Imam Al-Sudais’s India visit to lecture at the Deoband
seminary is sending some sections of the Muslim community into
overdrive. I received a card from the India Islamic Cultural Centre (IICC)
in Delhi to attend an address by ‘His Holiness’ Imam-e-Haram, Dr
Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais, presently imam of the mosque in Mecca.
The accompanying letter details the imam’s achievements, including his
educational degrees in Shariah law. In 2005 he was named ‘The Islamic
Personality of the Year’ by the Dubai International Holy Quran Award,
an honour that he accepted.
The ‘His Holiness’ came as a jolt, for no such
prefixes have ever been added to Prophet Muhammad’s name or to the
names of his companions, who rank the highest in Muslim piety. As one
devoted to Islam, I believe using the Koran to name an award belittles
the sanctity of god’s word and borders on blasphemy. Legitimising such
an award by its acceptance seems a worse action. The early history of
Islam contains no examples of spiritual or religious leaders accepting
state or private awards. On the contrary, Shariah and prophetic
traditions frown upon those who seek or allow public adulation, for
all righteous deeds are for god alone.
The Deoband leadership has requested that Al-Sudais
not be frisked during his visit to Parliament. Due respect must be
accorded to the visiting imam because he leads the prayers at the
Kaaba. This reverence flows from ‘where’ the prayers are led and not
because of ‘who’ the imam is. To quote Arshad Madani of the
Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind, “Sheikh Al-Sudais is the highest religious leader
of the Muslims”. This is misleading because Al-Sudais merely
represents the highest-ranking sacred space. The worldwide Muslim
majority does not subscribe to the radical Wahhabi ideology propagated
by Saudi clerics.
This political, narrow, legalistic and literalist
interpretation of Islam emerged from the desert wastelands of Najd in
Saudi Arabia from among the followers of the Bedouin Abdul Wahhab, an
18th century self-proclaimed reformist. The trajectory of the Wahhabi
movement is rooted in violence, legitimising jihad as an armed
conflict to kill fellow Muslims in disagreement with their vision of
Islam by declaring them kafirs, infidels. Related to the ruling family
through matrimonial alliances, Abdul Wahhab’s family continues to
control the ministry of religion, quashing many reforms desired by the
political leadership, particularly by the present moderate King
Abdullah.
The Wahhabis, who call themselves ‘Salafis’, have a
limited following in the subcontinent. It includes the Deoband
seminary, Tablighi Jamaat, Ahl-e-Hadith and the Jamaat-e-Islami in
Pakistan. Together they constitute not more than 15 to 20 per cent of
the total population. Unfortunately, the government and the public
fall prey to media-driven stereotypes. The perceptions that these
factions represent majority Muslim opinion are baseless. Muslims are
not monolithic communities but adhere to varied interpretations of
Islam. In India and Pakistan, the Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat represented
by the Barelvi creed has the largest following.
Saudi clerics, including Al-Sudais, face international
criticism for inciting passions against the Barelvis, Shias, other
Muslim minorities and non-Muslims. The Saudi state outsources its
Wahhabi ideology by spending billions of dollars in patronising the
building and running of mosques, madrassas, journals and cleric
training programmes. It remains the fountainhead of the extremism
infiltrating Muslim communities, tearing their local cultures apart.
The bombing of dargahs and Shia mosques in Pakistan is one such
manifestation.
The Saudi state has robbed all Muslims in the world of
their legitimate cultural, historical and spiritual legacy, both in
the physical and spiritual realm. In 1925, despite global outrage, all
mausoleums, including those of the prophet’s family at Jannat ul-Maula
and Jannat ul-Baqi, the sacred graveyards of Mecca and Medina, were
demolished. Once reflecting Islamic glory and heritage, the bulldozed
compounds are now typical Wahhabi burial grounds with rows of
featureless unmarked graves. Several other historical sites continue
to be obliterated.
Throughout history Sufis and their disciples from
different parts of the globe inhabited Mecca and Medina, the first
centres of spiritual Islam. Now the constant patrolling by the
mutawwa, the religious police, ensures that pilgrims do not
participate in collective spiritual gatherings. Forced to follow
Wahhabi practices, devotees in Medina are not allowed to face the
prophet’s chamber in supplication. Women face severe restrictions of
time and space at the sacred mosques. It is decreed sinful and
therefore criminal to write, read, sing or listen to ‘naat’,
poetic praise of the prophet. Enforcements have washed away these
traditions which were commonplace during Prophet Muhammad’s life.
Thirty-five among the prophet’s poet companions composed ‘naat’,
Hassan ibn Thabit being his favourite.
The aims and objective of the IICC is to preserve and
promote the composite and inclusive cultural traditions of Indian
Muslims. Since its inception, the centre has been trying to decode
which cultural activities are Shariah-compliant and those that are
not. Therefore it is ironic and worrying that the IICC is one of the
venues for the imam’s address. I hope Al-Sudais’s discourse triggers a
genuine and long overdue intra-faith dialogue amongst Indian Muslims
as to what the rightful traditions of Islam are.
