Cover Page of Tassy's Book
Dr.Mazhar Naqvi
A
regular viewer of the blog Syed Hafeez Hussaini has been asking me to let him
know as to why Qazi Nurullah Shustari was executed and who gave him the title
of Shaeed-E-Salis (Third Martyr).He lives in Bangalore and also operates a blog
under the banner of ‘Just You And Your Deeds’ with tagline from Holy Quran’
Kullo Nafsin Zaikatul Maut’(Every creature has to taste death).His query about
Qazi Nurullah began after I posted an article about his forgotten descendants with the remark that he was executed on the
orders of Emperor Jahangir. In response to his question, I immediately added in
the article that Qazi was
flogged to death on September 7, 1610 in the middle of night on the order of
Jahangir as a result of a conspiracy hatched by his opponents. They presented certain
portions of a book 'Ihqaqul Haque' and convinced him that Qazi had written in
it derogatory remarks about some prominent companions of Holy Prophet. They
raised the issue before emperor when he was in a drunken state and got his
execution order signed by him on the basis of a fatwa issued by 42 to 55 Ulemas.
I did not reveal the names of the companions so as to avoid any controversy in
the Muslim world that is already witnessing sectarian escalation. Even
otherwise, there have always been books and refutations have been a regular
cause of division of Muslims over certain customs, rituals and traditions.
I was under
the impression that my addition would satisfy him but he remained persisting. I
promised him to give answers to his queries after conducting viva-voce of management
students .As promised, I am producing below the contents relating to Shaeed-e-Salis:
1-Famous 19th century French Indologist Gracin de Tassy in his work Memoiresur des particularities de la religion,Musulmane dansI’inde, d’apres les ouvrages hindoustani ‘has mentioned “ Nurullah Shustari (1542-1610) who was the leading thinkers of Shia Islam and as Qazi of Lahore was absolutely impartial .However,he became unpopular on account of his strictness and at the instigation of the Ulema Jahangir had flogged him to death.”
Graci De Tassy
2-The title of Shaeed-E-Salis has been given to him by Ulemas of Indian sub-continent in the wake of his services to propagation of ‘Hussaini Ideology” in North India and also falling prey to a section of bigoted Ulema who neither appreciated his knowledge and wisdom nor his love for Ahle-Bait. It is worth mentioning here that even Mullah Abdul Qadir Badauni who was a worst critic of Imami faith had not uttered a single word when Qazi was appointed as Chief Qazi by Akbar-The Great.
3-
The Ulema in the Middle East list Mulla Mohammed Taqi as the Third Martyr and Baqir al Sadr as the Fourth Martyr. Noor Allah Shustari doesn’t find a place in their listing. But these Ulema also
recognize his greatness as a great scholar and jurist.
4- From the period of Allama Hilli the experts in the Jafari Fiqh were the important targets of the establishments
of those days. We can list 4 or 5
eminent Mujtahids who were martyred. Qazi Nurullah Shustari figures among them as a
martyr.
I would like to specify here that I had also asked a question to Hafeezi Sahib about his opinion regarding Jahangir as a Muslims but he has parried the query so far.I would like to also point out that memoire of Tassy has been translated by Professsor M. Waseem of Jamia Milia Univrsity, New Delhi and it was published in French in 1831.As Wahabism was still in its infancy no one had raised voice against Tassy as to why he wrote that Qazi was executed at the instigation of Ulema who found him too impartial and proficient in all the schools of jurisprudence much to their heart-burning.
No comments:
Post a Comment