An Open Letter to Islamic Scholars!

As the silence drew high and the voice of a lofty preacher echoed wide, the ears of conscientious listeners heeded to the voice endowed with eminent attention. The speech was a good mixture of emotions, enriching prose and quality talk, the fruit of a good preparation. But Alas! It manifested a repetition of the same old story, the same old trauma. The speech was exuberant but an amalgamation of nothing except forbiddances and the trauma of people who returned back with their heads down with no real solutions to help, but only regrets. The same old story is being repeated by our scholars of Islam. I have a message for you. I in no way intend to demean or disrespect you, but it is an important matter I intend to convey. I am a young boy in my teenage and not a speck in knowledge compared to you but my contentions have arisen by the observations I made around me from quite a number of years. A number of years I have been listening to you. To be honest, you have become a nightmare for anything and everything people do, a haram gun anytime to explode. Let me picture my assertion with a parable of an issue which is often tossed up. Interest, yes, we all unanimously agree is forbidden explicitly in the texts. But the task of its elimination is not just to lecture people about its sin and punishment attached. The bigger task which underlies is to make it practical for the people to abhor and abandon the practice. Being practical in the present time scenario, the forbiddances related to it cannot be practically established on a larger scale. Talking in context of Kashmir, consider the level of unemployment and then for a moment assume that all those thousands working in conventional banks leave their jobs. Who will feed their family? And you cannot tell them just to sit putting their trust in God when the Prophet taught us to first tie the camel and then put our trust in God. Not everyone is in a position to do something else and considering the mass unemployment one can easily tell the outcome. With respect to your excellence I would like to remind you of the Islamic methodology of dealing with things which you seem to be exceedingly neglecting. Its not your job just to sit around giving sermons and declaring prohibitions and wraths stiffly. All the prohibitions which came in Islam at the time of Prophet came in stages and strategically, therefore when people confronted with the final prohibition; they were in a good state to conform to that. Assume for a moment that all the conventional banks in Kashmir or any country or state stop working. Who will render the wide range of services which have become indispensable need in our day to day lives? Your job, being shouldering the title of high respect and not violating your position by standing loose in fulfilling your responsibility is to provide alternatives for people. So when next time you tell people to leave their jobs in conventional banks, you have alternatives ready for them in form of Shariah reliant companions, Islamic banks or the likes, you have worked your way through establishing shariah based institutions which provide important services which have become an indispensable need in the present time scenario. Our Prophet was a man who set

alternatives for people, who held their hands and helped them out of their difficulties. He was not the one who just sat around lecturing, but he was a man who labored with his companions and established and built the mosque in Madinaah by his own hands. Consider the rampant drug addiction, massive alcoholism among immense number of people for whatever reasons. The solution to their predicament is an essential concern which needs to be addressed. Their lives enslaved in chains of addiction need bona fide solution and practical resolutions. You cannot expect them to get abetted by simply lecturing them about its impermissibility, but rather you need to pursuit ways in struggle of finding solutions. You need to be at forefront in striving for establishing rehabilitation centers and provide realistic in person counseling to anxiety ridden individuals who can resort to addictions and suicides or are already stuck in such woes. You need to work for pressing researchers in various fields to find solutions and be yourself dedicated for finding solutions in so many other concerns which are out there, to whatever extend possible. You need to endeavor hard work and difficulties to put things at proper work. And thats the challenge which underlies your way. In midst of a zealous crowd stood an enthusiastic seeker who jolted his way approaching the lofty preacher. It was a best of moment, to seek some answers, an epoch of light which he envisioned that moment. The preacher with a smile, humbleness so fine, listened to the seeker to answer his grievances. But what the seeker asked, whatever he mentioned and responded did not suit the preacher. Views and people quoted did not suit the preachers digestive contention. A man of honor, so full of beautiful manners turned into a beast of arrogance with rudeness in all his reacting dimensions. Seeing this demeanor, the seeker fell lost in epoch of darkness with all his envisions lost in despair. After all, how could he tend to believe in something or quote someone with whom the preacher was not in conformity with? Thanks to the scholarly preachers who helped him in that way. Their rigidity and hatred paved him a fine way, now on the day of account, only God knows who all will be held in dismay, for the lost way of the once so zealous, seeker of the goodly way. Rigidity in ones own set of beliefs and disregard of tolerance when dealing with difference of opinions seem to have settled an indelible mark on your ideology. Our Prophetic guidance is clear on the point of being easy on people and not being hard, making things easy and not complicated, being balanced and not extremist. But with due respect and being candid in my words, you have become the central figures who are known for not having these qualities. I urge your goodness to ponder on the sayings of the prophet when he said, You have been sent to make things easy for the people and you have not been sent to make things difficult for them, and sayings like so avoid extremes and strike a balance I also urge your saneness to understand the clear scope of difference of opinions in various issues and not create factionalism, hatred and rage based on that. Dont destroy the community of Muslims because you are the main central personalities who can make or destroy the Muslim community, but unfortunately the latter seems more prominent in your acts than the first. Be open minded enough to live and let live amidst the differences which are there, be easy on people, shun your rigidity and

extremism and reclaim the proper character which suits your position. I hope that we soon reclaim such scholars who are real decoders of problems, who provide solutions to people, work on ground amidst all the difficulties which may come to set alternatives for people, who with their good followings summon supporting people to work out solutions together. Be ambassadors of peace, love and humanity and not ambassadors of hatred, rage and malevolence.

-Zubair Arif Shah (The Author is a writer and an activist, a student of various disciplines which include economics, psychology, philosophy, Islamic sciences, communication studies, literature and others)

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www.facebook.com/zubair.arif.98 Or www.twitter.com/PzZubair