Responsible Religious Scholars and Their Islamic Duties

The Importance of Having Responsible Religious Scholars….

When Umar bin Khattab sent his army to Egypt he sent a large number of Religious scholars too. So when the Muslims won Egypt they built 1200 Masjid not just for prayers but to teach deen. On the other hand the Muslims armies that came to India were political Kings who wanted to extend their rule so they came minus scholars and some even took help of deviated Muslims as well. Even Akbar did not have any religious scholar in his court. Al Azhar university is in its thousandth year with flowing out hundreds of schoalrs in deen and Arabic language though Arabic was not their mother tongue when the Muslim reached Egypt. The vacuum of religious scholars in the Muslim administration of Moghuls and other Muslim Kings led to the merging of authentic Islam and concocted and fabricated stories that corrupted creed of millions and it still remains in the ritual and the traditions of Muslims in Indian subcontinent.

Go through this Quranic verse from Surah Imran verse 146.. How Many Rasools fought in the way of Allah and along with them ‘Rabbaniyoon’ …. Rabbaniyoon refers to religious scholars. This shows that right from the early times the Muslim armies had religious scholars among them who not only fought but also taught religion. One of the biggest advantage of having authentic religious scholars in the Muslim army is that they discipline them and stop them from committing atrocities upon the defeated army or the captured enemies. Dealing humanly with war captives is a tradition of Islam. Fighting within Islamic ethics is a part of shariah.

Even in today’s time one can ask a question to the 55 Muslim nations , : How many Religious scholars do you have to maintain Islamic values and ethics during your wars and also Administration?

Ibn Taymiya a religious scholar of his time,who was also a teacher of noted scholars like Ibn Kathir, Ibn Jauzi… tarried out tirelessly against the Mongol invasion. He traveled to the Muslim countries and convinced a lot of rulers to muster Islamic armies against the Mongols. The result was superb. The Mongols were not only overpowered but within a generation they also submitted to Islam, the only case in the history I know of when an entire invading army accepted the religion of the local population as a whole. These Mongols later fought against the invading crusaders and drew them out of the Arab penesula. Saudi got rid of corrupt creed when the Warrior class assisted the religious scholars. Mohammed bin Wahab’s momentum of reviving correct creed among the masses emerged dominant and it grows stronger even today.

Take another example, of counselling in matrimonial issues between a fighting couple. A person who knows the shariah and has read indepth of tarbiyah lessons will give a more practical advice than a pyshcologist

The Muslim governments should also include Shariah in Islamic syllabus even in schools to create a mass awarness and appoint reilgious scholars in administration at all level and judiciary because their presence will help weed out corruption. The Muslim history tells us that every time some one creeped a corrupt creed, it was challenged by authentic scholars. Khalifa Harun Rashid was posed a question ” what can be done about those thousands of fabricated Hadith in the name of the prophet which are inserted in the minds and the tongues of the people ? He replied without hesitation : Allah will raise up scholars like Abdullah ibn Mubarak who will weed out Farbicated hadith.

Author : Nisaar Nadiadwala writes and speaks on the socio-educational issues form Islamic perspective. He can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com