While Narendra Modi, the Indian Prime Minister, termed BAPS Swami Narayan Mandir at Al-Rahba joint of Dubai-Abu Dhabi Sheikh Zayed Highway as the Mandir of diversity like mentioning the Ayodhya Ram Mandir as the Mandir of humanity, perhaps, he himself was unaware that he laid the foundation of a new era of Hindu-Muslim amelioration with the assistance of the USE President Sheikh Muhammad bin Al-Nahyan! It’s assured that the vibes of this historic occasion of a Sanatan Mandir in the Islamic heartland of a new and modernised Arab world are bound to spread positive vibes of amicability amongst the ones fighting for Varanasi and Mathura religious complexes both of Islamic and Hinduism, like the Bethlehem that belongs to three faiths, namely, Judaism, Christianity and Islam! PM Modi showed the path and laid the foundation for a new world order!
All those hating PM Modi shouldn’t forget that it was he who had stated in a meeting at his residence with Muslim clerics and intelligentsia, “In each Muslim’s one hand I want to see a Quran in one hand and a computer in another!” He added, “We want to treat Muslims with equality and equanimity on par with others!” Really, if India wants to be the “Vishw Guru” (leader of the world), she must focus on interfaith amity rather than animosity! There’s a potential possibility that these two newly constructed Mandirs in India and UAE are a new lease of hope and convert animosity into amity, barbarism into brotherhood, contempt into compassion and deadlock into dialogue of a new beginning and a new India!
Otherwise as well, PM Modi’s chemistry with the heads of Muslim nations has been par excellence and globally, he had become the most popular world leader, having been awarded the best civilian honours by seven Muslim nations. Where nobody could even think of reciting the “Hanuman Chalisa”, the well-meaning Modi got a world-class temple for a new world vision and order! Besides, he had reduced Pakistan to a non-entity for the last ten years as countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, etc, used to cater to that failed Muslim state, created in the name of Islam, only to deride and disparage the religion! PM Modi is the new Hindu-Muslim hero and the most sought-after statesman of the world today, even ahead of the likes of Biden, Putin and Jinping!
The Ayodhya Mandir could have been erected a long time ago, if some large-hearted and well-meaning Muslims had offered the Ayodhya patch of to their Hindu brethren, telling them that it is for their biggest, God, Maryada Purushottam Bhagwan Ram and leaving all to Allah-Muhammad (Peace’Be Upon Him), such that both the biggest Indian communities for the rest of the millennia live like brothers, gelling like sugar and milk! Furthermore, as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan Rao Bhagwat, had said, one should not look for a Mandir underneath every mosque; this would also have implored the lion-hearted Hindus to give it a go as the other two Mandirs at Varanasi and Mathura. The hurt Hindu pride, after being assuaged by this Muslim offer, would have built the heartlessly demolished Babri Masjid worth jewels, gold and silver, like Ram Mandir! Alas, it never happened, and with the misleading and misguidance of the AIMPLB (All India Muslim Personal Law Board), Muslims had to cut a sorry figure after losing in the Apex court both the case and review petition!
As far as the solution is concerned, it can be two-pronged, and a diligent decision is expected from both communities! Firstly, either Muslims agree for making the best of the opportunity lost in the case of Ram Mandir by offering the Varanasi and Mathura sites to Hindus or lose them via court. Secondly, let the Hindu community, being the elder brother exuding bigger large-heartedness, offer a solution that instead of dismantling the two mosques, let both Puja and Namaz continue! Let the seniors of both sides join heads and sort out an out of the court settlement (something that was also tried by the Supreme Court in Ram Mandir litigation).
However, the rabble-rousers on both sides, in order to grind their axes, might not let peace dwell as we witness those horrendous and horrifying Hindu-Muslim TV debates. How these hellish debates might be misleading and misguiding the young and impressionistic minds of kids, is an issue that someone like DY Chandrachud, the Chief Justice of India, should take a suo moto notice that such communalist and conflagrant debates be replaced by educative ones lest the infringing channels should face closure.
