Things People Do And Stuff Journos Make Up

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Indian Express:

LUCKNOW, AUGUST 29: The Darul Uloom of Deoband, the supreme body of the majority Sunnis, has declared life insurance as illegal but prominent Shia leaders have opposed the decree.

One sentence, two fallacies. Darul Uloom Deoband is NOT the supreme body of Sunnis (What is the supreme body of Sunnis anyway, if there is such a thing?). Also, Sunnis are not just Sunnis as in Sunnis versus Shias. There are at least three major groups of Sunnis in India. Deobandis, Barelvis and Ahl-e-Hadith. There is so much acrimony between them that they had to create their own Personal Law Boards. Each of these groups believes the other group to be at least at some level of kufr (disbelief), though they don’t claim it openly. In some regions, the followers of one sect do not even shake hands with the followers of other sect. They have been told that their marriage would be absolved on doing so. So much for all Sunnis as Sunnis and I have not even started the Shia versus Sunni thing.

Why would such a respected publication like Indian Express would indulge in such blatant mis-representation of facts? Continuing:

The Darul Ifta of Deoband, the body authorised to issue fatwas, issued a fatwa saying that interest earned on bank deposits as well as insurance of life is illegal as per the Shariat, the supreme law for Muslims. And that Muslims should not go in for insurance or assurance of life which has been given to them by Allah.

Darul Ifta is not the only body authorized to issue fatwas. It teaches Darul Uloom students only to become Muftis as AIIMS teaches its own students to become doctors. The teachers in Darul Ifta are obviously Muftis as there are doctors in AIIMS. Now, AIIMS is authorized to issue degrees to AIIMS students only. Same is true with Darul Ifta of Deoband. So, there is not just one Darul Ifta in the whole country even when we talk specifically of Deobandis. Unfortunately, Muftis out of these Ifta’s start writing fatwas as soon as they pass out and much as (if not more) as AIIMS graduates write prescriptions.

Since the previous two paragraphs had inherent fallacies, the author now contradicts himself:

The fatwa, issued by Mohammad Zafeeruddin non August 7, in consultation with the two muftis of Darul Uloom, Deoband says: “Life insurance is not permissible because there is interest income in it as well as gambling, which are illegal under Shariat.�

Note the fatwa has been issued by one Mohammad Zafeeruddin. It is not sure if he is associated with the Darul Ifta. He might as well be some local Mufti in Lucknow. The basic purpose of fatwa (roughly translated into opinion) is that if you have a religious issue, you go to your local Mufti and ask him about it. Now, if an AIIMS doctor is not sure about a case, he would call back to his institute or seniors and check back with them. That is what this Mufti did, he consulted two other people he thought were more knowledgeable.

Once you realise you have a potentially news(able) issue at hand, you rush towards the members of AIMPLB. Since there are too many Personal Law Boards and too many members, you are always sure of being able to lay your hands upon a couple. Considering journos as Allah-given opportunity for some precious air-time, refusal is out of question. As for the nuances, who cares about them anyway?

So, you have a ‘fatwa from Deoband, supreme body of all Sunnis’ and ‘affirmation from AIMPLB, the supreme body of all Muslims’ and voila, you have it is on front page. Let me check my Inbox, already there would be some emails extorting me to have the guts to write about this issue. Ahh, my dear Mufti, where have you been. I missed you.

Tagged as: AIMPLB, Darul-Uloom, Fatwa, Indian-Express, Mufti