Before I begin, there are two things thatone must engrave well in his/er mind;
One, I personally am not completelysatisfied the way our Muftis here in Kashmir are working; More because theyhave not played their part well. They have not respected their designation northeir tag of being Mufti.
Two, the readers must again engrave intheir minds that if I am asked, so far in my valley who is the best writer thatyou know, the first two names that will come to my heart is Ajaz ul Haq andSyeda Afshana!
As far as Ajaz ul Haq is concerned, notonly because of his pen but because of some personal emotions too, I reverehim. I see him as a magician of words who plays with them so well that when youput them together, something new comes out!
After making these things clear, let medirectly come to my response.
Without any exaggeration, it is a fact thatafter reading this piece early morning, my whole day went so unpleasant. Theproblem is that in these days of pandemic, people crave for reading “anything”from “anywhere”. And this is the time when we need to be extremely carefulbefore writing or publishing anything. It is not time to present our own viewsor pulling one another’s leg. This is the time when we have to work and helptogether. Everyone is same in the eyes of Nature. Be it a prince, beggar,sinful, a pious, commoner or a Mufti!
We never know whom Nature chooses; for goodor for destruction. We cannot raise our finger at whole institution for asingle person. Recently some singer was diagnosed positive with this cruelvirus, and she was seen mingling with so many people in some party, does thatmean we blame all the singers of the world?
We may have differences with any particularperson, but in no way it means that we generalize it and label everyone with thesame charge.
Let’s not forget that The Holy Quran says,”We sent not any before thee, except men to whom We revealed: ‘Question thepeople of the Remembrance, if it should be that you do not know-” (Holy Quran16:43). So who are these, “people of the Remembrance”?
As I said that we must not generalize, itis pertinent that I present some firsthand proof to it. Somewhere around mybirth in mid 80s, my father had met the then Grand Mufti, Mufti Abd al-Aziz ibnBaz (R.A) in Saudi Arabia. For all his life I have seen him sharing his momentswith him. He used to say that while in his company, someone called Mufti sb. onphone, while the caller was narrating his issue, Mufti Sb. began feelingsleepy. The call was on and the receiver of phone set starting slipping offfrom Mufti’s hand. It fell off far from his ear but Mufti Sb. continued saying,”Na’am” (Yes)… Na’am, …Na’am” and it continued for around half an hour. Isaw it with my eyes that the receiver of the phone was far away from his earand with his eyes closed; he continued saying “Na’am…” I wondered as to whatMufti Sb. is listening to, and repeating, “Na’am…”? And finally after abouthalf an hour, when the caller finished, Mufti Sb. opened his eyes, took backthe receiver to his ear responded and replied to his query in such a preciseway that on that day I came to know what it means, “The sleep of the scholar isbetter than the worship of the ignorant”.
You said, “Common sense eats mud…” Reusingthis sentence of yours Br. Ajaz, so do I, reading you generalizing your viewsabout any particular person to all the Muftis around the globe for you have notmentioned that you are only talking about any particular Mufti or of anyparticular place only. Let us not forget that on many crucial junctures theyhave also guided us.
The last Friday prayers I attended inmosque, the Imam was giving sermon on the current situation. He made it clearthat such situations should not prevent us from gathering in mosques for Nimaz.However at that time, the situation was not so grim. Yet I myself felt itstrange him saying so but I didn’t generalize that everyone in any mosque saidthe same and interestingly, on the same Friday, I read our respected seniorjournalist Yusuf Jameel sb. in his fbpost, “…Yesterday, the preacher at Jumma namaz announced that if #Coronavirusspreads the Friday congregation will be restricted to brief khoutba” which wasin absolute contrast to the Maulvi in the mosque I was in. But now do I sayevery Maulvi had the same view?
You said, “In the absence of prudence, ourMuftis refer to jurisprudence. They will take the stock of the situation first,they will exhaust their junkyard of knowledge and scholarship first, they willestablish the authenticity of quotes and misquotes first and when the situationreally turns `that bad’, they will take the decision accordingly.” Here a veryapt Kashmiri proverb comes to my mind, “Halle te shiraakhei, balle teshiraakhei..”
The problem is that if they look forauthentic Ahadeeth and Aaayats of The Holy Quran, this is what we say, and ifthey say anything without authenticity, more we throw all the garbage on them.I think the problem is deeper in us.
You said, “Are they worried about theirpulpit which they would lose if it goes unattended for too long? Assure themtheir brand will sell well as the crisis is over, they will be at ease.”Brother, not only they, I too am worriedif they lose their pulpit and so should you. And you know why? If they givetheir pulpit up, are you or me ready to fill it? Give away our busy(ness)? Ifyou or I are ready to fill it, I shall be the first person to remove the saidMufti from his position!
“…but such immense is the power ofnon-sense in our society we never knew. We have discovered our hidden treasuresof insanity. Go COVID, Go Back.” If Go COVID, Go Back was worth of engraving inblack carving ink of yours, how about the slogan, “Thali Bajao”?
“Now a question for us. Why ask theseMuftis and Moulvis what to do? …who empowers them to take decisions on mybehalf… what role a Mufti has in my personal, rational, logical life.?” Good!But may I please know who my parents are to take decisions on my behalf? Whoare the teachers in my school and university to take decisions on my behalf?Who are the people to tell me who is lawful for me to marry and not?
Let us not forget Allah says, “Amr bil Ma’rufwa Nahy an al Munkar” (Command the good and forbid the bad). If I agree toyour statement, “what role a Mufti has in my personal, rational, logicallife.?” then I will have to cast off the above quoted Aayat of The GloriousQuran (Naoozubillah).
I think in this frenzy, at least we shouldbe thankful to Muftis whom you called, “Suffocating Fatwa market” that theysooner or later gave Fatwa of closing the Jamat prayers in mosques. If it wouldnot have come from them, I believe none would follow it had it only come fromthe tainted politicians who have established to have always misguided us insuch times.
“And our decisions are not based on faithor on a crazy understanding of an idea called faith…” Is faith a crazyunderstanding of an idea? What idea is it?
You have said, “Faith is blind, faithfulare not blind.” Who says faith is blind? Probably you are talking about love.This is for the first time I am reading such a thing. At least my faith is notblind. I have a well living historical, philosophical, spiritual, practicalexample of my faith resting in the Holy Mosque of Madina. May peace andblessings be upon him.
“Clergy is the vestige of a long forgottenChurch. They had their share of follies, but they have woken up. We have noplan to wake up as the `situation is not that bad.’” My very dear Ajaz Sb., didthey wake up or sleep forever? Had such words come from a less learned person,it would not have hit me so hard, what daggers me bad is that you know theexact outcome of the parting of the church from politics in Europe. They shouldhave refined the clergymen rather than parting the religion from theirpolitics. History is witness to the demoralization that Europe encounteredafter the religion was taken away from their politics.
These ending words of yours remind me of,Alama Iqbal (R.A) and I too end my response with it:
“Jalal-E-Padshahi Ho K Jamhoori Tamasha Ho
Juda Ho Deen Siasat Se To Reh Jati Hai Changaizi”
(Statecraft divorced from Faith to reign of terror leads,
Though it be a monarch’s rule or Commoners’ Show.)
Bottom line: it is a request to Muftis not to make fun ofthemselves please. If they think they are not capable of the reason andintegrity that Islam demands, they better zip their lips. And to Ajaz Sb., whomI respect, kindly be conscientious while generalizing.