| Books and Documents | |
| 05 Apr 2010, NewAgeIslam.Com |
| Munir Commission Report-24: The Definition of a Muslim | ||
 Justice M. Munir commission investigated the large-scale riots against the Ahmadya sect in Pakistan in 1953. His report is an eye-opener. It shows that our ulema are not even able to agree on a definition of who a Muslim is. Justice Munir had called heads of all Islamic schools of thought and asked them the definition of a Muslim. No two ulema agreed. It also exposes the pusillanimity of our so-called scholars of Islam and their near-total disregard of the beauty and generosity of Islam. – Editor"Q.—Please give the definition of a Musalman? A.—The word 'Musalman' is a Persian one. There is a distinction between the word 'Musalman' which is a Persian word for Muslim and the word 'momin'. It is impossible for me to give a complete definition of the word 'momin'. I would require pages and pages to describe what a momin is. A person is a Muslim who professes to be obedient to Allah. He should believe in the Unity of God, prophethood of the ambiya and in the Day of Judgment. A person who does not believe in the azan or in the qurbani goes outside the pale of Islam. Similarly, there are a large number of other things which have been received by tavatir from our prophet. In order to be a Muslim, he must believe in all these things. It is almost impossible for me to give a complete list of such things." Next: Reaction On Muslims Of Non-Muslim States Photo: Main Lahore Ahmadiyya mosque in Paramaribo | ||
| Munir Commission Report-24: The Definition of a Muslim | |
Maulana Abul Hasanat Muhammad Ahmad Qadri, President, Jami'at-ul-Ulamai- Pakistan — "Q.— What is the definition of a Muslim? A — (1) He must believe in the Unity of God. (2) He must believe in the prophet of Islam to be a true prophet as well as in all other prophets who have preceded him, (3) He must believe in the Holy Prophet of Islam as the last of the prophets (khatam-un-nabiyin). (4) He must believe in the Qur'an as it was revealed by God to the Holy Prophet of Islam. (5) He must believe as binding on him the injunctions of the Prophet of Islam. (6) He must believe in the qiyamat. Q.—Is a tarik-us-salat a Muslim? A.—Yes, but not a munkir-us-salat" Maulana Ahmad Ali, President, Jami'at-ul-Ulama-i-Islam, Maghribi Pakistan — "Q.— Please define a Muslim? A.—A person is a Muslim if he believes (1) in the Qur'an and (2) what has been said by the prophet. Any person who possesses these two qualifications is entitled to be called a Muslim without his being required to believe in anything more or to do anything more." Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, Amir Jama'at-i-Islami — "Q.—Please define a Muslim? A.—A person is a Muslim if he believes (1) in tauheed, (2) in all the prophets (ambiya), (3) all the books revealed by God, (4) in mala'ika (angels), and (5) yaum-ul-akhira (the Day of Judgment). Q.—Is a mere profession of belief in these articles sufficient to entitle a man to call himself a Musalman and to be treated as a Musalman in an Islamic State? A.—Yes. Q.—If a person says that he believes in all these things, does any one have a right to question the existence of his belief? A.—The five requisites that I have mentioned above are fundamental and any alteration in anyone of these articles will take him out of the pale of Islam." Ghazi Siraj-ud-Din Munir— "Q.—Please define a Muslim? A.—I consider a man to be a Muslim if he professes his belief in the kalima, namely, La Ilaha Illalah-o-Muhammad-ur-Rasulullah, and leads a life in the footsteps of the Holy Prophet." Mufti Muhammad Idris, Jamia Ashrafia, Nila Gumbad, Lahore— "Q.—Please give the definition of a Musalman? A.—The word 'Musalman' is a Persian one. There is a distinction between the word 'Musalman' which is a Persian word for Muslim and the word 'momin'. It is impossible for me to give a complete definition of the word 'momin'. I would require pages and pages to describe what a momin is. A person is a Muslim who professes to be obedient to Allah. He should believe in the Unity of God, prophethood of the ambiya and in the Day of Judgment. A person who does not believe in the azan or in the qurbani goes outside the pale of Islam. Similarly, there are a large number of other things which have been received by tavatir from our prophet. In order to be a Muslim, he must believe in all these things. It is almost impossible for me to give a complete list of such things." Hafiz Kifayat Hussain, Idara-i-Haquq-i-Tahaffuz-i-Shia— "Q.—Who is a Musalman? A.