CHAPTER SIX — Modern Possibilities

Modern Possibilities the preserved divine religion acceptable to today’s man. But our reformers were blind to this opportunity, and foolishly engaged themselves, on the contrary, in launching themselves on a collision course with the communities whom they should rather have invited to acept Islam. When the colonisation of Muslim countries by European nations began in modern times, the whole Muslim world had to consider how to grapple with this problem. The need of the hour was to make positive plans in the light of the Quran and precepts of the Prophet, and then to strive to implement them. But, far from doing so, the caravan of our crusaders set off on the obverse path of negative reaction. There were two mainstreams of this reaction, one of which came into existence more or less as a defence mechanism. The leaders of this group engaged themselves in enthusing Muslims with the spirit of religión according to traditional ways, for instance, in the establishment of schools for religious education, the foundation of religious assemblies for teaching the Islamic creed and forms of worship, and the preservation of special privileges for Muslims, etc. The second group was more revolutionary and planned to launch an offensive. A large number of ulema (religious scholars) and thinkers of the Muslim world of the 18th and 19th centuries made unremitting efforts to enthuse Muslims with religious zeal in order to bring about a new revolution. Some of the most prominent of them were : Muhammad bin Ismael al-Amir (Yemen) 1688-1768 Shah Waliullah Dehlavi (India) 1703-1762 Muhammed bin Abdul Wahhab Najadi (Saudi Arabia) 1703-1791 Shah Ismail Shahid (India) 1779-1831 Mohammed bin Ali As-Sanusi (Morocco) 1787-1860 Syed Ahmed Shahid Bareilavi (India) 1786-1831 Amir Abdul Qadir, (Algeria) 1807-1883 Jamaluddin Afghaani (Iran-Afghanistan) 1838-1897 Abdur Rehman Kwakabi 1849-1902