They are apparently the greatest champions of Islam. They sport long
flowing beards while commoners like me do not. They mostly wear the
dresses synonymous with Islam (other than on occasion or two when they
wear army or police uniform to carry forth a terror attack), while
commoners like me wear Western dresses. They are the most frequent
visitors to mosques, keep a copy of Quran under their arms, are seen
talking of nothing but Islam and are chief votaries of Dawah (calling
others to faith). This apparent relationship that they show with Islam
gives all the more reasons for commoners like myself and students of
Islam to seek them, talk to them on Islamic issues and follow them.
Follow them! Sad part is they are the people who give to the world
the most savage and ferocious people in the name of Islamic Jihad;
people who have no qualms whatsoever in pulling the trigger in the face
of a child, nor hesitate in severing the head of a journalist with a
dagger. These self-proclaimed champions of Islam are giving the worst
name to Islam and making life difficult for all commoners like me.
This version of savage and brutal Islam gained in strength when the
British supported Abdul Aziz in conquering Riyadh in 1902, consolidating
control over Najd by 1922, conquering Hijaz in 1925 and then finally
uniting the dominions into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. King
Abdul Aziz adopted the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab (b. 1703),
who was considered heretic during his lifetime by leading Sunni Muslim
scholars of Islam as well by his brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Wahhab who
issued a fatwa declaring him as a heretic. As followers of this
State-supported Islam grew in number, particularly when oil money began
to be used to propagate it, opponents of this movement coined the term
‘Wahabi’ or ‘Wahabism’ though neither Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab nor any
of the movement’s participants referred to themselves as such. It is
this reason why others see them as a sect different from their own;
while most Wahabis prefer calling them only Muslims. The understanding
of Islam that this ‘sect’ propagates is altogether different from that
of majority Sunnis and Shias. In fact, the first thing that King Abdul
Aziz did, after gaining control of Saudi Arabia, was to raze to ground
all the mausoleums and signs in the land, that had any relation to
Ahlulbayt (Ahlulbayt is a term referring to Prophet Mohammad’s household
members who have been praised and lauded in the Quran), who are
otherwise held in high esteem by the majority Sunnis and Shias.
Though countries like Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have publicly
distanced themselves from providing any support to terrorism or
terrorists, lot many videos are available on YouTube of Sheikhs
providing funds and support to terrorist organizations and even abetting
in recruitments. Though it is a bitter truth that all the terrorists
that the world has seen claim to be championing the cause of Wahabism,
the truth is also that most Wahabis are not terrorists. Thus it is clear
that one doesn’t become a terrorist by merely following the sect of
Wahabism and most Wahabis are peace-loving people like majority of
Muslims.
Then what is the reason that this sect alone gives to the world the
greatest number of savage and brutal people, who are increasingly
becoming a blot on the face of Islam? I tried to go backwards in
history, beyond the time of Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahab, the Ottoman
Empire, the Islam propagated by rulers like the Abbasids and the
Umayyads and even before, to the time immediately after Prophet
Mohammad, to see when the first traits of this brutal and savage Islam
are visible in Islamic history. Interestingly, we found all that is
happening in today’s world in the name of Islam had been prophesied in
minute detail by Prophet Mohammad during his lifetime; the prophesies
are scattered in various books of traditions related to Prophet Mohammad
which were published hundreds of years before the world got to know of
the terror-related facet of Islam. Let us see some of Quranic and
Prophet Mohammad’s prophesies and teachings and try to analyse where and
to what extent the present-day Muslims have digressed from the true
teachings of Islam.
As per a tradition, Prophet Mohammad prophesied that a time will come
when Islam will remain only for the namesake and Quran will only remain
as a ritual, their mosques will be adorned with embellishments but
won’t preach Islam, their Ulema (religious heads) will be the worst of
people living under the sky. Evil will emanate from these Ulema and will
return to them.
Islam will remain for namesake means all acts symbolic with Islam
will remain but the real spirit of those teachings will go missing.
Mosques will not endear one to spirituality but will remain as
embodiments of grandeur, pomp and show. Ulema (the learned) will become
worldly people and will remain the chief of all evil and thereafter the
evil will return to them.
A tradition related to Ibn Abbas says Prophet Mohammad said: ‘O
Muslims, you will definitely adorn your mosques on the pattern of Jews
and Christians.’ The same is happening. The mosques are embellished with
adornments to such an extent that they are kept closed and opened only
at the time of prayers. Another tradition says that when you start
adorning your mosques and Quran remains for namesake, then you will get
digressed from real teachings. Another tradition says that when worldly
issues start being discussed in mosques instead of pursuing spiritual
excellence, a real Muslim should not sit with such ‘believers’. An
oft-quoted tradition says that a time will come when those sticking to
true teachings of Islam will be akin to those holding fire in their
hand. Another tradition tells that a time will come when the best of
possessions of a Muslim will be goats that he will take to the
mountains. Prophet also prophesied a time will come when evil will set
in; during that time one who is sitting will be better than one who is
standing (in action); one who is standing will be better than one who is
walking and one who is walking will be better than one who is running.
