The Islamic Movement of Elam

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

When doing a lecture on the Islamic Movement in Elam, one of the things I emphasize is the intellectual heritage of the Movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. An understanding of the issues and environment of that turbulent period is quite useful in gaining an appreciation for the dynamic nature of the Islamic Movement. In the context of Elam, the name of Abul-Qalam stands out as the major personality who serves as the central inspiration for modern Islamic ideas and the Islamic awakening of the twentieth century. For this reason, I want to start my lecture by touching on the life, work and ideas of Abul-Qalam.

Abul-Qalam is actually his pseudonym – it literally means “father of the pen” - and its no coincidence that the father of the pen wrote excessively, perhaps the greatest writer in all of Elam's history. His real name was Ibrahim Qutbuddin, and was born in 1876.

Growing up in an environment of European colonialism, a time when the Muslims were weak and enslaved while the Christian West was ascendant had a great psychological effect on the mind of Abul-Qalam. He gave expression to the rancour of his soul in his masterpiece The Fall of Cordoba. This book was published in 1908 when he was only thirty-one or thirty-two years old, but its an amazing book and actually one of the beautiful examples of English literature. Strangely enough, Abul-Qalam was self-educated for the most part, having studied in a Christian school only until the age of twelve. He actually left the school despite his father's stern protest, citing the fact that he could not reconcile his personal commitment to Islam with being schooled by Christian missionaries. So we see quite early on that Abul-Qalam had a passion for Islam and was at pains to see the ascent of Christianity through the missionaries and their schools. The book Fall of Cordoba really caught the attention of the Muslim intelligentsia of Elam – which at the tiny was minuscule, perhaps a handful of Western and

English educated lawyers and professionals. Despite the book's somewhat misleading title, its not actually an historical account of the end of Muslim Spain, but rather a lamentation of the worldwide decline and weakness of the Ummah. Encouraged by the positive response to this book, Abul-Qalam began writing incessantly about the moral, spiritual, political and social condition of the Muslims, using the communityin Elam as his main point of reference. Throughout his writings he is quite critical, to the point of severity,with almost every section of the Muslims – first and foremost the Ulama, the traditional scholars, then the Sufi mystics, the wealthy aristocracy, the Westerneducated elite, the political parties and politicians, and even the ordinary people. His writings also condemn the ills of sectarianism, obscurity, illiteracy,and political apathy that were rampant among the Muslims in those days.

Reading some of Abul-Qalam's early books one is shocked to learn about the condition in detail of the Muslims in Elam. I think no reasonable Muslim today would not be somewhat stupefied by the

description of that generation. We often speak now as though the Muslims are going through their darkest phase and that everything was fine and dandy back inthe day, but a reading of Abul-Qalam will make anyone conclude otherwise. It's actually in this way we can see how the Islamic Movement, which owes itsinspiration to Abul-Qalam, has really reformed and transformed present day Muslim society and polity. Although we obviously have a long way to go, the efforts of the Islamic Movement in the past century have really produced positive results, and that itself is a proof that the path which the Islamic Movement has charted out for itself and has embarked upon is the right path.

Abul-Qalam remained busy with his writing and did not actively participate in Elaman affairs until the Khilafah Movement of the 1920s. After the First World War when the Ottoman Turks were defeated alongside their German allies, there was a real possibility that the British would do away entirely with the caliphate in Istanbul. This was obviously an alarming development and deeply concerned not

only Abul-Qalam but practically the entire Sunni Ulama. So despite his previous, often harsh criticism of the Ulama, Abul-Qalam found himself side by side with them in the agitation to preserve the caliphate. However, when some modernist and nationalist thinkers criticized the Khilafah Movement on the grounds that it was a reactionary movement representing religious fanaticism and was opposed to the spirit of the times, the spirit of modernity, Abul-Qalam was compelled to respond in the best way he could – through his writing. In this connection, his book The Caliphate: A Question of Life or Death is another example of Abul-Qalam's talented writing and the way in which he presents powerful and convincing arguments of an existential nature.