There were quotations in the book from prominent scholars and writers of Islam like M.N. Roy, A.G. Arberry, R.O. Nicholson, Dr Maurice Bucaille, all of whom were praised highly in Taslima Nasrin’er Islam Bidyesh and whose books I had been asked to read. At this Boromama had observed:
Despite being highly approving of Islam they had not converted and as such remained kaffir. Rather, they said one thing but practised another in their life, and made a ton of profit out of it. Why do Taslima’s erudite critics insist on suppressing this point?’ The book had also alleged that since I had mentioned certain hadiths in my work without providing any references, or stating if the said hadith was true or fake, they were unable to discuss those particular references in detail. They had then alleged that I did not have a particularly thorough knowledge of the hadith either. Boromama had responded to this too. ‘But if the two experts in Islam themselves had been particularly well informed in the matters of the hadith then they would have surely been able to point out exactly which of Taslima’s references were fake.
When I had read the book the first time there were minor details I had missed but Boromama had pored over every detail.
If not mentioning the proper references to the hadiths is an instance of Taslima’s academic dishonesty, then one wonders if the erudite scholars have thought to protest the broadcast of the hadith every day over radio and television throughout Bangladesh without ever mentioning the source. Or have they thought to protest how right from the time of Pakistan the media has systematically blacked out many a significant ayat of not just the hadith but also the Quran? The radio and the television channels keep broadcasting those ayat which tell people what to do and what not to do, but they never broadcast the ayat which instruct the powerful administrators, lawmakers and judges about their duties. For instance, cutting off the hands of both male and female thieves (5.38); punishing both the adulterer and the adulteress with a hundred lashes; ‘Let not your mercy for the two influence your ability to mete out the punishment decreed by Allah, if you believe in Him and the hereafter, and let a group of mumin be witness to the punishment (28.2)’; ‘Those who do not obey what Allah has decreed are kaffir’ (5.44)—many such ayat are never broadcast and despite being obligatory these decrees by Allah are not implemented in the state or society. Of course, hasn’t Allah Himself said, ‘The edicts and the path I have laid out as right for humans in the Book, despite they being clear beyond doubt, those who seek to obfuscate, Allah’s lanat (curse) will fall upon them, and so will the lanat of other sinners (2.151).’
While critiquing the book Boromama had not stopped at simply refuting the arguments of the authors and responding to their questions with more difficult ones of his own. He had gone on to make a few pertinent observations about the new breed of people who were trying to pass off as modern by claiming ‘I believe in religion, but I’m not communal’, and who were constantly trying to foreground the many good things said by Allah by quoting some good lines from the Quran.
These days you are not communal if you believe in and adhere to some specific parts of the Quran, but if you are to believe in and implement some other sections of the same Quran you risk falling prey to communalism. Some self-proclaimed protectors of Islam do not wish to be seen as communal, they are ashamed of such a label. However, they feel no shame at all in breeding and fostering a horde of ills, untruths and contaminants within Islam, because at least that does not earn one the sobriquet communal. But the Quran itself decrees that one has to believe in the Quran in its entirety. ‘Do you then believe only a part of the Book and cast aside the rest? Those who do so must suffer ignominies in this earthly life and the harshest punishment on the day of Qiyamat (2.85).’ Belittling or ignoring a part of the Quran is as good as belittling or ignoring the whole book. For such people the Quran decrees, ‘They are the ones who through thoughts and deeds wish to say they believe some parts and reject the rest, and truly these are the kaffir (4.150, 4.151).’
These arguments about believing in the Quran would have perhaps made many a fundamentalist very happy with his views. His aim, however, was not to please the fundamentalists, but to displease the ‘I believe in religion, but I’m not communal’ brigade, the intellectuals, political scientists and sociologists who were eulogizing religion while condemning fundamentalists for communal violence in the same breath. Both Boromama and I were of the same opinion on this—that such people were far more dangerous and harmful than regular fanatics.
According to the basic tenets of Islam the Quran has always been and always will be immaculate, irrefutable and beyond suspicion; it is unchangeable and its clear dictums are unalterable. If someone is to censor sections of the Quran or if someone tries running the administration and the judiciary using modern laws imported from the West instead of the clear laws laid out by Allah in the Quran, such people are not to be considered Muslims according to the holy book itself. It is in the Quran that one finds words like kaffir (5.44), zaalim (5.45) (the oppressor) and fasiq (5.47) (impious or depraved).
His critique had ended with an important observation.
Twenty-four years under Pakistani rule, between 1947 and 1971, and eighteen years since the disavowal of secular ideals, from 1975 till date—for forty-two years Islamic tenets have not been put into action and Muslims in this country have been systematically duped by a state religion and cries of ‘Bismillahir Rahamanir Rahim’. Those who have spoken in favour of Islamic laws and Islamic principles have been tagged as fundamentalists. During Ershad’s rule while the bill to instate Islam as official state religion was being passed the Prime Minister had said in his closing speech at the Parliament, ‘This bill is being tabled as a counter-measure against fundamentalism.’ Were these mumin Muslims or merely Muslim name-bearing followers of modern Western thought, disciples of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Sir Syed Ahmed and Sir Muhammed Iqbal? At the end of the day what these modern merchants of religion were doing was pruning the poison tree of communalism while simultaneously watering its roots, thus helping it to grow and flourish.
