Zakir Naik was recently heard saying that Ravish Kumar, that great liberal icon of fraud and friction, would have to go to hell in spite of his fawning support for the Muslim causes. This caused a lot of consternation in the liberal circles. This is what Zakir Naik said:

Also, a few weeks ago, the advocate J. Sai Deepak holed in Asaduddin Owaisi, the AIMIM chief, into making a statement that the Indian Hanafi Sunni Muslims followed the Fatawa Alamgir, the infamous compendium of Mohammedan Law that was compiled under the directions of the ignoble bigot Aurangzeb Alamgir. Also called Fatawa Hindiyya, the project involved huge expenditure, and was headed by Sheikh Nizam Burhanpuri, with Shah Abdul Rahim being his second-in-command. Shah Abdul Rahim was the father of the traitor Shah Waliullah who invited the Afghan king Ahmad Shah Abdali and organised his alliance with the Rohilla Nazib-ud-Daula, and the Shi’a Nawab of Oudh, Asaf-ud-Daula. Here is what Asaduddin Owaisi said:

Sufis, on the other hand, make claims of inclusivity, and allow all and sundry to pray at the Dargahs of their Pirs, and make impressive assertions of insaniyat being their guiding principle. They are able to collect large offerings from Hindus, who by their very nature do not distinguish among deities. A Sufi’s shrine for Hindus is like the temple of another gram-devata or kula-devata.

Let us now examine the validity of the positions of the three points of view.

Zakir Naik is a ghair-muqallid according to the Indian Hanafi Islam. Taqlid is a principle among the 3 out of 4 Sunni Fiqh, i.e. among the Hanafi, Shafi’i, and Maliki schools, whereas the Hanbalis do not follow this principle. The principle means that aql, or reason, is the preserve of only the high ranking religious scholars in the matters of religion, and all others are not only strictly forbidden to use their own reason, but are also expected to strictly adhere to the guidance provided by them,. That is how the fatwas acquire so much of power among the Muslim masses. The Barelvis and Deobandis, the two principle sects of Hanafi Islam, have no love lost for Zakir Naik and criticise him bitterly. The point to note, however, is that they never criticise Zakir Naik on the merit of his views, but only on the fact that he is not authorised to give out these views. According to me, he has expressed the opinion in the first video strictly in accordance with the Qur’an and the Sunnat (Sunnah), and is telling the Truth.

Now, to the second video by Asaduddin Owaisi. This is an important confession. I have examined the 3 major derivative books of Hanafi Islam in India. These are – Fatawa Alamgiri (Aurangzeb), Hidayah (Deoband), and Fatawa Razvia (Bareilly). All 3 are heavily influenced by the Naqshbandi Sufi Tariqa, which was more traditionalist than the other major Sufi Tariqas of Qadri, Chishti, Suhrawardy, and Kubrawi (including Owaisi) denominations. All the 3 books of Hanafi Islam are strongly exclusivist, and have the same idea of Da’wa and Jihad, as so eloquently expressed in the Hidayah, i.e. ‘Jihad dine-haq ki dawat dene aur use qabool na karne wale se jang karne ko kahte hain’. Translated, it means that Jihad is to call others to accept Islam and to fight those who do not accept this call. This is the established position of Zakir Naik too.

Sufis are seen to make claims of their way being the way of peace and inclusivity. By the evidence supplied above, this is but a fake claim. The Sufi doctrine and the Sufi behaviour was examined by me in my authoritative piece ‘The Myth of Sufi Syncretism’, (https://kreately.in/busting-the-myth-of-sufi-syncretism-singing-and-dancing-as-a-cover-for-jihad/) where I proved that the Sufi Tariqat is subordinate to Shariat, and has no independent existence. It would be in order to quote their behavioural evidence from the above piece:

We saw what the Sufis did in the Kashmir Valley in the 14th and 15th century. We have also seen how Ahmad Sirhindi became instrumental in the killing of the 4th Sikh Guru. The influence of these Sufis became all pervasive in Aurangzeb’s time, whose bigotry will need a separate article by itself.
We have also seen the activities of Shah Waliullah and his bigoted disciples, including by Syed Ahmad Barelvi, who was unique in the sense that he was an Ulema, a Sufi, and a Ghazi — all rolled into one.
The 1857 revolt was turned into a jihad by the Sufis. Fazle Haq Khairabadi Farooqui Chishti issued a fatwa of jihad from Delhi. The Sufi aspiration from the 1857 revolt was to reestablish the glory of Mughal Empire by ousting the British.
Except the Fazair movement of Bengal, whose leaders Shariatullah, Titu Mian, and Dhondu Mian were influenced by Wahabbism, in the 20th century, every major massacre of Hindus had a Sufi sub-text to it.
The 1921 Mappilla rebellion and massacre were led by a Qadri Sufi, Abu Musliyar. Today, the Grand Mufti of India, who doubles up as the Chief of Barelvi-Sufis is a descendant, namely Sheiks Abubakr Ahmad aka Kanthapuram Aboobacker Musaliyar. He is also the head of the influential organisation Markaz based out of Calicut (Kozhikode).
The 1946 Calcutta Killings were led by the able Premier belonging to the Suhrawardy Tariqa, Husain Shaheed Suhrawardy.
The 1946 Noakhali massacres were initiated and led by Ghulam Sarwar Husseini, a Nizami Chishti and a member of the Pir family of Diara Sharif Dargah in Noakhali.
The 1947 massacres in NWFP and the bordering J&K areas of Poonch and Mirpur were inspired by the Qadri chief of Manki Sharif in Nowshera district, Amin-ul-Hasanat.
The conversion and abduction being done by the Qadri Pir, Mithu Mian of Bharchundi Sharif in Sind, Pakistan, are well known to all.
Thus violence and fanaticism does not go away only because Sufis like to sing and dance in fulfillment of ‘ihsān’, which is subordinate to Imān and Din.

The fact is that due to the strict subordination of Sufi Tariqas to Shariat, no Sufi Pir or Sajjadanashin can offer any blessing to any non-believer unless he converts. When a non-believer cannot even marry a Muslim without converting in an officially secular country, it is a fool’s errand to go asking for anything at all to a Sufi shrine. All they can secretly bless a non-believer is that they may convert to Islam.

So the fact check reveals the following:

  1. Zakir Naik is telling the truth;
  2. Asaduddin Owaisi is also telling the truth;
  3. The Sufis and their leadership are lying through their teeth.

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