NEW DELHI(PTI);Close on the heels of Taslima Nasreen incident in the neighboring Bangladesh, & storm is brewing in India over a demand raised by an Islamic Religious scholar for rearrangement of verses | in the Holy Quran.
The 105-year-old Nagpur-based scholar Allama Hazek Tahfuri has called for rearrangement of verses in the Muslim scripture on the basis of chronology.
Muslim theologians and Religious leaders are also up in arms against him for his remarks against the Supremacy of prophet hood.
Tahfuri, hailing from Kamti village in western Maharashtra state and a practicing Hakim, has also been accused of questioning the validity of fundamental tenet of Islam and hunting the Muslims Religious sensibilities.
The Jamia Nizamia, a renowned Islamic institution of higher learning at Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), has issued a Fatwa (decree) declaring Allama Tahfuri as “Gumrah” (astray), saying his statements exhibited his ignorance of the basic concepts of Islamic religion.
The scholar has invited the wrath of Islamic clerics following his interview published in a leading Urdu Daily from Hyderabad, stating that the verses in the Holy Quran should be rearranged in the chronological order in which they were revealed to Prophet Mohammed.
He also said the Imam hood had supremacy over the prophet hood and quoted a Quranic verse to support his claim.
In Bangladesh, fugitive feminist writer Taslima Nasreen is under death threat from the clergy for calling for a thorough revision of the Holy book. She has denied saying it.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 12, 1994
