Preaching Services 0f Darul-Uloom
In
the particulars of the years A. H. 1341-42 the most important event is
that regrettable incident of Shuddhi (lit. purification, i.e., conversion
of the Muslims to Arya Samaj) and Sangathan (Hindu solidarity), which
diverting the Darul-Uloom from its own internal affairs, had drawn all its
attention to itself. This unpleasant incident in the history of India was
an organized movement of the Arya Samaj started with the purpose of
converting simple-minded Muslims, ignorant of Islam, to Arya beliefs. This
movement looks very queer in the context of the politics of that era and
the Hindu-Muslim unity. To understand it properly if is necessary to know
its background.
In
the years 1920, 1921 and 1922, due to mutual help and co-operation between
the Khilafat Movement and the Indian National Congress such strong bonds
of friendship, unanimity and alliance had been forged between the Hindus
and Muslims that both the communities had become very intimate with each
other. The significant change that had appeared in the Hindus practice of
untouchability with the Muslims was that now they had begun to take
sherbet and pan (betel-leaf) unrestrainedly from the Muslims hands. Such
were these conditions that had mode the future continuance of the British
power in India difficult. The English, sensing the delicacy of the
circumstances, made use of their old. Favorite recipe of hatred and
"divide and rule", which, unfortunately for India, proved to be
their sovereign remedy. The detail of this is that in 1922 the then
viceroy (Lord Reading) summoned a great leader of the Non-co-operation
Movement, Swami Shraddhanand, who was then in jail, and held a secret
parley with him. After this talk which was to be held a guarded secret, he
was released from jail. As soon as he was out of jail, Swami Shraddhanand
started a movement for converting the Muslims to the Arya Samaj ideology.
On the other hand, one Dr. Moonje established what is called Sangathan, a
purely Hindu organisation. Kesari, a newspaper of Lahore, drew attention
to the 'purification' of four and half Laces of Malkana neo-Muslim,
Rajpoots of Agra. Agra, Mathura, Etah, Itawa, Kanpur, Farrukhabad,
Gurganwa and Moinpuri, etc., were the main centers of this movement.
On
this extremely delicate occasion the Darul-Uloom did what be seemed a
religious institution. In this connection, before launching a defensive
and counteractive action, the Darul-Uloom first morally appealed to the
All-India National Congress that using its catholic influences it cries a
halt to these aggressive activities, which were fostering sentiments of
hatred and animosity between the Hindus and the Muslims. The text of the
resolution was as under: -
"This
council of the Darul-Uloom emphatically requests the All-India Congress
Committee that, considering the tumultuous circumstances of the country,
it stop for the good of the country. All those activities which appearing
in the form of a strife, are provoking among the Hindus and Muslims the
sentiments of hatred and antagonism and are proving to be the cause of
darkening the horizon of the freedom of India. And in order to make peace
and cleansed the political atmosphere which was becoming disturbed day by
day, it cause those preachers who are engaged in waging a religious war of
sorts to be recalled. However, no party has had the right to stop anyone
from such religious preaching which, along with inter-communal tolerance,
is of a reasonable and mild type".
The
following resolution was presented regarding the Sangathan: -
"Since
in certain circles of the movement of the Hindu Sanghatan it has been so
understood, rightly or wrongly. That it has been devised to be a powerful
program vis-a-vis the Muslims in order to bring the Hindus into clash with
the Muslims, such a thinking has very severely injured and made alarming
the peace of the country. Hence this council proposes that the All-India
Congress Committee strongly request the Hindu Maha Sabha that, assessing
these delicate and dangerous conditions through which our country is
passing. It postpones the present form of Hindu solidarity from which the
engendering of harmful dangers is being always apprehended. However, when
the atmosphere of the country becomes suitable and the conditions return
to normalcy, the All-India Congress Committee is requested that it advise
such plans to develop the physical strength of both Hindus and Muslims.
Whereby both the communities, severally and jointly, may protect their
physical powers from general debility which is being observed today, more
or less, in most of the individuals of both the communities. So that the
country may acquire the services of such of its sons, and the good people
may be enabled to protect their life, wealth, honor and religion from the
wicked ones".