I agreed with Boromama absolutely. I had always been aware he was an atheist but I had never known religion was his weapon of choice to combat communal con artists and that his weapon was exceptionally strident. We had never discussed religion prior to this incident and it was only recently that we had managed to read each other’s work and develop an interest in each other’s ideas. Whenever he came over he would head straight for my study. I was in the middle of writing a new book, Koraner Naari (Women in the Quran), about all the ayat in the Quran that were about women along with my own critical commentary on them.
Since Boromama was a scholar of Arabic I showed the piece to him. He had the Quran at the tip of his fingers; he knew its verses by heart as well as their interpretations and could even translate it word for word. He went through my manuscript and pointed out a couple of mistakes. I had used the Bengali translation of the Quran by the Islamic Foundation, the Bengali version of the Quran published from Calcutta by the Islamic Foundation Trust, besides the translation by Maulana Maududi, to help me navigate the Arabic text, but knowing the language always helped in unearthing many more things. Since Boromama knew the language so well he could easily tell which Arabic word had been muted in translation by a particular translator to produce a more moderate interpretation of a particular verse. ‘When you beat women beat them gently, and spare the face’—reading something along these lines he laughed and pointed out that nowhere in the Quran was the advice for ‘gently’ beating present; it must have been an addition by the translator.
The older the Bengali translation, the higher were the chances of accuracy. With the passing of time, with rapid modernization and growing clamour over women’s rights, Islamic scholars who were desperate to foreground how women were being given their due dignity in Islam were also the ones trying to suppress Allah’s cruelty while translating the Quran. As if Allah would appear more benevolent if it could be shown that He had asked for women to be beaten gently
! Unless one knew Arabic such expert interventions by contemporary scholars were not easy to discover. Boromama took the manuscript home with him to check more thoroughly if there were any mistakes in the translations of any of the verses and came back a few days later with more edits. One glance at the manuscript was enough to understand that he had put a fair bit of effort in it.
We spoke about the Satanic verses. The twenty-first and twenty-second verses of the sura An-Najm had been expunged from the Quran and replaced with new ones, because Muhammad had claimed later that the verses he had originally uttered were words Satan had put on his tongue. Satan had whispered the verse to him in his ear and Muhammad had failed to discern whose voice, Allah’s or Satan’s, it was; or Satan had taken hold of his tongue or his mind and the Prophet had sat in front of the Kaaba Sharif . . .
I asked Boromama what the Prophet had said. ‘Have you thought of Al-Lat and Al-Uzza and Manat, the third?’
‘This is in the Quran. So which bit was removed?’
‘“These are intermediaries exalted whose intercession is to be hoped for.” That’s twenty-one, and twenty-two goes, “Such as they do not forget”. These two ayat were later rejected as the Satanic verses and replaced with “Are yours the males and His the females?”—the sons for you and the daughters for Him? This is then a fraudulent distribution!’
I could not hide my astonishment.
‘Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Manat were considered the three daughters of Allah by the people of the Quraysh tribe. Their God was called Allah. That’s where Muhammad took the name from, from the pre-Islamic polytheists, who believed in a multiplicity of gods.’
‘Why did Muhammad wish to show respect to the three daughters of Allah?’
‘Back then, according to the Islamic scholars who were writing Muhammad’s biography in 800 CE, people like Al-Tabari, Al-Wahidi, Ibn Sa’d, Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad did not have that many followers in Mecca and most had deserted him. Wishing to bring the Quraysh into his fold he sought to mention their three chief goddesses. And truly, the Quraysh people were quite happy with him for that . . .’
‘So when did he alter the verse?’
Mother entered the room just as I finished the question and we fell quiet. She looked at both of our faces and asked, ‘What are you two talking about?’
Almost on cue Boromama replied, ‘We were talking about her studying in PG. She could have become a professor at the medical college!’
Distinctly pleased, Mother asked sweetly, ‘Do you want tea?’
‘Yes. That would be lovely.’
Mother went off to get tea and the conversation returned to the Satanic verses.
‘In the fifty-second and fifty-third verses of the sura Al-Hajj, Satan is mentioned again. Muhammad is informing Allah that all the Prophets and messengers Allah had sent prior to him had fallen prey to Satan.’
Mother suddenly appeared at the door. ‘What are you two talking about?’
‘Nothing much, just like that,’ I responded weakly.
‘I heard Allah and Muhammad!’ She turned towards Boromama with a snarl. ‘What are you teaching Nasrin?’
He got up and headed towards the exit, with me following suit. ‘What is he going to teach me? We were just talking!’
