It was the early nineties. Things were normal.
kids played in the backyards. Butterflies would be spotted and named. Kites would be flown in the spring. Children knew the flowers and plants by their common names. Plastic animals were gazed upon for hours as Discovery had not been yet discovered. Huge fascination for the concept of the Jungle was found among kids. How do lions spend their days in the jungle?
We would day dream of the castles far away where everything was beautiful. Friends met each other. There would be Golgappa parties, Binaca Geet Mala parties where every Wednesday we would gather around the radio , our sole chief connector to the world. We had neighbours whom we knew closely. We knew why Mr.Kadam gets late from office or why Mrs.Shaikh was always angry with her spouse. Or why the neighbourhood girl often goes to the terrace at the same time when an Arun or Varun hops there.
life was indeed beautiful.
We had real people as family neighbours or friends. We had ‘friends’ whom we knew as living laughing human beings; not dry roasty ones from Facebook
We knew how hungrily Amar eats his food or how lazy Kannan is and also why Shilpa often pokes her nose or where she bought her new nose pin from. We would go to Suhail’s Mom for the best biryani in the town and to Amar’s home for Indori special Poha.
Everyone studied well or at least pretended to. No one went for tuitions or coaching classes because you were thought to be a fool if you attended anything extra other than the schools.
Those were the days…
And then as is the rule of the universe things were set for a change. Videos started popping up on VCRs. They played a loud voice, a doctor speaking about Islam. He was said to be inspired by Shaikh Ahmed Deedat the famous preacher whose debates with Christian evangelists are watched in millions even today.
He was Dr.Zakir Abdul Karim Naik.
And as the cliché goes, you can hate him, you can, ’ love’ him but you can’t ignore him.
Dr. Zakir with his eminence gave rise to a spurious generation of young boys who had begun spouting Islamic creeds in the same robotic style of his. Becoming like Dr. Naik was a trend and implied sputtering verses from Islamic academic books but most of them did not actually work or in other words “ did not earn money ”. This impotent rise of ZN robots was not helpful. My old article on this trend;
https://www.arabnews.com/islam-perspective/news/767301
And if you ignore Dr.Zakir, there is heartburn; If you pay attention to him, you get heartburn. His Bambaiyya Hindi cum Urdu speeds like a Vande Bharat except that these days this train is found in Pakistan.
Keep your antacids near you all this while you are reading this if you are reading this.
This Doctor is one of the finest of the Preachers if you know of his shouting model of speaking with tremendous levels of knowledge on Islam plus comparative religions. I have seen only one of his debates with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar long back.
Dr. Zakir is again making waves with his month long tour of Pakistan and it is fun to watch the conservatives there dying to support him and the Liberals in a class of its own, not knowing where and how to respond. Pakistan is a land of ultra varieties of Islam with your life depending on just one complaint of blasphemy against you.
Coming back , one thing is for sure ; if Dr. Zakir Naik has FoE, then I too have it, despite knowing that as a woman taking on a religious scholar is still a bit out of fashion.
An ordinary woman challenging a scholar or say Moulvi if she finds his opinion misogynistic and not from Islam?
Leave oppose, how dare she ask a question? That too, to a scholar speaking in a Jumma Khutba?
Once upon a time I had a tiff with a famous local preacher who spoke in a Jumma Khutba on how if a woman gets beaten black and blue by her esteemed husband, yet keeps quiet i.e. doesn’t protest ; will attain the heavens or go to Jannah.
Hear the historical take between a man scholar and a member of his woman audience.
Me: , Salamalekum , Janab , Moulvi saab, you said a woman should keep quiet even when beaten black and blue by her husband and she will attain Jannah. Can you give me reference for this” wife beaten, gone to Jannah,” from Quran or Hadees.
I was damn sure in my heart of the hearts that they had not.
My Rabb My Prophet Muhommad PBUH can never be misogynistic.
[There is nothing misogynistic in Quran or Hadees[ sayings of the Prophet PBUH] and if someone finds it so then he or she needs to go deeper in the process and contexts surrounding that event. ]
Now listen to what our dear Moulana replied.
Him: oh, Asma Khan, you, you called me? I know you teach English. You are modern. I don’t talk to the likes of you.
I said, hainn….[ in my mind] and persisted , No moulvi saab, it would be helpful if you tell me the reference.
He repeated the same gibberish again.
You teach English, You are sinning!
I blasted him saying, if you think teaching English is a sin, then yes, surely I am a sinner.
Five years after I still haven’t received that alleged reference because I know there doesn’t exist any. My Rabb my Creator and His Prophet Muhommad PBUH are most merciful and benevolent towards us women and NEVER EVER Misogynistic.
A woman is a creation of God.
After all in 21st century I need to repeat this.
And I think it is time to remind some international scholars of this simple ancient fact.
Some of Dr.Zakir Naik’s clips are recently circulating from his Pakistan visit. He may be finest of the scholars but he may falter. And this time he has fallen hard and right on his face.
Dr. Zakir Naik in a video clip from Pakistan circulating on the web says , if a man looks at a woman for twenty straight minutes and then ,if his heart doesn’t flutter or there is no halchal in his heart , then he should be admitted in hospital. Actually, I find myself unable to react to this.
Move on to the video here.
Who should go to the hospital here?
I feel, Dr. Naik himself.
The lesson: Men should stop watching TV.?
Then there is another of his clip and for which this article has taken shape.
In this video Dr.Zakir says, a woman who remains unmarried , becomes a public property!!!
I don’t know how many exclamation marks to provide here, better let my editor have this headache.
Public property? a woman?
And for what reason, Dr.Naik, can you respond?
Because she has preferred to remain unmarried or due to circumstances has remained unmarried, for no fault of hers?
To begin, how does Dr. Zakir define this term, Public Property?
Let me give you its connotation, if a woman becomes Public Property, then it means she is and would be available to anyone who desires her.
Like a devadasi?
What exactly this doctor means when he opens his mouth?
Has he visited some of these women? I mean, has he talked to some of them?
Has he made a count of how many women remain unmarried? Many of them, not because they didn’t want to marry.
Has Dr.Zakir made a survey of such women and has observed how many of them [ or all of them?] have become, as he describes, Public Property?
Send us the Empirical evidence, as you claim to be talking logical in all your lectures.
Dr.Zakir may be a highly intelligent highly knowledgeable scholar in comparative religions and all that, but he needs to pull his reins severely and quickly when it comes to talking about women.
Some would say, he failed to rephrase his statement.
True
But he also needs to Reframe not just his words but that male mentality.
We keep watching misogyny thrown around recklessly in our films TV shows.
My humble request to all those who care, is to turn the tables on.
Every discussion on gender should be taken into the direction where it is men who are compelled to respond.
Enough of this shitting on women.
Scholars, men or whoever talks rubbish about women needs to go to the hospital.
We are calling for the ambulance.
Asma Anjum Khan teaches English , attempting and is tempted to write
