Source/Credit: Daily Times Pakistan
By Amaar Ahmad | March 13, 2011
Sir: The sectarian violence of recent times should spur us to evaluate the historical role of religious extremism in Muslim societies. It should come as no surprise that a class of religious demagogues have played such games since the early days of Islam. This class is identifiable from its self-annihilating intolerance of dissent and desire for temporal domination. Why is there a pertinent analogy between Abu Jahl and our religious extremists today?
Amr Ibn Hisham, a powerful and authoritarian Meccan chief, was known as Abu Hakim (Father of Wisdom) because of his wise and prudent counsel. That was until Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) made the declaration of his mission. Ibn Hisham, out of sheer arrogance and indignation at this ‘upstart’, felt that his position was under threat from the new message.
Losing all balance of right and wrong, his criticisms of the Prophet (PBUH) became so senseless that he earned a new nickname: Abu Jahl (Father of Ignorance).
A successor to Abu Jahl would therefore exhibit two traits: mollycoddling political power to choke freedom of religion for anyone with a differing belief and to make a lifetime mission of opposing the truth even at the expense of self-harm. Unfortunately, throughout Muslim history, a section of extremists have always exhibited these two traits.
Sheikh Abdul Qadir Gilani, a mystic who claimed direct communion with God, was dismissed as a heretic. Shah Waliullah was forced to leave Delhi because he had translated the Quran into Persian to help the masses understand the word of God.
In Pakistan today, ironically, the orthodox religious parties have come to symbolise Abu Jahl’s mindset. They glorify killers and condemn the innocent with no concern for the consequences. Unfortunately, these groups exist simply because a large section of society is either ignorant of religion or lacks the moral backbone to reject bigotry.
AMAAR AHMAD
Blacksburg, USA
Read original post here: Abu Jahl’s successors
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