Re: Dr. Israar on Jawab Deyh
^^ But then he said at the end that dont just listen to me (as Iftikhar brought up objections of Ulema upon him) saying that we should always have another Tafseer under our study, for cross checks
Dr Israar is perhaps one of the rearist gems amongst Ulemas. When he put across his point of view he himself is admitting perhaps he got this point wrong and we should consult other tafseers as well. This is a very rare quality amongst general mullahs who do not hesitate to issuue fatwas of somebody becoming a murtid and discourage the use of logic and debate to find the truth.
The most liberal Alim on the issue of treatment of non muslims is Dr. Ghamidi, he I find adjusts his stand according to the gatherings he is adressing. If he has a liberal audience he change is stance totally. However going by his book he has written following version:
[Ghamidi, Javed A. (2005); “The Islamic Shari’ah of Jihad” translated by Shehzad Saleem; pp. 3-5; Lahore : Al-Mawrid, Institute of Islamic Sciences ]
Peace and freedom are two essential requirements of a society. Just as various penal measures help in protecting a society from the evils and excesses committed by an individual, resorting to armed offensives sometimes becomes essential to curb the evils perpetrated by countries and nations. As long as diplomatic relations and negotiations can be used to resolve matters, no one would endorse the use of force for settling affairs. However, if a nation threatens to disrupt the peace and freedom of the world and its arrogance and haughtiness exceed all bounds, a stage may come when the use of force and power becomes essential to keep it in check. In such cases, it is the inalienable right of humankind to forcibly stop its subversive activities until peace and freedom of the world are restored. The Qur’an asserts that if the use of force had not been allowed in such cases, the disruption and disorder caused by insurgent nations would have reached the extent that the places of worship would have become deserted and forsaken, not to mention the disruption of the society itself:
“And had it not been that Allah set aside one people with another, the monasteries and churches, the synagogues and the mosques, in which His praise is abundantly celebrated would be utterly destroyed.” (22:40)
This use of force is called jihad.
This use of force is called jihad, and in the Qur’an it can be classified in two distinct categories:
Firstly, it is done against injustice and oppression.
Secondly, it is done against the deniers of the Prophet (sws) after the truth of his message had become evident to them.
The first type of jihad is an eternal directive of the shari‘ah (Islamic law). As stated earlier, it is launched to curb oppression and injustice.
The second type, however, is specific to people whom the Almighty selects for delivering the truth as an obligation. They are termed as witnesses to the truth; the implication being that they bear witness to the truth before other people in such a complete and ultimate manner that no one is left with an excuse to deny the truth. Bearing witness to the truth in such a manner is called shahadah. In the history of mankind, for the very last time this status was conferred on the Prophet Muhammad (sws) and his nation, the Banu Isma‘il (the children of Ishmael, the elder son of Abraham):
“And similarly, We have made you an intermediate community so that you bear witness [to this religion] before the nations, and the rasul bear such a witness before you.” (2:143)
Once the process of shahadah is complete, the truth is unveiled to a people in its ultimate form, and, if they still deny it in spite of being convinced about it, they are punished in this very world. At times, this punishment is through earthquakes, cyclones and other calamities and disasters, while, at others, it emanates from the swords of the believers. As a result, those who have denied the truth are totally vanquished in their land and the truth reigns supreme in it. In the case of Prophet Muhammad (sws), the Divine scourge took this very form. Consequently, just as his Companions (rta) were asked to wage war against oppression and injustice, they were also asked to wage war to punish the rejecters of his truth once it had become totally manifest to his addressees. This was actually a Divine plan executed through human beings. They themselves were not authorized to even think of such an undertaking. It is to this very fact which the following words of the Qur’an allude:
“Fight them and God will punish them by your hands.” (9:14)
For the second objective, the words used in Surah Baqarah and Surah Anfal (the second and the eighth chapters of the Qur’an) are “Allah’s religion reigns supreme” and “all of Allah’s religion reigns supreme” respectively. Prior to them, the word “fight them” directs the Muslims to wage war. The antecedent of the pronoun “them” in this statement is the Idolaters of Arabia . Consequently, these expressions mean that in the land of Arabia the religion of Islam would reign supreme. This purpose could only have been achieved in two ways: either the followers of all other religions were to be put to death or they were to be subdued and subjugated completely. Consequently, after many phases interspersed with periods of both war and peace when the disbelievers were totally humiliated, both these ways were adopted. Muslims were directed to kill the Idolaters of Arabia if they did not accept faith and to let the Jews and Christians live on their own religions if they accepted to pay jizyah (the non-Muslim tax) and live a life of total subjugation to the Islamic state established in Arabia .However, the active adversaries among them were put to death or exiled whenever it became possible.
It has been written at the very beginning of this article that the various measures adopted by the Prophet (sws) and his Companions (rta) including warfare were all Divinely ordained. These measures do not belong to the common shar’iah law of Islam. Rather they belong to a specific law that can be termed as the law of itmam al-hujjah (unveiling of truth in an undeniable form). This law can be summarized thus: When the truth of a rasul’s (messenger’s) message is unveiled to a people in its ultimate form such that no one has any excuse to deny it, the rejecters of this truth are punished in this very world.
Mr. Ghamidi in liberal congregations takes the stance contrary to what he has written in his book that the directives to kill or exile the idolters and subduing the people of the book was time specific.
The general stance of mullahs and even Dr. Israar is that these directives are not time specific and we are directed to subdue people of the book to second class citizens even today. Dr. Israar and Mr. Iftikhar did not talk about killing or exiling the idolters purposely as it would sound too gory. However going by this logic that is the second part of the directive and is regularly implented by Al Quaeeda type whose favourite method of execution is slaying. (9:05)
Dr Israar is an exception who advises you to study different versions on this topic, general mullahs will declare you murtid if you deviate from this stance. This is the very reason Mr. Ghamidi does not take a clear cut stance in public on the issue.
There is a growing movement of reformist muslims who do not come out in open in the fear of getting killed by the followers of these fundo mullah types. This movemnt wants to liberalise the Islam from these mullah type champions of Islam. We believe in reforming Islam from these mullah versions, incorporate the use of logic as a principal of sunnah. Please read my opening post in the thread mullhism vs real Islam....