Anyone who will lift his gaze towards these evils, evil will catch him.
Prophet said in those times of evil, worshipping God and nothing else
will be the best deed. Prophet even said that a time will come when
opponents of faith will unite and converge to kill Muslims just like
people gather around food. Someone asked will we be less in numbers
during that time, and the Prophet replied you will be in plenty but will
be like hay that is blown up in wind. This prophesy too is coming true
now when we find that adherents to all religions of the world have
started seeing Muslims as the worst of all people on earth. This is
contrary to the time when people adhering to other religions cherished
hope that Muslims would come and conquer them so they live a better life
under Muslim rule. In another tradition, Prophet said during the end
times, knowledge will decrease, ignorance will rise, adultery will
increase and women will become more than men. Another tradition says
that during the end times, time will start passing by quickly; usury
will be prevalent and person will not distinguish between earning by
rightful and wrong means. Another tradition says that a time will come
when monkeys will sit on pulpits of mosques (thus meaning that most
ignorant persons will become the religious leaders). Prophet Mohammad
also vowed in the name of God and said the world will not end until the
time will come when the murderer won’t know why he was murdering and the
slain won’t know why he was being slain. Somebody asked why this would
happen. Prophet replied killings will increase due to prevalence of
evil. The murderer and the murdered both will be on the wrong. This
shows people will fight for wrong reasons; they will fight for wrong
ideology, while each person will claim to be votary of peace. As per
another tradition, Prophet said during end times you will find those who
grazed sheep boasting of the heights of their buildings. He also said
end times will come when those who walked barefoot will become the
rulers. At another place he said deaf and dumb will become the rulers,
which means rulers will be least bothered seeing or hearing the truth
and justice and righteousness will not be their concern. At another
place, he said end times will come when the authority will be handed
over to people who are not suitable. And said during end times, there
will be no more good people left; only worse people will remain in the
end as garbage and God will not care for them. In another tradition, he
said during end times, women will be naked despite wearing clothes. He
also prophesied about people who will carry whips in hand and will flog
people, thereby meaning that people will harm the innocent with their
weapons. Prophet has even prophesied that time will come when prior to
coming of Mahdi – the final messiah – the Muslims will get confined only
to small region around Medina and Khyber. Upon coming of Mahdi, justice
and peace will prevail and the world will see bounties like never
before. Mahdi is none else but the Kalki avatar of the Hindus.
All these prophesies show Prophet Mohammad himself knew his followers
would deviate. Those who blame Islam for all the waywardness among
Muslims should know that Islam is far different from the conduct of
those who call themselves as adherent to Islam.
It is a universally acknowledged teaching of Islam that one who kills
one innocent person is akin to killing the entire humanity. In a
charter written to his governor in Egypt, Ali (the son-in-law of Prophet
who constitutes one of the 14 Ahlulbayt of Quran) wrote in clear terms
how a ruler need to behave with his subjects, irrespective of their
faith and religion. It is a part of history that during the time of
Prophet Mohammad, a clear directive was given even during war that none
of the Muslims were to kill a non-combatant, not even those who had been
disarmed or were without arms to defend themselves. Charter of Medina
framed by Prophet Mohammad tells how a non-Muslim has to be treated when
he is a subject of a Muslim rule. Prophet’s tradition says clearly that
a person is not a Muslim if someone feels threatened by his hand or
tongue (thereby meaning that a Muslim would not even insult another
person by tongue, leave alone strike him with hand). Another tradition
tells that one is not a Muslim if anyone living up to 40 houses on each
side in the neighbourhood goes to sleep without food. This tradition
does not tell a Muslim has to take care of households belonging to his
brothers-in-faith but talks of all neighbours and implies that a Muslim
has to live in such a manner that he not only remains abreast with the
condition of neighbours but also help them in their hour of need. There
are several instances when members of Prophet’s household (Ahlulbayt)
carried sacks of food in the wee hours of night, distributing them among
the poor and downtrodden of the city. Ali, even when he was the Caliph
of Islam, wore garments with innumerable stitches, ate nothing more than
loaf of bread and salt and took nothing more from the treasury for his
family than what the poorest of the poor were getting.
