The Call to Truth

translation of the Quran, so that you may receive the reward for your dawah work from God. Shah Hamadan achieved success in Kashmir through dawah. Now, once again, you can achieve success in dawah work in Kashmir. Not a Case of Non-fulfillment of a Promise After the death of the Prophet of Islam in Madinah differences arose between the Emigrants (from Makkah) and the Ansar (the people of Madinah) on the issue of Khilafat. The stand of the Ansar was: one leader from amongst the emigrants and one from amongst the Ansar. Finally Umar’s suggestion was accepted. It was to the effect that they (the emigrants) would be holding the political office while the Ansar would be the advisors. But later on it was not possible to put this promise into practice. Umar Faruq in his later years once observed: we had promised the Ansar that in the matters of Khilafat we would make the Ansar our advisors, but we failed to do so. (Musnad Al-Bazzar, Hadith No. 291) It was not a case of breaking a promise; it was rather a matter relating to collective wisdom. It is desirable in Islam that a promise should be fulfilled, but this command relates to individual cases. In individual matters one individual has the power to fulfill his promise without any obstacle, therefore it is incumbent upon an individual to fulfill his promise at all costs. He should never go back on his words on any pretext. But the case of social matters is different from this. A promise related to political and social life is not a promise in the general sense. Since, in reality, social matters are not in a uniform state, different kinds of demands come to bear upon the making of the relevant decisions. As such, promises of this kind can never be absolute in nature. They change with each new situation. It is, therefore, essential for both the parties to understand the demands of the situation. Instead of insisting on the initial wording of the promise, they should be willing to cooperate in terms of the changed situation. Social matters are always governed by practical wisdom rather than ideal wisdom. This is the demand of Islam as well as the demand of reason. From Collision Course to Acceptance Two recent news items have been reported in the media, one titled: “Pakistan may junk Kashmir issue temporarily”, indicates that Pakistani leadership has temporarily put the Kashmir agenda on hold (Times of India, 27 Feb, 2012).