The Indian File

Profile:
Chekannur P. K. Mohammed
Abul Hassan Moulavi

An intrepid scholar, from northern Kerala, devoted a lifetime to research and spoke out what be believed to be the Quranic truth. He published 17 books, Journal Al Buhran and embarked on the manuscript of a Malay translation of the Quran.

Chekannur P . K . Mohammed Abul Hassan Moulavi, popularly known as Chekannur Moulavi, was a traditionalist historian who radically opposed to several current Islamic customs and practices.

The last book he published was Communal Harmony. Some quotations from the Quran such as "God promises those who believe and work righteousness, that they have deserved forgiveness, and a recompense" (Verse 5:09); grace the cover of the book.

In other passages in this book he showed that the Quran prohibits believers to say prayers so loud as to disturb others (Verse 17.110). He had written, "In many places foolish priests through loudspeakers impose these prayers on communities where Muslims and non-Muslims live". The Quran, he had stated, preached universal brotherhood and did not divide communities, but subsequent texts, also deemed sacred, brought in a divisive element.

The 57 year old Moulavi, schooled in Islamic thought since childhood, had followed a pattern of resigning from jobs in religious institutions whenever he felt the Quran was being violated. He had been close to different Muslim sects - Sunnis, Mujahids, Jamaat-i, and Ahmadiyas - at varying points. Each of the sects has further subdivision.

The fundamental premise upon which the Moulavi based all his thoughts and action was that the Quran is the only revealed book which people should revere. This seemingly innocuous standpoint put the Moulavi into deep trouble because the thrust of his research was to debunk the Hadith, popularly translated as the Canon or Traditions of the Prophet and widely accepted as a second religious text.

Through four decades of painstaking research which germinated inside the Library of a Madrassa (Muslim religious school) at Vellore, Tamil Nadu and later took him to the Jamia Millia College at Medina, Saudi Arabia, where he had opportunities to discuss his nascent theories with Egyptian scholars from Al-Azar University, the Maulavi had become gradually convinced that many passages of the Hadith were sharply at variance with the essence of the Quran.

The Moulavi' s theory is that after the period of the Prophet and the four Khalifas, Abu Bakr, Usman, Omer and Ali, interpolations were introduced through verses in the Hadith by Abu Huraira, a Yemeni Jew who converted himself to Islam in the seventh Hijra (marking the Prophet's flight to Medina, when the Islamic calendar begins) year, as part of a conspiracy by opponents of Islam to destroy the developing revolution in the region.

This line of thought emerged out of research he completed in Saudi Arabia. After performing the Haj, he returned to Kerala, to find that all religious institutions preferred to follow Abu Huraira's version.

His books and journals and the meetings he organized in town halls hired for nominal sums, and the 27 units of the Quran Sunnath Society he established, were means to this end. He had started publicly advocating his cause in the early 1960's through a journal, Nireekshanam. After a few issues, the journal folded up, but the Moulavi's enthusiasm did not dry up. Well-versed in Arabic, he burrowed into the history of Islam to substantiate his theories.

In his first book, Namaskaram - How, When, Why, published in 1988, the Moulavi wrote the Quran had prescribed that all Muslims without exception should offer prayers three times daily and give zakat charity, alms amounting to two and, a half per cent of one annual income. According to Moulavi, Abu Huraira exempted incomes from zakat (those owning slaves and horses, the measure of wealth in those days, were exempt) and emphasized five-time daily prayers and ritual fasting, aspects which gave a set of people called Ammavis greater control.

"As it was customary then to make all changes in the name of the Prophet, the masses accepted them," the Moulavi said. "Successive generations of powerful lobbies propagated the Abu Huraira version, which allowed a class of priests to emerge, ignoring the Quranic concept of a priestless movement.

A common argument the Moulavi faced was that the Hadith, and not the Quran, elaborated on issues relating to prayer. His response was, "The Quran clearly mentions three daily prayers. There are 16 references to Namaskaram in the Quran. At 10 places the morning and evening prayers are mentioned, and at six other places there is there is also mention of night prayers. The noon prayer is a Judaistic element and so are certain other stylistic features of praying, of which there are ample references in the Hadith but not in the Quran.

Based on the Quran he argues against the aged, invalids and children fasting during the month of Ramadan. He viewed the muezzin's call for prayer and ritualized fasting as interpolations. The Moulavi wrote there was recorded evidence that Abu Huraira had introduced the muezzin's call at the Medina mosque and that was nothing to prove that the Prophet and the first four Khalifas had offered prayers five times daily.

In another book, Succession Law in Islam (July 1991), the Moulavi pointed out several discrepancies between what the Quran allowed and what is in vogue. On the back cover of the book, he offered a 100,000 Rupees reward to anyone who could prove that the succession law as practiced in the Islamic world today has been derived from the Quran. The Moulavi found the common practice of disinheriting orphaned grandchildren as "anti-Quranic". His written
suggestion to the Pakistan Government, it is said, resulted in a change of law in this regard in that country.

The president of the Quran Sunnath Society (QSS), K. V. Veerankutty, an engineer living n Kozhikode, said, "He wanted slims to turn away from Abu Huraira's version and follow the authentic voice of Allah, as revealed by the Prophet through the Quran. He openly criticized the priests for concealing the Quran from the people".

The Moulavi was aggrieved that charity funds coming from the Gulf countries were
not being used to spread education and benefit the poor. In one issue of Al-Buhran, he had asked whether building new, large mosques was more important than serving the poor. "Isn't it necessary to educate the masses and create opportunities for work?"

In his personal life the Moulavi had been keen to fulfil some of the aspirations he desired for the community family members said. His three daughters, graduates, had simple weddings. Based on his own experience the Moulavi advised everyone not to marry more than once as it would increase one's difficulties. When two sons by his wife, Hawa, died, he was entreated to marry again. His second wife, Zubeida, who has four sons, lives in another town.

An important subject in the Islamic curriculum of law, languages, literature, logic, philosophy and religious commentaries, the Hadith has been used, alongside the Quran as a powerful tool in speeches made during the pre-Independence Khilafat movement by Muslim leaders and the ulema (learned men who by their fatwa or decision can influence public and private matters of importance) to gain, the adherence of the masses who accept the infallibility of these texts. The Hadith has been ingrained in the Muslim psyche for more than 1,300 years, and strong reactions have been witnessed to radical utterances in the past.

The Moulavi, who differed from many contemporary reformers in approach and style, was a purist, seeking answers through detailed historical research and exhaustive comparative study. He wanted to be challenged as a scholar, where a learned opponent would point out. Errors in his argument, but in all the public gatherings he arranged there were many to ridicule him but none to speak with the same conviction.