
Deobandis and Barelwis would come together to pronounce the title of Ghair
Muqallid on the Ahle Hadis as the latter did not adhere to the Hanafi Fiqh.
Moreover, the Sunnis have long argued that the Shias are not Muslims because
they do Tabarra of some caliphs and other companions of the Prophet. There is
an active campaign in Pakistan to declare the Shia as non-Muslim. For the Shia,
those who do not believe that Maula Ali should have been the successor of the
Prophet does not deserve to be called a Muslim. In Pakistan though, the Sunni
and Shia come together to justify the expulsion of the Ahmadis from the fold of
Islam.
Many of us
think that this problem is of recent origin. But that’s not the case. We will
do well to remember that the first civil war in the history of Islam was over
the question of “apostasy”. The wars that Abu Bakr waged were not against those
who had completely left Islam, but against those who simply refused to pay the
new tax. This refusal in itself made them non-Muslims against whom war became permitted.
After some years, the Kharajis would declare war on Ali because they believed
he erred by making peace with Muawiyah. This error, according to the Kharajis,
made Ali a non-Muslim and hence liable to be killed.
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Normally
one thinks that the power to excommunicate from a religious community should be
exercised by a legitimate authority. In the Christian world, the catholic
church had this power. We do not have any church in Islam; organized priesthood
is alien to the religion. And yet there is a clamour within Muslim societies to
declare those who disagree as Kafir.
One fails
to understand why Muslims do not learn from their own past? Why they do not
take lessons from what is unfolding in Pakistan due to this madness?
------
A regular contributor to NewAgeIslam.com, Arshad
Alam is a writer and researcher on Islam and Muslims in South Asia.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-sectarianism/muslim-ahmadiyya-tirade-waqf-board/d/130318
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