By Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer on 7-6-2010 3:40

After the fatwa from Deoband (some of the Deobandis deny that fatwa was ever issued) that Muslim women cannot work with strangers from amongst the men and that in that case her earnings will be haram (prohibited) to her family, a debate is raging on the need for ijtihad (creative reinterpretation of law) and it is often suggested that gates of ijtihad were closed after sack of Baghdad in 1258 and that these gates be reopened.

 

First of all we would like to point out that there is no church in Islam and no single authority and hence no one can issue a dictat to close the gates of ijtihad. Or re-open it. When Ibn Taymiyyah issued the fatwa on jihad after sack of Baghdad he went against the authority of his own Hanbali School and gave fatwa on his own authority. Hanbali school requires submission to the ruling authority.

 

Before we proceed further we would like to point out that ijtihad has been the very part of process of law making in Islam. The root meaning of ijtihad...

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By Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer on 3-5-2010 10:02

The title might come as a surprise for many readers as the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has been very frequently projected as the Prophet of violence by media and religious extremists. A Danish cartoonist even showed bombs in his turban. But here in this paper I want to show the Prophet (PBUH) was indeed a Prophet of non-violence. For this I would not fall on traditional sources as Maulanas and muftis (who give religious opinion) but use Qur'anic values and discuss circumstances in which the Prophet lived. And on these grounds there are no disagreements among Islamic scholars.

First of all a question what is non-violence and is absolute non-violence possible? It is crucial to discuss these questions if we want to form opinion about any personality whether he is violent or non-violent. Also, in order to be non-violent what are crucial pre-conditions? Can non-violence be practiced in any given circumstances? Also, can non-violence depend on one person's philosophy?

Let us take these questions now. What is non-violence? Non-violence is not mere act of non-aggression. A meek or a person totally lacking courage can also apparently be non-aggressive but this meekness or lack of courage becomes a store of aggression within him or her and strikes in devious ways including conspiracies and even can deliver mortal blow. Thus absence of violence cannot be treated as non-violence.

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