By Hafeez Naumani
For any citizen to have his/her passport impounded by his/her country is the height of that national’s humiliation.
Businessman, ex-chairman of the largest brewery company in India, The United Sprits Ltd. and owner of aeroplanes, Vijay Mallya’s passport was impounded because he did not return crores of rupees he owed to his country’s banks and had instead fled to London. And because of this ignominious act of his, every sensible Indian in the population of 1.324 billion hates him today.
But why did Dr Zakir Naik, who, for the last 20 years or so, had earned a name as a ‘Commentator of Qur’an and a passionate preacher of Islam’ not only in India but in the outside world as well, decided to go to perform Umrah and disappear from there?
As far as I know whatever he did in India all of his acts and deeds were within the limits provided by the constitution of India. To follow and to preach one’s religion in India is a common phenomenon and who knows how many Christian missionaries are spending millions of rupees for this; not only currently but have been doing so since the 15thcentury when they started coming to India following the route shown by Vasco da Gama. This is also a fact that the majority of Muslims in India today comprises of those ancestors who witnessed Islam as a religion of peace through those Muslims who happened to visit their country for different reasons and got so much impressed by it that they themselves embraced it.
I have never seen Dr Zakir Naik personally and so there I have no right to comment on him as regards to his character. However since I started watching him on his television channel, I had realised and so believed that I have never seen anyone in whole of my life like him who did not only know Qur’an but had equal command on Bible [Christian Religion] and Hinduism [Bhagvad Gita]. He has the charm to control a gathering of tens of thousands people . He quotes Qur’an with full references of chapters and verses without any pause or hesitation. He responds to each and every question as if he has come prepared specially to answer those specific questions. The result thus many a time been that after hearing him many embraced Islam and those who were already Muslims were further impressed and informed.
I have no idea what wrong he has done now to warrant such an extreme action, but if the Government believes that he has done something wrong of that proportion then it had the proper recourse to justify its action through law courts i.e. high courts and the Supreme Court .
He did not make a decision not to come back the day when he left the country. And he has been saying all along that he would come back and address a press conference on his return as well.
However, whatever has been happening in India in the meantime gradually convinced him better not to return. By deciding so he has unfortunately overlooked the harm his decision — taken merely to save his person from expected hardships and perhaps imprisonment— would do to his lifelong field of devotion to Islam and the hard work he has done there over the 20 years and because of which he had become dear to millions of Muslims, would be destroyed.
If Dr. Zakir Naik in his field of lifelong work can be compared to anyone it would surely be that of Maulana Abul Ala Moudoodi who rose to fame on his own and it were his highly popular writings and preaching that gave him international recognition. When the Government of Pakistan arrested him, he chewed his last paan [beetle leaf], said goodbye to everyone around [without any sign of fear and nerve] and gave himself up. After being sentenced to death neither he asked for clemency and nor did he offer Ayyub Khan that he would leave the country. Neither he himself appealed for mercy nor allowed anyone else from his followers to do so when he was being escorted to his death cell to await there for death knell.
What are these death cells? Only those who have seen these death cells know what they are like. It hardly takes five minutes to complete the whole procedure of execution but each minute spent in a death cell before actual execution is an execution by itself. A friend of mine was awarded death sentence by the court. At that time his weight was 95 kilos. When I saw him 20 days later he was reduced to only 55 kilos. You will have also read that when Bhutto was taken out of his death cell for execution he could not walk on his own. (It was Saddam Hussain who stood straight and faced his gallows unperturbed).
In Pakistan Maulana Moudoodi was awarded death sentence and was sent to death cell. As the news spread the whole of Muslim world of that time put pressure on Ayyub Khan to spare him. Some 50 lakh postcards were sent from India in this regard. This shook Ayyub Khan and Maulana’s sentence was commuted to 14 years imprisonment. After sometime Maulana was released and resumed his preaching as usual. He was not alone in the jail and many other key figures of Jamat-e-Islami were there with him.
In 1977 when emergency was declared in India, along with several other organisations, Jamat-e-Islami Hind was also declared as unlawful. I have never heard that then any Hindu leader was kept in jails with other common criminals. All were cared well there having a good time. But the Ameer of Jamat-e-Islami Hind Maulana Abul-Lais Islahi was kept in Nainital Jail [with other common criminals]. We are aware of what he went through there. He faced all the hardships there but never asked for any clemency nor did he ever dispute the fact that he had nothing to do with politics.
Pundit Nehru kept Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in jail for 12 years. At last he released him. But Sheikh did not abandon his demand for freedom. After Pundit Ji’s death he went to China where he was given a warm welcome. He wanted to form a government of Kashmir in exile and China was ready to allow him to do so.
