By Khaled Ahmed, The Friday Times, July 2007.
Professor Waris Mir belonged to that rare breed of Pakistani intellectuals who refused to seek refuge in generalities and higher philosophical pursuits during the oppressed era of Pakistan’s third military ruler General Ziaul Haq.
Under General Ziaul Haq, it was not without risk to speak of ‘modern Islam’. The country was going towards its orthodox roots; old laws were being unearthed and imposed with a frog-chorus of Urdu journalists supporting the so-called Shariat. But still, there were some courageous writers in the Urdu Press who kept on challenging the Zia dictatorship. And Professor Waris Mir belonged to that rare breed.
It is difficult at all times in the Urdu press to yank at the bit and ask for fair space. But Waris Mir defended his writings even in the face of opposition of elements who could punish him physically. His reputation of a stormy petrel of Urdu journalism in the 1980s was tough to challenge because he was intellectually above the journalistic par in Pakistan.
Very soon, he became the butt of criticism for adopting an enlightened approach to the treatment of women under the ‘new’ laws. His quarrels began when he started insisting on objectivity, non-alignment in politics, and giving space to persons ideologically opposed by the press. The interviews he did were ‘doctored’ by the newspapers he wrote in to suit the pre-judgment-oriented mind of the editors, to which he objected, and made his objections public.
What was his intellectual baseline? Not very different from the classical school of Urdu journalism before 1947 – but with the difference that he insisted on telling the truth. The book just published by Jang Publishers, Hurriyet-e-Fikr Kay Mujahid, contains the columns that reflect his genius. He was grounded in the Islamic tradition but understood the undercurrent of rationalist thought in it.
His basis of argument was the Quran and those great jurists who defied the caliphs to proclaim its supremacy. His article on Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Hanbal tells the story of this tension between the free-thinking Imams and the despotic caliphs of Baghdad. From this conflict he derives his principle of telling the truth in the face of official coercion.
His account of Al-Kindi the scientist, Al-Ghazali the arbiter between sufis and ulema, and Al-Ghazali’s opposition to Imam Abu Hanifa, goes to prove that there was a tradition of free inquiry and argumentation in Islam that has vanished now. He links the development of the Quranic world view in the direction of science and rationalism to the writings of Al-Kindi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, and the 10th century Ikhwan-us-Safa.
It was his praise of Agha Iftikhar Hussain’s book Qaumun Kay Shikast-o-Zawal Kay Asbab Ka Mutaliya, criticizing Muslim thinkers’ opposition to khirad (reason), which got Waris Mir into trouble with the orthodoxy. Everybody got him wrong. He is himself on record as deprecating the ‘new’ Islamic school of tracing all the scientific discoveries to the Quran. He was a tolerant man, not willing to exclude anyone from the pale of Islam; it was his opposition to the orthodoxy’s trend of ‘exclusion’ that he protested.
His article on Syed Jamaluddin Afghani praises the Syed’s effort at ‘renewing’ the faith, the same way as he appreciated the efforts of Allama Iqbal and Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Syed’s promotion of worldly knowledge fell foul of the Muslim establishment even in Turkey and Egypt, then known to be ‘progressive’. He looks at the writings of Muhammad Abduh, a reformer whose inclination towards rationalism had got him into difficulties.
What Waris Mir liked about the Muslim thinkers were two qualities: the courage to stand up to the ruler and the courage to oppose imperialism which the Muslims had tended to accept in the 19th century. He was attracted to ‘new’ thought in Islam and admired Shah Waliullah, Sir Syed and Allama Iqbal. He wrote about Niaz Fatehpuri, perhaps his forerunner in Urdu journalism, and pointed to the possibility of a Muslim adapting to modern times without giving up his faith.
Waris Mir was an intellectually gifted journalist. He wrote a beautiful Urdu style with strong logical argument. He spoke from within the Islamic tradition, which was very difficult for the traditionalists to swallow, especially during the Zia period when the Jamaat-e-Islami was playing second fiddle to the then military dictator under its ameer Maulvi Tufail Mohammad. Waris Mir’s last days were those of tension because he was tortured by a sense of injustice, intensely aware that he was being rejected on the basis of opportunism, not merit.
Those who know Waris Mir would undoubtedly agree with famous Urdu columnist and writer Munnoo Bhai when he says, “The 49 years of Waris Mir’s life should not be quantified with merely the parameters of days and months. The life span of this man also includes the continuous immeasurable atrocious and horrific phases that he had to go through.” Now that he is no more with us, his anniversary reminds us of the true Urdu journalist whose legacy we have squandered.
The Friday Times, July 2007.