Khan's Triumph of Will

NONVIOLENCE OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD

Badshah Khan conducted his struggle against the British with nonviolence that was based on purely righteous faith in Islam; and yet his Khudai Khidmatgars had a universal and nonsectarian outlook. In an inspiring speech, Badshah Khan gives the Khudai Khidmatgars the most successful weapon to wage a nonviolent war:

"I am going to give you a weapon that the police and army will not be able to stand against it. It is the weapon of the Prophet, but you are not aware of it. The weapon is patience and righteousness. No power on earth can stand against it. When you go back to your villages, tell your brethren that there is an army of God and its weapon is patience. Ask your brethren to join the army of God. Endure all hardships. If you exercise patience, victory will be yours."

The reference to "patience", says Easwaran, is to "sabr" in Islam which means "tenacity in a righteous cause, cheerful resignation in misfortune, forgiveness, self-control, renunciation and refraining from revenge." Sabr denotes nonviolence, not Khan's nonviolent resistance. Easwaran continues,

"In the mystics, particularly al-Ghazzali, sabr becomes a cardinal virtue in the "holy war" (jihad) between good and evil that every human being is called upon to wage in his or her own heart. Khan's reference to the Prophet is to the early years of the Prophet's teaching in Mecca, when he and his followers had to endure torment ranging from ridicule to the harshest persecution. Their stance was consistently to "hold on to truth without retaliating or retreating, in perfect submission (islam) to God's truth and the consequences of their faith."

The Prophet's nonviolence is highlighted by Karen Armstrong,in an interview with The Giuardian
(June 2002):

"Islam is not the intolerant or violent religion of the western fantasy. Mohammed was forced to fight against the city of Mecca...and after five years of warfare, Mohammed turned to more peaceful methods and finally conquered Mecca by an ingenious campaign of non-violence."

Khan's nonviolent movement had "first of all, a religious basis," writes nonviolence scholar Joan Bondurant in her Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict. "It took as its objective both local socioeconomic reform and political independence...Its adoption of nonviolence was more thorough than that of the Indian National Congress inasmuch as the Khudai Khidmatgars pledged themselves to nonviolence not only as a policy, but as a creed, a way of life.

Khan mentions a discussion with a fellow Muslim who him asked to show the nonviolent core of Islam. Khan said, "I cited chapter and verse from the Koran to show the great emphasis that Islam has laid on peace." Khan continued, "I also showed to him how the greatest figures in Islamic history were known more for their forbearance and self-restraint than for their fierceness." Khan interpreted Islam as a moral code with pacifism at its center. Easwaran summarizes Khan's Islam:

"A devout Muslim he showed in his life a face of Islam which non-Islamic countries seldom see, proving that within the scope of Islam exists a noble alternative to violence. His nonviolent army, the Servants of God, " was entirely Muslim, and based upon the ancient Islamic principles of universal brotherhood, submission to God, and the service of God through the service of His creatures."

Nasim Wali Khan, Khan's daughter-in-law shares, "Badshah Khan told people that Islam operates on a simple principle - never hurt anyone by tongue, by gun, or by hand. Not to lie, steal, and harm is true Islam."

Khan's nonviolence sprung out of Islam, but the Khidmatgars movement was nonsectarian. Bondurant points out "although the character of the movement was intensely Islamic...one of the objectives of the organization was the promotion of Hindu-Muslim unity." When Hindus and Sikhs were attacked in Peshawar, "10,000 Khidmatgars members helped protect their lives and property," notes Pal. Mahatma Gandhi wrote in the Foreword of the book on Khan brothers,

"(Badshah Khan) was consumed with deep religious fervor. His was not a narrow creed. I found him to be a universalist. His politics, if he had any, were derived from his religion."

In a conversation between the two great proponents of nonviolence - Badshah Khan and Mahatma Gandhi - Khan leaves us with a fitting message on religion as a source of peace:

"Not one in hundred thousand knows the true spirit of Islam. I think at the back of our quarrels is the failure to recognize that all faiths contain enough inspiration for their adherents. The Holy Koran says in so many words that God sends messengers for all nations and peoples. All of them are Ahle Kitab (Men of the Book) and the Hindus are no less Ahle Kitab than Jews and Christians."

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