THE CALCUTTA QURAN PETITION AN EYE OPENING BOOK BY THE LATE SITA RAM GOEL

• ISLAM WITHOUT ILLUSIONS
  
  

  Theory and practice explained
  
  

  The Calcutta Quran Petition
  
  

  Sita Ram Goel

  New Delhi, Voice of India, 1999, 3rd edition

  325 + xvi pages, Rs 150 (PB)
  
  

  Reviewed by Dr. N.S. Rajaram
  
  

  Background
  
  

  The average educated person today, anywhere in the world, is likely to be

  both confused and frightened by Islam. On the one hand, it is supposed to be a

  religion of peace that preaches equality and justice for all, while on the other, it

  is hardly possible to escape the sight of the most unspeakable acts of violence

  being committed by individuals and groups in its name.
  
  To make the situation more confusing, there is no shortage of 'experts' - Eastern and Western - who tell us that Islamic terror is an aberration that has nothing to do with the 'true' Islam.

  It is fair to say that a majority of the people in the world has swallowed this

  explanation while remaining ambivalent about Muslims and their behavior.
  
  In the book under review, Sita Ram Goel, one of the world's most incisive students

  of Islam, blows away this confusion by giving an unwarnished, scholarly yet

  highly readable account of the theory and practice of Islam. By a detailed

  analysis of its scripture and history,  he explodes the charade that Islamic terror

  can somehow be separated from its teachings. In the process, the prolific and

  erudite Mr. Goel has probably written his masterpiece.
  
  To return to the confused state of knowledge about Islam, there has long been a need - more urgent today than ever before - for a work that can explain the theory and practice of Islam for the average reader. This void is now effectively filled by the book under review - 'The Calcutta Quran Petition' by Sita Ram Goel. His pluralistic Hindu background gives him a distinct advantage over his Western counterparts, who, despite their best efforts, cannot entirely break free of the shackles of their exclusivist Judeo-Christian heritage that springs from the same soil as Islam. Goel on the other hand looks at Islam as a complete outsider,  disregarding its pious claims. If there is one book on Islam that a concerned person should read, it is his 'The Calcutta Quran Petition'. The book could with equal justice be titled 'Islam for Nonbelievers: Its scripture, history and practice'. The reason for the unusual title is historical. On 29 March 1985, one Chandmal Chopra filed a writ petition in the Calcutta High Court seeking a ban on the Quran under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code because it "incites violence, disturbs public tranquility, promotes, on the ground of religion, feelings of enmity, hatred and ill-will between different religious groups.
  

  • religious communities, and insults other religions or religious beliefs of other

    religious communities of India." The Calcutta High Court disallowed the 

    petition, but the issues raised by it remain relevant, especially now when the 

    need to understand the causes of terror in the name of Islam is greater than ever.

    More significantly for the present discussion, it led Sita Ram Goel to write the 

    volume under review. The sordid details of the case in question would probably 

    be of little interest to the average reader today though they shed much light on 

    the ignoble conduct of the Governments of India and West Bengal in the face of 

    real or perceived Muslim threats. Out of a total of 345 pages, the author devotes

    no less than 230 pages to a general discussion of Islam that has little directly to 

    do with the Calcutta Petition. These pages, covering Chapters 2 through 10,
• 
  
• constitute for all practical purposes an independent manual on Islam, beginning

  with the message of the Quran. This is what is reviewed here.

  Quran and the Hadis

  The first point about the Quran is that it does not stand alone. The Suras

  (verses) of the Quran were created in specific situations arising out of specific

  military, political and sometimes personal needs. They invariably reflect the

  convenience of the Prophet who found it expedient to invoke Allah as authority

  to have his own way with his people. Seeing this, his favorite wife A'sha once

  observed, "I find that Allah is prompt to proclaim commandments in accordance

  with your desire." This means that the context in which a Sura was created is

  all-important. Taking Quranic passages out of context can lead to outlandish

  interpretations like Sir Abdullah Suhrawardy's Sayings of Muhammad, which

  Mahatma Gandhi hailed in his Foreword as among the "treasures of mankind."

