HAKIM AJMAL KHAN
“BAKRA-ID is the religious festival in which Mussalmans perform
pilgrimages around their holy places in Mecca. At this festival, they have to
sacrifice in pursuance of the sacrifice of Abraham, the Mussalmans of India
being too far away from Mecca, go to the city of Ajmer. But Neither the
text of the Koran not tradition enjoined the slaughter of the cow. In
Turkey, Egypt, Syria, and Persia where a cow might be slaughtered without offence
to any one a sheep are preferred.”
“Simply because the goat and the sheep are much more expensive
in India than the cow, the Mussalman cannot afford the price of a
sheep. But the Koran specifies that the sacrifice is not necessary for the
poor.
Mussalmans are so poor that they cannot afford even a
cow. The poor Muslims resort to the sacrifice of cows, because all people
are not actuated by commonsense and good feelings.”These two extracts
practically conclude that neither Koran nor Arabic tradition has anything to
say about the fundamental importance of cow-slaughter in Islam on sacrificial
occasions.
The late-lamented Hakim Ajmal Khan, a moulvi
of no mean scholarship and erudition, in a pamphlet under the title of
“Hindu-Muslim Unity” comprising the presidential address to the All India
Muslim League, Amritsar in 1919, published by the Cow Protection Society, 43, Banstolla
Street, Calcutta, state as under:-
“We are, and should be full cognizant of the fact that
cow-killing seriously annoys our fellowmen. But before holding out any
assurance to them, we must first see in what light our religion views this
question. We must also determine the extent to which the Qurbani is enjoined
upon us irrespective of course, of the slaughter of the cows.
According to Islam Qurbani or sacrificial offering is incumbent
on Muslims. Now, is a matter of choice to fulfill this observance by
sacrificing camels, sheep, goat, or cow, which simply means that any of these
animals can be fir for offerings? Crores of Indian Muslims must be strangers to
the slaughter of the camels, for the fulfillment of this observance, but none
of them can possibly be accused of the slightest religious omission.
On the contrarily, Mussalmans of Arabia,
Syria, Egypt, Tripoli, Asiatic Turkey have been faithful to this observance
without ever having slaughtered a Cow, and I am confident no erudite theologian
or Mufti can maintain that these Mussalmans have failed to observe the Sunnal
(practice of the Prophet) or have been guilty of any religious shortcoming.
If any
Mussalman dares to call religiously legitimate practice illegitimate, he
certainly commits a sin. I conceder it appropriate at this stage, to
recount some of the Ahadees (religious practices) according to which the
sacrifice of animals other than the cow is entitled to preference. For
instance, Ummti Salmah (the Holy Prophet’s venerable wife) says that the
Prophet once observed ‘if any of you see the crescent heralding the month of
Zil Hijjah and desires to sacrifice a goat…, etc which obviously indicates that
the Arabs were in the habit of sacrificing goats.
According to another tradition our Prophet
said that ‘of all sacrificial animals sheep was preferable; if we reserve sheep
alone for the offering, we will be complying with this tradition.
He then exhorts the Indian Muslims to take the
initiative instead of being advised by their Hindu neighbours, and by thus
using judicious discrimination in the selection of the sacrificial animal which
will be in the best accord with Islamic tradition, bring about an era of
peaceful relation within India and enhance national reputation abroad”.
(The above mentioned wills of Mughals and views of Hakim Ajmal
Khan are derived from Romance of the Cow, by D.H.Jani,Gold Medalist, published
by The Bombay Humanitarian League, Bombay, in 1935)
Above all, in Saudi Arabia, the cow-slaughters are sentenced to
death. The marriages there are providing successful—yes, without slaughtering
cows.” If Indian Muslims resolved not to kill any cow and live as one entity
like any other India, then this country,e.g., Bharat will be more prosperous
than our expectations”, says Prof J,N. Bismil of the Jamia Milia, Delhi in his
long article in the Ary
COW PROTECTION IN ZOROASTRIANS:
Zoroaster prayed to God for knowledge and conduct to achieve
prosperity of cows and human kind. (Yashana 4512)
