Remembering Rafiq Zakaria: A Sane And Balanced Voice Among The Muslims

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 5 April 2023 I never cared for Rafiq Zakaria as a politician, though he was a nice and ethical one in a cesspool called politics, particularly, Indian politics. The way he transformed his constituency Aurangabad in Maharashtra must be lauded. But it was his intellectual and creative side that fascinated me the most. Today ( April 5) is Dr Rafiq Zakaria's birth anniversary. ------ Highly educated, he studied in Bombay and England, Rafiq was an analytical man. Despite believing in traditional Islam, Dr Zakaria was a latitudinarian who never advocated violence and retribution and always slammed blasphemy in Islam. Discerning readers may recall that NAI ran Dr Zakaria's ' Satanic Verses: Rafiq Zakaria's Open Letter to Salman Rushdie published in 1988' that first appeared in now defunct 'The Illustrated Weekly of India' ( Oct 23, 1988). NAI carried it in 2012. It was a very balanced piece in which he addressed Rushdie in a logical manner without resorting to vitriol and vilification. There’s no name-calling, no personal jibes and attacks. A complete objective vein of the piece is obvious and can serve as a perfect specimen of dignified discourse. Unbiased thinking was Rafiq's hallmark. When the whole Islamic world was baying for Rushdie's blood for blasphemy, it was Zakaria from the Muslim world who once again wrote in 'The Illustrated Weekly of India' that despite Rushdie's audacity, no Muslim had any right to kill him or for that matter, kill any person for sacrilege. That was unIslamic, Zakaria added quoting verses from the Quran. His voice of sanity always condemned the religious belligerence of Muslims, esp. the Muslims of India. In fact, it was the leit motif of his immensely perceptive book, ' Indian Muslims: Where have they gone wrong.' Whether his ' The struggle within Islam', ' Communal rage in secular India' or ' The price of Partition', readers find him to be extremely focussed and factually correct. He criticised where criticism was required and praised where he thought that it'd help strike a perfect balance. The same dispassionate objectivity of Dr Zakaria can be found in his insightful analysis of Dr Muhammad Iqbal- 'Iqbal: The poet and the politician'. Personally, I believe that to understand the persona of Iqbal, a learned reader must read this book along with Jagannath Azad's analyses of the great poet. The only third-rate book that Zakaria wrote in his life was his ' Discovery of god' which provides no new insights and is a believer's uncritical and rather slavish perspective on the existence of god. His arguments in favour of god are simply puerile and porous. But then, as we say in French that all prolific writers have at least one bad book. It's their right! Finally, in these uncertain times and climes when communal rage is at its worst, one must revisit Zakaria's unifying philosophy and policy and read all his books sans prejudices. ------ A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/rafiq-zakaria-balanced-voice-muslims/d/129492 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism