A Review

Pakistan’s Qudratullah Shahab has depicted the mindset of contemporary Muslims through two incidents from his early student days, as described in his book ‘Shahab Nama.’ We quote the incidents as follows: “There was a solitary mystic (majzub), living away from human settlements, who would incessantly chant ‘Illallah,’ ‘Illallah.’ My Hindu friend and I would listen to him and imitate his chanting. To tease the mystic, my friend would add derogatory prefixes or suffixes to ‘Illallah.’ Although this mystic would reprimand us for disrespecting the name of Allah, we paid no heed to his words. One day, while we were both engrossed in mimicking his words, a passerby recited a few lines from a poem, one of which was as follows: ‘Had Muhammad not been born, the world would not have come to exist.’ My friend burst into loud laughter. Unfortunately, he also made insulting remarks about the Prophet. His words incited such anger within me that I grabbed a stone and struck the boy in the face with such force that half of his front teeth were broken.” The author reflects on why his subconscious, which remained silent in response to jokes about God, became so enraged at the dishonour of the Prophet. Most people become enraged when someone speaks ill of God’s Messenger, and some are even willing to make great sacrifices to protect his honour. However, it has been observed that those who give up their lives to defend the Prophet’s honour are not necessarily highly knowledgeable