This article was originally addressed to
“Institute of Islamic Research” which
was headed by Dr. Fazlur Rahman at that
time, but applies to all modernists of
our time.
The line of action of researches of the
Institute of Islamic research is quite
in contradiction to this. On the one
hand they pre-supposed that the thirteen
hundred years old laws of Islam have now
become worn out and outdated, and it is
not possible to implement and comply
with them unless some fundamental
changes are made in them (They call
these changes as “New Interpretations”).
And on the other hand it has rooted deep
into their minds that ideological and
practical expositions of Western
civilization are all blessings and
benedictions, and unless Muslims accept
them in toto their survival in the
present time is impossible.
The entire intellectual structure of
Modernism has been constructed on the
above two hypotheses. As a result, the
style of their working has been that any
ideology or style of working from the
West is first taken as granted to be
cent per cent right and there is no way
out for us in the present time than to
accept it and adopt it. Their ‘Research’
is then wholly directed towards proving
it to be in conformity with Islam, by
reshaping and distorting Islamic
teachings and even by changing the
established commandments of Islam. They
do not hesitate in denying the prophetic
traditions, or write down a new
dictionary to give new meanings to the
verses of the Qur’an.
This is the very style for which the
word “Distortion” should be used in
place of “Research”. Our submission is
that, if you believe that Islam is the
natural religion, if you have faith that
its principles and injunctions are not
the product of any human brain but that
of the All-Knower Allah who is fully
aware of all the needs of mankind for
all times to come, if you are confident
that the Islam proclaimed by Muhammad
sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam contains
satisfactory solutions to all the
problems and difficulties that may arise
till the Last Day, then you must admit
that the solution to the problems of
twentieth century also lies in the same
principles which were brought by the
Holy Prophet Muhammad sallallahu `alaihi
wa sallam 1400 years ago. This is,
however, subject to the condition that
you sincerely try to get rid of the
inferiority complex which has made West
as the standard of righteousness in your
eyes. Once you get the courage to lift
up the veil of deception of the West
from your mind you will have the chance
to understand the problems with full
confidence. It is then that you will
discover new ways of survival in the
present time fulfilling all the needs
and demands of time on the one hand and
save youf rom the unholy ways of the
West. If you follow this course you will
be able to acquire the wealth of peace
and tranquility that has never been
imagined by the West. We may be excused
if you find our tone unmannerly but if
you have any claim to realism, be
realistic in analysing your approach.
While seeking the solution to your
problems you have the fear of being
called conservative or superstitious or
uncivilized by the West. This complex
does not allow you to give a serious
thought to the true Islamic virtue. You
are always anxious to give Islamic
sanction to all those things that have a
label of liberalism on them. May be that
this line of action brings you some good
name in the Western circles, but this is
never going to solve your problems nor
will it give you the status of a living
and free nation. It is not sensible.
We may seem to exaggerate about your
mode of action but an honest and
realistic self-analysis will testify to
the truth of our claim.
You have observed that the West has
based its entire banking system on
“Interest”. This is the system which is
regarded as one of the prominent virtues
of modern civilization. So, you started
investing all your energy to make the
interest permissible in trading system.
You never bothered to ask yourself if
the interest was really inevitable for
the banking system and why cannot this
be run on the Principles of “Mudaribah”
provided by Islam and why the Islamic
Principle of “Mudaribah” cannot be
adopted in Banking? At the cost of the
opposition of the Muslim Ummah you have
compounded interests but you never cared
to find out the principles of
interest-free banking which assures us
more equitable distribution of wealth.
The “Insurance” is regarded as a symbol
of civilization in the West. You acepted
it as it was and tried to give it
Islamic sanction by making fabricated
interpretations in the Qur’an and Sunnah.
But you never knew that there was an
easier and fairer way of making some
minor changes in the prevailing
insurance system and thus bring them in
conformity with the established
principles of Islam, making it more
useful institution.
