Shubban ul Muslimeen intends to present before mankind the Just and revolutionary concept of Islam. The movement has a program to set up this revolutionary concept in a social structure, where the solution for all that ails mankind is based on Quran and Sunnah.
Islam is introduced in Qura’an and Sunnah as ‘Deen’
اِنَّ الدِّيۡنَ عِنۡدَ اللّٰهِ الۡاِسۡلَامُ
‘Innad deena ‘indal laahil Islaam’ – ‘The true religion with Allah is Islam’
‘Deen’ is an organized, disciplined, comprehensive and complete code, that encompasses a person’s individual and collective aspects of life in itself, colors it and molds them per its teaching. Nothing is off limits to ‘deen’. Islam asks of its followers and believers;
اُدۡخُلُوۡا فِى السِّلۡمِ کَآفَّۃ
‘udkhulu fissilmi kaffah’ – ‘Enter into Islam whole-heartedly’
Hence,
- It cleanses their thoughts and beliefs of duality, trinity and doubts and brings them to Oness
- It cleanses and purifies their morals and characters so they keep God’s assent, and success of the Hereafter in focus all the time. They strive for bringing about the sought-after society which extols the Lord and follows the Messenger(SAW)
- The individual or the society shows such models of performance and efficiency in all areas of life, that give the reasons for the rest of humanity to get interested and follow.
- It gets them to imitate the path of the Prophet (SAW) and his companions (وَ الَّذِيْنَ مَعَهُ) to bear the heavy responsibility of setting up the ‘deen’
Shubban ul Muslimeen has been founded by the grace of Allah to achieve these same aims and objectives and to make Pakistan, an instance of ‘سایۂ خدائے ذوالجلال’ – silhouette of Allah the most glorious and setting up an ideal islamic democratic welfare state. For that purpose it will make all possible efforts so the dream of ‘ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلٰى مِنهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةٍ’ – Summa takuno khilfah ala minhajin nubuwa – then there will be a khilafah like the one of the Prophet (SAW) can be made into a reality – Inshallah
The foundations of this movement are based on the thoughts of Dr. Israr Ahmed in the spheres of religion, society and social movements. The good doctor in his speeches and articles mentioned in detail the individuals from whom he learnt and derived his thoughts. Actually via the good doctor, the foundations of Shubban ul Muslimeen are based on thoughts of these same individuals. Brief introduction of these follow
Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal
Anyone who cares about Islam or is a bit aware of the history of the Indian Subcontinent and Pakistan is aware of the revolutionary and comprehensive personality of Allam Iqbal. Not only did he work for the independence movement, but the most important aspect of his life is for him to dedicate himself to the renaissance of Islam. Allama’s poetry per his own words ‘وربہ حرفم غیرِ قرآں مضمر است’ is based on the interpretation of the Qur’an, and as Dr. Israr puts it ‘He was this century’s greatest interpreter of the Qur’an’. Other than that, Allama presented in his poetry the revolutionary ideology of Islam comprehensively and in the most beautiful way. It was Allama’s poetry that revived the motivation for independence in the Muslims of the subcontinent and it was him, who persuaded Maulana Maududi to move from Hyderabad Deccan to Punjab and play his role in the renaissance of Islam.
Dr. Muhammed Rafiuddin
Dr. Muahmmad Rafiuddin is known as the ‘interpreter of Iqbal’. He advanced the work of Iqbal via his publications. He converted Iqbal’s poetic works into research articles of the highest grade. Dr. Rafiuddin in his book ‘Ideology of the Future’ he proved via highly intellectual arguments the only ideology that will stand the test of times in the future will be Islam’s. He wrote numerous articles about the renaissance of Islam and also provided valuable services with his recommendations on the Islamic educational system in Pakistan. His writings included topics like the right view of history, the correct way of Islamic research, refuting anti-Islam philosophies, etc. He also wrote ‘Hikmat-e-Iqbal’, his masterpiece that explains Iqbal’s teaching and especially his thesis of ‘self’.
Shaykh al-Hind Maulana Mahmood ul Hassan
Shaykh al-Hind Maulana Mahmood ul Hassan had such an all-encompassing personality that all the three schools of thought (Deobandi, Barelvi and Ahl-e-Hadith) from Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat approved of him. He was the first president of Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind and made significant contributions in the struggle for independence against the British. In this struggle he led the ‘Silk letter movement’ which led to him being arrested during his journey for Hajj, spending four years of his old age in prison in Malta. Maulana Mahmood ul Hassan was a great scholar of past Islamic sciences and had glimpses of the character of predecessors. Because of his prodigal vision, he proposed to consider Maulana Abul Kalam Azad as the leader of islamic scholars in India, but unfortunately, this was not accomplished. Maulana Mahmood ul Hassan also translated the Qur’an to Urdu and also annotated the first five portions. This Tafseer became very popular and is known as ‘Tafseer-e-Usmani’. Dr. Israr Ahmed considered Shaykh al-Hind as the greatest reformer of Islam in the fourteenth-century Hijri.
Shaykh al-Islam Allama Shabir Ahmed Usmani
Shaykh al-Islam Allama Shabir Ahmed Usmani had a scholarly and activist personality. He advanced the work of his pedagogue Maulana Mahmood ul Hassan and completed the annotations for the rest of the twenty five chapters. The translation of Qur’an completed by Shaykh al-Hind with annotations by Allama Shabir Ahmed Usmani is what is currently known as ‘Tafseer-e-Usmani’. He played a prominent role in the freedom movement. After the creation of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam assigned Allama the responsibility of hoisting the Pakistan flag officially in East Pakistan. Quaid-e-Azam’s funeral prayer was also led by the good Allama.
