Supplement to the
Evidence
Section 18:
Fatwas of Kufr
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Munir Report on Fatwas of Kufr
One of the most famous public documents in the history of Pakistan is
known commonly as the Munir Report, its official title being: Report
of the Court of Inquiry constituted under Punjab Act II of 1954 to enquire
into the Punjab Disturbances of 1953. The disturbances referred to
were instigated by a number of religious leaders (ulama) in pursuance
of their demand that the government officially classify Ahmadis to be
a non-Muslim minority community, and take certain other actions against
members of this movement. The disturbances were eventually quelled by
the authorities, and a public court of inquiry appointed with Justice
Muhammad Munir as president and Justice Kayani as member to investigate
the causes of the trouble. The inquiry went into the underlying issues
behind the events, carrying out an incisive analysis of the ulamas
concept of an Islamic state. Its 387-page Report, which soon became a
historic document, was presented in April 1954.
Referring to the ulamas call for Pakistan to be run as
an official Islamic state, and to their demands against
Ahmadis, the Report says:
The question, therefore, whether a person is or is not a Muslim
will be of fundamental importance, and it was for this reason that
we asked most of the leading ulama to give their definition
of a Muslim, the point being that if the ulama of the various
sects believed the Ahmadis to be kafirs, they must have been
quite clear in their minds not only about the grounds of such belief
but also about the definition of a Muslim because the claim that a
certain person or community is not within the pale of Islam implies
on the part of the claimant an exact conception of what a Muslim is.
The result of this part of the inquiry, however, has been anything
but satisfactory, and if considerable confusion exists in the minds
of our ulama on such a simple matter, one can easily imagine
what the differences on more complicated matters will be. Below we
reproduce the definition of a Muslim given by each alim in
his own words. (p. 215)
There then follow in the Report the answers given by various ulama
to the question, What is the definition of a Muslim. At the end of the
answers, the Report draws the following conclusion:
Keeping in view the several definitions given by the ulama,
need we make any comment except that no two learned divines are agreed
on this fundamental. If we attempt our own definition as each learned
divine has done and that definition differs from that given by all
others, we unanimously go out of the fold of Islam. And if we adopt
the definition given by any one of the ulama, we remain Muslims
according to the view of that alim but kafirs according
to the definition of every one else. (p. 218)
After this, under the heading Apostasy, the Report refers to
the belief held by the ulama that, in an Islamic state, a Muslim
who becomes a kafir is subject to the death penalty. The Report
says:
According to this doctrine, Chaudhri Zafrullah Khan, if he
has not inherited his present religious beliefs but has voluntarily
elected to be an Ahmadi, must be put to death. And the same fate should
befall Deobandis and Wahabis, including Maulana Muhammad Shafi Deobandi,
Member, Board of Talimat-i-Islami attached to the Constituent Assembly
of Pakistan, and Maulana Daud Ghaznavi, if Maulana Abul Hasanat Sayyad
Muhammad Ahmad Qadri or Mirza Raza Ahmad Khan Barelvi, or any one
of the numerous ulama who are shown perched on every leaf of
a beautiful tree in the fatwa, Ex. D.E. 14, were the head of
such Islamic State. And if Maulana Muhammad Shafi Deobandi were the
head of the State, he would exclude those who have pronounced Deobandis
as kafirs from the pale of Islam and inflict on them the death
penalty if they come within the definition of murtadd, namely,
if they have changed and not inherited their religious views.
The genuineness of the fatwa, Ex. D.E. 13, by the Deobandis
which says that Asna Ashari Shias are kafirs and murtadds,
was questioned in the course of enquiry, but Maulana Muhammad Shafi
made an inquiry on the subject from Deoband, and received from the
records of that institution the copy of a fatwa signed by all
the teachers of the Darul Uloom, including Maulana Muhammad Shafi
himself which is to the effect that those who do not believe in the
sahabiyyat of Hazrat Siddiq Akbar and who are qazif
of Hazrat Aisha Siddiqa and have been guilty of tehrif of Quran
are kafirs. This opinion is also supported by Mr Ibrahim Ali
Chishti who has studied and knows his subject. He thinks the Shias
are kafirs because they believe that Hazrat Ali shared the
prophethood with our Holy Prophet. He refused to answer the question
whether a person who being a Sunni changes his view and agrees with
the Shia view would be guilty of irtidad so as to deserve the
death penalty. According to the Shias all Sunnis are kafirs,
and Ahl-i-Quran, namely, persons who consider hadith to be
unreliable and therefore not binding, are unanimously kafirs,
and so are all independent thinkers. The net result of all this is
that neither Shias nor Sunnis nor Deobandis nor Ahl-i-Hadith nor Barelvis
are Muslims and any change from one view to the other must be accompanied
in an Islamic State with the penalty of death if the Government of
the State is in the hands of the party which considers the other party
to be kafirs. And it does not require much imagination to judge
of the consequences of this doctrine when it is remembered that no
two ulama have agreed before us as to the definition of a Muslim.
If the constituents of each of the definitions given by the ulama
are given effect to, and subjected to the rule of combination
and permutation and the form of charge in the Inquisitions
sentence on Galileo is adopted mutatis mutandis as a model,
the grounds on which a person may be indicted for apostasy will be
too numerous to count. (p. 219)
Hence this extensive inquiry found that if the fatwas of the ulama
are relied upon to determine whether a sect is Muslim or kafir,
then no sect at all will be left which could be called Muslim.
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