Introduction
The
present booklet is a revised and edited version of a lecture on the subject of
Baiy‘ah, delivered in English by Dr. Israr Ahmad, Ameer of Tanzeem-e-Islami.
The lecture was originally delivered in August 1995, in Elgin, Illinois (USA).
It was first published in the October-December 1996 issue of The Qur’anic
Horizons, and now it is being presented in the form of a booklet.
Dr.
Israr Ahmad (b. 1932) is well-known as a scholar and teacher of the Holy Qur’an.
He firmly believes that the pathetic and wretched condition of the Muslim Ummah
today is a punishment from Almighty Allah (SWT), the cause being the dereliction
of individual and collective duties on the part of the Muslims. The only way to
salvation, therefore, is for the
Muslims to repent with the
true spirit of repentance, and to
strive for the fulfillment of all their Divinely ordained obligations. The
Muslims not only need to practice Islam in their individual lives, but it is
also their duty to spread and propagate the teachings of Islam throughout the
world, and to struggle for the establishment of Islam as a socio-political
order so that justice and peace can reign supreme.
Today
in the Muslim world, we find that most of the Islamic movements have taken
either to the bullet or to the ballet. Dr. Israr Ahmad, on the other hand, refers to
the following saying
of Imam Malik
(RA): “The latter
part of this community will not be
reformed except by following
the same
process through which its initial part was reformed.” He argues that the
lack of success on the part of various Islamic movements is actually due to
their deviation, in one way or another, from the way of the Prophet (SAW). Dr.
Israr Ahmad has no doubt in his mind that the
revival and establishment
of Islam will
be possible only
by adopting the methodology of
Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
As derived from
the study of the
Seerah, the methodology of the Prophet (SAW) involved the following stages:
- Calling people towards the light of Iman, Organizing those who respond into a
cohesive force,
- Training them with respect to spiritual and moral purification
and discipline,
- Passive Resistance in the face of persecution and oppression,
Challenge and
- Active Resistance at the appropriate moment, and finally Armed
Conflict.
Dr. Israr Ahmad has spelled out the details of these phases and their
application in modern times in his numerous lectures and writings. He has
emphasized that the revitalization of true faith by means of the Qur’an is an
essential prerequisite for Islamic renaissance. Concerning the final step, he
believes that the evolution of social thought since the time of the Prophet
(SAW) implies that, in our times, a non-violent mass movement can supplant
a bilateral armed
conflict, the latter
not being feasible
in the contemporary world. He
argues that it is now possible to bring about positive and fundamental changes
in Muslim societies
by means of
popular movements — consisting of peaceful agitation and
leading to civil disobedience, if required — while strictly refraining from all
sorts of violence. The struggle to revive and re-establish Islam, however,
requires a disciplined organization.
According
to Dr. Israr Ahmad, the Western constitutional and democratic model works
satisfactorily as the basis of organizational structure for community work,
institution building, and da‘wah work. However, he argues that this model is not
suitable for the purpose of establishing a truly revivalist party. Further, Dr.
Israr Ahmad also points out that the organizational model we find in the Seerah
of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is based on baiy‘ah (pledge of allegiance). The
Prophet (SAW) was a Messenger of Almighty Allah (SWT) and every command from
him had to be
followed; the reason
he took baiy‘ah
from the Companions
(RAA), therefore, was only to leave a model for his Ummah. The Caliphs
after him continued the same system, and after them almost all of the
revivalist movements have adopted the same system of baiy‘ah for the purpose of
organization. In the Western constitutional and democratic model, a number of
people who want to achieve the same goals get together and form an organization
in which the majority vote is decisive. In the system based on baiy‘ah, on the
other hand, one person gives a call that he is going to initiate the struggle
for the revival and establishment of the Deen of Allah (SWT); he then invites
people to join him in this cause (Cf., Surah Al-Saff 61:14). In
such a system,
the leader (or
ameer) is required
to consult with
his associates (or rufaqa) but is not bound by the majority decision
(Cf., Surah Aal-e-Imran 3:159). The only difference is that while each and
every command given by the Prophet (SAW) had to be followed, the leader of a
revivalist party can be obeyed not in an absolute sense but only within the
bounds of the Shari‘ah (i.e., fil Mar‘uf).
Dr.
Israr Ahmad has made it clear elsewhere that no revivalist party can claim for
itself the status
of Al-Jama‘ah, a term applicable
only to the
collective organization of the entire Muslim Ummah under a single leader
or ameer. Although ideal from the Islamic perspective, this unified state of
the Muslim Ummah does not exist in the real world. Dr. Israr Ahmad believes
that the internal discipline of a revivalist party that is working to
re-establish Islam should be based on the Islamic ideal of “listening and
obeying” to the ameer, a discipline that can only be achieved by following the
Prophetic model of baiy‘ah. He is firmly of the opinion that an amorphous (and
anonymous!) body of Islamic workers, scattered all over the world and without a
well-defined leadership, hardly merits the expression “the Islamic movement.” It is at best a hypothetical entity. Going beyond “creating a New Civilization
of Islam,” Dr. Israr Ahmad is aiming at a concentrated, centralized, and concerted
effort to establish Islamic socio-politico order in toto, initially in Pakistan
and then in other states. For this he is
following the prophetic model of organization in the form of bai’yah and
well-disciplined party structure.
Dr.
Ahmed Afzaal
