The Calcutta Quran Petition

358 Pages·1999·1.504 MB·English

by  Sita Ram Goel

T C
HE ALCUTTA

Q P
URAN ETITION

Compiled with an Introduction by
Sita Ram Goel

VOICE OF INDIA
New Delhi
CONTENTS
Preface to Third Edition
Preface to Second Edition
SECTION I: INTRODUCTION
1. A Government in Panic
2. The Judgment misses the Main Point
3. Entire Quran is a Manual on Jihad
4. The Prophet sets the Pattern
5. The Orthodox Exposition of Jihad
6. Jihad in India’s History
7. Doctrine of the Islamic State
8. Muslim Ummah is a Military Machine
9. The Petition has served a Great Purpose
10. A Close Look at Allah of the Quran
SECTION II: THE PETITION AND THE JUDGEMENT
1. Himangshu Kishor’s Letter
2. Himangshu Kishor’s Reminder
3. Notice from Chandmal Chopra
4. The Writ Application
5. Affidavit in Opposition
6. The Judgment
7. The Review Application
8. Review Application Dismissed
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
The first two editions of this book were published in
quick succession - July 1986 and July 1987 - because it was
received with great interest and appreciation by the Hindu
intelligentsia at large, in this country and abroad. But the
present (third) edition has been delayed inordinately in
spite of persistent demand after the second edition went out
of print in 1988. A reprint of the second edition was not
brought out because I wanted to include in a new edition
the copious materials which I had collected in the
meanwhile from orthodox collections of Hadis and which I
thought worth presenting to the readers. But that was not to
be.
I had finished reading the six authentic Hadis collections
–Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmizi, Ibn Majah, Ibn Daud, Nasai–
which an orthodox Muslim organization had published in
several volumes each, with Arabic text and Urdu
translation. I had marked in the margins of several
thousand pages the relevant references pertaining to the
five pillars of Islam, the character of the Muslim Ummah,
and the doctrine of Jihad. I had noted many stories which
provide the context in which particular Surahs and Ayats of
the Quran were “revealed”; they made it more than clear as
to how Allah of the Quran had functioned as a mouthpiece
of the Prophet and even some of his companions. But as I
started sorting out the references and putting them together
under particular themes, I suffered a prolonged spell of
illness which persists even as I write these lines. So I wait
and hope that I will be able to resume the work at some
future date.
Some of the material included in the present edition had
gone into the computer in the winter of 1990-91. But a lot of
new material has been added during 1999. As this edition
stands now, I think the reader will find it better arranged
and more informative.
The book is still divided into two sections. The second
section stands as it did in the earlier editions except that it
has been renamed as ‘The Petition and the Judgment’ instead
of ‘Court Documents’. The first section, however, has not
only been renamed as ‘Introduction’ instead of ‘Preface’, but
also carries new insertions, reflections and formulations
which have added as many as 50 more pages to it. Many
new footnotes have been added, and several new
publications cited as the Bibliography at the end goes to
show.
The Second Preface to the second edition has been
retained intact except that now it stands renamed as, ‘Preface
to Second Edition’. But sections of the First Preface to the
second edition have been rearranged as chapters, most of
which have been revised, enlarged and renamed. Chapter 4
‘The Prophet sets the Pattern’ is entirely new. It is a summary
of the first orthodox biography of the Prophet, and provides
a background to the chapters that follow. Chapter 5 ‘The
Orthodox Exposition of Jihad’ has been enlarged with
extensive passages from Tuhfat-ul-Mujahideen, a sixteen
century (CE) treatise on Jihad composed at Bijapur and
carrying many citations from orthodox collections of Hadis.
In a way, this part of the chapter fulfils to a certain extent
my plan to present Hadis materials vis-à-vis Jihad. Chapter
6 ‘Jihad in India’s History’ now includes Jihads waged by
Sher Shah Sur, Akbar the Great Mughal, and Ahmad Shah
Abdali. Many myths have been floated about the
‘secularism’ of Sher Shah and Akbar by Muslim and
Stalinist “historians” in recent times. Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru, the architect of India’s ‘secularism’, has gone to the
extent of hailing Akbar as “the father of Indian nationalism”
who “deliberately placed the ideal of a common Indian
nationhood above the claims of separatist religion”.1 I hope
the readers will draw their own conclusions.
II
This book is going to the press while the Jihad in Kargil
is raging, and the end is not yet in sight. The Hindu
intelligentsia in India in general and the present-day Hindu
leadership in particular, has yet to show any sign that they
have learnt any lesson from what is essentially a renewed
contest between Islamic imperialism and Indian
nationalism. On the other hand, a realization seems to be
dawning in the West, particularly the USA, that Pakistan
has become the foremost citadel of what they (the West)
prefer to describe as Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism.
I wish to point out that Pakistan has not invented the Islam
it is practising; it has always been there in India (which is
now known as Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asia, but
which is the same as the Bharatvarsh of hoary history) since
the eighth century CE. Let it be realized by everybody
concerned that India has always been and remains the
citadel of the most bigoted and bloodthirsty zealotry of
Islam. The historical reasons for why it is so are many. I do
not have the time to detail them here. The main reason may
be told. Islam in India has been what it has been because
India has continued to stare at Islam as its greatest failure.
Islam in India has never been able to relax, as it could do in
countries which it converted completely. And it will not
relax till Hindus learn to knock out its ideological fangs
which are rooted in the Quran.
New Delhi
Sita Ram Goel
10 July 1999

