TOI Patna 07-01-09

Muharram : When Islam prohibits fighting

MUHARRAM WHICH will be observed on Thursday, is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four months of the year in which fighting is prohibited. Since the Islamic calendar is lunar, Muharram moves from year to year when compared with the Gregorian calendar. Muharram is so called because it was unlawful to fight during this month; the word is derived from the word ‘haram’ meaning forbidden. It is believed to be the most sacred of all the months, excluding Ramadan. Some Muslims observe fast during these days. The tenth day of Muharram is called Yaumu-l ‘Ashurah’, meaning, ‘the tenth day’, and it is a day of voluntary fasting.
The mourning during Muharram is an important in the Shi’a branch of Islam. It is also called the remembrance of Muharram. Many of the events associated with the remembrance take place in congregation halls known as Hussainia.
The event marks the anniversary of the Battle of Karbala when Imam Hussain Ibn Ali, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, and a Shia Imam, were killed by the force of the second Umayad caliph yazid I. The event is observed by arranging ‘majalis’ (gatherings) to review Islamic teachings and to commemorate Hussain’s sacrifice. The mourning reaches its climax on the tenth day, known as Ashura, on which the forces of Yazid killed 72 individuals who fought, including Hussain, his family and supporters.
During this month, while on a journey, Hazrat Imam Hussain, his family members and a number of his followers were surrounded by the forces of Yazid, the Muslim ruled of the time. During the siege, they were deprived of food and water and many of them were put to death. The incident took place at a place called Karbala in Iraq in the 61st year after Hijra. This dispute was the result of a disagreement among the Muslims on the question of succession after the demise of Hazrat Ali, the fourth caliph.
Some sects of the Muslims hold meetings where speeches are made on the events of Karbala and on the lives of martyrs. The Shias, however, observe this event in a different fashion. As Muharram approaches, they put on back clothes, as black is regarded as a colour of mourning. Majalis (assemblies) are held every day during the first nine days where Shia orators relate the incident of the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his party in detail. On the 10th day of Muharram, large processions are formed and the devoted followers parade on the streets holding banners and carrying models of the mausoleum of Hazrat Imam Hussain and his followers, who fell at Karbala. They show their grief and sorrow by inflicting wounds on their own bodies with sharp metal tied to chain with which they scourge themselves. This is done in order to depict the sufferings of the martyrs.
During these first ten days of Muharram, drinking posts are also set up temporarily by the Shia community where water and juices are served to all, free of charge.

‘ISLAM is not a slave’

TOI, Patna 25-08-08

'ISLAM is not a slave’

The Kashmiri separatists’ chant of freedom for Islam is grossly misplaced, scholars tell Mohammed Wajihuddin

