The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010

A Journal By The Students Of MJCET, Hyderabad, India

(Muffakham Jah College of Engineering and Technology, Banjara Hills, Hyd)

Visit
www.scribd.com/musarhad
for more articles on Islaam.

_____________________________________________________________________________
Vol.3 No.1 Rajab 1431 A.H. Jun-Jul 2010

Editor: Maulaanaa Noamaan Bader

Nadvi Qasmi (Guest editor)
Sub Editors:
Md Azmi Shamsul Islam
Syed Ameenuddin Syed Arshad

C O N T E N T S

1 In the name of Allaah Editor 2

2 The hadeeth of intention Ray of Hope bureau 3
3 The student-life of Imaam Bukhaaree Ray of Hope bureau 5
4 And the long wait ended I Ml Manaazir A Geelaanee 8

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The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010
In the name of Allaah
Allaah, the Creator Who created, the Preserver 2 Who preserves the creation and the Judge3 Who will
1

resurrect all the living beings on the day of Judgement for reward and requital, is undoubtedly the First 4 and the
Last5, the Originator6 and the Death-Inflictor7. So in His name we begin, and with His name on our lips we pray
our end to be.

We supplicate before Him to shower His blessings and peace upon His chosen servant and last prophet
whose name and esteem He raised high; and similarly upon all the companions and followers of the praised one,
Muhammad and praising one, Ahmad .

There was the great trust of Allaahs obligations and prohibitions. Whoever would bear it would get Al-
laahs pleasure and eternal bliss of Paradise upon successful discharge of the trust and conversely, Allaahs
wrath and never-ending torment of Hell upon failure. The big creatures like the skies, the earth and the moun-
tains cringed in fear. In spite of their humongous size and apparent might, they found themselves too weak for
this trust. Saying that they would rather continue their present simple jobs obediently and dutifully than under-
take this venture, they politely excused themselves. Then came the turn of Adam and he, in his eager-
ness to attain Allaahs closeness and bountiful reward, accepted it. Little attention did he pay to the onerousness
of the responsibility and the weakness of his shoulders. This got him the loving rebuke from Allaah:
(Surely he was unjust to himself and unaware of the end. Quraan 33:72)

Anyway, the Lord who has taken upon himself to be Merciful continued His care for Adam
and his offspring, sending prophets after prophets to every nation, community and age. He sent them all with
the revelation that there is no god but He, so He alone deserves to be worshipped. Cutting across ages, languag-
es, tribes and shareeahs, this was the common thread that bound them all. All of them followed this and invited
the people towards this. But as days went by, their teachings were adulterated and corrupted, sometimes even
totally lost. So the need for new prophets continued till the last one, the leader and the most perfect of them all,
arrived. His greatness can be realized from the fact that for centuries, the ground had been prepared for his ar-
rival through prophecies about him from the early prophets. The pre-eminent scholar and thinker of this century
Maulaanaa Geelaanees article And the long wait ended sheds light on this very issue. This article is
English rendition of the first chapter of his book An Nabiyy-ul Khaatim (the Last Prophet). With his formidable
command over other religions scriptures and over the history of mankind, he explains in his inimitable Urdu
prose how the prophets from the ancient days had been informing their people of the great arrival of the perfect
model for humanity whose teachings were to be universal over time and space.
What that universal message was, what are its demands upon its followers and the clarifications of the
doubts around it arising from ignorance or from misplaced respect for the opinions of mercenary propagandists
who have usurped the time and space of the corporate media, will be our main focus in the future editions of
this journal. Yet in this first edition of the new version of The Ray of Hope, we prefer to begin with the very
purpose and intention of this work of journalism i.e., to obtain the reward from Allaah and to get His pleasure
Whose will runs unopposed everywhere. So we begin with the hadeeth of sincerity which describes the ipor-
tance of sincere and pious intention. In this, we are following the footsteps of the genius Imaam Bukhaaree Al
Husain bin Masood Al Baghawee, Aboo Zakariyyaa Yahyaa bin Sharaf An Nawawee and others.
(Continued to page 7)

