C Shah Waliuliah (1703-62 gre P Shah Waliullah was born ‘the ntral s| me oF the United hy Provinces in 1703, just as the reign of Aurangzeb was near its end. He belonged to a respected religious family with his father, Shah Abdul Rahim, being a founding member and teacher of the ssa Rahimiya in Delhi. That wag the institution where Shah Waliullah received his early education Shah Abdul Rahim was also associated with the completion of jhe famous Islamic legal text, Fatwer’ Alamgir ulbouph he deliberately refrained from being too close to the imperial court.66 PAKISTAN: A HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY LOOK [After finishing his education at the Madrassa, a alli taught there for in. then went on to Arabia in/1724 for pilgrimage and bi udiss Duin hi a aA ty Bish Abu Tahir bin Ira) a renowne eine By the time he returned to Delhi in July 1732, the decline in S was obvidiy. However, one of the last Mughal emperors, Muhamma worth of fje Madrassa Rahimiya apd gave it a new building within the, > Rov or MA Saf Waiullah had spent his time in Madinah thinking about the problems facing slim community within the Mughal empire-and realized that there was an urgent re, moral regeneratiod. The Muslims in the subcontinent had degenerated from a powerily ~well-integrated community to a helpless and disorganized crowd. If the decline was oy stopped, Shah Waliullah decided it could not be done without stromg leadership at Dek) sa real greatness of Shah Waliullah lies in identifying the causes of the decline of the Nui» “a= and in trying to find remedies to counteract them Shah Waliullah believed that many: = problems the Muslims faced was due to their ignorance about Islam and the Holy Qunai felt that an emphasis on Quranic teachings would not only improve their knowledge, ive also reduce sectarian differences and create a feeling of solidarity. As Arabic was not rit understood, the average Muslim derived his/her knowledge from the teachings of Muss jurists and theologians. Shah Waliullah recognized that the tenets of Islam could not be the main language of eds nd the ert a fetee criticism from the ulema, bs lise th tities. The ti je at the time, Later, his sons, Shah Abdul Qadis auton translated work was widely por Quran into Urdu. ah Abdul Aziz, translated the Holy Shah Waliullah urged the Mus| Sas Prophet (PBUH) and to concentrat ntinent to follo anxious that the Muslims should rinciples pr £8 into g igh to withstai lims of the subco, te on the fundamey W the example of the Hol! stop of Islam, He was espe! al? Tiscussed the whole question ver rejected the belief of some Sunn re eet: Shah Warighe® Shah Waliullah studied at the Shiag re ; tolerance was continued by his son, Shah baat MSIE NOL Musting cumey and explicitly Aziz accused him of Shia leanings in his teachin Se" f8Ct, sone 4, O48 tradition of The major contributions of Shah Waliyllah => Wtira ey rents of Shah Abit started # major move towards training studons mst aspects of Islamic teachings and history. He be und Ne, iMelleg himselt pantke Tescarch I and educational | pursuits. His most famous works were Hujjatullah-ug Mee Pd Whole *TUC On various Wl- Bali oleheartea Mujjatllal he discussed at length the principles and funda Elan ee such wnt Ms " wrote a commentary and explanation of the Quran, Shah Wont! OF Ishen fa tn the wrote extensively on figh and hadis. He eventually had st baal a pra it the Zelat Be \ 28 in Persian, He always tried to underscore how minor and ok" his eng Writer and POLY the : between the different schools of thought within Istam, © 3 in,Dre iuhalan unr é musi riouoHT ano Leavers 67 I ST TY. C ike other great Mustim thinkers, Shah Waliullah believed in the™ll-embracing nature of Islam. He did not believe that the principles of politics, economics or sociology could be separated feom.religious teachings. In his view, a good society was. impossible to achieve without the moral and spiritual values of | fe also believed that twas impossible to develop Tslamin Tis ehirety without the support of a healthy society. It was for this purpose that he laid down the principle that anti-social j attitudes incur the displeasure of God. For the same reason he also felt that it is impossible to correct a society without correcting it of un-Islamic practices. Apart from these efforts on the purely theoretical and spiritual