Gandhi’s Hero

Mohamed Tanveer

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, India's Father of the Nation is famous for his freedom struggle, and as one who worked tirelessly to make India independent of British rule. His teaching was based on Ahimsa (non-violence), Satyagraha (truth) and Sneha (love).

Gandhi lived a simple life, did not hold a position of power in the government, and had no worldly possessions. He also used to clean streets and collect refuse in order to punish himself for the injustice of the caste system as practiced by most people in India. Only untouchables did this kind of work.

When Gandhi returned to his native land after qualifying as a barrister in England, he went to South Africa as a lawyer for a Muslim firm that had family connections with some of his neighbours at home. Through this significant phase, Gandhi's sense of common brotherhood with Muslims was reaffirmed and strengthened.

Many of the Muslim businessmen he worked with in South Africa had roots in his hometown of Porbandar, as well as in Bombay (now Mumbai). He sometimes lived in their homes there. His feeling of involvement with Muslims in everyday life with shared goals became much stronger.

In his own words: "When I was in South Africa, I came in close touch with Muslim brethren there... I was able to learn their habits, thoughts and aspirations... I had lived in the midst of Muslim friends for 20 years. They had treated me as a member of their family."

In his political activity in South Africa, both Hindus and Muslims living there were his followers. The South African experience invigorated his belief that there should be mutual understanding and cooperation among Indians irrespective of religion.

Gandhi responded with the movement of his own soul when he heard an old Muslim say that, with God as his witness, he would never submit to that law.

The years spent by Gandhi in Great Britain to qualify for the Bar also played a significant role in educating him on Islam. On May 8, 1840, Thomas Carlyle delivered a public lecture in Edinburgh on Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Islam. Carlyle had no special qualifications as Arabist or Islamist for lecturing on this subject, and yet the lecture has an important place in the development of Islamic studies in Europe, since, here, for the first time, in a prominent way, was it asserted that Muhammad (pbuh) was sincere and the religion of Islam basically true.

Gandhi himself informs us: "A friend recommended Carlyle's Heroes and Hero Worship. I read the chapter on The Hero as a Prophet, learnt of the Prophet's greatness and bravery and austere living... These books raised Muhammad in my estimation."

Later, Gandhi read Shibli Numani's biographies of Muslim heroes, books of Hadith, and Syed Amir Ali's books on Islamic history which strengthened his respect for the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) all the more. We find references to the works of Carlyle, Shibli and Amir Ali scattered throughout Gandhi's writings in every period of his life.
All this whetted Gandhi's interest in Islam and he made a deeper study of the tenets laid out in the Holy Qur'an to understand it better. In his later years, he learnt to carry on "sympathetic debates" with eminent Islamic scholars like Maulana Muhammad Ali Jauhar and later Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Hakim Ajmal Khan, Zakir Hussain, M. Mujeeb and S. Abid Hussain.

Gandhi's keen interest in Islam took a political turn when he launched India's freedom struggle after his permanent return to the country. He was able to enlist the full support of Muslims, intellectuals and masses alike, when he himself lent full support to the Khilafat movement and tacked on the 1921 Civil Disobedience movement to it.
The message of the Khilafat movement, ably led by Maulana Muhammad Ali and Maulana Shaukat Ali, and supported whole-heartedly by Mahatma Gandhi and Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, reached every nook and corner of India.

For the first time in the political history of India, thirty thousand men and women went to jail in thirty days. For the first time in the political history of India two million human beings left their country at the bidding of their leaders.

The entire Muslim Ummah had looked upon the Caliph as the spiritual head of Islam.

Gandhi argued that one must help a brother whenever he says he has a religious need. Hence, the Hindu should help his Muslim brother defend the Islamic faith. According to him, Hindus needed "heart-unity" with their Muslim brothers; they could win this unity if they helped the Muslims protect the independence of the Turkish caliph.
But the entire bottom fell out of the historic movement when the resurgent Turks under the leadership of Kemal Ataturk decided to abolish the caliphate and declared themselves a republic.

Through intimate acquaintance and long discussions with various learned exponents of Islam, Gandhi's profound respect for the holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) became deeper and stronger.

Gandhi was so eager to know about Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) that he became sad when he did not have more to read about him.

