role of fatawa in the freedom movement of india

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Role of Fatawa in the Freedom

Movement

Submitted by kashif on Sun, 12/17/2006 - 08:13.

q Features

By Zafarul Islam Islahi

It is an established fact that the Muslims after their settlement in Indiaadopted it as their home and considered it their duty to work for socio-economic and cultural development of the country and general welfare ofthe people. In fact, they took part in the freedom movement with the samesense of duty and worked whole-heartedly along with their country-fellowsto achieve the desired goal of the freedom of their homeland. The differentsections of the Muslim society, including ulama, utilised their respectiveresources for this purpose.

As torchbearers of the Muslim community, the ulama employed variousmethods to serve the cause of the freedom movement. Apart from activelyparticipating in different programmes of the movement which were going

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on in those days under the leadership of Gandhiji, they did their best tomake the movement successful through their speeches, writings andissuing fatwa for creating awareness among the Muslims about theBritishers or in support of the crucial programmes of the freedommovement.

The fatwa (pl. fatawa), as it is well-known, is exposition of the Shariat'spoint of view by a mufti or a learned jurist with regard to any emergentproblem in response to a legal query (istifta) by any person or on his own.

As a matter of fact, the institution of ifta (writing or issuing fatwa) is anintegral part of Islamic juridical system and has important role in guidingthe ummah in emergent problems or new situations. It is pertinent toexplain here that the fatwa issued by the competent legal authority aboutany issue is given much importance by the common Muslims, because it isbelieved that a fatwa is a declaration of the Shariat's point of viewexpressed either in the light of the Quran and Hadith or throughinterpreting their text. As such it is considered binding as a provision of theShariat, though, of course, a mufti individually can not force any one tofollow his fatwa. It can not be denied that in recent times, some of thefatawa issued by certain muftis in haste, without thorough examination of

the concerned cases, have undermined the dignity of this great institutionof Islam.

The issuing fatwa is not an easy job as it is generally thought. It requiresextreme care and utmost regard for the well-defined principles of the ifta.As a matter of fact, issuing fatwa or delivering legal verdict about differentissues or cases has a very old history in India. In the modern media, thefatwa is sometimes dubbed as document which negates democraticprinciples, serves the sectarian approach and undermines the rights ofwomen and non-Muslims. It has been forgotten that it was the fatwa whichhad set into motion the struggle against the Britishers who had established

their control over India and had snatched the rights of the Indians to ruleover their country. There are enough evidences to suggest that fatawa ofthe Indian ulama had mobilized the Muslims to render services and makesacrifices for the sake of their homeland and had boosted the cause of thefreedom movement in its several stages.

In the history of the freedom movement in India, the fatwa of Shah AbdulAziz Dehlawi, issued in 1803, has crucial importance as it declared Indiaof that time as Darul Harb and thus prompted the Muslims to start struggleagainst the Britishers and permitted them to wage war for bringing changein the situation.

In fact, it was the starting point of the freedom movement in a practicalway, though it is rightly said that the ground for the movement wasactually prepared by the writings of Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (d. 1762 CE)about the political situation of India in the 18th century. The historic fatwaof Shah Abdul Aziz was endorsed by many ulama of that period, includingQazi Sanaullah Panipati, Shah Rafiuddin, Shah Abdul Qadir, Shah IsmailShaheed, Shah Muhammad Ishaq and Mufti Ilahi Bakhsh. It is noteworthythat the fatwa of some of these ulama had clearly declared that in thepresent situation it had become obligatory for the Indian Muslims to wage

jihad against the Englishmen to change the situation of the country. This

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edict had certainly given legal sanction for the same to check theenslavement of the country and its inhabitants and had also awakened thepeople to prepare themselves for further line of action. During thesubsequent period, the fatawa continued to be issued by the contemporaryulama in support of the different programmes of the freedom movement.Quite obviously, the fatawa that were issued with the signature of a largenumber of ulama proved to be more effective. Some such fatawa belongedto the pre- and post-first war of independence. Just before the painful eventof 1857, when the Britishers were exhausting their energies to gain full

