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| Satiric-Ironic treatment of prayer in the play Tughlaq |
Introduction:
Muhammad Tughlaq is considered to be the most controversial ruler that has ever ruled India. He was a great scholar, warrior, visionary and idealist. He is also the most misunderstood ruler of India. The orthodox Muslim historians consider that he was a disgrace to Islam. While it is not so. Tughlaq was a devout Muslim. He had deep knowledge of Islam and the Quran. He made prayer five times a day obligatory to all Muslims as is enjoined by the holy Quran. He was liberal, just and impartial ruler. He treated Hindus and Muslims equally. He knew that unity between Hindus and Muslims was essential for the progress and stability of the country. So, he always tried to strengthen the bond of unity between them. He exempted Hindus from paying Jiziya tax. Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq was very punctual of prayer. He never missed it. To professional clergymen, the religiousness of the Sultan with his generosity, to Hindus was something new. Even Hindus did not trust him and suspected that he would stab them in the back.
Mixing Religion with Politics:
Most of the people are of the view that the Sultan was a failure because he tried to mix religion with politics. They hold that religion and politics are two different things and they cannot be mixed together. Both of these views are incorrect. If politics is freed from morality and religion, it becomes tyranny. There must be some check on politics. Only religion provides a code of conduct for politics. Most of the rulers who pretended to be religious were not religious in the true sense. They met with disaster because they used prayer to achieve their ends. They corrupted prayer. There were some other rulers who in their zeal of proving themselves generous and impartial went against the tenets of religion.
Religion was not the main cause of the downfall of Muhammad Tughlaq. It is true that Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq was a profound scholar of Islam and the Quran. It is also true that he was very punctual of Namaz and made it obligatory for every Muslim. But only knowledge and Namaz do not make a man a true Muslim or a devout follower of Islam. Islam is a complete way of leading life. It has a complete code of conduct. It instructs Muslims in every field of life and guarantees success, honour and prosperity for those who practise Islam in their daily life. Those who use religion to attain their private ends are hypocrite and are bound to fail.
Misusing of Prayer:
Sultan Muhammad Tughlaq failed because he misused prayer. His act of killing his father and brother at the prayer time cannot be justified from any point of view. He corrupted prayer to achieve his end of getting the throne of Delhi. This made him suspicious in the eyes of his subjects. When he exempted Hindus from paying Jiziya tax, they thought there might be something black in the bottom. Muslims thought that since the Sultan had lost his credit among the Muslims, he was trying to win the favour of Hindus. In the very beginning of the play we have two illustrations of the Sultan's going against the tenets of Islam. First, the killing of his father and second the exemption of Hindus from paying the Jiziya tax.
Committing crimes and sins under the Cloak of Religion:
Now take the episode of Sheikh Imamuddin's killing. Sheikh is a strong opponent of the Sultan. He is regarded as a saint throughout the country. He incites people to raise rebellion against the Sultan. At his instance, people burn half of the city of Kanpur. He holds the Sultan guilty of patricide and fratricide. He considers the Sultan to be anti Islamic and openly says that the Sultan is a disgrace to Islam. From the Islamic point of views killing of one's own father is a heinous crime and the guilty must be beheaded. But it does not make one anti Islamic. Nor does it give a right to Sheikh to raise rebellion against the Sultan who really wants to do justice to the people. The way, in which the Sultan gets the Sheikh killed, is also against religion. No religion allows a King to kill his opponent by deceit and treachery.
Hypocrisy at the name of religion and Prayer:
The Amirs, Sayyids and Sheikhs are angry with the Sultan for certain reasons. They make a plan to kill the Sultan because he is not giving due respect to the men of religion. Some of them have either been imprisoned or exiled. Shihabuddin a trusted friend of the Sultan also joins them and it is decided that the Sultan be put to death at the prayer time. Now the same so called men of religion who condemned the Sultan for the killing of his father agree to this plan. These men of religion accuse the Sultan of favouring Hindus whom they call infidels but they forget that the suggestion to kill the Sultan is an outcome of Ratan Singh's mind who betrays them by informing the Sultan of the conspiracy. The intrigue is foiled. Shihabuddin is killed and the Amirs, Sayyids and Sheikhs are taken prisoners. In this episode the Sultan is not the least guilty of killing Shihabuddin rather Amirs, Sayyids and Sheikhs are in the wrong.
Banning on Prayer Is against Any Religion:
After this episode the Sultan imposes a ban on prayer and orders that whosoever is found praying, will be severely punished. This is the only act that makes the Sultan anti-Islamic and he deserves to be dethroned. But it is not clear whether it is an invention of the dramatist's mind or it is based on historical facts.
The Sultan's decisions of shifting his capital and introducing of token currency are not against any religion. According to modern researches proper arrangements were made for the facilities of people and they did not face as much difficulties as are highlighted by Karnad.
The Poetic Justice:
So far as Najib's killing is concerned, it can be said that in his case poetic justice has been done. As he sowed so he reaped. He managed the death of Sheikh Imamuddin and the same has been done to him. The step mother gets him poisoned because she thinks that he is leading the Sultan astray. But the step mother's death can't be justified. Even the Sultan admits that he is not sure whether she actually killed Najib or not. In this case, the Sultan is again in the wrong as he does not make any effort to know the reality of Najib's death.
The Sultan is repeatedly accused of killing and torturing people on suspicion. But not a single case is mentioned of this nature. The misdoings of Aziz and Aazam cannot be taken seriously as both these characters are fictitious and have nothing to do with the Sultan and history.
Disaster of Tughlaq Due to Misusing Prayer and Religion:
The reality is that it is not very easy to follow the spirit of religion in every walk of life. A ruler has many duties to discharge. He has many friends and foes to deal with. He thinks of the stability of his empire and the good of his people. In doing so he may commit some mistake. But his minor mistakes can be ignored if he on the whole is just, kind and honest. Muhammad Tughlaq does not meet with disaster because he is religious or he mixes politics with religion. He meets with failure because he knowingly misuses prayer. In the play Tughlaq' most of the characters from the Sultan to the professional clergymen use religion to achieve their foul ends. Hence, they meet with failure. Their failure does not mean that politics does not come within the purview of religion. In Muhammad Tughlaq's case too, religion is not the main cause of his disintegration. It is the misuse of religion both by the Sultan and the clergymen that brings suffering, death and disaster to the King and his subjects.
