Why Wahhabi fanaticism is opposed to yoga
After key leaders of the Wahhabi umbrella in the form of Deoband, its missionary wing Tabligh Jamaat and Ahle-Hadis, a stream that is followed by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan, took an anti-yoga stand saying it was against the tenets of true Islam, it has been indeed heartening for patriotic Indians to see many Wahhabis, particularly students, doing yoga in cities like Ahmedabad. A Deobandi leader even performed yoga with Baba Ramdev at a public stage in Delhi recently. It only shows that apart from Sufi or Barelvi Muslims, who have openly supported yoga, there is a moderate section in Wahhabis too which is not opposed to yoga, howsoever small or big that might be.
Still, it is necessary to go into facts as to why the Wahhabis oppose yoga. A look into the Wahhabi history shows that the anti-yoga stand is rooted in a book called Taqwiat-ul-Iman (Strengthening Faith) written in 1820s by a famous Indian preacher, Shah Ismail Dehlvi, who died fighting against the Sikhs in the battle of Balakot (now in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) in 1831 along with his preceptor, Syed Ahmed Barelvi, labelled as Syed Ahmed Wahhabi by the Britishers at that time.
The book, which is among the most puritanical interpretations of Islam, is virtually a manual to destroy all syncretic practices – or the so-called “Ganga-Jumna tezheeb” – that sustains harmonious relations of Muslims with members of other religions. Originally written in Arabic, translated into Urdu and later in English for Wahhabis settled in western countries, Tawiat-ul-Iman is taught in almost all Wahhabi madrasas of India and Pakistan and is also very popular in the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia. Though written by an Indian maulvi, it has very high standing amongst the radical Islamic preachers of Saudi Arabia, one of them had also issued a fatwa against yoga some years ago. Its English version is equally popular in United Kingdom and the US and is seen by many as being at the root of Islamic radicalism in these two Western countries.
What does Taqwiat-ul-Iman preach?
The book has seven chapters and all aim at not just stamping out the slightest closeness to customs and practices of other religions in different fields but creating hatred in the minds of the Muslims for these practices. Traditions that are the foundation of Hindu-Muslim harmony, such as worshipping Muslim saints and placing a chador on their tombs, are described as the worst form of “Shirk” polytheism (practices that are close to those of idol worshippers and therefore un-Islamic). And so are rituals like starting the sowing season on the Akha Trij Day in May every year that Hindu farmers across India follow in their villages and the moderate or Barelvi Muslims of these villages also emulate in a spirit of lived camaraderie.
Anti-Islamic practices are described in detail in chapter two titled “Categories and Aspects of Shirk”. It has different subtitles like “Shirk in one’s daily routine chores, in worship and in knowledge”. The dislike for un-Islamic customs is described in chapter seven, titled “Prohibition of Shirk in Social Customs”. This chapter too has different subtitles: “Banned polytheistic rituals for soliciting children, in agriculture and in cattle breeding”. Giving credits to planets is described as a “worst act of Shirk”. Chapter six is titled “Prohibition of Shirk in Worship”. A significant line in it is: “Worshipping the places of saints is an act of the worst people”. In chapter three, the “Virtues of Monotheism” or the rewards of not following the so-called un-Islamic practices are described in detail. The book virtually says those Muslims who don’t following the teachings of this book will go to Hell.
Interestingly, anti-Islamic practices described in the book assume a very important role during communal riots. In most riots, it is moderate Sufis to bear the brunt of Hindu retaliation or attack and then land up in refugee camps. These camps are them swarmed by Wahhabi preachers who then tell the hapless Sufi victims of communal violence that they have been punished by the Almighty Allah for following un-Islamic practices and then these preachers convert them into Wahhabi fold playing on their fears. This phenomenon was witnessed on a large scale following the 2002 Gujarat riots. So communal riots are the ideal platforms for promotion of Taqwiat-ul-Iman.
The English version of this book is circulated on a large scale in the United Kingdom and in the United States where the main distribution centres are places like Houston and Chicago. Even the American and British investigators are not aware that the Muslim radicalism in their countries has spread mainly through the teachings of Taqwiat-ul-Iman.