Faith Accompli

Syed Ali Shah Geelani is perhaps the most polarizing figure in contemporary Kashmir. In his many avatars as Jamaat-e-Islami member, Hizbul Mujahideen’s political face and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat’s hawk, the octogenarian, bearded leader has led mammouth rallies, courted countless arrests and penned several books, including a passionate prison diary. On August 15 this year, Geelani donned the garb of Islam’s saviour and declared to an azadi-chanting, green-flag waving crowd at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk: "Our goal is azadi baraa-e-Islam (freedom for Islam)."
The media, constantly on the lookout for soundbites, moved to the separatists’ other engagements in the day, ignoring the import of Geelani’s new diktat and its fathomless falsity.
In a single stroke, the Hurriyat hawk had coated his territorial battle with an Islamic flavour. Like Pakistan’s founding father, the frail Mohammed Ali Jinnah in the tumultuous 1940s, Geelani has again tried to stoke a disturbing, though somewhat dormant, debate: "Islam incompatible with a secular society and must a Muslim majority live only in an Islamic state?"
The chant of "freedom for Islam" is actually a gross misinterpretation of a faith which unambiguously calls God "Rabul Almeen (lord of the universe)" and Prophet Mohammed "Rahmatul Almeen (blessing for universe)" "Like the Hindutva hardliners hinduised the Shrine Board for Amarnath yatris, Geelani has used a political slogan to provide the separatist movement with a pan-Islamic colour. Muslims might have been enslaved or free in the last 1,400 years, but Islam has never been a slave to anyone. Since it’s not a slave, it doesn’t need to be freed," says Islamic scholar Asghar Ali Engineer.
"Islam is democratic in spirit and has no conflict with secular, composite nationalism, an idea that the likes of Geelani vehemently oppose."
In Geelani’s warped views, all Muslims must strive for and live in an Islamic state. "It’s as difficult for a Muslim to live in a non-Muslim society as it is for a fish to live in a desert," writes Geelani in Rudad-e-Qaf, his prison memoir. Bangalore-based Islamic scholar Yoginder Sikand, who has written extensively on Kashmir’s composite culture, met Geelani a few months ago in Srinagar. "When I asked him to explain his theory of Muslims’ discomfort in a not-Muslim society, he said that it was ordained by the Koran. If the separatists succeed, Kashmir will turn into another Talibanised Afghanistan," says Sikand.How will an Islamised Kashmir, if it becomes a reality at all, look? To find that, don’t look beyond Asia Andrabi, the leader of Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of Islam), who dictates head-to-toe hijab, issues fatwas against music and favours "covering" the women who dare to bare, preferably by sprinkling paint on them.
Geelani’s ideological guru, Maulana Abul-Ala Maududi, Jamaat-e-Islami’s founder, sought the idea of an Islamic state in a Quranic verse which says that if given power in the land, Muslims should establish salat (worship) and zakat (charity) and enjoin virtue and forbid evil.
Maududi interpreted it as God’s command to establish an Islamic state which needed to enforce the eradication of vice like adultery, drinking, gambling, vulgar songs, immoral display of beauty, promiscuous mingling of men and women, co-education and so on.
"Pakistan’s original idea of establishing an Islamic state was never realized. Yes, Pakistan has a city called Islamabad, but true Islam remains in India," claims Akhtarul Wasey, who teaches Islamic Studies at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia.
"The prophet proved Muslims could co-exist with non-Muslims through the Covenant of Medina he signed with the Jews. Both the Jews and the Muslims became citizens of Medina with their separate identities."
"The Prophet proved Muslims could co-exit with non-Muslims could co-exist with non-Muslims through the Covenant of Medina he signed with the Jews. Both the Jews and the Muslims became citizens of Medina with separate identities’
Wasey’s argument on the inclusivist nature of real Islam is backed by historical truth. Wahhabism, a revivalist, puritanical movement, expounded by Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahbab in 1740s in today’s Saudi Arabia, lost its exclusivist edge once it hit the shores of multicultural India. Darul Uloom Deoband, the Islamic seminary which traces its origins to the wave of Wahhabism, eschewed fanaticism when it met the tolerant, spiritual Sufi influences in India.
Jamiatul Ulem-e-Hind, Darul Uloom Deoband’s extension, which fought the British Raj, opposed the Muslim League’s "twonation" theory. Jamiat’s stalwart Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madni, under fire from some misguided maulvis of the League, had to explain his advocacy of composite nationalism in a book called Muttahda Qaumiat Aur Islam (Composite Culture and Islam). Madni was hauled over the coals, yet he didn’t budge from his stand.
The idea of a Islamic state did not attract even the venerable Maulana Abul Kalam Azad though his zeal for Islam was unmatched. Born in Mecca dn trained in Arabic and Islam studies before his family migrated to Calcutta, the erudite Azad celebrated Islam’s inclusivism in an 1913 essay: "It is the Muslims’ duty to serve humanity….Every part of God’s land is sacred, and all inhabitants of the land are dear to them." At another place, Azad declares that God’s land cannot be compartmentalized into pak (pure) and na-pak (impure).
The Kashmiri youth who dance to the tune of "Teri jaan meri jaan, Pakistan, Pakistan" would do well to take time off from Geelani’s harangues and read Islam in its right context.