Jinnah and
Islam
By Qutubuddin Aziz
Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali
Jinnah (1876-1948) was born a Muslim, brought
up as a Muslim by his parents, lived as a good,
practicing Muslim and died as the greatest Muslims
in the annals of Islamic history, having established
on August 14, 1947 what then was the biggest Islamic
State Pakistan.
His parents, Jinnahbhai Poonja and Mithibai, who
were the followers of the Isna Ashri (Khojas sect
of Islam), were good Muslims and they employed
a teacher who taught Islamic tenets and other
subjects to their children, especially their eldest
son, Jinnah, who was a precocious child. Their
mother, Mithibai, visited Muslim shrines in Sindh
and took some of their children there to seek
God's blessings.
The first school in Karachi to which Jinnah was
admitted by his father was the Sindh Madressah
which was established in Karachi in 1885 by the
Sindh Mohammedan Association under the leadership
of a renowned Muslim philanthropist and promoter
of education for Muslims in Sindh, Hassan Ali
Effendi. Before launching this school, he had
visited the MAO College in Aligarh and discussed
with Sir Syed Ahmed Khan. Islamic teachings and
reading the Qur’an was included in the curriculum
of the Sindh Madressah and Jinnah learnt more
about Islam there.
During his childhood years, Jinnah went to Bombay
to meet his loving aunt and uncle and stayed with
them for six months. They admitted him to a school
of the Anjuman-e-Islam where Islamic teachings
were a part of the curriculum. Before proceeding
to England in January 1893, he studied at the
Church Mission School in Karachi for a few years
but he continued to read about Islam.
Jinnah's marriage at the age of 16 with 14-year-old
Emibhai was conducted in Paneli in Kathiawar under
Muslim rites. His mother had arranged his marriage
hurriedly to ensure that no English damsel in
London would entice him. Before he boarded the
ship at Karachi for the journey to England, he
received many amulets from his family members
in conformity with a Muslim tradition. Thus all
through his childhood years in Karachi, Jinnah's
parents made him aware of his Muslim identity
and Muslim beliefs.
During his three-year legal education at Lincoln's
Inn in London, Jinnah joined his Muslim co-religionists
in celebrating the Eid festival and at times visited
a small mosque in East London. As a part of his
legal education in London for the practice of
the law in multi-religious India, the young Jinnah
had to study Islamic jurisprudence also. He had
learnt about Christianity at the Church Mission
School in Karachi. He had Hindu and Parsi fiends
and took interest in knowing about their faiths.
His exposure to Western education and polity in
England made him liberal, broad-minded and tolerant
towards the followers of other faiths. According
to his sister, Ftima Jinnah, the teenager Jinnah
touched neither ham nor bacon nor alcoholic drinks
- a promise he had made to his parents before
proceeding to England. The strength of his character
and morals is borne out by the story narrated
in "Jinnah of Pakistan" by Stanley Wolpert,
the Quaid's American biographer, that on the occasion
of Jinnah's first Christmas and New Year in London
he was invited by his landlady to an evening party
in their home. She had a pretty daughter who tried
to become friendly with the teenage Jinnah. In
the party, the damsel suggested to him that under
an English custom he could kiss her under the
mistletoe hung from the ceiling. Jinnah's response
was that such an act of intimate behavior was
not in conformity with the moral code in which
he had been brought up in his home and that his
mother and his 15-year-old wife would mind it
in Karachi.
In London, the teenage Jinnah visited the British
museum many a time. Of great interest to him was
the section dealing with the Middle East, the
Arabs, the Islamic Civilization and the Indus
Valley. While on way from Karachi to England by
boat, Jinnah had a day's glimpse of Egypt when
it halted at Port Said on the Suez Canal. The
archaeological exhibits from ancient and Medieval
Egypt in the British Museum interested him considerably.