1
Al Khaaliq
2
Al Qayyoom
3
Al Hakam
4
Al Awwal
5
Al Aakhir
6
Al Baari
7
Al Mumeet
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The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010

The hadeeth of intention

Hazrat 'Umar bin Al-Khattaab narrated: The Prophet said,
.
"The rewards (of deeds) are according to the intention, and everybody will get the reward
according to what he has intended. So whoever emigrated for Allah's and His Apostle's sake,
his emigration would be considered to be for Allah and His Apostle (and will be rewarded
accordingly); and whoever emigrated for worldly benefits, or to marry a woman, his emigration
would be considered to be (only) for the thing he emigrated for." (Bukhaaree 4682, 7/62/8) The hadeeth can
also be found in Bukhaaree (1, 52, 2344, 3609, 6195, 6439), Muslim (3530), Tirmizee (1571), Nasaaee (74) and all other famous
books of hadeeth except Muatta by Imaam Maalik.

The scholars of Islaam are unanimous over the momentous significance of this hadeeth. Imaam Abdur
Rahmaan bin Mahdee says that whoever wishes to write a book should begin with this hadeeth. According to
Imaam Ahmad bin Hambal, it is one of the three hadeeths on which lies the foundation of Islaam. The others
being:
He who innovates things in our affairs (Islaam) for which there is no valid basis, (commits a sin) and
these are to be rejected. (Muslim 3243, 18/4266)
Both legal and illegal things are evident. (Bukhaaree 50, 1/2/49)

The hadeeth underlines the importance of sincerity in ones actions. Whatever one does should be for none
but Allaah. As Allaah judges the acts according to the doers intention, a persons intention can make a great
difference in the reward of an act. In any case, the All-Knowing Allaah does not base His reward on the
appearance or on the social status of the doer. The Knower of the matters hidden in hearts rewards according to
the intention, sincerity and devotion of the servant only. The act may be rewarded ten times or up to seven
hundred times or even more based on the strength of ones earnestness and genuine love for Allaahs pleasure
and His prophets. A simple act of worship may become rewardable like a long series of prayers. When a
person goes to a mosque for congregational prayer, every step that he takes on the ground carries a reward,
every moment that he spends in the mosque waiting for the prayer becomes rewardable like the time he actually
spent saying salaah (prayer, namaaz). Similarly, if he goes to a congregational prayer but has the manifold
intentions of offering the prayer, meeting the Muslim brethren, visiting the sick among the Muslims and
meeting the pious elders, etc. then he will be rewarded accordingly, for as much (many) as he intended, as is
suggested by the second part of the hadeeth.

In fact, the sincerity of intention gets a person reward even if he is unable to actually do the act. Allaahs
mercy goes a step further by rewarding the servant for evil deed which he intended to do but did not actually
carry out. If a man while going to sleep intends to offer the Tahajjud salaah, but his eyes overpower him and he
is unable to offer Tahajjud, then also he gets rewarded and his sleep becomes a bounteous charity from Allaah 8.
The change of intention from evil to good is a meritorious act in itself. How to thank Allaah for His infinite
generosity Who rewards even on deeds that are human necessities or done merely for fun! The intention of
abstaining from the prohibited zone and bounding oneself within the boundary of the permissible makes the act
of feeding ones wife rewardable like a charity. Similarly, a man is rewarded for satisfaction of his desires from
his wife since he chose to avoid an unlawful woman.

8
Nasaaee: 1765
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The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010
So, it goes without saying that one should keep ones intention pure and his acts for Allaahs sake alone.
Allaah being the most sovereign and self-sufficient of all for whose sake a deed may be done, will simply ask
the person on the day of Judgement to demand his reward from the others9. There is even a strict warning
from the holy Prophet that if a person learns an Islaamic science for intentions other than that of
pleasing Allaah, then he should rest assured of a seat in the Hell 10. So if a person does any good act of charity
for Allaah but at the same time also intends to attain name and fame, celebrity status, political significance and
to escape taxes, then Allaah will ask him to take his reward from those others whom or which he had intended
along with Allaah; as Allaah, the Lord without partner would never accept anyone or anything being brought to
the same status as His, not even the holy saints and prophets. Similarly, if one offers salaah or fasts in the month
of Ramazaan because it might reduce his body weight and make him attractive in the eyes of those whom his
Satan, television and cinema have made glamorous, then he will be among those whose efforts in this worldly
life went in vain while he kept on thinking that he was doing acts of virtue11.

