From time to time every religion faces new challenges which question its validity , capability, and capacity  to  solve new emerging socio-economic and political problems.  Generally, there are two types of responses in reaction to these challenges: one is  intellectual, to re-interpret the religious teachings in view of the new changes  and make religion relevant to the needs of time;  second  response is to fight new trends with physical force and declare a holy war against new ideas and ideologies. In this essay, I shall discuss these two responses in the context of Indian and Pakistani Islam.  

 There are two categories  of religious scholars  in a Muslim society:  those who study in traditional and conventional  religious schools (madrasahs) under the guidance of  orthodox ulema and graduate after studying the classical syllabus which  does not contain any modern discipline such as sociology, psychology or anthropology.  This syllabus was useful in the past to produce Qazi, mufti, and muhtasib during the period of the Muslim dynastic rule. Now, the graduates of these schools serve either as religious teachers or Imams in mosques. However, in spite of their short comings they have a hold on the common people who look to them as their religious guides and leaders. Whenever, there are problems concerning religion, they approach them for fatwas. They are  regarded by people competent to pronounce religious injunctions.

 The second category includes those religious scholars who  study religion in universities. The syllabus of these modern educational institutions is different than the  madrasahs . Here students  study comparative religions along with  social sciences which broaden their mind and develop an understanding of religions. New knowledge of social sciences gives them new tools to analyse and critically examine the new emerging socio-economic and political issues. If some of them get a chance to go abroad and study in European or American universities, they acquire modern knowledge and new research methodology. As a result, some of these religious scholars have produced excellent research on Islam. They are well equipped to defend  religion  and interpret its teaching which are acceptable to the modern mind. But there are problems: as far as religious interpretation is concerned, the Muslim society prefers those scholars’ opinion who are trained in traditional schools. They are regarded as genuine religious scholars. On the contrary, modern educated religious scholars are suspected as foreign agents who study under foreign teachers with an attempt to destabilise and weaken Islam. This is what happened  in case of Prof. Fazlur Rahman, who was the Director of the Islamic research Institute Islamabad. Although he belonged to a religious family but his foreign degree and his intellectual connections with the Orientalists made him an outsider. He was targeted by the ulema which ultimately forced him to resign from his post  and leave Pakistan. He  accepted the  professorship at Chicago University where he served till his death. For a wider public  his writings remain unknown in Pakistan.  Besides foreign education and modern outlook, there is also a problem with these scholars. They prefer to write in European languages which generally addressed to the orientalist circle. Therefore, their research remains beyond the access of  large public who read  religious literature in their mother tongue. Even Muhammad Iqbal, the poet, who is otherwise respected by the orthodox circles, is not  recognized as a religious authority and his lectures on the “ Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in Islam” more or less went unnoticed in the religious circles.

 The most creative period of new interpretation of Islam is the colonial period when the East India Company dominated the Indian subcontinent politically. The Muslims had no physical or political power to fight against the new rulers ( Syed Ahmad Saheed’s jihad movement also took place in the North West Frontier province and not in the British dominated territories). The only possibility was to face  challenges intellectually. The task was fulfilled by Syed Ahmad Khan and his colleagues. They rationalised Islam in view of modern changes and defended it from the Western criticism. Their  progressive and liberal interpretation was countered by the school of Deoband whose ulema defended Islam on the basis of orthodoxy and traditions. These two trends continued in the Indian Muslim society till the Partition of the 1947.However, with the emergence of the new state of Pakistan, religious parties who opposed the creation of Pakistan,  tried to capture the state and implement the Shariat by force. This approach weakened the intellectual approach and efforts were made to grasp political power in the name of religion. The Jamat-i-Islami   was one the religious parties which aspired to rule the country in the name of religion  So far, syed Ahmad Khan, Maulvi Chiragh Ali, and Syed Amir Ali remained aloof from politics and concentrated their energies on the study of religion and how to defend it from the western criticism. After the Partition, religious  scholars founded the political parties and became their leaders with the aim to acquire political power in order to establish a true Islamic state. We find only one example in post partition period  ,when an individual tried to give a new interpretation of Islam without any aspiration of political power. He was Ghulam Ahmad Parvez whose new religious ideas inspired the young and modern educated generation of the sixties who were influenced by the radical and revolutionary trends  which were emerging from the American and western universities. Moreover, that was the period when there was a process of industrialisation in Pakistan which required changes in religion to adjust  itself in the new environment.  But very soon his  ideas were relegated to the background as a result of re-establishment  of feudal culture  under Z.A.Bhutto and orthodox religious parties dominated the religious scene.

