Israr Ahmed's gems

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/01-Apr-2003/second-opinion-setting-the-record-straight-on-iraq
"ARY" (22 March 2003) hosted a discussion on the Iraq war with journalist Irfan Siddiqi, Brigadier (Retd) A. R. Siddiqi, Captain (Retd) Haleem Siddiqi and Dr Israr Ahmad. Brigadier Siddiqi thought that Pakistan could be hurt by an oil squeeze if the war got prolonged and if there was disorder in Pakistan leading to some kind of change of regime. Haleem Siddiqi thought that Saddam should weather the storm because the Americans had not succeeded in proving any of the charges they had levelled against him. Dr Israr Ahmad said that the decline of the Islamic world was not accidental but had been willed by Allah as He had willed the suffering of the Jews because of their deviation from the pledge of righteousness. He said there was not a single exemplary (misali) state in the Islamic world. He said the need was to create an exemplary Islamic order in one state after which victory could be achieved following initial defeat. He said Pakistan qualified as the said exemplary state because more great Islamic leaders had been born in what was India. He said although Imam Mehdi would be an Arab his armies would come from the east, meaning Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said Imam Mehdi and his armies would reconquer Jerusalem.
Dr Israr Ahmad is a mixture of Stalin ("socialism in one country") and Imam Mehdi. He has been putting forward his vision of the Mehdi falling upon the infidel with his Afghan armies. He did that after visiting the Taliban in Afghanistan, calling the Taliban the army of Imam Mehdi. Sadly, the poor Taliban got a horrible drubbing at the hands of the Americans and Pakistan was forced to help in doing that. Dr Israr is compelled to locate his Imam Mehdi in Arabia because of the traditions, otherwise he would have planted him in Pakistan (perhaps himself?), which would have reduced Pakistan to a wasteland rather than the modern economy it is struggling to become."

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/18-Aug-2006/second-opinion-our-out-of-joint-thinking-khaled-ahmed-s-review-of-the-urdu-press
"Quoted in Nawa-e-Waqt (June 5, 2006) Dr Israr Ahmad said from Lahore that it was a conspiracy to change textbooks in Pakistan and a prescribed book (in some private institutions) and called Pakistani Kahaniyan should be immediately banned. To set things right Arabic should be declared the official language of Pakistan. According to him Jinnah was wrong in proposing Urdu as the national language. School-chain-owner Adeeb Javidani said that the government had assaulted two sectors, South Waziristan and Islamic textbooks. Qazi Hussain Ahmad said that America was forcing all Islamic matter out of the textbooks in Pakistan."

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/04-Oct-2005/second-opinion-why-doesn-t-dr-israr-ever-smile-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
"GEO (August 23, 2005) Iftikhar Ahmad in Jawabdeh, interviewed Dr Israr Ahmad who said that the political system in Pakistan was pagan (kafirana) because the recommendations of the Council for Islamic Ideology (CII) were never carried out. Those who lived in Pakistan were gunahgar (sinning) and were only 'legal' Muslims. They were faasiq and faajir and fundamentally hypocrites (munafiqin).
His faith was in the advent of Imam Mehdi who had already been born in 1962. He denied that he had ever said that the Taliban would be Imam Mehdi's army. He said after his revolution there would be khilafat through a general vote. He said no system was explained in the Quran but khilafat was the closest.
He said in an Islamic state non-Muslims would be second-class citizens. He said if India decided after that to declare all Muslims second-class citizens then that would be right too. He said Muslims had fought in India on the claim that they were a different nation. There was no harm if India considered its Muslims a separate nation.
If according to Dr Israr, Imam Mehdi was born in 1962, he is growing old by the day now. It is time Dr Israr called him into the open to save the endangered species called Muslims. Dr Israr is also moving perilously close to adopting the jahiliyya theory that resulted in thousands of innocent Muslims being massacred in Algeria by Islamic revolutionaries on the basis of a Qutbite reinterpretation of Maududi's thought."

