The Swat controversy

By M. A. Niazi | Published: April 24, 2009

Maulana Sufi Nek Muhammad has set the cat among the pigeons by repeating his assertion that laws in Pakistan were not Islamic, and by rejecting the possibility of appeal against the decisions of the Qazis that are to be appointed under the Nizam-i-Adl Regulation. While his claims have caused some controversy, with the prime minister among the many voices raised in condemnation, this seems to ignore the fact that the Maulana is not uttering some wild-eyed pronouncement, but is reciting orthodoxy. This orthodoxy was overturned in the whole Muslim world in the first half of the 20th century, but while Muslims know that it was reversed before they were born, and that modern Islamic parties did not subscribe to this view, they do not know that this reversal was not accomplished by orthodox means, and was carried out by a not-so-strict adherence to the text of the Quran and Sunnah. Also, it was not carried out by experts in Islamic law, and did not fulfil the conditions laid down in any of the schools of thought.
The reversal was part of the modernising project, which suffered from two major flaws: first, it tried to convert Islam into another version of Christianity and Judaism, as 'religion' rather than a complete 'way of life', and second, it left orthodoxy in the hands of ulema, who had received a medieval training, and who did not accept the modernist project, which is still not complete, of converting the Muslims of the world into good capitalists. Because of this, even though the ulema supported modernising, they retained enough of orthodoxy that most (but not all) continued preaching it, and the consequent resistance to capitalism that it meant.

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