—A person is entitled to be called a Musalman if he believes in (1) tauheed, (2) nubuwwatand (3) qiyamat. These are the three fundamental beliefs which a person must profess to be called a Musalman. In regard to these three basic doctrines there is no difference between the Shias and the Sunnies. Besides the belief in these three doctrines, there are other things called 'zarooriyat-i-din' which a person must comply with in order to be entitled to be called a Musalman. These will take me two days to define and enumerate. But as an illustration I might state that the respect for the Holy Book, wajoob-i-nimaz, wajoob-i-roza, wajoob-i-hajj-ma'a-sharait, and other things too numerous to mention, are among the 'zarooriyat-i-din'" Maulana Abdul Hamid Badayuni, President, Jami'at-ul-Ulama-i-Pakistan: "Q.—Who is a Musalman according to you? A.—A person who believes in the zarooriyat-i-din is called a momin and every momin is entitled to be called a Musalman. Q.—What are these zarooriyat-i-din? A.—A person who believes in the five pillars of Islam and who believes in the rasalat of our Holy Prophet fulfils the zarooriyat-i-din. Q.—Have other actions, apart from the five arakan, anything to do with a man being a Muslim or being outside the pale of Islam? (Note—Witness has been explained that by actions are meant those rules of moral conduct which in modern society are accepted as correct.) A.—Certainly. Q.—Then you will not call a person a Muslim who believes in arakan-ikhamsa and the rasalatof the prophet but who steals other peoples' things, embezzles property entrusted to him, has an evil eye on his neighbour's wife and is guilty of the grossest ingratitude to his benefector? A.—Such a person, if he has the belief already indicated, will be a Muslim despite all this".Maulana Muhammad Ali Kandhalvi, Darush-Shahabia, Sialkot — "Q.—Please define a Musalman? A.—A person who in obedience to the commands of the prophet performs all the zarooriyat-i-din is a Musalman. Q.—Can you define zarooriyat-i-din? A.—Zarooriyat-i-din are those requirements which are known to every Muslim irrespective of his religious knowledge. Q.—Can you enumerate zarooriyat-i-din? A.—These are too numerous to be mentioned. I myself cannot enumerate these zarooriyat. Some of the zarooriyat-i-din may be mentioned as salat, saum, etc." Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi — "Q.—Who is a Musalman? A.—There are two kinds of Musalmans, a political (siyasi) Musalman and a real (haqiqi) Musalman. In order to be called a political Musalman, a person must: (1) Believe in the Unity of God, (2) believe in our Holy Prophet being khatam-un-nabiyin, i.e., 'final authority' in all matters relating to the life of that person, (3) Believe that all good and evil comes from Allah, (4) Believe in the Day of Judgment, (5) believe in the Qur'an to be the last book revealed by Allah, (6) Perform the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, (7) Pay the zaka'at, (8) Say his prayers like the Musalmans, (9) Observe all apparent rules of Islami mu'ashira, and (10) Observe the fast (saum). If a person satisfies all these conditions he is entitled to the rights of a full citizen of an Islamic State. If any one of these conditions is not satisfied, the person concerned will not be a political Musalman. (Again said) It would be enough for a person to be a Musalman if he merely professes his belief in these ten matters irrespective of whether he puts them into practice or not. In order to be a real Musalman, a person must believe in and act on all the injunctions by Allah and his prophet in the manner in which they have been enjoined upon him. Q.—Will you say that only the real Musalman is 'mard-i-saleh'? A.—Yes. Q.—do we understand you aright that in the case of what you have called a political (siyasi) Musalman, belief alone is necessary, while in the case of a haqiqi Musalman there must not only be belief but also action? A.—No, you have not understood me aright. Even in the case of a political (siyasi) Musalman action is necessary but what I mean to say is that if a person does not act upon the belief that is necessary in the case of such a Musalman, he will not be outside the pale of a political (siyasi) Musalman. Q.—If a political (siyasi) Musalman does not believe in things which you have stated to be necessary, will you call such a person be-din? A.