Interfaith Dialogue in Islam

A ccording to popular fiqh, Muslim women cannot travel without mahram. But in today’s age, travel has become so convenient, safe and secure that I think it is lawful for women to travel without mahram. The Prophet once said in this regard: If you should live for a long time, you will certainly see that a lady in a Howdah travelling from Al-Hira will (safely reach Makkah and) perform the Tawaf of the Kabah, fearing none but Allah. (Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith no. 3595) It means that at the time of peace and convenience, the condition of mahram is optional. Islam however, does not permit the free mixing of men and women. For instance, in the view of Islam, it is not suitable for a man to share a room with a woman if they both are unrelated. Islam asks its followers to maintain a distance of respect, dignity and modesty with each other. This is a safeguard for the personal and private spaces of both genders. Who is a pure Muslim? T here is no such term as ‘pure Muslim’. A true believer is one whose heart is pure, and only God knows the state of one’s heart. We, humans, do not know what a person is in his heart and so we cannot determine a person’s purity. This matter is solely between God and man. How was the Prophet Muhammad able to influence so many people to accept Islam? What did he want to achieve by promoting it? T he Prophet Muhammad had sent his messengers to heads of tribes, states and kingdoms inviting them to the message of Islam. The heads of states in return sent their delegations and scholars to the Prophet to confirm if his claim of being a prophet sent by God was correct. The delegations used to ask him questions which would seek to confirm the veracity of Islam. For this reason, several verses in the Quran regarding Jesus and Moses were revealed during this time. It was these peaceful and intellectual means that led to the spread of the message of Islam. This was a phenomenon of that age. It was an age where if a king or tribal chief adopted a religion, it was cascaded to the entire population in that area. If the head of the tribe accepted Muhammad as a prophet, then everyone in his tribe would embrace Islam as per tradition. Just as, when Constantinople had adopted Christianity, it had led to a mass conversion of all his subjects to Christianity. In the words of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the primitive society was a tribal society and the chief of the community was the head for the whole of the community. But this age has now come to an end and this phenomenon shall not repeat itself.