So a wise person would be one who would purify his intention and make his acts wholeheartedly for the benefit
of the Hereafter, turning his mind and heart away from this world and its temporary benefits. Anyway, if he
makes the success of this world his goal, there is no guarantee from anybody that he will succeed. On the other
hand, if Allaahs pleasure and His never-ending reward is his goal, then the All-Powerful Allaah guarantees him
his wish. And who can be more truthful than Allaah12!? Allaah says:


)19( ) 18(

Whoever opts for the immediate (benefits from) life here, We give him right here in this life, as much as We
Will, to whomever We intend. Then We assign Jahannam for him where he shall enter condemned, discarded.
[I8] And whoever opts for the Hereafter and makes efforts for it as due, while he is a Believer, then the effort of
such people is appreciated. [19]13
Some scholars of hadeeth say that the hadeeth might have been related to a particular incident of the ear-
ly days of the Muslims in Madeenah. There was a Muslim woman in Madeenah called Umm e Qais. A man
from Makkah the stronghold of Misbelievers at the time wished to marry her. But the condition from her
was that he must emigrate from Makkah to Madeenah. And the man did do so out of love for the woman, so the
man was nicknamed Umm e Qais emigrator14. Emigration is a great act of sacrifice wherein a person parts
forever from all his inherited and laboriously acquired property and all his close friends and near and dear ones.
Yet this great act would do no good to the person whose intention is perverse and worldly. Contrarily, if it is
done for Allaahs sake, then there is the great promise of pardoning of all the past sins. Amr bin Al Aas
quoted the holy Prophet as saying: Dont you know that Islam wipes out all the previous
(misdeeds)? Similarly, migration wipes out all the previous (misdeeds), and the pilgrimage wipes out all the
(previous) misdeeds. 15
We pray to Allaah to grant us the purity of sincerity and the glory of His pleasure! May He bestow us
with sincerity in our hearts and earnestness in our acts, and make all our deeds absolutely for His sake alone,
without any confusion or doubt regarding our goal, and grant us the shadow of His throne when there will be no
shade but His alone!
(Sources: Fat-hul Baaree by Ibn Hajar, Al azkaar by An Nawawee, Sharh riyaaz-us saaliheen by Muhammad bin Saalih bin
Muhammad bin Uthaimeen, Tanzeem-ul ashtaat by Ml Muhammad Abul Hasan, Dars-ul Bukhaaree by Ml Muhammad Ishaaq,
Muntakhab Ahaadeeth by Ml Yoosuf Kaandhlavi)

9
Tirmizee: 3079
10
Tirmizee: 2579
11
Quraan 18:104
12
Quraan 4:87, 4:122
13
Quraan 17:18-19
14
Fat-hul Baaree 1/2
15
Muslim: 173, 1/220
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The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010

The student-life of Imaam Bukhaaree

Early days
Muhammad bin Ismaaeel bin Ibraaheem Al Bukhaaree, the mountain of memory-power and the
world-leader in hadeeth comprehension in the words of Haafiz Ibn Hajar who has remained peerless in the
last 1140 years was born to a pious hadeeth teacher of his days, Ismaaeel. At the time of his death, Ismaaeel
had stated that out of all the wealth and riches he was leaving behind, not a penny was from a doubtful source,
let alone illegal source! In the house of such a sincere devotee of Allaah was born a baby after a Friday salaah in
194 AH16. The parents named him Muhammad. But the father got little time to celebrate the birth of his dear
child. His Lord soon invited him to a more durable place of rest than this world. The pious mother of Muham-
mad took upon herself the raising up of this orphaned baby with the courage provided by Allaah. The Lord put
His noble lady servant to a strange test. The baby lost his vision. Even if a thunder had struck her, it would have
been easier for her. But alas, it was much harder to bear! Rarely would the stream of tears flowing on account of
her Allaah-endowed maternal love dry up. In days and nights, in her prayers and remembrances, while sitting
and lying, only one prayer would dominate her thoughts till one night she had the taste of the ultimate Mercy. In
her dream, she saw prophet Ibraaheem announcing to her, Allaah has accepted your tearful prayers to
Him and returned the vision of your dear baby. In the morning, Muhammad had a completely healthy eye-
sight.

