Why Muslim Ulema Should Confront Zakir Naik? How Does He Encourage Islamist Terrorism?
By Sultan Shahin, Founder Editor, New Age Islam
18 July 2016
"If Osama bin Laden is
fighting the enemies of Islam, I’m for him. If he is terrorising America, the
terrorist, biggest terrorist, I’m with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist.
The thing is that if he is terrorising the terrorist, he is following Islam.
Whether he is or not, I don’t know. Now, don’t go around outside saying Zakir
Naik is for Osama bin Laden. If he is terrorising the terrorist I’m with
him."
This is the quote of the week. Here Dr. Zakir Naik, the
controversial but popular Islamist tele-evangelist is reacting to a question
about Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind of 9/11 that killed 3,000
innocent Americans. He doubts Osama bin Laden’s role in 9/11, as many Muslims
and even American conspiracy theorists do. They think 9/11 was an inside job.
Dr. Naik plays on this sentiment. He clearly supports terrorism, and goes on to
say, every Muslim should be a terrorist in the sense of terrorising “enemies of
Islam.” Now the question is: Who gives Naik the authority to sanction
“terrorising” any one? Also: who are these “enemies of Islam” today?
To find an answer any follower of Zakir Naik would go to the
literal words of the holy Quran. Naik is a Wahhabi-Salafi-Ahl-e-Hadeesi who has
full Saudi financial and logistical support. He recently received Saudi
Arabia’s highest civilian award, the Shah Faisal Award consisting of $200,000
and a gold plaque. Wahhabis consider themselves ghair-muqallids, i.e., Muslims
who do not follow any of the five mazahib or schools of thought like, Hanafi,
Maliki, Shafi΄i, Hanbali and Ja‘fari.
Muslims on the Indian sub-continent used to follow the most broad-minded
and moderate school of thought, the Hanafi, before the advent of Saudi
Wahhabism in full force 40 years ago. The distinguishing feature of this sect
is literalism. They read the Quran literally and consider all verses equally
relevant, universal and eternal in their applicability to Muslims of all ages
and all places.
So any Muslim who accepts Naik’s exhortation that Muslims
should terrorise “the enemies of Islam,” would consult the Quran. Internet has
made it much easier to access various renderings of Quran, as well as tafasir
(exegesis and interpretations). The spirit of Quran, the overall sense of what
the Quran is saying, a holistic view that the Sufis and moderates take, is
completely missing in Wahhabi-Salafi Islam that Zakir Naik propagates.
Now what would a
victim of Naik who takes him as a great scholar on the basis of his rote memory
find in the Quran? Before we go into this question, we should acquire a little
background of the advent of Islam, otherwise we are likely to be misguided in
the same way the Indian Mujahedin or the Dhaka youth were. The Islam that came
in Mecca with its foundational verses was a spiritual path to salvation of
mankind. It taught honesty, integrity, equality of all humanity in the dominion
of One invisible, formless God, patience and perseverance in dealing with other
human beings and in the face of adversity, co-existence of all religions, good
neighbourliness, gender equality, etc. However, the Meccan elite could not
accept equality of all human beings, which brought them at par with the lowly,
the poor and the slaves. They started persecuting Muslims and eventually
planned to assassinate the Prophet. The prophet and most Muslims left and took
refuge in another town, later called Medina. The Meccans followed them. A point
reached when the only way for Muslims to survive was to defend themselves. At
this point, 13 years after the advent of Islam, they were permitted to fight in
defence and kill those who had turned them out of their houses only for having
a different religion.
In is natural for the Quranic revelations, that were guiding
the Prophet and his followers, to ask Muslims to defend themselves, fight and
kill, terrify, put panic in the hearts of their enemies in those wars. So when
a follower of Dr Zakir Naik, who has heard that “every Muslim should be a
terrorist for the enemies of Islam,” goes to Quran and finds war-time,
contextual verses like 9: 5, 3:151,
8:60, etc, and takes them literally as an exhortation valid for even today, he
is likely to go astray, particularly in the absence of any contrary opinion.
Sūrah Taubah (Quran 9: 5)
فَإِذَا انسَلَخَ الأَشْهُرُ الْحُرُمُ فَاقْتُلُواْ الْمُشْرِكِينَ حَيْثُ وَجَدتُّمُوهُمْ وَخُذُوهُمْ وَاحْصُرُوهُمْ وَاقْعُدُواْ لَهُمْ كُلَّ مَرْصَدٍ فَإِن تَابُواْ وَأَقَامُواْ الصَّلاَةَ وَآتَوُاْ الزَّكَاةَ فَخَلُّواْ سَبِيلَهُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ ﴿٥﴾
Translated by Yusuf Ali: But when the forbidden months are
past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them,
beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if
they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then
open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
Sūrah āl ʿim'rān (Quran 3: 151)
سَنُلْقِي فِي قُلُوبِ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ الرُّعْبَ بِمَا أَشْرَكُواْ بِاللّهِ مَا لَمْ يُنَزِّلْ بِهِ
سُلْطَانًا وَمَأْوَاهُمُ النَّارُ وَبِئْسَ مَثْوَى الظَّالِمِينَ ﴿١٥١﴾
Translated by Yusuf Ali: Soon shall We cast terror into the
hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for
which He had sent no authority: their abode will be the Fire: And evil is the
home of the wrong-doers!