If this was spiritual side of Islam, where did the militant Islam
come from which included the severing of head from torso, killing of
innocent children, brutal and savage treatment of those not adhering to
their version of belief?
When I went back in history I found several incidents that showed
behaviour similar to that of terrorists of today, which confirmed my
view that this problem is not a Wahabi problem but there are certain
other factors responsible for it.
Very soon after the demise of Prophet Mohammad, we find two versions
of Islam that originated. One was the spiritual Islam which was being
practised by Ahlulbayt (people of Prophet’s household) and some of
Prophet’s distinguished companions and the other was the militant Islam
being propagated by the rulers viz. the materialistic people. These two
kinds of Islam have remained in conflict during all times.
The Islam being propagated by the rulers saw to it that Muslims
remain as distant as possible from the real teachings. It was in their
interest to see the Muslims remain ignorant and illiterate. So much so
that when Muawiya (who commenced the Umayyad rule) came to fight Ali –
the Caliph – he openly said he had brought those people with him who
were incapable of distinguishing between a she and he camel. Muawiya
meant to say that all discourses to right teaching of Islam will fall on
the deaf ears of such Muslims. A shade prior to this battle, in another
war instigated by Muawiya, the ignorant Muslims were even told to eat
the excreta of a camel being rode by one of Prophet’s wife who had come
to fight Ali. While Quran says Islam is the religion of intellect and
makes it mandatory for a Muslim to accept fundamental teachings only
through intellect, it suited the rulers to keep the subjects ignorant.
At times, the clergy too realized it suited them to keep the adherents
ignorant. Thus we see that while Ahlulbayt tried to teach the sciences
to awaken the mind (the greatest of scientists, mathematicians and
philosophers of the period were students of institutions formed by the
Ahlulbayt), simultaneously we see that for a very long period in
history, mathematics as a subject was not taught to students in madrasas
lest they learn to exercise their brain. Two types of Islam were
spreading at the same time – the spiritual Islam or the Islam of the
Ahlulbayt and the Islam of the rulers which was opposed to the Islam of
the Ahlulbayt.
Though scattered incidents of killing in self-interest were visible
prior to Muawiya, we find in Muawiya’s time a full-fledged and ruthless
exercise of power wherein opponents of political rule of Muawiya were
killed ruthlessly in the name of Islam. While going through Islamic
history, some incidents which come to notice prior to Muawiya may
include the murder of Muhammad bin Qasim – the young conqueror who had
come as close to India as Sind – but was called back on the basis of a
canard and killed in the most gruesome of manners. Muhammad bin Qasim is
said to have been tied inside the camel’s hyde, which was set on fire.
We also see incidents like Khalid bin Walid (revered to this day by
ignorant Muslims with the title Saifullah or ‘Sword of Allah’) killing a
person because he felt attracted to his extremely beautiful wife.
Under Muawiya’s rule, we find cold-blooded murder of innumerable
companions of Prophet Mohammad, particularly those who were sympathetic
or close to Prophet Mohammad’s family. These included Hajr bin Adi whose
grave was dug up by Al-Qaida fighters recently in Syria. Their hatred
even to this day with people who were close to Ahlulbayt reveal they
still continue to have the same mind-set as Muawiya and his followers
had with people of Prophet’s household.
Hajr and his companions were butchered to death near Damascus. Lot
many people were crucified, their tongues taken out, they were blinded
and given all kinds of tortures. The women of those killed were made
slaves – a mind-set which can still be seen among Al-Qaida and ISIS
fighters. Beheading was common, something that is still visible.
A most vivid example available in history is that Kharijites, a group
of extremely religious minded people, who began to harbour enmity with
Ali. This was a group of people who offered namaz all through the day,
read Quran on regular basis, wore Islam up on their sleeves yet history
recounts an incident where the same Kharijites, upon encountering a man
who was traveling with his pregnant wife, not only killed the man but
opened the belly of the mother with a sword, took out the child and
killed him.
Tortures and brutal killing in the name of Islam continued during the
time of subsequent rulers who ruled in the name of Islam. So much so
that Yazid – the son of Muawiya – sent an army of 30,000 soldiers who
surrounded Husain (one of the Ahlulbayt referred to in Quran; who was
Prophet Mohammad’s grandson and son of Ali) and his 100-odd companions
in Karbala, denied water to them and their womenfolk and children for 8
days and then on the 9th day butchered all the men, including
the 6-month old child of Husain. To those who have heard of narrations
of the murder of 6-month old Ali Asghar, it shouldn’t come as surprise
that terrorists killed 140-odd children in a school in Peshawar
(Pakistan). Not only Ali Asghar was killed, but his head was cut off
from his torso and displayed on top of a spear. The dead bodies of
Husain and his companions were trampled under horse’s hoofs, their heads
too severed from bodies and put up on spears for display. Husain’s head
was severed from torso while he was still alive; and prostrated before
God in worship. The heads were taken in a victorious march from Karbala
to Kufa (in present day Iraq) and all the way to Damascus (in present
day Syria). If you have seen in recent days the photographs of ISIS
militants playing football with heads of dead opponents, you shouldn’t
be surprised because it is the mind-set that has prevailed in all times.
