Islam Zinda Hota Hai Har Karbala Ke Baad (Islam gets revived after every Karbala-like sacrifice). This is one of the immortal verses of Allama Iqbal, which carries enormous connotations. Today the land where Imam Husain got martyred is witnessing a great upheaval but it is to be seen whether this development would really breathe life into Islam.
However, if Iqbal talked of the revival of Islam after Karbala, he did not mean that it was dead after just half a century. What he wanted to suggest is that it is Karbala-like sacrifice against monarchy which keeps Islam alive.
So if the martyrdom of Imam Husain in Karbala went down as a symbolic struggle against the state-power, the destruction of neighbouring Baghdad six centuries later, precisely in 1258, by the Mongols ironically led to the resurgence of Islam. After having completely decimated the Abbasid Khilafat the Mongols went on to advance further west and almost reached Egypt where they finally got defeated. But a unique development took place. The same marauding Mongols soon embraced Islam. Where the empire as big as of Abbasids failed in front of the massive and brutal Mongol onslaught the ideology of Islam soon overwhelmed the victors.
A brief history of over 1400 years would reveal one thing: that Islam really prospered and spread much faster when Muslims, apparently, became disempowered. Call it an irony of history, or by any other name, it is the inherent quality of this faith to attract Mustad’ afeen (the wretched and the most exploited lot). This in a way is different from many other religions. Some western writers are of the view that Islam spread very fast in Africa in the 19th century when Muslims, having lost all the powers to the European imperialist forces, were apparently down in the dump.
When Muslims got ‘disempowered’ in the 13th century at the hands of Mongols Islam grew much faster than even during the Khilafat. Thus it suggests that the empires became a hurdle in the way of Islam.
Closer in the history, we would observe that 18th, 19th and 20th centuries produced some real great Islamic scholars and movements. This was the period when Muslim rulers around the world started losing grip over their empires. Thus it is obvious that if the Muslim empire grew powerful the spread of Islam was bound to be hampered.
It may not be simply an accident of history that Shah Waliullah was born in 1703, that is, just four years before the death of the last great Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. It may be that Shah Waliullah would not have emerged as a towering Islamic figure had the Muslim emperor been really powerful during that period. In Arabian Peninsula too Mohammad Bin Abdul Wahab was a product of that century.
By in the 19th and 20th centuries, as mentioned above, we saw the emergence of countless number of reputed Islamic personalities. Be it Jamaluddin Afghani, the champion of Pan Islamism in the 19th century or Syed Ahmad Shaheed who launched a fierce resistance in the north-western tip of the subcontinent or Imam Shamil who struggled in Chechnya in the same century or innumerable Islamic ideologues in the subcontinent, Arab world, Iran, Central and East Asia, etc. all have a common goal. They all earned support from the common ‘disempowered’ mass and not from the former royal family or elite. However, Ayatullah Khomieni before the 1979 Iranian Revolution used the expression Mustad’ afeen to seek support to overthrow Reza Shah Pahlawi’s tyranny.
The empowered Muslims or the empire-builders have let down Islam. Take the example of Ottomans. They ruled a large part of east Europe, Greece in particular, for centuries yet they failed to spread the true message of Islam to the people there. Similar was the case in India during the age of empire-builders. Islam attracted much more people in the subcontinent in the 13th century when there was very little presence of the Muslim empire in India. One thing also needs to be noted: while earlier Sufism played a key role in the spread of Islam, in the modern era the nature of most Islamic movements is quite different. While in the past many Muslim emperors did promote Sufism to keep in check any real threat to their power in the recent centuries the Islamic leaders were always looked with hostility by the ruling class.
It would not be wrong to suggest that Islam suffered much during the time of Emperor Akbar when the Mughals were virtually the master of a large part of the subcontinent. He made enormous compromises and evolved a new faith Deen-e-Ilahi. He also tried to introduce his own secular calendar, Tarikh-e-Ilahi, in 1584 almost eight years before the completion of 1000 years of Hijri in 1592. Incidentally, he made 1556 as the zero-year for this new calendar as it was in this year that he ascended to the throne. However, he failed disastrously in this attempt. Hijri continues to remain the Islamic calendar even during his time.
The truth is that the ‘disempowerment’ of Muslims had at least one positive aspect. It facilitated the growth of Islam as a people’s movement. True, there were several benign monarchs in the past, who seldom behaved like a totalitarian tyrant and liberally supported the spread of Islam in its true spirit. But that was few and far between. Islam never believed in expansion through brute power. It always appeals to Ya Aiyoha Naas (the common people) and never relies on the kings or monarchs to help its growth. In fact, all the movements launched by prophets have this quality.
Caliph Ali’s is the best example of how the Last Messenger’s mission was not to acquire power by hook or crook. When he floored a man in the battle-field the latter spat on his face. Instead of slewing him he dismounted from his body saying that killing now would amount to injustice and personal revenge.
Islam always believes in struggle from below. An Islamic state comes into being after a people’s struggle. There may be hopelessness for Muslims throughout the world, but the past history confirms that Islam always flourished in the odd situation. It may sound as an overstatement to say that Islam is the fastest growing religion – many think that it is a Christian propaganda to keep Muslims confused – yet there is no denying the fact that even today it is winning a large number of converts.
Islam: the Faith Which Thrives in Adverse Situation
Islam Zinda Hota Hai Har Karbala Ke Baad (Islam gets revived after every Karbala-like sacrifice). This is one of the immortal verses of Allama Iqbal, which carries enormous connotations. Today the land where Imam Husain got martyred is witnessing a great upheaval but it is to be seen whether this development would really breathe life…
