Religion in Exile

The Indian Muslim identity was a conglomerate in which religion and religious values seeped into nearly every part of a person's life. So much so, that if you were to draw a Venn diagram depicting various nuts and bolts that make up the person's identity, relying on empirical evidence alone, you would find that most of the diagram would be coloured with religion. Thus, to be exiled from one's religion would be a catastrophic disassociation of the self. Ibn-ul-Vaqt experienced this separation and suffered in its disunity. Working with/for the British forced him to change. He found himself moving away from both the exoteric and esoteric forms of religion. He cannot find time for Namaz; he forgo the Nafils and soon the Farz. He stays away from alcohol not because it's haram but because his doctor advised him to. He keeps alcohol at his house for the English Sahibs and vows his abstinence because his lungs cannot permit him to drink (174). It is significant to note that he didn't present religious reasons for his abstinence to Hujjat-ul-Islam. On an esoteric level, Ibn-ul-Vaqt struggled to consolidate science and reason with Islam. He gave precedence to reason. In an argument with Hujjat-ul-Islam he says, “My dear sir, gone are the days when people believed in the idle religious tales. These are the days of reason. You will also not deny that the youth of today easily outwit the old and it is difficult for religion to hold itself against reason. (236)”

Ibn-ul-Vaqt’s lifestyle was so estranged from religion that Hujjat-ul-Islam couldn't stay at his house. At this particular point of the story, Hujjat-ul-Islam can be seen to represent religion which has no place in Ibn-ul-Vaqt’s house to function. There are pictures everywhere therefore Namaz cannot be performed and the presence of the dogs and alcohol is discouraging. Hujjat-ul-Islam likens his home to an “idol-house”. This is the outright rejection of Ibn-ul-Vaqt by religion and religious values. In Ibn-ul-Vaqt’s attempt to adopt the European lifestyle, he has ousted religion and religion, in turn, has ousted him.