Student days
Muhammad Al Bukhaaree was admitted to a local school. Before ten years, he had completed his prima-
ry education. He felt an innate urge for learning hadeeth. So there he was, going to the hadeeth teachers of his
city, learning the texts of hadeeths and their chains of narrators with an exceptional assiduousness only he was
capable of. Leaving his classmates much behind, he was soon able to memorize the books of noted scholars like
Abdullaah bin Al Mubaarak and Wakee bin Al Jarraah. When he was just 11, a hadeeth teacher of Bukhaaraa,
Daakhilee, had a first-hand experience of the extraordinariness of this ordinary-looking child. While he narrated
the chain of a hadeeth in his normal tutorly demeanour: Sufyaan from Abu-z Zubair from Ibraaheem, an un-
expected interruption came up.
Hazrat! Abu-z Zubair never narrated from Ibraaheem.
Silence! was the awe-striking, disciplinary rebuke from Daakhilee.

But Muhammad bin Ismaaeel persisted politely requesting him to refer his original book in his study-
room. Now, Daakhilee knew that he was not dealing with a common disturbance-creator but with someone spe-
cial. He referred his original textbook and returned from his study-room to the classroom.
Ok, boy. Then who is narrating from Ibraaheem, he asked, meaning to test the childs knowledge.
Zubair bin Adee, thus spoke Muhammad Al Bukhaaree, the student.

The teacher paying due respect to his extraordinary pupil requested him his pen and corrected his hand-
held notes.

One day, Muhammad bin Salaam Baikandee, an eminent hadeeth teacher of Bukhaaraa, told Saleem bin
Mujaahid, Had you come a little before, you would have seen a teenager who has memorized 70,000 hadeeths.
Finding it hard to accept, Saleem went out in search of that adolescent genius. When somebody told him that
this is the boy whom you were searching, Saleem asked, Do you claim to have memorized 70,000 hadeeths?
Muhammad Al Bukhaaree confidently replied, In fact, a little more than that. And in addition, whichever

16
Friday 13 Shawwaal 194 AH = 23 July 870 CE
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The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010
17 18
Companions or Taabiees hadeeth I narrate, I would be able tell you his dates of birth and death as also his
place of residence!

After learning all the hadeeths that he could find in his city, he according to the custom of the hadeeth-
scholars of those days travelled to other centres of Islaamic knowledge to quench his thirst for learning. In 210
AH, he accompanied his mother and brother, Ahmad bin Ismaaeel, to the holy city of Makkah for Haj. While
the mother and brother returned after Haj, this 16-year old child continued his stay there learning from the great
teachers of Makkah what he could not in his home-city of Bukhaaraa. After learning from the world-renowned
hadeeth-scholars of Makkah like Abdullaah bin Yazeed, Abdullaah bin Zubair Al Humaidee, etc., he traveled
to Madeenah and then to other Islaamic centres of knowledge. He visited Egypt and Syria twice, Basrah four
times, and Baghdaad he visited as many as eight times.

Haashid bin Ismaaeel, a classmate of Imaam Bukhaaree at Basrah narrates that Bukhaaree would go to
the hadeeth-teachers of Basra along with us. While we used to note down the hadeeths in the class, he would
not. Even our well-meant advices to write down wont change his habit. When sixteen days had passed, some of
us rebuked him: Why are you wasting your time? Why dont you write? Now Bukhaaree opened up. Ok!
Enough! You have said what you wanted. You just bring your notes here.