  The all-important context for interpreting the Suras of the Quran is provided

  by the Hadis. They may be described as the record of the activities of the

  Prophet. They are so detailed, that it is possible to obtain a more or less

  complete picture of the private and public life of the Prophet. It may fairly be

  said that the Hadis rather than Quran form the basis for Islam, for without them

  the Quran becomes virtually incomprehensible. As Goel makes clear (Chapter

  3) there is practically no difference between Allah and the Prophet; Allah does

  at the Prophet's bidding. This made the great Maharshi Dayananda Saraswati

  observe, "Allah is the Prophet's domestic servant." As Goel explains, this makes

  the Quran (the 'Word of Allah') and the Hadis ('Acts of Muhammad')

  interchangeable.

  In other words, the Hadis describe the Quran in action, meaning the acts of

  the Prophet. These in turn became the model of behavior to be emulated, for
• every true Muslim from the highest to the lowest. As Goel observes: "It is this

  fixed and frozen image of the Prophet which is meant when a Muslim proclaims

  his Din (fundamental faith). In fact the Prophet produced a 'revelation' (33.21)

  presenting himself as the perfect model for those who look forward (with hope)

  for the Day of Judgement. For a pious Muslim, human life is best lived when it

  conforms to Muhammad's conduct even in minor matters such as defecating... ,

  cutting one's beard to a specific size and so on. Islam leaves no room at all for

  individual initiative or judgment...

  In case of doubt, a pious Muslim must go to a mufti (juriconsultant) and

  obtain a fatwa [ruling] about how the Prophet would have conducted himself in

  a situation which, according to all sources, the Prophet is not known to have

  faced." Needless to say, this is not a climate conducive to progress.

  This has a sinister side with far-reaching implications. Since the later part of

  the Prophet's career is full of war and bloodshed in the name of Allah, religious

  war or Jihad is seen as the highest goal of Islam. What the world is faced today -

  from Kashmir to Kosovo (and now West Asia and Syria, pushing into Euurope)

  - is Jihad or religious war to bring the whole world under the sway of Islam.

  This reality cannot be wished away as is done by liberal academics in East and

  West, by giving an abstract interpretation of Jihad. As Walter Laquer, an

  American expert on terrorism observed, "Many interpreters of jihad in the

  Muslim world, and an equal number in the West, have explained that jihad has a

  double meaning: it stands for jihad bi al saif (holy war by means of the sword)

  and also for jihad al nafs (literally, struggle for one's soul against one's own base

  instinct). Both interpretations are true, but Islamic militants have rejected the

  spiritual explanation as dangerous heresy. ...The Taliban in Afghanistan and

  many militants (especially ISIS today) are not impressed by the speeches and

  writings of more moderate exegetists about the 'poverty of fanaticism' and the

  'spiritual mission of Islam,' and this fact is what matters..."
• The fact of the matter is that influential Muslim leaders see the violent

  version of Jihad as the only valid one. Jihad to them is "the most glorious word

  in the vocabulary of Islam," and by this they don't mean striving for inner

  perfection. Goel explains this vital fact with clarity and thoroughness with

  profuse illustrations from the history and scripture of Islam. As he points out,

  the Quran studied alongside the Hadis is a nothing but a manual on Jihad - or

  religious war. Just as the Prophet became the model for Muslim behavior, his

  blood soaked career became the model for a succession of Muslim leaders down

  to the present.

  While the Hadis are indispensable for understanding Islam, they present a

  bewildering mass of detail to the uninitiated. In Chapter 4 ('The Prophet Sets the

  Pattern'), the author takes the reader through the Prophet's career by presenting a

  systematic picture of the historical background and the key events. He describes

  also two interesting episodes that are not widely known: the Prophet's invitation,

  in a time of distress, to the Christian Abyssinians to invade Mecca, claiming that

  his teachings were no different from theirs; and the famous 'Satanic verses'

  inspired by the need to regain the support of the Meccans. In Chapter 5 ('The

  Orthodox Exposition of Jihad'), the author produces evidence from primary

  sources to demolish the claim of modern apologists that Jihad has - or ever had -

  a spiritual meaning. This 'spiritual' interpretation is exhumed only when they

  feel insecure - as in India today, or when faced with powerful opponents like the

  United States - to be buried again when conditions turn favorable.

  Chapter 6 ('Jihad in India's History') may be read as a practical

  demonstration of Islam in action. It is to be hoped that every policymaker in

  India as well as the West will read this capsule account of the 'bloodiest story in

  history' - as Will Durant called it - and learn its lessons. Indians in particular

  must face this historical truth and not seek escape in fantasies written by
•