When Jinnah returned to India as a barrister and
enrolled as a lawyer with the Bombay high Court
in August 1896, he made a deeper study of the
laws in force in India, especially Muslim canonical
and personal law. This was of immense help to
him when he served as Presidency Magistrate in
Bombay from May to November 19. Many cases that
he handled involved Muslims for which a thorough
knowledge of the major schools of Muslim jurisprudence
was essential. In Bombay, Jinnah visited the Anjumna-e-Islamia
often and donated to its funds. When he took to
legal practice early in 1901, his circle of friends
expanded and he had a large number of Muslims,
Parsi, Hindu, Christian and European friends.
He showed respect for their religious beliefs
and practices.
Jinnah's brilliant speech on Muslim Endowments
(Wakful Aulad law in force in India in the Congress
session in Calcutta in December 1906) was a proof
of the profundity of his knowledge of Islamic
jurisprudence and the Holy Quran. Muslim associations
and scholars from many parts of India congratulated
him on his able advocacy of the Muslim viewpoint
on the issue. It is noteworthy that Jinnah won
his first legislative election in 1909 from a
constituency reserved for Muslims in Bombay. It
was a tough election and the local Muslims would
not have elected him to the Imperial Legislative
Council, based in Calcutta, unless they were convinced
that he was a practicing Muslim, having deep knowledge
of Islam and the problems of the Muslim community.
In the Imperial Legislative Council, it was Jinnah's
privilege to navigate successfully his Private
Member's Bill on Muslim Endowments in 1911. Under
the new law for Muslim Endowments, enacted through
Jinnah's efforts, these Muslim institutions and
their beneficiaries got a better deal. The speeches
he made in support of his Bill in the Imperial
Legislative Council got him all-India acclaim
from Muslims. Scores of Muslim organizations in
India rushed him messages of congratulations and
gratitude for his resounding achievement in the
service of Muslims. Among them were Maulana Shabbir
Ahmad Usmani and Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani.
As a Muslim legislator from Bombay, Jinnah attended
many meetings organized by the Muslims organizations
on the festive occasions of Eid and the Prophet's
birthday. He advocated the political, economic
and educational emancipation of Muslims, particularly
Muslim women.
Jinnah joined the All India Muslim League as a
member in London in 1913 when it amended its constitution
and included self-rule for India in its aims and
objects. But he made it clear that he would continue
his membership of the Congress which he had joined
in 1903. The Muslims of Bombay were so pleased
with Jin-nah's services to the Muslims that they
again voted him to the Imperial Legislative Council
from Bombay's Muslim constituency in 1916. In
the Congress fold, Jinnah devotedly worked for
Hindu-Muslims cooperation to achieve independence
for India from British rule and he was hailed
as the Ambassador of Hindu-Muslim Unity as the
architect of the famous Lucknow Pact for their
cooperation in the pursuit of freedom for India.
In 1918, Jinnah consented to marry Parsi-born
Ruttie Petit after she turned 18 and embraced
Islam in the presence of the chief cleric of the
Isna Ashri Muslims in Bombay and the Islamic name
of Maryam was given to her. The next day, Jinnah
married her in an Islamic wedding ceremony with
Muslim scholars and his Muslim friends attending
it. Among them was the elder Maharaja of Mahmudabad.
In 1929, when Rutie died in Bombay, Jinnah had
her burial done in a Muslim graveyard according
to Muslim rites supervised by a Muslim Imam (religious
scholar). He donated to Muslim and other charities
in Bombay and elsewhere. On the festive occasion
of Eid, his Muslim friends and constituents visited
him regularly and exchanged Eid greetings. Even
during his stay in London (1931-35), he used to
visit a mosque in East London for the Eid prayers.
According to his chauffeur during his London years,
Bradbury, Jinnah was visited by many Muslim friends
in his Hampstead home on the occasion of Eid and
they exchanged Eid greetings.