To our unbelieving ears, this idle-looking student was now narrating from memory all the 15,000 ha-
deeths that we had taken so great pains to write down during the last 16 days! In such a confident and masterly
style he narrated that we started correcting our notes from his narrations, while he continued without faltering.
Thus he had memorized all these hadeeths at a rate of 937.50 hadeeths per day!

In a similar story, Muhammad bin Azhar Sajistaanee narrates that I was sitting in the classroom of the
hadeeth scholar, Sulaimaan bin Harb of Basrah along with Bukhaaree. We all used to take the notes while Buk-
haaree would only listen giving no trouble to his hands. Somebody asked, Whats the problem with this guy?
Hes not writing!? A student who knew Bukhaaree replied, Leave him alone. He would write all of this at his
home in Bukhaaraa from memory.

But life was a not a stage of flowers for this genius and prodigy. Once he went to the hadeeth-teacher
Aadam bin Abee Iyaas of Marv. The money he had, got spent up. He was forced to eat grass, yet his honour-
consciousness did not let him spread his hands for begging. Three days later, a stranger gave him a bagful of
gold coins and went away! What days they were when the poor were so respectful of their self-esteem and the
rich so self-effacing that nobody knows to this day who the noble donor was!

Once while at Basrah, his classmates found him missing in the classes for several days at a stretch. They
were curious how such an extraordinarily sincere student could miss so many classes. They went to his house
and made the shocking discovery that he neither had any proper garment to dress nor any money to get food! He
had to even sell his garments for his needs. The friends then helped him out.

His constants travels for knowledge in hot days under the scorching sun cost him his eyesight a second
time. At that time he was in Khuraasaan. A local physician prescribed him to shave his head and then apply the
marshmallow flower gel over his head. By Allaahs grace, his vision soon became well. In fact, his eyesight be-
came so powerful that later he was able to write the manuscript of his book At Taareekh-ul Kabeer in moonlit
nights!

17
Companion: Sahaabee, a person who saw or met the holy Prophet as a Muslim and remained a Mulim till his death.
18
Taabiee: A Muslim who had the honour of seeing or meeting a holy Companion.
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The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010
The teenaged author
The great heights of success he was to achieve in his life began to show the portents in his teenage itself.
He was only 18 when he compiled his first book Qazaaya-s Sahaabah wa-t Taabieen (Verdicts of the Compa-
nions and Taabiees) comprising the scholarly statements of the pioneers of Islaamic science. Unfortunately, the
book is not available now. At that young age only, he wrote his world-famous book At-Taareekh-ul Kabeer.
This book was written in the enlightened environs of the holy city of Madeenah at the sacred site between the
holy Prophets chamber and the pulpit of the Prophets Mosque. How vast knowledge he pos-
sessed even at this age, is borne out from his statement that I remember one or more stories about each and
every person I have mentioned in this book but I did not include them for fear of the book becoming too volu-
minous. When Is-haaq bin Raahawaih, a world-renowned hadeeth scholar of the day and Imaam Bukhaarees
teacher, saw the book, he took it to the local governor Abdullaah bin Taahir Khuraasaanee and said, Honoura-
ble governor! Should I show you a magic? What else could describe such an informative and comprehensive
book written by a young man of 18!?

This sincere seeker of knowledge had one more notable aspect. While it was common for the earnest
students of the day to accept the hadeeths of only pious and reliable teachers, Imaam Bukhaaree was a step
ahead here too. His caution in this regard can be imagined from the fact that he abandoned 10,000 hadeeths he
had learnt from a teacher just because he suspected him not to conform to the high standards of hadeeth narra-
tion. In the case of another hadeeth teacher, when he went to him for learning, he found him calling his horse
luring him with an empty basket. Seeing this, Imaam Bukhaaree returned. How could a man who he found
cheating an animal be completely reliable in hadeeth? So he did not learn from him.

