Indian Muslim Fatwa Against Cow-Slaughter

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Ulema changes tune on beef-eating

By Sandhya Jain

 

In a surprise development for the Hindu community, the famous Deoband

Darul Uloom has asked Muslims nationwide to avoid slaughtering cows

on the occasion of the forthcoming Id-ul-Zuha on January 11, out of

respect for Hindu sentiments. The measure is fraught with significant

possibilities for inter-community relations, but even more

importantly, contains the seeds for progress and change for the

Muslim community itself.

 

The Islamic seminary has been at the centre of unseemly controversy

for the past two years. In September 2004, a cross-section of the

Islamic clergy virtually ganged up to browbeat a young Muslim girl,

who had remarried in the belief that her husband was dead and was in

an advanced stage of pregnancy, to return to her first husband who

unexpectedly returned from a Pakistani jail. Owing to the media

interest in the story, it was widely known that Gudiya wanted to stay

with second husband Taufeeq, who was also the father of her child.

The ulema should have facilitated a discreet divorce with Arif, but

contrary to all norms of human decency, they chose a highly public

route to bulldoze the young, sick and vulnerable girl to leave the

father of her child. The result is that barely 18 months later, young

Gudiya is dead after a prolonged illness that must have some

relationship with her psychological condition; her infant is

motherless.

 

Deoband came briefly into the limelight once again in 2005, when

Imrana, wife of a rickshaw-puller in UP, was allegedly raped by her

father-in-law. When the local Ansari community learnt of the rape,

the panchayat declared that Imrana stood automatically divorced from

her husband and father of her five children; they directed her to

marry her father-in-law and treat her husband as her son. The

decision caused widespread outrage in the country, but Deoband gave a

fatwa upholding the Ansari panchayat decision, until a national

uproar forced it to backtrack by claiming that no fatwa had been

issued in the matter.

 

Now, like a breath of fresh air, Deoband has brought out a book on

the concept of qurbani (sacrifice) associated with `Bakr Id,' and

specifically suggested that the Muslim community avoid slaughtering

cows during the festival as a mark of "respect for the feelings of

Hindus." This not only marks a welcome departure from its hitherto

orthodox and regressive decision-making process, but indicates the

seminary's ability to be flexible and innovative in matters of faith,

should it only wish to be so. Political parties that kow-tow to

Muslim orthodoxy in the false belief that the community cannot be

reformed without seriously compromising its religious identity, would

do well to ponder the deeper significance of this little-noticed but

profound gesture from Deoband.

 

The fatwa argues that the Hindu demand for stopping the killing of

cows is just their insistence. It informs Muslims that where cow

slaughter is banned by law (in Hindu-ruled areas), the responsibility

for social disturbances would fall upon Muslims, and hence they

should refrain from this activity (which indicates that it is

optional and not mandatory). However, wherever there is no

prohibition, Hindus will be held responsible for the social unrest.

 

Hindu leaders should in fact demand that henceforth this be an

article of faith for the Muslim community, and not be treated as an

issue of blackmail, as in the past. It is well known that during the

Khilafat agitation, some Muslim leaders offered not to slaughter cows

as a gesture of goodwill to the Hindus, and it is equally well known

that Muslim leaders have felt free to exhort the community to

slaughter cows whenever they wished to agitate the majority

community.

 

In The World of Fatwas, Mr. Arun Shourie cites the Fatwa-i-Rizvia,

which claims, "We have set the sacrifice of the cow and the camel

among the marks of the Din of Allah." The fatwa quotes several ulema

to the effect that slaughtering cows is essential and a long-standing

practice of Islam, and if Hindus object to the killing of cows

on "communal grounds," then it is not right for Muslims to refrain

from killing cows. This fatwa in fact decrees that on every occasion

Muslims should keep up what has been prevalent in Islam for so long.

If they stop it, they shall be sinners.

 

The Fatawa-i-Rizvia points that if someone restrains Muslims from

sacrificing a cow, it becomes obligatory to sacrifice it, because

Muslims cannot give up their religious work under duress. It argues

that those who advocate the contrary to please the polytheists (that

is, Hindus) are out to undermine Islam; they are great sinners and

enemies of Islam, who, according to the Koran, shall be consigned to

Hell forever.

 

The fatwa argues that the Hindu demand for stopping the killing of

cows is just their insistence. It informs Muslims that where cow

slaughter is banned by law (in Hindu-ruled areas), the responsibility

for social disturbances would fall upon Muslims, and hence they

should refrain from this activity (which indicates that it is

optional and not mandatory). However, wherever there is no

prohibition, Hindus will be held responsible for the social unrest.

Indeed, it goes so far as to argue that in Hindustan, cow slaughter

is an act that greatly glorifies Islam: "By our fatwas we have proven

that here the sacrifice of cows is proper and to abandon it out of

regard for Hindus is improper."

 

Now, this act of consideration for Hindus, this attempt to promote

communal amity, once denounced as "qatai haram" (completely

prohibited) is being propagated suo moto by Deoband. Whatever the

political calculations behind the measure, it is nonetheless welcome

as a step forward in the move towards a national ban on cow

slaughter. Religious leaders from both communities should step

forward and seal this as an immutable pact which cannot be undone

whenever Muslims feel less pressured by the international vigilance

against their community.

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