Zaira Wasim Showcases What Is Wrong with Muslims
By
Arshad Alam, New Age Islam
31 May 2020
Zaira Wasim
tweeted a Quranic verse which talks of God’s wrath on ‘sinful’ people. The
verse in question is 7:133 which reads,
‘So We sent upon them the flood and locusts and lice and frogs and
blood: Signs openly self-explained: But they were steeped in arrogance, A
people given to sin’.
Zaira Wasim’s Tweet
This verse talks about how God punished the people of Egypt for
disobeying his commands. The story and the context within which it is set is
common to Islam, Christianity and Judaism. But to quote this verse in a context
when locusts are actually devastating crops in many parts of India is to say
that God is sending them to punish Indians who are not just arrogant but also
knee-deep in sin.
Zaira
Wasim has quit Twitter and Instagram after receiving flak for her tweet about
locust attacks.
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Zaira would
have us believe that the farmer whose crops were laid waste by swarms of
locusts is only himself to be blamed because despite clear signs and warnings
from God, he did not mend his ways. It is pertinent to recall that that the
young actor recently quit Bollywood after discovering that Islam does not allow
her to work in such a profession. Ever since, she has been tweeting verses from
the Quran and narrations from Hadees with the zeal of a new convert.
Since most
Indians are Hindus, this particular tweet of Zaira is insulting because it is
basically telling them that they are in sin as they do not worship the one true
God and do not walk on the path shown by Islam. In an atmosphere where
religious tolerance is the need of the hour, this tweet of hers will only add
fuel to the fire.
Nearly
eight decades ago, Gandhi blamed the practice of untouchability for the
devastating earthquake of 1934, which brought death and destruction in Nepal
and Bihar. Gandhi suggested that the earthquake was ‘a divine chastisement for
the great sin we have committed against those whom we describe as Harijans’. It
was certainly wrong of Gandhi to invent religious reasons for a natural
phenomenon and was rightly chastised by Tagore. Yet, he had a higher purpose
for doing so: eradicating a social evil which had plagued Hinduism for
centuries.
Zaira’s
tweet serves no such higher purpose. Rather, it makes fun of millions of Hindus
just for having a different religious orientation.
This
problem is not limited to Zaira Wasim. Many Muslims share her position. While
some rightly called her out, most ended up supporting her, arguing that the
attacks on her are only the latest example of Islamophobia in India. Some even
went to the extent of saying that it is her freedom of expression to do so. Certainly,
freedom of expression should be absolute and should also mean the freedom to
offend, but most Muslims do not understand that those critiquing her are also
exercising their freedom of expression.
Even when
Muslims realise that a certain Quranic verse is problematic, they end up
justifying it because they think that critiquing the Quran is blasphemous. The
Muslim belief that each and every word of the Quran is true and eternal is
partly the reason why we see even sane Muslims justifying the stance of Zaira
and many others like her. As the ‘uncreated’ word of God, the Quran becomes
coeval with the Almighty Himself and therefore finding faults within the Quran
becomes tantamount to finding faults with God. It was this blind deference to
this religious text which a group of Muslim philosophers called the Mutazilas
were trying to challenge but which eventually did not succeed. They argued that
the Quran was ‘created’, which could have paved the way for revisions or the
development of critical hermeneutics of the text.
The
Christians were able to make this possible because they believe that the Bible
is inspired by God but is not the literal word of God. In taking the position
that the Quran is word of God, Muslims have tied themselves up, as this
position does not allow any criticism of this text.
Immanuel
Kant argued that Enlightenment, which changed the face of Europe, was not
possible without the praxis of criticism. Critique is fundamental to the
progress of knowledge, it opens up newer perspectives of looking at the self
and the world, which unfortunately is in short supply in much of the Muslim
world. Our intellectual stagnancy can be linked to our reluctance of not being
critical towards some of the core assumptions in Islam.
Till the
time we do not ask some tough questions related to our religious tradition,
Muslims like Zaira Wasim will continue to write in a language which is
insensitive and ignorant, to say the least. The really unfortunate part though,
is that they will continue to do so in all earnestness, without realising that
they are doing immense harm to the society in which they are living.
Arshad
Alam is a NewAgeIslam.com columnist
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