z:\ ambedkar\vol 08\vol8 04.indd MK SJ+DK 1 10 2013/YS 13 11 2013 293
PAKISTAN : NATIONAL FRUSTRATION 293
Along with Maulana Mahomed Ali six other persons* were prosecuted under Section 120-B read with Section 131,I. P. C. and under Section 505 read with Section 114 and Section 505 read with Section 117, I. P. C. Maulana Mahomed Ali in justification of his plea of not guilty, said †:—
“ After all what is the meaning of this precious prosecution. By whose convictions are we to be guided, we the Musalmans and the Hindus of India ? Speaking as a Musalman, if I am supposed to err from the right path, the only way to convince me of my error is to refer me to the Holy Koran or to the authentic traditions of the last Prophet—on whom be peace and God’s benediction—or the religious pronouncements of recognized Muslim divines, past and present, which purport to be based on these two original sources of Islamic authority demands from me in the present circumstances, the precise action for which a Government, that does not like to be called satanic, is prosecuting me to-day.
“If that which I neglect, becomes by my neglect a deadly sin, and is yet a crime when I do not neglect it, how am I to consider myself safe in this country ?
“I must either be a sinner or a criminal .......... Islam recognizes one survereignty alone, the sovereignty of God, which is supreme and unconditional, indivisible and inalienable
“The only allegiance a Musalman, whether civilian or soldier, whether living under a Muslim or under a non-Muslim administration, is commanded by the Koran to acknowledge is his allegiance to God, to his Prophet and to those in authority from among the Musalmans chief among the last mentioned being of course that Prophet’s successor or commander of the faithful .......... This doctrine of unity is not a mathematical formula elaborated by abstruse thinkers but a work-a-day belief of every Musalman learned or unlettered .......... Musalmans have before this also and elsewhere too, lived in peaceful subjection to non-Muslim administrations. But the unalterable rule is and has always been that as Musalmans they can obey only such laws and orders issued by their secular rulers as do not involve disobedience to the commandments of God who in the expressive language of the Holy Koran is ‘the all-ruling ruler’. These very clear and rigidly definite limits of obedience are not laid down with regard to the authority of non-Muslim administration only. On the contrary they are of universal application and can neither be enlarged nor reduced in any case.”
This must make anyone wishing for a stable government very apprehensive. But this is nothing to the Muslim tenets which
*Strange enough one of them was the Shankaracharya of Sharda Peeth.
† The Trial of Ali Brothers, by R. V. Thandani, pp. 69-71.