side, Shah Waliullah was also el sontmna-SoREered about the prevalent sconom sytem He Tad pest | SORELLE emphasis on ad? and tawazan, that is, social justice an pve oeos equilibrium, Shah Waliullah stressed that the labour of the | peasant and the craftsman should be justly rewarded and that that | SA, should form the backbone of a more egalitarian economy. He ) voles vomited yrged traders and 5 meson 10 adopt fay system of trading Te a siested ang making money. Politica velar mas | shims - During his lifetime, the Mughal empire was visibly crumblin; hs Sha Ab “Ge i hale su ‘ORME TeTine since the death of Aurangzeb, The the Qurat ito-Urdw. Marathas in the south and the Sikhs in the north were tl nin: ‘Waliullah urged ‘to overwhelm Delhi and finish the once mighty Mughal empire. epee Shah Waliullah wrote to all the Muslim nobles and rulers an eis" “urged them to-unite. Te was partly at h fod: Bete of Bux, defeat the pape oles Mir Jafar ‘Mir asin by the British, 9 James Watt developed steam engine. a0 he Sami Durrani of Persia proces ae to De Wats rox famous ar Hatt —— a ara Sse Det fiom the Mughals ashe believed that only a new and oe ese energetic dynasty could save-the-Muslims.from-non-Muslim rule, iy ahs ivaton, Shah Waliullah was responsible for awakening in the St Daran of COmmunity the desire to win back Some of its moral fervour and ame to Debit en ea ia eee. maintain its purity. To rescue a communjty's conscience, belief and spowcting he Moghas. faith gre the destruction of the 18th century was no small . coe@ehievement. Shah Waliullah achieved even more: a lasting De ribution to the field of Muslim thought. He w laid to apy to have lived to have seen the defeat of the Marath 16: American 1762, IS ation of Independence | by ARM Fant but disappointed that Ahmed Shah did not ably continued by his sons and followers and many future Islamic leaders and thinkers were inspired by his example, Under his ) Napoleon became 0" Of France Briain and he United anne the slave rade, successors, the Madrassa Rahimiya also continued its valuable teaching and research.=! soNTEMPORARY LOOK a wsrontcaL AM Allama Muhamma d Iqbal (187 / ze ag orte Government College and established himself Iqbal is among the greatest thinkers, Writ beri inane history. He was born in Sialkot in ng on9 Noverber 1877. He received his arly educa fey before coming to Lahore, where he completed hig 42” Government College Lahore. Iqbal then taugh ty Ste, t Philosopy j = aS a tale at before going to England for further studies. White stay Pe ny pilosophy at Cambridge Univesity, bat also stugeg? was called tothe Bar at Lincoln’s Inn. He went on yea daciorate in philosophy from Germany, and seriously “4 giving up poetry altogether. However, Iqbal fortunately gt his mind and returned to Lahore. ‘ay On his return to the subcontinent, Iqbal cou! remain aloof from the major political and religi were taking place in the region. In spite of his Sufs,Igbal became concemed that Sufism as practised ing, subcontinent was losing sight of the tue sprit and meses Islam. It was this conviction that eventually led Iqbal tot, conclusion that nothing less than a separate homeland forte Muslims was necessary in order to enable the Muslim conn to rediscover Islam, He wrote poems in honour of Sheikh sin Sithindi and felt that Aurangzeb was right in believing that strength of Islam depended on the strength of the Muslins,1:! support of the Hindus. In 1922, he was knighted by the Bri recognition of his poetry but its timing, at the height ofthe X Movement, showed how little active politics interested him stage. In 1926, Iqbal was elected to the Punjab Legislative His writing was now at its peak and in 1930, he published » his most famous works, The Reconstruction of Religious i in Islam. However, Iqbal is best remembered for his be {alent in advancing philosophical thought through poet: believed that God had created Man as his proudest Pee therefore, had a duty not to disappoint God. The we \ ‘mental weakness of the Muslim community idggeoard s his poetry urged his readers to the reality of theit os while exhorting the Muslims to think and act, empha ipod iy Quran made it a duty to defend the place of W religions tim His brilliance could not go unnoticed by the a cot and in 1930 he was asked to chair the Muslim L628 in Allahabad. It was in his presidential address