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/27-Jul-2004/second-opinion-are-the-masses-impressed-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
"ARY (5 June 2004) Dr Shahid Mehmood carried on with his grand narrative of Imam Mehdi and Dajjal tried to prove that the indications of the End of the World were already there in the form of one superpower in the world. Dajjal had just one eye, so the sole superpower was like one eye and that it would bring the world to an end. The thinking ability of human beings was at an end. TV was being seen all over the world. Women were seeking their rights and had left their household chores. Needs of life and consumerism was at a peak. Credit cards were a mark of the end of the world. A very old Shia scholar added to the indications of the end further. Dr Israr who was pressed into service kept saying the hadith could not be confirmed and tallied but he kept saying Muslims had become mohtaj (dependent) and slaves of the West. He said the end was near and Imam Mehdi was about to appear. Dr Masood quoted at length from the Christian tradition of the Antichrist.
The above programme brings the coming of the Imam up to our times. Indeed very soon, he will appear and rescue us from the Americans. But just for the heck of it, let us see the apocalyptic prophecies of this sort in the Christian mythology, this time Russian/Tsarist. "In the year 1757 there will be fighting in the lands of Europe, in the year 1758 [there will be] annihilation, in the year 1759 the African lands will perish, in the year 1760 the heretics will return [to God] and repent, and in the year 1762 the city of Constantinople and the king Uthman will be taken, and in the year 1765 signs will happen in the heavens above (fi al-sama' fawq) and portents on the earth below, and a cowardly man will arise, [in the] year 1766 the sea will be disturbed above its natural [disturbance], and from the strength of the disturbance, the earth will be disturbed with great fear from the earthquake, [in the] year 1767 commanders will arise, iniquitous rulers, and there will be a terrible, frightening occurrence between them, man to man like with wild animals, [in the] year 1768 it will rain blood, [in the] year 1769 the sun and the moon will be darkened and other terrifying things will happen, [in the] year 1770 the rest of the inhabited world will perish, and the two miraculous men will come, [in the] year 1783 the Second Appearance of Christ, and the destruction of the whole world, since the superior official did not wish to define other than these things. These self-same matters and others like them I have written about to you and sent them in haste to the city of St. Petersburg, in order to inform the most modest queen, but I believe that with this I have fulfilled my duty, incumbent upon the merciful, her highest majesty, and for that purpose, the greatest encouragement of deep service to her great mercifulness, [signed] the servant, the God-fearing, the wretched governor of Astrakhan, Kurlas". *"

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/06-Jul-2004/second-opinion-dr-masood-s-end-of-the-world-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
ARY 22 May 2004 had Dr Shahid Masood continuing his account of Imam Mehdi and the appearance of Dajjal in his programme 'End of Time'. The first sign would be the appearance of the mountain of gold in River Euphrates. He said that in 1975 a mountain of gold did appear symbolically in the river when Turkey built a high dam on it. Another sign would be the travelling of a comet in the sky which he said was calculated to arrive in 2061. After that Imam Mehdi would arrive. Another sign would be the spilling of Muslim blood in Makka which actually happened when an uprising took place inside the Kaaba precincts in 1980 and thousands of Arab Muslims were killed by the Saudi government. After seven years the hadith was fulfilled when the Saudi government killed another 402 pilgrims in Makka. He said hadith was continuous (mutawatar) in the case of Imam Mehdi and therefore any Muslim denying it would be considered apostate. All the ulema were agreed on the Imam Mehdi hadith except Ibn Khaldun. All other great Muslims thought it was essential to believe in the phenomenon of Imam Mehdi. The Prophet PBUH also predicted the coming of Dajjal whose name would be Muhammad bin Abdullah with high forehead and distinctive nose like that of the Holy Prophet PBUH.
David Cook who writes expertly about Muslim apocalyptic writings says: 'In the Qur'an we read the following verse: "They ask you about the Hour: When is its determined time? Say: Only my Lord has the knowledge. No one can reveal it except He. [7:187]", and in the same vein 31:34 and 43:85. The knowledge about the exact time of the end is something to which God alone is privy; it is futile for humans to speculate as to its date. In fact, this knowledge is one of the five things that God has specifically denied the possibility of humans ever knowing, according to the Qur'an (most of them are listed in 31:34)'. It is unthinkable that Dr Masood should arrive at the year of 2061. It is good that Islam's brightest son Ibn Khaldun focused on the Quran and did not believe in apocalypse. The 1980 killing in Makka was the death of Utaiba and his followers. A disciple of Mufti Bin Baz gone wrong, Utaiba had nominated his relative as Imam Mehdi. Perhaps Allah wanted to prove something by killing the false Mehdi. The Mehdi would not have died had he been a true Mehdi.
It was the duty of the Muslim to borrow from Jewish lore if it confirmed hadith. There was the idea of armageddon in the Bible which will be the big battle between the believers and the Antichrist. President Reagan had referred to armageddon when talking about the cold war. The Islamic view was that the armageddon would take place between Islam on one side and America and Europe on the other. Hadith said that at first the Muslims would ally with the Rumis (Christians) then fight against them. And the Rumi armies would fight under 18 flags, each flag followed by 12,000 soldiers. Dr Israr said that the first alliance with Christians was the 1991 war against Iraq in which the Islamic states were in alliance with America and Europe. The second would happen when the Muslim world would get together against America and Britain after the current American invasion of Iraq. After that the world will come to an end. Before the end Imam Mehdi would arrive along with Jesus Christ and defeat the armies of Dajjal.
The question of taking leads from the Judaic scriptures has not always paid off. In early Islam the trend was widespread. Then the scholars decided not to go too far in borrowing from the Talmud, especially its misogynist lore. The Quran is almost feminist in its attitude towards women but the Talmudic tradition is extremely harsh on women. Muslims did not care if Talmud was in line with the Quran.
Hadith made clear that Imam Mehdi would rise in Madina and come to Makka where the Muslims would do 'bayat' on his hand and accept him as their leader. Some sources said that the rise of Imam Mehdi would be from the east. Imam Mehdi would have the status of 'mujaddid' (renewer) for the Sunnis as happened in the case of Shah Waliullah and Sheikh Ahmad of Sirhind, but of an Imam for the Shias. In fact he would be the 12th Imam, the son of Imam Hassan Askari, who was in occultation. The armies of Imam Mehdi would arise in the east in Khorasan. Dr Israr was of the view that Khorasan would be Afghanistan and Pakistan and also Iran. Along with Imam Mehdi, Christ too would land from the skies and say his namaz behind Imam Mehdi. After establishing an Islamic order Imam Mehdi would live for seven years after which the world would come to an end. One cleric said that the token of the end would be iron rubbing against iron and that was railroad which had already arrived. Imam Mehdi would be from the offspring of Imam Hassan and he will create an Islamic order identical to the one prevailing in the times of the Prophet PBUH.
Dr Israr Ahmad should be given credit for saying the hadith is weak when it is weak in regard to Imam Mehdi. But Dr Israr is also the true master of the lore of Imam Mehdi. He has captivated Muslim audiences by speaking expertly on the End of the World. His following has increased manifold. Now ARY's Dr Masood is doing a good job to get more viewership. One has to admit that as a broadcaster he has come a long way from where he started. The reference to railroad is rather inapt because if that was the sign, the world should have come to an end in the early 20th century. Since it did not, one should focus on the satellite instead and hope that it should do the trick. The locomotive is old hat in the lore of apocalypse.