control over Delhi and were damaging the life and property of those whowere resisting it, a fatwa was issued with the signature of 31 ulama ofDelhi, which declared jihad farz-i-ain for the Muslims of Delhi and farz-ikifayah for those of adjoining areas. The signatories to the fatwa includedSayyed Nazir Husain, Maulana Rahmatullah Kairanwi, Mufti Sadruddin,Mufti Ikramuddin, Maulana Abdul Karim, Shah Abdul Ghani Mujaddidi,Mufti Rahmat Ali Khan and Maulana Ilahi Bakhsh.

It is well-known that after 1857, the main target of revengeful action of theBritish government were Muslims, as they had led the first war ofindependence and had posed great challenge to the rising power of the

Britishers. In this situation, some of the ulama, including MaulanaKifayatullah of Muradabad reinforced the above edict to motivate theMuslims for struggle against the oppressive Government.

Another important fatwa issued by Shaikhul Hind, Maulana MahmudHasan in July, 1920 is related to non-cooperation with the BritishGovernment, which was actually an important part of the freedommovement to put pressure on it. The fatwa of the Shaikhul Hind declared itunlawful for the Muslims to join the government service, especially inpolice and army and to cooperate with it in any way. The fatwa endorsedby a large number of ulama in the meeting of the Jamiatul Ulama (held at

Calcutta in September, 1920) was printed with the signature of 474 ulamaand distributed in different parts of the country. It contributed a lot to makethe programme of non-cooperation more effective as many Muslimsfollowing the dictates of the fatwa left the government jobs, discarded themilitary service and returned the government awards and titles. Moreover,echoing the same edict, a resolution supported strongly by Ali brothers,was passed in the Khilafat Conference session of September, 1921, (held atKarachi) openly declaring the police or military service of the Britishgovernment unlawful (haram). Subsequently, the resolution was compiledunder the fatwa format by Shaikhul Islam Maulana Husain Ahmad Madaniand was signed by him along with Maulana Nisar Ahmad and Peer Ghulam

Mujaddid. It was also sent in the printed form to several parts of thecountry, which generated more heat in the freedom movement as the non-cooperation had become a mass programme among Muslims due to theimpact of the fatwa. The situation was quite alarming for the governmentwhich took steps to suppress the rising impact of the fatwa by seizing itand arresting the compiler and supporters of the same. It was the samefatwa on the basis of which the famous Karachi case of inciting seditionwas started against the above prominent freedom fighters who were put totrial and finally awarded punishment of two years rigorous imprisonment.Instead of bringing any setback to the movement, these repressivemeasures spread the message of the fatwa far and wide and strengthened

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the people's resolve to go ahead on the path of the freedom.

In addition to the non-cooperation programme, the salt satyagrahamovement started by Gandhiji in March, 1930 against the anti-people saltlaw of the government also proved to be more effective to air the feelingsof resentment and anger against the Britishers and exhorted them to workmore vigorously to relieve the country from their oppressive and unjustrule. The Muslims, including ulama, actively participated in this historicalsatyagraha, and worked hard to give it wider acceptance through their

speeches and writings. Some of them, like Mufti Atiqur Rahman Usmani,are reported to have given a verdict that no government has right to levytax on items like water and salt and that it is permissible to make struggleagainst a government which dares to do it. Such fatwa had led to createmore awareness among the common Muslims for participation in thesatyagraha.

