ISLAMIC LITERATURE: AN ANALYSIS

masses. Such people, in fact, are ‘mischievous’, but due to the distorted taste of the public, receive the status of ‘pious people’. These are the people whose speeches and writings are alluded to as muthannath in the above Hadith. The books except the Book of God which are mentioned in the Hadith under discussion are not the books in common use. These books were written in the later period of Muslim history to serve as commentary on and explanation of the religion of God. In other words, these books were produced in the period after ‘the one that has been unanimously agreed upon as the best period’. The books written in later times can be of two types—one that offers true explanation of the Book of God after a thorough and deep reading of the Book; second that are written by making allowances for the distorted tastes of people in their phase of degeneration. The books that are referred to as muthannath belong to this second category. In the later period of Muslim history, this literature was produced when Muslims had ceased to exist as an ideological group. Therefore, one common flaw of their literature is that it depicts community-based mindset of the Muslims, not the true principles of Islam. In later times, Muslims began to ignore their duty of conveying God’s message to others and started treating them as political subjects. It resulted into omission of the chapter on dawah or ‘calling people to God’ in the literature that was produced in those times. When Muslims established a political empire, a general political mindset developed among them. The idea of fighting (war) in the name of jihad became predominant among Muslims as a result of this political mindset. Armed warfare became a part of religious belief for them, whereas it was adopted under the law of necessity in the time of the Prophet of Islam. The political domination that Muslims enjoyed in the later period produced a psychology of pride in them. They began considering themselves superior to others. This mentality caused them to use the terminologies of Dar ul-Islam (Abode of Islam) for the land they ruled, and Dar ul-Kufr (Abode of Disbelief) for the land ruled by other religious communities, though according to the Quran the whole world Present-day Muslims do not take ideological guidance from the revealed religion. They have effectively adopted the explanations of Muslim scholars as their source of guidance.