Adil Najam
This photograph was published in Daily Times, January 12, 2009. The caption read:
“Women are not allowed in the market,” reads a banner displayed at the entrance of a market in Mingora. Taliban have banned the entry of women in markets and ordered the killing of women who violate the ban. Most shop owners have sold or shut down their businesses because of falling sales following the restriction.
What would have made this tragic depiction comical had the context been different is that from the picture this is clearly a textile and cloth market – the type of market where, in Pakistan, you would expect most customers to be women!
@Umar Shah
One thing that the last eight years has shown is that brute force doesn’t work. We can’t simply bomb our way out of this. In fact it only makes things worse in the long run. While military action could be part of the plan, it can’t be the entire plan. This is such a messed up and complicated issue that it will take the length of a book to discuss.
These mafioso should be blasted out of their holes and sent to hell once and for all. Dunya kahan ja rahi hai aur in jungliyon ka dimaagh gutter say bahir nahi nikalta. To them Islam and enforcement of Shariah is all about hiding women in homes. Their hearts and minds are deep in the gutter and they use force over the armless and shareef awaam. They understand the language of brute force and thats the language Pakistan must use on them.
the quran strongly recommends that we should try and make out a will. that is evidently sensible advice. it also gives a complete breakdown of shares in inheritance (nisaab) for the deceased’s relatives. now, mullahs, and everyone who blindly follows them, say that you cannot go against the quran’s nisaab. they have no choice, as a result, but to say that if a musim leaves a will contrary to the nisaab, then it is null and void and the nisaab prevails. so the quran’s strong recommendation that a muslim should make out a will is totally redundant since a will would be no more than a wasteful copying out of the nisaab as it is in the quran. if it is anything else, it would be an equally pointless waste of time. because mullahs know that they’ll not be challenged, they can get away with such absurdities. otherwise, the quran’s recommendation is absolutely sensible and the nisaab is there to help when a muslim dies having ignored the quran’s advice about a will or without getting a reasonable opportunity to do so.
addressing the unfair division within the nisaab, i found the point not entirely unreasonable that it is to offset the fact that a woman is legally entitled to and owns half her husband’s income and wealth while married to him, while the husband has no legal claim over his wife’s income and wealth. the example quoted it, that the prophet gave – as her legal right – half his salary to his wife khadija, who also happened to be his employer, but she had no obligation of sharing any of her income with him.
this is just one example of different interpretations and there isn’t space here to discuss others. as for room for misinterpretation, no spoken or written word is immune to perversion. the bible couldn’t stop the Spanish Inquisition or every other atrocity carried out in its name just like it inspired a lot of good. it’s about how honest we are to ourselves rather than to any words or interpretations. that is where it all begins and ultimately ends. we can use anything to justify anything. it’s very easy. but just like it would have been very difficult for the few good christians to defend the bible during the dark ages of the Inquisition, muslims today find themselves going through an equally dark period in their own history. many generations might come and go before there is the critically needed reform.
a prophet starts you on a journey and gives you a vision of the destination. the journey itself is a process of evolution through the ages, taking guidance and when guidance is not possible than inspiration from that vision (e.g. the prophet would’ve been declared mad had he tried to give detailed guidance about IVF, transfusion, air or space travel etc.). the prophet in his message at the last haj, claimed that he had completed the vision for all creation as strated by Adam. with this accomplishment he started his followers off an a journey through all time to come towards a destination with the vision as a guide.
evolution is a process of constant improvement and refinement – i.e. progress along the journey towards the envisioned destination. like on any journey, there are ups and downs. muslims have just managed a particularly gruesome fall to dark pits and who knows how long before they crawl back up. it will depend upon their share courage and determination.
jinnah, on 11 august 1947, gave us a vision for a journey that was to formally start 3 days later. august 14 1947 was our origin, not destination. even though things our worse today than they were on 14 aug 1947, that remains the orignin of our journey and can never become the destination. 16 dec 1971 happened along the way. but the journey must carry on, in the hope of going forward, not back, with the the same vision of 11 aug 1947 as the guidance.
also, knowing what the prophet said or did not say 1400 years ago is a matter of history. a scholarly pursuit, that one has to learn about (at least the basic do’s and don’ts) from professional historians. quran is a matter of belief. personal belief. it has to play the role of a first and ultimate reference for all students of hadith, even if they are poor or hopeless students of history. isn’t that what a belief in the quran ought to logically dictate?
These Pakistani Taliban is a Mafia created to destabilize Pakistan and engage pakistan in war on terror for a very long time.
Swat a beautiful area, was a very moderate and a peaceful region few years ago. Crime rate of swat was minimum in Pakistan. All these mullas are speacially created and migrated from Afghanistan and tribal areas of Pakistan.
From where they are getting money and latest communication equipment which is not even with army?
A worth reading article regarding this issue
http://www.jang.com.pk/jang/jan2009-daily/08-01-2009/col5.htm