Mahatma and Muhammad for Non-violence

MA Rahman *

Important Events

1. Date of birth: The 2nd October 1869
2. Born to Karamchand and Putlibai Gandhi, of Bania caste, Youngest of seven.
3. Place of birth: Porbandar in Gujarat.
4. Age at the time of marriage: 12/13 years (1881)
5. Age when he left England for higher studies:18 years
6. Age at the time of arrival to India after studies: 21 years.
7. Age of qualification for the bar in England: 23 years (1891)
8. Age when he left India for South Africa for practicing law: 25years (1893)
9. No. of years he stayed in South Africa: about 21 years.
10. Year of coming back to India: 1914/1915 (at the age of 45 years)
11. Name of struggles for Indian Independence: Satayagraha Campaign 1917, Non-cooperation Movement, Civil Disobedience Movement including Dandi March 6th April 1930, Quit India Movement 1942.
12. Swaraj/Independence: 15th August 1947
13. Date of Martyr: 30th January 1948
14. No of years he survived: 79 Years.

"Generation to come, it may be, will scarcely believe that such one as ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth" —Albert Einstein.

Today, the 2nd October 20011 is the birth anniversary of Mahatama Gandhi, the father of the Democratic Republic of India, and is observed as National Cleanliness Day throughout India, as everybody knows. Today is also the International Day of None-Violence as it was enacted by the UNO on the 2nd October 2007. This shows that none-violence today is relevant nationally and internationally.

Cleanliness in today's parlance should be religiously a massage of cleaning ones inner-self, the invisibility in human being, and the environment that is visible all around us. One may agree with the fact that unclean mind and the filthy environment are the sources of all the evils both from the point of view of health, hygiene and social order that the society so badly requires today and the mother earth by and large. Charity begins at home.

So let us start from the mind and body of the self then to members of the family and to our own houses before we embark on the neighborhood, the society and so on. Today let us do this homework if we really mean National Cleanliness Day. Cleanliness is an important day-to-day affair and not annual. We can read its emphasis in the context of the observance of National Cleanliness as it has become writing on the wall. The true meaning therefore does not lie in the observance as a show and pretence on this particular day only and forget for the rest of the year.

Today is also the International Day of Non-violence that was declared by the UNO on the 2nd October 2007 if I remember it correctly. This declaration is based on the Mahatama's non-violence, a practice the Mahatama carried in the movement for independence through in the 19th century successfully. With this in place, it has become today a household word in India and a world issue for taking it forward. The Mahatama owns this pride posthumously. However, not even an effigy of Mahatama exists today to do the job.

For Mahatama, there was more of a leadership that was working in him than of politics with more and more selfless and dedicated people to follow him. It is a far cry today for such a man as Mahatama to search. The reason, every politician or democrat with their dictated bureaucrats is highly charged with politics from toe to top leaving the issue at the backseat.

Today there goes a selfish ruler followed by hordes of selfish idealists or more practically opportunist cadres between his house and the bungalow as a set practice. When a leader swarmed with gun totters cannot move freely among the ruled areas to hear them then where the governance lies. The absence of governance creates chaos and that further creates mayhem and anarchy. These are happening today under our nose. The common people, not the so called VIP, are reeling under untold hardships that do not know its bounds.

The least to mention, the privileged VIPs and their targeted localities are electrified round the clock and the rest blackout. Even during the British period this didn't happen and even some semblance of justice was administered to the people. Even after the Regime has been taken over, the IPC, CrPC and even the Indian Evidence Acts framed and promulgated to deal with the subjugated people in verbatim, are in force in the Indian Criminal Justice Systems.

But the worst, neither these acts have been redrafted nor our own mandated Government reoriented to suit the welfare of the people. Only the Regime has been changed but the repressive style is intact instead increasing. These situations and more will create more and more vicious environments, a breeding ground for violence. Had Mahatama been alive he would have launched a more severe satayagharaya against these situations.

A semblance was the recent case of Annah Hajarika and a more serious case of hunger strike against AFSPA launched by Sharmila, about ten years at a stretch. More and more people by and large are listening to them, their movement being non-violent than to the Govermnet. Today while remembering the 2nd October let us do some home work.

Heinous crimes both national and international are the order of the day. Today the authority in power is only to see to mature their term for which the people have given the mandate. They never see things in its real perspectives with retrospection forgetting the real or the root cause of the fact in issue. Taking India as an example there are issues throughout the length and breadth of the country that are tackled with the power from the muzzle of the gun only.

Let us adopt at least some non-violent steps to deal with people in violence. The Army, the CPO's and the Commandos, the last one not defined in any of the Indian Legal Acts and Laws if I am not mistaken, should be kept as a last chance to deal with any issue. Wanton use of such force has created cycles of violence costing innumerable innocent lives in many parts of the country that has been compromised by paying paltry blood money to the survivors who are lamenting for the rest of their lives for their loved ones. Let us try our luck by peaceful means adopted by the Mahatama and Muhammad (pbuh).

Do we have to remind ourselves that Gandhiji fought the mighty British Empire neither by killing the British Rulers nor by acts of terrorism but by the peaceful means of non-violence tempered with truth? Today the terrorists are up in arms and resorting to violence resulting in the death of their own kit and kin. Have they attained peace or any of their objectives?