The Western countries have recently
launched great campaigns to preach
“Family Planning”. You also followed
them in propagating it. For this purpose
you consumed your energies to
misinterpret the laws of Islam in favour
of family planning. But you never
thought how China is surviving with its
700,000,000 population? According to
Chu-en-lai every new child brings a
message of prosperity. In the hue and
cry of the Western world you looked at
one mouth of a newly born child and felt
uneasy to think from where to feed it?
But you did not see the two hands of the
child to work. The small country like
Israel realised the importance of
population and has been using all the
means of increasing its population. The
Westerner had said that population rise
is dangerous for developing countries.
You accepted this “sincere advice” and
imposed birth control as a law, but you
failed to see how Vietnam had humbled
the big power like America and why the
Western countries are scared of China?
Americans had declared that in the East
they would give financial aid only to
those countries that would adopt the
birth control. You took it as a
sympathetic gesture from them but you
did not try to argue why Israel gets the
lion’s share in aid in spite of being
against the birth control?
You heard that polygamy is considered to
be a crime in Western countries. In
order to free yourself from this blame
you made the excuse that Islam had
allowed it only in some emergency
conditions and now it is no more
permissible. For this purpose you left
no stone unturned in pulling and
dragging the meanings of the verses of
Holy Qur’an. But did you ever try to
investigate why the Westerners never
feel the need of more than one wife?
Thanks to Modern Civilization and the
open practice of un-registered polygamy
in every hotel, every nightclub and
every park, there is no need of getting
oneself involved in regular family life.
The Westerners had publicised that
polygamists are cruel to their wives.
You started pleading that the
fundamental conception of Islam is to
stop such a tyranny and hence polygamy
is forbidden in Islam. But you shut your
eyes from the naked reality that there
are innumerable people who are extremely
cruel to their single wife. In fact the
number of such people is greater. Hence
this argument requires that single
marriage also should be banned.
You observed that the Westerners
consider Hijab (woman’s veil) as a vice,
so you started fabricating the
established injunctions of Islam. But
you never cared to think that by
unveiling their women what disaster the
West has brought to their homes? Did you
ever care to know what is the cause of
unabated grief of the serious thinkers
of the West on this issue?
You came to know that co-education is
practised in Western countries. You
started advocating for it an insignia of
civilization, but never bothered to
think of the reasons behind the dreadful
scene of American culture presented by
Kinsey Reports before the world? [the
renowned American sexologist Prof.
Alfred Kinsey who prepared these reports
after 15 years of research] Did you ever
think who is responsible for ever
increasing unlawful sexual relations in
the young generation. What is the cause
of ever decreasing standard of
education?
You have read that many of the
Westerners deny miracles and hold them
as superstition. Very obediently you
also followed the example and tried to
reject the miracles described by the
Qur’an in detail. As a result of this
you converted the entire Qur’an into a
poetic and metaphorical book. But you
never thought that those who had
initially denied the miracles had also
called the existence of God as the worst
form of superstition. They had even
mocked at prophethood and divine
revelations. Further, you never paid any
attention to the fact how rapidly the
most recent researches of scientific
knowledge are making miracles more
acceptable to human intellect.
Keeping all these facts in view, for
God’s sake, please tell us if there is
any exaggeration in our assessment that
you pay no heed to finding an Islamic
and intellectual solution to these
problems? On the contrary you are always
looking for the Western ideologies.
Whatever you receive from them as
permissible you spend all your energy to
prove it in conformity with Islam, with
no concern to what damage you are
causing to the Qur’an and Sunnah. When
you notice any signs of dislike for
something on the faces of Westerners you
exhaust all your powers to declare it
unlawful and prohibited in Islam even at
the cost of giving away explicit
injunctions of the Qur’an and Sunnah.
…The above observations if given due
consideration, with no prejudices in
mind, provide with the only conclusion
that the Institute of Islamic Reasearch
and its co-workers are basically wrong
in their very mode of thinking. As a
result of it they have not only been
unable to do any service to the country
and the nation but in fact created
disruption, uneasiness, confusion and
anxiety throughout the country. How we
wish that the authorities of this
extermely important institute give
serious, sincere and selfless thought as
to how harmful and dangerous for
national unity is the way adopted by
them.
