NFB’s Decision To Post Offensive Essay

Mohammad Asghar’s response to Dr. Siddiqui

Dr. Habib Siddiqui, a regular writer for News From Bangladesh, first castigated an unnamed writer, whose essays appear on the pages of the website, for his “lack of comprehension, plus a colossal hatred and deplorable bigotry against Islam and its adherents,” and then wrote:

“We live in a very difficult time in our history when bigotry and intolerance against the ‘other’ people are dividing our world into hateful camps, each vying to devour the other. For the sake of our generation and those that come later, we need to promote bridge building and surely not division.”

I am a novice writer, with no formal education to boast of, or training in the art of fine writing or communication. Despite my said handicaps, I have been trying to express my thoughts, through my essays, on various issues that have been afflicting Muslims for a very long period of time. NFB has been kind enough to publish some of them on its website.

Though my essays have been appearing in NFB for some time, I have not read any objection or criticism on my thoughts from any other reader, but Dr. Siddiqui. On one occasion, he took me to task for not being able to spell the Prophet Muhammad’s first wife’s name correctly, as well as for a theory I had expounded on the circumstances that I believe had surrounded the Prophet’s birth and childhood. I dutifully attended to his objections, but instead of answering my questions that I had included in my response, he deigned it fit to remain silent.

After observing silence for a period, Dr. Siddiqui graced NFB’s website once again with another article of his; this time, he was critical of the Western writers for their alleged failure to remain neutral and objective while portraying Islam and its values in their books. This article of his had a passage that needed an explanation. I wrote a short commentary on it with the hope that he would read it on NFB and then help me remove my confusion that he had planted in my mind through a plausible claim.

Dr. Siddiqui did not respond to my questions. In his place, another erudite scholar of Islam came up with some baseless and concocted explanations in order to remove my confusion. Asked to clarify his position in the light of the Holy Quran, he, too, opted not to respond to my questions.

I recalled the above three happenings of the recent past for the purpose of driving home a particular point: If someone is found incapable of comprehending a subject or matter, the best way one can do to help him improve his understanding is to educate him thoroughly. Instead of doing this, most scholars, particularly, of Islam find it convenient to bury the uncomprehending persons’ questions or concerns in their silence with the hope that they would never have to engage themselves in an exercise they often find to be beyond their ability. This is a deceptive attitude, to say the least; it helps neither the uncomprehending persons, nor the scholars who find incompressibility in others’ questions and comments. It also does not help Islam either; rather, it bolsters the beliefs others hold about Islam and its adherents.

In this connection, readers might find interesting and pertinent a couple of emails I had exchanged with an Arab scholar a few days ago. Writing in the Arabnews, he declared: "The Arab woman’s mind is an invaluable asset and it must be tapped. The women I have talked to agree; they are “offended” that it is men who decide what they can and cannot do. What I heard from them over and over was, “We want the freedom given to us by Islam.” What they don’t want — and should not have — is some half-educated, nameless, faceless bureaucrat or a self-appointed scholar making rules and regulations that dictate how they must live their lives."

Finding his declaration intriguing, I wrote him the following for clarification:

“Dear Mr. Khaled,

{The Holy Quran, states}:   “1. 2:282: ......

And get two witnesses out of your own men, and if there are not two men, then a man and two women, such as ye {men} choose for witnesses, so that if one {woman} of them errs, the other can remind her. .....

2. 2:223: Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will; but do some good act for your souls beforehand {meaning saying of prayers to Allah for the man and the woman's salvation}; and fear Allah. ...

Does not the verse 2:282 tell us that women are inferior to men in their intellectual abilities? Does not the verse 2:223 tell us that women are men's properties whom they can engage in sexual activities anytime, and in any manner they like without having any concern for their consent or preparedness?

In cases where women contest elections for the high office of the president or the prime minister of a country, should not the electorates elect two women, instead of one, to hold the said office concurrently so that when one errs, the other is there to correct her mistake?

Would you hold Muslim men responsible, if they are found following the above dictums of the Holy Quran?”

Mr. Khaled responded: “Your interpretations goes against the tenet of Islam.  For was it not a woman Ayesha who gave us so  many of the Hadith.  And was not our beloved Prophet (PBUH) working for a lady?”

Taken aback by the above response, I wrote back:

“Dear Mr. Khaled,

Thank you for your response.

Your statement that my "interpretation" goes against the tenets of Islam is misplaced, for I had done nothing like that. In fact, I had reproduced two verses from the Holy Quran, the contents of which are crystal clear, and then asked you to comment thereon.

Do you think or believe that what I had reproduced from the Holy Quran, though in English, was wrong? If not, would you be kind enough to comment on those two verses? While expounding your erudite thoughts, would you kindly let me know if we are to grant precedence to hadiths over the contents of the Holy Quran, or should we not discard the hadiths, which appear to contradict the divine pronouncements?

As far as the veracity and the origin of hadiths are concerned, it would suffice to quote Imam Rashad Khalifa, who is reported to have made the following observation thereon: 'The extremely popular Hadiths and Sunna have nothing to do with Prophet Muhammad.' and further that obedience to them is tantamount to a 'flagrant disobedience of God and His final Prophet. He quoted verses to prove that the traditions are "Satanic inventions." (Dr. Rafiq Zakaria, Muhammad and the Quran, p. 55).”

Mr. Khaled has remained silent so long; I do not know if he would ever respond to the questions I have asked of him.

I agree with Dr. Siddiqui that “we {are living} in a very difficult time in our history when bigotry and intolerance against the ‘other’ people are dividing our world into hateful camps, each vying to devour the other.” But regrettably, he has suggested or made no recommendations, following which, we could have changed our situation. Instead, he asked us to read one or more articles, written by some non-Muslims; by doing this, he seems to believe, we are going to turn our world into a bed of roses.

Dr. Siddiqui needed to be more specific and clear on the issues he has raised in his above quoted paragraph. He should have come forward with a solution that would enable mankind to avoid divisions among themselves; he must also have showed us a modus vivendi by adopting which, we should have been able to avoid “devouring’ each other. Any statement or preaching, which has no cohesion and pragmatism in it, is not going to help the struggling Muslims of our era, nor is it going to help the next generation that is on its way to replacing them on our messy and turbulent world in days ahead. He should avoid polemics or insinuations, tacit or otherwise, in the better interest of educative discourses that I believe NFB wants to promote among its open-minded and truth-seeking readers.

In our attempts to score points over our opponents -- an exercise we often indulge ourselves in, but in which I have no interest at all, we should not forget an age-old adage: A true well-wisher or a good friend is the one, who truthfully tells his friend the real causes of his predicament; not the one who puts him in more troubles by hiding from him his shortcomings and weaknesses. Only by being able to preserve this important wisdom in our mind, would we be able to put our viewpoints before a mass of humanity, which needs to read and hear candid and truthful disclosures in order to help themselves out of a quagmire that has been besetting them for generations. Lip-service to them, and the blanket support being given to what they have been doing for ages are bound to keep them in bondage forever. Add to it their inertia, brought about by a plethora of religious dogmas, and the denial by them of the realities of the modern life, and then let us see what we find. A sea of humanity bereft of respect or dignity, and living in poverty, hunger, deprivation, illiteracy and superstitions are what I would find them remaining entrapped by in a world that would continue to feast on the them until they rise up to change their own fate and fortunes.

Are anyone’s attempts at motivating a vast number of suffering humanity for a better life “a colossal hatred and deplorable bigotry against Islam and its adherents”?