THE ROLE OF THE ULEMA — Guidance and Reformation

in order to remove them from their positions. To initiate or participate in a campaign aimed at deposing an established political leadership is against Islam. This teaching was universally accepted and followed by all the Companions of the Prophet of Islam, the Hadith compilers and the ulema of yore. Early Islamic history is witness to the fact that the ulema has always been acting as counsellors to the political rulers and have never initiated any sort of political revolt against them. The ulema of the modern age however, have gone against the spirit of this Hadith and have instigated their followers to rebel and revolt against their corrupt or nonreligious rulers. Ulema and the dawn of the Modern Age Muslim ulema found themselves in a situation where on one hand, western colonial powers had put an end to Muslim political rule and on the other, revolutionary discoveries in scientific knowledge were brought about by these very same western powers. This presented a unique issue that now confronted the ulema. Those who had put an end to Muslim political power had a power even greater than political power, on the strength of which they had spread out over the whole world. This was the power of scientific knowledge. To initiate or participate in a campaign aimed at deposing an established political leadership is against Islam. Muslims had their historical glory in political power. On the other hand, the secret of their religious glory was hidden in scientific knowledge. This was a time when the potential had been realised for the Muslim ulema to establish the truth of their religion based on accepted human knowledge. These very western powers had brought about the culmination of the revolution in human thought that began with the Prophet of Islam and his companions. From the Quran, we know that in ancient times there was no freedom of religious thought (THE QURAN 85: 4-8), there was no freedom of action (THE QURAN 96: 9-10), and there was no freedom of expression (THE QURAN 72: 19). The Quran also tells us that the very purpose of our existence in this world is that God wants to put us to a ‘test’. An imperative condition for this ‘test’ is the freedom of man. In ancient times, man was deprived of such freedom because in those times, religious power or