 In the absence of modern educated religious scholars, orthodox and traditional oriented ulema dominated the religious interpretation in Pakistan. The result is that having no knowledge of modern development in technology and natural and social sciences, it is difficult for them to understand the process of globalisation and its impact on society. Its economic implication are beyond their comprehension. The only aspect which concern  them is its cultural influence which they call as “Cultural attack” (Saqafati yalghar) on the Islamic society. The way western and American media is slowly eroding the Islamic identity is a grave and potential danger for them, therefore, all religious parties in Pakistan are against music, dancing, cinema, fine arts,  and all entertainment which is provided in clubs, hotels, and mixed  social gatherings. Their main concern against cultural influence is the sexual morality of the west. On  moral degradation of the West, they point out the free sexual relationship between male and female, single parent family,  nudity in public space, and free mixing of male and female. Therefore, their major concern is how to save the Muslim society from this culture which is creeping in Muslim society and corrupting  pious people, especially youths,  who are attracting to this culture and becoming its slave. There is no intellectual approach to  fight against it , therefore, there are two approaches to handle this problem: one is to warn people  that by adopting these immoral values they are committing sins, and, as a result of it they would be punished  hereafter .The second approach is to terrorise people by using physical power. To implement their programme  they force people not to adopt the Western and un-Islamic values .The students and youth wings of the religious parties attack elite clubs, hotels, social gatherings, and threaten female students in the universities and colleges not to meet with their male colleagues. In an attempt to protect Islamic culture, women especially become victim. They are deterred form going out without veil and showing any part of their body in public. These parties continuously pressurise government to Islamise media and educational system.

Though these religious parties cannot win election but they evolved such a strategy that all major political parties to please them and to win their support  implement their agenda when they come to power. The religiosity   is visible in the Pakistani society . As soon as any party comes to power, Prime Minister and the President immediately go for Umra or Hajj to Saudia Arabia. They are followed by other party members and subsequently it becomes a fashion to show their religious devotion to the public by performing pilgrimage to the holy places. Another custom which has become regular is  recitation of the holy Quran before the beginning of every function . Every well to do family  now holds Milad (celebration  of holy prophet’s birth ) Quran Khwani ( recitation of the Holy Quran ) and celebrates all religious festivals with great pomp and show in order to earn a good image. Though at the same time all sort of corruption is going on without any qualm of morality. Hypocrisy becomes the key to success.

 After the partition of 1947 different religious approaches are emerging in India and Pakistan. In India, the Muslims are in minority and as such they have no chance to come to power as a community. There is also no possibility to capture state power with the help of armed struggle. Therefore, in the secular and democratic structure of India, the Muslim could defend and protect their religion either by withdrawing from the mainstream and isolating themselves from all communities living in India. Or, to  interpret Islam which could be acceptable to  secular set up of India. Two individuals who are trying to adjust Islam with the new realities of India are Asghar Ali Engineer and Maulana Waheedud din. The problem of Asghar Ali Engineer is that by profession he is an engineer and has not graduated from a religious school. Though he knows Arabic and studied Islam in depth, he is not regarded an Alim by the orthodox ulema. That is why his views and ideas about Islam are more appreciated by the non Muslims in India and abroad rather than by the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. On the contrary, Maulana Waheedud din is recognized as Alim but despised by his fellow ulema because of his religious innovations. He is very liberal and progressive as far as  political and social issues are related to the national interest of India are concerned. He exhorts the Muslims of India to abandon their narrow mindedness and change their attitude in having relations with the non Muslims. But he is orthodox and traditional when social issues which are only related to the Muslims are concerned, such as the status of woman in Islam. He is not in favour of allowing Muslim woman to acquire more rights than what are  granted to her by Islam. However, what K.Smith writes in his book “Islam in Modern India” is that there would be more opportunities in the secular India for Islam to become creative and innovative rather than in Pakistan where Islam  might remain confined in an ideological framework.

 This prediction  has come  true. In a feudal and autocratic structure, Pakistani Islam  has become  rigid, fanatic, and unacceptable to change according to the needs of time. The creativeness and intellectual approach to understand religion does not exist in Pakistani society. The Islamic Institute of Islamabad which was set up with the intention to modernise Islam, has become a bureaucratic and insipid institute which is producing just hackneyed version of Islam. Same is the case with the International Islamic University which has become a centre of all orthodox scholars of the Muslim world. On the other hand, all leaders of the religious parties are no more scholars but political agitators who exploit Islam to gain power or political concessions. The result is that as the Pakistani society becomes backward, a backward religious interpretation suits its interests. Now, the Taliban Islam is becoming popular in a circle which wishes to emulate their practice such as to push woman  from the public space to the four walls of  a house; to break t.v. as instruments of evils; and to measure beards whether they are according to their version of religious law. The penal punishment of Saudia Arabia are quoted as the solution to end all crimes. Or, the religious groups of Egypt and Algeria are admired as they are fighting  a holy war against the secular forces in their respective countries.

As the Pakistani society becomes intellectually and creatively bankrupt, there remains only one choice : to adopt militant and violent approach of religion to resist and fight against modernity and globalisation. This shows utter helplessness of the Muslims of Pakistan and also the Muslims in general  who  have failed to understand the power and energy of the modernity and therefore their inability to combat it.

Creativity emerges only in free and open society where debate and difference of opinion is tolerated. Islam cannot become a dynamic religion in a feudal , dictatorial and autocratic milieu. Militancy and violence also cannot  protect its values. On the contrary, it makes the society backward and ignorant.