Islam's Reformers .pdf

way in the presence of a cruel sultan.” Scholars shouldadvise the state officials as much as they can. But they shouldbe very careful lest sedition should arise while performing alamrubi ’l-ma’rûf; this means that Muslims neither revolt norsurrender to cruelty and injustice. They seek for their rightsthrough legitimate ways. It is wâjib for every Muslim to obey thegovernment’s legitimate (mashrû’) commands. No person’scommands are to be carried out if they are harâm, yet oneshould not revolt against them and cause fitna [1] . One shouldnot defy the cruel or dispute with them. For example, while it isone of the gravest sins not to perform salât, if a person’s chiefor commander is a cruel unbeliever and says, “Don’t performsalât,” he should answer, “With pleasure. I won’t,” and think ofsaying, “This will prevent the fitna. For it is harâm to cause fitna,which in effect would cause Muslims to be persecuted.”However, he should perform salât in the absence of that cruelperson.’Abd al-Haqq ad-Dahlawî [d. 1052 A.H. (1642)], one of thegreat ’ulamâ’ of Islam in India, wrote in the section captioned“Kitâb al-fitan” of his Persian commentary Ashi’at al-lama’ât tothe invaluable hadîth book Mishkat al-masâbih: “Hudhaifa(radiy Allâhu ’anh), one of as-Sahâba said, ‘I asked Rasûlullah(sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam) about the fitnas that will happen inthe future for the evils that they imported terrified me. Keepingaway from harmful things is more important than attaininguseful things. ‘Fitna’, as used here, means ‘confusion, fightamong people’. Although a society wherein acts of harâm wererunning rife would be another source of fitna, there was no needto ask about this, since acts of harâm were commonly known. ‘Isaid, “Oh Rasûl-Allah! We were bad people before becomingMuslim. Allâhu ta’âlâ, with your honourable existence, bestowedupon us the favour of Islam and perfections. Will there an eviltime after these days of bliss?” “Yes, there will!” he said. Iasked, “Will good days come again after that badness?” Againhe declared, “Yes, they will. But that time will be blurred.”That is, the good and the bad will be confused in those days.[1]Fitna means mischief, commotion, sedition, turmoil, chaos,instigation, etc. Any act, behaviour, statement, writing, article orattitude that would lead to harmful consequences is fitna, andtherefore harâm, even if it is done with good intentions apparently- 219 -