Tough timesare revealing times. Individual discloses character once faced with a hardship,so does a collective. The extreme crisis in the wake of Covid-19 outbreakexposed societies, polities, systems, sciences, and human attitudes. Amongthese is the Muslim mind, and the societal expression of its religiosity. Onceagain the lid is taken off our mind, clothes off our societal body, and we arebare.
Differenceof opinion apart, can we can take a step back, and have the courage to look atour bare body. How do we look like as a collective. The controversy over Fridayprayers, and also over the daily prayers in mosques, gives a peek into Muslimmind. Why do we always project ourselves as a global nuisance? It hurts,seriously. As a member of a Muslim society,with a deep sense of belonging, it doesn’t agitate me, it benumbs. What was amatter of plain intuitive response, turns into an intense debate. When any kindof human gathering is a live threat to life, and this is a proven thing, ourreligious scholars still want people to pray collectively in mosques. (In thefirst instances why ask religious scholars when it is the realm of stateadministration.) Then they dilute it a bit, still later, under intense publicand state pressure, they further retreat from their initial opinion, but neveraccept the obvious. This brought us, once again, ridicule and contempt.
But beforecoming to the religious scholars who insisted to pray in mosques even when theentire world is locked down, something else hurts too. And this has nothing todo with religious scholars, or religiously minded people among us. It pertainsto us all, particularly those who study and teach science. And those who arepart of economic, political, and management systems. While the scientific communitiesaround the globe are hard after finding a vaccine to this virus, we are onlywaiting like beggars to receive our share. Isn’t this also a collective shame.Isn’t this also a pity that none of our Muslim states, Muslim institutions, andMuslim scientists are anywhere in the race to cutting edge discoveries, or canestablish best practices for others to copy. The point is that not just a Moulvi Sahab, but all of us are part of thegreat Muslim decline – of mind, of character, and of skill.
Even in thecase of religious mind, we all contribute to this degeneration. If only wecould take our religion – in terms of knowledge, conduct, and tradition – tadseriously, the condition of the religious scholarship would not have been asdismal as it is today. Religion may be a part of our ritual, and somecollective symbolism, but as a serious and meaningful entity it is far removedfrom our lives. ( I’m not preaching.) When, as a collective, we don’t invest init, why expect returns. Our expediency, and hypocrisy, in this matter isoverwhelming. We have struck a bargain; create ease for each other. Never mind,go on doing what we do in our respective spheres. There will be no seriousinterjection from one side into another. This is an ugly symbiosis.
As long asthis ease is ensured, our religious scholars are game with the laity, and aslong as it doesn’t disrupt our regular life as commoners, we are ‘respectful’of them all. But when crisis strikes, regular relationships, disrupt. And thenthere is always a minuscule number in any society that has this bad habit ofreading stuff across disciplines, and are exposed to thinking; they are theones who trade in trouble.
Thequestion, whether in a pandemic, we should gather in a mosque to offer prayers,or do it individually at home, has brought that trouble to surface. The easiestway to negotiate the trouble is to ventour agitated minds. Each side abusing the other. It becomes a charged upexchange between an ‘idiot Moulvi’ and an ‘evil liberal’. Meanwhile, theworld sniggers.
Can we calmdown, and think of it as a general affliction, and not a permanent sicknesswith any of our sections. Can we ensure that in an exchange of opinions,respect doesn’t become a casualty, and gradually we upgrade our skills to talkwith each other. If an honest, rigorous, and uninterrupted conversationcontinues, and its effects start taking hold, we can negotiate difficultsituations with considerable ease.
Look atthis; in just a couple of days, how the opinions improved. In the beginning anyslight disruption in the routine prayers was unacceptable, but finally it waslimited to an Imam, a Mu’zzen, and one odd servant staff of the mosque. Leavingaside the idiots and extremists in all sections of our society, majority of thepeople do have the capacity to tellright from wrong.
If we walkbeyond this Mr-Moulvi binary, and seriously analyse our problems, we can allcontribute to solutions. Our problems are before and beyond Covid pandemic, sowe have a huge task at hand.
Tailpiece:Don’t forget what happened at the Gurduwara in Kabul. Understanding andapplication of religion in Muslim societies is a grave problem. As a society,Kashmiri Muslims need a serious and thoughtful engagement with this. And ifsomeone says that it was done as a revenge on what was done to KashmiriMuslims, it becomes even more serious. Saying, not-in-my-name, won’t suffice.The killings in the Kabul Gurduwara are actually more painful than the covidpandemic. May God bless all those who lost lives in that place of worship.Amen.