Kashmir too is a problem region that bores me silly; take your place in the lineup, Kash, next to Egypt, Irak, Afganistan, Lybia, Lebanon, Iran, Mali, and a few dozen other hotspots of regressed tedium. These places don't seem to learn anything from history.

Why was he not shot after the interview?

https://www.facebook.com/groups/253731761329310/ may be of interest...

As well as

http://djilp.org/1958/solving-kashmir-on-an-application-of-reason/

This is a textbook example of prejudice. The article goes on like the Salafi ideology is a threat to mankind. But nowhere in the words and actions of this particular Imam or in the teaching of the Salafs do you find anything that a normal person should be wary of. He and the Salafis in general only call for purifying Islam and to practise it the way it is meant to be practised - the way that was shown by the Salafs(or the pious predecessors) of Islam. Do not make it sound like the Saudis are funding terrorism and weapon trade, they are funding an education system, so the Muslims who have fallen to deviant ways can come back to pure Islam.

"Why was he not shot after the interview?
— posted 05/03/2012 at 09:51 by Ariel"

Why? What did he do that calls for his death? And I should warn that people like you 'ARIEL', are the real terrorists. You are a template of what the average western man's ideas are based on.

Thank you for writing this, Tariq. As a Kashmiri I feel deeply saddened by what you describe. I see it happening all around me, here in 'the land of the pure'-Pakistan. The links with radicalism/terrorism may indeed be tenuous, but the changing tone of discourse and the fabric of people's lives, the narrowing down of perspectives, is something that is deeply troubling.

Salams,

K.

Hey Fahd, speaking of things not said: no mention in this piece of terrorism or weapons. That's just you building a straw man, pretending something is there when it isn't. This article is about cultural imperialism. Though, of course, we should worry about the political consequences when the culture in question is one of religious fundamentalism, whether it is fundamentalist Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion.

with so much banning going on in india why doesn't the government of india ban despicable and regressive ideologies like salafism?
unless stopped or contained such a poisonous idea will end up snuffing out what little light there remains within kashmir's muslim community.
if unconvinced, take a look at how pakistan is faring where this vile saudi import is violently clashing with centuries old local practices. in kashmir salafism is even more alien.

The Indian & International media is deliberately raising this religious issue in Kashmir and trying to divide the already disturbed region on religious grounds. This is very unfortunate.

The writer has done a good job of at least starting a debate on this issue which is becoming serious. But, he has chosen to confine his research just to one individual. I wish he had expanded his research more and talked about the state's role in encouraging this strict form of religion in kashmir. But, nonetheless, a commendable work.

Purritanical Islam is an idea whose time has come, plain and simple. As againist what is generally potrayed in the media,Salafism is essentially a reformist movement, aimed at purging Islam of heretical ideas and practices. Its burgeoning popularity is a matter of concern for traditionalists amwd Hanafis, who are increasingly skeptical of its popular appeal and over-riding approach, funded mainly by the Saudi petro-dollars.

Do you know why Al Kindi with his new 'arabized' name relies on Saudi funding? Because nobody in Kashmir is willing to provide support to somebody that they don't know and don't care about.

The Kashmiri Muslims establish a neighborhood mosque system by which they provide monetary support to build mosques and places of worship in their neighborhoods, even during these two decades of turmoil. Thus Islam and its interpretation is subject to the will of the people and the neighborhood mosque system is based on trust between neighbors who would rather pray together than with others outside of their neighborhood. It is similar to the concept of "gated community" in the U.S. (each one to their own).

Each one of these neighborhood mosques follows their own set of principles...in my hometown there are 12 to 15 mosques of the sorts in a 3 mile radius, each one reserved for the local households (15 to 20 per mosque). Each has their own Muezzin who competes with the other Muezzins of the other mosques to see who can make the better call to prayer. Such is the pseudo-rivalry and assertion of character, and that too between people who have known each other for their entire lives.

In the same 3 mile radius, there is a fully operational Hindu Mandir, two Sikh Gurduwaras, and a Christian Church.

Each of the mosques at a broader level can be seen as subsystems of Islamic belief that have marked their territories, established their boundaries and gained a diverse following. They, whether willingly or not, promote a heterogeneous idea of Islam. Nobody tackles nobody and no one tries to demean the other.

A few years back the 'Ahli Hadees' breed of Muslims (the Salafi/Wahabi types) gained a following in our town, and they set up their own Mosque in front of the Jamia Masjid (the grand mosque meant for a larger congregation reserved for Friday and Eid prayers). Soon enough they established their territory and followers as far as they could and there they are, settled in their niche as everybody else in their own. And they get labeled by the local population in my hometown as 'those' 'other' types of Muslims, as if they were a cult of some sort, and are perceived by a majority the way in mainstream America perceives Quakers, Mormons, etc.

So if Mr. Al Kindi, with his 'arabized' name, thinks that he promotes some sort of universal mega ultimate super pure form of Islam just because he has studied in Saudi Arabia and therefore has the right to bestow upon himself the authority to determine what "pure Islam" is and has the self-established know-how about the percentage of "purity" in Kashmiri Islamic practices and how to parse out the impurity so that we can all be 100% pure Muslims...he has got a lot of work to do on a task that is ultimately impossible.

Given the ethnic and religious diversity of Kashmir, and given that Islam in Kashmir is practiced in diverse ways due to a long running tradition of inheritance from different streams of culture, I doubt that Al Kindi's plan to homogenize Kashmiri culture under one ideological satellite subservient to the Saudi Wahabi ways is going to go anywhere.

Kashmiri Muslims tend to keep to themselves, and their public display of religiosity is limited to the groups they form with specific attention to the trust they establish among themselves in their respective households and neighborhoods. It is for this reason that (when I do pray) I don't pray in the Mosque right across the street, but rather in the Mosque right next to my house, where people from no more than 7 households pray in unity.

The other notion in Islam accepted worldwide is that nobody comes between a Muslim, The Scripture and God, and the classical story that everybody in Kashmir is told as a child about how the Prophet (PBUH) cut down a tree under which he prayed because the earliest Muslims were making pilgrimages to the tree with offerings of all sorts. This being another reason why the clergy in Islam, particularly in Kashmir, have a limited scope, because it is all related to going back to The Scripture and fortifying one's own interpretation and trying to make it the dominant one, which again does not happen because each and every neighborhood along with their clerics do not concur on everything, which is why there are all these mosques and places of worship all over with 5 to 10 households per place of worship in the first place in the rural heart of Kashmir.

So the only debatable and attention-worthy preoccupation is the 'arabization' of Al Kindi's name. I suppose he is setting some sort of an example and expecting a majority of Kashmiri Muslims to change their Pandit last names? Names like Muhammad Bhat, Faisal Pandit, Rasool Dhar, etc.