Maulana Hameed Uddin Farahi
Maulana Hameed Uddin Farahi was a purely scholarly personality. He was filled with love for the Qur’an. His scholarly contribution for the understanding and pondering on the Qur’an in the form of ‘Nizam ul Quran’ opened up new avenues of clarity of the Qur’an. Working on the reasoning aspect of Qur’an he laid the foundation of a new science of knowledge. He was a prodigious student of Allama Shibli Naumani. In his article ‘Islam and Pakistan’, Dr. Israr Ahmed writes that Maulana’s writings were very simple but well reasoned.
Maulana Amin Ahmad Islahi
Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi was a direct disciple of Allama Hameed Uddin Farahi. Continuing his pedagogue’s work, he wrote a masterpiece entitled “Principles of Qur’anic Studies” on the principles of the Qur’anic structure. Later, he also wrote a tafseer of the whole Qur’an under the title “Tadabbur-e-Quran” in the same style. The good Maulana was amongst the vanguard at Jamaat-e-Islami and he worked with Maulana Maududi as one. He was the only significant player in the Jamat after Maulana Maududi. He authored a masterpiece “Dawat-e-deen aur iss ka tareeq-e-kar” which details the principles, originations, order and gradual advancement of Da’wa and also the purification of the self and its methodology for the readers based purely on the principles given in the Qur’an. In his books, he also goes over the topics of Oneness of Allah and mingling others in Allah’s domain, which per Dr. Israr Ahmed can be considered as the foundation of Qur’anic theology. Other than that he left a treasure trove of scholarly and activist literature.
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
The personality of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was an amalgamation of diverse qualities. Initially he was impressed by Allama Iqbal’s thinking and raised the rallying cry for establishment of God’s law. For this purpose he established a former coalition called ‘Hizbullah’. Abul Kalam Azad was a direct disciple of Maulana Shibli Naumani. A special love and passion for the Qur’an was a trait of his personality. As Dr. Israr Ahmed puts it “Not only his interpretation of Surah Fatiha is a masterpiece of urdu literature, but also a beautiful reflection of the glory and beauty of the Holy Qur’an”. The good doctor also says there is no equivalent of Maulana’s research and investigation into some subjects of Surah Kahf. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad clearly explained the importance of setting up an Islamic system via his publications like ‘Al-Hilal’ and ‘Al-Balagh’. His rallying cry for the establishment of God’s law thundered throughout India and observing his political insight, foresight and his struggle for the same, the well established personality like Shaykh al-Hind Maulana Mahmood ul Hassan proposed to the Islamic scholars of India that they all pledge allegiance to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and accept him as their leader as that young man had reminded them of their forgotten lesson.
Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maududi
The whole life of Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maududi is a struggle for the dominance and establishment of the ‘deen’. Taking directions from the writings of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and his own thought, pondering and knowledge, at a very young age he came up with a masterpiece like ‘Al Jihad fil Islam’, in which he explained the original concept of Jihad and the struggle for dominance of ‘deen’. He laid the foundation of ‘Jamat-e-Islami’ for the same purpose based on the principles of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s ‘Hizbullah’. He also clarified the concept of Deen and the concept of Obligations of the deen. His other great contribution is that revolutionary ideology of Islam that existed in Iqbal’s poetry, the Maulana explained in sleek prose and per Dr. Israr Ahmed, the good Maulana deserved to be declared Social thinker based on the comprehensive way he explained the revolutionary ideology of Islam in his writings. Maulana Maudidi also wrote in detail on the issues of life in a movement. Maulana Maududi also wrote a masterpiece of a tafseer called “Tefhim-ul-Quran” that became especially popular in the college and university circles. The tafseer and his other publications played a major role in washing the inner faithlessness of not thousands but millions of westernized Muslims caused by the invasion of western civilizations in the earlier half of the last century.
Dr. Israr Ahmed
Dr. Israr Ahmed needs no introduction. He always mentioned he learned from the above eight. He said it is not that he was in complete agreement with them, but that he learned a lot from them and also had occasional disagreements with some of their teachings. Whether it be the revolutionary ideology of Islam or the intellectual discussion about genuine ‘im’an’, all encompassing concept of obligations to ‘deen’ or the difficult stages of organizing a jama’at, the love of Qur’an and its instruction or its subjects, structure and contemplation on its various aspects, in each those Dr. Israr Ahmed got the basic education of the various aspects of all these from these individuals directly or indirectly. Regarding Tafseer-e-Usmani, he used to say ‘through it, I am clinging to my predecessors’. That is why whenever we see the good doctor giving the lessons for Qur’an or the tour of the Qur’an in Ramadan, we see him doing it via Tafseer-e-Usmani. In our opinion, its important that we mention the contributions to deen that Dr. Israr Ahmed worked on in an organized manner;
- The da’wa and movement to revert back to the Qur’an and conducting lessons for its understanding
- Present the solutions to the intellectual issues pertaining to the wisdom of the Qur’an and its philosophy in the context of intellectual arguments of current times.
- Repudiate and contend against the false philosophies and agnostic and materialistic ideologies of the current times and using the methodology of ‘Take what suits and leave what doesn’t’ add to the intellectual discourse of times.
- Present the political, social and economic ideology of Islam.
- Raise awareness and improve the perception of the obligations to the deen pressed on muslims by God Almighty and constantly calling and preaching for these.
- Widespread dissemination of Islam’s teachings about Nikah and marriage.
- Explaining the twists and turns and vicissitudes of and activist existence with arguments based on the Qur’an and Sunnah.
- Advise the public and rulers to overcome the challenges faced by the country.
- Suggesting the Quranic way of getting the muslim ummah out of its current predicament and elucidate it via arguments and proofs.
- Drawing attention to planning for changing situation on the local and international level and to possible threats and concerns to renaissance of Islam and exposing the global jewish agenda.
