When Chairman of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), Maulana Sherani, mentioned of over thousand recommendations made by the council for required legislation through parliament and out of which most have never seen light of the day; I didn’t feel any sympathy for Maulana and his council. He was speaking at a seminar, organized by Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) at Karachi University wherein a number of prominent Muslim scholars participated to discuss and explore religious view points on organ transplantation.
Though most of the scholars representing different sects and schools of thought were in favor of the notion that saving a human life was far important than anything else, however Maulana Sherani threw the spanner in debate by questioning how come an organ of a non-Muslim could be transplanted to a Muslim and vice versa. He was worried about the punishment of the donated organs on the day of judgement. If a Muslim receives an organ of a non-Muslim, why the Muslim person’ body be punished for the wrong-doings of non-Muslim organ. In fact he was of the view that organs of non-Muslims will be punished in any case, regardless if they have not done anything wrong,
I believe that’s quite enough to feel disgusted towards the mentality of those who are running the CII but now understand why Maulana was feeling bitterness for putting his council’s over thousand recommendations in cold storage. CII is not new to incite such controversies; perhaps just to remain in the lime light of media. Not long ago CII insisted upon eyewitness of four male Muslims as primary evidence to prove a rape case. Earlier CII has pressed upon to marry off girls in their childhood; list of such recommendations goes on.
Isn’t time to review what these guys are doing at tax-payers money in the name of Islam; for many ordinary people they are working on someone else’ agenda to bring a bad name to religion. Isn’t better to remove word ‘Islamic’ from the council’ nomenclature which is misguiding many. Regardless of Maulana Sherani’s rantings at the seminar, I am sure he will never question the origin of the donated organ if ever needed one to save his own life.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
