By Prof. Akhtarul Wasey
The Messenger of Allah PBUH was once sitting in the Prophet’s Mosque, when the great poet of the Arabic language, Ka’b bin Zuhair (RA), came and recited a poem about Prophet PBUH; “The Messenger of Allah PBUH is a tower of light and light is obtained from him, He is the shining sword made in India.” When he recited the poem, the Prophet PBUH gave his sheet to this poet as a reward, so this poem is known as Qasida-i-Burda. The Poet of East, Dr. Muhammad Iqbal translates a narration in his words :
“From where the cold wind came to the chief of Arab, My homeland is the same, my homeland is the same.”
On the one hand, the Messenger of Allah PBUH was pleased with the name India, and there is a tradition about India that cold winds used to flow from there to the Messenger of Allah PBUH, but today there is a false propaganda based on a tradition about India. On the one hand, the Muslims are being fooled by giving the wrong meaning or misinterpretation of the words of the Messenger of Allah PBUH, on the other hand, hatred is being created between Hindus and Muslims and an attempt is being made to destroy the tradition of love and brotherhood of fourteen centuries.
One of the six famous books of the reports of Prophet Muhammad (Hadith) is Sunan Nasa’i. There is a report in this book that there are two groups that Allah has freed from hell, one group that will invade India and the other group that will support Isa Ibn Maryam (PBUH), This hadlth is authentic from the point of view of the chain of transmission, and such a tradition is also found in other books of hadith, but the basis of its reasoning is weak from the point of view of the chain of transmission.
Nowadays, this hadith is being presented by some people in the neighborhood as if following this hadith is their objective in life and the whole religion has become that war with India on the basis of this hadith. On the other hand, due to this mentality, mutual brotherhood is being affected in India and hatred is being generated in some circles without any reason.
If this hadith is studied and an attempt is made to understand its evidence, it is crystal clear that those who are trying to start a clash and discontent on the basis of this hadith are completely wrong. Because this prediction is fourteen hundred years ago. In these fourteen centuries, more than half of the centuries passed in such a way that this country was ruled by the Muslims, and in these fourteen centuries, there were hundreds of invasions on this country. Then, this prediction would have been fulfilled because during the reign of Waleed, the government was also established in Sindh by Muhammad Bin Qasim. After that, Mahamud Ghaznavi invaded and then Shahabuddin Ghori established the Delhi Sultanate. After that, the attacks continued here and the Muslims fought them with the brothers of the country. Therefore, if the proof of this hadith is that a group of Muslims will attack India, the question arises as to which attack on India will be considered as the proof of this invasion? In general, most of the scholars who comment on the hadith are of the opinion that the war predicted in this hadith has already taken place and that is the same war that took place between Muhammad Bin Qasim and Raja Dahir.
An important aspect related to this hadith is that what is meant by Hind in this hadith? Because, during Prophet Muhammad’s time, a part of Iran, the whole of Afghanistan, the whole of present-day Pakistan and India and, according to some scholars, a part of Iraq was also included in it and it was called India. Since the hadith predates the present-day political borders, it would be applicable to the entire region. Now the question arises as to how some people assumed that the present-day Pakistan is not considered as a part of Hindustan and that this war will happen between India and Pakistan? Therefore, those who are confronting India in the light of this hadith are not correct in any way.
It should be clear that some extremists in present-day Pakistan are making such efforts to achieve their political goals that Indian Muslims could be put to the test and they could get an opportunity to prove the necessity of two nation theory.
One thing should also be kept in mind that the term Ghazwa refers to the war in which the Messenger of Allah PBUH himself participated. If Ghazwatul Hind refers to a war in which the Messenger of Allah PBUH participated historically, then surely there was no such war. If it meant only war then this is not very reliable, because people have been calling the Ghazwat of the Messenger of Allah PBUH as Magha’zifrom the beginning, and books have been written with the same name.
One thing can be said for sure that the Messenger of Allah PBUH was not present in the Battle of Muta, yet it is called Ghazwa, so the first thing is that this is the only exception and there is no other exception. It should be noted that no exception can negate a rule.
The last thing about Ghazwat-ul-Hind is that present India is a pluralistic society where people of different religions live freely, the constitution gives equal rights to all and everyone has equal responsibilities. The history of independent India is a witness that for the safety, integrity and glory of this country, all the people whether they are Hindus or Muslims or followers of any other religion have sacrificed their lives and raised the name of the country. Will those who instigate war in the name of Ghazwat-ul-Hind fight against the Muslims of India? If we look at the numbers, there are more Muslims in India than Pakistan, then the war against India may be considered Ghazwat-ul-Hind in actual sense?
Let us sum up the discussion :
- Among the reports related to Ghazwat-ul-Hind, only one of them is
authentic, rest of the reports are weak, according to the scholars of hadith.
(2) If the authentic reports are examined, it is important that the words of this
hadith require to be understood in a correct manner and its correct meaning
be determined, because this hadith is completely unique in the collection of
hadith. Therefore, the scholars have put forward two basic aspects to
understand this hadith, one is that what is meant by the word Hind in this
hadith and which is the region to which Hind was applied during the time of
the Holy Prophet? The second aspect is that the war predicted will be a war or has already happened? Most of the commentators of hadith are of the opinion that the war has already happened because during the time of Waleed, some parts of Sindh and Punjab were conquered. Therefore, it can be said that the war mentioned in this hadith has already taken place, and now using this hadith to make an example of it in present-day India, where a large number of Muslims also live, is not right and there is no proof that the word Hind has been used in the hadith is referred to the present-day India.
The last thing is that Allah, the Lord of the worlds, has said about the Messenger of Allah PBUH, that We have sent him as an epitome of mercy to all the worlds, It is not right to talk of war or to spread fitnah by giving wrong interpretations to the words of whom the Lord of the Universe made an embodiment of mercy to the worlds. Our country has been a place of peace and harmony and there has been a wonderful and long tradition of mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence among different religions, it should be tried to maintain the atmosphere of peace and prosperity. And these few extremists of Pakistan should also understand that what is the price of peace? The hadith of the Prophet should be seen in appropriate context and background and how we can live with both our religion and our country in the best way.
(Professor Emeritus, Department of Islamic studies Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. The views expressed in the article are the author’s own. It has nothing to do with our management.)