The book is most revered in Saudi Arabia and this is how Darussalam Publishers, headquartered in Riyadh, describes it:
“The age of Shah Islmail Shaheed was contaminated with poisonous atmosphere of Shirk and religious innovations. The Indian Muslims, under the influence of Hindu mythological faith, had entered such rituals and beliefs in Islam that even surpassed those that were there before the birth of Islam. The Shah’s religious sense of honour could not tolerate the spectacle that Islam should be infiltrated with the gnawed concept of associating partners to Allah. So, in order to root out un-Islamic practices and bring Muslims on the true path he compiled Taqwiat-ul-Iman.”
Since Shah Ismail died in a battle while fighting for Islam, the publisher gives him more weight than the greatest preachers of puritanical Islam of all times – the 13th century Turkish-Syrian preacher Imam Ibn Taimuyah (1263-1328) and Abdul Wahab, the founder of the dreaded Wahhabi Islam (1702-92) and root of Islamic fanaticism across the world today. The publisher says: “These two waged jihad only with the pen but Shah Ismail Shaheed waged it with both pen and sword “.
Ismail was the great grandson of radical Islamic preacher Shah Waliullah Dehlvi (1703-62) whose father, Shah Abdur Rahim, was one of the scholars who played key role in compiling a book on Islamic law titled Fatwa-e-Alamgiri at the instance of Emperor Aurangzeb. But Waliullah is more famous as the preacher who exhorted Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Abdalli to wage jihad against the kafir Marathas and Jats. The third battle of Panipat in which Abdalli defeated the Marathas was at the exhortation of Shah Walullah. Incidentally, Waliullah and Abdul Wahab had for some time studied under the same preacher in Saudi Arabia when Waliullah went there to study Islam in 1730s. So it is not surprising that both are regarded as revivers of radical Islam in the world at a time when Islam has learnt to co-exist with other religions due to efforts of moderate Muslim rulers like Emperor Akbar.
Even Abul Kalam Azad praised the author of Taqwiat-ul-Iman
However, the most interesting part for those who talk about “Ganga-Jumna Tehzeeb” and secularism in India is that the ultimate symbol of these schools of thought, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, too, praised Shahed Ismail in his work titled Tazkirah appreciating his drive for rooting out syncretic practices. In the same book Azad has also praised Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi who opposed Emperor Akbar’s moderate policies for Hindus.
In fact Azad’s maternal great grandfather, Maulana Munwaruddin and Shaheed Ismail’s preceptor Saiyad Ahmed Barelvi were co-disciples of Shah Abdul Aziz (son of Shah Waliullah, died in 1824), a fanatical preacher of Wahhabi stream whose teachings have an indirect link with the dreaded ISIS too. Jordanian preacher, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who founded ISIS in 2003 and also trained its current head, al-Baghdadi, drew inspiration from the ,i teachings of Abdul Aziz, according to Pakistani scholar Khaled Ahmed. In an article last year, Ahmed wrote about how the roots of the ISIS are in a way connected with Pakistan due to Zarqawi who lived in Pakistan and fought the Americans in Afghanistan in the initial stage of his career before moving to Iraq.
Before he died in an American bombing raid in Baghdad in 2006, Zarqawi dealt a body blow to moderate Islam by destroying the tomb of Imam Askara in Samarra in Iraq, a symbol of Sufi practices. Significantly, Zarqawi was once given sanctuary by Shia Iran as a strategic move despite knowing that he had severe anti-Shia leaning. Little did Iran know that he would create the greatest Shia-killing machine in Iraq and Syria. Clearly, wrong actions come to haunt the doers sooner or later.
Says Hamid Engineer, president of leading Sufi Tanzeem Indian Muslim Association - Noorie (IMAN), which is key link between various Sufi Dargah Sharifs in India: “Taqwiat -ul-Iman by Ismail Dehlwi is virtually a poison for Hindu-Muslim unity because it attacks all those religious and social practices that form the foundation of a shared culture. After reading such stuff in a Wahhabi madrasa a student can only veer towards radical brand of Islam based on wrong interpretations.”
Taqwiat-ul-Iman is one of the key roots of Muslim fanaticism as reflected in the fact that all terrorists follow Wahhabi tenets while not a single terrorist comes from the Sufi or Barelvi fold, which in fact, condemns this book. Is the Modi government listening?