—No, I will call him merely be-amal". The definition by the Sadr Anjuman Ahmadiya, Rabwah, in its written statement is that a Muslim is a person who belongs to the ummat of the Holy Prophet and professes belief inkalima-i-tayyaba. Keeping in view the several definitions given by the ulama, need we make any comment except that no two learned divines are agreed on this fundamental. If we attempt our own definition as each learned divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all others, we unanimously go out of the fold of Islam. And if we adopt the definition given by any one of the ulama, we remain Muslims according to the view of that alim but kafirsaccording to the definition of every one else. APOSTASY Apostasy in an Islamic State is punishable with death. On this the ulama are practically unanimous (vide the evidence of Maulana Abul Hasanat Sayyad Muhammad Ahmad Qadri, President, Jami'at-ul-Ulama-i-Pakistan, Punjab; Maulana Ahmad Ali, Sadr Jami'at-ul-Ulama-i-Islam, West Pakistan; Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, founder and ex- Amir-i-Jama'at-i-Islami, Pakistan; Mufti Muhammad Idris, Jami'Ashrafia, Lahore, and Member, Jami'at-ul-Ulama-i-Pakistan; Maulana Daud Ghaznavi, President, Jami'at-i-Ahl-i-Hadith, Maghribi Pakistan; Maulana Abdul Haleem Qasimi, Jami'at-ul-Ulama-i- Islam, Punjab; and Mr. Ibrahim Ali Chishti). According to this doctrine, Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan, if he has not inherited his present religious beliefs but has voluntarily elected to be an Ahmadi, must be put to death. And the same fate should befall Deobandis and Wahabis, including Maulana Muhammad Shafi Deobandi, Member, Board of Talimat-i-Islami attached to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, and Maulana Daud Ghaznavi, if Maulana Abul Hasanat Sayyad Muhammad Ahmad Qadri or Mirza Raza Ahmad Khan Barelvi, or any one of the numerous ulama who are shown perched on every leaf of a beautiful tree in the fatwa, Ex. D. E. 14, were the head of such Islamic State. And if Maulana Muhammad Shafi Deobandi were the head of the State, he would exclude those who have pronounced Deobandis as kafirs from the pale of Islam and inflict on them the death penalty if they come within the definition of murtadd, namely, if they have changed and not inherited their religious views. The genuineness of the fatwa, Ex. D. E. 13, by the Deobandis which says that Asna Ashari Shias are kafirs and murtadds, was questioned in the course of enquiry, but Maulana Muhammad Shafi made an inquiry on the subject from Deoband, and received from the records of that institution the copy of a fatwa signed by all the teachers of the Darul Uloom including Maulana Muhammad Shafi himself which is to the effect that those who do not believe in thesahabiyyat of Hazrat Siddiq Akbar and who are qazif of Hazrat Aisha Siddiqa and have been guilty of tehrif of Qur'an are kafirs. This opinion is also supported by Mr. Ibrahim Ali Chishti who has studied and knows his subject. He thinks the Shias are kafirs because they believe that Hazrat Ali shared the prophethood with our Holy Prophet. He refused to answer the question whether a person who being a Sunni changes his view and agrees with the Shia view would be guilty of irtidad so as to deserve the death penalty. According to the Shias all Sunnis are kafirs, and Ahl-i-Qur'an; namely, persons who consider hadith to be unreliable and therefore not binding, are unanimously kafirs and so are all independent thinkers. The net result of all this is that neither Shias nor Sunnis nor Deobandis nor Ahl-i-Hadith nor Barelvis are Muslims and any change from one view to the other must be accompanied in an Islamic State with the penalty of death if the Government of the State is in the hands of the party which considers the other party to be kafirs. And it does not require much imagination to judge of the consequences of this doctrine when it is remembered that no two ulama have agreed before us as to the definition of a Muslim. If the constituents of each of the definitions given by the ulama are given effect to, and subjected to the rule of 'combination and permutation' and the form of charge in the Inquisition's sentence on Galileo is adopted mutatis mutandis as a model, the grounds on which a person may be indicted for apostasy will be too numerous to count. In an earlier part of the report we have referred to the proscription of the 'Ashshahab', a pamphlet written by Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani who later became Sheikh-ul-Islam-i-Pakistan. In that pamphlet the Maulana had attempted to show from the Qur'an, the sunna, the ijma' and qayas that in Islam the punishment for apostasy (irtidad) simpliciter is death. After propounding the theological doctrine the Maulana had made in that document a statement of fact that in the time of the Caliph Siddiq-i-Akbar and the subsequent Caliphs vast areas of Arabia became repeatedly red with the blood of apostates. We are not called upon to express any opinion as to the correctness or otherwise of this doctrine but knowing that the suggestion to the Punjab Government to proscribe this pamphlet had come from the Minister for the Interior we have attempted to inquire of ourselves the reasons for Government's taking a step which ex hypothesi amounted to condemning a doctrine which the Maulana had professed to derive from the Qur'an and the sunna. The