LETTERS

This is with reference to the interview by Yoginder Sikand with Flavia Agnes (Islamic Voice, July 2009). It was very interesting and served as a guide to the Muslim community. Flavia has struggled in her life and with her firm determination has proved herself as an unique woman. The complete interview advocates the burning problems of women, while replying on the Uniform Civil Code, she has been very frank and upright. Thanks to Yoginder Sikand for the interview and congratulations.

The report that the Railways will issue free monthly season tickets (second class) from August 1 to students attending madrasas and senior madrasas is happy news indeed. Through another notification, the Railway Board ordered 60 per cent concession in Metro Rail Kolkata fare to students up to Standard 12 from August 1. This will help the youngsters quite a bit.

We Indians are the biggest hypocrites in the world. Australia is branded racist for a dozen attacks whereas in India, Hindu militants (Sadhvi, Purohit etc) are shielded from laws like MCOCA while ordinary Muslims rot in jails under MCOCA, POTA based on mere suspicion. Forget ordinary Muslims, even Muslim celebrities are denied houses in Hindu localities but communal parties like the Shiv sena and BJP file cases against Muslims themselves!! Bomb blast perpetraters are sentenced but reports of commissions like Srikrishna, Liberhan gather dust. Secularism, democracy are all sham in the Indian context.

I have been doing some research on Sacred Months for Hajj Pilgrimage. I have always wondered about the stampedes and the accidents that occur during the Hajj almost every year. I have found some answers in the Qu'ran. The holy months mentioned in the Qu'ran mean not only to refrain from wars, but also for performing the Hajj. Therefore, we can see that Hajj can also be performed during the four sacred months.

This is with reference to the statement of a renowned scholar who quoted from the Quran a verse in which Allah commands the children to look after their aged parents. The scholar says that there is no place for old age homes in Islam. The scholar has spoken the truth and if children are God-fearing and devoted, they will follow this. But in some cases this is not happening. The picture is gloomy and pathetic. Some aged parents are seen roaming about the roads in tattered clothes, hungry and under-nourished. They are deserted by their own children. Hence old age homes for such aged Muslim parents cannot be ruled out, since some children in their greed and selfishness violate the order of Allah. We have more than enough educational institutions and its high time, we set up better hospitals and old age homes.

I am a regular reader of Islamic Voice. I find it very difficult to understand what you have written. Majority of the words you are using seem like you have swallowed the whole dictionary. People like me find it very difficult to interpret. Henceforth please use simple English. I request you to take the initiative to send complimentary copies of Islamic Voice to libraries of Mangalore.

“Modern man driven by greed, driven by the desire for power and for dominance and for establishing his authority has gone beyond the limits which the Quran describes as Mizan. The Quran also wants man to utilise the natural resources or God given bounties in their correct proportions, proportionate to their needs, and not to waste or to exploit the God given resources for oppression or for the extension of one's political power or military hegemony. One of these funda­mental concepts in the Quran which is perhaps responsible for uni­fying all these useful concepts is the concept of Taqwa, which means or it has been translated as God-fearing, but I would say it is perhaps better translated as mindfulness of the limitations imposed by God in His Universe. So mindfulness of that limitation, or the Taqwa, will induce the modern man to always keep in mind the guidelines of God and not simply to refer to his books of physical sciences, social sciences, or the humanities. The Muslim is a model of this kind of utilisation of human wisdom as well as constantly resorting to divine guidance under the concept of Taqwa. The Muslim who wants to approach the Quran -with the idea of trying to solve some of his contemporary problems -would have to be familiar with the Quranic sciences and at the same time he has to be familiar with the disciplines of the different contemporary and modern sciences. Then he would be able to bring out some of the implications of the Quran which were not discovered by people of the past. So in other words he has to equip himself with some classical knowledge as well as equip himself with contemporary up to date knowledge ." (Professor Kamal Hasan, the Sheikh of the Centre for Fundamental Studies of the International Islamic University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.)