The terrorists felt that Mahatama Gandhi and Mrs Indira Gandhi were obstacles in their way and so they removed them by brutally killing them in the land of Lord Rama, the symbol of peace and tolerance. Similarly, Rajiv Gandhi, the symbol of dynamic India, was assassinated at the cost of his campaign for peace or restoration of peace. One would like to ask these people if they have attained peace or independence after getting rid of these leaders. The answer is definitely everybody's guest.

Mohammad (peace be upon him)

Born in Saudi Arabia 570 AD among the jahl Arabs (ignorant Arabs), he was God's Prophet to spread the religion of peace, the Islam. When grown up he was enlightened with the knowledge of the Supreme Almighty through the heavenly Book the Quraan at the age of 40 years in Mecca.

By this time he confronted two uphill tasks—one, his own tribes who were ignorant of any religious faith and the other, the two occupying Imperial Powers—the Holy Roman Empire through the Byzantines and the Persian Empire.

His own ignorant people were mostly Bedouin who worshiped for centuries the idols kept in the centre of Mecca inside the present Kaba. It was God's decree that Islam takes over the idol worship and it was achieved within 23 years during which the revelations of the Heavenly Book was completed and the religion of Islam was perfected as a perpetual Faith for the mankind.

It was through non-violent means only that he won the impossible through the knowledge of the Book, the Quraan. He was guided from time to time in necessity through the doctrines that he received in piece-mils. The Quraan says- no one should be converted to Islam by compulsion (la ikrah fiddini). The Prophet (pbuh) followed it through cent per cent.

But when the idolaters without any provocation made several attempts to torture him he simply tolerated and tried to evade against severe constrains. In many occasions he received grievous injuries in his body but he would only pray to God to pardon them that they are innocent and his folk (ummah). Ultimately his enemies had decided to eliminate him in his birth place, the Mecca. He received direction from Heaven to migrate to Medina, a comparatively peaceful city and he migrated (june 6, 632 AD) where he was overwhelmingly welcomed. The city of Medina was not only fertile but the mind of the population was also fertile enough to accept the religion of Islam.

Soon Islam started to spread in Medina and its surrounding areas. The enemy 10,000 strong, in Mecca spearheaded by the dominant tribe, the Quresh invaded Medina to kill the Prophet and teach his followers a lesson. The Prophet, having informed of the eminent danger from his men at Mecca, mustered about 300 of his men for the Jihad (prevention of the worst) and marched out of the city and defended the enemy 80 miles off the city at Badar. The Prophet warned them to go back. When not listened, the war broke out between 300 and 10,000.

After every 300 there were hundreds of invisible angels who joined to defend the aggressors. The war was decisive and the aggressors routed leaving the commander Abu Jahl dead and his army took to heels. Likewise many wars of aggression were fought outside the City in defense against overwhelming enemy troops- Battle of Uhud, the Battle the Trench, the Battle of Khaibar, the Battle of Hunain etc to mention few… In all these, the enemy met the same fate as the battle of Badar. The Prophet marched to Mecca and ultimately the idols from the premises of Mecca were removed without any bloodshed. Thus God's decree stood and completed.

The above two narratives are loud and clear that the prophet was persuasive and maintained complete composure of peace and non-violence while dealing with his ignorant idolaters. All through his life there is no record of the Prophet having handled any offensive weapon whatsoever against anybody whom he used to call his folk (Ummah) and prayed to God for pardoning them.

The Prophet started turning towards the Two Imperial occupants of the Arab Lands- Part of Saudi Arabi, Syria, Palestine and Egypt by the Byzantines (Eastern Roman Empire) and Iraq by the Persians. First, the Prophet wrote letters to the Roman Emperor Heraclius to recognise and respect Islam and vacate the Arab lands and so also to the Persian Emperor. The Romans instead prepared for the war by gathering more than one lakh well armed men.

The Prophet fought his first war with the Romans at Tabook (Jordan) with only 40,000 men including cavalry of 10,000. It ended in peace treaty as the Romans were afraid of the Bedouin Arabs' supremacy in desert warfare. The Prophet died of a severe illness after about one year and the Khalifas (Prophets Vicergents) followed through and the enemies were turned out of the occupied lands by resorting to appropriate use of force proportional to each situation.

Fighting for restoration of Arab Sovereignty from the hands of foreign occupants is a matter of Arab Nationalism and an internationally accepted principle and it is not a religious war. Only the vested interest terms it as a religious war.

The Prophet was against injustice and violence. He said 'ruins are the terrorists' (halaka mutanattauna- Muslim Sharif). The Quraan says 'the terrorist activities are worst than human slaughter' (alfitnatu asaddu min qatli). The killing of an innocent man outside the court will be sinful of the entire human being slaughtered Al-Quraan.

In these contexts the terrorists who claim to be Muslims do not act under the banner of Islamic Faith. Simply by being a half hearted Muslim and a wrong ideology one cannot resort to activities contravening the Islamic Faith like Jihad for a wrong and irrelevant cause. Terrorists have no religion.

Resorting to violence by any Muslim is irrelevant. They should stop the senseless violence immediately. These are the injunctions by the Quraan and by the Prophet's Hadis and decrees of the Islamic Ulema (scholars) and the people by and large.