At this very juncture King Faisal had called a meeting of World Muslim Congress in which delegates from Muslim countries, including ten delegates from India, were invited. Sheikh Abdullah was sent an invitation separately.
In Makkah Sheikh consulted Maulana Mohammad Manzoor Naumani and Maulana Abul-Hasan Ali Nadwi as what his next of course of action should be. He feared that in India Indira Gandhi would put him in jail. Both others advised him to return to India believing ‘When you would stand facing the situation everything would be fine.’
Sheikh had great regard for both of them and despite his personal reluctance he returned to India as advised by them. There he was put under house arrest in a huge bungalow in Delhi with ten attendants to serve him. At last Sheikh forsake his stand, compromised with the reality and accepted to be the Chief Minister of the state. Kashmiris accepted it too and the proof of that was the fact that his funeral was attended by ten lakh people.
Let us now talk something about ourselves too knowing that I am an abbreviated piece of nothing. A small fry as I am, have nothing in common with these towering figures. Yet I would like here to talk about my personal experience in this regard as well.
On 1st August 1965 we announced to bring out a special issue of Nida-e-Millat on Aligarh Muslim University. Many big names among secular Hindus promised to contribute in it. The news buzzed all over the country. This changed the mood of the Government of the day and it started keeping its evil eyes on us. From 20th July 1995 surveillance on us was formally started and within two to four days the whole machinery engaged itself in enquiring as to what was going to be published in the paper. ‘You will be able to read it when the paper comes out’ I told them. I was sure that the government would impound the copies before the paper comes out of the press.
We had announced to bring it out on 1st of August but by 31st July managed to dispatch 1500 copies all over the country from the railway station through RMS. I knew that by that night we would all be arrested. Friends advised me to hide at their residences but I continued working. In the night hundreds of police personnel barged in and arrested me. I spent nine months in jail and at last the Government had to surrender and withdrew the case against me because I had not done anything against the constitution.
Surely I may not be aware of what Zakir Naik might now be knowing. However, on the basis of whatever I can guess I can say that had he come back from abroad, the maximum time he would have been forced to spend in jail would have been one or two years. But after his release later his popularity would have increased manifolds. And in case, if he has done something that was against the constitution and he was aware of it then I feel much surprised why did he ever do so? If he has done no wrong then fleeing from the country itself is suicidal, an act that would be forgiven neither by the Almighty, nor by the millions of Muslims and nor by the Memon community that has helped him by contributing millions of rupees for his cause. There would be hardly any Muslim who knows Zakir Naik and does not regard his decision now as cowardice and suicidal. More than himself he has harmed the cause of Islam along with and now the case is in the Court of Allah SWT.
Translated by Urdu Media Monitor.Com from Daily Jadid Khabar, 22 July 2017
He is wise enough than all of us. Everyone knows in India they will put you behind bars and tell you to prove yourself innocent and this process will take 15-20 years and after that they will declare you innocent. After such a long period you will forget everything and will be worried about bread and butter.
When you are so good at defending Islam why can’t you defend yourself
Dear author,
Please be sensible, Indian system for Muslims, SUCKS.
And cause of the BIASED nature of the LAW, hence the later decision.
Care.
ahh ok..thats why abdul kalam was president…!!
Br. Hafeez Naumani Sahab it looks like you are very innocent. First of all the world has changed he can continue has dawa work from their. Second it is communal party that is ruling the country. They can go to any extent which the previous government hasn’t do yet. Thirdly have we forgot Gujarat?
So convenient for you to forget that Muslims brought it on themselves after they locked bogeys on a train in which Hindus were travelling & burnt them alive! The Gujarat riots happened after that episode stoked Hindu anger. Your sick propaganda will not hide the truth!
Bro they are hypocrites,you cant expect honesty from them
True
He lost not only his case but by his actions gave a subtle message to those who want to preach the true message that one shouldn’t abandon their luxurious lifestyle or face any hardship in times of troubld
In a country where an anti-Muslim party leader Modi, indicted for killings of Gujrati followers of Islam, and the architect of GharWapsi project and other measures to harras, intimidate, kill and injure Mohammad”s followers. In such situations India is not only unsafe for Muslims but also for Christians and Dalit women subjected to gang rapes followed by murders.
Please do’nt drag the Almighty and the muslims in general into this controversy.You are representing niether the Almighty nor the muslima.It is simply a case of calling a person by name and hang him.There is no comparison between the Mallaya and the great Dr. Zakir Naik.In this connection, I would like to mention a Urdu couplet – ” Khud hi qaatil,khud hi shahid,khud hi munsif thehre , Aqarba karein mere khoon ka dawah kiyunkar.”
