Racist Campaign against Danish Siddiqui
There is no dearth of sadist people in the world. When a person celebrates another person’s death, it means he is unfit to be called a human. If the deceased person happens to be a Muslim, such sadist people derive pleasure in criticising, belittling and defaming the dead person without any common sense. Let us not pay much heed to such comments. Yes, of course, it hurts us. But what to do?
Even the powers that be did not utter a single word of compassion. This exhibits the hate attitude towards the second majority community.
I consider Danish Siddiqui a great martyr. Without caring for his well-being, he entered the battlefield to cover the war scenes. Hats off to you brother.
May Almighty Allah give patience and courage to his near and dear ones to bear this grief!
Hasan Ali Makandar
Kalaburgi, Karnataka
Zul Qarnain
Qur’ānic Verses 18:83-99 provide some information about this prehistoric personality. Scholars identify him variously as Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, or Darius the Great. Some even identify him as Prophet Muhammad himself ﷺ! But it is all speculation. Only Allah Almighty knows who he was. So, let us restrict ourselves to just what the Qur’ān says about him.
Allah had established him with a good position in this world. And he had the means to undertake expeditions, at Allah’s behest, in various directions from his seat of power.
In the first expedition described in the Qur’ān, he went westwards. He found a people living near a huge pond of muddy water extending right up to the horizon in the west. The people were apparently a mixed lot of good and wicked persons. Zul Qarnain had the full authority to deal with them as he pleased. But he exercised his power in a just manner. The wicked were punished and the good were well treated.
And his just use of power is the important point that the Qur’ān highlights here about Zul Qarnain.
Zul Qarnain’s second expedition that the Qur’ān records was to the East. Here he comes across a community that lived in the open. This community could not have been of human beings, as Allah has given them enough creative power to build for themselves some sort of shelter against heat and rain. The community could therefore be of wild animals. Zul Qarnain could do nothing about it. Here Allah showed him his limitations as a human being!
In the third recorded expedition, Zul Qarnain came across a people harassed by unduly mobs coming across a pass between two mountains. Zul Qarnain had the resources to close the pass with iron gates plastered with molten brass. The gates effectively prevented the unruly mobs from coming across. It was thus seen that Zul Qarnain was not only just, but was extremely helpful, to people he came across during his expeditions!
A Chinese traveller during the 7th century C.E. records in his travelogue the existence of those iron gates far away in the North from the Arabian Peninsula (source: Wikipedia). There was, therefore, hardly any chance of any Arab personally knowing about those gates, at the time the Qur’ān was revealed. Mention of those gates in the Qur’ān does certainly show that the knowledge displayed in it could have come only from Allah!
The Qur’ān further states that, in due course, the gates would be demolished. And, sure enough, the gates are no longer there! This also points to the divine nature of the Qur’ān.
At the end of the Qur’ānic narration of the story of Zul Qarnain, the Holy Book truly predicts the intermingling of the various communities of this world, as a prelude to their being gathered for Judgement Day!
O Muslims! Do you still entertain doubts about the divine origin of the Qur’ān!? And, if you don’t, why don’t you follow the Qur’ān, in letter, and in spirit!?
Mohammad Shafi
Via Email