I wish the reporter had then asked: what about the new technologies that save people’s lives? Are theyalso ‘prohibited innovations’? Are you telling Muslims not to seek benefit from them because ‘Allahne jiska marna tai kiya hai usko rokna theek naheen hai’ (It’s not proper to stop the death of thosewhom God has destined to die)? I doubt if any of these ‘lords and masters’ put that much trust in God.(Only mystics and other true men of God do that.) Medicine and medical treatment of the latest kind, themaulanas will assuredly declare, are most zaruuri. And, no doubt, they will then remind us of the Prophet’sremark to a bedouin that he should first tether his camel securely and only afterward put his trust in God.Heads they win, tails we lose, that’s the way it goes with these learned men.
In any case, I truly fear there was a different motive behind the Maulana’s statement, and a mischievousone, to say the least. According to the newspaper report, ‘When Maulana Rabey's attention was drawn towardsthe success of family planning in Iran, he said there was no need for Muslims in India to follow the edicts ofother countries. "Muslims in Iran are different from Muslims in India," he said.’ Now the letterurging the Board to give some consideration to the issue of family planning was written by Maulana Kalbe Sadiq,a Shi’ah scholar who lives only about three miles away from the Nadva where Maulana Rabey resides. Is he notIndian and Muslim enough for the President of the AIMPLB? Much to my regret and shame I fear that may well bethe case. And had the rector of Nadva been more forthcoming he could possibly have said: ‘Iranians are Shi’ahs,and I am a Sunni; I do not regard them as Muslims.’ He would still have been perverse but, nevertheless,honest to himself.
As is well-known to those who read Urdu, many people associated with the Nadva have long engaged in anti-Iranand anti-Shi’ah polemic and propaganda. For example Maulana Manzoor Nu’mani, who was much encouraged byMaulana Ali Mian, the former rector of Nadva and the present rector’s uncle. The latter even wrote a highlyadmiring introduction to the former’s most vitriolic book, Irani Inqilab, Imam Khomeini aur Shi’iyat.Thanks to Saudi patronage, Wahabism of the worst kind has spread in South Asia, and since 1979 it has includeda prominent trend of anti-Iran and anti-Shi’ah sentiment. Its horrific results have been evident in Pakistanfor some time. The chief reason it has not so blatantly showed itself in India is the secular stance of theIndian state, no matter how faulty the latter may seem sometimes. But this sectarian poison remains a strongundercurrent in the Muslim religious elite, even in such a seemingly peaceful movement as the Tablighi Jama’at.‘Live and let live’ is what most Muslims, like most of their compatriots, follow in their daily lives.Sadly, it’s a rare religious ‘leader’ who does so now.