Question

People in the Subcontinent use the title mawlana for the Muslim religious scholars. No other country has this convention. Have the religious scholars adopted for themselves the honorific title? Isn’t it not proper for them to do so as the word mawlana means “our protector, lord, master? To me this seems to be the most serious un-Islamic connotation of placing another with the Almighty.

Answer

The fact that Muslims other countries do not call the religious leaders as maulana is not a valid argument. Different people have different linguistic and cultural practices. No one linguistic and cultural practice is binding for others. Please note the following verse in the Qur’an which says that the believers are maula of the Prophet (sws).

إِن تَتُوبَا إِلَى اللَّهِ فَقَدْ صَغَتْ قُلُوبُكُمَا وَإِن تَظَاهَرَا عَلَيْهِ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ مَوْلَاهُ وَجِبْرِيلُ وَصَالِحُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ بَعْدَ ذَلِكَ ظَهِيرٌ

If ye two turn in repentance to Him, your hearts are indeed so inclined; But if ye back up each other against him, truly Allah is his mawla, and Gabriel, and (every) righteous one among those who believe,- and furthermore, the angels – will back (him) up. (Q 66:4)

I hope there remains no objection to the convention of using the term for a human being. We know that Arabs used the word for master as well as freed slaves and clients. It is also used for friends. It is so common in these senses that we do not need to count examples. Besides when the people in the Subcontinent use the word for the religious scholars they do not mean that the scholars are mawla in the sense the Almighty is our mawla.

Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi

Date: 2015-01-14