Muslim scholars react sharply to last Janjalani interview --Inquirer Mindanao

INQUIRER MINDANAO

Muslim scholars react sharply to last Janjalani interview


By Nash Maulana

Inquirer

Last updated 05:48am (Mla time) 01/28/2007


THE country’s leading Muslim scholars have reacted sharply to the transcript of an old interview with slain bandit leader Khaddafy Janjalani, saying it is unlikely for any Muslim to attribute kidnappings to the Prophet Muhammad.

At the forefront of reactions from various sources is Prof. Taha Basman, an old friend of Janjalani’s interviewer, and an acknowledged Filipino Muslim linguist.

The transcript of Janjalani’s interview says he attributed kidnappings to the Prophet Muhammad who, he said, ordered the caravan of Abu Sufian (a governor of the old Hijaz, Arabia) kidnapped.

Basman said the view could be “a product of deduction” from one’s own understanding that “if killing was allowed, then why not kidnapping?”

Mindanao State University Prof. Moner Bajunaid likened Janjalani’s views with “the enemy from within—the danger of little knowledge in the words of the late Dr. (Cesar Adib) Majul.”

Majul was the first dean of the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Islamic Studies.


Context

Basman clarified that the context of the story was that Sufian and his caravan ambushed the Prophet Muhammad and his companions in the middle of the desert at about year 622, when Sufian said: “I will give Muhammad a lesson he will never forget.”

Basman said that during the sword engagement between the two groups, Abu Sufian (after whose name another bandit group today is named), was killed.

A revelation (The Spoils of War, a chapter of the Koran) came to the Prophet Muhammad, which says: “The spoils of war are at God’s and the prophet’s disposal.” And it was then that the prophet ordered his companions to place the properties and the prisoners of war (POWs) under the custody of the Muslim government based in Medina in Saudi Arabia, Basman said of the story on Abu Sufian.

Basman said the custody of POWs and spoils of war was guided by Prophet Muhammad’s declaration that says: “A Muslim is he from whose tongue and hands, other Muslims are safe; and a Mu’min, [a true believer] is he in whose hands all of humankind has sanctuary for life and property.”


Special edicts

Bajunaid, who speaks Arabic as his mother tongue, said under the Medina administration of the prophet, special edicts for Abu Sufian’s people and the like were promulgated, an option that “can also be taken from the Western concept of ‘parens patria’ or the government as the parent of the nation or guardian of the people.

“If that (Janjalani’s) is the Muslim view today, then Christian thinkers had [a] better appreciation of the [prophet’s] option, because the death of Abu Sufian rendered his people orphans. There was no better alternative than taking care of the orphans, the people ruined by wars, and looking after their welfare. Most certainly, that is worlds apart from kidnapping for ransom,” Bajunaid said.

He was quoting the British playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), who said in “The Genuine Islam” (Vol. I, No. 81936): “I have studied the man (Muhammad)—and in my opinion [he is] far from being anti-Christ. He must be called the savior of humanity.”

The Muslim authorities also quoted the following from French historian De Lacy O’Leary’s book “Islam at the Crossroads:” “History makes it clear that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fanatically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated.”


Muslim norms

“Look at this as the Muslim norms and anything otherwise becomes [views] unlikely of a Muslim, especially those who assume authority in Islam,” said Ustadz Abdulwahab Tunngal, the mufti of Basilan, Janjalani’s paternal home province.

“The language of the Qur’an (Koran) is so difficult even [for] the Arabs themselves to learn by heart. You can’t learn it only from some kind of special sessions,” Bajunaid said.

He said he learned that the slain terror leader had some special clandestine classes on the Koran in an Islamic school in Central Mindanao when he assumed the Abu Sayyaf leadership in 2000.

Basman also credited “fairer” views held by Christian thinkers on the prophet, including those of Thomas Carlyle (“Heroes and Hero-Worship” lecture series) and Michael Hart (“The 100 Most Influential Persons in History”).

Basman said he had “full confidence” that his friend Prof. Octavio Dinampo, who conducted the interview, knew “the real (Abu Sufian) story, as well.”



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