Missing the Real Task

among Muslims, moral, social, and cultural reform to such an extent that non-Muslim neighbours would clearly see the Muslim society as superior to their own, gathering as much intellectual strength of the nation around the movement, and ensuring that all members gain proficiency in writing and speaking in local languages, transferring essential Islamic literature into these languages. In April 1947, at a gathering in Madras, the Jamaat approved this plan, and its members were told that they needed to accomplish this within the next five years: “Your small group has an enormous task to accomplish in the next five years… a task no less daunting than bringing forth streams of milk from a mountain… You must redirect Muslim public opinion and its national attitude. You must bring about doctrinal, moral, and cultural reform among the general Muslim population. You must penetrate the educated classes of Muslims and prevent them from falling into intellectual and practical disarray, guiding them instead toward the path of Islamic revolution. You must make arrangements to publish Islamic literature in the languages of different parts of the country.” This was the mission for which the Jamaat members