The servant of God

By: Ali Gohar

Introduction

I was born in the North-west Frontier Province, which is the birthplace of one of the non-violent solider of Islam Abdul Ghaffar Khan. I saw the great charismatic leader of the organization’ in action and had an opportunity to talk to him, as well as to learn from him. When I was in my country Ghaffar Khan’s philosophy did not appeal to me that much. But coming to the US for conflict transformation degree program in 2001,and after the 9/11 incident, looking to the lack of knowledge and awareness of the American people and their stereotypes about Islam and the Pukhtoon community (Taliban Government) in Afghanistan, made me more curious to expose Ghaffar Khan’s nonviolence religious approach to the rest of the world.

Ghaffar Khan’s struggle was against the oppressor both internally and externally, through the nonviolent teachings of Islam (jihad the holy war). After the thirteenth century the holy war against the infidel concept has been changed to the real spirit of holy war within the soul.
According to the Koran, every human soul has three inclinations. One is the inclination towards doing wrong, evil and sinful acts, termed as Nafs-i-Ammarah (12:53). The other is the inclination towards realization and repentance i.e. to realize immediately if one does something wrong, that what he has done is wrong, and repent of it or rather reproach oneself for it, termed as Nafs-i-Lawwamah (75:2). The third is the inclination towards doing good and righteous deeds, termed as Nafs-i-Mutmainnah (89:27), also called the soul at peace because satisfaction and peace of mind are the natural outcome of doing good and righteous deeds.

In the Arabic idiom, heart is considered as the center of intelligence and affection. Hence, the word "heart" in the verse is to be understood as having reference to intelligence and affection. The word "grateful" in the verse implies making right use of the qualities mentioned therein. Human beings have also been endowed with the quality of conscience i.e. the ability to make distinction between right and wrong in regard to one's own conduct (91:8) and provided necessary guidance (76:3).

The term "Jihad" in essence means struggling or striving hard. When it is initiated for some noble cause i.e. for the prevention of something wrong or for the promotion or achievement of something right, it is termed as Jihad in the way of Allah, even if it does not involve any conventional fighting. And when the struggle is initiated with a view to acquire control over the soul, the prime mover of all human actions, good or bad, right or wrong, it could obviously and more appropriately be termed as the greater holy war. The other thing that we can learn from the above quotations is that the cause of many ills besetting the human society these days lies in the very souls of the people. The earth will become a place truly worth living when, following their normal pursuits, the people do not become unmindful of keeping their souls in control for which the Koran prescribes an excellent prescription. Such were the guiding principals of Ghaffar Khan’s nonviolent action against the oppressors.

      Ghaffar Khan’s way of action was Amal, Yakeen, Muhabat, (Action Faith and Love). His approach to nonviolent action was based on faith different from other religious activists, who present religion in shape of holy war or jihad. Ghaffar Khan presents religion for the humanity, on humanitarian ground. His message of religion was love, righteousness, patience, and serving the people of God, as God doesn’t need any services, serving his human beings is serving him2. Apart from his spiritual approach Ghaffar Khan fought against the corrupt religious elites, who were misguiding the people away from modern education, against the traditional exploitations of the chiefs of the society, as well as the struggle against the British Empire. The main sources of his social reforms were his strong religious faith and good practice of traditions. His political agenda against the British was nonviolent as violent practice was a good excuse for the British forces to target any one any time. There is a Pustho proverb that, “with the dry grass on fire the wet also burns.”

They will surely go to hell.3

Ghaffar Khan’s approach came both from his religion, Islam, and from the Pukhtoon as a martial race. It is quite visible from his quotation speaking to the people on different occasions as once he said, “The holy prophet Muhammad (PBUH) came into this world and taught us: That man is a Muslim who never hurts any one by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God’s creatures. Belief in God is to love one’s fellowmen”.6  On another occasion he spoke to the gathering of servant of God, “There is nothing surprising in Muslim or a Pukhtoon like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca, and it has since been followed by all those who wanted to throw off an oppressor’s yoke. But we had so far forgotten it that when Gandhi placed it before us, we thought he was sponsoring a novel creed.”  His appeal to the Pukhtoon race was also unique when he calls them to remember their history and the race they belong to. As Pukhtoon they consider themselves the martial race that always rule but is never ruled. They also consider themselves one of the missing tribes of Moses and think they are the old and pure race in each and every respect. Ghaffar Khan was aware of the Pukhtoon psyche as he mentioned to them, “O Pukhtoon! Your houses have fallen into ruins. Arise and rebuild and remember to what race you belong, is not the Pukhtoon amenable to love and reason? He will go with you to hell if you can win his heart, but you cannot force him even to go to heaven. Such is the power of love over the Pukhtoon.”

The Servant of God, struggle was against the oppressor and helping the oppressed. The commitment is that you (the oppressed) are not alone, for we are with you in your struggle. While in the case of The Servant of God they were from the same oppressed class, against the powerful oppressor.  The Servants of God were from the same areas where the problem was. Its root was among the people of the areas as in this Pukhtoon proverb, “That the village rabbit can be caught very easily by the village Dog.” Ghaffar Khan starts his struggle first from establishing schools in his areas to educate the people. There was another type of slavery system called DEHQAN. Dehqan was the tenant on the landlord’s land. They were brought by the khan or landlord to cultivate his land and were given money for daily life. After the harvesting the borrowed money was deducted from the selling of crop and nothing was usually given to the tenant. Tenants relied on the landlord throughout their lives. But the sad part of the story was that not only the one bread-earner individual tenant was the landlord’s servant, but also all family members were servants, free of cost. Ghaffar Khan challenged such practices. Gaffer Khan’s Servant of God worked actively against the prevailing social evils in the Pukhtoon community. As many traditional superstitious customs were very common at that time: like revenge, gender discrimination, man-monopolized society, Honor killing etc. His main and most important political struggle was against the British regime but this was nonviolent as opposed to many others who declared violent struggle during this time that made the lives of Pukhtoon miserable.