death penalty for irtidadhas implications of a far-reaching character and stamps Islam as a religion of fanatics, which punishes all independent thinking. The Qur'an again and again lays emphasis on reason and thought, advises toleration and preaches against compulsion in religious matters but the doctrine of irtidad as enunciated in this pamphlet strikes at the very root of independent thinking when it propounds the view that anyone who, being born a Muslim or having embraced Islam, attempts to think on the subject of religion with a view, if he comes to that conclusion, to choose for himself any religion he likes, has the capital penalty in store for him. With this implication Islam becomes an embodiment of complete intellectual paralysis. And the statement in the pamphlet that vast areas of Arabia were repeatedly bespattered with human blood, if true, could only lend itself to this inference that even when Islam was at the height of its splendour and held absolute sway in Arabia there were in that country a large number of people who turned away from that religion and preferred to die than to remain in that system. It must have been some such reaction of this pamphlet on the mind of the Minister for the Interior which prompted him to advise the Punjab Government to proscribe the pamphlet. Further the Minister who was himself well-versed in religious matters must have thought that the conclusion drawn by the author of the pamphlet which was principally based on the precedent mentioned in paras. 26, 27 and 28 of the Old Testament and which is only partially referred to in the Qur'an in the 54th verse of the Second Sura, could not be applicable to apostasy from Islam and that therefore the author's opinion was in fact incorrect, there being no express text in the Qur'an for the death penalty for apostasy. On the contrary each of the two ideas, one underlying the six brief verses of Surat-ul-Kafiroon and the other the La Ikrah verse of the second Sura, has merely to be understood to reject as erroneous the view propounded in the 'Ash-Shahab'. Each of the verses in Surat-ul-Kafiroon which contains thirty words and no verse of which exceeds six words, brings out a fundamental trait in man engrained in him since his creation while the La Ikrah verse, the relevant portion of which contains only nine words, states the rule of responsibility of the mind with a precision that cannot be surpassed. Both of these texts which are an early part of the Revelation are, individually and collectively, the foundation of that principle which human society, after centuries of conflict, hatred and bloodshed, has adopted in defining one of the most important fundamental rights of man. But our doctors would never dissociate chauvinism from Islam. PROPAGATION OF OTHER RELIGIONS Closely allied to the punishment for apostasy is the right of non-Muslims publicly to preach their religion. The principle which punishes an apostate with death must be applicable to public preaching of kufr and it is admitted by Maulana Abul Hasanat, Ghazi Siraj-ud-Din Munir and Master Taj-ud-Din Ansari, though the last subordinates his opinion to the opinion of theulama, that any faith other than Islam will not be permitted publicly to be preached in the State. And Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, as will appear from his pamphlet 'Punishment in Islam for an apostate', has the same views on the subject. Ghazi Siraj-ud-Din Munir, when questioned on this point, replied:— "Q.—What will you do with them (Ahmadis) if you were the head of the Pakistan State? A.—I would tolerate them as human beings but will not allow them the right to preach their religion". The prohibition against public preaching of any non-Muslim religion must logically follow from the proposition that apostasy will be punished with death and that any attack on, or danger to Islam will be treated as treason and punished in the same way as apostasy. JIHAD Earlier we have pointed out that one of the doctrines on which the Musalmans and Ahmadis are at variance is that of jihad. This doctrine at once raises a host of other allied matters such as the meanings of ghazi, shahid, jihad-bis-saif, jihad fi sabili'llah, dar-ul-Islam, dar-ul-harb,hijrat, ghanima, khums and slavery, and the conflict or reconciliation of these conceptions with modern international problems such as aggression, genocide, international criminal jurisdiction, international conventions and rules of public international law. An Islamic State is dar-ul-Islam, namely, a country where ordinances of Islam are established and which is under the rule of a Muslim sovereign. Its inhabitants are Muslims and also non-Muslims who have submitted to Muslim control and who under certain restrictions and without the possibility of full citizenship are guaranteed their lives and property by the Muslim State. They must, however, be people of Scriptures and may not be idolaters. An Islamic State is in theory perpetually at war with the neighbouring non-Muslim country, which at any time may become dar-ul-harb, in which case it is the duty of the Muslims of that country to leave it and to come over to the country of their brethren in faith. We put this aspect to Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi and reproduce his views:— "Q.