Life and Conditions of the People of Hindustan (1200–1550 A.D.) c5.s1.94

c5.s1.94

A passing reference may be made here in concluding this discussion, to a class of Muslims who adhered to the original meaning of the Qur'an and refused to be guided except by the practice of Muhammad and the spirit of his immediate successors. They stoutly refused to recognize all the historical developments of Muslim politics to which we have referred in the preceding pages, and unlike the *Ulama* they turned away from every proposal of compromise as resolutely as if from the powers of Evil. In fairness to them, it may be said that no compromise was possible except by surrendering the original spirit and the whole set of principles for which Islam stood. The conviction within them was firm that Muhammad had delivered the final message of Allah to humanity and it was the sole guide for the Muslim community in every form of its activity on earth. On the other hand the Muslim State had developed out of the hard facts of life, and in the last resort was strong enough to crush every opposition. The Muslims in general supported the State in all its non-Islamic features and the great majority among them were frankly materialists and realists. Thus, the champions of the cry of ‘Back to Muhammad’ were a small fraction of the Muslim community. Now and again, in the early days of Islam when the machinery of the State was ill organized, they actively struggled to get hold of power; but, uncompromising to the core, and not knowing how to win over an enemy by making suitable political alliances and by using other tactics, they usually lost the battle or quarrelled among themselves.¹ With the efficient organization of the Government, this type of person became ever more conscious of his helplessness, and either gave way to morbid despair and reacted towards asceticism and the renunciation of the world, or else made peace with those whom he erstwhile considered the powers of Evil. This spiritual crisis appeared in Islam very early and is reflected in the defeatist literature and the spread of the doctrines of the Mahdavis all of which began to visualize the millennium and the appearance of the Mahdi to restore the pristine purity of Islam.² These doctrines were skilfully exploited by designing political factions against the ruling dynasties and soon lost their spiritual significance. Their place was, however, taken by the universal popularity of asceticism, and the wide spreading of the Sufi movement, which nevertheless had hardly been contemplated by Muhammad and the teachings of the Holy Qur'an.¹ No fault whatever could be found with the searching analysis of a Sufi and his estimate of social conditions, or with his fierce and strictly logical arguments. According to him there could be no room for spiritual life within the organized Muslim society as they were mutually exclusive. It was similarly obvious that those who lived for the world were in the clutches of the Devil, and the man of faith (*Din*) could only live for the spirit.² It was easy for a Sufi to meet a politician on his own ground. He dismissed the cobwebs of the theories of divine monarchy (the ‘Zill-ullah’) and the political reasons for its justification. As long as an opponent admitted his allegiance to Islam, he made himself ridiculous before a Sufi and an ascetic of this type.