Cut to Deoband, a small town in western UP, famous for the Sunni Islamic seminary of Darul Uloom. The recent fatwa calling women working alongside men un-Islamic finds resonance among students and teachers here. A prominent Muslim cleric of international repute and the senior-most teacher of the Darul Uloom, Maulana Arshad Madni, says, “Every religion has specific guidelines for men and women which define what is allowed or disallowed for them to do. If any person asks what is permitted under his religion, then his religious head will guide him as per the teachings of that particular religion. As far as Islam is concerned, it prohibits neither men nor women from working but it has certain guidelines. If any Muslim is not following the guidelines, it does not mean that the person ceases to be a Muslim. However, he will surely be a sinner.”
But if Muslim women or 50 per cent of the Muslim people do not work, won’t that affect the economic condition of the community, he says, “In our country itself we still have separate schools for girls. So, if we can have institutions only for women then we can have workplaces exclusively for women too. As far as definition of progress is concerned, it is different for different people. For us, a good family unit and health of the society is more important than materialistic progress.”
He further added that most Muslims did not make an issue out of the fatwas. When asked whether there exist Islamic bodies which examine modern-day issues which find no mention in the Quran or the Hadiths like shares, eye and blood donation etc., he says, “We have such bodies in India which take stock of such issues and then take decisions.”
Justifying the recent fatwa, the president of All India Tanzeem Ulema-e-Hind, Syed Ahmed Khizar Shah Masoodi Kashmiri, says, “Islam gives equal rights to both men and women but also demarcates their domains which are important as well as inevitable to run a good system”. In support of his statement, Ahmed Khizar argues, “If both of us decide to build a house and both of us just start mixing sand and cement, then will we be able to build a house? Obviously not, because we need a labourer to do this mixing work and a specialist mason who will construct the house. In the same way, Islam has defined separate roles for men and women.”
However, TSI found that maulvis were not averse to using modern technology to issue fatwas. Muhammad Arshad Farooqui, chairman of Fatwa on Mobile Service, claims to use mobile for issuing speedy fatwas and says on an average at least five such fatwas are issued daily. He says he started this service three years back to save time and cost. “Most of the queries are regarding business, bank interest, shares, divorce and namaz,” he adds. At Darul Ifta (House of Fatwa), all records are maintained regarding fatwas. No mufti was ready to come on record but an official of Darul Uloom tells TSI on the condition of anonymity that about 30 to 35 fatwas are issued daily and about a thousand fatwas every month.
A senior cleric adds that Darul Ifta is not a court and neither a fatwa is a court ruling. So if a person does not adhere to a fatwa, it is not a crime. But since the widespread belief is that a fatwa is like a court ruling which has to be implemented at any cost, Khalid Ashraf, who teaches Urdu at Kirori Mal College, Delhi, opines that there is a need for Muslim religious leaders to introspect. He warns that continuing with this fatwa culture will darken the future of the community. He further adds that modern education is the only weapon to challenge such orthodox thinking and that Muslims should come out in the open against such clerics. “It is not a question of introspection but looking at things more realistically,” he concludes.
But if Muslim women or 50 per cent of the Muslim people do not work, won’t that affect the economic condition of the community, he says, “In our country itself we still have separate schools for girls. So, if we can have institutions only for women then we can have workplaces exclusively for women too. As far as definition of progress is concerned, it is different for different people. For us, a good family unit and health of the society is more important than materialistic progress.”
He further added that most Muslims did not make an issue out of the fatwas. When asked whether there exist Islamic bodies which examine modern-day issues which find no mention in the Quran or the Hadiths like shares, eye and blood donation etc., he says, “We have such bodies in India which take stock of such issues and then take decisions.”
Justifying the recent fatwa, the president of All India Tanzeem Ulema-e-Hind, Syed Ahmed Khizar Shah Masoodi Kashmiri, says, “Islam gives equal rights to both men and women but also demarcates their domains which are important as well as inevitable to run a good system”. In support of his statement, Ahmed Khizar argues, “If both of us decide to build a house and both of us just start mixing sand and cement, then will we be able to build a house? Obviously not, because we need a labourer to do this mixing work and a specialist mason who will construct the house. In the same way, Islam has defined separate roles for men and women.”
However, TSI found that maulvis were not averse to using modern technology to issue fatwas. Muhammad Arshad Farooqui, chairman of Fatwa on Mobile Service, claims to use mobile for issuing speedy fatwas and says on an average at least five such fatwas are issued daily. He says he started this service three years back to save time and cost. “Most of the queries are regarding business, bank interest, shares, divorce and namaz,” he adds. At Darul Ifta (House of Fatwa), all records are maintained regarding fatwas. No mufti was ready to come on record but an official of Darul Uloom tells TSI on the condition of anonymity that about 30 to 35 fatwas are issued daily and about a thousand fatwas every month.
A senior cleric adds that Darul Ifta is not a court and neither a fatwa is a court ruling. So if a person does not adhere to a fatwa, it is not a crime. But since the widespread belief is that a fatwa is like a court ruling which has to be implemented at any cost, Khalid Ashraf, who teaches Urdu at Kirori Mal College, Delhi, opines that there is a need for Muslim religious leaders to introspect. He warns that continuing with this fatwa culture will darken the future of the community. He further adds that modern education is the only weapon to challenge such orthodox thinking and that Muslims should come out in the open against such clerics. “It is not a question of introspection but looking at things more realistically,” he concludes.
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