An All-India conference to spread the universal message of Quran was held in Hyderabad recently. Organised by the Quranic Education Society (QUEST), Hyderabad, it witnessed intellectuals from across the country address a packed audience at the Qamar Function Hall, Humayun Nagar on the 21st of September.
In his welcome speech, Mr. Abdul Haq Saleem, vice president of QUEST said that his society has been working to spread the egalitarian teachings of the Quran since 1990. He felt that India being a land of diverse cultures, there was a no better place to display the universalism of Islam through inter-faith harmony which the Quran promotes. He wanted the people to visit the website of QUEST at thequranhouse.com.
Mr. Ghayasuddin Akbar, political activist and student of comparative study of religions, was of the opinion that if the followers of all religions revert back to spiritualism, they will find common values which are universal. “In religion, all laws are defined on the basis of rituals, customs, traditions and cultural ingredients. This is the art of priest craft. Religion enslaves, whereas spiritualism liberates and emancipates,” he said.
Mr. Bashiruddin Babukhan, social activist and former minister of Andhra Pradesh, lamented the stagnation of thought in Islam saying that unless Muslims promote free thinking and an inclusive interpretation of Islam, they will not be able to progress. He wanted all Muslim primary schools to include in their syllabus the humanitarian teachings of the Quran to channelise young Muslim minds in the right direction.
Mr. Abdul Ghafoor Saifi, President, Meezanul Iman, Kanpur, talked about the importance and urgency of teaching Muslim children the Arabic language. This he said would help them understand the Quran on their own and prevent them from being misled by sectarian ulema.
Mr. Shahid A. Chowdhri, Special Editor, Image Reflection Centre, Delhi and author of “Sufism”, felt that Islam has been grossly misinterpreted by the ulema.
In his address, Er. A. Faizur Rahman, freelance journalist and student of comparative religion, Chennai, said that what the world knows as Islam today is nothing but fossilized form of medievalism disseminated through Islamic seminaries. “While there can be no doubt that the Muslim ulema are mainly responsible for presenting an obscurantist picture of Islam, in my opinion the Muslim laity too should share the blame equally for not questioning the ulema and for allowing them to establish their rule over the masses” he added. “The only way of solving this problem” he said “is to by-pass the ulema and directly make available to the people the true, universal and moderate teachings of Islam which will equip them to counter the extremist and exclusive interpretations of the Quran.
He quoted extensively from the Quran to prove that Islam is not an exclusive religion of the Muslims and that we must desist calling all non-Muslims as kaafirs which they were not. He said that in many places, the Quran has designated the Muslims themselves as kaafirs for not making the Quran their basic law of life. As an example, he quoted the versed which said that “those who fail to judge by what God has revealed are unbelievers (kaafiroon)” (5:44).
Saying that there was an urgent need to popularize the Quran the manner in which the Messenger did, Faizur Rahman warned that “Muslims have to be really worried about the fact that they are losing the support of the silent majority as they have become an economically, socially and educationally backward community obsessed with the beard and the burqa and led by an unorganised clergy who in turn are busy blocking the progress of the community by keeping the community suppressed, and in many cases oppressed, through their medieval ideology.”
The meeting was presided over by Mr. Bashiruddin Babukhan, and Islamic scholar, Dr. Hasanuddin Ahmed I.A.S (retd), ex-chairman A.P. Minorities Commission was the chief guest.
