ROLE OF ULEMA IN THE CONTEMPORARY TIMES

This is because due to their inborn qualities, some people are more suitable for occupying official posts, while others are more suitable for fulfilling the role of scholarship and spiritual guidance. According to Islam, the political field should be given over to those who possess the requisite political skills and capabilities, while the religious scholars should engage in various other fields that are also necessary for the community. Accordingly, while politicians are charged with the task of administering and organizing the people, scholars have the responsibility of providing the people with the knowledge that they need. This indicates that the believers must respect the division between the ‘people of politics’ and the ‘people of academics’. This also suggests that it is not only in ordinary circumstances that the religious scholars of the Muslim community must fulfill their responsibility as teachers of the people. Rather, they must continue to play this constructive role even when they see that the rulers have fallen prey to corruption. No matter how degenerate the system of governance may appear to have become, the religious scholars must not deviate from the work that they have been entrusted with. As a matter of principle, it is not the task of religious scholars to become involved in practical politics. In case they assume this role, much more basic responsibilities are bound to be neglected. Therefore, they have to leave political disputes to politicians to handle, and instead devote themselves entirely to scholarly works like understanding the position of Islam in the modern age, social reform, constructive activities, and introducing Islam to people in the contemporary idiom. This division of the sphere of activity was followed by the Companions of the Prophet, as well as by later generations, right from the age of the rightly guided caliphs, through the Umayyad caliphate and down to the end of the Abbasid caliphate. Similarly, the Spanish Muslim religious scholars and other scholars made an impressive intellectual and scientific contribution by keeping themselves aloof from politics. This pattern continued for around 1000 years and enabled these scholars to focus their energies on the enormously valuable task of crystallizing the various branches of Islamic knowledge while remaining unaffected by the political tumult raging around them. Some people are more suitable for occupying official posts, while others are more suitable for fulfilling the role of scholarship and spiritual guidance.