I for one don't see it from my side...no chance I will be giving up the Padar last name, coming from the Sanskrit "Padartha/Apadardtha" and also from the Persian variant "Pedar" and the Latin variant "Pater". Ameen!

Islam came to Kashmir hundreds of years back , why is this ideology gaining foot hold in Kashmir ,just since few years. so question is who are the forces behind it and that is a question to be answered

Islam is not In Kashmir in my opinion.no where does the quran or hadith says that to worship grave or any object.whenever someone tried to explain this,he has been labeled as above abdul latif.can any one prove me from quran or hadith to worship grave and you can not.islam is the only now religion who worship creator and it is really 100%in saudi arabia.other parts of the world is still teaching idol worship,grave worship,saint worship,tree worship etc and that is not islam.i recommend all of you (who are writing negative comments)to read quran and hadith and you will know the truth.what happen in our society we believe what others are saying and we never tried ourselves to know truth.

The one who wrote the article must be himself idol or grave worshiper.Anyone who is doing shirk is called kafer in Arabic language and will never enter in heaven as clearly stated in Quran.

Typical Najdi/wahabi outlook even adopted by their great friend George Bush if you are not with us you are against us. Simple translating quran to their gains. Amazed by the fact that people for last 1400 years did not know the real ISLAM just these half baked petro molvis uderstand it better then anybody else in last 30 years or so. You only shun your identity if you are ashamed of it so is this Alkindi ashamed of his real identity that he needed to adopt a new one. And the irony is we have literate but uneducated people following them

do have better translation of quran which states grave worship.i think you are still uneducated.islam is there since 1400 years in saudi arabia with you around 700 years.they know better than you.give me the copy of quran where God says worship graves.

Kasheeri manz tchi zyaday buazan wuayl tu zyaday kath karan wuayl, magar padan wuayl, khabar tim kot guy?

Translation: In Kashmir there are a lot of listeners and a lot of speakers, but as for the readers...who knows where they went off to?

People are now more accustomed to watching television of all sorts, among which I might note are programs where preachers (tele-evangelists) get to inculcate a sense of faith in the people. One does not practice a religion by merely hearing a bearded man talk on TV!

Mind you, there are many Muslims in Kashmir, who prefer to read The Holy Quran instead of sitting in awe of some Maulvi who proclaims greater knowledge and thus propagates a mediocre cult of personality. These are the new idols, for they take people away from reading The Holy Scripture and onto watching a stupid television box. I prefer to read before watching them speak on TV and so do many other informed and intelligent Kashmiri Muslims.

------------------------------------------------------------------

That said, I feel absurdly brainless in entertaining the comments ("REAL ISLAM") above...but just in case it is necessary for any Muslim with a cerebral dysfunction that does not allow them to coherently use their faculty of common sense...I will sum it up for you: ISLAM TEACHES YOU TO NOT JUDGE OTHERS FOR ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE THEM:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The Quran states in 88:25:
إِنَّ إِلَيْنَا إِيَابَهُمْ
Transliteration:
Inna ilayna iyabahum
Sahih International:
Indeed, to Us is their return.
Muhsin Khan:
Verily, to Us will be their return;

AND

the verse that follows 88:26 states:
ثُمَّ إِنَّ عَلَيْنَا حِسَابَهُم
Transliteration:
Thumma inna AAalayna hisabahum
Sahih International:
Then indeed, upon Us is their account.
Muhsin Khan:
Then verily, for Us will be their reckoning.

By using the Arabic word "Inna" - which means "We" (i.e., God) - to begin 88:26 is a clear indication that it is ONLY God who can judge humans and to Him is their return, be they sinners, saints or otherwise.

And to support this claim further you have Hadith Qudsi No. 31:

On the authority of Jundub (may ALLAH be pleased with him), who said that the Messenger of ALLAH (peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him) related:

"A man said: 'By ALLAH, ALLAH will not forgive So-and-so.' At this ALLAH the Almighty said: 'Who is he who swears by Me that I will not forgive So-and-so? Verily I have forgiven So-and-so and have nullified your [own good] deeds (1) (or as he said [it]).'"

(1) A similar Hadith, which is given by Abu Dawud, indicates that the person referred to was a godly man whose previous good deeds were brought to naught through presuming to declare that Allah would not forgive someone's bad deeds.

Saiidna Issa (Jesus) PBUH is recorded in the scriptures as saying, "Judge not lest ye be judged...and by the same measure you judge others by, so too will you be judged."

Finally, Allah said to Prophet Mohamed in his Holy Quran:

Quran 46:9 Say: "I am no bringer of new-fangled doctrine among the apostles, nor do I know what will be done with me or with you. God is the ONLY one who can judge humans."

Source: islamforpeace.org

--------------------------------------------------
There is no need for a Dr. so-and-so or somebody with a PhD from Madina University.

As Angel Gabriel said to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): "Iqraa, Iqraa!" which translates to "Read, Read!"

@DR FAROOQ AHMAD WANI for your kind information no true Muslim in Kashmir worships graves, Dasteer sahib (RA) never visited Kashmir so at his shrine`s in Srinagar people visit to get blessing and offer prayer ,so where are we wrong?

Mr. Farooq Ahmad Wani, you must look into your own bosom before pointing fingers to others. Salafism is itself a modified form of perfect Islam. You can't claim to be always right. And moreover, people visiting the graves of Sufi saints never bow their heads before them. We believe in one God Allah. You are possibly trying to prove yourself superior over us, and I'll not accept it at any cost.
Rather Salafis claim that Hanafis commit Shirk, God forbid, when they themselves don't have complete knowledge of Islam.
May Allah bless us all, and please don't divide Kashmiri muslims into parts. Western forces are working enough on that.

"for your kind information no true Muslim in Kashmir worships graves, Dasteer sahib (RA) never visited Kashmir so at his shrine`s in Srinagar people visit to get blessing and offer prayer ,so where are we wrong?
— posted 05/05/2012 at 17:20 by Niyaz"

Brother, the answer is right there in your question. People visiting a shrine to get blessing is from Hinduism, not Islam.

@ Amjad

"There is no need for a Dr. so-and-so or somebody with a PhD from Madina University."

Brother, of course it is true that Allah is the one to judge, and He is the best of judges. Also it is not from the habit of the Salaf to judge people and namecall them as kafir and such, without strong eveidences. But as for seeking knowledge, it is unanimously agreed upon that seeking knowledge from a scholar is better than seeking it by himself. And this is true for every stream of science, not just Islamic sciences.

