Muslim scholars confirm Hindus constitute Ahl-e-Kitab mentioned in the Koran

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To all devotees of His Ruh Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi,

 

This weeks-old article by Sultan Shahin, Asia Times Online, Dec 6,

2003 must be deeply and thoroughly comprehended by those who wish to

spread Shri Mataji's message of Al-Qiyamah (The Resurrection).

 

Again i wish to emphasize that the Divine Plan of the Koran for

humanity is pre-ordained to overcome all obstacles. As the first

wave of His messengers of the Resurrection, we will prevail against

all odds. So stand up and declare this Truth!

 

jagbir

 

 

 

" It seems to me, however, that a symbiotic spiritual relationship

exists between the two great religions. It is a realization of this

spiritual symbiosis, though largely unconscious, that I believe

helped sustain this harmonious relationship despite the invading

Central Asian hordes led by Ghaznis and Ghoris, who called

themselves Muslim, and the British colonialists with their massive

effort at divide and rule using all possible propaganda tools.

 

Islam's encounter with other religions was quite violent. The

history of Crusades launched by Christian powers is well known. It

was Hinduism alone that provided Islam with a fertile ground for

growth, something it had denied for long centuries even to

indigenous Buddhism. Muslims' treatment of Hindus, too, was quite

considerate and in keeping with the Islamic spirit of Lakum Deenakum

Waleya Deen (For you your religion, for me mine, the Koran -109:5).

As Hindus had the reputation of being polytheists and idolaters,

Muslims could have treated them as Kauffar and Mushrekeen (religious

deviants). Instead, the very first Muslim to conquer parts of India -

Sind and Multan in 711 AD - Mohammad bin Qasim, accorded them the

special status of Ahl-e-Kitab (people who follow divine books

brought by messengers of God before the Prophet Mohammed) that was

at first thought to be meant for Christians and Jews alone. (Muslims

are permitted to have the best of social, including marital

relations, with the Ahl-e-Kitab). Even the Central Asian bandits who

invaded and looted India could not disturb the growing and deepening

spiritual ties. A number of Sufi saints spent their lifetime in

India, spreading the message of Islam, that literally means peace,

that comes with total surrender to God. The Prophet Mohammed, too,

is believed to have felt an attraction for India.

 

The Indian sub-continent's pre-eminent poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal

wrote:

 

Meer-e-Arab ko aaee thandi hawa jahan se,

Mera watan wohi hai, mera watan wohi hai.

(From where the Prophet Mohammed received a cool breeze,

That is my motherland, that is my motherland.)

 

Hindus as Ahl-e-Kitab

 

Some primordial spiritual connection must have been at work. For

only recently have Muslim scholars learnt that Hindus indeed

constitute the fourth major group of Ahl-e-Kitab mentioned in the

Holy Koran repeatedly. For some mysterious reason, the Holy Koran

had left this question vague. It mentioned a major religious group

as " Sabe-een " as the ummah (community) of a prophet who had brought

a divine book bearing God's revelation to the world. It also

mentioned Hazrat Nooh (Prophet Noah of the Bible) as a major prophet

ranking with prophets like Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. But

who the followers of Hazrat Nooh are was left a mystery.

 

Painstaking research has been going on seeking the fourth major Ahl-

e-Kitab. From Hazrat Shah Waliullah, Maulana Sulaiman Nadvi and

Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi to a contemporary scholar from Uttar

Pradesh, Maulana Shams Navaid Usmani, a number of scholars from the

sub-continent, too, contributed to this effort. It is now clear that

Hindus are indeed the lost ummah of the Prophet Nooh, whom they know

as Maha Nuwo. Evidence from Markandaya Puran and several Vedas, and

their description of " Jal Pralaya " (devastation caused by the Flood,

as in the biblical and Koranic stories of Noah's flood) has been

most helpful in this search.

 

The authenticity and finality of the above-mentioned research has

not to be accepted by any one, however, to be able to know that the

Hindus do indeed constitute a major Ahl-e-Kitab ummah (religious

community). According to the Holy Koran, there is not one nation in

the world in which a prophet has not been raised up: " There are not

a people but a prophet has gone among them " (35:24). And

again: " Every nation has had a prophet " (10:47). And again: " And we

did not send before thee any but men to whom we sent revelation

[Divine Book] " (21:7).

 

We are further told that there have been prophets besides those

mentioned in the Holy Koran: " And we sent prophets we have mentioned

to thee before [in the Koran], and prophets we have not mentioned to

thee [in the Koran] " (4:164).

 

It is, in fact stated in a famous Hadees (also written as Hadith,

meaning sayings of the Prophet, as distinct from the Holy Koran,

which is believed by Muslims to be the word of God revealed to the

Prophet) that there have been 124,000 prophets, while the Holy Koran

contains only about 25 names, among them being several non-Biblical

prophets. Prophets Hud and Salih came in Arabia, Luqman in Ethiopia,

a contemporary of Moses (generally known as Khidzr) in Sudan, and

Dhu-i-Qarnain (Darius I, who was also a king) in Persia; all of

which is quite in accordance with the theory of universality of

prophethood, as enunciated above. And as the Holy Koran has plainly

said the prophets have appeared in all nations and that it has not

named all of them, which in fact was unnecessary and not even

feasible. Thus a Muslim must accept the great luminaries who are

recognized by other religions as having brought light to them,

regardless of the terminology used to describe them, as the prophets

that were sent to those nations.

 

The Koran, however, not only establishes a theory that prophets have

appeared in all nations; it goes further and renders it necessary

that a Muslim should believe in all those prophets. In the very

beginning we are told that a Muslim must " believe in that which has

been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Issac and Jacob and the

tribes, and in that which was given to Moses and Jesus, and in that

which was given to the prophets from their Lord, we do not make

distinction between any of them " (2:136). The word " prophets " in

this verse from the Koran clearly refers to the prophets of other

nations.

 

Again and again, and in different contexts, the Holy Koran speaks of

Muslims as believing in all the prophets of God and not in the Holy

Prophet Mohammad alone: " Righteousness is this that one should

believe in Allah and the last day and the angels and the books and

the prophets " (2:177). And again in the same surah (chapter): " The

Prophet believes in what has been revealed to him from His Lord and

so do the believers; they all believe in Allah and His angels and

His books and His prophets: And they say 'We make no distinction

between any of His prophets' " (2:28). "

 

Sultan Shahin, Asia Times Online, Dec 6, 2003

 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EL06Df05.html