Millat Analysis

Decent Essays
This study will define the “millat” and the “qaum” of Mohammad Iqbal’s (1938) idea of Islam and the problem that this poses for nationhood. Iqbal (1938) sought to countermand the idea that a millat could ever be categorized or identified as a member of a territorial nation, since they are committed to the Islamic unity of the Prophet Mohammad. The misguided semantic interpretations of Maulana Husain Ahmad is used by Iqbal to define the meaning of millat (devoted religious followers) as being different from quam (non-followers) to define the impossibility of territorial nationhood under the laws of the Prophet. The millat confirms that underlying legal premise that the Prophet Mohammad sought to maintain the unity of Islam, which defers the …show more content…
In many cases, quam and millat co-existed in Islamic communities, but a secular government, such as a “nation”, never overruled the Islamic rule of law. These aspects of Iqbal’s argument define an opposition to the European imperialist conceptualization of the “nation”, which sought to remove the Islamic rule of law as a form of subversion of Muslim governance. More so, the misguided use of millat in terms of “nationhood” is being defined by Iqbal as a divisive form of territorialism that creates disunity in Islam. In this manner, the terms millat and qaum identify the differing roles of people in Islamic communities, yet the millat always provides the overarching “rule of law” in terms of governance and territorial claims. Iqbal (1939) identifies the original source of the millat as being the most powerful rule of law in the land, which countermands the modernist …show more content…
In many cases, leaders of certain Muslim countries were being inspired by the concept of secular nationalism (based on land or territory), which Iqbal (1939) opposes through the original meaning of the millat. In this manner, the label of “nationhood” is impossible under the rule of Islamic law, and that European imperialistic forms of governance are a threat to the sovereign way of life for all Muslims. In this manner, two dangerous views arise in the threat of European nationalism: “First, that the Muslims as a nation can be other than what they are as a millat. Secondly, because as a nation they happen to be Indians, they should, leaving aside their faith, lose their identity in the nationality of other Indians or in "Indianism”. In this manner, Iqbal (1939) defines the threat of European imperialism to the regional identity of various Muslims of differing races or ethnic backgrounds, which defers all legal and religious rites of Muslims. Certainly this is one aspect of Iqbal’s (1039) argument that defines why he so vehemently opposed the idea of “nationalism”, because it actually infers that a foreign European power would govern the Muslim people and remove any authority of millat in the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Caliph Dbq Essay

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages

    II. Islam’s main religious focus was: ‘’ to bring humankind under the authority of the religion espoused by the Prophet Muhammad.’’ (WTWA 320). Arabian peoples would be the motor behind their own universal faith, which in the process, joined with forerunners in Afro-Eurasia. Especially in Baghdad, religion and religious debates were keen topics of discussion.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As the relationship between the Middle East and the West becomes more bleak, Khomeini and Bin Laden in the world of geopolitics, share similarities in their philosophical understanding. Worthy to acknowledge are their overlapping views and growing steadfast support in the confrontation of American imperialism, despite having led parts of the Islamic world decades apart. Rather than two people sharing a common interest, the studies of Khomeini and Bin Laden rather imply a sentiment that characterizes Western intervention in Islamic foreign policy as the main factor of Muslim oppression. The two leaders react to U.S. imperialism similarly though policy and rhetoric, despite influencing Muslims decades apart. In response to conflicts with the…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Research Question: What motivated Malcolm X’s acceptance of true Islam and how did this change his beliefs about the American civil rights movement? The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley Value This document is co-written by Malcolm X making it a primary source.…

    • 1971 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Western Culture Dbq Essay

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Somewhere between these two extremes was Abul Kalam Azad, an Indian Muslim leader and political activist. Azad expressed in a Muslim newspaper that the lack of centrism Muslims showed on adopting western culture sickened him. Azad criticized both extremes, the fundamentalist religious leaders who refused to advance and the western-educated modernists who refused to associate with Islam and traditional Indian-Muslim culture. Azad’s opinion was one shared by many in India and even some British that westernization helped India and that it could be completed without renouncing one’s cultural roots (Doc. 5). There was many different reactions towards western culture in India, but most believed in some form of compromise between westernization and retention of cultural and religious…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Anthony Smith sets the rhetorical question: (1)"Where, after all, lay the reasons for the existence of every nation (if you distinguish it from the state), if not in the cultivation of its unique (or perceived as unique) cultural value? Ethnic differences remain the terms ‘sine qua non’ and that means shared myths about ancestor’s common historical memories, unique cultural traits and sense of difference - if not chosen by God - all elements typical of the ethnic communities of the pre-modern era. They must be maintained in the modern nation, so it won’t be invisible.” His statement that "nations have deep roots" can be traced back to the national identity. This idea is also emphasized in the work of Alvin and Heidi Toffler(2), whose description…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The “Muslim World” is a region, rocked by conflict, with a complex history. The boundaries of said Muslim World are ambiguously defined and it is shrouded in numerous preconceived notions by different cultures. Destiny Disrupted by Tamim Ansary is account of the Islamic World through Islamic eyes. Ansary takes the reader through the progression of Islam which is a faith that has both spiritual and political aspects. Although Ansary focuses mainly on the political progression of the Muslim state, he gives adequate attention to the fundamental societal and cultural changes that shaped Islamic Civilization.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Takim’s (2011) article “The Ground Zero Mosque Controversy: Implications for American Islam”, he analyzes the Ground Zero project as well as supplementary evidence to discuss the mistreatment of Muslims in American society and the struggles that they have had to face especially after the events of September 11. To conclude his paper, Takim (2011) discusses the steps that can be taken to ensure American Muslims and the rest of the diverse American population can coexist. I think it would have been a great idea to build a grand “13-story” Islamic center in New York City (Takim, 2011, p.136). After reading the article, I do not believe the basis for arguing the opposing view is concrete and I find it tragic that the center was not built.…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Bowen ethnography, Muslims through Discourse, takes a deep look at the Islam Religion in the Gayo highlands located in Indonesia. Although he desires to investigate the social structure and history, through his field work he examines the local forms of Islam. Bowen constructs two categories to define the ideologies of Islam represented, which are traditionalist (stemming from rural communities) and modernist (rooted in urban society). Each have distinctive histories that influence and shape their values. Through analyzing the Gayo people’s debates about religious practices, he highlights the importance of religious discourse and language instead of emphasizing Geertz dramaturgical theory.…

