It is hardly possible to reflect on the conditions prevailing in Pakistan without feeling the pain of disappointment and dejection, even despair. We ponder the past and present of our homeland, and what do we find? We find a country that owes its very existence to Islam choosing the path of secularism. We find a country that was meant to be the starting point for pan-Islamic unity adopting the deadly path of linguistic, regional, sectarian, and ethnic parochialism. We find a country that was created in order to demonstrate to the world the practicability of Islam being torn apart by its own lack of vision and direction. In view of all this, is it any wonder that cynicism is rapidly becoming a national trait?

But let’s not get ourselves inundated with pessimism, and let’s not give up hope. Lack of hope gives rise to volitional paralysis: an inability to strive, an unwillingness to struggle. We must focus our attentions on the brighter side of the picture — yes, there is a brighter side! — and continue our endeavor to make things better. Indeed, when we consider the numerous evidences of the munificence that have been bestowed on us by the Divine Providence, the dark clouds of gloom and anguish start to fade away and the vision of the coming age of Islamic ascendancy begins to brighten up our spirits.

The first and the most significant manifestation of Divine benevolence is the fact that the arduous task of the revitalization of Islamic social thought and the renewal of the dynamic conception of Islam has already been completed — achieved primarily by Allama Iqbal and elaborated subsequently by other writers and thinkers. Thus, the affirmation of the Qur’anic world-view at the intellectual level of our times and on the basis of higher mathematics, physics, and higher psychology has been achieved, albeit in a rudimentary form, through Iqbal’s Reconstruction. At the same time, the various dimensions of the Islamic System of Social Justice have been elucidated and expounded by Iqbal in his poetry and by other Islamic thinkers in their writings. Secondly, the independent Muslim state in the north-west of India, as foreseen by Allama Iqbal in his 1930 Allahabad address, is still surviving by the grace of Almighty Allah (SWT) — despite all our blunders and shortcomings. (The Divine Providence had actually given us a Pakistan consisting of two regions, and it was nothing but our own incompetence that led to the loss of former East Pakistan.) Last, but by no means the least, is the fact that although there has been no substantial and tangible yield of the revivalist effort so far, there is a growing number of Muslims — a large proportion of them being educated young men — who have been motivated by the ideal of Islam’s revival and domination and who feel, sincerely and ardently, that to participate in the collective struggle to achieve this goal is their inescapable obligation. What we need now, therefore, is to appreciate and cherish this highly valuable human capital and to continue the struggle for Islamic renaissance, keeping in view the errors and oversights of the previous generations.

The most significant task ahead, at the moment, is to keep intact the Islamic revolutionary thought — the active and dynamic conception of Deen which has been revived in the present century after a fairly long period of dormancy and neglect. This task is especially important in view of the fact that the intellectual milieu of our times is not at all conducive to the revolutionary concept of religion. Moreover, we need to realize that the prevailing state of temporary nonsuccess being suffered by the various revivalist movements is itself a potential threat to the very credibility of the Islamic revolutionary thought. Simultaneously, there are some persons with a defeatist mentality who either resigned or were expelled after failing to fulfill the demands of the revivalist struggle, and who are now bent on harming and discrediting the dynamic and revolutionary concept of Islam — an attitude that appears to be a morbid psychological reaction on their part.

The biggest impediment in the propagation of the Islamic revolutionary thought is the utter lack of support from the environment. The soil is so barren and the atmosphere so polluted that the very survival of the tree is being threatened from below and from above. What we mean by this metaphor is that, on the one hand, an extremely restricted and static conception of religion has come to dominate the thinking of the majority of the Muslims today, and on the other hand the influence of materialistic philosophies, secular mode of governance, and of a permissive and libertine culture are acting as a global envelope from above. It is not only that both of these factors are hostile and unfriendly to the dynamic version of Islam, but they are also acting in a symbiotic and cooperative relationship with each other. Thus, the basic principle of the secular polity is that religion is the private affair of the individual, and secularism in its "tolerance" and "broad-mindedness" is perfectly willing to allow all religions to survive under its umbrella. The only real challenge to secularism is the Islamic revolutionary thought, the idea that it is not enough to practice Islam in the personal life unless the teachings of the Qur’an and Sunnah are implemented in their totality in the social, cultural, legal, economic, and political fields as well. It is the Qur’anic imperative to make Islam dominant over all man-made systems of life, all over the world, that poses the real threat to the secular mode of life. This is precisely why the secular West is willing to go out of its way to encourage and patronize the narrow and static concept of Islam — an Islam that restricts itself within the precincts of the mosque and the seminary. It is only when a person start to talk about the parliament, the marketplace, and the court that he is labeled as a dangerous "fundamentalist," even a "fanatic."

