AN APPEAL TO ALL INDIAN MUSLIMS

in the light of these recent tragic blasts, the responsibility for which has been claimed by the indian muhajiddeen, i would like to use this as a forum to reach out to indian muslims...the indian muhajidden wishes to liberate india from all religions other than islam and opposes those muslims who talk of peace with "hindus and other infidels"... these people don't know that very popularly, the quran bans compulsion in religion! (something that guru teg bahadur mentioned in his letter to aurangzeb)...

they are brainwashed, only told a few passages of the quran asking them to fight the enemies of allah without proper context and are brainwashed to believe that all non-muslims are enemies of allah...

"whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind." (Quran 5:32)

"Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out Clear from Error: whoever rejects Evil and believes in God Almighty hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And God heareth and knoweth all things." (Quran 2:256, quoted by guru teg bahadur in his letter to aurangzeb)

even insulting non-muslims is banned in islam, killing innocent people is a far cry...

"And insult not those whom they worship besides Allah, lest they insult Allah wrongfully without knowledge." [al-An’aam 6:108]

"What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of human beings, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the sufferings of the injured." (Bukhari)

this is certainly not what the terrorists are doing... thus, they are muslims only in name!

The most excellent Jihad is that for the conquest of self." (Bukhari)thus, jihad includes destroying the evils within you... it may also involve killing, but not innocent people...the Quran clearly states that a muslim has to fight against evil, not against all non-muslims...

"God forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for God loveth those who are just" (Quran 6:8)

"Keep to forgiveness, and enjoin kindness." (Quran 7:199-200)

anyone who has watched the hindi movie 'dor' will recall how the person who killed someone else in a gulf country was spared his sentence because the dead person's wife signed the 'mafinama' as per islamic law...

it is not as though some muslims in these organisations would not be aware of these references in the quran and hadith, but they mould religion only for personal interest... they give a wrong picture of islam, which as per islam, makes them the biggest sinners...

Another Hadith says:“The punishment of Allah will descend more speedily upon the wicked scholars than on the common sinners. They will be astonished to see this, and will say: “Why is the punishment of Allah inflicted on us before even the worst of sinners?” They will be answered thus: “Those who transgressed in spite of having knowledge of Religion are more guilty than those who had not this knowledge.”

thus, islam teaches you to be peace-loving, tolerant and humane... in fact, the very word 'islam' means 'peace' in arabic!

isa (jesus christ) is also a prophet as per islam, and his book was the Bible, which as per muslims, got edited by humans, so in conflict with the Quran, the latter is to be considered authoritative... so, let's quote jesus from the bible where his teachings as mentioned there don't conflict with the quran...

"Peter! Put it down! Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword."

"Love those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray fort those who ill-treat you."

as per the quran, there were 1.24 lakh prophets in different parts of the world, and it is not unnatural to assume that some legacy of these great people, the messengers of God, would have survived... using this rationale, the poet iqbal described shri ram as 'imam-e-hind', the prophet sent to india, whose life conveys the teachings of prophet muhammad...

this apart, gautam buddha is also arguably mentioned in the quran... The mid-twentieth century scholar, Hamid Abdul Qadir, in his Buddha the Great: His Life and Philosophy (Arabic: Budha al-Akbar Hayatoh wa Falsaftoh), postulates that the Prophet Dhu’l-Kifl, meaning “the one from Kifl,” mentioned twice in the Quran (21.85 and 38.48) as patient and good, refers to Shakyamuni Buddha. Qadir explains that “Kifl” is the Arabicized form of Kapila, short for Kapilavastu, the bithplace of Buddha. He also mentions that the Quranic mention of the fig tree (95.1-5) refers to Buddha as well, since he attained to enlightenment at the foot of one. Several scholars accept this theory and, as support for this position, point out that the eleventh-century Muslim historian of India, al-Biruni, referred to Buddha as a Prophet. Some scholars also associate the prophesied future Buddha Maitreya, the Loving or Merciful One, with the Prophet Muhammad as the the Merciful One.

Islamic law, specifically during the Arab rule of Sindh from the eighth to the tenth centuries CE, extended the concept of “people of the Book” to the Buddhists there and granted them the same status and rights as the Christians and Jews under Arab rule had.

referring to the quran, as the noted indian muslim journalist mj akbar rightly points out -

"The verse from Surah 14, on the languages spoken by prophets, is particularly relevant since it clarifies that prophets did not speak only Arabic or Aramaic; they spoke the language of the people they were sent to. They were enjoined to take the message to all mankind, and mankind, united in ancestry, is divided by language. This verse extends the ambit and specifies it as well."

so, there is no reason to assume a prophet could not speak pali or sanskrit...and we all know buddha's message of peace... just like islam, even hinduism preaches peace...

"Peace be the earth, peaceful the ether, peaceful heaven, peaceful the waters, peaceful the herbs, peaceful the trees. May there be peace through these invocations of peace. With these invocations of peace which appease everything, I render peaceful whatever here is terrible, whatever here is cruel, whatever here is sinful. Let it become auspicious, let everything be beneficial to us."-Atharva Ved: X. 191. 4

"Avoiding violence is the highest dharma. It is the best meditation. It is the greatest gift. It is the highest self-control. It is the highest sacrifice. It is the highest power. It is the highest friend.Peace is the highest truth. Peace is the highest teaching."-Mahabharat XVIII:116.37-41.

most hindus i know were dead opposed to the gujrat carnage, and most of the mediapersons severely criticising it and people engaging in relief work were hindus... the people who engage in such acts represent a tiny fraction of hindus, just as terrorists and their supporters for muslims...

we, hindus, don't hate all muslims... in india, a hindu-majority country, many of the loved and admired actors are muslims, be it shahrukh, aamir or saif... same for singers such as aatif (who is pakistani by nationality), composers like ar rehman and lyricists like javed akhtar... certain muslims give absurd reasons for these people not being true muslims, but the point is, to a hindu, they are muslims or non-hindus and are still loved and admired, with huge fan followings...

we have had many muslim presidents, including the highly admired and loved apj abdul kalam... we have had a muslim chief justice, justice hidayatullah, after whom the national law school in raipur is named...

we love akbar and rahim, and we visit shrines of sufi saints with great reverence... we, the hindus and muslims of india, havee common saints in kabir and shirdi sai baba...

we will always remember muslims who fought for india's freedom and opposed the idea of partition, such as maulana azad, asaf ali and khan abdul ghaffar khan in the congress, ashfaqullah khan in the hindustan republican association, a revolutionary organisation in which bhagat singh was a member, barkatullah in the ghadar party, a revolutionary party and shahnawaz khan in netaji's indian national army...

and we hate non-muslim terrorists like the naxalites, members of the ranvir sena, terrorists in the north-east, the sikhs who fought for khalistan and the tamil tigers of sri lanka as much as muslim terrorists...

it is true most indian muslims are economically and educationally backward, but that is true for hindus in large numbers as well... these are common problems for the entire indian nation, and not any specific religious community, and we have to fight these collectively as 'indians'...

so, i earnestly appeal to indian muslims to not join terrorist organisations and kill innocent men, women and children, depriving their families of their love and comfort... the blasts only succeeded in giving the entire muslim community a bad name unnecessarily and nothing else... if you lost some of your near and dear ones in riots, surely you wouldn't want to subject some other innocent person to the same treatment... rather, you may like to help others later who may go through the same pain... salam (an islamic greeting, equivalent of 'PEACE be upon you' in arabic)...