With his Allaah-gifted memory and resolute hard work in hadeeth-learning he was able to learn one
hundred thousand authentic and two hundred thousand non-authentic hadeeths from over a thousand teachers.
Finally, when his student-life was over, this repository of the knowledge of hadeeth donned the mantle of ha-
deeth teacher. And like proverbial moths to a flame, the students of the entire region thronged his classes whe-
rever he went. His feats and crowning moments of his later life would remain a source of inspiration for all
seekers of knowledge till the Last Day. But that our readers would be able to read only in the next edition of this
journal in the article Imaam Bukhaaree: the commander of Believers in hadeeth!

(Sources: Mataa e waqt aur kaarvaan e ilm by Ibn-ul Hasan Abbaasee, Dars-ul Bukhaaree by Ml Muhammad Ishaaq)

(Continued from page 2)

Imaam Bukhaaree, the great memorizer and analyzer of hadeeth, the great worshipper of Allaah and the
noble servant of the deen of Allaah who shines with a strikingly brilliant light in the sky of the great Believ-
ing scholars and teachers has an article devoted to him. It attempts to present a brief sketch of the journey of his
life focusing on his struggles and forbearance in the face of hardships and the ultimate loftiness he attained. His
book Saheeh Bukhaarees popularity which surpassed all expectations is attributable to his sincerity towards
Allaah, devotion towards his Creator and dedication for the service of His deen through this book, as it is to his
Allaah-bestowed talent. It has been rightly called the most correct book on earth after Allaahs Book.
We turn to Allaah to benefit us and our brethren and sisters, the children of Adam , from this
collection of articles. From Him we expect our reward and upon Him we place our trust! May Allaah, the Com-
passionate, grant this humble effort with His acceptance, for therein lies our success and ultimate goal.
(Editor)

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The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010

And the long wait ended I

By Maulaanaa Manaazir Ahsan Geelaanee

As for coming, all (religious leaders) came and among all people and in all places they came. May Al-
laahs peace be upon them all, for they came in very adverse circumstances. Yet the fact remains that they all
came only to fade away with their teachings. But there was one and only one who came to remain and per-
sist: the same one who never set down after rising. In fact, he went on and goes on shining with more and more
brightness, rising with more and more glory, and ascending to higher and higher peaks.

All the men of knowledge know, and its but natural that they should know, that in the select group of
the holy men who were conferred with prophethood and entrusted with the divine Books, only he enjoys the
distinction that his day has no night and the light of his lamp knows no blot. After all, who else could get this
position other than the one who remains as strong a light in the later generations as in the earlier generations,
whom the distant ones are finding as accessible as the near ones and will continue to find him so, and who is as
recognizable today and so will he be tomorrow as he was yesterday.

Hinduism and Buddhism: Are they authentic?

The people who lost even the names of their guides, could they ever be expected to preserve the works
of their guides? In our region, the Vedas are presented as the works of the God-incarnates. But O careless ones!
When you could not even carry the load of their authors names, how can you show it up to us as the body of
their words and works? The dark and deep valleys which the investigative hands of archaeology have dug be-
tween the ancient teachers of India and their followers continue to widen. To whom the works were revealed?
And where? And in which language? In prose or in verse? At once or in centuries or in ages? When you your-
self know that there is a pitch-black darkness spreading over these fundamental questions and these are the
questions upon which rests the being or non-being of any authentic work , then say how the steps of faith and
certainty be put forward in these swamps of doubts19.

They are invisible to you and so are you to them. Then through which way will you view them, observ-
ing whose footsteps you wish to march ahead? And how are they to show themselves to you even if they want
to guide you?

You might blame Buddha20 and his followers of breaking you from your guides and leaders. Though the
truth is that Bhaaratvarsha (India) and its children had snapped their ties with these leaders much before Bud-
dha, yet even if this is attributed to Buddha, in the eagerness to transfer the blame on others, the question that
begs answering is that did the Buddhists themselves remain safe from snapping of ties from their source. Is it
that in revenge, the Aryans too made the Buddhists like themselves, unconnected to their leader Buddha and his
teachings? If today the world is unable to find a trace of the real fountainheads of the Vedic faith, then, in a
similar vein, isnt it also true that none can point out the authentic scripts and original words of the great leader
and teacher, Buddha? If the Vedic faith is based on the fictions of Valmiki and the imaginative legends of Ma-
habharata, then does the collections of myths and folktales which is called the Buddhist faith has any greater
value in the eyes of an unbiased researcher? Which historian today has the oil that a lamp glowing in its light
would show the saint of Kapilavastu21 in the same glory as he really was?22