It
can be called nothing but ill luck of the country that at that time this
conciliatory appeal of the Darul-Uloom ended up as a cry in the
wilderness. On the other hand, when news arrived incessantly in the
Darul-Uloom, through letters and newspapers, of the intolerable communal
activities of the Arya Samaj and the apostasy of the neo-Muslims, a
delegation of preachers was dispatched on 12th Jumad-e-Ukhra
from the Darul-Uloom.
It
was known from the report of the delegation that the movement of the Arya
Samaj had spread in a very organized mariner and on a very wide scale, and
therefore, to counter check and counter work more preachers, in sufficient
numbers, were required. So, in pursuance of this suggestion, several other
delegations consisting of the teachers and students of the Darul-Uloom
were sent one after another. Making Agra the base of preaching activities,
on office of the Ulama of Deoband was opened there under the supervision
of Maulana Meerak Shah, a teacher of the Darul-Uloom, who used to dispatch
preachers wherever they were needed. Thanks to Allah that as a result of
the untiring efforts of the preachers countless renegades recanted and
returned to the fold of Islam. The Muslims of those places where the
movement of the Arya Samaj was in operation were generally simple-minded
and ignorant of religion and hence they used to fact easy prey to the
adversaries. The preachers, through sermons and preaching, re-acquainted
the Malkana Rajpoots (who were in tact neo-Muslims) with Islam, made
arrangements for their religions education and opened Madrasahs at various
places. At many places the Muslim missionaries had to break lance with the
Arya preachers in which the preachers of the Darul-Uloom were generally
successful.
It
appears from the informations, which the preachers sent from time to time
that initially they had to suffer various severe harassments from the
perversities and cruelties of the recusant and recalcitrant Malkanas. In
the earlier stages, when the preaches reached Tasai, a village in the
erstwhile Alwar state, the Malkanas refused to accommodate them; the
Malkanas used to make fun of the preachers' ablution (Vuzu) and when the
latter would ask for water, they would answer with brickbats. But the
preachers, putting up in mosque, went on bearing with the Malkanas'
vexatious behavior with fortitude and determination for a long time. When
the preachers' cup of patience over brimmed and success kept evading,
willy-nilly they thought of returning. But at night some of them saw in
dream that the Holy Prophet (peace and blessings be on him!) was busy
smilingly in putting a check on the mischief of apostasy. This great good
tiding revived and bolstered up their spirits, and, on the one hand, the
condition of the Malkanas, by divine destiny, took a sudden turn and their
vexatious harassment changed into acts of providing comforts.
There
is no denying the fact that during these delicate period many other
institutions and societies besides the Darul-Uloom participated more and
more in the preaching efforts. The activities of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind
were also not any the less in this field, so much so that when it also
opened its missionary office at Agra. Darul-Uloom, in order to maintain a
joint position, thought it advisable to affiliate its own branch of
preaching to the Jamiat's office. Accordingly, from Rabiul-Awwal, A.H.
1342, this decision was put into practice. But from the manner, in which
the common Muslims and newspapers acknowledged the services of the
Darul-Uloom, it appears that the efforts of the Darul-Uloom were much more
extensive, organized and valuable. The newspaper "Siyasat"
(Lahore), in its issue of June 27, 1922, had written: "As far as the
protection of religion, repudiation of the antagonists and reformation of
the Muslims are concerned, the part the teachers, preachers and organizers
of the Darul-Uloom, Deoband, far exceeds that of the whole of India. As
for Instance, if those unlimited efforts, which the Arya Samaj put in
against Islam, are considered, it will be as clear as day to you that one
who stood face to face with these efforts more prominently. It was the
Madrasah A'liya, Deoband, only and it can be claimed that the talks of
true religion, Arabic sciences, Tafsir, Hadith and Fiqh, by Allah's help,
are existing to a great extent due to the auspicious existence of Deoband".
The
news daily "Zamindar" (Lahore) had stated: "It is needless
to mention how valuable services the Darul-Uloom is rendering in the
prevention of the mischief of relegation. Its teachers and students are
active in achieving this object with utmost concentration and it is an
open fact that a real leaching institution is that which may enter the
field of action in the hour of need".
(Zamindar
Lahore, June 24, 1923)
ARRANGEMENT
FOR MISSIONARY EDUCATION