Page 209 - Seekers Guide Book

The Seeker’s Guide
My stand on Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir issue is the same
since the first day. In my view, whenever a possibility of a
peaceful resolution exists, one party to the conflict must
avail of it and not sink into quarrels or controversy. After
the mosque was demolished, I suggested that Muslims
could adopt the same model of relocating mosques which
had been adopted by Arab countries like Saudi Arabia,
Syria and Egypt.

After the advent of Islam when the requirement to offer
congregational namaz (form of worship in Islam) emerged
in many places, Muslims made mosques wherever there
arose a need and this continued for almost a thousand
years. Following the oil revolution, Arab countries had
enough wealth to take up the task of city planning. While
doing so, they realized that several mosques were built at
locations that were acting as a hindrance to their amenities
and infrastructure planning framework. This issue was
brought up to the ulema (Islamic scholars) for discussion
and the renowned Arab cleric, Sheikh Abdullah bin Baaz
issued a fatwa (unanimously accepted) to relocate these
mosques. And this is exactly what followed. For instance,
Masjid-e-Bilal, which was made adjacent to the boundary
of Haram (the Kabah) was also relocated and today it is
at a location different from where it was originally built.
Physically the relocated mosques were made out of new
infrastructure, however they shared the same lineage as
to the mosque which existed in the original location. The
only loss was archaeological in nature.

In line with my view, the then UP Chief Minister had
proposed that if Muslims were to agree to relocation,
he would be the first person to carry on his head the

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