Sūrah l-Anfāl (Quran 8: 60)
وَأَعِدّوا لَهُم مَا استَطَعتُم مِن قُوَّةٍ وَمِن رِباطِ الخَيلِ تُرهِبونَ بِهِ عَدُوَّ اللَّهِ وَعَدُوَّكُم وَآخَرينَ مِن دونِهِم لا تَعلَمونَهُمُ اللَّهُ يَعلَمُهُم ۚ وَما تُنفِقوا مِن شَيءٍ في سَبيلِ اللَّهِ يُوَفَّ إِلَيكُم وَأَنتُم لا تُظلَمونَ
Translated by Yusuf Ali: Against them make ready your
strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror
into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others
besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know. Whatever ye shall
spend in the cause of Allah, shall be repaid unto you, and ye shall not be
treated unjustly.
And several other similar verses. Then a Muslim reader or
listener of Zakir Naik may go to Hadees
(Sahih Muslim 4322,,
Sahih Bukhari 52:256)
and learn that Prophet (pbuh) himself justified killing of innocent women and
children in Taif as collateral damage as
the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS claim.
1. Sahih
al-Bukhari Book of Jihaad,Vol. 4, Book 52, Hadith 256
Narrated As-Sab bin Jaththama:
The Prophet passed by me at a place called Al-Abwa or
Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors
at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger.
The Prophet replied, "They (i.e. women and children) are from them (i.e.
pagans)." I also heard the Prophet saying, "The institution of Hima
is invalid except for Allah and His Apostle."
2. Sahih Muslim
Book 019, Hadith Number 4322.
“Permissibility of killing women and
children in the night raids, provided it is not deliberate.
“It is narrated by Sa'b b. Jaththama
that he said (to the Holy Prophet): Messenger of Allah, we kill the children of
the polytheists during the night raids. He said: They are from them.”
The point to be understood is that when one is permitted to
fight, one is also asked to confront, put panic in the heart, terrorise and
kill the enemy. But these instructions are no longer valid when the war is
over. As for Hadees, I cannot put any credibility on narrations that put words
in the mouth of the Prophet saying what Quran specifically prohibited.
Muslims have already dismissed as obsolete many verses whose
instructions can no longer be followed. Take this verse of Sura Hajj: “They
will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, (to perform Hajj).” (Quran
22: 27) Now, who goes for Hajj on foot or on a lean camel today. Even the
nearby Salafi-Wahhabi Arabs come to Mecca for Hajj in their air-conditioned
cars and buses. Clearly even Salafi-Wahhabis consider this verse obsolete.
So these later Medinan verses ask Muslims to fight in the
way of Allah, as they were engaged in an existential battle for survival. But
what was the message of Islam that these Muslims were fighting to safeguard?
Obviously, the spiritual message they had received in Mecca. Early Meccan Islam
represents the foundational, essential, constitutive, eternal, universal
teachings of Islam, valid for all times. Not the instructions given later at
Medina to fight to safeguard Meccan Islam in an existential battle.
Islam is now safe. It has 1.6 billion followers. We no
longer live in the 7th century when at one time in Medina if just 313 people
had been killed in the battle of Badr, Islam would probably have ceased to
exist. Special instructions are always given to protect an infant. But these
instructions are no longer followed as the infant grows strong with age.
Are all later Medinan verses then only of historical
validity? No, this principle only applies to war-related contextual verses
asking Muslims to fight, kill and be killed and earn heavenly reward. These
contextual verses of war are no longer applicable to us as we live in the 21st
century in a world governed and protected by the UN Charter. Islam is not faced
with an existential crisis like the one in seventh century Medina. Just as we
have discarded the instruction to go for Hajj on foot or on camels, we should
discard the instructions related to war.
But the problem is this. No, mainstream, peaceful, Sufi,
Barailwi, Eiteqadi ulema who claim to oppose Zakir Naik are willing to say this
in so many words. And, of course, you can’t expect Salafi-Wahhabi literalists
to say so. And this explains why our youth are turning to Zakir Naik and other
Jihadi ideologues and running away from the mainstream, peaceful Muslims. Zakir
Naik is wrong, maybe evil, but he is not mincing his words. Youth is always
attracted to honesty and courage of conviction, and repelled by hypocrisy.
Our focus should not be so much on Zakir Naik as on the
question: why and how has he so easily succeeded in radicalising millions. Only
a few of these millions may go on to join terrorism, but radicalisation of the
millions is the real problem. Saudis and Ahl-e-Haeesis have only provided him
logistical support. In my view the reason he has succeeded is that he is not
saying anything new, or vastly different from what other clerics say. He is
using the theology of consensus, the same theology that is taught in
universities and madrasas. His distinction is in the presentation, using modern
means of communication. He is reaching those who did not have access to this
theology before. That is why ulema cannot oppose him in a meaningful way.
Sufi-Barailvis and even some Deobandis have tried. They are angry because Naik
has exposed their hypocrisy. But they will find it impossible to oppose him and
others effectively unless they decide to let go of their hypocrisy and clarify
their stand on Jihad, particularly offensive Jihad.
You cannot say in the same breath that instructions in all
verses of Quran and narrations of Hadees are applicable to us Muslims even
today in the 21st century and that those who are following these 7th century
war-time instructions in Quran and Hadees to fight and kill the combatants as
well as civilians are wrong. If ulema indeed want to save the community from
further radicalisation, they just have to introspect on their own hypocrisy and
help evolve a new and coherent theology of peace and pluralism based on the
foundational, universal verses of Quran.
We will have to come out and say clearly and repeatedly that
contextual verses meant for war in the seventh century are no longer applicable
to us today. They have merely historical value and tell us the story of what
nearly insurmountable difficulties our prophet (pbuh) had to face to safeguard
the nascent religion of Islam then. Islam is no longer an infant today. It has
grown up and found space in 1.6 billion hearts. It can very well take care of
itself. Muslims n longer need to fight and kill and put terror in the hearts of
so-called kuffar and mushrikeen for Islam to survive as was the case in the 7th
century (C.E).
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