19
Encyclopedia Britannica under the headings Sanskrit and Veda.
20
The American Heritage Dictionary says: Buddha Originally Siddhartha Gautama. 563-483 B.C.. Indian mystic and founder of
Buddhism. He began preaching after achieving supreme enlightenment at the age of 35. (Editor)
21
Kapilavastu was a city in the foothills of the Himalayas where Buddha was born (and spent the first 29 years of his life Editor). It
was also the capital of his fathers kingdom. The holy Quraan mentions the name of Zu-l Kifl among the great prophets of Allaah.
8
The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010
Zoroastrianism: based on truth or fiction?
The destruction of the Indian branch of the Aryan faith might be imputed to the Buddhists or the Jains,
but who kindled the fire in Iran which reduced to ashes Zoroaster23 and all his exploits. Today when doubts are
being cast on the very existence of Zoroaster and a majority of historians appear determined to prove him a fic-
titious character24, then say truthfully who can bear witness to the authenticity of his teachings. What was
Gaathaa? From where was it sourced? In which language was it? Is there any Moobid 25 who can satisfy the
questioners if not from the evidences of others, at least from their own home-grown sources? Of course, the
names of the translations and commentaries of Gaathaa, Avesta and Zend-Avesta26 still remain. But out of its 21
chapters, other than the one upon which is based the present day Zoroastrianism and its religious rites is
there any still present, at least among themselves?

It is beyond comprehension why people are wandering in the search of those who and which went away
because they had come only to go away, and not to remain forever. O mourners over the dead! O lamentors over
the graves! Know well that whoever comes to go away can never return after departing. Then how long will you
wail for them?

This is the condition of those who have nothing with them other than customs and rites of their forefa-
thers. For every coming generation, the words of the predecessors become a matter of faith for them. They con-
sider the words of only those as their religion who arrived before them. Whatever castles in the air the 18th cen-
tury people made, they become the religious sanctuaries for the 19th century men. The ancestors soups of
imagination become the spiritual diet for them. In fact, the net of superstitions weaved in the year 10 becomes
the ark of deliverance in the year 20. Thats the way of the people who do not possess even a straw other than
the names of their forefathers.

Jews: How they lost their book?

Let us now see the people who make the highest claim in the field of faith and religion calling them-
selves the People of the Scriptures. But can the bundle of books which they carry over their backs and move
around in the nooks and corners of the world take them to Moses? Can they get to the life of Moses upon which
they want to base their life? Let us see in detail.

The Jews had spent centuries in the slavery of Egyptians and were now wandering desert-dwellers (after
Moses lead them out of the tyrannic Egypt). At this time, their prophet Moses gave them the holy tablets con-
taining divine commandments and passed away. It is well-known that there were 12 tribes of Prophet Jacobs
children present at the time. These 12 tribes were entrusted by Moses to preserve his life and works for the fu-
ture generations. But as times went by, not one or two but whole tribes out of the 12 went missing. When the
king of Nineveh, Shalmaneser and his son Sergon expelled the ten tribes out of Samaria town, many were