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/03-Sep-2004/second-opinion-nek-muhammad-islamic-hero-khaled-ahmed-s-urdu-press-review
According to Khabrain (June 20, 2004) people in Iraq, Iran and other Muslim countries in the region were flocking to the mosques and other religious sanctuaries to find out if Imam Mehdi was going to appear. Shrines in Qom and Najaf were crowded more than usual as the ulema told audiences that all the indications of the coming of Imam Mehdi were available: Muslim cities will contain non-Muslim visitors and women will wear clothes like men.
Dr Israr thought that the Mehdi was about to arrive and his army was the Taliban. He was proved wrong when the Taliban were routed in 2001 by the Americans. Deobandi scholar Palanpuri thought the Mehdi army would be drawn from Pakistani and Indian Muslims, but the Muslims of India turned out to be the best-behaved Muslims in the world. Now Muqtada Al Sadr of Iraq has put together his own Mehdi Army. Is he the Mehdi? His actions don't indicate that he is the one. His army has retreated from Najaf and hardly looks like defeating the American Dajjal.

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/09-Sep-2005/second-opinion-living-in-an-islamic-bubble-khaled-ahmed-s-review-of-the-urdu-press
Speaking to Khabrain magazine (July 31, 2005), Dr Israr Ahmad said that the Arabs were the most incompetent people as a punishment of which Greater Israel will annex their land. All of Iraq will fall to Israel, so will, Jordan and Lebanon. The fertile delta of Egypt will also be taken, as will be Saudi Arabia's Hijaz, except Madina which Allah will protect. Southern Turkey, too, will be annexed. After that Imam Mehdi would appear.
Dr Israr gives everything to Israel but retains Madina because he believes Allah will protect it. Why should Israel occupy the rest of the region? Will Israel ever have the power to conquer most of the Arab states in the Middle East? Maybe there is an answer to these questions but Dr Israr will not think it necessary to answer them. Israel took the Sinai in 1967 but returned it after the Camp David Accord in 1978. (Sinai was one-third bigger than the rest of the occupied territories put together.) What does that indicate? It even let Gaza go in the sense that it removed its settlements from there. What does that indicate? The entire Jewish population in the world will not be enough for Israel to hold the territories Dr Israr says Israel will conquer. Why can't Dr Israr think in terms other than military? Why can't he mix his faith in revelation with some rationalism? After all he reads his current affairs and uses them constantly to prove his interpretation of the Quran. Why can't he let current affairs guide him to a better understanding of the Quran? But don't all of us think like that? He is merely our measure.

