“Deeni Rahnuma’i” Or Zindagi Ki Rahnuma’i

We often hear “deeni rahnuma’i” which a big number of people among Muslims are ‘providing’ on a daily basis. These two words are being uttered numberless times every day. ‘Deeni rahnuma’i’ indicates that there is one more type of rahnuma’i, that is dunyaawi rahnuma’i. Let us pause here for a minute and ask what kind of rahnuma’i (guidance) was provided by the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)? Did he divide dunyaa from deen? Did he delegate the dunyaawi rahnuma’i to somebody else? Didn’t he provide guidance about every single aspect of life? Isn’t he an ideal character for the life as a whole?

But an entire class of ‘traditionally’ educated among Muslims is providing this ‘deeni rahnuma’i’ with clock-like regularity. With every passing day they are reinforcing it among the masses. The world is moving in one direction and we in another. The use of ‘deeni rahnuma’i’ is not confined among and by the ‘traditionally’ educated alone, though. The ‘modern’ educated, too, use these two words quite frequently. They do so mainly because of the former, however.

This deeni rahnuma’i indicates guidance in a very limited aspect of life – leaving a significant part of it outside the purview of this guidance. It is taken for granted that the ‘traditionally’ educated are not of much help in that big part of life. The ‘Ulama themselves think so and quite naturally. This ‘quite naturally’ is the real problem and indicates that our education system has failed us. This is yet another matter that the ones whom the current education system has harmed (conditioned) the most are the strongest advocates of it. This is a paradox!

What to do now? Not much. We just need to be watchful about each conversation, speech and writing. Whenever we find that deeni rahnuma’i is being mentioned we have to think that it is being projected to be different from zindagi ki rahnuma’i – which is precisely what we need. We also need to keep in mind that this division is against the spirit of Islam. We need to be watchful in this regard not at all in a selective manner. If we are selective we will not be able to root it out easily and sooner. If we are selective it will not change the discourse which we badly need now. Everyone who understands the matter is a sipahi of this struggle – the struggle of eliminating the division and duality.