Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: Islam Teaches That the Foundation of A Godly Religion Is Humankind's Oneness, Not Its Division and Enmity
By Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam
15 October
2022
Azad
Founded the Hizbullah (Party of God) Organization in His Youth, Which Was a
Revivalist Movement in Its Doctrines and Principles
Main
Points
1. 1-Azad is
one of the prominent personalities of the sub-continent, a somewhat forgotten
literary and political genius who has so many aspects in his life, and his
thoughts are so dimensional.
2. 2-
Hindu-Muslim unity and integrity of the country was a cherished goal of Azad.
3. 3- On the
Partition of the country, Azad finally became a lonely adverse voice while the
trio, Gandhi, Nehru, and Patel gave in to the demand of Pakistan.
4. 4-The
division of Pakistan itself revealed that Two Nation Theory was a flawed Idea.
------
Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad
------
Muhyiddin
Abul Kalam Azad is one of the prominent personalities of the sub-continent.
Azad, a somewhat forgotten genius, has so many aspects in his life, and his
thoughts are so dimensional that it is too difficult to talk about his persona
in one essay.
Azad was
born in Makkah on November 11th, 1888, to Khairuddin and Alia Begum. He was
named Muhiuddin, yet his title Abul Kalam suppressed his real name. In his
childhood, Azad composed poetry and prose writing, so he assumed
"Azad" as a pen name, which afterward became a part of his name.
Azad, a
scion of a prominent family and a beloved boy to his elder brother and three
elder sisters, married Zulekha Begum. Who died when he was in jail for the
cause of the freedom movement. A child was born to him and died in childhood
with no issue after him. Along with writing in Urdu from the age of 10-11, he
began to compose poetry when he was a child. Many poetry collections used to be
published back then from various cities where he had been published regularly.
Then in
1899, he himself began to produce a poetic collection named "Nerang
Khyal" from Kolkata. Only eight issues of it were published then it was
stopped. After that, Azad gave up composing poetry and focused on prose
writing. When he started writing prose, his prose made many spellbound as the
greatest poet of Urdu Ghazal Hasrat Mohani gave vent to his opinion: (When I
saw the prose of Azad, I lost amazing flavour in my poetry)
Abul Kalam
was dext in different fine arts, especially in Music, apart from being an
expert in traditional Islamic sciences; Quran, Hadis, Sirah and Islamic
history, world history, Sufism, and apart from his expertise in Arabic,
Persian, Urdu, English, and French, etc. He has to his credit several magnum
opuses like Tarjuman ul Quran, Tazkira, Ghubar e Khatir, Collection of
speeches, and India Wins Freedom. In his youth, he was full of enthusiasm,
fervent, and foresight in political views, while you can see a feeling of
peace, silence, and seer-like soreness in his old age.
There is no
parallel for Azad's Urdu prose except that of Rashid Shaz, to an extent in our
age. What spells and appeal mind capturing was his writing Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi
sheds some light on that:
"I
haven't forgotten his essay about a war in Tripoli where he described how Ghazi
Enver Pasha, the Turk warrior, arrived, how he looked at the bodies of the martyrs,
and his impression. The frightened flock of nightingales, the coming of the
great warrior on the battlefield, and, most all, the prose of Azad all worked
together to create a telling impact and gripping energy that once ignited with
fire and made one genuinely cry". (Shakhsiyat Number of Afkar e Milli).
Al-Misbah,
a weekly published in January 1901 by Azad, didn't last very long. Then, in
1903, he was chosen to serve as a subeditor for the daily Khadung Nazar, which
was run by Nobat Roy. After working with it for a year, he quickly sought his
own way. From Kolkata, Azad published Lisanus Sidq, a monthly journal, in
November 1903. According to Malik Ram, this monthly publication sparked a
revolution in Urdu journalism. Azad was under the impression of sir Syed Ahmad
Khan at a young age, yet this impact ended by itself in later years with his
vast readings.
Azad's
free-thinking, enchanting style, and fantastic beauty moved the veterans like
Shibli. He sent for him to Lucknow, where he was staying those days. In his
company, Azad served as sub-editor of the Al-Nadwa journal, which Shibli was
editing. How Azad lived there can be understood by what Ali Nadwi narrates:
This
happened so often that Shibli wanted his beloved disciples to write on a
subject. They tried and came up with enormous amounts of information on the
same, but Shibli was not satisfied. Azad, sitting nearby and observing all of
this, would approach him and ask him what he wanted. Shibli would give a brief
input, and Azad would begin writing. After reading what he wrote, Shibli was
prompted to yell: "Yes, this is what I wanted." (Afkar ka Shakhsiyat
Number P6 July 2005)
The editor
of Al-Hilal was under 24 years old when its first issue was released on July
13th, 1912. This was a movement as much as a magazine. Maulana Mahmood Hasan
Deobandi (Shaikh ul Hind) once said of the magazine, "We were all
forgetful of the actual cause; al-Hilal had awakened us (Tazkira, P:15)
Al-Hilal
was different and unique in every way. From the standard features to the
contents, it stood out. It did not copy others in any minute detail, but it
gave the impression that it was being copied. (Ibid P 13)
Even today,
there are thousands of publications and magazines in Urdu. None of them had the
impact that Al-Hilal had. Yet, Al-Risala (edited by the late Maulana
Waheeduddin Khan) devised a novel, free-thinking, straightforward approach, and
style.