There are narrations available that Yazid used his stick to play with
Husain’s head as it lay in tray on display. Most of the subsequent
Umayyad rulers were no less ruthless and the succeeding Abbasid rulers
showed they were far ahead of Umayyads in brutality and beastliness.
Some of these Umayyad rulers ordered killing of people whose crime was
they came to Husain’s grave to pay homage and respect.
Do I mean to say there is no solution to the brutal and beastly
nature of Muslim terrorists as there is nothing new to what they are
doing and their nature has remained one and the same during all ages?
No! Have I really shown where the problem lies? Yes! If you have not
noticed, I give here another prophesy of Prophet Mohammad. During his
lifetime and even on his deathbed, the Prophet repeatedly said: “I am
leaving behind you two things, the Quran (book) and the Ahlulbayt
(people of the house, described in Quran). If you remain united with
them, you will not get astray, until you come to meet me on the Spring
of Kausar (in heaven).” This implied that he prophesied that Muslims
would get astray the moment they leave either of the two, Quran or
Ahlulbayt. This was perhaps because Quran could have been truly taught
in practice by none other than Ahlulbayt. The enmity which the rulers
harboured against Ahlulbayt was for this reason alone. These rulers
wanted to propagate an Islam with no mention of Ahlulbayt. This Islam of
the rulers not only tried to leave aside the spiritual and
righteousness-seeking Islam of the Ahlulbayt but also put in place a
propaganda machinery to see to it that the character of Ahlulbayt was
maligned and people remain as distant from them as possible. The rulers
repeatedly saw to it that not just the Ahlulbayt were tortured and
killed but even their friends and well-wishers were slaughtered in the
most gruesome of manners.
Thus we find that for some reason, it is the personality or nature or
role of Ahlulbayt in Divine Plan because of which all enmity and
savagery gets centered on them. Interestingly, while you find the most
savage of all people in Islamic history were opponents of Ahlulbayt, the
Wahabis are perhaps the only sect among the Muslims who give no place
to Ahlulbayt whatsoever despite their repeated mention in Quran and
Prophet Mohammad’s traditions. This is the reason why they have deviated
to such an extent that they reveal the most ugly and reprehensible
display of Islam. This is indeed the reason why while all Wahabis are
not terrorists, all terrorists are Wahabis.
Even today, name of Ahlulbayt cannot be taken openly in
Aal-e-Saud-ruled Arabia. The graves of members of Prophet’s household
have been desecrated in modern-day Saudi Arabia and all other monuments
or places having any semblance or relation to Ahlulbayt have been
removed. Leaving the spiritual Islam, being shown and preached by
Ahlulbayt, became the cause, as already prophesied by Prophet Mohammad,
for the brutal, savage and materialistic face of Islam to emerge.
One last question: why enmity with Ahlulbayt? I have been showing in
my writings there is indeed one and only one path to reach God.
Ahlulbayt have been described in Prophet Mohammad’s traditions as the
rope to salvation. It is they who are the Devatas of Vedas and
Upanishads (they have been described as Rope and Life there as well);
they are the divinities of Old Testament and it were they who were being
described during all times and through all Divine Scriptures. It is
they who have been given the Divine responsibility to lead and show the
path to the mankind. Accounts of their lives show they were the biggest
champions of peace and justice, the torchbearer of all human values and
the greatest worshippers of God. They were referred to as the Ahlulbayt
(People of the House) when Bayt meant Baytullah (House of God) and
Muslims erroneously understood the term Ahlulbayt in Quran as ‘People of
the House (of Mohammad)’ forgetting that Mohammad too had been
described as one of the Ahlulbayt. While the Divinely assigned role of
Ahlulbayt is to lead mankind towards its betterment and salvation, there
is another power whose role is to lead us astray. It is this power who
repeatedly kept working to deviate mankind from the path being shown by
the Ahlulbayt. Because the power of misguidance feared people would hold
on to the rope and reach the path of salvation if they realize truly
the path of the Ahlulbayt. This is the reason why the most savage
treatment and worst of tortures were inflicted on Ahlulbayt themselves
by people who had given themselves to the beast.