In the Khilafat Movement in India, between 1918
and 1922, Jinnah supported the cause of the Ottoman
Empire and the preservation of the Constantinople-based
Caliphate. As the Chairman of the company which
ran a popular Bombay-based English daily, Bombay
Chronicle, he encouraged its English Editor, B
G Horniman to give due coverage to the Khalifat
Movement and its leaders, Maulana Mohammad Ali
Jauhar and his elder brother, Maulana Shaukat
Ali, and Gandhiji. He articulated the viewpoint
of India's Muslims against the liquidation of
the Ottoman Empire and the Caliphate before a
Parliamentary Committee in London in the early
1920s.
From 1935 onwards when, on his return from England,
Jinnah became the President of the All India Muslim
League, he attended a large number of meetings
of Muslims and spoke on Islam, the Prophet's life
and the Muslim cause in India and abroad. In his
speeches, he extolled the virtues of the Prophet
of Islam (PBUH) and the universal nature of Islam's
teachings. He read more books on Islam and was
influenced by Allama Iqbal's exposition of the
tenets of Islam and his call for an Islamic renaissance
in his writings and inspiring poetry. Jinnah also
sought advice from Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani
on Islamic matters. Jinnah advocated the Muslims
viewpoint in the Shaheedganj Mosque Case in Lahore
and the Cawnpore Mosque Case.
In 1926, Jinnah was re-elected to India's Central
legislature from the Bombay Muslim constituency.
It demonstrated the immense trust the Muslims
reposed in him as a good Muslim leader.
Jinnah's love for his only daughter, Dina, was
profound. But when she decided to marry Parsi-born
Neville Wadia, Jinnah said he would permit her
to do so if he converted to Islam. When he did
not do so and Dina married Wadia, Jinnah froze
his fatherly relations with Dina.
Jinnah's understanding of Islam was reflected
in these powerful words which he spoke in his
presidential address in the All India Muslim League
Conference held in Karachi on December 26, 1943:
"What is it that keeps the Muslims united
as one man and who is the bedrock and sheet anchor
of the community? It is Islam; it is the Great
Book - the Quran which is the sheet anchor of
Muslims India. I am sure that as we go on and
on, there will be more Oneness - One God, One
Book, One Prophet and One nation'. In his Eid-ul-Fitr
message to the Muslims in September 1945, Jinnah
said: "… Islam is not merely confined
to the spiritual tenets and doctrines or rituals
or ceremonies. It is a complete code regulating
the whole Muslims society, every department of
life, collectively and individually". Addressing
the All India Muslims League session in Delhi
on April 24,1943, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
said: "...The equality of mankind is one
of the fundamental principles of Islam. In Islam,
there is no difference between man and man. The
qualities of equality, liberty and fraternity
are the fundamental principles of Islam…
the prophet was the greatest man the world had
ever seen. Thirteen hundred years ago he laid
the foundations of democracy…"
Jinnah preached and practiced tolerance towards
the followers of other religions and this was
amplified in his historic address to the Constituent
Assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947, in Karachi.
Jinnah was opposed to theocracy and sectarianism
in any form.
In a broadcast to the people of the USA in February
1948, Governor-General Jinnah said that he expected
Pakistan's new constitution to be of a democratic
type embodying the essential principles of Islam.
Islam, he pointed out, had taught Muslism equality
of man, justice and fairplay to everybody. His
Eid-ul-Fitr message on August 18, 1947 - four
days after Pakistan's birth - was addressed to
the Muslims of Pakistan and also to Muslims all
the world over. In this Eid message resounded
Jinnah's hope for the dawn of "a new era
of prosperity that will mark the onward march
of the renaissance of Islamic culture and ideals".
On that festive day, Jinnah, dressed in a cream-colored
sherwani and wearing the Jinnah cap, offered his
Eid prayers in the Eidgah maidan in Karachi and
exchanged Eid greeting with a huge concourse of
Muslims, thanking Allah for his gift of Pakistan.
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