In his own words: "I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind... I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his selflessness, his absolute trust in God and his own mission - these and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life."

Gandhi's eulogy further testified: "Muhammad was a great Prophet. He was brave and feared no man but God alone. He was never found to say one thing and do another. He acted as he felt. The Prophet was a Faqir, he could have commanded wealth if he had so desired. I shed tears when I read of the privations, he, his family and companions suffered voluntarily. How can a truth-seeker like me help respect one whose mind was constantly fixed on God, who ever walked in God's fear and who had boundless compassion for mankind."

The sayings of the holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) impressed Gandhi to such a great extent that he hailed those as "the treasures of mankind." In his introduction to The Sayings of Muhammad (SM) by Allama Sir Abdullah Al-Mamun Al-Suhrawardy, he unhesitatingly declared:
"I have read Sir Abdullah Suhrawardy's collection of the sayings of the Prophet with much interest and profit. They are among the treasures of mankind, not merely Muslims."
In addition to his interest in the example of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as a man who changed the world by putting his faith into action, Gandhi also studied the Holy Qur'an regularly. He spent a considerable time studying the Holy Qur'an during his intermittent sojourns in Indian jails as the guest of His Imperial Majesty.

Gandhi also believed the teachings about the attributes of God to be very similar in the scriptures of Hinduism and Islam. He did not hesitate to speak of Caliph Ali bin Abu Talib (RA) as a model of restraint, and thus a model for those who would take up the method of Satyagraha. (Satyagraha means utter insistence upon truth. When a man insists on truth, it gives him power).

In his own words: "You must know how to restrain your anger, if you desire to maintain non-violence in action for any length of time. Hazrat Ali, the hero of Islam, was once spat upon by an adversary; and it is my conviction that if he had not restrained his anger at the time, Islam would not have maintained its unbroken career of progress up to the present time."

Gandhi also paid eloquent tribute to the incomparable sacrifice made by Imams Hassan and Hussain (RA). The glorious example of Imam Hussain (RA), the grandson of the holy Prophet of Islam (pbuh), who suffered martyrdom at the hands of a cruel and hostile state, is equated by Gandhi with Tapascharya, the Hindu belief in the power of suffering to transform consciousness:
"All religions in the world are thus strict in regard to pledges... Even if only a few among you take the pledge, we shall have reward through them. Muslim students have before them the example of Imams Hassan and Hussain. Islam has not been kept alive by the sword, but by the many fakirs with a high sense of honour whom it has produced... I have nothing to give you in the way of excitement... I want to give you quiet courage. I want you to have hearts pure enough for self-sacrifice, for Tapascharya."

Gandhi believed that what he called "the Sufi aspect of Islam" taught patience and self-discipline and he himself lived the simple life of a fakir.

Gandhi preached few solutions which were directly inspired by the religion of Islam i.e., the teaching of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh).
For moral crisis, Gandhi prescribed non-violence as solution for which his inspiration came from Prophet Muhammed's (pbuh) attitude in Taif city and from Ali, the third Caliph of the Islamic state.
Gandhi believed that the real meaning of religious fundamentalism is Sarva Dharma Sambhava, tolerance and respect towards all religions which actually is the essence of the verse of the Qur'an which says: "For you, your religion, and for me, my religion."

Gandhi advocated the rooting out of Untouchability to eradicate social disturbances - in itself a basic tenet of Islam as well. Prophet Muhammad once said that no Arab is greater than a non-Arab... except in the matter of God-consciousness.

For economic problems, trusteeship and decentralization of wealth were the solutions prescribed by Gandhi, both of which once again comes from the teachings of Prophet Muhammad who taught us about stewardship and the message of the Qur'an which calls upon Muslims to pay their Zakah (poor-due) to decentralize the wealth.

It seems clear to me that Gandhi, the personality who inspires thousands of people today was, in turn, inspired by the Qur'an and the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).

An insensate fanatic named Nathuram Godse, unable to bear Gandhi's message of goodwill and inter-faith harmony, shot him dead even when he was on his way to his prayers. That day, January 30, 1948, will remain a day of mourning forever, not only in India, but in all places where people shun hostility and love peace and harmony between all faiths.