The power cannot listen to the powerless unless the powerless speak to them in the same language without indulging in violence. To face the powerful with force will worsen the situation but not if nonviolent action is used to stop the oppressor from oppression. It can easily be done if the nonviolent peoples are well organized and have a strong common bond to face the oppressor and speak the truth on behalf of the oppressed.
The Servant of God addressed the problem of oppression through different way and means. They act both top down and bottom up in their way of actions. Through the school establishment they made the young generation aware of scientific education to face the future world challenges with scientific ways and also to make the masses that were uneducated about their rights. Education also paved the way to get relief from the corrupt traditional religious leaders and to get independence. The awareness campaign led to revolts among the masses against the traditional exploitation of the traditional leaders who oppressed the poor through different ways and means. It also cleared the way to get rid of the social evils of the society and traditional norms and values. The British tried to engage the Pukhtoon through a divide-and-rule policy to keep their reign tight. Any violent action was a good excuse to use law and order to suppress them more. The Servant of God - one hundred thousand nonviolent, well organized volunteer soldiers fought against the entire on different fronts nonviolently.

Their approach to problems was based on an appeal to divine help on religious grounds. The oppressors were active in both cases to oppress the opponents, with the use of power to keep the status quo and to exploit their resources.
On the other hand Ghaffar Khan presented himself as a role model, used religion and the prophet’s teaching to face the oppressor in their own community on different fronts. His theory and practice both were nonviolent. He fought against the other chiefs and religious leaders of the areas by giving up his landlord status and adopting a simple life, preaching the real essence of religion to the general population of North West Frontier Province of Pakistan.
Hypocrisy and lack of commitment to the main cause on the part of leaders weaken the organization. Often the elders bring nice ideas and mandates, but deviate from them and expect the followers to do almost the entire job for them. They keep themselves separate from the masses due to lack of accountability that widens the gap between the followers and leaders.
Servant of God leadership keeps close contact with their follower and presents themselves as role models in each and every respect. Ghaffar Khan’s slogan and appeal to the peoples were through, Faith, Patience, Righteousness, Love and Action. He ran the party affairs through the grand council Jirga, and implemented it through The Servant of God.

He organized the people against the internal and external exploiter on the grass root level. His awareness campaign and strong discipline within each step of the party created a strong network from top to bottom and his own presence among the people in difficult times created more trust among his follower to do the job more enthusiastically against the oppressors.
Conclusion
The origin of each religion is explained as a Pukhtoon proverb, “The wells are different but the source of water is the same.” Peace is the main focus of each religion and love for humanity was the message of every prophet to his followers. The power, greed, jealousy and competition among human beings made the miserable to both the oppressed, due to lack of resources and for the oppressor due to the need to secure and protect the status and gain more and more. The teaching of Islam is based on:
            Patience and Endurance (sabar) - In hard times, one must be patient, look upon his deeds and judge himself as God does, and not curse human beings.  It is the human who does wrong to him by torturing other humans or revolting against the Divine law.

All these three important aspect were present in the true sense in the life of Ghaffar Khan. He went from the high-ranking landlord life and embraced the life of the poor, being with them all the time through good and bad.  He spent thirty years, fifteen before partition and fifteen after the creation of Pakistan, in prison and seven years in exile for the cause of the poor people. He showed his patience for his just cause by having one hundred thousand, well-organized strong warrior army. He could easily have fought with any power of the world. His thankfulness to God was through his religious practice, praying five times a day, as the essence of prayer is thankfulness for God’s blessing. He himself followed these entire principal; and his followers also strictly followed the same rules by taking this oath before joining the force:

I am the khudai khamathgar (Servant of God), and as God needs no service, but serving his creation is serving him, I promise to serve humanity in the name of God.
I promise to refrain from violence and form taking revenge. I promise to forgive those who oppress me or treat me with cruelty.
I promise to refrain from taking part in feuds and quarrels and from creating enmity.
I promise to treat every Pukhtoon as my brother and friend.
I promise to refrain from antisocial customs and practices.
I promise to live a simple life, to practice virtue and to refrain from evil.
I promise to practice good manners and good behavior and not to lead a life of idleness.
I promise to devote at least two hours a day to social work.7

Their training was organized through different stages to make them prepared for future nonviolent
actions and any violation led to the suspension of their membership for two years time, even
sometimes permanently. The famous Anthem of servant of God was:

We are the army of God
By death or wealth unmoved.
We march, our leader and we,
Ready to die.
We serve and we love
Our people and our cause.
Freedom is our goal
Our life the price we pay.8

Ghaffar Khan worked on different fronts. His awareness campaign and practical actions against the local traditional system feudal lords, religious leaders and outside British Government were very successful to a large extent but he still faced hardships in overcoming some obstacles. His economic, social, and political agenda was confined to the Pukhtoon community only and could not appeal to the outside world or other Muslim or non-Muslims of the Indian sub-continent, due to his strong friendship with Gandhi. Outside the province most Muslims were in the Gandhi nonviolent movement. Gandhi’s nonviolent movement was a strategy while Ghaffar Khan’s nonviolence was theory and practices both. His friendship with Gandhi also made him pro-Hindu in religious circles. The British, his political opponents, used this against him. His opponent on political fronts challenged even his religious faith and religious approaches to nonviolence.

Bibliography

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