"Say, "Are those who know equal to those who do not know?" Only they will remember [who are] people of understanding." 39:9

"Ask the people of Dhikr [the Scholars] if you don't know" 16:43

The Prophet sallallâhu ’alayhi wa sallam said: “Indeed, the Scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets and indeed the Prophets do not leave behind them the dînâr or the dirham as inheritance, they leave only knowledge behind as inheritance. So whosoever acquires it, acquires a huge fortune.” Related by Abû Dâwûd (no.3641), and Ibn Majah (no.223), from Abûd-Darda radiallâhu ’anhu.

People look at Salafiyya with their pre-judged opinions and all they see is terrorism and Talibanism and Al Qaeda, and they have nothing to do with Salafiyya.

If calling to falsehood is prevalent in one particular area wouldn't it be necessary for a learned scholar to correct them and bring them back to what is right? Just to mention an example you mentioned in the beginning paragraphs of your first post concerning the 'gated community' issue. That is not Islam, brother. This is exactly why Kashmir needs knowledge of pure Islam.

Salafiyya calls to pure Islam and many hate it because none of the individuals who plan to rule/dominate/oppress and take advantage of people by spreading ignorance would like this idea. None of the people of desire who wants to pick and choose what they want to follow in Islam would like Salafiyyah. None of those admins at the shrines and 'holy sites' thriving on this Ziyarah Tourism would like Salafiyyah. None of the pro-western brigade who hate to see any reform that would unite Islam would like this idea.

first of all i would like to thank MR FAHD Ffor his comment.may god bless you and your family and spread islam in correct way.mr fahd they will never accept your way because Allah has put seal in their hearts and for sure they will die while doing shirk.
in islam no one can bless you except almighty God.in islam you cannot ask help anyone except ALLAH.in islam intercession is not allowed and is a grave shirk.in islam everything belongs to ALLAH not to any saints.we have to follow their advice if it matches with quran and hadith,otherwise throw it if it does not match.this is pure hinduism what kashmiri so called muslims are practicing.iam not saying 100% but majority of the people.

All, the Salfi's have been able to create in Kashmir, is to sow division among the population through their intolerance and bigotry. By bad mouthing the revered saints whose preaching taught compassion and values of tolerance, piety and peaceful coexistence, they have set themselves on a course of confrontation with the majority of the population. And this only suits our political enemies.

The majority of Salfis are in bed with our oppressor. The reason their leader was killed last year by a group of disgruntled Salfis within their own ranks, is an example of that infighting within their ranks. They should look at our neighborhood, Pakistan and Afghanistan, what their ideology of hate and intolerance has done to those two countries. It is no wonder, their leadership is feted by the Indian leadership.

You calling other people uneducated gives the level of your illiteracy. Typical wahabi/ najdi outlook i again say, if you are not with us then you are against us. I had put forward my opinion and not gone personal but ofcourse this is a trait of illetrate people. When they are out of reasons they go personla.
As far as Islam is concerned, Al hamdulillah we practice it better than Saudis and it is not true what they do is correct. You live and work in Saudi and know it better than anybody what the society is there like. Are women safe there, their malls, on the roads, girls are chased, teased and what not and don't tell me it does not happen i have witnessed it. I live in Jeddah / Riyad from more than two years so don't preach Saudis understand Islam better. Respect of elders and women. Discrimination towards non-arabs is a normal thing, isn't it, weather it is jobs, schools, hospitals or mosques.
Anyways may Allah make us tread the righteous path.

i know what you are practicing there.listen topic was that above mentioned gentleman said to make tombs or seek blessing from them is not islam and it is true.you can not write someone wrong as long as it speaks quran and hadith.he was given and lot of bad things was written agout him.i wrote u before if you have better translated quran than others show me.where does the quran says to seek blessing from graves. we need to visit graves every day not to seek blessing but to get lesson.i don't know if there is any sect of islam. islam has no sects.prophit mohammed (pbuh)was just muslim -no shafi,no humbli,no hanfi,no wabhi,no sufi,nosulfi.we need to follow quran and hadith and ask help from allah only.again can you prove me from quran or hadith grave worship.for sure we can not judge anyone if he goes heven or hell but this is only for those who comes under that catogry.just put one question in your mind what does shirk mean and try to learn it then you will come to know.don't follow me or anyone else just read quran and hadith that is far superior than anyone.YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE SULFI-SHAFI-HANFI ETC BUT MUSLIM

And who is further astray than those who, instead of Allah, pray unto those who do not hear their prayer until the Day of Resurrection, and are unconscious of their prayer?"(Qur'an 46:5)

Sura Fatir 35:22 which says
“You CANNOT make those to HEAR who are buried in Graves.”
Surah Fatir 35:14“If you invoke them they will not listen to your call, and if they were to listen they cannot grant it (your request) to you.”
quran 12 verse 106 "And most of them believe not in Allah except while they associate others with Him.
quran 12 verse 108 "Say, "This is my way; I invite to Allah with insight, I and those who follow me. And exalted is Allah ; and I am not of those who associate others with Him."
Surah Mumin 40:60 “And your lord says “Call on me; I will answer your prayer.””

Kashmir is not actually a Muslim dominated place but some strangers who have been exiled from their regions group together in this hilly area. So don't worry about Kashmir or Kashmirs. They have to perish.

Pertaining to what tariq mir has produced of al kindi,it seems very unfortunate that the writer just lacks the islamic understanding,else he would have at very first appreciated the work of dr alkindi.i have met dr alkindi personally and the mission he is working fffor is truely generous.the pre occupied scrutinized mind of the writer depicts the shame in itself.

Assalaamualaikum wa rahmathullaahi wa barakaatuhu.

The Prophet (salallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam) said in an authentic hadeeth, "Whoever defends the honor of his brother, then Allaah (subhanahu wa taa'ala) will protect his face on the day of Judgment."

Mr.Tariq may Allaah guide you. I have been blessed to have spend some of my life's best moments in the company of the esteemed Shaykh Dr. Abdul Lateef Al Kindi may Allaah preserve him.

And by Allaah you have not done justice not at all, far from it, you have committed oppression. I m not going to refute the points you have raised as they speak for their own injustice. I just wanted you to know that you have committed oppression and backbitten and slandered a scholar of Islam
Allaah says in the Qur'an:
"[104:001] Woe to every slanderer and backbiter."
May Allaah save you and me from this torment aameen.
And as for the backbiting and slandering of the scholars of Islam , this will go on till the Hour is established and the helpers of His Deen(religion) will be affected the least bit as Allaah is their protector.

