Khurram Murad

Khurram Murad ( born 1932 in Bhopal, India, † December 19, 1996 in Leicester, England ) was a Pakistani writer and thinker of Islam, in particular the question of the Da ʿ wa ( Islamic proselytizing ) in non-Muslim countries.

Biography

Murad was a student and follower of the ideas of Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Islamic activists. In 1948 he emigrated to Pakistan to join the Islamic movement Maududi and his Jamaat -e -Islami. Immediately after his arrival in Pakistan after two months he was appointed head of the youth organization of the party, Jamiat Tulaba appointed. 1957 Murad traveled to the United States to complete at the University of Minnesota engineering school. After his return to Pakistan in 1959, he became an active member of the Jama'at East Pakistan Consultative Commitee. In 1971, he put his post as president of the Dhaka Jama'at down to devote himself fully now the Da ʿ wa - work.

Between 1978 and 1986 Murad worked as director of the Islamic Foundation in Leicester, an organization which has the dissemination of contemporary Islamic ideas and da'wa made ​​specially in Europe in their publications to the destination. In 1986 he had to return to Pakistan due to health problems. Khurram Murad died on 19 December 1996 in Leicester, England.

Work and ideology

Khurram Murad, as a successor to be considered Maududi, who was by his stay in the West capable of Maududi 's ideas for a Western audience and is related to today's problems of Muslims in the West, in a nichtmuslimischem environment to implement. His publications are available 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 theme of Da'wah to non- Muslims (K. Murad: da'wah among non- Muslims in the West. Conceptual and Methodological Aspects look Some Islamic Foundation, Leicester, 1986) and with the question of how an adequate education strategy for Muslim youth in the secular West has that the propagated by him target of an Islamic movement supported, connected (K. Murad. Muslim Youth in the West Islamic Foundation, Leicester, 1986).

According to Murad's Islamic movement is to change an organized struggle for the existing company and turn it into an Islamic society, a society based on the Quran and the Sunnah. Thus he proposes to establish an Islamic system based on the Sharia, in all areas of life, especially in the socio - political sphere.

In this aim, it corresponds to other Islamic revivalists, such as Hassan al -Banna, Sayyid Qutb or Mawdudi, Murad, however, is the first person who takes care of the special problems of a global Islamic movement in a non-Muslim, Western-style environment. For him, the only justification for Muslims in the West to permanently reside therein, to be da'i ( da'wa missionary ). Here he differs fundamentally from recent writings, such as those Tariq Ramadan, the al- harb is through a redefinition of the concept of dar-al -Islam and and the definition of Europe as dar-al - shahada ( a country in which Muslims their religion can live undisturbed, even if they do not have political power ) make a living in the West for devout Muslims possible.

Murad recognizes in his analysis that his goal, an Islamic society, in the short term can not be reached, and the opinion that is to achieve a transformation of Western society into an Islamic society only by the locals. In the short term he therefore considers it important to, in the west due to Islam and Muslims to work among non-Muslims on the creation of an " Islamic environment", ie to present Islam to all people. Here, however, he does not aim to primarily aim to convert, but rather represents the goal that the West should recognize Islamic values ​​and thus a positive reason for the further spread of Islam is created and barriers to future conversions are out of the way.

Murad, in contrast to Sayyid Qutb, Yusuf al -Qaradawi or Osama bin Laden explicitly the concept of armed struggle ( military jihad ) back and advocates a grassroots movement of the masses, a social revolution from below rather than a military revolution from above. Although Murad it always rejects to aim at conversions of non-Muslims, but he gives in his books specific tips on how latter Islam can be brought home and calling on " invite people to Islam ."

His ideas meet other authors with publications on the topic of " Da'wah among non-Muslims in the West", such as S.I. In his demands to emphasize: ( Da'wah in the West T. Ramadan ) the similarities rather than work out the differences between Islam and Western or Christian values ​​: Rüschoff (SI Rüschoff. Da'wah among non-Muslims IZM, Munich 1982) and Tariq Ramadan in the emphasis that should be highlighted in the discussion with non-Muslims that Islam is not a new religion, but the original religion of all people was that the invitation to Islam so be an invitation to return to his roots.

Murad calls this a call, not to convert but to revert, during Ramadan calls it a "recall " instead of " call". Both authors also emphasize the importance of self to express an example of the ideals that wants to spread a da'i. Similarities can be found in these two authors in their concept of kufr, usually translated as " unbeliever ". Both point out that a person who never got presents Islam in the right way, no Kufr is so European non- Muslims can not be termed as Kufr. This designation only to meet a person who would get presents Islam in a comprehensive manner and then reject.

Literature sources

• Poston, L., Islamic Da'wah in the West, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York, 1992;
• Murad, K. Muslim Youth in the West, Islamic Foundation, Leicester, 1986
• Ramadan, T., Da'wah in the West, www.tariqramadan.com