LAST WORD

LAST WORD Dr. Muzaffar Shaheen from Rajouri (Jammu and Kashmir) expressed his thoughts in a lengthy letter: “Since the publication of Salman Rushdie’s book, it has garnered significant attention from newspapers and magazines. The entire Muslim world has reacted to it, and the leaders’ protests have led to riots in Islamabad, Srinagar, and Bombay. However, no Muslim scholar has made an effort to respond to this book with rational and scholarly arguments. Is this book not a challenge for our scholars rather than a general humiliation of Islam? Thus far, no reasoned refutation of this book has been presented by any Muslim scholar. Can our agitations rectify the erroneous impressions received by those who have read Rushdie’s book and been influenced by its statements?” I fully agree with Dr. Shaheen that each of these incidents should be taken as a challenge rather than an act of dishonouring Islam. This is the way prescribed by Islam. With the grace of God, I have always sought to respond in this Islamically appropriate way to events that I have been confronted with. And so, when I read the news about Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses,’ the first thing I did was to procure a copy of the book. Then, I read the entire book, which is 546 pages long. After that, I studied the issue in the light of Shariah rules. Only after this did I begin writing my views on the controversy. The present book is a compilation of my writings on the issue.