Present Facts
Let us frankly
acknowledge the hard facts and conditions of present-day Muslims, however
unpleasant they may appear to us. Theoretically, the words “Muslim Ummah” cover
in their fold all the Muslims of the world and as such it is a universalistic
concept. But, as a matter of fact, one global Muslim Ummah is at the moment a
non-entity. Instead, there are many Muslim nations in the world. Even Allama
Muhammad Iqbal, a great advocate of the unity of Muslim Ummah, had to be
realistic about the actual condition of Muslims in the world. Accordingly, in
his lectures, entitled Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, he wrote
that there is no one united Muslim Ummah in the world; rather there are many
Muslim nations living in different states. However, perhaps this too was true
more than half a century ago when Allama Iqbal delivered the Lectures. The
present situation of most Muslim nations is worse still and most Muslim nations
are split into numerous regional, ethnic, or linguistic groups.
The readers of these lines can very well appreciate this fact if they consider the case of Pakistan. At the time of its appearance in 1947 as a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, Pakistanis were considered as one Muslim nation by all. Both wings of Pakistan were united and considered Islam the basis of their unity. Soon afterwards, however, regional sentiments and concern for regional languages came up on the surface and eventually paved the way for the ceding of East Pakistan. Consequently, it became Bangladesh in 1971 and asserted her Bengali identity more than the former Muslim character. Every one of us laments how savagely and brutally non-Bengali Muslims were tortured and murdered by the Bengali nationalists of East Pakistan. And in the truncated Pakistan, too, there is no ideological unity in the people. The Pakistani nation stands divided and fragmented on the bases of ethnicity, culture, and language, and different groups are constantly at loggers head with each other. Since not a single province of Pakistan has only one ethnic community, we often hear news of gruesome violence and brutalities among various communities living in one province and even in one city. For example, in Baluchistan there are at least three large ethnic groups, and to a lesser degree this is also true of other provinces of Pakistan. In Sindh the Mohajirs (migrants from India) have formally assumed the status of a politico-cultural entity. Indeed, from the very beginning, distinction was made almost every where in the country but particularly in the province of Sindh between the locals and the migrants, and this discrimination eventually led to the formation of MQM in urban Sindh.
Again the Arab world, where all speak and write Arabic, is divided in a number of nation-states and people there identify themselves with reference to distinct nationalities.
So the hard fact that we must accept is that today a united world Muslim Ummah is non-existent. The de facto position is frankly none other than this. The Ummah only exists as an ideal concept in the minds of Muslims who consider theoretically all believers of Islam and the Prophet (SAW) as members of one global religious fraternity. According to this belief, each confessor of Muhammad’s (SAW) Prophethood is regarded a member of the universal Muslim brotherhood.
This belief in itself is perfectly correct, but the question is whether Muslims all around the world do in fact behave as a well-knit ideological group? Is there any discipline among the Muslims? Is there a plenary leadership among Muslim nations and are the directives and recommendations of that leadership heeded by the member states? I regret to say that the answer to all these questions is in the negative. Was not a large part of Afghan army with the Russians when the latter were killing Afghan people mercilessly? Were not the most inhuman atrocities against Afghans committed by their own Islam-professing Afghan brethren? Again was not the long and devastating war between Iran and Iraq between two Muslim countries? Armed clashes between different factions of Muslims in Lebanon and brutal and murderous assaults on Palestinian refugee camps are known to anyone who is in touch with modern media. And the recent Gulf war has proved beyond any doubt that, as a matter of fact, one world-wide Muslim Ummah does not exist.
In the light of
these facts the ayah under consideration with the particularizing sense of
preposition in the expression minkum assumes special significance and its
meanings become quite intelligible. In effect, what it means is that even when
the vast multitudes of people in the Muslim Ummah are in a state of slumber,
are divided among themselves and pursuing only secular ends, there must arise a
group or party within the larger Ummah that performs the duties laid down by
the Qur’an in this ayah, and also make the rest aware of them.
to be continued....
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