Leaving aside the theories of evolution, God created man and the progeny of humankind fostered from Adam called Bani Adam—the Islamic consideration. For mankind to guide them the way God proposed, God sent (His chosen ones) Prophets from time to time; from nation to nation. Generally, the number is believed in Muslim traditions approximately 1, 24,000. Among them, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is unanimously believed as the last in the line of Prophets called (Khatam al-Nabiyeen) “the seal of the Prophets”. He came from a nation of Arabs in a period known historically as “Jahiliya Arabia”. His continuous struggle for 23 years and relentless efforts resulted in what is called in Islamic tradition an “Islamic revolution”. One of the prominent Orientalists Prof. Gibb states: “Before the birth of Prophet Muhammad, Arabia was the most degraded nation in the world. After the death of Muhammad, Arabia became the nursery of heroes”. Prophet Muhammad delivered his (Khutbah Hajjat-ul-Wida’) “Last Sermon” and fostered the responsibility upon Muslim scholars to continue the legacy of guiding people towards Islamic teachings.
The people who took up the responsibility of learning Islamic sciences and propagating the message of Islam to the general populace became popularly known by the epithet of “Mullah”—leaders in religious matters. With the passage of time and with the changing of circumstances, it grew and emerged as a “professional class” in the Muslim community. Now, the class has received a position in most Muslim societies to propagate to them what is lawful and what is unlawful; what is right, what is wrong; what to do and what not to do. However, it is all due to the efforts of these Mullahs, who are often the Imams of mosques as well, Islamic message flourished among the masses. They used to teach Quran to the children and delivered sermons for the older ones regarding the basics and fundamentals of Islam and materialize the people to follow Islamic etiquette. Indeed, their services in the past are indefinite. They can’t be underestimated in any way. They have saved Islam; its teachings and remained people intact with Islamic teachings in different intricate phases of history.
In contemporary times, these Mullahs themselves have lost the spirit of Islam. Their sole concern now is materialistic gains, self-praise and fame. In the guise of achieving these materialistic aspirations, these Mullahs have not even bothered to utilize religion. Their self-styled interpretations of scriptural texts and, the self-structured decrees have astonished the whole Muslim community. The way, they behave with Islam and Muslims has shocked many Muslim scholars and reformers. Allama Iqbal has described the narrow-mindedness and self-styled interpretation of religious issues in his works frequently, which is worth reading and pondering over.
Surely, Mullahs hijacked Islam and interpreted it in a horrible way. Their way of interpreting the issues of Islam is in no way acceptable to intellectual minds which results in their isolation not only from religious scholars but from the religion as well. The Mullahs Islam seems the defamation of Islam in the name of Islam. Why, throughout the globe, Islam is considered the extremist ideology, creator of terrorism, responsible for environmental degradation, behind the gender inequality, etc, is only due to these Mullahs who absolutely failed to represent Islam as a universal religion, relevant for all times to come. Due to their limited knowledge, less exposure, unawareness of the rapid changes, less concern about the time-demanding priorities besides their arrogance cum ignorance, etc are some causes which caused “destruction”.
In contemporary times, a debate has evolved about the “Mullah’s Islam and Allah’s Islam. Are they both one and the same thing, or are they two different things. Though, the answer can’t be simply “yes” or “no” but one can’t consider in any way the contemporary Mullah’s Islam the same as has been revealed by Allah for the welfare of the humankind. Indeed, Allah’s Islam enforces peace, universal brotherhood, and harmony while Mullah’s Islam demonstrates hatred, isolation and diversion. The former has gathered the diffused ones and promoted among them the doctrine of “unity in diversity” while the latter taught humanity the message of disintegration. The crux of the message of Allah’s Islam is “His worship and Human service” while the crux of the Mullah’s Islam is “worship God and serve him”. Allah’s Islam gives hope to human beings while Mullah’s Islam despairs.
To conclude, it can be argued that Mullahs have extensively served Islam in the past. They have tremendously contributed to the dissemination of Islam throughout the globe and have succeeded to a very great extent to safeguard Islam from imperial and foreign manipulations. In contrary to that, the contemporary Mullahs have left no stone unturned to defame it globally. They have demonstrated it as fun for the people of other religions. A good number of Muslim populations are much apprehensive about this Mullah-ism. The need of the time is to revive Mullah-ism and the way of propagating Islam’s message in order to promote love, peaceful co-existence, prosperity and universality and to eradicate extremism, hatred and allied things.
Author is Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Studies, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University—BGSBU, Rajouri. Feedback at [email protected]

Dr. Sartaj Ahmad Sofi