It is well-known that the freedom movement and the Khilafat Tahrik wereinterlinked. They got support and strength from each other. The whole-hearted support of Gandhiji to this Tahrik had made it an all India issue.Consequently, the Khilafat Tahrik had given great strength to the Hindu-

Muslim relationship and their unity which was obviously the mostpowerful source for the country to achieve the lofty goal of freedom fromthe foreign rule. The Indian ulama, as is well- known, had been in theforefront in the Khilafat movement led by Ali brothers. Though I could notcome across any formal fatwa issued in support of this movement, but itcould not be overlooked that this Tahrik itself was started on the basis ofthe well-considered opinion of the Indian ulama that according to theShariat at that time no one was legitimate Khalifa of Muslims except theSultan of Turkey. So, the Muslims all over the world were required to raisethis issue and work for restoration of his Khilafat. Moreover, just about onemonth before the formation of the Khilafat Committee in India, in a public

meeting of Anjuman Muaiyyidul Islam held in Farangi Mahal (Lucknow)in February, 1919 under the chairmanship of Maulana Abdul Bari FarangiMahli, it was resolved unanimously that a fatwa giving details of the rulesof the Shariat about the institution of Khilafat be prepared and after beingsigned by the ulama of the Arab and Islamic countries be sent to theGovernor General.

Another well-known matter which was juridically examined by the ulamain course of the freedom movement was joining the Congress party by theMuslims and working in coordination and cooperation with the Hindus tobring freedom to their country. Some of the ulama of the period put their

seal to it by their fatawa to remove any misgiving, if found in this regard.The fatwa in support of joining the Congress party had been issued by thefamous freedom fighter Maulana Habibur Rahman Ludhianwi in 1888. Itwas published with the signature of about 300 ulama and distributed indifferent parts of country. This fatwa, though confiscated by thegovernment like other important fatawa, had also served the cause of thefreedom movement, because it is generally accepted that among thepolitical parties of that time the Congress was playing the leading role inthis movement. In the same way, many ulama of the period stressed theneed of the Muslims jointly working with the Hindus against the Britisherswho had subjugated their country and had enslaved them. What is

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important in this regard is that some of them openly declared that there wasno bar from the Shariat for Muslims working with non-Muslims for a goodcause.

In brief, it is quite clear from the above details that many importantprogrammes of the freedom movement were supported by the ulama andgiven wide acceptance among the Muslims through their fatawa. This wasactually an important part of the multi-dimensional role of the ulama(especially those belonging to Darul Uloom, Deoband) in the freedom

movement which is generally overlooked by the historians and writers ofthe modern period. The real importance of their fatawa lies in the fact thatthey contributed to build up the opinion of the common Muslims againstthe Britishers who had adopted repressive policies towards the Indiansparticularly Muslims and under whose rule their life and property wasinsecure and their religious and political rights were in peril. Besides, thesefatawa led to make them more active and dutiful with regard to the strugglefor freedom of the country. The Britishers, as also became clear from theabove deliberations, were themselves fully aware of the inherent impact ofthe fatwa and had tried their best, though unsuccessfully, to suppress it byseizing copies of different fatawa and subjecting their authors, printers and

propagators to harsh and humiliating punishment. It may be also addedhere that the fatawa referred to above in relation to the freedom movementare merely a fragmented part of huge fatawa literature of the same natureavailable in the well-known Fatawa-collections, records of Darul Ifta ofdifferent madrasahs and treasures of private libraries. These are required tobe brought out, studied thoroughly and compiled systematically to assesstheir quantum and to find out the real role of this hitherto-neglectedliterature produced by the Indian ulama.

Lastly, it can not be missed to point out that the ulama, who prepared theabove fatawa and took care of their distribution in printed form among the

people to make them more effective, were mostly products of themadrasahs or institutions of Islamic learning. This strongly supports theview that they are not only assets to the Muslim community, they are alsorendering (as they did in the past) many services (khidmat) to the country the noblest being promotion of learning, reformof moral life and socio-cultural upliftment of the people. Their good works,undoubtedly, cannot be obliterated by the ongoing hateful campaign andadverse comments about them in a section of modern media.

_____________________________________________________________Professor Islahi teaches in the department of Islamic Studies, AMU

Source: The Milli Gazette, 1-15 November 2006, p. 16

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