This document consists of:
Part 1. Translation of a fatwa (Theological Edict) issued by Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, India.
The original fatwa in Urdu can be seen at: http://www.geocities.com/khalid2277/verdictoriginal.htm
Part 2. Meaning of a few verses of the Holy Quran.
“Give below is the translation of a fatwa (edict) issued by Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, India. The judgment was sought by Dr. Md Khalid Munir of Aligarh, seeking the clarification about some major doubts raised on Islam nowadays.
A fatwa is a religious judgement issued in the light of Islam by an Islamic institution or a theologian expert in the discipline (Mufti), on specific questions asked. The process of issue of a fatwa consists of thorough discussion within the board of Islamic jurists and then issuing forth of the judgment which is then signed by the board. A copy of the fatwa is also kept in the records of the institution. Thus, a Fatwa acts as a reference document on a particular issue.
Nadwatul Ulama is one of the two major Islamic religious Institutions or the major seats of Islamic learning in the Indian subcontinent. The other one is Darul Uloom, Deoband. The Internationally renowned Islamic scholar Late Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi was formerly the Rector of Nadwatul-Ulama. The current Rector of the institution, Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadwi, who is also the President of the All Indian Muslim Personal Law Board (a national body of Islamic scholars which safeguards according to Islamic law, the interests of the Muslims in the judicial process), can be contacted for further discussion on the topic.”
Address:
Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama,
P.O.Box 93,
Tagore Marg, Lucknow. (U.P),
INDIA.
Phone: 91-522-2740151
Fax: 91-522-2741231
What is the opinion of the Ulama and the Honourable Islamic jurists on the following issues? The translation with explanation of a few verses from the holy Quran is attached herewith.
1. The battles fought in the history of Islam (that is during the period of the holy prophet (s.a.w) and the subsequent four caliphs namely Hazrat Abubakr, Hazrat Umar, Hazrat Uthman and Hazrat Ali), were for the propagation of Islam or the purpose of defense only?
2. Under which circumstances is a war permissible in Islam?
3. From the Islamic point of view, is it permissible to kill innocent people for religious or political motives; for example, by bombings etc.?
Yours sincerely,
Dr Mohammad Khalid Munir,
Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, (U.P),
INDIA –202002.
Email: [email protected]
________________________________________________________________
1. All the battles fought during the early days of Islam were defensive only. In the very first battle, known in history as the battle of ‘Badr’, the Muslims did not go to Mecca to fight but fought the battle in their own defence at a place known as Badr near Medina. The second battle known as ‘Uhad’ was also fought in Medina against the infidels of Mecca. Even in the battle of ‘Khandak’, all the infidels of Arab and the Jews combined their forces at Medina in an effort to wipe out Islam and Muslims. But they were compelled in despair by the grace of Allah. The holy Prophet and his companions wanted to perform ‘Umrah’ (a holy ritual at the holy Kaaba), but were prevented from doing the same; and were compelled to enter into a treaty with the infidels on conditions specified by them. The treaty was known as the ‘Treaty of Hudaibiyah’. The infidels of Mecca themselves violated the treaty. This, compelled the Muslims to conquer Mecca as a defensive bid. After the weakening of the infidels, the Iranians and the Romans used different methods for damaging Islam and indulged in repeated hostilities. This compelled Muslims to engage in a war with them.
2. Whenever a power uprises to damage Islam, a war is permissible. Whenever a power tries to destroy Islam, it is compulsory for all Muslims to fight in the defense of Islam.
3. The killing of any innocent human being deliberately for any motive is absolutely not permissible in Islam.
Since murder is the source of violent disturbances and chaos in the society, which tends to disrupt the law and order in the world and can be the precursor of the grave loss to all humanity, Allah says in the Holy Quran: -
“Because of that We (Allah) prescribed to the children of Israel; who so kills a person, except for a person, or for corruption (for creating disorder and bloodshed) in the land, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind and whoso brings life to one, it shall be as if he had brought life to all mankind”
creating disorder and bloodshed” (Al-Quran 5:32).
--
Signed under official seal by:
Honourable Mufti Mehmood Hasan Hasani,
Center for Islamic Edicts,
Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama.
Countersigned by:
Honourable Mufti Nasir Ali,
Center for Islamic Edicts,
Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama.
Address:
Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama,
P.O.box 93,
Tagore Marg, Lucknow. (U.P),
INDIA.
Phone: 91-522-2740151
Fax: 91-522-2741231
Part 2
Following is the translation and commentary, of the verses of the Holy Quran, which some critics of Islam allege that verses teach violence. We clarify the meaning of the verses so that it becomes obvious that the verses don’t teach war to be waged on unjust grounds. The material has been taken from “Tafsir-ul-Quran’, by Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi, published by the Academy of Islamic Research and Publications, Nadwatul-Ulama, Lucknow. Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi was a renowned Islamic scholar of his time who completed the work in 1941.
Late Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi has written the Introduction to the book.
