STATUS OF THE ULAMA AND POLITICS – HADRAT MASEEHULLAH RAHMATULLAHI ALAYHI

(Hadrat Maseehullah Rahmatullahi Alayhi, during one of his discouses was narrating the story of a handsome youth who smeared his body with feaces in trying to escape the clutches of a wealthy young lady from seducing him. The young lady saw him and started screaming at the bándí (her servant), “A mad man! What madman did you bring here? Get out! Get him out from here!” The bándí opened the door and let him out.

It comes in the Hadíth Sharíf:

ألنساء حبالة الشياطين

Women are the nets (snares) of Shaitán.

So, Shaitán said that he had prepared such a net for him, but instead of falling into his net, he resorted to the ploy of appearing insane. How did he resort to this scheme of appearing mad? It comes in the Hadíth Sharíf:

لا يؤمن أحدكم حتى أن يقال له أنه لمجنون

This means: Just see, O you Mu’mins, you will not be kámil (perfect) Mu’mins until those who see you do not tell you that you are mad, completely mad. Did the kuffár and mushrikín not tell Rasúlulláh (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam) that he was mad? Yes, they did! Nowadays, do not the general populace, the intellectuals, the politicians and national leaders, say, “How much knowledge do the ulemá have? What do the ulemá know? Just see from where to where has the world not progressed! From where to where has the world not advanced! What do these ulemá know? This is the age of progress. Man has reached the moon already. What do the ulemá know? Ulemá have no knowledge of today’s world.”

This is the label the ulemá have been given in this age, from the intellectuals, from the politicians, from the leaders of the nation. Yet, what did my Hadhrat say? Was he not in the final age and most recent period? What should I say? In his age, my Hadhrat was the essence, the sum total and a faultless jewel of all the Auliyá-Alláh, ulemá and pious predecessors.

I have heard with my own ears, in the very special majlis that used to take place in the mornings, Hadhrat saying… What did he say? He said, “Whatever ahwál (spiritual states) that had been experienced by the preceding Auliyá‑Alláh, those very háláts I have also experienced.”

And he also said….

What did he say? Well, you have heard of Mansúr of days gone by, the one who had proclaimed “An-al-Haqq!” and who was executed after being found guilty of blasphemy. Hadhratwálá (رحمه الله) said, concerning this incident, “Were I present at that time, I would not have allowed Mansúr to be taken to the scaffold to be executed.” (The implication of this statement is that Hadhratwálá (RA) would have put forward such proofs to show that his statements did not denote any such meanings as to have a charge of blasphemy being leveled at him and he would have been set free).

I am relating matters that I have heard with my own ears.

To continue: What else did Hadhratwálá (رحمه الله) say, in this last era, taking into account all the conditions prevailing at the time? “The politics of this age is different. Our ulemá should avoid getting involved in these politics. Our ulemá will not be able to support and sustain the politics of this age. Let those intellectuals who have come here after having studied in England, (It was the age of the British Empire and England was the centre for secular learning. get involved in politics). Yes, your duties are to mix with them, develop an informality with them and make tablígh to them. Allow them to rule. The nature of politics in this age is such. And the rank that you hold, the duty that you have to carry out is to associate with them and develop an informal relationship with them and make tablígh to them, so that, in time to come, they come to know the Sharí’ah laws and the politicians come to accept these and act on the Sharí’ah.

Let them study and let them rule. However, tablígh should be made to them. Now, those making tablígh, should they be ordinary people approaching such people? Remember, these are people with status, be it from the point of view of their noble family lineage, or their education, or from being well-bred, or from being cultured. So, should just an ordinary person go and make tablígh amongst them? There was a time when the ulemá also were men of status, being from noble lineage, cultured, well-mannered, having perfection in rhetoric, having perfection in eloquence. These are the ones who should go to them.