Adil Najam
The media is full of “Maulana” Sufi Mohammed and “Maulana” Fazlullah.
All the television news channels are falling over themselves inserting the “Maulana” honorific not only to these two, but to everyone in their coterie.
Makes me wonder, how do you become a “Maulana“?
I mean this as serious question. Is there a process? A certification agency? An exam of some sort? A public process? The coming together of popular sentiment? What? And, how?
We as a society take honorifics seriously. As we should. Visiting Pakistan, I still get unnerved being called “Professor Sahib” and “Daktor Saab.” (Even more so since I suspect that people think that the later is somehow more important than the former!)
I understand that honorifics are an important cultural recognition. I also realize that sometimes they are simply terms of endearment bestowed by one’s fans or supporters. But they can also be publicity stunts for attaining false public credence. In the case of Aamir Liaquat Hussain (Alim OnLine) and his fake degrees, we also know that the repeated use of fake titles can, in fact, sway public opinion.
I had always assumed that there was a sense of intellectual contribution, maybe even piety, being attributed by the title of “Maulana.” I think many Pakistanis still assume so. Yet, it does not seem that many who have adorned with the title recently can make a claim to either.
My honest question merely wishes to figure out how these religious titles are being bestowed today. I assume that for such a title, there must be some criteria or process. Or is it self-proclaimed or based on looks alone? If so, is it now OK to call all the cabin crew on PIA whose facial hair is being targetted as “Maulana”?
I wonder if by throwing the title of “Maulana” on everyone, our media is actually diluting the value of the title? Demeaning the achievements of those who actually deserve it? Most importantly are they not giving “Islam a bad name” to the world at large by turning every gun-totting bearded guy like Fazlullah into a “Maulana”!
(Interestingly, till the writing of this, Wikipedia – which must never be fully trusted – calls Fazlullah a “Maulana” but Sufi Mohammad is not one in the headline, although he is in the text. Yet another reason not to take Wikipedia seriously)!
To my knowledge both personalities are not Maualna in true sense of the world, i.e, formal education of theology at any Madrassa for a period of eight years, after that in a formal ceremony which is called ‘Dastar Bandi’ a turban is tied to new graduate by a religious scholar.
I am not sure about Sufi, but Fazlullah is a dropout of a madrassa.
The beginner level title is Maulvi, meaning “my lord”. The title was officially awarded to those who passed Maulvi Fazil examination which was a Masters level degree from a recognized institution. But the title is indeed older than this and was awarded to the men of high learning in the society. The more famous Maulvis in recent past weren’t even religious scholars, like Maulvi Zafar Ali Khan, Maulv Chiragh Hasan Hasrat etc. But the title holder was always expected to be pious person of learning. The word Maulana “Our lord” is a variation of the word Maulvi and is most probably in use in religious circles for a long period of time. But it seems to be a progression from an ordinary Maulvi to a cleric of some standing in public.
Nowadays, religious seminaries everywhere claim to provide university level education in theology hence there is no shortage of maulvis and allamas in Pakistan. The curriculum follows are strict sectarian boundry and thus even a research scholar in these institutions can not be expected to think outside the box and comeup with an original piece of work. Moreover, these students are taught to argue, (the subject is called ilmul kalam) with the opposing sects. This gives them a sense of achievement and superiority over the rest and that is a symptom of the takfiri society we live in. The scholars of Pakistani society are wasting everyone’s time by providing oft repeated debates and arugments on the Ali-Muaviyah, Noor-Bashar, Shia-Sunni, Hadith-Quran, rafa yadian-ameen bil jahr-and all sorts… These debates are useless as their vendors and must be shunned by the public. The legneds around these maulanas are repeated among their followers with much pride and reverence that once so and so maulan went to debate with so and so and took along with him books on three donkey carts. And once our maulana silenced so and so maulvi within 5 minutes of the debate and all the congregation repented from their false beliefs etc etc.
Donkey carts have alot in common with Maulanas of Pakistan.. Both are driven by asinine intellect. May God save us from them..
Allah Wasaya, what you say may be Ok in a social setting amongst friends, but when the media confers the title of something like ‘Maulana’ on someone as an ‘official’ title then it adds authenticity and people start believing that there is some real credibility. That is bad media practice, specially because people just believe what they see and hear on TV. People start thinking of them as religious scholars and experts, even when some like Fazlullah are only terrorists. Also, if we ourselves give these people the air of ‘Maulana’ than how can we stop outsiders from saying the same.
Allah Wasaya:
wrong examples and wrong comparison.
seth sahib, Pahalwan ji, and others have no comparison with what Adil has posted regarding ‘Maulana’.
Othere names are social respect and cultural …. But what Adil is referring to is a “Relegious Abuse” and a “Social Black-Mailing” of innocent followers.
Maulana and Mullah are just titles given to someone who is, or claims to be an authority in religion, there is no degree to gain this title. I remember when I was growing up in 80s punjab, anyone with a beard used to be refered to as “Sufi Saab”, so these are just tearms of endearment we have for someone respectable, you might not find them worthy of any respect but other people do and hence it becomes a part of their name. Just like the word “Shaheed” is used for many people we might think is not a real shaheed. Its just like if you go to Multan, people call each other Pir saab, in Faisalabad its Seth saab and in Gujranwala its Pehalwan ji, so these titles like maulana and Mullah are not to be taken seriously.