India's Liberal Muslims Have Always Opposed Cow Slaughter
By S.
Arshad, New Age Islam
30 July
2021
A Section
of Muslims Have Always Favoured Ban on Cow Slaughter
Main
Points:
1. A consensus is emerging among Muslim
intelligentia in favour of a ban.
2. Mughal emperor Babur had advised Humayun
against cow slaughter
4. During 1857 Revolt and Khilafat Movement
Muslims voluntarily abandoned beef.
5. A small section of hardline Muslim clerics
opposes beef ban.
-----
Cow
slaughter has been a cause of Hindu-Muslim disunity in India as Hindus
revere the cow. It is not known when was the sacrifice of cows for Qurbani or
for general consumption started in India which has been a Hindu majority
country since ancient times. It was most probably started during the Muslim
rule but it is also a truth that Muslim rulers had also started to realise that
cow slaughter in India was not a right practice as it hurt the religious
sentiments of Hindus. According to eminent legal expert Mr Faizan Mustafa,
Babur had advised Humayun not to allow cow slaughter as it would offend
religious sensibilities of Hindus. The greatest Mughal emperor Akbar who had
taken a number of administrative and cultural steps to promote communal harmony
among the Hindus and the Muslims, had banned cow slaughter to honour his
grandfather's will. However, his move was opposed by the Sufi Mujaddid Alf Sani
Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi who was of the view that Muslims should not be prevented
from cow slaughter under a Muslim government.
However, in
certain periods of pre-Independence and post-independence India Muslims have
not only advocated a ban on cow slaughter but have themselves taken initiative
to abandon cow slaughter for the sake of forging Hindu-Muslim unity for a
bigger political and national cause. Muslims had abandoned the practice of cow
slaughter during the revolt of 1857 to bring greater unity between the Hindus
and the Muslims to fight against the East India Company.
The most successful
campaign against cow slaughter was started in 1919 by the Muslim leaders of
Khilafat Movement like Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Maulana Shaukat Ali, Hakeem
Ajmal Khan, Maulana Hussain Ahmad Madani, Maulana Abdul Bari and others. The
purpose was to bring Hindus closer to Muslims to form a powerful platform
against the British government. Under this campaign, Muslims not only abandoned
cow slaughter but also rescued cows meant for slaughter and returned them to
Hindus.
The
movement received another shot in the arm by an ideological campaign run by one
of the greatest Urdu writers and a Sufi of Chishtiya order Khwaja Hasan Nizami
who wrote a book titled Tark-e-Gaukushi (Abandoning the practice of Cow
slaughter) in 1921. In his book, he presented arguments from Quran and hadiths
against cow slaughter in a multicultural society. Therefore, these political
and ideological campaigns had a great impact on the collective Muslim psyche
and cow slaughter was discouraged, though not totally abandoned, among the
Muslims of India.
Interestingly,
before the partition of India, Muslims in the Sindh, Balochistan region had
mostly sacrificed goats, sheep and camels. They did not sacrifice cows much.
This may be because Rig Veda was composed in this region and the region was a
centre of Vedic culture before the advent of Islam. Therefore, Muslims of this
region respected the religious beliefs of Hindus and did not eat beef. After
the partition, Muslims migrating from India brought their habit of beef
consumption to Pakistan. And gradually, cow slaughter and beef became popular
in Pakistan. Still, buffaloes, bulls and goats are widely sacrificed in
Pakistan because of the traditional and cultural background.
In
post-Independence India cow
slaughter has remained a major cause of social conflict between the Hindus
and Muslims. To prevent this conflict, more than 20 states have banned cow
slaughter. Recently, the union territory of Muslim majority Lakshadweep banned
cow slaughter.
Some
prominent Muslim leaders and clerics have called for a central law on cow
slaughter to stop communal incidents of Hindu Muslim riots or mob lynching. In
2015, an activist of Hyderabad Maulana Syed Hussain Madani had started a
campaign against cow slaughter. Many clerics and Islamic scholars of Andhra
Pradesh including Maulana Anwar Ahmad of Jamia Nizamia and Maulana Anisur
Rahman Azmi of AIMPLB had joined the campaign and asked Muslims to adopt a
pragmatic approach on animal sacrifice on Eid-al-Adha in the light of the Quran
and hadith and in view of the communal conflict arising out of cow slaughter.
Prominent cleric Maulana Mahmood Madani also demanded a central law banning cow
slaughter to end the acrimony between the two communities. Darul Uloom Deoband
also issued a fatwa advising Muslims to avoid the sacrifice
of cows on Eid-al-Adha and instead sacrifice small animals to avoid
communal conflagration.
On the
other hand, some hardline Muslim clerics have opposed a ban on cow slaughter
terming it a violation of religious rights of Muslims. Recently when activist
Hussain Madani advised Muslims to avoid sacrifice of cows on festivals, a
cleric of Bengal Maulana Sharafat Abrar opposed his advice. Similarly when the
J&K High Court issued an order asking the state government to strictly
implement the already existing law against cow slaughter in the state, some
prominent Muslim clerics including Mir Waiz Umar Farooque opposed it saying
that cow slaughter ban in a Muslim majority state was against the rights of the
Muslims.
However,
such imprudent voices are in minority. Majority of liberal Muslims have always
asked Muslims to avoid cow slaughter both for ritual sacrifice on Eid-al-Adha
and for general consumption. Therefore, thanks to the campaigns of Muslim
intellectuals and liberal clerics against cow slaughter and the evolving social
and political crisis due to cow slaughter in India, a consensus is gradually
emerging among the Muslim intelligentsia in favour of the ban on cow slaughter
in the country.
-----
S.
Arshad is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-society/liberal-muslims-cow-slaughter/d/125150
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