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/09-Apr-2004/second-opinion-have-religion-will-travel-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
Religious scholar Dr Israr Ahmad wrote in "Nawa-e-Waqt" (4 March 2004) that if Pakistan was to survive then the Shia-Sunni rift must be removed and the solution lay in what Iran had done. Iran had declared the fiqh of the dominant Muslim population as official and all Muslims who were non-Shia must submit to the legal order created by the Shia fiqh. He said Pakistan must remove two fiqhs from the statute book and declare Hanafi as the only law to which all Shias must submit. He proposed that Shias may be allowed to collect their own zakat.
This is very clever. It is even more clever to be sounding generous by letting the Shia have the zakat, although Sunni fiqh would not allow it. After that comes the real crunch. Hanafi "fiqh" will guide the content of the "kalima", the timing of the prayer and the fasting month. People like Dr Israr will then press the state to do to the Shia what the state has done to the Ahmedis. There is ignoble intent behind this thinking.

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/28-Sep-2004/second-opinion-lord-nazir-s-long-distance-view-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
ARY (August 7, 2004) Dr Masood talked to Dr Israr Ahmad. The latter said that the Christian civilisation was soon going to be destroyed by Allah. He said in the past any nation that repudiated the new Prophet was destroyed. He named many prophets whose nations were destroyed but in the case of Jews Allah gave them muhlat (concession) after they repudiated Christ. And Christians and Jews were not destroyed so far for repudiating Prophet Muhammad PBUH but soon they would be.
If he was not a religious saint basing his statements on divine revelation, Dr Israr Ahmad would have been drummed out of Pakistan as a lunatic. If the Jews were exempted then why set up a rule about nations being destroyed? And if you don't know an approximate date when Allah will destroy Jews and Christians of the world why tell us now when we are down and out because of our own folly? Dr Israr's real message is: let us not improve ourselves because Allah is going to destroy Jews and Christians in any case, but we don't know when. Congratulations to Dr Masood for reducing his otherwise clever programme to a farce. ARY's linkage with Dr Israr Ahmad is lethal.

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/13-Jan-2004/second-opinion-pampering-the-clergy-in-pakistan-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
GEO in its Alif programme on religious themes (13 December 2003) discussed the perennial Islamic crisis with Allama Mohsin Naqvi, Dr Israr Ahmad, Ahmad Javed and PPP's senator Iqbal Haider.
A question was asked about whom to follow, the imams or the local mullahs. Dr Israr said that Islam had no clergy, it was just that Muslims here did not know Arabic and therefore needed the clergy for weddings and deaths. If all learned Arabic the clergy would not be needed. He said there were no sects among the Arabs because they knew Arabic. Naqvi disagreed and said there were differences in spite of Arabic. The differences arose over interpretation, not over language. Not everyone could be allowed to arrive at his own understanding of the Quran. Ahmad Javed said he did not know Arabic yet he was teaching Islam. Dr Israr said ulema were doing politics and could not look after religious duties. He said Muslims were not united because India was killing Muslims in Pakistan and saying it was sectarianism. Naqvi did not agree and said that Indians were not the only ones killing Muslims, Muslims too were killing Muslims. Terrorism was based in Pakistan, he said.

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/12-Apr-2005/second-opinion-why-has-urdu-literature-dried-up-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
"ARY (March 28, 2005) Dr Shahid Masood discussed democracy with Dr Israr Ahmad, Dr Javid Iqbal and Prof Mehdi Hassan. Dr Israr said that democracy was not an Islamic concept unless it was practised within the boundaries set by Islamic sharia. He said, as it was practised today, all Muslims living in Pakistan were murtad (apostate) and kafir. There was usury in the economy and there was no khilafat. That made the state un-Islamic too.
Prof Mehdi Hassan said that the people alone could decide because the order would have to be reformed periodically. Dr Israr said all was foreordained and even sin was committed with the marzi (will) of Allah. Dr Javid Iqbal raised the issue of Adam's disobedience and punishment in Paradise and said if God had willed this disobedience then punishment was not justified. It proved therefore that Adam exercised his own will and not God's. Dr Israr said that taqleed was not only obedience to Quran and Hadith but also to the way of the Companions and to the fiqh depending which one of the four major ones one believed in."

