The Darul Uloom Deoband is one of the world’s largest Islamic seminaries. It follows the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam, and is known for its strict adherence to the Quran and Hadith. It has a department of jurisprudence (meaning, that which makes rulings and studies of Islamic law, a.k.a. Sharia). The department is called Darul Ifta (Ifta means jurisprudence).
One may ask questions to this department by email requesting the desired Islamic behavior when faced with a certain situation, and they may publish their answer on their website. Such a response may be seen as a “fatwa” (a religious ruling that adheres to what the Quran and Hadith prescribe in that given situation).
Now, here is an interesting question asked to the department, and their response. I am first pasting the screenshot; readers can first read it in full at this link.
Since the print might be harder to read, I am copying and pasting it below:
We are writing this email to you as we are in utter distress. My husband and I both are born Muslims (Alhamdulillah) from India and are currently residing in the UAE. We have a grownup daughter who had gone to Canada for higher studies. There she met one Sikh boy and they decided to get married; now our daughter is asking our permission.
The girl is 23 years of age and the boy is 27. Both are having good jobs in their respective country of residences. Facts: The boy is ready to accept Islam before getting married to the girl. The boy is ready to come to the UAE to revert to Islam, learn everything and get married as per the Muslim tradition (Nikah).
The conversion is going to be kept secret from the boys parents. Currently the boy’s parents are ready to accept a Muslim girl as their daughter-in-law. After the wedding the girl will be living with the boy and his parents in the same house. The boy’s parents do not have any objection to the girl following her faith in their house. The boy will be following/practicing Islam in secrecy.
The boy is their only male child so he cannot abandon them to live separately with the girl. As the girl’s parents we met the boy and his family. The boy is very nice and sincere and is promising that he would follow the new faith and will keep our daughter happy. The parents are also very nice also said that they have no issues if the girl is going to continue to keep her faith after marrying their boy. But they do not wish their son to change his faith.
Issues: (2) Is it correct for an individual to revert to Islam in secrecy of his parents and especially for a girl? (3) Will the boy be able to practice Islam in that house? (4) What will be the fate of their children? (5) The boy is promising us that their children will follow the faith of the mother (Islam) and not of the paternal grandparents (Sikhism).
(6) Dilemma: If we give our consent to this marriage then we will be taking a big risk by allowing our daughter to spend the rest of her life with a threat of the boy going back to his old faith (7) If we say no then we are afraid of stopping/denying an individual to embrace Islam. We are requesting you to kindly guide us with either Fatwa or advise so as to make the decision easy for us. As we love our daughter like all parents; we are trying to work a way for her happiness. Kindly treat this matter as URGENT and reply as soon as possible.
In other words, the girl of this muslim couple is in love with a Sikh boy. She has convinced him to convert to Islam, and also to raise their future children as Muslims. But all of this is to be kept secret from the parents of the boy, with whom this couple will be living. They want to know whether this is permissible. Now read the response of this largest of Islamic seminaries.
If any person accepts Islam wholeheartedly with true intention and starts practicing Islam he will be considered a Muslim and his actions will be accepted in the eyes of Shariah even if he is forced to hide his iman (faith) due to any problem.
In other words, there is absolutely no issue with the deception of the elderly Sikh couple at all. Indeed, that is not even an issue. The issue, if any, is of this person hiding his Muslim faith. And there, Darul Uloom says it is OK to do it. By the way, this aspect of Islam is called Taqiyya.
Now any decent person reading the above question and answer will be deeply uncomfortable about one thing: the deception of this nice (by the admission of the deceivers) Sikh couple. This couple, who are even ok with their Muslim daughter-in-law continuing to practise Islam, is completely being deceived while their son has been converted out of their religion, under their very roof. They are not aware that everyone in the home except them is actually Muslim. And this is not even an issue for Darul Uloom Deoband.
Now ask yourself: would Deoband have an issue with the standard procedure of Love Jihad, where the Muslim fakes that he is Hindu to trap an innocent Hindu girl? Let’s face it, deceiving a Kafir, especially for something viewed beneficial to Islam, is considered a meritorious act for Islam by such Muslim clerics & the seminaries/organizations they represent. Taqiyya allows (and even encourages) it. This is actually an aspect of Love Jihad that is never talked of in our media.
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