By Shakeel Shamsi
11 February 2019
(Translated from Urdu By New Age Islam
Edit Bureau)
In 2015, Muslims in Britain took a
significant initiative, opening the doors of about 20 mosques for non-Muslims
and launching a campaign for ‘#visit my mosque’. Through this campaign, British
Muslims attempted to remove doubts that were created against Islam in the
hearts of non-Muslims. As a result of this campaign, not only did the
non-Muslims visit the mosques but they also had access to Islamic literature
available in the mosques. Impressed by this campaign, some of the educated
Muslims in India have started the same campaign and opened the doors of some
mosques of Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, and Ahmadabad for non-Muslims.
Obviously it will cause double advantages.
Firstly, non-Muslims will come to know about Muslim beliefs and their modes of
worship. Secondly, it will develop mutual unity and tolerance.
Muslims have been living in India for more
than a thousand years, but a large number of non-Muslims here have very little
information about Islam and Muslims. Whatever little information they have is
based on misunderstanding.
For example, the famous poet Kabir Das made
a couplet (Doha) about Azan, “Kankar-Pathar Jodi Ke Masjid Lai Chunai / Ta
Chadhi Mulla Baang De Kya Bahira Hua Khudai?” translation “A mosque is
built with stones and pebbles / A cleric from there, calls; Is God hard of
hearing?” This Doha is taught in schools and many Muslims term it the
best criticism, while this Doha is the result of misunderstanding and
lack of information. If Kabir Das had known that Azan is not meant for calling
Allah but for calling the Muslims living around the mosques, he would never
have made such a couplet.
Let me tell you another incident in this
case. When I was the news producer in Doordarshan, one of my Brahman
colleagues, very close one, asked me why you, the Muslims, called ‘Allah, Akbar
the king’ during Azan. When I replied that it was not the king Akbar meant in
Azan and that Allahu Akbar simply meant ‘Allah is the Greatest’, he felt
embarrassed.
There are many misconceptions as such in
the hearts of non-Muslim brothers owing to lack of knowledge about Muslim
beliefs. It is therefore the responsibility of every Muslim to remove their
misconceptions. Our mosques can be a very good place for that matter.
Unfortunately our situation is just the
opposite. Notice boards are displayed outside numerous mosques to stop
non-Muslims’ entry. Not to speak of non-Muslims, such boards are also hung to
prevent Deobandis, Wahhabis, Shias, Suleh Kulli and Ahle-Hadith from
entering the mosques.
Tradition of writing the name of Maslak
(school of thought) on the notice boards outside mosques of different schools
of thought (Masalik) has been very common. It is thus a very difficult
task to take such an initiative that would invite non-Muslims to enter the
mosques. We, however, believe and suggest that today’s educated and far-sighted
Muslims start taking interest in this work and do a great service to Islam by
removing misconceptions of non-Muslims.
In our country a deep and pre-planned
conspiracy is being hatched to incite hatred in the hearts of Hindus against
Muslims. Ignoring millions of welfare tasks done by Muslims, the people
affiliated with Sangh Parivar are presenting Muslims as destructive. They are
trying to influence the people with the idea that Muslims came to India to
merely break the temples. Hindus are being misguided to believe that Muslims
were not but invaders. At this tumultuous time, it is our responsibility to
tell them that when Babar attacked India, one million Muslims ready to die for
the sake of protecting the country were the part of Ibrahim Lodi’s army and
that those who fought the soldiers of Timur and Nader Shah, and as such,
sacrificed for this country were Muslims.
Inquilab, New Delhi February 4, 2019
URL
of Urdu Article: http://www.newageislam.com/urdu-section/visit-my-mosque(masjid)--میری-مسجد-میں-آئیے۔۔۔/d/117658
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/shakeel-shamsi/mosques-can-be-a-very-good-place-to-remove-misconceptions-of-islam/d/117712