Wednesday, January 12, 2011

List Please

Ansar Abbasi triumphantly points out on the front page of The News today that what is "generally ignored in the ongoing discussions in the media" is that the mandatory death punishment for blasphemy "applies to all the prophets" as per the 1991 ruling of the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). He writes:


"The selected portions of the FSC judgment are: "It is also to be noted that Allah Almighty creates no distinction or inequality in the status of the Prophets though. He did bestow on some of them more gifts than others." While quoting different verses of the Holy Quran, the judgment said, "Practically, all the jurisconsults and scholars agreed that in view of the above verses and the equal status of all the Prophets as such, the penalty of death as determined above shall apply, in case any one utters contemptuous remarks or offers insult, in any way, to any one of them.""


Explaining how the FSC judgement becomes the law de facto, he says:



"Ismail Qureshi, senior advocate of the Supreme Court, religious scholar and the man who fought a long legal battle to get death sentence for blasphemers in the Pakistani statute, told The News that the Federal Shariat Court's decision got finality after the then government had withdrawn its appeal from the Supreme Court. In talk shows and discussions even some prominent lawyers were heard saying that the Section 295-C is flawed as it does not cover all the prophets. Qureshi explained that after the FSC's judgment, the Section 295-C would be read in the light of the Shariat Court's decision. Former Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice (retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqi, when approached, endorsed Qureshi's viewpoint and said that after a superior court's ruling gets finality, it becomes law no matter whether the concerned law is amended by the government or not."



Forget for a moment that this is Mr Abbasi's version of justice: in effect, his argument - like that of many other  blinkered defenders of the warped laws - is that those campaigning against them, which includes scholars of Islam, are mistaken because they are allegedly non-discriminatory. (Incidentally, typically, Abbasi picks on the argument of one marginal group of people who do not even represent the view of most of those who hold these man-made laws problematic. Nevertheless, if there were ever a decree to put to death all those with beards, I assume Abbasi would also defend it as non-discriminatory and commit hara-kiri.)

But I want to go on a different tangent.

Now, the Holy Quran actually names only 25 prophets. But it also says in Surah-e-Nahl that Divine Messengers were sent to every community (through history) and Allah also points out in Surah-e-Nisa:


“We have told you the story of some Messengers and of others We have not …”


So the Quran never tells us the exact numbers. However, according to Hadith No. 21257 from Musnad Ibn-e-Hanbal, the number of prophets is 124,000. Some scholars contest the veracity of this particular saying of the Prophet. Ibn-e-Saad claims the number is actually 1,000 while others say the number of prophets is as high as 224,000.

What I would like Abbasi and others of his ilk (including the mullahs of the FSC) to do is to provide us a verified list of ALL the prophets covered by this 'law', preferably all possible 224,000, but even 1,000 will do. Because, you know, we don't want to even inadvertently blaspheme against any of them by throwing someone's business card into the waste-paper basket.

13 comments:

Saima said...

Smile. Then. Chuckle. Then. Hmmm...

yawar said...

Just can't understand, how this guy ansar abbasi, from being a small-time reporter of Jamat-i-Islami's newspaper, Jasarat, became a small-time reporter of The News, then a front-page hate-monger of the same paper, then a warped 'analyst' on Geo and then someone who has started to behave like some Islamic jurist.

Really, I pitty the paper and the channel who has given this jahil the time and the space.

Ali Kazmi said...

I have grown to expect a lot from you guys (and ladies - if there maybe any) but this post only makes a half-hearted attempt at making a point.
Sure, whatever Abbasi says should immediately be discarded as claptrap, but I felt you needed to expand on this issue so that people like me who borrow your rhetoric - to anger their friends and colleagues - may get more substance out of it.
Which is why I loved the previous couple of posts. They were very thorough!

Anonymous said...

pyala....... this time you didnt give any valid reasoning and you spit on AA without any valid point.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't it 124000?

i'm sorry, it just stood out :)

XYZ said...

@Ali Kazmi and Anon611: The reasoning is quite thorough in my opinion, unless you see nothing absurd in compiling a speculative list of 1,000 or 124,000 or 224,000. Read it again.

@Anon612: Huh?

Anonymous said...

...i dont want togvgo to jail for ripping a poster from the wall aswell (like the poor Imam Masjid in D.G Khan. It might contain some prophet's name that i may not know.

AynAlif said...

What is to become of the Christian sweeper who cleans up at Mr. Mohammad or Mr Yusuf or Mr Isa's office where one of these illustrious people may have binned an envelop bearing their name? Will he be charged with blasphemy for using a broom on papers which have the names of prophets written on them?

This is getting ludicrous - but the sad thing is that everybody is too scared to laugh.

Anonymous said...

so after reading the complete article you couldn't find anything else to ridicule and had to make this lame post about the list of Prophets? who is more crazy Ansar Abbasi or You ?

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:14,

Ansar Abbasi. Definitely Ansar Abbasi.

IZ said...

Two questions immediately come to mind:

1. If, as some speculate, Bhudda was a prophet, then would blowing up statues of him constitute blasphemy?

2. If anyone accuses Mohammad Yusuf of being corrupt, do they get sentenced to death twice?

Anonymous said...

What's so tolerant about honoring the prophets you already believe in...
how about not abusing the prophets that you don't believe in? e.g. bahaullah. or mirza ghulam ahmed.

Anonymous said...

This is as factually incorrect as it can get. There have been less then a few convictions under this law while many arrests and there have been ZERO convictions with the death penalties having been sentenced. You have to understand that the messenger of Allah is no ordinary human being. Besides the plaintiff has never denied the accusation and she has confessed to the crime itself. If you are not a serious Muslim then at least think like a law abiding decent human being.