WHY WAS MULLAH ZAEEF ABDUCTED?
One of the most shameful episodes in
Pakistani
President Musharref's devotion
to the fulfillment of Pax Americana was the kidnaping of Mullah Abdus
Salaam Zaeef, the
Islamic
ambassador of
Afghanistan
to Pakistan. Not only was he
kidnapped from his home in Islamabad, he was handed over to the U.S.
which had
already carried out massacres of Islamic POWs in Afghanistan (see New
Trend's report on MASSACRE IN MAZAR, a documentary prepared by an Irish
journalist whom U.S. media have banned.)
Question in many people's minds: Why was this shameful action
carried
out. A partial answer comes from Kenton Keith. He is the senior Vice
President of Meridian International Center. When Pervez Musharraf
stopped
Zaeef from speaking to the media, Kenton was brought in to try and
repair the
damage done by Zaeef. Musharref organized briefings with Pakistan's
press
corp (daily) for Kenton so that
America's
viewpoint may be projected.
Kenton,
an arrogant but innocuous man with overlong side burns, spoke about
his experience later. Kenton said:
"WE WERE TAKING A BEATING FROM ABDUS SALAAM ZAEEF." Why? Because Zaeef
was
"claiming civilian casualties" and like the "Pakis" was referring to
the "war on Islam."
[Research has proven that Zaeef was right. Even the
New York Times
and
NPR
have admitted "thousands" of Afghan civilians killed in U.S. bombing.
Islamic
sources say 60,000 have been killed with entire villages buried in the
mud.]
Kenton insisted that USA's bombing was "quite impressively humane."
His
"theory" is that Muslims accept martyrdom owing to "peer pressure."
{All
quotes in this report are from Keith's interview on C-Span, April 3,
2002}
Thus strangely enough. America, which claims freedom of
expression as
its key virtue, WANTED TO SILENCE the ONE MAN who had the credibility
to
break through America's 24/7 propaganda barrage. By speaking the truth,
Mullah Zaeef signed his own death warrant (or if he is still alive, the
torture and humiliation he has suffered.) THUS THE TALIBAN GIVE US THE
ONLY
MAN WHO SACRIFICED HIS LIFE FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. Strange but
true!
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Are Qur'an and Hikmah (wisdom) the same? Is Hikmah only in the Qur'an?
By Kaukab Siddique, Ph.D
In a posting on WideMinds, a prominent member of the Perwezi sect,
Mr.
Bashir Abid, tried to claim that Muslims should follow only the Qur'an
because, in his words, "The Wisdom is in the Qur'an itself." He refers
to
Sura 17:23-38 which contains "principles and values" and then quotes
verse
17:39: "These are (values and principles) among the Wisdom (Al Hikmah)
which
your Sustainer has revealed to you." From this verse, Bashir Abid
concludes :
"in other words, Qur'anic values and principles are sufficient for the
sustained growth and development of an healthy society."
From this point to jumps to this strange claim, typical of Perwezi
sect
members, that "Therefore we don't need any secondary source to look for
wisdom. It is absolutely childish view to think that Al Kitab means
Qur'an
and Al Hikmah means Hadith or Sunnah. The question is: If Qur'an does
not
contain Wisdom, then what does it meant for." (Quoted as in Mr. Abid's
message.)
REBUTTAL:
1. The Qur'an does NOT say that Allah revealed ONLY the Qur'an to the
Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh). The Qur'an gives us the prayer of Abraham and Ismail
(pbut)
which Allah answered by sending Muhammad (pbuh):
"Our Lord! Send among them a Messenger of their own who will recite
your
verses to them and teach them the Book and Wisdom and purify them: For
thou
art the exalted in Might, the Wise." (2:129)
Thus the messenger was to:
1) Recite the verses revealed to him,
2) teach the Book,
3)teach wisdom, related to the Book,
4) purify them.
The tasks of the messenger obviously go beyond merely reciting or
transmitting the verses received from Allah.
The Qur'an later on affirms that Muhammad's (pbuh) role is exactly
as
defined in the prayer of Abraham and Ismail (pbut). It says:
"It is He Who has sent among the unlettered people a messenger from
among
themselves, to recite to them His verses, to purify them, and to teach
them
the Book and Wisdom, - although they had been in error manifest."
(62:2)
Note that the BOOK and WISDOM (Hikmah) are two SEPARATE items. The
Qur'an is NOT saying "the wisdom in the Book."
Then the Qur'an goes on to point out that this role of the Prophet
(pbuh) is not only for the time when the Book was being revealed in
Arabia but for the FUTURE too. [Read on from 62:2 with reference to the
"unlettered people."]
"Along with others of them, who have not already joined them: And
He is Exalted in Might, Wise." (62:3)
So the Prophet (pbuh) is meant to teach and purify people who were
not his immediate audience. This entire role of the Prophet (pbuh) has
been
preserved in the authentic hadith WHICH HIS COMPANIONS NARRATED. All
who met
Muhammad (pbuh) and were faithful to his message knew that his teaching
of
the Qur'an and wisdom plus his process of purification of humanity
must be
preserved in its purity and transmitted.
----------------------------------------------------
The Qur'an, in addition to the verses referred to above, also
uses the
word HIKMAH is a variety of ways. There is HIKMAH (wisdom) in the
Qur'am
itself, as Bashir Abid noted from surah 17, but that does not limit it
to the
Qur'an. Here is an example of a verse which clarifies the fact that
HIKMAH
(wisdom) is not the same as KITAB (the BOOK).
"We bestowed al-Hikmah (wisdom) on Luqman ..." (31:12) It does not mean
that
Allah gave a Qur'an or a Book to Luqman,
The Qur'an is a powerful and eloquent Book and uses Arabic words in a
great
variety of ways (such as the term "hadith" which has also been
distorted by
the Perwezi sect.) That is all more the reason why Allah sent the
Qur'an to
us through the Messenger (pbuh) so that we should not put our own
desires into its interpretation.
The teachings of the Messenger (pbuh) are essential to Islam and have
been
preserved in the authentic hadith owing to the tremendous effort of his
Sahaba (the blessed companions). The scholars of Islam made sure that
the
Hadith were preserved in their purity. They still do not come up to
the
excellence of the Qur'an but they are the best that human beings could
preserve.
Make no mistake about it, Hadith are the revolutionary teachings of the
greatest revolutionary of all times. The Qur'an has been applied to
every
aspect of life owing to its interpretation, the Hikmah, revealed to the
Prophet (pbuh). It is this Hikmah which is the irritant to the
sectarians who
want to destroy the purity of Islam. Just as Allah and the messenger
means
Allah and the messenger (and not Allah and Allah, which would be
redundant),
Qur'an and Hikmah means Qur'an AND Hikmah (not Qur'an and Qur'an, which
would
be redundant.)
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2002-08-13 Tue 17:22ct