He led his people by serving them
He embodied Arabic term ‘mawlana’; his name aptly meant kindness
ONE OF the quirks of the Arabic language is that, occasionally, depending on the context, a word can mean the same thing as its seeming opposite. (A local example would be the Afrikaans word, “oorlams”; in the Western Cape it is an insult, meaning “stupid” or “clumsy” and in Gauteng, it means, “bright” or “intelligent”.)
For Ihsaan Hendricks (September 16, 1964August 10, 2018), the twin meanings of the title that he wore, “Mawlana”, was more than appropriate. Normally used to denote scholars of Islam who graduated from seminaries in India or Pakistan, the term in Arabic is used to indicate “our master” and “our servant”.
Mawlana Ihsaan Hendricks was one of those rare religious leaders who could straddle divides and retain their integrity and the commitment to their truths; who could speak truth to power forcefully, unequivocally and, simultaneously, with love; who could be so unmistakably local the one moment and resonating globally the next.
This was our son and leader from Worcester, the Western Cape, South Africa, Palestine and the Muslim World at large – equally comfortable in our local communities and townships where he spoke Afrikaans and internationally where he was highly regarded as a world class orator and scholar of Islam addressing fora in Urdu, Arabic and English.
Born in a relatively poor family in Worcester, he was proud of his Khoisan heritage, had an abiding reverence and gratitude towards his Christian grandparents and the legacy of a socialist uncle and prime revivalist of the ANC in the Cape, the legendary Hennie Ferrus (d. 1981), Mawlana Ihsaan rose to become the most prominent Muslim religious figure in South Africa with significant recognition internationally.
He attended the Bree Rivier High School in Worcester and trained as a theologian and jurist in Newcastle in KwaZulu-Natal under the illustrious scholar, Mawlana Qasim Sema (d. 2007), Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow, India and, later, the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur.
On his return to Cape Town after studying six years abroad, Mawlana Ihsaan served – yes, he literally served – the communities of Worcester, Paarl, Wellington and Belhar as an Imam and teacher. Closer to Cape Town, he was a lecturer in Qur’anic Studies at the Islamic College of South Africa. In 1996, he became the deputy principal of Darul Arqam Islamic Institute, then the MJC’s theological college. In 2001 he was elected deputy president of the MJC before serving two five-year terms as its president (2006-2016).
Mawlana Ihsaan was passionate about scholarship and about justice. For him, the former had to be in the service of the latter. He was desperate for local religious leaders to become aware of current trends in international scholarship. To this end, he established the Shaykh Abu’l Hasan Ali al-Nadwi Leadership Academy – named after the founder of his alma mater who strayed where few other traditional scholars had done; Mawlana had the unique distinction of serving on the executive board of the International Union of Muslim Scholars under the leadership of Shaykh Yusuf alQardawi, one of the most esteemed jurists in the contemporary Islamic world.
Thousands from all walks of life and religious persuasions attended his funeral on Saturday where the departure of this son of the Boland was mourned by his family, South Africans and others and, unsurprising for anyone who ever heard of him, throughout Palestine. Hendricks, was a friend and father to the Palestinian people and an activist in the Palestine solidarity movement. Founder of the Al-Quds Foundation in South Africa which focuses on moral and material support for the Palestinian struggle, he also played a leadership role in the National Coalition 4 Palestine (NC4P) and was an active promoter of the BDS boycott of Israel campaign.
He was a leader of the struggle for justice for Palestine, an internationalist, an honest person and a warm human being. Courageous in acknowledging the need to go beyond narrow domestic walls, he was the first senior South African Sunni religious scholar to address the minority Shia community on one of their religious occasions at their mosque. Never seeking glory for himself, he was unflinching in his criticism of Zionism and intolerant of any and all forms of racism – including anti-Semitism – welcoming of people of all shades of pigmentation but a fierce opponent of the gentrification of the Bo-Kaap until the last breath in his body; this was our Ihsaan – literally meaning “beauty” and “kindness”. To borrow from Ebrahim Rasool who borrowed from the Qur’an at Mawlana’s funeral, “And the compensation for Ihsaan is only Ihsaan”.
He led his people by serving them. He served humanity well and courageously.
Hamba Kahle Comrade Ihsaan, as you return to your Sustainer to be the recipient of the Ultimate Ihsaan.
HENDRICKS WAS A TOP MUSLIM SCHOLAR, A LEADER OF THE STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE, AN HONEST PERSON AND A WARM HUMAN BEING