The tombs of the Prophet’s family members at Jannat-ul-Baqi were in 1804, and again in 1925, razed in Medina but we don’t see any protests
Every year, April 18 marks the World Heritage Day. The origin of this special day can be traced back to 1982 when the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) established it as the International Day for Monuments and Sites. Later, during its 22nd general conference, Unesco adopted it as the World Heritage Day. The dignity of a society is reflected in the value it attaches to its cultural heritage. The sum total of cultural heritage is a nation, community or group’s language, books, literature, rituals, knowledge, traditions, performing arts, crafts, festive events, monuments and sites of historical relevance. It’s, therefore, our moral and civic duty to preserve, conserve and protect our cultural heritage.
In India, the 500-years-old Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by a radical Hindu mob led by Sangh Parivar leaders. Intellectuals across the globe, irrespective of caste, creed, religion or region, condemned the demolition. Muslims across the world protested. Several lives were lost. In its landmark judgment of 2019, the Supreme Court held that the demolition was illegal and directed the authorities to allot an alternative plot for a mosque as compensation.
On the other hand, the more heinous crime of multiple demolitions of holy shrines, relics and heritage sites together with massacres took place in Saudi Arabia. This was done at the behest of Saudi Arab’s Wahabi/Salafi rulers of Zionist ancestry who, wearing the cloak of Islam, in the middle of the 18th century introduced a new distorted version of Islam purely based on terrorism. This new cult was named ‘Wahabism’ in the name of its founder, Sheikh Muhammad Najdi-ibn-Abd-al-Wahab, who was born in the desert of Najd of Arabian Peninsula.
In 1744, sidelining the preachings of Prophet Mohammad, Najdi created ‘Wahabism’ cult. To gain manpower, he shrewdly found a pattern in Muhammad-ibn-Saud, a Bedouin tribal chief. Ibn Saud belonged to the Zionist tribe of Anza Ben Wael. Islam is not the original religion of Saudi Arab rulers. Najdi, also belonging to Zionist ancestry, got his daughter married to Ibn Saud’s son Abd-al-Aziz.
The Quran states: “Prophet Mohammad was sent to the world as a mercy to mankind (21:107).… Allah abhors any disturbance of peace (2:205).” Whereas Wahabi ideology is enshrined in their book Kitab-al- Twahid, which prescribes the forceful conversion of Muslims and others to his Salafi/ Wahabi ideology; wherein, he manifestly says, “Follow my ideology, else get ready to be killed.”
In 1766, Muhammad-ibn-Saud was killed and his son Abd-al-Aziz took over as Emir (temporal leader). He introduced firearms replacing conventional weaponry in the so-called holy war (jihad). He accelerated attacks in a spectacular bid to extend his territory and as British historian Charles Allen writes in his book, ‘God’s Terrorists — The Wahabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad’: “Abd-al-Aziz issued every (so-called) holy warrior a firman (written order) addressed to the gatekeeper of Heaven, requiring him to be admitted forthwith should he die in battle.” Since then, it has been the common schismatic, fraudulent practice of terror operators to misguide and exploit the youth for recruitment with the promise of Paradise. The history of Wahabism has been written with blood of innocent people. On June 2, 1792, Sheikh Najdi, the founder of Wahabism died, leaving behind 24 wives and 18 children. His son-in-law Abd-al-Aziz speeded up his violent actions and conversions.
In 1802, he attacked the holiest shrine of Hazrat Imam Husain in Karbala (Iraq), desecrating the shrine. Lieutenant Francis Warden wrote: “They pillaged the whole of it and plundered the tomb of Hazrat Imam Husain, slaying in the course of the day, with circumstances of peculiar cruelty, above 5,000 of the inhabitants. A huge amount of booty was seized.”
In 1803, Abd-al-Aziz-ibn-Saud obtained a visit permit from the Shareef of Mecca on the pretext of performing Hajj; wherein, his Wahabi fighters laid waste in Islam’s holiest shrine (Ka’aba), like the accursed Yazid-ibn-Muawiya desecrated Ka’aba in 682 AD. According to TE Ravenshaw, author of ‘A memorandum on the sect of Wahhabis’: “They robbed the splendid tombs of the Mahomedan saints, who were interred there; and their fanatical zeal did not even spare the Prophet’s Mosque (Masjid ul Nabavi) in Medina, which they robbed of the immense treasures and costly furniture to which each Mahomedan Prince of Europe, Asia and Africa had contributed his share.”
In 1804, a Wahabi gang of terrorists again crossed the great desert in the Hijaz and destroyed tombs of the Prophet’s family members at Jannat-ul-Baqi, the ancient cemetery of Medina, and even despoiled the grave of Prophet Mohammad. Again in 1925 (On 8th Shawwal 1344 Hijri), Wahabi terrorists demolished the holy shrines of Hazrat Fatima Zehra, daughter of Holy Prophet, and his grandsons, Hazrat Imam Hasan, Hazrat Imam Zain ul Abedeen, Hazrat Imam Mohammad Baqar.
On December 6, every year marking the anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid, Muslims organise protests, file petitions in court. Whereas, on 8th Shawwal, 1344 Hijri (1925 AD), Saudi Arab rulers had razed the holy tombs of Prophet Mohammad’s family, but surprisingly no Muslim of any sect reacts or protests against the pseudo-Muslim Saudi rulers. Is it because those
perpetrators are not non-Muslims?
(The writer is a legal journalist and author. The views expressed are personal.)