Address:
Academy of Islamic Research and Publications,
Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama,
P.O.box 93,
Tagore Marg, Lucknow. (U.P),
INDIA.
Phone: 91-522-2740151
Fax: 91-522-2741231
2:190 –
And fight in the way of Allah, those who fight you1 and do not trespass2; surely Allah does not love the trespassers.
(Surah Baqarah)
2:191 –
And kill them3 wherever you come upon them4, and drive them out whence they drove you out; and mischief5 is more grievous6 than bloodshed. And do not fight them near the Sacred Mosque unless they fight you therein but if they do fight you there7, then kill them. This is the recompense of the infidels8.
(Surah Baqarah)
2: 192 –
Then If they desist, then surely Allah is Forgiver, Merciful.
2: 193 –
And fight them until there is no more mischief9, and obedience is to Allah10. So if they desist then there is to be no violence except save against the ungodly.
Footnote references :
1= (violating the truce they had signed themselves). The Muslims, after having borne with almost superhuman fortitude for years and years untold persecution at the hands of pagan republic of Makka, are now for the first time enjoined to take to reprisals. ‘For full thirteen years the Muslims were subjected to relentless persecutions in Mecca, The prophet and his followers fled for life to Medina, which is over 150 miles from Mecca, but the enemy would not leave them alone in their refuge. They came to attack them within a year ‘and the first three great battles were fought in the very locality which will show whether the prophet was an assailant or defendant.’ (Headley, The original church of Jesus Christ and Islam, p.155). The Makkans had signed a truce and were the first to break it. The words ‘fight with those who fight against you’ clearly show, first, that the Muslims were not the aggressors, and secondly, that those of the enemy who were not actual combatants- children, women, monks, hermits, the aged and the infirm, the maimed, and the like, had nothing at all to fear from the Muslim soldiery.
It was in the light of this express divine injunction that the great Abu Bakr (of blessed memory), the first Caliph (successor of the prophet), charged his troops in Syria, ‘not to mutilate the dead’, nor to slay old men, women, and children, not to cut down fruit-trees, not to kill cattle unless they were needed for food ; and these humane precepts served like a code of laws of war during the career of Mohammadan conquest’. (Bosworth Smith, op.cit.,p.185). Has not Islam thus, in prescribing war against those who break God’s laws, challenge His righteous authority, and fill the world with violence and injustice, made every concession short of the impossible? Has any code of military ethics been so chivalrous, so humane, and so tender towards the enemy? ‘The moral tone adopted by the Caliph Abu Bakr, in his instructions to the Syrian army, was,’ says a modern Christian historian, ‘so unlike the principles of the Roman government, that it must have commanded profound attention from a subject people… such a proclamation announced to Jews and Christians ‘sentiments of justice and principles of toleration which neither Roman emperors nor orthodox bishops and ever adopted as the rule of their conduct.’ (Finlay, Greece under the Romans, pp.367-368)
2= i.e. do not violate the truce yourselves; honor your word; do not step beyond the limits of the law. Compare and contrast the war laws of the Bible: - ‘And they stopped all the well of water, and felled all the good trees.’ (The 2nd book of the Kings. 3;25). ‘For six months did Joab remain there with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom.’ (The 1st book of the Kings.11:16): ‘Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.’ (The first book of Samuel. 15:3)
3= i.e., those who violated the truce and took up arms to extirpate both the Muslims and Islam.
4= (During the period of belligerency).
5= (of irreligion and impiety). The word covers, on the part of the Makkans, a number of other such crimes over and above the grossest forms of idolatry, as treachery, perfidy, wanton, persecution of the Muslims, and aggression in fighting.
6= i.e., causing greater harm; leading to graver consequences. There are evils far worse than war; and it is to combat manfully these greater evils that war is allowed, and sometimes enjoined in Islam. Even the Jains, the religious pacifists of India, to whom all forms of violence are repugnant, hold that ‘wars are designed by the Mysterious Unseen for bringing the recalcitrant peoples to book.’
7. = (then and there). The inviolability of the Ka‘ba and its precincts is to be kept intact, except under the pressure of sheer self self-defense.
8= (who have no scruple even in violating the sanctity of the Ka‘ba).
9= (of idolatry), i.e., until the pagan’s power for mischief is entirely crushed, and the suzerainty of Islam is established.
10= Islam is the religion wholly Allah’s. So the injunction in this effect is this: fight these groups of infidels until they surrender to the authority of Islam. Idolatry in Arabia must be extirpated and the religion of God be established. ‘Muslims have certainly no more reason to be ashamed of the use of force during their past history than the nations of the West who forcibly suppress immoral traffic in women, drug traffic, exploitation of labour or the cremation of widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands…. The fact remains that the sword of Islam has very considerably contributed to the moral and material progress of mankind; and it is not for Muslims to apologise for their ancestors who took it up in the service of humanity.’
On the internet, this document is available for unchanged publishing at: http://www.geocities.com/khalid2277/verdict.htm
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