And finally whoever has really known Shaykh Abdul Lateef Al Kindi(may Allaah preserve him) knows that what you have written is either due to ignorance on your part or an evil bias, both of which are serious diseases of the heart.For the former the cure is knowledge as for the latter, we can only pray to Allaah that He cures your heart of this.aameen.

As for the other people, reading this write up and judging, I'll leave with the words of Allaah the Sublime:

"[049:006] O you who believe! If a Fâsiq (liar – evil person) comes to you with any news, verify it, lest you should harm people in ignorance, and afterwards you become regretful for what you have done."

Wassalaamualaikum

There are 2 problems with Salafism:
- its not like a bull in a china shop. The Islamic legal and theological legacy is complex, capable of accepting and justifying many different shades and forms in the practice of the religion (without sacrifing core principles). Salafism has no such understanding: it based on a very shallow not only narrow but shallow) understanding of the religion. It reduces everything to rubble.Its because of its intellectual infantilism that the vast majority of Islamic scholars worldwide reject it.
2. Salafism is ugly. Compare this to Sufism whose beauty has traditionally attracted multitudes into the faith. Salafism is really a projection of the baser self (the nafs), egotistic and shrill. It doesn't conform to human nature and is very far from the original message of the early Muslims.

It is very unfortunate that Tariq Mir portrays Abdul Lateef Al Kindi in such a way as if he is a preacher of some alien religion to Kashmiris. I being a Kashmiri, know what majority of the people, who themselves are ill educated, preach to us. No Kashmiri will deny that there is literally one saint with a khankah in most of the localities of kashmir. If there are no tombs/shrines built on the graves of great sahabah(the immediate companions of Muhammad (PBUH), howcome thousands are there in Kashmir? Though there are people in Kashmir who know the real islamic rulings, the majority of the masses visit the Kashmir shrines for blessings which has led to so many new traditions that sometimes hallal (islamically allowed) things are prohibited which donot have any islamic backing.

So what if people like Abdul Lateef Al Kindi says that getting blessings from shrines/ saints is against islam, how does it radiclize Kashmir? Any person who will read quran and hadith will reach the same conclusion.
Tariq Mir presents Abdul Lateef Al Kindi as if he bringing an another arab spring type uprising in Kashmir. Like you and me, he has the freedom to preach the real islam. He can live a high standard of life and we are no one to comment on his living.

I wish and pray allah that He gives us the best of understanding.

Javaid

Kashmiri are power thirst .. that is to say having sources to easy money. Kingdom of saud - e -Arabia pounds crore in the state .. general Muslims are hardly bothered about religion ... they want money , how it comes they least bother ... This salfi sect choose young ones from poor families .. free education , lodging , boarding & cash too ... after the turbulence for last 23 years , there was a little peace ... but salfi are bent upon to create problem .. their hatred speeches are noticed by ulema and well read people ... Even Jamat-e-Islami tried but they also failed... Muslims in general love Sufism ... they will not succeed as they are exposed ..

All praise is for Allah (SWT), who in every age and interval between the Prophets raises up a group from the people of knowledge who call the misguided to guidance & patiently bear ill-treatment and harm. It is well known fact that whenever truth is revealed there comes opposition because truth is bitter by its nature & same applies to this author. Abdul Lateef Al-Kindi (Hafizuallah) is propagating the same Deen which was brought forth by our beloved Prophet (ASWS) before 1433 years ago. It seems that author along with his allied group is much scared & bias out of Sheikh Al-Kindi’s efforts as they know their shops based on foppishness & mock will be winded-up. You must know that those days got carry with the wind when these donge-babas used to lure innocent people in their mantra. . . people are now very well aware of your tactics. Alhamdulillah there is sharp decline of uneven rituals & self-styled dogmas in Kashmir. It is due to the fact that nowadays people are very much interested to read & scrutinize the Islamic related issues on their own level. The fashion of ‘buzargo nay kaha tha” is over. People demand practicality through authentic sources.

Moreover, Salafiat is not something new, it is following the way of the Prophet (ASWS) and His Sahabah (RAA) for they are our Salaf (predecessors) who preceded us, so following them is Salafiyah in all matters including their way of differing and unity.

The million dollar question to this author (Tariq Mir) is “from whom did you hire your religion ? if from your rightly guided predecessors than say proudly to be SALAFI.

Asalamualikum. What tariq mir has written is mere lack of islamic knowledge. According to hadith from bukhari 'the best person among you is one who learns QURAN and spreads it among others.... Divisions in muslim ummah occurs because of lack of knowledge and biased thoughts.

Fascinating story and even more fascinating comments. This is objective reporting, with the subject's own words and living arrangements defining his perspective and driving the coverage, yet to even write about him produces instantaneous recrimination and accusations of bias. Mir hasn't questioned anything Al Kindi does or says, yet Al Kindi's supporters are primed to defend him.

Recently i was discussing with one of my saudi Collegue, i was astonished when he said that “ Salfisim was created not to review Quran and Sunnah , but to protect Al Saud family ( Present ruler) “, and i think that is proving right.

Khawarijis also hold same ideology as our so called Salafis/ Wahhabis/Ahluhadith- as the name fits them.

I am astonished to see a "Clean shaved" Reporter accusing a person who spent more than half of his life learning religion in the city of Prophet s.a.w and following his Sunnah in every aspect of life and this clean shaved brother is accusing Al Kindi Hafidahullaah of something he hasn't done.

Moreover, it makes me ROFL by the statement of a nerd; who says that Salafis have a very narrow thinking about the affairs of Islam. Well, we very well know what your scholars understanding of religion is. High time to introduce some labs, as your so called "TARIQAH" is oh so experimental and you look for the verdicts, instead of looking for the narrations.

We are the people of narrations inshallaah and will abide to the narrations of our beloved Prophet s.a.w till soul is pulled out of our body and we will pray that all the Muslim brothers should die practising the Sunnah of our beloved Prophet s.a.w and not dying as an innovator, who is influenced by the innovations of a "Sober and Kind Innovators"

Wasalaam!