ld obvious US upheaa raise forty19 working towar at Meet should now sa that ‘I would like to see Punjab, the North wes !9b2l stated and Balochistan amalgamated into a single net Fmtier Province a consolidated North West Indian Muslin (°° formation of final destiny of the Muslims’, This was the tay pees © be the senior Muslim politician had made such a dennnt gt le tht Mubamed Ali inna, as bresient ofthe Mae 2 League, formally ma pa League, formally made the same demand wih te "aster Iqbal managed to attend the Rou snd 1932 in London, inspite of his i hak fee and an exchange of letters between Iqbal and the Quaid, a ha had realized that Jinnah alone could guide the Muslims cf hon Iqbal was constantly exhorting Jinnah to declare a Muslin homeland to be the aim of the Muslim League, something which Igbal did not live to see. He managed to write till his death om 21 April 1938. It was tragic that he did not live to see the Muslim homeland he had written and spoken of so often. He gave the Muslim debate a practical direction, providing an intellectual basis for the demand for a separate homeland, This guarantees him a truly special place in the struggle for Pakistan. Chaudhri Rehmat Ali (1897-1951) Rehmat Ali was born on 16 November 1897 in Balachaur in the Punjab. For his higher education he joined Islamia College Lahore in 1912, the home of many future Muslim figures. In 1915, he founded a society named Bazm-e-Shibli. In 1918, he completed his Bachelor of Arts Degree and continued living in Lahore till 1930. In these 12 years, he saved enough money to enable him to go to Cambridge University to read law. He passed his Law Tripos in 1932. During his stay in Cambridge, he also received his Masters Degree. During the 1930s, there were a series of Round Table Conferences in London to discuss possible future political reform in British India, As Rehmat Ali was in London at the time, he met the Muslim League leaders and urged them to press for nothing Jess than an independent homeland for the Mallee Rebun Ali ion fc id-i- , but at this stage hosted a reception for the Quaid-i-Azam, but at th SS Ta Quaid was unconvinced and felt the best solution for the Wi 1 was to try and remain with a loose federation with praere Rehmat Ali was undismayed by this lack of Suppor to write pamphlets and issue declarationsvi LOOK a HISTOR CAL AND cor (PORARY 1 1933, he issued a pamphlet entitled y,, at A fight stan, susion ‘and 4 ssful 28 Jun i src declaration was addressed t0 the 30 million My” ' f the Indian subcontinent. The homelan, in a PIE was to be called ‘Pakistan’, The fe a ‘ forthe province of Punjab, ‘A’ was for Afghan or Pathy for the state of Kashmir, ‘s’ for Sindh and ‘Tan’ for Balai! for pond Pakistan also meant ‘Land of the Pure’ Ths rs Rehmat Ali the unique honour of being the originator Of thy of the new country that was soon to be created. y ‘This pamphlet had its roots in the ‘Two-Nation Theory’ y sir Syed, in which he had claimed that the Mustims and in, ip dstnct communities and should be recognized as suc! Ali’s ideas at this stage were slightly different from those ¢ by Iqbal, as Iqbal had initially wanted the Muslim states to hp, autonomy within a loose federation. Rehmat Ali was conn the need for a separate federation of Muslim states with independence. In many ways, Rehmat Ali was ahead of hstiny in others, he was behind the Muslim League. However, for nm years, Rehmat Ali continued with his almost sole mission of advocating the establishment of ‘Pakistan’, a separate Muslin homeland. In 1933, Rehmat Ali formed a Pakistan National Movement to fight for the idea of Pakistan. He eventually colet all of his articles and interviews and published a book entitle’ Pakistan, The Fatherland of the Pak Nation He was suitably rewarded for his efforts in 1940, when the All-India Muslim Let adopted his central demand for a separate homeland for the vq Itis unfortunate that Rehmat Ali and the Quaid-i-Azam agreed on political tactics and that Rehmat Ali's later plat Seven Muslim states to form a commonwealth of Pak nal, iver adopted by the Muslim League, However, Reh a pe of coining the name of a large Muslim oon H Mollis inet someone who longed so much Saas ‘ the final may be lived to see it established, . vas 102 officially ies i ‘akistan and that his Con OT ud 3 February ioniieaen during his lifetime. He died "