Wednesday, July 21, 2010

[Debate] Freedon of Speech vs Mawdudi Book Ban - Exchange with Mohammad Asghar - Part 3

Dear Asghar,

Many thanks for your mail which has given me food for thoughts.
It is not as if its the first time in my life that I have come across the points you make - nor will it conceivably be the last - however being an agnostic, and forgive my impertinence, my position is : I neither believe nor disbelieve any of it.
Down in rural Bangladesh far away from the pretensions of 'enlightened discourses' of either Mullahs or well meaning liberals such as us, being witness to many all night 'Kobi Lorais' (Bards Duel) in the company of 'half-literate or illiterate' sHADHU, sANYASIS and Fakirs in the many sHONGO's that I have attended - has me convinced that all of us here are possibly on the first steps in the ladder of a very steep learning kerb regretabbly gone askew. I believe there is no end to learning or sharing knowledge.
With the cautionary warning signalled by someone on this thread as to the futility of 'engaging' you ( that never can be the intention of a simple and ignorant bAUL such as myself) given your years of study of the kO'RAN and Hadith - you do have reasons (valid or otherwise is debatable) to stand by your convictions and I congratulate you for your bold stance.
As stated earlier, most unfortunately in my belief system we believe in cultural cohesion and not conflicts, accultaration not accusations, assimilation not division, fomenting bonds and not being fractious and above all - believe in absolving and not in absolutism.
Seizing on what Roy has to say "All cultures are not equal; some really do offer more to satisfy human aspirations. " - I urge everybody here to fall back and take some time out to study our 'native culture' and the many folk philosophers and sAGEs who have relentlessly fought against all forms of tyranny for centuries with varying degrees of success - to seek answers which may be eluding us. I plead that there must have been very good and justifiable reasons for the UNESCO to proclaim in 2005 Baul Music : A Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of 'Humanity' - I say - in Bengal on the quiet, and over centuries a highly sophisticated and developed culture has evolved and is already in place that may provide some answers if not all. Whilst it may fail in uniting us - it surely will succeed in providing directions to the way forward, perhaps unity in diversity?
The world as such and many of us living in the comforts of concrete jungles - have chosen to ignore them - or given our tokenistic or cursory appreciation - but our efforts to broaden our horizon will not be complete until all avenues have been explored - if indeed pEACE is our avowed intention and end of tyranny our ultimate goal.
Merely harping back and forth on what our immidiate 'books of intelligent knowledge' has on offer and has sadly warped our thought process - versus the open source of extelligent wisdom available, which intrinsically and forcefully is the stimuli provided to mankind by mother nature - is possibly the simplistic and uncomplicated way of putting things across and in perspective. Having said that : It is very easy to be complicated, but very hard to be simple - and I choose the harder option.
Since we believe in nothing more 'gODLY' than the human sOUL - our emphasis is Man. The '7th hEAVEN' or other such fictional places do not necessarily have to be UP in the sky. For all practical purposes it could well be in the body that houses our sOUL - as 'dEHO tOTTYO' (or enquiry into the body) teaches us. To imagine that bAULs knew more about the human body, limbs, veins, bones and arteries with accuracy - centuries before Gray's Anatomy came about - in itself is a prime indicator of that we may be possessing and thinking of 'high value' or have tagged it as 'value added' is extremely limited - and there are much much more out there up on offer - without our knowing. Religions, scriptures etc are really trivial issues as far as the bAULs are concerned - and my apologies if I am sounding 'supremacist'!
Thanks you once again. I stand informed by your views - if not illumined.
Leaving you with a quote from sHAIJI:
"Aponarey je apni chena/Jarey boley uposhona
Knowing thyself is the ultimate worship
Lalon boley gyani jona, shey pai tar deeshey
Lalon says only the enlightened among you, finds him in his pursuit
Bol khyapa khujish karey/ desh bideshey?
O excitable - who do you yearn for outside your own being?"
Kind regards and jOI gURU /\
Mac
London, 21st July 2010

Dear Mr. Haque,
Thanks for your response. I have noted your comment very carefully. In it, you wrote:
"I believe when it comes to Islam - the language of the kO'RAN and what it ideally means as also the context in which the verses were revealed is possibly the cause for much of the misunderstanding."
In my understanding, the language of the Quran, if we consider its messages in the context and space of the seventh century Arabia, is not a problem. The Quran was revealed, if it was at all revealed by a deity, who lives somewhere in the seventh sky (sic), was for a particular time and place.
If you read read verse 7 of chapter 42 of the Quran, you will find out that the Quran was revealed in Arabic for the people of Mecca and its neighborhood. The Arabic spoken of in this and other verses is the same Arabic, which the people of Quraish spoke.
It is like the languages of the people of Chittagong and Sylhet of Bangladesh. They speak Bengali but it is a dialect of their own. Same is the case with the Quran's Arabic; though mostly a local dialect of the Quraish, but it was understood by the rest of the people of the Arabian peninsula.
Today, this dialect is on the verge of extinction for, it is no more taught, or spoken even in the present-day Saudi Arabia!
The problem with the Quran's language arose after the Bedouin Arabs began invading other countries and imposed Islam on the conquered people. Since most of the conquered people spoke no Arabic, the Quran needed translation into various languages when the question of "interpretation" also surfaced. Before all of the above happened, the Quran was as clear to the people of the Arabian peninsula as the rays of sun!!
As far as the "context" of the Quran's messages is concerned, such a thought is anathema to the Muslims of the world, though it is a fact that each verse has a context and that if certain things had not taken place in the lifetime of Muhammad, most of its verses would not have been revealed to him by Allah.
Accepting this fact will nullify the claim that the Quran was written down by Allah on a tablet prior to the creation of the universe and preserved it (the Quran) with Him in order to prevent it from being corrupted by evil elements, like the Jinns. What today's corrupted Torah and Injeel (Bible) contain are the small portions of the celestial Quran, hence the derailment of the Jews and Christians from the true path of Allah.
In order to keep Muslims on His true path, Allah revealed to Muhammad the whole of the original Quran, which means that the Quran, which is in Allah's custody, is written in Arabic, a language, which only a small number of people, i.e. the Quraish of Mecca, spoke.
Despite the fact that Islam and the Quran were intended only for the people of Mecca and its neighborhood, Muslims are now claiming that they are for the entire humanity and, keeping the Quran's words in mind, they proclaim that Islam is the only religion that should be followed by all humans, if they wish to enter heaven on the Day of Judgment. All the non-believers in Islam will burn forever in the fire of hell.
In a nutshell, the problems that Muslims, and for that matter Islam, faces today emanated from Muslims' attempt to impose Islam on all humans on earth. They have been inspired to do so by Allah Himself: He has clearly stated in the Quran that the only religion that is acceptable to Him is Islam and that the earth belongs to the Muslims and also that Muslims must strive (Jihad in Arabic) with all their might to convert the non-Muslims to Islam; recover Allah's land from their possession and if they refuse to do either of both the things, the non-Muslims must either be killed and take over all of their possessions, including their women, who must become their sex slaves, or forced to live as a second class citizens, with total submission to the Muslims, together with paying protection tax to their Muslim masters (see the Quran; 9:29).
Any suggestions on how to nullify the above beliefs and the requirements of Allah in order to make our earth a peaceful habitat for all humans?
Regards,
Mohammad Asghar

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home