@Mr Abdullah, with respect to your name ,let me suggest or remind you , that even Sir Dr Alama Iqbal Great poet of East and a know person in history for his love of prophet Mohammad SAW (pbuh) was Also clean shaved ,so beard or no beard is no ticket to paradise
one has to learn from "cradle to grave" no one is perfect in this world except prophet Mohammad SAW(pbuh)
So instead of trying to score brownie points lets try improve ourselves first ,rather than saying we are the best,

Thanks

@Mr Abdullah, with respect to your name ,let me suggest or remind you , that even Sir Dr Alama Iqbal Great poet of East and a know person in history for his love of prophet Mohammad SAW (pbuh) was Also clean shaved ,so beard or no beard is no ticket to paradise
one has to learn from \"cradle to grave\" no one is perfect in this world except prophet Mohammad SAW(pbuh)
So instead of trying to score brownie points lets try improve ourselves first ,rather than saying we are the best,

Thanks

Beard may not be ticket to paradise, but is highly obligatory for any male Muslim. Once a companion of Prophet (SAW) who had only three hair strands in his beard appeared shaved before Prophet (SAW). Prophet (SAW) said why u have made yourself to look like kuffar (Shahi Al Bukhari). So don't tell that without having beard, u can love Prophet (SAW). Loving Prophet is following his Sunnah. Beard is highest level of obligation, it is in fact Faraz to have beard.

It is very sad article that too from a muslim journalist. I think tariq mir is going to become one more salman rashdi. May Allah protect him from the evil of journalism. Islam is only in Quran and authentic sayings of our beloved prophet Mohammad(SAW). Our beloved prophet was a muslim and all the prophets of Allah were muslims. If somebody invites people to follow Quran and authentic saying of prophet he is doing a great job for the humanity. Beocz the teaching of Quran and Prophet is mercy and solution to the problems of mankind. How come it is problem which taroq mir has pointed out. I challenge tariq mir and all people who spread this hypocracy to point a single verse or authentic hadithe which is against human beings and which divide people in to sects. Kashmir is full of shirk. How these tombs and shrines are justified in Islam. There is no room for these things in islam. Itz an invotation and this concept has been borrowed from christains and hindus.

May Allah protect our deen.

Dear Mr. Bilal

I like your title "We are Muslims" but If one has to believe in history of Islam in Kashmir ,we cannot forget the role of Hazarat Ameer Kabeer (RA) Was he not inviting people to accept religion of Islam ?were his teaching, philosophy against Islam?
So inference from your comment-one who doesn't agree with arguments of salifism is non Muslim and cannot enter paradise and by your calculations then 80% of people in kashmir are non Muslims but thank Allah as the Final authority is only with Allah to judge people

I am surprised to see how Saudi sponsored Salfi's have been reacting to a factual report.
No doubt, 'Kashmir is full of Shirk' because of people like Bilal and other fanatics who are always on warpath against any factual analysis of the power struggle based on religion. Kandi and his brand of followers have been using religion to gain power, authority, and money besides appeasing their master sitting at New Delhi or elsewhere. Their bogus claims for being the custodians of Quran are very well known locally. You should have the guts to answer the questions related to foreign funding that Kandi like people use for their luxurious living and then go to any extent to choke any liberal voice like Tariq's. The Salfi's have been sowing the seeds of hatred in the valley which will soon lead to another civil war; we h've seen the prototypes already. And it is a shame for them for blatantly serving the interests of India and other anti muslim powers. There are thousand of Kandi's in the valley whose background is well known and we know how they became the pawns in the hands of anti Kahsmir groups hell bent upon dividing the Kashmiris more dangerously than ever.

I have been reading the comments with lot of interest in previous few weeks. What has shocked me is the approach of the Salfi followers towards muslims who don't believe in the Salfi version of Islam. For Salfis anyone who dared criticize them or their ways, is a kaffir or non-believer or what one gentleman said, Salman Rushdie. This is the problem with Salafism and its followers. They come across as aggressive, intolerant and judgmental of fellow muslims. Their view of Islam is based on a very narrow reading of the Islamic texts and the preaching of Prophet Muhammad ( saw). Through their bigotry they are creating resentments and feelings of ill will in their fellow muslims. Islam stands for brotherhood and peace and Salfi attitude and beliefs would only create hatred between the sects of Islam. I hope they understand the place they live in where our enemies are happy seeing us divided and fighting each other.

I can only pity you Mr Bilal.!

Dear

They are new pawns in hand of divisive politics- "divide and rule"
First they tried Shia -Sunni ,when they failed on that front they opened a new front trying to create a civil war like thing among innocent Kashmirs through funding to these so called salfist group to create wedge among Kashmirs and every one know who funds them and why

The Salfi supporters have been spewing anger in response to this brilliantly reported story. I do not know Tariq Mir, but being a close follower of Kashmir issue, I know this issue is snowballing in the valley for sometime now. Ii don't think we should indulge in pronouncing that because the reporter is clean shaven and therefore, he does not know much about Islam....I think someone has correctly handled that question in these columns. There are many other comments which indicate that the story has actually shaken the false foundation of many people like Al kandi. At the same time i condemn the statements like salfi's should be stoned to death which defeats the basic premises of ridiculing the Salfisim for being extremely fanatical.

For the debate to be logical and meaningful, we should desist from indulging in hateful diatribes and calling for stoning of Salfis. But, I agree with the gentleman, Abu Bilal, who has raised a pertinent point by alluding to power politics. Its no secret why the Salfi leader, Showkat Shah, was killed last year in bomb attack outside his mosque. Its out in the open that he was killed by his former colleagues for betrayal of Kashmir struggle for freedom. They saw him as a pawn of India.

One would love to discuss and debate the merits and de-merits of a story or issue on accepted standards of discussion, but the irony the ease at which these so called Ulemas use fatwas to win over the argument, is really unhealthy. They forget the centrality of any religion and Of course Islam as well, and will single out anyone for being non-religious. It is disgusting to see the grounds of their critique to their opponents including the reporter in question here. I took on against them at several occasions and found it is difficult to engage them because beyond a point they will publicly withdraw form the debate of course, only when they realize their nerdish thinking. It is a shame to note that how they treat visible benchmarks like sporting beard as the legitimacy of anyone to speak about Islam which for that matter gives Modi right to discuss Islam than a Kashmir youth who does not believe that 'beard' is s pre-condition for a muslim.

The author of this article, Purifying Kashmir, is just describing the rise of Salfi Islam in Kashmir and how its changing attitudes of a young generation of Muslims. It, no way, tries to cast aspersion on Islam but, is critical of the approach of Al Kindi towards leading the rise of this radical brand of Islam in Kashmir. These are two different things. And comparing him to Salman Rushdie is disingenuous. Just because he is critical of Salfi's doesn't render him a non-muslim. This approach of Salfi believers of always being over eager to portray muslims as heretics demonstrates their fanaticism and misreading of Islam. Please spare us, Kashmiris, of your bigotry. You should go and live in Saudi Arabia under the great rule of Al Sauds. And what a debauched family that is.

As Salaamualaikum wa Rahmathullaahi wa Barakaatuhu,

To all the attackers of Salafiyya - It is because you view Salafiyya as a cult, something to be feared - that you're attacking it. Any person who sticks to the ways of the Salaf is a Salafi whether he calls himself by it or not. Conversely, anyone who does not subscribe to the ways of the Salaf, has strayed, and is not a Salafi, whether he calls himself by it or not.

