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These people have brought shame to the words Talib and Taliban. Not only has their ignorance of faith led to immoral actions dressed in virtue, but they have conducted an evil deed by killing not only an innocent person, but someone who was imparting education.
A man once asked Prophet Muhammad to explain the meaning of faith. He replied, ‘When a good deed becomes a source of pleasure for you, and an evil deed becomes a source of disgust for you, then, you are a believer’
The human conscious was designed in part as a barometer of faith, most if not all of us know when something ‘feels’ right or wrong. For these individual as well as those needing some help, the guidelines of morality are outlined in the Islamic sources, the Quran and Sunnah. The failing of Muslims stems from our inability to either understand the natural feelings of justice, denial of the rights of men and women or simple ignorance of faith.
It comes then of no surprise that with a population in excess of a billion adherents, incidents will occur where individuals and movements have misunderstood the absolute fundamentals of faith, substituting them for a bitter interpretation. Yesterday (December 17th 2005) the news reported a teacher in Afghanistan being executed by Taliban insurgents, his crime, he refused to stop teaching girls at school.
The word Taliban is the Persian and Pushto plural for the Arabic word Talib, meaning ‘seeker’ or ‘student’. Generally it is defined as a person who studies the religious sources of Islam, the Quran and Hadith. From the honor of Abu Talib, the Prophet’s uncle whose authority would protect the Prophet from the injustices of the persecuting Arab pagans, to the famous texts such as Minhaj at-Taliban by an-Nawawi, the words Talib and Taliban have always been held in esteem. In today’s context, the word has a much darker association.
The famous incident between Mohlan and Amir illustrates the sacredness of life and the severity of murder. They had an argument in the days before they had both accepted Islam. When their paths crossed on Mohlan’s way to a battle, he took out his bow and killed Amir with an arrow. When Prophet Muhammad learned of this incident he cried out ‘May Allah never forgive you!’ – as Mohlan killed Amir without reason. Hearing this Mohlan died some days later in sorrow and the people buried him. The next day however, they found his body laying on the ground. It was reported to the Prophet and then they buried him again, except this time, deeper. The following day his body was again found on the ground, and the matter again reported to the Prophet to which he said, ‘The earth accepts worse people than him but Allah Almighty has decided to make him the subject of a lesson for the people.’ The lesson being that killing a person unjustly is not an act of piety, it is not an act of truth, it is not
an act becoming a true believer, a mumin, someone who knows and understands Islam. And it was in response to this incident that verse 93 of Surah an Nisa (4) was revealed.
As for education, how can it be that some amongst the Muslims have such a poor understanding of Islam that they fail to recognise the skills, the contributions, the efforts of the early Muslim women. Moreover did not the Prophet teach women? Did not Imam Malik record women coming to the Prophet taking him by his hand asking him questions? Were not verses of the Quran revealed directly in response to women seeking answers to questions?
Would these men have killed Imam Malik for teaching Amina Ramlyah, or even Imam Shafi who also taught her? Amina, who later became a female scholar of Islam and is reported to have narrated more than a hundred hadith? Would these men have killed the nobles of Basra who in the second century AH would visit the home of Aliyah bin Hasan to discuss religious and Islamic law? When Imam Zuhri told Qasim ibn Muhammad to go the assembly of Amra bint Abdal Rahan to seek knowledge, did he object by virtue of her gender or did he describe her as ‘an ocean of knowledge’?
In fact from the six main collections of hadith, the Sahih of Bukhari, the Sahih of Muslim, the Sunan of Abu Dawood, the Sunan of Ibn Majah, the Sunan of an-Nasai and the Sunan of Tirmidhi, over 2000 hadith have been related from more than 150 women. Education has always been at the forefront of Islam, be it teaching men or women, by men or women.
Allah Almighty said, “The soul of the other led him to the murder of his brother: he murdered him but he himself became one of the lost ones”
The verse above seems the most apt description of those who have acted so unjustly towards the teacher whose only ‘crime’ it seems, was to educate in the same tradition of the many men and women who took to educating girls from our rich Islamic history.
These people have brought shame to the words Talib and Taliban. Not only has their ignorance of faith led to immoral actions dressed in virtue, but they have conducted an evil deed by killing not only an innocent person, but someone who was imparting education. The light of guidance it seems no longer exists in their conscious, and I hope by the Mercy of Allah Almighty that they resort to studying something from the teachings of Islam so that they may learn that what they are in fact doing in the name of Islam, is in fact, contrary to the teachings of Islam. |
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