When the dynamic and revolutionary teachings of Islam started to inspire and ignite the Muslim consciousness — as a result of the efforts by Allama Iqbal, Maulana Azad, Allama Mashriqi, and Maulana Maududi — the ancient and stagnant religiosity also reacted and asserted itself as a "movement." This phenomenon manifested itself in the form of an effort and activity on such a colossal level that hundreds of thousands of men are busy throughout the world at any given moment under its influence, propagating and popularizing the narrow and static version of Islam in all their sincerity. It is a clear indication of the degree of cooperation and collaboration between secularism and the static version of religion that this particular "movement" is gaining popularity at an astonishing pace. We, however, firmly believe that these sincere men would not continue in their passivity and inertness when the right moment comes. As soon as a genuine Islamic revolutionary force takes the initiative of actively challenging the rule of falsehood and un-Islamic practices, these pious men will be instinctively drawn into that struggle, further intensifying and strengthening the struggle for the establishment of an Islamic order.

During the course of our thirteen centuries of decline and deterioration, and mainly as a result of it, the roots of the static and narrow conception of Deen have penetrated deep within our collective psyche. One manifestation of this kind of religiosity was the failure of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad in motivating and mobilizing the Ulama with regard to his struggle for Hukumat-e-Ilahiyyah, even though he enjoyed the support of as great and as well-respected a personality as Maulana Mahmood Hasan Deobandi. Another example came when a famous Indian scholar of Shari‘ah and a great Sufi teacher announced that we Muslims must not involve ourselves in any activity that would bother or annoy our British rulers, as we are enjoying "religious freedom" under their rule. It was precisely this naïveté that impelled Allama Iqbal to remark, rather sarcastically:

The Indian Mulla is allowed to offer his prayers,

And this makes him feels that Islam too is free!

Here we must reiterate that it was none other than the giant personality of Allama Iqbal who must be credited with demolishing the whole edifice of this static conception of Islam. Without his moving and dynamic poetry preparing the ground, subsequent leaders would not have succeeded in launching their movements on the basis of the revolutionary teachings of Islam.

Here we must address a very important issue. There is one aspect of the history of the revival and actualization of the Islamic revolutionary thought that can only be described as deplorable. We sometimes come across persons, both in India and Pakistan, who either participated or enthusiastically supported the movements that were launched on the basis of the dynamic concept of Deen, but who later resigned or were expelled due to one reason or the other, and who are now striving zealously to discredit the Islamic revolutionary thought itself, probably to rationalize their own desertion. They are trying to prove that the very concept of the obligation to strive for the domination of Deen is a fallacious one; that an Islamic Revolution happens merely as a result of preaching and exhortation and there is absolutely no need for conflict or active resistance; that the pledge of allegiance or Baiy‘ah can only be given to the government in power and not to the Ameer of a party striving for the establishment of Deen; and finally, that service to Islam can be rendered only in one’s individual capacity or, at the most, in the form of institutions, and there is definitely no need whatsoever to organize a disciplined Jama‘at. These flimsy and unsubstantial claims go on and on.

These modern intellectuals of Islam have somehow managed to deduce, from the Treaty of Hudaibiyyah, a rationale for the permanent state of peaceful coexistence between Al-Haq and Al-Batil and, from the Treaty (or Meesaq) of Madinah, an argument for the contemporary secular system of politics and governance. They submit their apology to modernity in the form of their repudiation of the "barbaric" punishment of Rajm (stoning to death for adultery), and strengthen the agenda of the Westernized Muslims by their rejection of the "obscurantist concept" of Purdah (segregation of the sexes and dress codes). The warm welcome given to these intellectuals in the circles of Indian government and even RSS as well as in the secular circles of the modernist Muslims in Pakistan is indeed a sign of the cooperation and collaboration between the static and narrow religiosity on the one hand and secularism on the other. However, we still believe that Pakistan — representing the realization of Iqbal’s vision — will become the center for the actualization of Islamic cultural, social, economic, and political concepts — concepts that were distorted during the period of "Arabian Imperialism" and which were revived on a philosophical level by Allama Iqbal himself. What we need now, therefore, is to defend the dynamic and revolutionary teachings of Islam with all our ability, and to harmonize our struggle in line with the Prophetic model, because the guidance of the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) represents the only unfailing path to Islamic renaissance!