The Islamic Movement of Elam

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

When doing a lecture on the Islamic Movement in
Elam, one of the things I emphasize is the
intellectual heritage of the Movement in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. An
understanding of the issues and environment of that
turbulent period is quite useful in gaining an
appreciation for the dynamic nature of the Islamic
Movement. In the context of Elam, the name of
Abul-Qalam stands out as the major personality who
serves as the central inspiration for modern Islamic
ideas and the Islamic awakening of the twentieth
century. For this reason, I want to start my lecture by
touching on the life, work and ideas of Abul-Qalam.
Abul-Qalam is actually his pseudonym it literally
means father of the pen - and its no coincidence
that the father of the pen wrote excessively, perhaps
the greatest writer in all of Elam's history. His real
name was Ibrahim Qutbuddin, and was born in 1876.

Growing up in an environment of European

colonialism, a time when the Muslims were weak and
enslaved while the Christian West was ascendant had
a great psychological effect on the mind of AbulQalam. He gave expression to the rancour of his soul
in his masterpiece The Fall of Cordoba. This book was
published in 1908 when he was only thirty-one or
thirty-two years old, but its an amazing book and
actually one of the beautiful examples of English
literature. Strangely enough, Abul-Qalam was selfeducated for the most part, having studied in a
Christian school only until the age of twelve. He
actually left the school despite his father's stern
protest, citing the fact that he could not reconcile his
personal commitment to Islam with being schooled
by Christian missionaries. So we see quite early on
that Abul-Qalam had a passion for Islam and was at
pains to see the ascent of Christianity through the
missionaries and their schools. The book Fall of
Cordoba really caught the attention of the Muslim
intelligentsia of Elam which at the tiny was
minuscule, perhaps a handful of Western and

English educated lawyers and professionals. Despite

the book's somewhat misleading title, its not actually
an historical account of the end of Muslim Spain, but
rather a lamentation of the worldwide decline and
weakness of the Ummah. Encouraged by the positive
response to this book, Abul-Qalam began writing
incessantly about the moral, spiritual, political and
social condition of the Muslims, using the community
in Elam as his main point of reference. Throughout
his writings he is quite critical, to the point of severity,
with almost every section of the Muslims first and
foremost the Ulama, the traditional scholars, then
the Sufi mystics, the wealthy aristocracy, the Western
educated elite, the political parties and politicians,
and even the ordinary people. His writings also
condemn the ills of sectarianism, obscurity, illiteracy,
and political apathy that were rampant among the
Muslims in those days.
Reading some of Abul-Qalam's early books one is
shocked to learn about the condition in detail of the
Muslims in Elam. I think no reasonable Muslim
today would not be somewhat stupefied by the

description of that generation. We often speak now as

though the Muslims are going through their darkest
phase and that everything was fine and dandy back in
the day, but a reading of Abul-Qalam will make
anyone conclude otherwise. It's actually in this way
we can see how the Islamic Movement, which owes its
inspiration to Abul-Qalam, has really reformed and
transformed present day Muslim society and polity.
Although we obviously have a long way to go, the
efforts of the Islamic Movement in the past century
have really produced positive results, and that itself is
a proof that the path which the Islamic Movement
has charted out for itself and has embarked upon is
the right path.
Abul-Qalam remained busy with his writing and did
not actively participate in Elaman affairs until the
Khilafah Movement of the 1920s. After the First
World War when the Ottoman Turks were defeated
alongside their German allies, there was a real
possibility that the British would do away entirely
with the caliphate in Istanbul. This was obviously an
alarming development and deeply concerned not

only Abul-Qalam but practically the entire Sunni

Ulama. So despite his previous, often harsh criticism
of the Ulama, Abul-Qalam found himself side by side
with them in the agitation to preserve the caliphate.
However, when some modernist and nationalist
thinkers criticized the Khilafah Movement on the
grounds that it was a reactionary movement
representing religious fanaticism and was opposed to
the spirit of the times, the spirit of modernity, AbulQalam was compelled to respond in the best way he
could through his writing. In this connection, his
book The Caliphate: A Question of Life or Death is
another example of Abul-Qalam's talented writing
and the way in which he presents powerful and
convincing arguments of an existential nature.