Very bad experience, how we are ready to indulge in intolerance.
I put Dr Israr Ahmed’s ‘Bayan ul Quran’ CD in my car and kept on listening to it on my way to office. In afternoon, when I was returning home, I gave lift to a colleague from Fiqah e Jafria and some other colleagues of Sunni sect.
A sunni guy asked shia colleague ’ tumhare haan roza kaisa hota hai?‘. Obviously the question was idiotic, but they are in good terms with each other and pass remarks to each other. khair, the shia guy got upset and said ‘No comments’. I interrupted and said to sunny guy, who is from Jamat e Islami’ ‘Jamatiyon main kaisa roza hota hai, asar ke baad to iftar nahin hota’. He said ‘Maghrib ke baad’. I said ‘magrib ke baad nahin, maghrib hone per’. The atmosphere then gone normal after this.
After this conversation, I played ‘Bayan ul Quran’ CD to avoid any conflicting conversation. When Dr Israr explained verse 3:28 given below, he said Shias uses this for Taqqaya concept.
‘Let not believers take disbelievers as allies rather than believers. And whoever [of you] does that has nothing with Allah , except when taking precaution against them in prudence. And Allah warns you of Himself, and to Allah is the [final] destination.’
Surat 'Ali `Imran [3:28] - The Noble Qur’an - ??? ???
I was not aware that he referred to Shia taqqaya, as I was concentrating on traffic, so missed the point. After a while, shia colleague asked who is the molana. I said ‘Dr Israr Ahmed’. He said ’ He got bias against Shia and these scholars created enmity between different sects and then Jamat e Islami guy interrupted that he just referred to Taqayya concept and don’t you people follow that? The debate was in fiery phase and that might have gone to reference about what Shia scholars say about Sunnis, but thanks God Jamat e Islami guys stop came and I switched off CD player.
Now it was me and Shia colleague in car and started complaining that look how these scholars create hatred and Zia did that and that… Finally I dropped him and reached home.
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I was thinking how a comment can lead to heated debates? Don’t our scholars know sensitivity of issues between sects?
How could we gain harmony amongst different sects of Islam? Do we stop interacting with each other? Don’t talk about religion with each other.
Do you think that talking of huge similarities between different sects can help in promoting harmony?
.. point being, each scholar is speaking to his congregation, not to a mixed gathering so as a host you should be more sensitive next time.