‘Tell me what you two were talking about? What were you trying to teach my daughter?’ Mother’s eyes were raining fire on him while he was looking at everything but her—the artwork on the wall, the curtains, the doorknob.
Mother’s voice was rising. ‘Why are you bent on destroying her? Don’t you see what is happening in the country? Don’t you see the giant processions? Don’t you read the newspapers? Despite that you advise her to write against Allah? Do you not want to stay alive? They can kill her any day! Believe what you will but don’t mess with my daughter. You give her these warped ideas and she writes such things. You are influencing her to write against the Quran and against Allah.’
I had to intervene at this point. ‘I am already messed up, there’s nothing new to mess up further.’
His face pale, Boromama replied, ‘I have not said anything bad about Allah. The ones who do business in his name are the ones who say bad things. They are the ones who use Him for their own dishonest motives.’
Boromama did not have tea that day. He was supposed to have lunch with us too, but that did not happen either. Having remembered some urgent work, he left. After that whenever he visited Mother would warn me in advance not to discuss the Quran and the hadith with him. One Friday, Boromama came over again. Taking off the cap that he was wearing and tucking it into his pocket he said, ‘These days mosques are so packed there’s hardly any space to read the namaz.’
‘Are you coming from the mosque?’ Mother’s voice was soft.
‘Yes, from the Jumu’ah prayer.’ Her face brightened instantly and a smile appeared.
I could not help laugh out loud. ‘Why are you laughing?’ he asked seriously. ‘What’s there to laugh? I read the namaz five times a day.’
I only laughed harder.
‘I don’t know what’s going to happen with Nasrin,’ Mother lamented. ‘She’s not going to find place even in hell! People change. If a man like him can understand the folly of his ways, ask for forgiveness and read the namaz, why can’t you do it already?’
That day Mother affectionately fed Boromama rice and fish. Burping after the heavy meal he peeked inside my study and, quite deliberately, said in a loud voice, ‘Why now, you can’t spend the entire day only writing! Gynaecology is the best field for you to do your specialization in. Being a doctor you will be able to serve many more people much more effectively.’
‘That won’t happen any more, I’m afraid.’ I was about to ask my next question almost immediately—‘The man called Abdullah that Muhammad had executed after winning Mecca, was it the same Abdullah who used to edit the verses uttered by Muhammad? The one who had renounced Islam later because he had begun to wonder why Allah’s words required editing at all?’ But Mother entered the room just then, her face glowing. ‘You must convince Nasrin to start reading the namaz every day.’
Boromama agreed. ‘Yes, that she should. Especially now that she is not getting too much movement or physical exercise. The namaz at least guarantees a regular workout.’
Mother did not take kindly to that advice at all.
She wanted me to read the namaz but when I read the Quran it terrified her. I could be reading the Quran sitting at my table, would leave it open and go for a little walk, and on returning I would find the book gone. Or I would fall asleep while reading in bed and wake up to find the book missing. Finally one day I recovered the Quran from Mother’s cupboard where she had hidden it.
‘Why do you keep hiding the Quran Sharif?’
‘Why do you keep reading the Quran Sharif?’ Her face betrayed her anxiety.
‘It’s good to read the Quran Sharif. Brings sawab [merit].’
Annoyed, she spat out, ‘You are not reading it for sawab.’
I laughed. ‘Shush, don’t say that to anyone! If Allah finds out you are stopping someone from reading the Quran then He will instantly cast you into the deepest pit of hell.’
‘Let me go to hell, you try and get to heaven.’ Mother sighed.
‘Don’t worry about that. I have had contact with Allah. Paradise is guaranteed for me. The other day Allah told me my name is number four on the list bound for Jannat ul Firdaus [the highest point of Paradise].’
‘That’s good, then. If you are bound for Paradise.’
‘Yes. You will burn in the fires of hell and I will be in heaven. I will have to entreat Allah to bring you to Paradise too.’
Unable to continue, Mother burst into tears. ‘Nasrin, I beg of you, don’t write anything against the Quran. The Quran has done nothing to you. It’s all the mullahs, so write against them.’
Unable to see her cry, I turned away.
I often found Mother kneeling on the janamaz (prayer rug), hands raised in munajat (supplication), eyes c
losed, muttering and sobbing. Eavesdropping on her muttered prayers one day I heard: ‘Allah, I pray do not turn my daughter into a kaffir. Allah, I pray free my daughter from the company of the kaffir. Allah, I pray grant my daughter Paradise. Allah, I pray grant my daughter good sense and wisdom. Allah, I pray do not turn my daughter’s heart into gold coins.’
All I felt was a surge of kindness for Mother.
Resignation
The police had taken my passport away at the airport and told me to retrieve it from the Special Branch office in Malibag. So the very next day I went to the office as instructed, only to discover that none of the officers seemed to know anything about my passport at all. I went back again the day after and then again the next, but each time returned with the same answer—they did not know anything!
‘I was asked to collect my passport from here. Give me back my passport.’
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