By now news of the remarks made by PAS ' Murshid'ul Am (spiritual adviser) Tuan Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat has probably made its rounds all over the country. The controversy that followed lay in his claim that women who exposed their belly buttons invite rape and abuse by men.
Sadly, Nik Aziz's thesis was proven to be shallow and faulty as always by the most unfortunate turn of events - namely, the rape and murder of a young Malay-Muslim woman who was dressed in what could only be described as "proper" Muslim attire for women.
But this article isn't about the merits or faults of Nik Aziz's position on women and dress. Others have written about the contradictions that exist in his line of argument - which happens to be quite close to that of other senior politicians in the ruling party of the country, including none other than the spokesperson for "progressive" Islam, the Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself.
We are not concerned about the who is the better between the two, or which one between them is the most conservative and reactionary.
The real question that this article attempts to address is that of Nik Aziz and the position of the ulama themselves, and what role they have to play (or if they have one at all) in the process of trying to bring about progressive change in this blessed hypocritical society of ours.
In the wake of Nik Aziz's foot-in-the-mouth gaffe, many among the "liberal" opposition of this country came speedily to his defence. We were told, among other things, that Nik Aziz's words were taken out of context, that he was deliberately misquoted, that the ruling BN parties and the mainstream media were mainly focusing on the issue in order to slander PAS, that the whole affair was misunderstood by all.
In the midst of all this, one was given the impression that Nik Aziz was the poor innocent victim of yet another nasty conspiracy hatched by the powers that be, or - even more sinister yet - some unseen cabal of closet secularists who were bent on destroying the good name of Islam and the ulama in particular. (Never mind the fact that the ulama have proven more than capable of giving themselves a bad name on their own.)
The only break from this tide of nauseating apologia came from the women's wing of the Islamic Party (Muslimat PAS) who were at least honest enough to tell non-Muslims to mind their own business and to let Muslim men dictate how Muslim women should live. At least they found the courage to be openly exclusivist and dogmatic, without having to apologise for it.
The fact that so much goodwill could be spent trying to salvage the reputation and credibility of a conservative ulama , and to present an image of the ulama as a class of liberal progressives, makes one wonder if any politician - from the ruling parties or the alternative front - can be trusted at all.
Fragile coalition
It almost seems that in order to maintain the fragile instrumental coalition that is the Barisan Alternatif, some of the BA leaders are willing to cut cards with the devil (perhaps not the wisest turn of phrase, but never mind) and get into a working coalition with parties that hold political views and ideological positions radically different from their own.
But lest we forget the simple facts of politics and history, and begin to indulge in some post-modernist orgy of radical self-reinvention, we need to remind ourselves of some simple facts. The ulama, we need to remember, do not represent a democratic constituency in the first place.
Indeed, as an institution, the ulama class as it has evolved today happens to be the closest that Islam has come to forming a clergy of its own (while it is not meant to have one) and it also happens to be a class of functionaries whose function and practice are not exactly democratic, open and accountable by any stretch of the imagination.
This is not to say that the ulama have not played a positive role in the course of Islamic history. Quite the opposite in fact. During the period of decline when the Islamic dynasties came under pressure from external threats, it was the ulama who helped to preserve the corpus of Islamic teaching and learning, thereby making it available to the present generation of Muslims today. Many an ulama had died for the cause of Islam, and many an ulama had also given his life to serve the needs of universal justice, truth and human dignity.
But it cannot be denied that for the past 200 years at least, the ulama have grown increasingly powerful and their influence in Muslim society has also grown considerably stronger. Thanks to the dislocating effects of colonisation, rapid modernisation, the inherent inequalities of uneven development and the emergence of highly repressive political systems in many contemporary Muslim societies, the politically-marginalised ulama have come to be seen as the defenders of the poor and downtrodden masses instead.
While some of the ulama deserved to be praised for their efforts in defending the rights of fellow Muslims, we must never overlook the fact that they also happen to occupy a powerful station in Muslim society.
Their marginal position as the head of the community of the faithful grants them enormous power and charismatic influence over their followers, which none of these other liberal opposition politicians can ever hope to gain for themselves. Their reliance on a religio-political discourse based on a theocentric final moral vocabulary also gives them the power to declare what is right and what is wrong, who are "pure, true" Muslims and who are not.
Thus while the ulama may not have as much political power as the governments they oppose, they happen to possess another form of power which is just as real - if not more - than political clout alone.
The other aspect of the ulama that is often overlooked by the liberals and other progressives who support them for tactical reasons is that they belong to a class of functionaries who have their own rules of mutuality and association. Entry to the ulama class is not open to all - obviously there is no room for non-Muslims.
But then again there have hardly been any Muslim women who were allowed to enter this selective grouping as well. And those who do come in are effectively screened and sifted first, through a complex educational process which ensures that the ulama who emerges at the end is the final product of his specific school of thought.
This is clearly the case with Tuan Guru Nik Aziz himself, who is a product of ulama training through and through.
Deoband's own
The first mentri besar and second Murshid'ul Am of PAS, Tuan Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat traces his lineage all the way back to the rulers of Kelantan, Patani and Langkasuka, which includes Maharaja Srimat Trailokyaraja Maulibhushana Warma Dewa, Raja Surendra, Raja Bharubhasa (Sultan Mahmud of Langkasuka), Sultan Iskandar Shah (the first Sultan of Kelantan), Sultan Mansur Shah, Raja Abdul Rahman, Raja Abdullah, Raja Mohammad and Raja Banjar.
His father was Raja Mohammad II, also known as Ustaz Nik Mat Alim Raja Banjar, who was one of the most prominent ulama in Kelantan at the time.
Nik Aziz was brought up in a prestigious and conservative religious household from the very beginning. His father Ustaz Nik Mat Alim had his own religious school, the Sekolah Agama Darul Anwar and he was well known for his curious habits and daily rituals (one of which was to carry an umbrella with him wherever he went, in case he might encounter any women along the way.
In such situations the umbrella served as a useful hijab (veil) between him and them. Nik Mat Alim also objected to the fact that his son was forced to wear short trousers to school when he was undergoing his primary (state) education.
After having spent only three months in the state government school, Nik Aziz's father decided to send him to a traditional pondok school instead, which had been set up by the famous ulama and religious leader Tok Kenali at Kubang Kerian. Nik Aziz later studied at another traditional pondok school in Terengganu, that was run by Tuan Guru Haji Abbas of Besut.
In 1952, Nik Aziz travelled to India to study at the Dar'ul Ulum Deoband seminary, otherwise known as the Deobandi College of Islam. The Deobandi college's founders were Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi and Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, who both came from prominent ulama families.
They had both studied under the Murshid Haji Imdadullah and Mamluk Ali of Delhi college and were influenced by the ideas of Islamic revivalists like Shah Wali 'Ullah and Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi. The two other co-founders of the Deobandi college were Maulana Zulfiqar Ali and Maulana Fazl-ur Rahman.
Being strict adherents of Islamic orthodoxy, the Wahhabi-inspired founders and teachers of the Deobandi school were thoroughly anti-Mutazilite (rationalist) in their outlook. For them, the philosophical and rationalist approach of the modernist school was dangerously close to the positivistic trends of the West, which they labelled as nechari (naturalist) and materialist. They preferred instead the approach of the Asharites, who argued that the crisis in the Muslim world was due to the lack of faith among Muslims themselves.
It was here at the Deobandi school that Nik Aziz first underwent formal religious education at the hands of the Deoband Ulama and Shaikh al-Hadith like Maulana Husain Ahmad al-Madani, who taught him that Islam was in need of purification and that the task of safeguarding the interests of Muslims fell unto the ulama. The Deobandi school was known for its emphasis on the role of the ulama class.
It had created a reputation for itself thanks to its intensive mode of teaching and its closed academic atmosphere which helped to bring the students closer together, thereby creating strong ulama-murid networks. Unlike the Aligarh college of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (where the third PAS president, Dr Burhanuddin al-Helmy had studied), the Deobandi school did not believe in the creation of a Muslim political elite.
Instead, it focused its attention and energy on the creation of a class of ulama who would serve as teachers and leaders to their communities. Among the prestigious fraternity of the Deobandi school were men like Maulana Abu'l A'la Maudoodi, the founder of the Jama'ati Islami of India (and Pakistan) and Qazi Husain Ahmad, who took over as the third Emir of the Jama'at in 1987.
Spiritual guidance
After completing his studies at Deoband in 1957, Nik Aziz travelled to Lahore, Pakistan, to study tafsir (exegesis) of the Qur'an. He then travelled to Egypt to study at the university of Al-Azhar in Cairo, where he first read Arabic and then Islamic law and jurisprudence (fiqh).
In Cairo, he also became acquainted with the writing and work of other famous Islamist thinkers like Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb and movements such as the Ikhwan'ul Muslimun. He finally graduated with a degree in law in the year 1962, after studying abroad for a total of 12 years.
The ideas and beliefs of Nik Aziz were very much shaped by his educational experiences abroad. The Deobandi school, for instance, taught the values of self-reliance and independence among its students. But the lessons drawn from his experience at Deoband and Al-Azhar also convinced Nik Aziz that the salvation of the Muslims depended on the spiritual guidance they received.
The Deobandi school, shaped as it was by its ulama and Ashraf culture, argued that Muslims should be guided only by the Alim Ulama (the knowledgeable), and that society would be best governed when it is led by the spiritually inclined. Nik Aziz reflected these values in both his personal beliefs as well as his activities.
From this period, Nik Aziz began to lecture his followers and constituents about their religious as well as socio-political obligations. In the curriculum and co-curriculum programme he developed for his fellow teachers and students, he stressed the importance of the role of the Alim Ulama as the "spiritual guides" to the community, who would care for both the material as well as spiritual well-being of the awamm (masses).
For Nik Aziz, religious education was a means to create a class of spiritually-inclined and knowledgeable leaders (alim ulama) who would safeguard the welfare and concerns of Muslims and see to it that the law of the Shariah would reign supreme in the land.
The other aspect of Deobandi thinking that was clearly evident in Nik Aziz's style of leadership is the desire to purify Islam and Muslim culture from elements which are regarded as un-Islamic ( khurafat ), heretical ( shirk ), innovative ( bid'ah ) and deviant ( ajaran sesat ). As soon as he returned to Malaysia, Nik Aziz announced in no uncertain terms that many of the traditional practices sanctioned by the older generation of traditional Alim were in fact un-Islamic.
This brought him into conflict with the traditional ulama of the establishment. In the years to come, Nik Aziz's polemics against un-Islamic customs and practices would embrace a host of contaminating evils ranging from pre-Islamic Hindu, Hellenic, Persian and animist beliefs to the scourge of modern secular ideologies like communism and capitalism.
Within PAS itself, Nik Aziz's reputation as the Tuan Guru (respected teacher) grew rapidly. By the 1980s, his position within the party's Dewan Ulama ensured that he was in the right place to offer comments and criticisms on the conduct of the party leaders and the membership. After he took command of the Dewan Ulama, Nik Aziz sought to build up its importance as the party's "inner chamber" of consultation and arbitration.
Together with the president Haji Yusuf Rawa, he sought to strengthen the credibility and influence of the ulama leadership of the party through the Dewan which continued to issue judgments that sanctioned the policies undertaken by the political leadership of the party.
Taking into account the biographical details and historical background of Nik Aziz, one could only conclude that the man is very much the product of his own conservative and orthodox education. Nothing that the Murshid'ul Am of PAS has said or done has gone contrary to the teachings of his highly conservative and exclusivist school of Islamic thought.
Progressive change
So for Nik Aziz to condemn women who dress "immorally" and for him to claim that they are to be blamed for social ills is perfectly normal and consistent with the man and his beliefs. The problem arises when liberals begin to reinvent the personality of Nik Aziz to suit their own ideological ends instead.
The ulama class are not, have never been and will never be a force for progressive change in the Muslim world. That would be a betrayal of their function and duties in society and it would, in fact, spell the end for the ulama class itself.
For the real purpose of the ulama is to protect and conserve what they see as the purity and sanctity of Islam - which in turn explains why their view of the world is so much shaped by the dialectical opposition between "good Muslims" and "evil enemies"; "pure Islam" and "un-Islamic evils".
Those who seek to form alliances with the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party must at least be honest enough to recognise that they are dealing with a party whose ideology is rooted in a religio-political discourse of absolutes. This is a party of honest, if hardline, and non-negotiable convictions.
We cannot continue to delude ourselves and others by claiming that somehow this party can suddenly transform itself into a liberal-democratic movement that embraces pluralism without limits. PAS has limits, and the limits of PAS' politics are set by the ulama - chief of whom happens to be Nik Aziz himself.
And in the final analysis it must be remembered that ulama are themselves mortal. Like all human beings they are shaped and guided by their convictions - though some of these convictions may be repulsive to some of us. But they cannot be expected to perform functions, to take up positions or to say things that go against their principles.
Accept them for what they are - as conservative, dogmatic and orthodox pedagogues - instead of turning them into things that they are not. One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and one cannot make a progressive liberal democrat out of an ulama .
DR FARISH A NOOR is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist who is currently writing a book on the Malaysian Islamic Party, PAS. "The Other Malaysia" tries to unearth aspects of Malaysia's history and culture that have been forgotten or relegated to the margins, in order to remind us that there remains another Malaysia that is often forgotten.