—is a country on the border of dar-ul-Islam always qua an Islamic State in the position ofdar-ul-harb? A.—No. In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the Islamic State will be potentially at war with the non-Muslim neighbouring country. The non-Muslim country acquires the status of dar-ul-harb only after the Islamic State declares a formal war against it". According to Ghias-ul-Lughat, dar-ul-harb is a country belonging to infidels which has not been subdued by Islam, and the consequences of a country becoming darul-harb are thus stated in the Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam:— "When a country does become a dar-ul-harb, it is the duty of all Muslims to withdraw from it, and a wife who refuses to accompany her husband in this, is ipso facto divorced". Thus in case of a war between India and Pakistan, if the latter is an Islamic State, we must be prepared to receive forty million Muslims from across the border into Pakistan. In fact, Maulana Abdul Haamid Badayuni, President, Jami'at-ul-Ulama-i-Pakistan, thinks that a case for hijratalready exists for the Musalmans of India. The following is his view on this subject:— "Q.—Do yon call your migration to Pakistan as hijrat in the religious sense? A.—Yes". We shall presently point out why Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's version of the doctrine of jihad is relied on as a ground for his and his community's kufr, but before we do that it is necessary first to state how jihad has been or is understood by the Musalmans. There are various theories about jihad which vary from the crude notion of a megalomaniac moved by religious frenzy going out armed with sword and indiscriminately slaughtering non-Muslims in the belief that if he dies in the combat he becomes a shahid and if he succeeds in killing attains the status of a ghazi, to the conception that a Musalman throughout his life is pitted against kufr,kufr here being used in the sense of evil and wrong, and that his principal activity in life is to strive by argument a where necessary by force to spread Islam until it becomes a world religion. In the latter case he fights not for any personal end but because he considers such strife as a duty and an obligation which he owes to Allah and the only recompense for which is the pleasure of Allah. The Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam contains the following brief article ondjihad:— "DJIHAD (A), holy war. The spread of Islam by arms is a religious duty upon Muslims in general. It narrowly escaped being a sixth rukn, or fundamental duty, and is indeed still so regarded by the descendants of the Kharidjis. This position was reached gradually but quickly. In the Meccan Suras of the Qur'an patience under attack is taught; no other attitude was possible. But at Medina the right to repel attack appears, and gradually it became a prescribed duty to fight against and subdue the hostile Meccans. Whether Muhammad himself recognised that his position implied steady and unprovoked war against the unbelieving world until it was subdued to Islam may be in doubt. Traditions are explicit on the point; but the Qur'anic passages speak always of the unbelievers who are to be subdued as dangerous or faithless. Still, the story of his writing to the powers around him shows that such a universal position was implicit in his mind, and it certainly developed immediately after his death, when the Muslim armies advanced out of Arabia. It is now a fard ala'l-kifaya, a duty in general on all male, free, adult Muslims, sane in mind and body and having means enough to reach the Muslim army, yet not a duty necessarily incumbent on every individual but sufficiently performed when done by a certain number. So it must continue to be done until the whole world is under the rule of Islam. It must be controlled or headed by a Muslim sovereign or imam. As the imam of the Shias is now invisible, they cannot have a djihad until he reappears. Further, the requirement will be met if such a sovereign makes an expedition once a year, or, even, in the later view, if he makes annual preparation for one. The people against whom the djihad is directed must first be invited to embrace Islam. On refusal they have another choice. They may submit to