"And whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows other than the way of the believers - We will give him what he has taken and drive him into Hell, and evil it is as a destination." An Nisa':115

The Prophet (S) said, "Adhere very closely to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the rightly guided successors after me; bite on to it with your molar teeth, and beware of the newly invented matters" -authentic and recorded by Abu Dawud and at-Tirmidhi."

Going to shrines, praying to the saints/awliyaa and the song/dance rituals practised by the Sufis these days are not from the practice of the Noble Prophet Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam or his Noble Companions Radiallahu Anhum. These are newly invented matters. Therefore they are astray. Also praying to other than Allah is blatant shirk. Is this so hard to understand?

So why is it that whenever someone calls people away from shirk he's labelled Wahhabi/Terrorist/Fanatic. Is this the narrow reading you were implying? Where do you find verses in the Qur'aan that tells you to ask other than Allah for blessings? Where in the authentic Ahadith do you find narrations asking you to seek blessings at shrines and sing and dance in a dark room.

And you are calling Salafis jaahil ya Mohammad Aslam Khan? And Abu Bilal, did you really mean ["No doubt, 'Kashmir is full of Shirk' because of people like Bilal and other fanatics...."] when this brother Bilal just called people to the Qur'aan and Sunnah. Fear Allah, brothers.

May Allah guide you all.

Does it give someone a right to accuse a fellow Muslim of being a heretic, if he interprets the Quran differently than him? The guys you're defending, Mr. Fahd, are out to portray the writer of this article and every other person who agree with him, as heretics. One only draws this impression from the virulence of the comments posted here.

Dear brothers my view is only that we should call ourselves muslims. Becoz Allah has named us muslims in holy book Quran. I am not supporting any poltical organisation or any moment. I believe in true teaching of islam. Which is in Quran and authentic sayings of prophet Mohammad(SAW). If Hazarat Ameer Kabeer (RA) taught the Quran and authentic saying of prophet to people in kashmir, why are they deviated from that path. Has he told people to build shrines and encouraged people to visit shrines. If history says yes and if that is true, than he didnt taught true teachings of islam. And if there is no evidence of that, than where from this concept of shrines and visiting shrines to get blessing came from. These things have no scope and no authenticity in islam. Our beloved prophet has totally prohibited these things. And if any do this, he is a mushrik. People do blame game here and accuse believers very badly in this fourum. This is very bad on behalf of them and this comes under the sin of ghaibat(back biting). You can not blame somebody without any evidence. And we should first understand what our scholers teach us. If it is that they teach Quran and sahi hadithe, you cant label them these bad words which people hve used in this forum. If somebady says he is a scholar and teaches which is not there in Quran and sahi hadithe, he is simply an innovator. And he has a habit of telling lies than. May Allah save us from those people and show us the straight path. Ameen

A simple question that i want to ask you and your fellow salfists is why did you started a parallel mosque system in valley. if you believe that your path is the righteous one then why do you lack the courage to get into the existing mosque and motivate others there rather than erecting another mosque adjacent to it and thereby sowing the seeds of "fitna"? Doesn't it link the idea of salfi ideology something hat is power hungry.

I need answer of What Mr Abu Bilal have asked you?
Secondly ,we owe our Muslim hood because of Harzrat Ammer kabir (RA)and if you think so called scholars of salfism are more knowledgeable about Islam than Hazrat ameer kabir RA , i here by stop discussing over this issue here only and lastly i am sure your name would not had been MR Bilal but Bushan lal if he had not come to Kashmir.

I think brothers you people dont understand plane english which i wrote. I have already mentioned that i am a muslim Alhamdulillah and i love to be called muslim, becoz itz the name which Allah(SWT) has named us. The names like salafi,hanbali,suni,shia, sufi are not there in Quran. But if somebody invites people to Quran and sahi Hadithe and he himself follows the same, he is rightly guided and he should be supported. Point no 2: what salafi people did i dont know wat was there motive. I dnt know at all so i cant tell weather they did right or wrong. But i can say onething. If in any masjid shirk is exercised, a true believer should not pray in that masjid. There are many masajids in kashmir which are so called darghas. Where day and night people do shirik. In those masajids a true muslim who follows Quran and hadith should not pray. Dear brother niyaz, It is all in the hands of Allah(SWT) to give guidance. Itz wrong to say that becoz of ameer kabir i am muslim. It is Allah(SWT)'s blessing upon me who has made me muslims Allhamdulillah. I dnt know the period of amir kabir. If he taught the true din to people in kashmir, he will be rewarded by Allah(SWT) in the Hereafter inshahAllah. If he had not come, somebady else Allah would have chosen to teach islam to us. So itz all in His hands. I never used the words salafi scholers in my discussion. You can see my comments once again. I only say that our guidence is in Quran ans sahi Hadithe. So we should follow it. And we should follow those scholers only who teach Quran and sahi hadithe. Not there own islam. If amir kabir taught Quran and sahi hadith only, than we should follow him too. But if there is a deviation in his teaching, than i will never follow that. Islam is not somebdy's property who can use it watever ways he wants. Itz a din selected by Allah(SWT) to whole mankind. Nobody can follow it in his own way and teach the same. There is proper guidliness set by Allah(SWT) whcih we have to follow. Those guidlies are in Quran and authentic saying of our beloved prophet(SAW). I hope i made my views clear. May Allah guide us to the straight path and save us from fitnas.

You were conservative, you are conservative and so will you remain ! Do you mean to say that nearly 90 % of the Non Salfi Mosques should be abandoned because they do not follow Salfism . Shame on you and your ideology.!

Agree. And not just conservative but dangerously rigid and hardcore. Kashmir has no space for them. Come out from your cave and check it out..??

