Rationality Vs Orthodoxy
Iftar & Sahri
Where the sun rises and sets
Only once
per year
&
Ijtihad of Mollana sindhi
Here I am
refereeing a news item published by BBC Urdu about Norway and North Pole and it
is written by Mr Qandeel Shaam. It is about issue of Iftar and Sahri times. If the Sun rises for almost 6 months and
Sunsets for same time than how can one
follows movement of sun which is a core issue in fixing Iftar and sehri times. The
news item also talked about those parts of Norway where fasting time is 20 or
21 hours. No doubt, it is an issue yet BBC correspondent did not know that it
was Sialkot born Mollana Ubaid Ullah sindhi who resolved such issues 90 years
back. His books are available in market. Mollana was among those intellectuals
who went to Kabul in 1915 at a mission. In 1920 when King of Afghanistan made a
deal with British authorities than people like Mollana had to leave Kabul. So
he went to Russia in order to witnessed revolutionary Government of Bolsheviks.
Here Mollana met Georgy Vasilyevich
Chicherin (24
November 1872 – 7 July 1936) People's Commissar
for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from March 1918
to 1930. During his stay he also met with Grand Mufti of Soviet Union,
Mollana Raja Ullah. Ramazan was near so Raja Ullah invited Mollana sindhi to
his home time which was away from Moscow. Mollana agreed and both went there.
When Mollana observed fast, he realized that fast is 21 hours long. He asked
his host about this. Mollana raja Ullah told him that it is a very complex
matter and due to long fast, people usually either left fasting or in some
cases they prefer to change religion too. Mollana Sindhi told him that for such
situations Islam allows Muslim to practice rational thinking or independent
reasoning (Ijtihad). Mollana Raja ullah asked him what type of Ijtihad we could
offer in that situation. Mollana Sindhi told him that we can fix a rational
time for fasting and it is 14 hours. So Mollana Sindhi issued Fatwa which
resolved the issue.
In his news item BBC correspondent
just raise the issue but did not help people to find its answer which is a bad
taste. We have many rational religious
scholars in almost every school of Muslim thought yet after Zia ul Haq’s
Islamization they are on back benches.
Now read what BBC
published in his website
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