CHITRAL: Love for our Holy Prophet (PBUH) is an integral part of the belief system of any muslim. It has always been there in the hearts of the believers irrespective of which firqa (school of thought) they belong to.
However in recent decades the love for our Holy prophet (PBUH) has been used as an emotional tool for mainly political and ulterior purposes, in our country. The government of Pakistan has also passed a law for punishment of persons committing offence of Tauheen Risalat..
What needs to be reconsidered is, “What actually constitutes Tauheen Risalat”? Our holy Prophet (PBUH) was born as Rehmatul lil Alemeen (benefactor of all humanity). He was known throughout his life for his gentleness, kindness, compassion, tolerance and forgiveness. There are numerous narrations about his graciousness and tolerance. The one about the old woman who would throw dust upon his head every day when he passed her house and he would not retaliate nor allow his companions to do so; and one day when the old woman fell ill he visited her for consolation. Only then did the old woman became a muslim. The other hadith about our Holy Prophet standing up in respect when the funeral of a non muslim passed by and when a companion asked him why did he pay respect to the funeral of a non muslim, to which the Prophet replied “he may not be a muslim but was he not a human being”. Such was the character of our Holy prophet (PBUH).
What has been done in recent years is to attach the sacred name of our beloved Prophet with killings and savagery against humanity. Naoozu billah this is an attempt at demonising the gracious name of our beloved Prophet in the eyes of the non muslims and the world.
The government would do well to constitute a high level committee of genuine religious scholars to visit the term ‘tauheen e risalat’ and define it as it should be. Tauheen Risalat should actually mean defying the personal examples of the Holy Prophet of being gracious, kind, forgiving, tolerant and humanity freindly. The term ‘Tauheen Risalat’ should also mean defying the Holy Prophet’s personal example of being ‘Saadiq and Ameen’ (Truthful and Trustworthy) which qualities Allah Almighty bestowed upon him from birth much before prophethood, and which the non believers even acknowledged. If we interpret Islamic principles and values correctly, misuse of religion and playing dangerous games with the immature sentiments of illiterate people will cease. .. CN report, 05 Dec 2021
One thought on “Interpretation of the term ‘Tauheen Risalat’ needs a revisit”
This has nothing to do with Tauheen Risalat. This is all about power. Mob power. On various occasions over a long period of time the state of Pakistan, for various reasons, has allowed this power to be unleashed and stood by limply even when its own uniformed personnel were being brutally attacked and killed.
Only a few years ago when a similar thing erupted in Chitral it took just one sensible priest (maulana Khaliq uz Zaman) and one brave DPO (Ali Akbar Shah) to quell a mob of people greater than the numbers seen in Sialkot.