Dear Brothers, the reality is Salfis are one the missionof either dividing the Umma or making it meaningless. Their ultimate objective is to stop even the few people in valley from offering prayers in mosques. That is what Mr Bilal is trying to tell us. It is high time for all brothers to unite against this fascist ideology called salfisim,

The Beloved Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be eternally upon him, said, “There was disagreement amongst Jews and they split into 72 groups. In exactly the same way, there will be disagreement and divisions in my Ummah. It will split into 73 groups. Except for one of these groups, all the remaining will be thrown into Hell.”
When asked about which group will be on the right path, the Beloved Messenger of Allah replied, “The group on the right path, which will enter Paradise, will be the group which follows my Sunnah and this will be the largest group of Muslims.”
[Tirmidhi; Imam Ahmad; Abu Dawud; Mishkat]

I just read the report of Tariq Mir on the emergence of Salafi Islam in Kashmir. I was alerted by a friend about its publication in the Boston Review. I want to congratulate the reporter for being so brave and daring to report this worrying shift towards radical Islam in Kashmir. For years, I and my friends and family years have been talking about this emergence of intolerant brand of Islam in Kashmir and its effects on changing the attitude and worldview of our young, educated and bright youngsters. I don't live in Kashmir, but my parents and my two siblings live there along with my extended family and friends. Why should it worry a person who left Kashmir six years back to pursue his dreams outside his homeland. My experience of radical Islam encouraged by Salafists has been troubling. I have seen a few friends from Pakistan whom I work with losing their family members to the violence inspired by the kind of Islam Salafis are propagating in the region we live in. They blame them for the hatred and animosity flourishing in their society. I don't know if the tide could be turned in Kashmir. I fervently hope it does or, we risk becoming pakistan and afghanistan.

Smashing response!! But guess what? That do not impress me much.

Firstly, I never said "I or Salafis" are perfect and I attest to the point that the only person who reached the topmost level was our beloved Prophet salallaahoo alihi wasalam. This is what we are trying to point, follow the one who is perfect and that is none other than Prophet salallaahoo alihi wasalam and his Sahabaa Radiyallaahoo Anhum.

Dont follow SIR SYED Iqbal, rather follow your Prophet salallaahoo alihi wasalam, which is an obligation on every muslim and dont be baised about the Dawah of Salafia, First kow what Salafi's call to and understand it and when it contradicts the 2 sources "Quran and Hadeeth" and the understanding of Companions Radiallhu anhum, then through it on the wall i.e. dont accept it.

I believe the hadeeth in Bukhari posted by the brother above, is enough to make you realise the importance of beard. Now dont blame us for only refering to Quran and Hadeeth, we will continue to stick to both the sources till we meet our Prophet salallaahoo alihi wasalam on his Haud in the hereafter inshallaah.

Ask Allaah subhaanata'la for Siraat-ul-Mustaqeem for ME and Yourself and all the muslims.

Last but not the least, inshallaah Salafi's dont claim that they have the ticket to Janaah. But as a matter of fact our blessed Salaf[first 3 generations] have emphasized so much on following Sunnah, that I hardly remember any of them shunning the people of Sunnah.

Wasalaam

Why is this reporter just concerned about Saudi Arabia exporting Salafism to Kashmir, when India is busy helping sectarian groups like Deobandi and Barelvi seminaries exporting their version of Islam to Kashmir. It is an open secret that New Delhi is funding them to further its goals in Kashmir because they support India's position on Kashmir being an integral part of India. At least we Salfis don't regard Kashmir as part of India. We may have some black sheep in our ranks who are collaborating with India but, our stance is known to everybody that we want Kashmir to break away from India and became part of the larger Islamic community spread across Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Arab lands. I don't think we should be worried about Salafism gaining popularity in Kashmir rather worry about India based quiescent groups like Deobandis and Barelvis who are fanning sectarian tensions in Kashmir. The more muddled the religious scene in Kashmir the more it helps India in gaining control of Kashmir.

AA,Dear, Abdullah
I think you are ignorant of history and genesis of "wahabism" if you are able to do some research on this topic and you will be surprised by the result then you will realize,we here in Kashmir are practicing religion in right perspective. we all know that final authority is with Allah ,there is nothing new which "salfist" claim ,then you are trying to reinvent wheel .why were one lac 24 thousand messengers sent to us ? so things work properly in system only.They "salfist" are playing into the hands of vested interest people to weaken our greatest religion of Islam

Walikum asalaam wa rahmatullaah Niyaz,

First and the foremost thing I am not ignorant about the history of Salafia. Matter of fact the coined term "Wahabism" used by the people of Bidah, especially the Grave worshippers or the people who give preference to their wishes and whims or the opinions of their scholars over the narrations of Prophet salallaahu alyhi wasalam. They are the ones, who claim that Salafiah came into existence by the Dawah of Imaam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahaab R.H, which is an allegation and its baseless to the extent that they hear it from their scholars and take it without even enquiring about it and saying "aamana wa Sadaqna". If you have a good insight of the religion and are aware of the Manhaj "Methodology" of the salaf "Pious predecessors - especially first 3 generations" You will certainly be astonished to see the Dawah of Salafia matches them in almost every aspect of religion. Inshallaah we are the people who respect all the scholars, irrespective of any Maslak or Group. But we take only what is proven from Quran/Sunnah and the way of the blessed Companions R.A. Moreover, if you have learnt some of the sciences of Islam, you will again be astonished to see that the categorisation of the people is not done on the name of the group, rather it’s done on the Aqeedah. The way the great scholars have categorised different sects of muslims in their respective books on Aqeedah! So Salafia is a group who stick to the first 3 blessed generations.

Also, if you are talking about research; then I must attest to the fact and I swear by the oneness of Allaah subhaanawa ta'la that I didn’t see any group sticking more close to Truth [Quran/Sunnah/Companions R.A]on the face of earth than Salafiyah. If you talk about any group in this world, they all call towards the understanding of one person e.g Imaam A, B or C. I again attest to the greatness of all the Imaams and their intelligence and their hardwork for codifying the religion. But what about the fact that only Prophet salallahu Alyhiwasalam was infallible, as everything He salallahu Alyhiwasalam used to narrate was nothing but a revelation! I respect all the Imaams and follow them all and not just one, as they are infallable and we seek refuge with Allaah subhanahu wa'tala from disrespecting them or talking ill about them.

Regarding everyone following the religion of truth in kashmir is a baseless statement and you must have witnessed it yourself and inshallaah I am not claiming or saying or accusing you of not following the correct religion, as NONE HAS THE KNOWLEDGE OF UNSEEN EXCEPT ALLAAH subhaanawa t'ala. As long as I dont see you doing any Bidah or contradicting sunnah, if I am saying that you are wrong, then I am a fool and on the day of resurrection I will be questioned about it. How many people have you seen doing shirk on Graves in Kashmir? How many people have you seen calling to the wali of Allaah subhaanahu wa’tala which again is a shirk, because they call them directly! How many people have you seen torturing themselves on a particular day or days of the year, thinking that their love for the person is more than anyone else and yet shunning his R.A teachings? How many people have you seen saying religion is chest to chest and it’s all Ma’rifa and they are getting revelations directly from their lord? How many people have you seen doing so many Bidah in their day-to-day life and claiming it to be the part of religion? How many people have you seen calling a Peer, if it rains on marriages and tell them to stop rain. Inna lillaahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon. If we start talking about the innovations in religion and the deviance of the people especially in Kashmir, there will be a book published and it will be minimum 3-4 volumes. You are either ignorant of the fact, or too energetic to blam Salafia and are turning you eye blind on the fact!