Zakir is a coward who did not even care to pay respects to his father’s janaaza for fear of getting behind bars. If he is so afraid of gallows why should he go around lashing his tongue at other people’s faiths and introducing his innovations. Did he think that he can get away with that in a country beset by partition in the name of religion, while he is not allowed to read a single word out of script approved by authorities in UAE or Saudi Arabia? Now he has failed even to get a citizenship in Wahabi Saudi Arabia for whom he was doing all his despicable work. It is good that India revoked his passport or else at last he would have come back with no respite anywhere else, and here there are guys who are ready to make a saint and martyr out of him. To brothers who vouch for Zakir, dont ever think of making India a Muslim country again. You will never do that till the day of judgement. Just think of how to escape from the Gau rakshaks. If Zakir could not manage a citizenship in Saudi Arabia you will never either. Ditch this innovator.
You are just a paid troll and an inebriated gaurakshak filled with hatred towards everyone else.
The only thing you know is to attack any criticism with tooth and nail without having any reply. Unfortunately such an attitude is not going to work in India, where we are, and will remain, just 10% of the population. So you believe it is OK for Zakir to evade law and run as a fugitive begging for citizenship in Muslim majority countries, none of which but seems eager to grab this “Islamic treasure”, and even to ignore his father’s janaaza for fear of mosquito bites in Indian jail. If he is innocent he should have come to India and faced trial. Even if the trial had been unjust it would have been for all world to see. In reality he and his folks were under the impression they could run things here what ever way they wanted with some Wahabi funds. Thanks to wahabi guys like this even the rarest happenings of conversion to Islam has become impossible in a country like India, where Islam was mostly spread through saints and sufis. It is not without any reason half a dozen countries has banned this guy. Probably you will miss his great sayings which got him banned, but most Indian Muslims wont.
Indian “justice” is, thanks to systematic ideological infiltration by sectarian RSS terrorists, increasingly deteriorating to the levels of a kangaroo court.
Could a Jew in Nazi Germany obtain justice from the Aryan supremacist state whom the Hinduvadi fanatics take as their cynosure?
I agreed with the author comments :
Zakir Naik should and must have come back to his motherland and prove his innocent, if he did anything wrong unconstitutional than he has to face the charges and accept the punishment.
I am sure Zakir didn’t do anything unconstitutional, he is as white as kafan and as clean and clear as water of zam zam.
Live and Death are in the hands of Almighty and hardship, spending the life in prison is the sunnah of prophets.
As a citizen of this country, May I appeal Dr. Naik to come back to his mother land and face the charges imposed by the authorities and prove yourselves as innocent. If you did anything wrong against Indian constitution, hand over yourself to the authorities and face the punishment.
EYES of Indian Muslim specially young having iman and faith in Allah SWT are watching you and praying for you to emerge as Hero again in the land of sufi and saints.
Lies, untrustworthy and unfaithfulness are on the rise and common in all societies, Good people has no place but the test of Almighty for good and the bad people are always be there.
Dont worry. He may be forced to come back with nowhere else to go. After failing to get citizenship in Saudi now he is trying in Malaysia. But Malaysia has considerable non-Muslim population, who are currently living peacefully with the Muslim population there, and they will never allow him to stay there too long and create problems. India will be obliged to take him as a namesake Indian citizen. The congress govt was cleverly using him as a fodder for Gau Rakshaks while at the same time claiming to be supporting “freedom of faith” and “freedom of expression”. But BJP is more straight forward in this matter. But they would do well to keep him out of India if possible, and not cause to make him a saint here.
Don’t worry, we don’t require your analysis with saffron mentality, we are very much aware that how much congress has supported BJP to come to the power, and even Congress are having RSS moles in their party, and the congress hide the hindu terrorism from hindutva forces in the country. Now BJP are in process to rewrite the history of RSS,
Will you prove the straight forward to BJP, what they did on black money, corruption, price rise (look at the price of tomato), job less youth, development. and etc.
Yeah I understand, congress were saffron, BJP were saffron, left were saffron, and everyone are saffron. So you were thinking of converting some people and making more green here? It wont happen bro, as zakir has found out. Even sangh parivar are least concerned of any potential of coversion to Islam here. They are worried about only Christianity. So why dont become a little realistic and try to be practical, as zakir has now become?
Very true Brother Zameer.
Daiees are not limited by worldly hardships.
This is the chance to prove the RSS and the hypocrites amongst Muslim firkas wrong.
Spending life in prison is the sunnah of the Prophets and the genuine Islamic religious scholars.
It will give the best daawah of Islam to the whole world InshaAllah.
Continuation of my previous message..
Inshallah, you will be emerged victorious against all odds.
Allah bless you and your family.