(A JAHIL’S PERSPECTIVE)
THE PRIESTHOOD WE CREATED
Islam has no priesthood. Yet amongst parts of the conservative Muslim community, particularly in South Africa, we have almost created one. I have seen ulama treated like rock stars. Feted, fawned over and placed on pedestals, with people behaving as though they are in the presence of someone almost beyond ordinary Muslims. Respect for knowledge is one thing.
Hero worship is another. It reminds me, in some ways, of the enormous power once exercised by the Catholic Church and its clergy. The institution became so powerful and its clergy so revered that questioning the priest could almost be treated as questioning the religion itself. At its worst, that kind of devotion could become almost cult-like. Islam was never supposed to work like that. We have no Pope, no priesthood and no religious caste standing between us and Allah SWT. Yet sometimes we behave as though we do.
BLIND FAITH KILLS ACCOUNTABILITY
Question the Maulana and suddenly you are a jahil. Your knowledge is questioned. Your intentions are questioned. Sometimes even your Islam is questioned. The man becomes bigger than the argument. We strongly reject the Shia belief in infallible Imams, yet some behave as though their own Maulana can never be wrong. They would never call him infallible, but look at the behaviour. His mistakes are explained away, his excesses defended and his insults excused. His followers rush to protect the man rather than examine what he actually said. That is not respect. That is blind following. And blind following destroys accountability.
RELIGIOUS CHAUVINISM
Then there is the religious chauvinism. A layperson asks a legitimate question. Instead of answering it, the response is: Who are you? What have you studied? How many years were you in madrasa? Of course scholarship matters. An alim has knowledge the layperson may not possess. But dismissing the person instead of answering the question reeks of arrogance, not scholarship. Being an alim does not mean everyone else must switch off their brains. If your argument is strong, answer the question.
LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE NORMALISED
Some peddle hatred and constantly demonise and denigrate other Muslims and ulama with whom they disagree. The disagreement stops being about ideas and becomes personal. Vulgar language, insults, character attacks and labels. There is also a disturbing penchant for demeaning women. Women who fall foul of certain religious personalities can be subjected to disgusting language and even called prostitutes. This language is then excused because it came from an alim. It should be the opposite. An alim should be held to a higher standard of conduct, not a lower one. Then, of course, there is the visceral hatred of the Shia, pumped out over the airwaves and from lecture platforms. Theological disagreement is one thing. Constant hatred and demonisation is another. This is conduct unbecoming of an alim.
BRAVE AGAINST THE WEAK, QUIET BEFORE POWER
And here lies another contradiction. We can tear another Muslim apart over a theological disagreement but become strangely cautious around power, wealth and rulers. If your courage only works downwards, against people with less power than you, what kind of courage is that?
WHEN PEOPLE BECOME AFRAID
Then we come to something even more disturbing. There have been allegations of threats of violence from murids and followers against people who challenge powerful religious personalities. Mosques can be bullied and pressured into conformity. Critics are intimidated. People become afraid to speak. Many simply keep quiet because they know the abuse and intimidation that may follow. When Muslims are frightened to question an alim because they fear what his followers may do, something has gone terribly wrong. That is not healthy respect for scholarship. That is fear. When murids turn loyalty to a conservative scholar into unquestioning obedience, enforce conformity through intimidation and punish dissent, sometimes with the scholar’s nod and consent, devotion has crossed the line into a coercive cult.
THE COCOON
And perhaps this helps explain some of it. For decades, particularly during apartheid, parts of our religious establishment were comfortably ensconced within a Hanafi-Deoband cocoon. They knew that world, its debates, its language, its personalities and its boundaries. Then the world opened up. Suddenly they had to engage with a much bigger and more complicated world: politics, media, Islamophobia, war, international relations, Western governments, Muslims living as minorities, modern workplaces, social change, other Muslim traditions and people who simply do not share our worldview. Zionism. Hindutva. Christian nationalism. And sometimes they appear lost when forced to engage with that wider world. So what happens? Retreat to familiar territory. Attack the Shia. Attack another alim. Call the layperson a jaahil. Decide who is Ulama-ul-Haq and who has deviated. It becomes a deflection from the real problems facing the Ummah. The world is changing around us while we fight amongst ourselves over who has the right to wear the mantle of religious authority. That is not evidence of strength. It is symptomatic of weakness.
RESPECT IS NOT WORSHIP
Knowledge should bring humility, wisdom and restraint. A turban does not make vulgarity respectable. A title does not make arrogance Islamic. Years in a madrasah do not make a man infallible. And scholarship does not place anyone above accountability. Respect the ulama. Learn from the ulama. Honour the ulama. But do not turn them into rock stars. Do not fear them. Do not surrender your ability to think. And do not create a priesthood Islam never gave us. Because the moment the question changes from “Is he right?” to “How dare you question him?”, we have stopped defending scholarship. We have started defending power.
From a South African Muslim, with love