Muslim rule, become dhimmis (q. v.) and pay djizya and kharadj (q. v.) or fight. In the first case, their lives, families and property are assured to them, but they have a definitely inferior status, with no technical citizenship, and a standing only as protected wards. If they fight, they and their families may be enslaved and all their property seized as booty, four-fifths of which goes to the conquering army. If they embrace Islam, and it is open to them to do so even when the armies are face to face, they become part of the Muslim community with all its rights and duties. Apostates must be put to death. But if a Muslim country is invaded by unbelievers, the imam may issue a general summons calling all Muslims there to arms, and as the danger grows so may be the width of the summons until the whole Muslim world is involved. A Muslim who dies fighting in the path of Allah (fi sabil Allah) is martyr (shahid) and is assured of Paradise and of peculiar privileges there. Such a death was, in the early generations, regarded as the peculiar crown of a pious life. It is still, on occasions, a strong incitement, but when Islam ceased to conquer it lost its supreme value. Even yet, however, any war between Muslims and non-Muslims must be a djihad with its incitements and rewards. Of course, such modern movements as the so-called Mu'tazili in India and the Young Turk in Turkey reject this and endeavour to explain away its basis; but the Muslim masses still follow the unanimous voice of the canon lawyers. Islam must be completely made over before the doctrine of djihad can be eliminated". The generally accepted view is that the fifth verse to Sura-i-Tauba (Sura IX) abrogated the earlier verses revealed in Mecca which permitted the killing of kuffar only in self-defence. As against this the Ahmadis believe that no verso in the Qur'an was abrogated by another verse and that both sets of verses, namely, the Meccan verses and the relative verses in Sura-i-Tauba have different scopes and can stand together. This introduces the difficult controversy of nasikh and mansukh, with all its implications. It is argued on behalf of the Ahmadis that the doctrine of nasikh and mansukh is opposed to the belief in the existence of an original Scripture in Heaven, and that implicit in this doctrine is the admission that unless the verse alleged to be repealed was meant for a specific occasion and by the coming of that occasion fulfilled its purpose and thus spent itself, God did not know of the subsequent circumstances which would make the earlier verse inapplicable or lead to an undesired result. The third result of this doctrine, it is pointed out, cuts at the very root of the claim that laws of Islam are immutable and inflexible because if changed circumstances made a new revelation necessary, any change in the circumstances subsequent to the completion of the revelation would make most of the revelation otiose or obsolete. We are wholly incompetent to pronounce on the merits of this controversy but what has to be pointed out is the result to which the doctrine ofjihad will lead if, as appears from the article in the Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam and other writings produced before us including one by Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi and another by Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, it involves the spread of Islam by arms and conquest. 'Aggression' and 'genocide' are now offences against humanity for which under sentences pronounced by different International tribunals at Nuremburg and Tokio the war lords of Germany and Japan had to forfeit their lives, and there is hardly any difference between the offences of aggression and genocide on the one hand and the doctrine of spread of Islam by arms and conquest on the other. An International Convention on genocide is about to be concluded but if the view of jihad presented to us is correct, Pakistan cannot be a party to it. And while the following verses in the Mecca Suras:— Sura II, verses 190 and 193: 190. "Fight in the Cause of God Those who fight you, But do not transgress limits; For God loveth not transgressors". 