The mosque in Islamic law and faith

one who has followed Justice J.S. Verma’s pronouncement, on and off the bench, should be surprised at his sweeping and woefully ignorant remark in Ismail Faruqui’s case. “A mosque is not an essential part of the practice of religion in Islam and namaz (prayer) can be offered anywhere, even in [the] open” (1994) 6 SCC at page 418, paragraph 82).

Do you expect any better from one who discusses what Hindutva is without the slightest note of its Bible, V.D. Savarkar’s essay Hindutva? It is like discussing Christianity without reference to the Bible, Judaism without reference to the Tora, Hinduism without reference to the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads and Islam without reference to the Quran.

What Justice Verma did instead would scare a schoolboy. He relied on Maulana Wahiduddin Khan’s book Indian Muslims: The Need for a Positive Outlook (1994)—only to misquote it and also the court’s earlier rulings. (For a detailed critique, vide the author’s article “The Supreme Court on Hindutva” in A.G. Noorani (2002): Citizens’ Rights, Judges and State Accountability, Oxford University Press, pages 76-83). There was good reason for this strange course. Savarkar’s Hindutva would not have helped Justice Verma in reaching his conclusion that Hindutva is but a way of life. The same disingenuous approach marks his remark on mosques.

The Royal Netherlands Academy produced the Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam by H.A.R. Gibb and J.H. Kramers, scholars of high distinction (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1994). It is regarded as a work of high authority. Each entry has been contributed by a scholar of eminence. The one on “Masdjid” (Masjid in simple language) is spread from page 330 to page 353 in double columns. It exposes Justice J.S. Verma’s colossal ignorance. I quote a few passages. The Masjid, or mosque, is a recognised community centre for Muslims of the area. Persecuted in Mecca, Prophet Muhammad would pray “in secret in the narrow alleys of Mecca with his male followers”.

Significantly, when he went in exile to Medina, his first thought was to build a masjid. According to the sources, it was the Prophet’s intention from the very first to build a mosque at once in Madina; according to a

All this to what end? The BJP leader Sushma Swaraj admitted in public in Bhopal on April 14, 2000, that the temple movement was “purely political in nature and had nothing to do with religion”. Its object was to get into power, clearly.

In an interview to Maneck Davar published in a Mumbai monthly, Gentleman, in February 1991, Vajpayee was bolder still. “How can you preserve a mosque with the help of the police? You know hundreds of later tradition Gabriel commanded him in the name of God to build a house for God; but this story is coloured by later conditions. It was made quite clear that the earliest masdjid had nothing of the character of a sacred edifice. Much can be quoted for this view from Hadith and Sira. Believers and unbelievers went freely about in the mosque, tents and huts were put up there, disputes took place in it, often it had the outlook of the headquarters of an army.

The mosque was the place where believers assembled for prayer around the Prophet, where he delivered his addresses, which contained not only appeals for obedience to God but regulations affecting the social life of the community (cf. Bukhari, Salat, bab 70, 71); from here he controlled the religious political community of Islam.

In the early period the building of mosques was a social obligation on the ruler as representative of the community and on the tribes. As Islam spread, the governors built mosques in the provinces. A governor of Medina about 391/1000 is said to have endowed 3,000 mosques and hostels (Mez, Adam, Die Renaissance des Islams, page 24). Very soon, a number of mosques came into existence, endowed by individuals. In addition to tribal and sectarian mosques, prominent leaders built mosques which were the centres of their activity, for example the Masdjid ‘Ali b. Hatim (Tabari, ii, 13c) etc. As old sanctuaries entered Islam, the mosque received more of the character of a sanctuary and the building of a mosque became a pious work.

The caliph was the appointed leader of the salat and the khatib of the Muslim community. The significance of the mosque for the state is therefore embodied in the minbar (pulpit in the mosque where the imam stands to deliver sermons). The installation of the caliph consisted in his seating himself upon this, the seat of the prophet in his sovereign capacity. When homage was first paid to Abu Bakr by those who had decided the choice of the Prophet’s successor, he sat on the minbar. He delivered an address, the people paid homage to him and he delivered a khutba, by which he assumed the leadership (Ibn Hisham, page I017; Tabari, i. I828 sq.; K. Al-khamis, ii. 75; Ya’kubi, ii. I42); it was the same

mosques have been destroyed in cities, in villages. Somebody told me in Hyderabad city alone, 42 mosques were destroyed.” Question: When was this? Recently? Vajpayee: “During the period of turmoil. In other cities also, cities of U.P. also. And newspapers... the less said the better...”

In the Supreme Court, Justice S.P. Bharucha repeatedly asked the Solicitor General, Dipankar Gupta, whether the government would enforce the court’s advisno