The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought

Ahmad, Israr (1932–2010)

Founder of the Islamic revolutionary movement Tanzeem-e-Islami (the Islamic Organization); the research, instructional, and outreach institute Anjuman Khuddam-ul-Qur’an Lahore (Society of the Servants of the Qur’an); and the populist Tehreek-e-Khilafat (Caliphate movement), Israr Ahmad is best known as a scholar of the Qur’an. Born in Hisar (Haryana, India) on April 26, 1932, he was attracted to the Muslim League before moving to Lahore, Pakistan, after partition in 1947. Influenced from a young age by the poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal (d. 1938), Ahmad became a sympathizer of the revivalist Mawdudi (d. 1979) and his religiopolitical movement Jama‘at-i Islami, as well as an organizer for its student wing, while studying medicine at King Edward Medical College (1950–54). After graduating, Ahmad joined the Jama‘at but resigned his membership in 1957 to pursue a popular revolution rather than engage in electoral politics.

Ahmad established himself as an activist-scholar through public lectures and workshops on the Qur’an (durūs-i Qur’ān). Soon after receiving a master’s degree in Islamic studies from Karachi University in 1965, he published two short Urdu pamphlets (translated into English) that became the cornerstones of his future endeavors. The first, Obligations Muslims Owe to the Qur’ān, states that the Qur’an is for the soul what nourishment is for the body. Rather than celebrating the glory of the Qur’an through hollow praise, Ahmad writes that Muslims should recite and study it so as to establish its laws in society and preach its tenets to humanity. The second work, Islamic Renaissance: The Real Task Ahead, attributes the failure of revivalist movements such as the Jama‘at to the pride of place they give to the legal and political aspects of Islam over its inner dimensions of faith. Ahmad argues that for any Islamic movement to be successful, it must first revitalize the faith of both the masses and intelligentsia by translating and preaching the Qur’an at the popular and philosophical levels.

In devotion to his cause, Ahmad relinquished his medical practice in 1971. He founded the Anjuman in 1972 to fulfill his vision of an intellectual “Islamic Renaissance” and the Tanzeem in 1975 as a revolutionary movement to establish Islamic ethics and law (shari‘a) in economics, polity, and society, first in Pakistan and then across the globe. In the early 1980s, during Zia-ul-Haq’s regime (1977–88), Ahmad delivered a series of lectures interpreting the life of the Prophet as a revolutionary movement, drawing inspiration from the Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi and Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic revolution in Iran. Concerned that his message was not reaching the masses, Ahmad launched the Tehreek-e-Khilafat as a populist front in 1991. Ahmad upheld a nonviolent strategy of civil disobedience and advocated for a political framework identical to that of the United States, complete with its system of checks and balances but with three constitutional provisions: (1) sovereignty would belong to God and not the people, (2) no law could be made contrary to the Qur’an and sunna, and (3) non-Muslims would be protected minorities rather than equal citizens. Ahmad couched his political thought within a comprehensive theology, cosmogony, and philosophy of history by synthesizing elements of modern thought with the Qur’an and Islamic traditions. He traced his intellectual roots to five influences: (1) traditional Islamic consensus (ijmā‘-i ahl al-sunna wa-l-jamā‘a, Deoband), (2) revivalist thought (iqāmat-i dīn, Mawdudi), (3) thematic cohesion in the Qur’an (naẓm-i Qur’ān, Amin Ahsan Islahi, d. 1997), (4) perennial wisdom in the Qur’an (ḥikmat-i Qur’ān, Iqbal), and (5) his scientific training. In two larger Urdu works, Jama’at-i Shaykh al-Hind awr Tanzim-i Islami (The party of Shaykh al-Hind and the Tanzeem) and Da‘wat-i Ruju‘ ila al-Qur’an ka Manzar wa-pass Manzar (The historical background of the movement for the return to the Qur’an), Ahmad outlined the development and continuity of Islamic revivalist thought in India from the second Islamic millennium until his time. According to Ahmad, the center of Islamic thought shifted from the Arab world to the Indian subcontinent in the 17th century with the advent of the renewer (mujaddid) Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624). Ahmad viewed his own contribution as one in a series toward the global revival of Islam, which he believed was destined to emerge from the chosen land of Pakistan at the end of time.

Although the Tanzeem established branches in other parts of the world, including North America, it remained politically insignificant. Having lectured widely in public forums and on television, Ahmad became known primarily as a wise teacher of the Qur’an rather than a jurist-scholar (faqīh) or revolutionary leader. In 2002, he transferred leadership of the Tanzeem to his second son but remained president of the Anjuman until his death due to natural causes on April 14, 2010. The Anjuman has carefully recorded and catalogued his various speeches and tracts for dissemination.