Commentators opine that the sayings of the early people regarding who Zu-l Kifl was, vary widely and none is correct. (Rooh-ul
Maaanee 17/67) In such a case, considering Kifl to be the Arabised form of Kapil, if it is claimed that Zu-l Kifl means the man of
Kapil as is the view of some, there can be no reason for rejecting it on the basis of narrations. Such a revolutionary existence as was
of Buddha in the world of religions, finding a mention in the holy Quraan should not surprise anybody. In particular, the special asso-
ciation that he had with Islaam makes this view stronger.
22
See the topic Buddhism and Jainism in the book Hindustaanee tahzeeb azmina-e wustaa mein published by Hindustaanee Acad-
emy, Allahabad.
23
The Oxford Talking Dictionary says: Zoroaster (Avestan name Zarathustra) (c.628-c.551 BC), Persian prophet and founder of Zo-
roastrianism. Little is known of his life, but according to tradition he was born in Persia, and began to preach the tenets of what was
later called Zoroastrianism after receiving a vision from Ahura Mazda. (Editor)
24
See Fajr ul Islaam by Taahaa Husain Misree.
25
Moobid: In Urdu, a Zoroastrian priest (Editor)
26
The Chambers dictionary says: Zend-Avesta (properly meaning the Avesta with the commentary on it), the ancient sacred writings
of the Parsees, including works of widely differing character and age, collected into their present canon under Shah-puhar of Shah-pur
II (AD 309-338).(Editor)
9
The Ray of Hope Rajab 1431 Jun-Jul 2010
killed, slaughtered and burnt. Sergon chained hundreds of thousands of men, women, children and the elderly
with shackles, then like animals transported them to the distant mountains of north-eastern Asia and left them
there to fend for themselves. Now, doesnt the world know that these lost sheep of the children of Israel (Jews)
never again remembered Moses and his book, even by mistake, in any part of the world?

The Israelite tribes of Shamron might still be present among those very people who inhabit the north-
eastern parts of Asia. But can the Brahmins ever proudly claim to be Israelites? Or will the honour-conscious
valiant men of Afghanistan ever tolerate the slander of being a wily Israeli? Can anybody make the Sindhis and
Balochs believe that they are the descendants of these Jews of Samaria? Or will the usurers of Marwar ever ac-
cept that their grandfathers came from Palestine 27?

The tribes lost Moses and Moses lost them and this only was predestined for them. After all, what else
did this pitiable caravan of these helpless Israelites possess other than their starving bodies which housed their
spirits, or other than the iron shackles and jute ropes which fastened them when they were being expelled out of
their homes? Thus the major part of the Israeli community which had been entrusted with the preservation of
the teachings and life-stories of Moses got lost to other communities.

Now the safeguarding of the religious scriptures lay solely on the remnants of the other two tribes of Is-
rael who inhabited south Palestine. Though they had strayed away from Moses and his law in their lives and
actions, but at least for namesake they had some closeness to Moses.

(To be continues in the next issue)

(The writer retired as the Head of Theology department, Osmania University in 1949. He left for his heavenly
abode on 24 Shawwaal 1375 (=5 Jun 1956). His important books include Tadween e Hadeeth, Hazrat Aboo
Zarr Ghifaaree, Sawaanih Hazrat Maulaanaa Naanotvee, etc.)

From the Ray of Hope bureau to the READERS:

1.This monthly journal will be posted at www.scribd.com/musarhad on the first of every lunar
month, in shaa Allaah.
2.While the sub-editors and the contributors are students of MJCET, Hyderabad, the editor is Sec-
retary of Darul Uloom Sabeelus Salam, Hyderabad. He is the founder and first chief editor of this
journal (February 2002).
3.The Ray of Hope requests its esteemed readers to enrich the journal with their valuable opinions
and sincere criticisms.
4.Readers may ask any kinds of questions related to Islaam by emailing them to
sshislam@yahoo.com. We will try to answer them in our next issues.

27
Where did the ten tribes of the children of Israel get lost? Historian differ in their opinion regarding the issue. Their general inclina-
tion is that they could be the inhabitants of Afghanistan and the Frontier Province who later embraced Buddhism and finally got the
enlightenment of Islaam. The names like Khyber pass, Solomon mountains, etc also lend support to this guess. Moreover, their facial
features, physical build and general behavior and disposition also lend credence to this. A historian had also found a part of the Torah
among some Fronter tribes. Some among them call themselves Israelis. The words of Pashto language also favour this view. Some
also feel that the remains of Samarian culture found in Sindh belong to these very Samarian Israelis. Some would like to call the Mar-
wari usurers of Rajputana and the Brahmins of India as Israelis. Allaah knows best!
10