193. "And fight them on Until there is no more Tumult or oppression, And there prevail Justice and faith in God; But if they cease, Let there be no hostility Except to those Who practise oppression". Sura XXII, verses 39 and 40: 39. "To those against whom War is made, permission Is given (to fight) because They are wronged; — and verily, God is most Powerful For their aid;—" 40. "(They are) those who have Been expelled from their homes In defiance of right,— (For no cause) except That they say, 'Our Lord Is God.' Did not God Check one set of people By means of another, There would surely have been Pulled down monasteries, churches, Synagogues, and mosques, in which The name of God is commemorated In abundant measure. God will Certainly aid those who Aid His (cause);—for verily God is Full of Strength, Exalted in Might, (Able to enforce His Will)," contain in them the sublime principle which international jurists have only faintly begun to discover, we must go on preaching that aggression is the chief characteristic of Islam. The law relating to prisoners of war is another branch of Islamic law which is bound to come in conflict with International Law. As for instance, in matters relating to the treatment of prisoners of war, we shall have to be governed by Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi's view, assuming that view is based on the Qur'an and the sunna, which is as follows:— "Q.—Is there a law of war in Islam? A.—Yes. Q.—Does it differ fundamentally from the modern International Law of war? A.—These two systems are based on a fundamental difference. Q.—What rights have non-Muslims who are taken prisoners of war in a jihad? A.—The Islamic law on the point is that if the country of which these prisoners are nationals pays ransom, they will be released. An exchange of prisoners is also permitted. If neither of these alternatives is possible, the prisoners will be converted into slaves for ever. If any such person makes an offer to pay his ransom out of his own earnings, he will be permitted to collect the money necessary for the fidya (ransom). Q.—Are you of the view that unless a Government assumes the form of an Islamic Government, any war declared by it is not a jihad? A.—No. A war may be declared to be a jihad if it is declared by a national Government of Muslims in the legitimate interests of the State. I never expressed the opinion attributed to me in Ex. D. E. 12:— "Raha yeh masala keh agar hukumat-i-Pakisten apni maujuda shukl-o-surat ke sath Indian Union ke sath apne mu'ahadat khatm kar-ke i'lan-i-jang bar bhi de to kya us-ki yeh jang jihad ke hukam men a-ja'egi? Ap ne is bare men jo rae zahir ki hai woh bilkul darust hai - Jab-tak hukumat Islami nizam ko ikhtiyar kar-ke Islami nah ho jae us waqt tak us-ki kisi jang ko jihad kehna aisa hi hai jaisa kisi ghair Muslim ke Azad Kashmir ki fauj men bharti ho-kar larne ko jihad aur us-ki maut ko shahadat ka nam dediya jae - Maulana ka jo mudd'a hai woh yeh hai keh mu'ahadat ki maujudgi men to hukumat ya us-ke shehriyon ka is jang men sharik hona shar'-an ja'iz hi nahin - Agar hukumat mu'ahadat khatm kar-ke jang ka i'lan kar-de to hukumat ki jang to jihad phir bhi nahin hogi ta-an keh hukumat Islami nah ho jae.' (Translation) 'The question remains whether, even if the Government of Pakistan, in its present form and structure, terminates her treaties with the Indian Union and declares war against her, this war would fall under the definition of jihad? The opinion expressed by him in this behalf is quite correct. Until such time as the Government becomes Islamic by adopting the Islamic form of Government, to call any of its wars a jihad would be tantamount to describing the enlistment and fighting of a non-Muslim on the side of the Azad Kashmir forces jihad and his death martyrdom. What the Maulana means is that, in the presence of treaties, it is against Shari'at, if the Government or its people participate in such a war. If the Government terminates the treaties and declares war, even then the war started by Government would not be termedjihad unless the Government becomes Islamic'. About the view expressed in this letter being that of Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi, there is the evidence of Mian Tufail Muhammad, the writer of the letter, who states: "Ex. D. E. 12 is a photostat copy of a letter which I wrote to someone whose name I do not now remember." Maulana Abul Hasanat Muhammad Ahmad Qadri's view on this point is as follows:— "Q.—Is there a law of war in Islam? A.—Yes. Q.—Does it differ in fundamentals from the present International Law? A.—Yes. Q.—What are the rights of a person taken prisoner in war? A.—He can embrace Islam or ask for aman, in which case he will be treated as a musta'min. If he does not ask for aman, he would be made a slave". Similar is the opinion expressed by Mian Tufail Muhammad of Jam'at-i-Islami who says:— "Q.—Is there any law of war in Islamic laws? A.—Yes. Q.—If that comes into conflict with International Law, which will you follow? A.—Islamic law. Q.—Then please state what will be the status of prisoners of war captured by your forces? A.—I cannot reply to this off hand. I will have to study the point." Of course ghanima (plunder) and khums (one-fifth) if treated as a necessary incident of jihadwill be treated by international society as a mere act of brigandage. |
--
Asadullah Syed
No comments:
Post a Comment