Azad
concentrated on human oneness in his words and acts. He stated:
Islam
teaches that the foundation of a godly religion is humankind's oneness, not its
division and enmity. God's apostles taught that since you are all descended
from a single man, and He alone provides for you, you must only worship Him and
coexist peacefully as a unit. (Ibid, vol. 1, p. 48.) Azad, in the chapter
number 1 of the Quran; Al-Fatiha's commentary, Ummul Kitab, provides a very
extensive explanation of his unity ideas. Because of this, the clergy with
religious bias accused him of preaching religious oneness. (Wahdat e Adyan)
(Ibid P 152)
Azad jeered
at the discrimination based on ethnicity and familial background:
"The
deity of pride in the family is a rotten reminiscent of the period of ignorance
in the world, which Islam, among other things, has smashed. It is most probable
that tomorrow a new convert Dalit may get the highest position due to his
righteousness, while the children of Shaikh ul Islams(grand muftis) cannot.
This will happen in the future, yet we see in today's world that actions make
many small things big and vice versa." Tazkira P,25) Maulana Azad had been
trying wholeheartedly to achieve the goal of unity between Hindus and Muslims,
and for national integrity, he went to the extent that :
"If an
angel comes down today in clouds and standing on Qutub Minar of Delhi, would
announce that freedom might be given you within 24 hours. Provided that you
must give up thinking about Hindu-Muslim unity, I will give up the freedom but
not the idea of unity among Muslims and Hindus."(Khutbate Abul Kalam Azad
p, 261)
Azad
founded the Hizbullah (Party of God) organization in his youth, which was a
revivalist movement in its doctrines and principles. Additionally, he
designated Daees (deputies)in various locations to commit people into his
imamate (leadership). Later, after taking into account the local and world
circumstances, he abandoned this idealistic notion of revivalism. Another young
person, the prolific and burgeoning Urdu writer Maulana Maududi, took the
notion without mentioning Azad's name. (See Israr Ahmad Jama'at-e-Islami ki
Tarikh ka Aik Gumshuda Bab.) Instead, he was inclined to introduce the
revolutionary Quranic teachings to the people of the subcontinent.
Apart from
his exegesis, Azad wanted to write a detailed prologue to his commentary, as he
mentioned this in many places. However, most probably, he did not find a chance
to do that due to his total involvement in the freedom struggle and long
periods of incarceration. And if he had, it would have been lost. Malik Ram
averred that a lot of his manuscripts, including the second volume of Tazkira
and a biography of Imam Ahmad Bin Hanbal, had been lost.
Azad was so well-versed in the classical
Islamic sciences that, even today, one would be astounded by his prodigious
reading habits and comprehension of Arabic and Persian literature. He gave a
speech to a group of Arabic and Persian experts in Lucknow when he was
Education Minister following independence. His address was instant and
tantamount to being an academic gift having a retrospective review of our past
and present, leading to an outline for a future action plan. If only the Ulama
and clergy could understand its meaning and foresight and rise above their
rigid and narrow mind-set, the situation would have been better today.
Azad's
writings beautifully combine romance and reason with emotion and realism. When
some of his friends insisted on writing his biography, he spoke about his life
in Tazkira's final pages using gestures, idioms, and asides. Nevertheless, he
did spread hints from Belles Letters, but to the question of his biography, he
concluded by saying, "half of my story is hope, and half is grief. I used
to have nothing but hope, but now I regret everything." Although not all
of what he wrote was preserved, what was left tells you about a tremendous
mind, a vivacious and exuberant temperament, a fresh mind, and a literary
genius.
Azad was
more knowledgeable about both new and old knowledge, which set him apart from
other Ulama. He conducted a thorough analysis of modern politics and concluded
that, given the subcontinent's context, communal politics had no place in this
region. Because there is a democratic current in the world, opposing this will
be anachronistic politics that will have no effect. Therefore, the only viable
solution for India would be a single, secular, democratic state that resolves
all controversial issues, including communal concerns.
However,
most anxious and agitated Indian Muslims trusted the Anglicized aggressive
barrister M. A. Jinnah. They paid no attention to the warnings and advice that
realists like Maolana Madni and Azad gave them. The sad division of the nation
was the result of this. With that, the Muslims of India were split into three
groups, which resulted in great bloodshed, painful migration, and enduring
resentment, mistrust, and hatred among the subcontinent's inhabitants.
Being aware
that there are a substantial number of communal leaders in the Congress, Azad
bemoaned the communal mind-set, particularly of UP Chief Minister Sampurnanand
and home minister Vallabhbhai Patel in his book India Wins Freedom. Especially
in the last 50 pages (which was released after his death. However, in my
opinion, Maulana Azad's conception of the unity between Muslims and Hindus was
based more on his own speculative imagination than on ground realities. He was
so enamoured with the Congress that he failed to realize the inner currents
among many of its members. In the beginning, Gandhiji was also adamant about
not succumbing to the demand of the Partition, yet Nehru and Patel somehow
convinced him to. One day, to Azad's surprise, he found himself lonely because
the trio; of Gandhi, Nehru, and Patel finally gave in to the Partition.
Following
the Partition, he correctly encouraged Muslims to join Congress rather than
forming their political party. Even though it was a smart move in the immediate
wake of Partition, Muslims were required to form either a political party or a
political pressure group after that, but sadly, they failed to do so.
It was not
long before Pakistan itself was divided into Pakistan and Bangladesh. And on
the wake of the division of Pakistan due to linguistic and ethnic
disagreements, it turned out that the Partition of the country did not solve
any problem of the Muslim community; instead, it aided more to the cart.
Azad's
advice to his community to accept the One Nation Idea was the better solution
to the Hindu-Muslim mayhem than the defective and unsuccessful Two Nation
Theory.
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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Dr. Mohammad
Ghitreef is a Research Associate with the Centre for Promotion of Educational
and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India, AMU Aligarh.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/kalam-azad-godly-religion-humankind-oneness/d/128180
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