The laws relating to family system or the Muslim Personal Law, as named by the British, were applicable in every regime including Mughals, pre-independence and post-Independence. The Muslim rulers of India never asked non-Muslims to follow their personal laws nor did they ever interfere in their personal laws even if it was not liked by the Muslims. Even the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be to him) was not allowed to change the personal laws because they are divine laws so how can Muslims do or allow anyone to change their personal laws,” Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani, Secretary All India Muslim Personal Law Board said while addressing the concluding programme of the nationwide Muslim Personal Law Awareness Campaign launched by JIH at Aiwan-e-Ghalib in the national capital on 7 May. He also informed the audience that codification of Muslim personal laws in English is in the final stage and very soon it will be in the public domain which will help interpret personal laws in the desired spirit. He also asked Jamaat to conduct workshop for those going to marry in order to educate them about all aspects of personal laws.
Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari, Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, while presiding over the programme, said that for the past 1500 years, the Muslim Personal law has been in practice and it has been followed by the Muslims everywhere and under all circumstances and nowhere the need to change the personal law was felt. He informed the audience that in the Qur’ān it has been clearly said that every religion has the freedom to follow its personal laws and it cannot be imposed on anyone. While clarifying the misunderstanding on Triple Talaq he also informed the future plan of Jamaat to hold counselling workshops for newly married couples in order to educate them about all aspects of Nikah and other issues relating to personal laws to clear the doubts and to minimise the wrong practices followed either due to ignorance or under any spell.
Most of the speakers were of the opinion that Muslims should try to resolve their issues pertaining to personal laws in Darul Qazas, Shari’ah Panchayats and Counselling Centres.
Maulana Mohammad Jafar, national convener of Muslim Personal Law Awareness Campaign, while thanking people for their overwhelming support across India in making the campaign successful, informed the audience about how well it was received by all sections of society. He also said, the atmosphere started to change soon after the new regime took over and the Muslims and all those who wanted to safeguard and strengthen democracy began to realise the state of lawlessness and possible attempt of imposing a certain mindset on other fellow citizens. In this regard, JIH in its Advisory Council Meet planned a nationwide Peace and Humanity Campaign and a Muslim Personal Law Awareness campaign which was supported by the people overwhelmingly the country over. According to him, the role of women in the whole campaign was exemplary and the media also took keen interest and supported the cause by informing the people about all aspects of personal law in a big way.
The presence of a large number of women in the jam-packed auditorium reminded the success and the response of the campaign which the speakers were happy to note about. The remarkable response of the people across India revealed the interest and their concern about Muslim Personal Law.
Maulana Fazlur Rahman Mujaddidi, Secretary All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said if we look around we can see three prevailing systems and that is political which has gone out of our hand completely. In our social system the system of interest is prevalent widespread and even within the Muslim society in one form or another. The last system is our family system which is very important part of our Deen and conspiracy is being hatched to break this family system not only nationally but internationally as well. He further clarified that altogether there were 20 civilisations which existed in the past out of which 12 civilisations have completely vanished and lost their identity. Out of the remaining eight civilisations efforts are on to maintain the hegemony of the Western Civilisation and they believe that two civilisations namely Islamic Civilisation and Chinese Civilisation are hurdles in their way. Islamic civilisation is regarded as the biggest threat to Western Civilisation and they believe that if they are able to dominate the Islamic civilisation, they can easily get hold of China and the rest will automatically fall in line. So it is a deep-rooted conspiracy which has become more evident now than ever before.
Dr Muhammad Rafat of JIH read out the Declaration which was endorsed by all. The Declaration demanded from the government not to intervene in Muslim personal law and urged the media to highlight issues of Muslims positively. It underlined the need to keep on educating the people regarding all aspects of personal law and refrain from taking their matters to court.
Dr. Zafarul Islam Khan, Editor of The Milli Gazette and former president of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat said that Uniform Civil Code was not only an issue of Muslims because other communities, including tribals will also be affected by it across India in a number of ways. He also asked the Muslims to follow Islam properly because most of the problems, pains and sufferings we are in are because of not following the teachings of Islam.
Maulana Atiq Ahmed Bastavi, Convenor of Darul Qaza, All India Muslim Personal Law Board said this is not the end but just the beginning. According to him, 85 to 90 per cent cases which come to Darul Qaza are resolved mutually by the parties concerned and only 10 to 15 per cent cases are decided by Qazis. He asked the JIH to hold camps to educate people on issues pertaining to personal laws on the pattern of camps organised during Haj and also urged other Muslim organisations to follow what was done by the Jamaat for educating the masses on use and misuse of personal laws.
Most of the speakers were of the opinion that this campaign is just the beginning and a lot more is required to be done and such an awareness campaign should go on and all Muslim organisations should participate in it wholeheartedly. The programme was conducted by Dr. SQR Ilyas, member of Jamaat’s Markazi Majlis-e-Shoora, and vote of thanks was extended by Maulana Abdul Wahid, Ameer-e-Halqua JIH Delhi and Haryana.