Footnotes:
1. Glimpses of World History, Fourth Impression, OUP, 1982, p.
306. I have examined the ‘myth of Akbar’ in ‘The Story of Islamic
Imperialism in India’, Second Revised Edition, Voice of India, New
Delhi, 1994, pp. 99-103.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

Soon after the first edition of this book was published in July
1986, a significant judgment on some Ayats of the Quran was
pronounced by Z. S. Lohat, metropolitan magistrate of Delhi.
As most of these Ayats and others of a similar sort figure in the
Calcutta Quran Petition of Chandmal Chopra, we thought it
relevant to reproduce the impugned poster in which the Ayats
were cited. Operative portion of the judgment is also being
reproduced in order to give a glimpse of the arguments for and
against.
The poster had been published on behalf of the Hindu
Raksha Dal, Delhi by its President, Indra Sain Sharma, and
Secretary, Rajkumar Arya. Both of them had been arrested
under Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code. These
are the same sections as were invoked by Chandmal Chopra in
his petition for prohibiting publication of the Quran.
The publishers of the poster had cited 24 Ayats of the Quran
under the caption, ‘Why riots take place in the country’. They had
added the comment that “these Ayats command the believers
(Musalmans) to fight against followers of other faiths” and that
“so long as these Ayats are not removed [from the Quran], riots
in the country cannot be prevented”.
The case acquired considerable weight when it came before
the court because Indra Sain Sharma happened to be Vice-
President of the All India Hindu Mahasabha at that time. The
prosecution seemed to be convinced that it had caught a big
fish. But the magistrate thought otherwise. He found that the
prosecution had failed to provide sufficient grounds such as
could enable him to frame charges. He discharged both the
accused with the observation that “With due regard to the holy
book of ‘Quran Majeed’, a close perusal of the ‘Aytes’ shows that the
same are harmful and teach hatred, and are likely to create differences
between Mohammedans on one hand and the remaining communities
on the other”.
The poster was printed in Hindi. The Ayats it cited were
taken verbatim from an authentic edition of the Quran
published by an orthodox Muslim organization, Maktaba al-
Hasnat of Rampur, Uttar Pradesh. The edition provides the
Arabic text of the Quran together with Hindi and English
translations in parallel columns. We are reproducing the
English translation of the Ayats.

II
THE POSTER
“Some Ayats of the Quran Majid command the believers
(Musalmans) to fight against followers of other faiths:
1. Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters
wherever ye find them, and take them (captive) and besiege them
and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish
worship and pay the poor due, then leave their way. Lo! Allah is
Forgiving, Merciful. (Surah 9, Ayats 5)
2. ye who believe! The idolaters only are unclean... (9.28)
3. In truth the disbelievers are an open enemy to you. (4.101)
4. ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to
you and let them find harshness in you... (9.123)
5. Lo! Those who disbelieve our revelations, We shall expose
them to the Fire. As often as their skins are consumed We shall
exchange them for fresh skins that they may taste the torment. Lo!
Allah is ever Mighty, Wise. (4.56)
6. ye who believe! Choose not your father nor your brethren for
friends if they take pleasure in disbelief rather than faith. Whoso of
you taketh them for friends such are wrongdoers. (9.23)
7. Allah guideth not the disbelieving folk. (9.37)
8. ye who believe! Choose not for friends People of the Book and
of the disbelievers. But keep your duty to Allah if ye are true
believers. (5.57)
9. Accursed, they will be seized wherever found and slain with
a (fierce) slaughter. (3 3.61)
10. Lo! Ye (idolaters) and that which ye worship beside Allah
are fuel of hell. Thereunto ye will come. (21.98)
11. And who doth greater wrong than he who is reminded of
the revelations of his Lord, then turneth from them. Lo! We shall
requite the guilty. (32.22)
12. Allah promiseth you much booty that ye will capture.
(48.20)
13. Now enjoy what ye have won as lawful and good. (8.69)
14. Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites,
and be stem with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless
journey’s end. (66.9)
15. But verily, We shall cause those who disbelieve to taste an
awful doom and verily We shall requite them the worst of what
they used to do. (41.27)
16. That is the reward of Allah’s enemies: the Fire. Therein is
their immortal home, payment for as much as they denied Our
revelations. (41.28)
17. Lo! Allah bath bought from the believers their lives and
their wealth because the Garden will be theirs. They shall fight in
the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain... (9.111)
18. Allah promiseth hypocrites, both men and women, and the
disbelievers fire of hell for their abode. It will suffice them. Allah
curseth them and theirs is lasting torment. (9.58)
19. Prophet! Exhort the believers to fight. If there be of you
twenty steadfast they shall overcome two hundred, and if there be
of you a hundred steadfast they shall overcome a thousand of those
who disbelieve because they (the disbelievers) are a folk without
intelligence. (8.65)
20. ye who believe! Take not the Jews and Christians for
friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh
them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrong-
doing folk. (5.51)
21. Fight against such of those who have been given the
scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not
that which Allah bath forbidden by His messenger and follow not
the religion -of truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being
brought low. (9.29)
22. Therefore, We have stirred up enmity and hatred among
them till the day of Resurrection, when Allah will inform them of
their handiwork. (5.14)
23. They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve
that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends
from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah. If they
turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye
find them, and choose not friend nor helper from among them.
(4.89)
24. Fight them! Allah will chastise them at your hands, and He
will lay them low and give you victory over them, and He will heal
the breasts of folk who are believers. (9.14)
“There are numerous (other) Ayats of the same sort. Here we
have cited only twenty-four Ayats. Obviously, these Ayats carry