ISLAM IS A SOCIALISTIC RELIGION

(21.4.76)

The daring statement quoted above was made by Iqbal on the eve of his departure for London in 1931 to attend the second Round Table Conference.

The poet-philosopher gave utterance to this profound observation on the political nature of Islam in an interview to "The Bombay Chronicle". It was reproduced by B.A. Dar in his compilation "Letters and Writings of Iqbal" published by Iqbal Academy , Karachi , in 1967 (page 57).

This was not the only occasion on which Iqbal stressed the socialistic character" of Islam. In a letter to Khawaja Ghulam-us-Sayyedian in October 1936, he said: "Islam is itself a kind of socialism, from which Muslim society has so far benefited very little". (Iqbal Namah I, Edited by Shaikh Ata Ullah, p. 319).

The letter to Sir Francis Younghusband contains the famous judgment that "Bolshevism plus God is almost Islam" (Speeches and statements complied by "Shamloo" 1945 , p. 193).

In his letter to the Quaid-i-Azam on 28th May, 1937 , (Iqbal's letters to Jinnah, p. 19), he said: "For Islam the acceptance of social democracy in some suitable form, and consistent with the legal principles of Islam is not a revolution but a return to the original purity of Islam."

Dr. M. D. Taseer in his introduction to "Aspects of Iqbal" (p. xix) has quoted Iqbal as saying "that if he were made the dictator of a Muslim state he would first make it a socialist state."

The necessity to refer to these positive statements of Iqbal on socialism and its place in an Islamic society and polity, on the occasion of his anniversary, is two-fold. Firstly, because the continuing cacophony launched and maintained by reactionary ideologues over the term "Islamic socialism", necessities the continuous reminder to ourselves of the fact that the visionary, who envisaged Pakistan, and the statesman who became its architect were both inspired by the same socialistic ideal-which has become a practical proposition for us today, the ideal of a socialist economy in Pakistan. Secondly, because Iqbal anniversary this year has come at a moment when another anti-socialist political and ideological campaign, launched by the vested interests during the last year or so, has met its Waterloo, and is in total disarray. This calls for celebration, and we can make it an occasion to felicitate ourselves that we have not only fulfilled our commitment to Iqbal's ideas and ideals but taken the movement a step further.

The most recent struggle against socialism launched by the reactionary press is only a phase of their old movement to preserve the colonial-feudal-capitalistic status quo. Only the tactics had changed. The reactionary ideological and political movement has had three phases in the last ten years: To begin with, when the People's Party with its socialist economic platform came into being, it was opposed on the ground of being anti-Islamic. It was then that many, like Dr. Javed Iqbal, who had been earlier claiming that Iqbal was the first Islamic Socialist, made a volte-face, and started attacking the concept of Islamic socialism as anti- Islamic. The first of these "fatwa" makers was the Karachi capitalist A. K. Sumar. But very soon all the "Ulema" ranged behind him, and their campaign resulted in the famous "fatwa" of 133 ulema. The petit bourgeois liberal apologists of the status quo, raised a chorus of applause at this "Kafir" making of a goodly part of our population. They did not realise then, and they seem not to realise now, that the famous "fatwa" was as much an attack on the Quaid-i-Azam and Iqbal as on Mr. Bhutto who was its direct target.

The defeat of this crowd in the elections of 1970-71 sobered them, but did not cure them. What they could not achieve at the elections, they tried to achieve through suppression and force with the assistance of Yahya Khan's administration. In the complicated history of 1971 their basic task was somehow, anyhow, to nullify the result of the elections, and their bitter hatred of the popular will, which had inscribed Islamic Socialism on its banner, took them on a course of action which resulted ultimately in the dismemberment of Pakistan.

The second phase of anti-socialist movement started after the assumption of power by the People's Party. The capitalist class, with its religious and ideological henchmen, tried to use the strategy of non co-operation and sabotage. On the economic level they refused to co-operate in the rehabilitation of the economy. In fact they tried to wreck the economy by sending their capital abroad, or disinvesting it, by manipulating the market, raising prices, hoarding, all the means to increase the sufferings of the poor people. On the political level they helped the divisive and secessionist forces in flouting the authority of the federal centre, and creating such a mess in every province--especially in Baluchistan and Frontier-- that Mr. Bhutto and his party should be isolated both within and without the country. Ideologically they continued their direct attack on the socialistic principles of the People's Party, and confusing the people by saying that all their troubles were due to Islamic Socialism of Bhutto. In the name of clarifying ideological issues they began a splitting movement within the People's Party between leftist and rightist trends. They succeeded in this venture to some extend because of the extremism and inexperience of some sections of the People's Party cadre.

This phase came to an end when the subversive activities launched by the NAP put it into court, and the Supreme Court gave its verdict on this major component of the Opposition on whom the vested interests had placed all their dependence in the task of bringing down the Bhutto government.

The most recent phase of the anti-socialist campaign of reactionary elements of our society began when their ideologues, like Mr. Suleri, suddenly became very fond of Mr. Bhutto and started talking of saving him from "communists" who had penetrated into the People's Party and were "surrounding" him on all sides. Mr. Bhutto, in their opinion, was an innocent fallen among socialists. This Galahad posture adopted by such nincompoops was comic in the extreme, since they tried to cast the shrewdest and most wide awake statesman in the Islamic world in the image of a helpless victim of a few scheming "communists". He, who was the mentor of thousands of socialist cadres of his party and of millions of rank and file workers, was thought of as a misled school boy needing mentors to take him to "this side or that as they pleased.

The inner party struggle fanned by the reactionaries at this time caused situations of extreme tension. This gave the anti-socialists an idea that Mr. Bhutto was being isolated, and hence the time had come when he could be reclaimed to what they call Islam. The holding of the Seerat Conference gave them the idea that Mr. Bhutto was preparing to relinquish his socialist principles.

This phase has also ended, with Mr. Bhutto making it very clear that his principles were neither adopted in a hurry, and without deep thinking, nor is he going to change his commitments in a hurry. After all there is a world of difference between him and Mr. Ramay.

In his speeches in the Seerat Conference Mr. Bhutto emphasised his commitments and principles in no uncertain terms, and revealed that his view of Islam is not to be confused with the Maudoodite version of Islam.

Mr. Bhutto's idea of Islam closely resembles the ideas of Iqbal and Quaid-e-Azam. It has nothing to do with the apologia of capitalism and feudalism which Maudoodites have been passing off as Islam, which was squarely rejected by the masses of people in 1970-71, and which not only has no contradiction with socialism as an economic principle, but is identical with it. That is why Iqbal could say that "Islam is itself a kind of socialism", and that "Islam is a socialistic religion".

These profound statements need to be pondered seriously and deeply. Like Mr. Bhutto's adoption of socialism as the economic principle of his party, they were not made in a hurry nor with the thoughtlessness of a Hanif Ramay. They are authoritative statements behind which lies a century long process of deep thinking over the entire history of Islam, and over the destiny of Islam in the modern world, by the foremost intellectual spirits in the Islamic world. It is their verdict that socialism is a negation not of Islam but of capitalism, that atheism is not an essential part of socialism, which is a matter of organising society for collective good rather than for individual profit, and that "Islam is itself a kind of socialism".

NOTES:

1. Published in The Pakistan Times. 21.4.76.