It has now been established that the Muslim Ummahs origin of belief has deliberately been altered. The fact that how the distorted version of the Mardin fatwa provided the ideological justification of terrorist violence in the guise of religion, there is an urgent need to find a voice of reason among the clergy, who has influence in the militant circles and can courageously initiate debate on critical issues. But who would bell the cat is one big question. Do we think the clergy is capable enough of accommodating the voice of reason against what it has already been fed with, under the closed environment of a madrassa or out of fundamentalist emotionalism?
Three prodigious steps would be needed; (a) Nothing should be welcomed unless there is one common and high moral and constitutional gauge, which is nothing else but the Holy Quran and Peace, respectively. We will have to set aside anything else that negates or detaches itself from the spirit and text of the Quran, (b) The correct interpretation of the words of Quran, terminologies used at the time of their origin and with reference to the context, comes as the second top most priority, which is also a gigantic task but not impossible one. Those who do not differentiate between Iehad and Qetaal cannot even understand the difference between Rayib and Shakk. Keep in mind that translation is not a synonym of interpretation, (c) Thirdly, we will have to reject the history, re-carry it, and resift it to redirect and rewrite it, under the guideline of Hadith. Why no Arab, except Imam Malik (who wrote his Motta 60 years after the demise of Holy Prophet), has written any of the books available now in the entire world of Islam?
ALYA ALVI
Rawalpindi