http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/10-May-2005/second-opinion-beware-the-ex-cricketer-s-bluster-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
"ARY (April 12, 2005) host Dr Shahid Masood discussed jihad with Dr Israr Ahmad, Justice (retd) Javid Iqbal and Prof Mehdi Hasan. Dr Israr held forth on nine types of jihad in Islam and said the 9th type was jihad as qitaal (killing). He said shahadat was attained only in jihad made against an infidel while defending. He said the Kashmir jihad was not jihad because it was not waged by the state. He said jihad needed permission of the jihadi state. He said Pakistan, more than Kashmir, needed jihad against the Qadianis and the Bahais."


http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/05-Jul-2005/second-opinion-fallout-of-dubious-causes-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
"QTV (May 19, 2005) which is a round-the-clock channel of Islamic preaching showed the daily Quranic reading of Dr Israr Ahmad. He was reading the sura where Allah describes the poets as being apart from the Prophet (peace be upon him) — flawed purveyors of human poetic creation as against the verbal excellence of Revelation.
Dr Israr said that poets were not good for society. He said Dr Muhammad Iqbal was good but there were aspects which were not good. He said no one who sat next to Iqbal became a man of note later on. He said Iqbal himself confessed in a poem that he was a ghazi of words but not of deeds, which he said was a proof of Iqbal's inadequacy.
After that Dr Israr had to tackle the poets who wrote great na'at poems in praise of the Prophet (PBUH). He said poet Hassaan bin Thabit was an exception to the rule that poets were no good. The Prophet (PBUH) asked Hassaan to guard the harem of women during a war. Lady Safiya asked him to kill a Jew advancing on them, but he was not brave enough. She killed the Jew herself then asked Hassaan to take off his weapons, but the poet was not interested in weapons. The poet was cowardly and lazy. But he was a sahabi therefore deserving of reverence."


http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/11-Oct-2005/second-opinion-politically-wrong-anger-of-the-uk-pakistanis-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review
"GEO (August 30, 2005) Iftikhar Ahmad in his Jawabdeh did his second stint of interview with Dr Israr Ahmad who said that his revolution would be bloody and that he was ready to die for it (takht ya takhta). He said he would decide when to spill blood when the time came for it, but for now his revolution was slowly moving forward. His state would not allow just any party to take part in elections; he would examine the manifesto of each party before allowing it. He said Shia would be treated the same way as Sunnis were treated in Iran.
He said he had arranged the wedding of his son during Ashura because he was not aware that it would offend the Shia community. He said the state could not have friendly relations with Jews and Christians but it could have such relations with Hindus. He said jihad was not only making the effort but also qital (bloodshed) as that was promised by the Prophet (PBUH) until Imam Mehdi arrived and put the kafirs to the sword. He said suicide bombing was okay but not in the present circumstances."

https://web.archive.org/web/20120204042247/http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/?page=story_18-3-2005_pg3_3
http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/18-Mar-2005/second-opinion-hajj-primal-therefore-satisfying
"Writing in daily Insaf (January 20, 2005) Abdullah Muntazir stated that during his long visit in India, Dr Israr Ahmad of Tanzim-e-Islami had said that the Muslims of India were doing much better than the Muslims of Pakistan and that even the IG Police of Andhra Pradesh was a Muslim. Dr Israr said that in Pakistan the maximum number of people at his lecture were 1,500 but in India they were 15,000, including 5,000 ladies. He then compared himself to the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) and said that he was not valued in Mecca but was greatly prized in Madina where he migrated. (The writer asked him to migrate to India.) Dr Israr also said that the jihad in Kashmir was not fi-sabeel Allah (in the way of Allah) as allowed by the Quran because such a jihad had to be ordained by an Islamic state. He thought only the war of the Taliban against the Muslim Northern Alliance was jihad. Dr Israr's negation of Kashmir jihad must have offended the families of 10,000 Pakistanis martyred in Held Kashmir.

Dr Israr has done other egotistical things in the past. In 1987 he wrote a book and compared himself to the Quaid-e-Azam and decided that he was a better Muslim than the Quaid. He also said that Pakistan was 40 and had now become mature. After that Pakistan mostly did immature things. But a cleric is forgiven, even having an ego like the Pharaoh's."