    • 1117 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Ottoman Empire wants from mix race and cultural before World Wars one to becoming a nationalism nation of Muslim, Jews, and Christians. Historians Michelle Campos and Abigail Jacobson have written about the same topic of the Ottoman Empire. They both give the history of the different culture in the Ottoman Empire, but Jacobson pays more attention to Jerusalem while Campos look at Palestine as a whole, which give us two distinct viewpoints. Michelle Campos and Abigail Jacobson wrote about the last decades of the Ottoman Empire when it was changing to British rule in Palestine. They both explore the different experience of people who live in the 19th century and the begin of the 20th century and Palestine.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ap World History Dbq Essay

    • 1921 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Secularism and modernism are two key enemies against the life that the Muslims want to bring back, and that is all that America has to offer to the world. Muslim societies have experienced feelings of hostility and humiliation because they are aware that they are no longer a dominant force and they are regarded as inferior to the dominant forces of the Western…

    • 1921 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Only then will we be able to make sense of any political change or turmoil a country faces. Even if she only focuses on Eastern Europe, I believe following her “cosmic” approach to the subject it can be used to understand in greater depth the territorial claims of countries who have newly separated but share a similar sense of culture. For instance, when looking at post-colonial India and the emergence of Gandhi as a great freedom fighter, many Indian subcontinents and newly formed countries that used to be a part of India do not recognise or offer any solidarity with him. This is because when national identity is raised, they (Bengalis and Punjabis) believe that theirs was mostly subdued in the making of India. Therefore, the theoretical approach may have been intended to explain post-socialist Eastern Europe, but on a global scale there are many resonances that Verdery’s book offers.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nationalism, it is a major part of our lives, a shared sense of belonging of people who identify themselves as a nation, In the three sources the authors convey their perspective of Nationalism and the causes of it in history. Although it gives people a national pride in which they overcome their differences and become as one. It also causes competition between countries for land, resources, and power, which eventually results in major wars and ethnic cleansing. The first source written by Erich Fromm, negatively describes how devotion to one’s nation is perhaps more important than humanity itself, and how people are blindly devoted to nationalism, “Love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous” an example of this can be perceived from sport competitions like Real Madrid and Barcelona’s rivalry, fans blindly comprehend it without…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    So many of the problems they face today as a country and as a world are the result of ignorance and ethnocentrism. The misguided War on Terror, one of the more important examples in our time, is the result of religious and cultural intolerance on both sides. In her essay “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism,” Martha Nussbaum argues that to remedy such issues, they should forgo their nationalist tendencies and view themselves first and foremost as citizens of the world, or cosmopolitans. Most of her suggestions are well taken, but her belief that “national boundaries are morally irrelevant and that patriotism is altogether poisonous” (Nussbaum 1994) may be taking the idea too far, and in a very impractical direction. In this paper, I will argue for…

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Men's Islam Analysis

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “So there are two quite different Islams, an Islam that is in some sense a women’s Islam and an official, textual Islam, a men’s Islam” (37). Leila Ahmed writes talks about this idea of a “men’s” and a “women’s” Islam in her article “A Border Passage from Cairo to America- A Women’s Journey.” In thus articles she notices that there tends to be a division between the Islam of men and the Islam of women.…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Purpose Of Nationalism

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Nationalism itself could be defined as a sense of belonging, of people who identify and create a sense of understanding due to the common culture and characteristics among themselves, hence be called as a nation. “It is an ideological movement for the attainment and maintenance of autonomy, unity, and identity on behalf of a population deemed by some of its members to constitute an actual or potential ‘nation’” (Tarling 2004, p. 15). The core of nationalism is nation hence it projects an individual’s attachment to the nation. Originally, major causes such as religion along with cultural and political identity led to a nationalistic movement in Asia which united the people to go against the western powers.…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays