Khurram Murad

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Khurram Murad (* 1932 in Bhopal , India ; † December 19, 1996 in Leicester , United Kingdom ) was a Pakistani writer and pioneer of Islam , particularly on the question of Daʿwa (Islamic proselytizing) in non-Muslim countries.

biography

Murad was a student and supporter of the ideas of the Islamic activist Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi . In 1948 he emigrated to Pakistan to join the Islamic movement Maududis and his party Jamaat-e-Islami . Immediately after arriving in Pakistan, two months later , he was appointed head of the party's youth organization, Jamiat Tulaba . In 1957, Murad traveled to the United States to complete his engineering degree at the University of Minnesota . After returning to Pakistan in 1959, he became an active member of the Jama'at East Pakistan Consultative Comitee . In 1971 he resigned his post as President of the Dhaka Jama'at in order to devote himself fully to Da Arbeitwa work.

From 1978 to 1986 Murad worked as director of the Islamic Foundation in Leicester , an organization that has made the dissemination of contemporary Islamic ideas and Da'wa, especially in Europe, its goal in its publications. In 1986 he had to return to Pakistan due to health problems. Khurram Murad died on December 19, 1996 in Leicester, England.

Work and ideology

Khurram Murad can be seen as one of Maududi's successors , who, through his stay in the West, was able to implement Maududi's ideas for a Western audience and in relation to today's problems of Muslims in the West, in a non-Muslim environment. His publications are both with the development of a strategy for an Islamic movement in the West (K. Murad: Islamic Movement in the West: Reflections on Some Issues . Islamic Foundation, Leicester 1981), with the topic of Da'wa to non-Muslims (K. Murad: Da'wa among non-Muslims in the West: Some Conceptual and Methodological Aspects . Islamic Foundation, Leicester 1986) and with the question of what an adequate educational strategy for Muslim young people in the secular West should look like if the goal he advocated an Islamic Movement supported, connected (K. Murad: Muslim Youth in the West . Islamic Foundation, Leicester 1986).

According to Murad, the Islamic movement is an organized struggle to change the existing society and transform it into an Islamic society, a society based on the Koran and the Sunna . Thus it aims at the introduction of an Islamic system based on the Sharia in all areas of life, especially in the socio-political area.

In this goal he corresponds to other Islamic revivalists, for example Hassan al-Banna , Sayyid Qutb or Maududi, Murad, however, is the first to take on the special problems of a global Islamic movement in a non-Muslim, western environment. For him, the only justification for Muslims to reside permanently in the West is to become a Da'i (Da'wa missionary). Here it differs fundamentally from more recent writings, for example those of Tariq Ramadan, which are based on a redefinition of the concept of dar-al-Islam and dar-al-harb and the definition of Europe as dar-al-shahada (a country in which Muslims can live their religion undisturbed, even if they do not have political power) make a life in the West possible for devout Muslims.

Murad recognizes in his analyzes that his goal, an Islamic society, cannot be achieved in the short term, and takes the view that a transformation of Western society into an Islamic society can only be achieved by the locals. In the short term he therefore sees it as more important to return Muslims in the West to Islam and to work among non-Muslims on the creation of an “Islamic environment”, i. H. to present Islam to all people. In doing so, however, he does not primarily aim to convert, but rather represents the goal that the West should recognize Islamic values ​​and thus create a positive reason for the further expansion of Islam and remove obstacles to future conversions.

In contrast to Sayyid Qutb , Yusuf al-Qaradawi or Osama bin Laden, Murad expressly rejects the concept of armed struggle (military jihad ) and advocates a grassroots movement of the masses, a social revolution from below instead of a military revolution from above. Although Murad always refuses to aim for conversions by non-Muslims, he gives concrete tips in his books on how to bring Islam closer to the latter and calls on people to “invite people to Islam”.

His ideas correspond to other authors with publications on "Da'wa among non-Muslims in the West", such as BSI Rüschoff (SI Rüschoff: Da'wa among non-Muslims . IZM, Munich 1982) and Tariq Ramadan (T. Ramadan: Da'wa in the West ) in their demands to emphasize the similarities instead of working out the differences between Islam and Western or Christian values and stressing that in the discussion with non-Muslims it should be emphasized that Islam is not a new religion, but the original religion of all people, that the invitation to Islam is an invitation to return to one's own roots.

Murad calls this a call not to convert but to reverse, while Ramadan calls it a “call back” instead of “call”. Both authors also emphasize the importance of setting an example of the ideals that a Da'i wants to spread. What these two authors have in common is their concept of kufr , usually translated as “unbeliever”. Both emphasize that a person who has never been presented with Islam in the right way is not Kufr , so European non-Muslims cannot be called Kufr . This term only applies to a person who has had Islam presented in a comprehensive way and then rejects it.

Literature sources

  • L. Poston: Islamic Da'wa in the West. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 1992, ISBN 0-19-507227-8 .
  • K. Murad: Muslim Youth in the West. Islamic Foundation, Leicester 1986, ISBN 0-86037-174-3 .
  • T. Ramadan: Da'wa in the West. www.tariqramadan.com

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tariq Ramadan: Dawa in the West. ( Memento of March 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) 2004.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Murad, Khurram
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Pakistani writer
DATE OF BIRTH 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Bhopal , now India
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1996
Place of death Leicester , UK