It is interesting to note that Maulana Azad did not agree with this line of reasoning. According to Malfoozate Azad, in 1952 one Abdul Aziz of West Bengal wrote to Maulana Azad about a Muslim girl whose husband had migrated to Pakistan and was willing to neither divorce her nor take her to live with him. The girl obtained a court order for dissolution of marriage based on new law. The clergy did not accept the court order and declared that, according to Sharia, she was not divorced. Maulana Azad did not agree with them and sent a letter to her parents that the court order was valid and not against Sharia.

It will not be out of place to recall that the great Islamic jurist Imam Abu Hanifa, after whom the Hanafi school of jurisprudence is named and to whom most members of the MPLB protest their allegiance, was stoutly opposed to Islamic scholars-jurists accepting any position, honour or recognition under or from the government.

The MPLB must note the difference between attempts to vest itself with judicial authority and official recognition and the cause of social reform. Social reform is effected through sustained, dedicated work and not by indulging in bargaining with the powers-that-be to secure judicial or other official positions or patronage.

The writer is a former Union minister