Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani is considered the founder of pan-Islamism. He opposed colonialism; the liberation, unity and independence of the Islamic world became the main goals in his life. He had great influence on other Muslim scholars and revolutionary movements in the Muslim world.
Youth
Al-Afghani was born in 1838. His place of birth is not known for certain, it is assumed that he was born in Afghanistan and spent most of his childhood in Afghanistan and Iran. He was probably educated at home until the age of ten, later going to Kerbala and Najaf, Shi’ite places where he received his religious education. He left for India around the age of eighteen.
Al-Afghani deliberately kept his religious and ethnic origins unclear. Whether he was Afghan or Iranian, Sunni or Shiite, to make his ideas easier to accept, he wrapped himself in a mysterious silence.
India
In India, Al-Afghani made a number of strong impressions that would remain with him for the rest of his life. Here he was confronted for the first time with the oppression of Muslims by the colonial regime. Muslims were discriminated against when it came to getting jobs and had little access to education. He slowly came to agree with Indians who felt that the English colonials were discrediting Islam. From India he first left for Mecca and then returned to Najaf and Kerbala. He later moved on to Iran and Afghanistan.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, Al-Afghani was briefly employed by the Afghan king, whom he advised to establish ties with the Russians in order to protect himself from the English. He set up plans for schools, a centralized government, newspapers, etc. When a brother of the king took his place, Al-Afghani was removed from his position, but his plans continued.
Through his work in Afghanistan, Al-Afghani realized what forces he could summon. If the poorly armed Afghans could resist the British in the First Afghan War, what power could the entire Muslim community have. The Ottoman Sultan Abdel Aziz saw Al-Afghani as a useful pawn and Al-Afghani had his own ideas about how to use him.
The Ottoman Empire
In Istanbul, Al-Afghani did not get the position he had hoped for. He was appointed to the Council for Education, but used his position to present his ideas in a number of lectures. Those lectures focused on Shi’i rationalist philosophy, the need to modernize Islamic society, anti-imperialism and angered the Sunni ulema (religious scholars). The dispute became so heated that Sultan Abdel Aziz was forced to expel Al-Afhani from the country.
Egypt
Disillusioned, Al-Afghani left for Egypt to continue working on his dream of a pan-Islamic state without oppression. He also set up a Freemason group, which Mohammed Abduh, a promising young Muslim, also joined.
Al-Afghani’s ideas got him into trouble again, this time with the Khedive of Egypt Ismaïl, his sovereign Sultan Abdel Hamid the Second in Istanbul and the British colonials. The problems became so great for the Khedive that the Sultan was forced to get rid of him. However, the Khedive’s son, the new Khedive Mohammed Pasha, expelled Al-Afghani from the country. Al-Afghani left for Hyderabad, where he lectured and wrote his most important work, ‘The Refutation of the Materialists’.
‘The strongest bond’
From Hyderabad, Al-Afghani moved on to London and then Paris. In Paris he set up a magazine ‘The strongest bond’, with which he definitively established himself as the founder of pan-Islamism. He wrote this magazine together with the Egyptian Mohammed Abduh. After Paris, Al-Afghani moved on to Russia, where he continued his anti-British actions.
Iran
Meanwhile, Shah Nasr ad-Din was in power in Iran. Al-Afghani spoke out sharply against the concessions that the Shah gave to various countries and thus gained much popularity among the Iranian population. When Al-Afghani returned to Iran after years, he was not received by the Shah, but had to take refuge in a shrine, the shrine of Shah Abdel Aziz, to avoid Nasr ad-Din. From his hiding place, Al-Afghani continued to oppose the Shah’s practices and call for the construction of schools, a good road network, a parliament, a constitution. The Iranians deserved an honest king who did not waste his subjects’ money on trips to Europe. Against all orders, the Shah had his troops invade the sanctuary, traditionally an asylum for rebellious elements, and deport it. Al-Afghani returned to London where he strengthened ties with his fellow Freemasons and at the invitation of the Sultan he left for Istanbul. However, contrary to what he expected, he did not become the sultan’s confidant, but his prisoner.
From Turkey, Al-Afghani continued to interfere in the situation in Iran and one of his supporters, Mirza Reza Kermani, assassinated the Iranian Shah on the day he celebrated his fiftieth year in power, in the same shrine where Al-Afghani had previously sought asylum.
Dead
In 1897, Al-Afghani died in Istanbul, some claim he died of cancer, but the circumstances are unclear. He was buried in a secret place. In 1944, Afghanistan requested permission to bury his remains in Afghanistan and this was granted. Al-Afghani was subsequently buried at Kabul University, where a shrine was erected to him.
Influence
Al-Afghani has had a major influence on current thinking within Islam. He tried to bridge the gap between traditional Islam and the scientific and philosophical challenges in the Western world. He assumed that modern science and technology could be adopted without accepting the theological and philosophical values associated with them in the West. Most Muslim thinkers of the 19th century followed this line of thought.
His thoughts about political Islam, in which Muslims can use modern weapons to take on Western oppressors, had and continue to have a great influence on revolutionary elements in India and Turkey, but also on groups such as the Muslim Brothers.