True, that the roughly 1000-odd year Muslim rule in India did demolish many Mandirs, considering them to be centres of “infidels” idolatry giving way to mosques and other monuments, when the same could have been done on other patches of easily available land! Doing this, these so-called Muslim sultans and emperors not only belied the faith of Islam that believes in, “Lakum dinokum waley yadeen”, meaning that, to you, your religion, to me, mine but blatantly infringed the law that “Namaz” (Muslim prayer) cannot be conducted at a disputed site. At the time of the propagation of Islam, Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) once, with his own hands, razed to the ground a mosque that was built by some zealous Muslims on a non-Muslim’s land forcibly for which neither they had paid nor took his permission! Nevertheless, Muslims of today must not be made to pay for the sins of the sultans and emperors of yester years as part of Narendra Modi’s all-encompassing promise, “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas Sabka Prayas!”
As per the tenets of Islam, it means that the Muslim prayers at the presently three disputed sites, namely, Ayodhya, Varanasi and Mathura, might not have been accepted by Allah, the Almighty! Fine, let’s leave it to the Almighty whether he accepted these or not, as He is the best Judge. If the same is left to be judged by the Muslim community, most would say that the prayers done at the mosques erected on the Mandir’s debris are acceptable as idolatry is a sin in Islam. However, all those Muslims of the likes of Maulana Azad, who believe in the Sufi culture, would state that Muslim prayers at a disputed site can never be accepted by Allah.
Though I am not someone who admires the great leftist historian Irfan Habib, nevertheless I side with him when he says that enough is enough! Gyan Vapi (meaning, the well of knowledge in Sanskrit) was a Mandir that was desecrated, demonised and destroyed by Aurangzeb, as mentioned in “Maasir-e-Alamgiri”; nevertheless, the solution is not to destroy the mosque that has been accommodating the prayers for hundreds of years but to find an amicable solution via mutual understanding than the court settlement. Any court decision will mean defeat and defilement of one side (Muslims in this case). Muslim side must understand that it is in the manifesto of the BJP or, in other words, the saffron regiment including the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad), Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal etc. that once they are in power, principally, they would ensure the three most important Vedic requirements that are, the consecration of the three major Mandirs (Ram Mandir, Gyan Vapi and Shri Krishna Janma Bhoomi), implementation of the UCC (Uniform Civil Code) and ban on cow slaughter. They are on their agenda, slowly but surely and now legally after filing the petitions in various courts. As a law-abiding Muslim citizen of Bharat, I know that leaving such issues to be sorted out by the “court marriage”‘ may end in utter disaster for the Muslim community as Hinduism is a religion thousands of years old, and there might be a Mandir underneath an umpteenth number of mosques, monuments and houses! A court case, in any probability, on the basis of the evidence (as in the Gyan Vapi matter) after digging or otherwise, would offer a Qutub Minar, a Taj Mahal or a Jama Masjid or any mosque or monument to the Hindu side.
As a matter of fact, Islam, more than being a religion, is a way of life, as stated by Sufi Sarmad, the naked saint, who used to recite half “Kalimah” (basic Islamic principle) and was executed by emperor Aurangzeb. Islam is a religion of kindness, mercy and beneficence, doesn’t believe in “Sar tan se juda” (hecking of neck) as in the case of Kanhaiya Lal, a Rajasthan tailor, whose jugular was slashed by Riyaz and Ghaus Mohammad in the aftermath of an obnoxious comment by the BJP spokesperson, Nupur Sharma, that he had supported. People like Riyaz and Ghaus Mohammad misinterpret the Islamic tenets to the extent of extremity, such that awards had been announced for her head as well, and the lady had to go in hiding. This is not Islam. Had Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) been alive in this situation, not only would he have pardoned Nupur after she had apologised, but he would have offered himself to guard her from such executors! Unfortunately, what has happened is that all those who swear in the name of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), slashing the throats of those who defile him, have taken a U-turn from his teachings of mercy and magnanimity!
Such Muslims and their ilk, as the so-called Muslim leaders, are spreading the upside-down message of Muslims. The policy of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) had never been to hurt and howl but to join lacerated hearts and broken souls, something we Muslims have sidetracked. According to Muhammad Sahab (PBUH), the biggest sin in social life was hurting somebody’s feelings.
But against this Prophetic principle, we usually see in the television debates with Muslim clerics and half-baked intellectuals on one side and their equivalents on the other spewing venom and blowing hot and cold, almost going in for the other’s jugular! The very meaning of Islam was given to me by Sathya Sai Baba, “ISLAM means – I Should Love All Men (of course including women)!
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