Regarding Allaah subhaanwa t'ala sending 1 Lac 24 Thousand messengers to mankind is to tell them the code of life. Inform commoners like you and me what is good and what is bad, they were sent to tell us how to worship Allaah subhanahu wa’tala. Don’t you remember when Companions R.A were commanded to recite Darood on our beloved Prophet salaalaahu alyhiwasalam, they didn’t go and invent the darood; rather they came to Prophet salaalaahu alayhiwa’salam and said what should we recite oh Rasoolullaah salaalaahu alayhiwa’salam and our beloved Prophet salaalaahu alayhiwa’salam did not even invented it himself, He salaalaahu alayhiwa’salam waited and when Jibreel ameen A.S revealed then Prophet salaalaahu alayhiwa’salam informed his blessed Companions R.A and then they started reciting it in their salaah .We are trying to emphasise the same fact, that follow what Prophet salallahu Alyhiwasalam commanded and stay away from what He salallahu Alyhiwasalam forbade. Stick to His salallahu Alyhiwasalam's Sunnah and hold to it, like the He salallahu Alyhiwasalam gave his final sermon on Hajj'at ul Wada saying " I am leaving 2 sources behind me, the book of Allaah subhaanah'u wat'ala and my Sunnah, so stick to it, so that you will not go Astray" and in other narrations you will see He salallahu Alyhiwasalam saying stick to it with your molar teeth and Alhamdulillaah that is what the Dawah of Salafiyah is all about. We are also saying give due respect to His salallahu Alyhiwasalam Sunnah by following him in every aspect of life, by taking His salallahu Alyhiwasalam sunnah as an authority, by leaving the Innovations invented by the worst people of mankind and discarding them forever and reviving the sunnah of our beloved Prophet salallahu Alyhiwasalam, by giving preference and not even thinking about following a Fatwa, but rather following his salallahu Alyhiwasalam's Sunnah.

Again, Prophets and Messengers are infallible and that’s why they should be followed and in fact mankind has no other option but to follow the last Prophet salallahu Alyhiwasalam.

Regarding Salafi's weaking the religion of Islam, then your judgement is Biased and I would rather say, go and do some research on Salafia, by not just going to your scholars only. By inshallaah first verifying the tenets of Islam from a Salafi scholar and your scholar and then getting to the Fiqhi differences and then Inshallaah I would love to hear from you, about your opinion about Salafiah!

I am not a scholar and not even a talib-ull-Ilm. But I swear, I sat with many scholars of different Masalak and I swear again by the oneness of Allaah subhanuwa t'ala, I did not see anything like Salafiyah. It’s the Masalak of first 3 generations and its Haqq. There is nothing like it!

I have seen scholars with long beard and the dress of Sunnah on them and guess what, I have seen them lying about Salafiyah and blaming them for creating division in Ummaah. But I would rather quote the saying of Imaam Darul Hijrah, the great Imaam of Medina, Imaam Malik ibn Anas R.H said " Ikhtilaaf is not contradicting someone, rather Ikhtilaaf is contradicting the Quran and the Sunnah" So lets learn the 2 sources i.e. Quran and the Sunnah and see who is contradicting!

Inshallaah if you are a person of sound intellect, you will surely start finding the truth and will strive for the hereafter, rather blogging and posting posts here like ME!

May Allaah subhaanahu wa'tala guide you and me and all the Muslims to truth and establish us all on the Manhaj of Salaf and save us from contradicting them, because contradicting all the Salaf is the way directly to Fire, like Imaam Malik R.H has said.

Wasalaam

AA,Dear don't be too emotional that you will commit mistakes while replying to my earlier post, my basic conflict with salfist is they claim we are best (like a Rin detergent)only Allah know who is the best among us like and more ever Allah has power to declare who is jananti or janami and your purpose of post was very much defeated when you wrote "contradicting all the Salaf is the way directly to Fire, like Imaam Malik R.H has said".we never contradict salaf but today's "salfist" are not salaf .
if you read Memoirs Of Mr. Hempher, The British Spy To The Middle East or Confessions of a British Spy this were mine mind wobbles about today's "salfist"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_Of_Mr._Hempher,_The_British_Spy_To_The_Middle_East

I appeal to followers of all the sects please keep your holier-than-thou attitude to yourselves. Too much of religion has never done any society any good. Please focus on making the lives of your families and children better. Give them better education, good values and virtues and guide them into taking up path that can bring our community a better name. This will be achieved only through investments in decent education and instilling a work ethic. We might sport beards and follow other rituals of our religion, but ask yourselves are we good human beings, do we fulfill our rights to our society and neighbors. Look at the ugliness around you, how our society has fallen morally. Drug abuse, alcoholism, prostitution, fraud, cheating, we excel in everything. Yet, we still pretend to be pious and holy. I believe good education is the only way to come out of this mess. For Muslims to achieve a level of parity with westerners and other peoples of the world, Indians and Chinese, we have to apply our brains to a scientific way of life. That alone will bring us glory in this world and the hereafter. Because, I am sure God would look kindly on those people who contribute to human progress and not those who spent hours debating the finer points of theology, which I am sure, even the Maulanas don't understand.
Allah have mercy on us all. Ameen

it is so soothing to read what arif jamal kachroo (are we related?, sure we are descendants of the same ancestors !) has written above. this is exactly my reply to al kindi and his likes.

Walikum asalaam, Well I am a human and infallable at the same time; so pardon my mistakes habibi!!! No salafi claims that he is a Janati and if anyone claims, then he/she is a fool. Because Allaah subhanahu wa t'ala will decide Jannah and Jahanum, but sticking to sunnah means your closeness to Jannah and innovating in religion means closeness to hellfire, like Imaam Malik R.H said when he heard Umar Ibn Abdul aziz obligating fire for the person who contradicts sunnah. Shhh, think about refuting this statement, its from the 2 great scholars of their time and the Muahdetheen have attested to greatness in the books Rijaal!!!

Moreover, if you are a good reader, which I am very sure you are. You will find in my posts the same purpose that I started my very first post with [Manhaj of the salaf and its emphasis in our lives], its still living in my posts here and in my life as well inshallaah and my purpose will not be defeated.

I never said we are Salaf, I said we are the ones who take all the Salaf as a role model and not just one person!

Regarding Memoirs_Of_Mr._Hempher, I must first laugh a lot. You are an educated person perhaps and I dont need to say that Wiki or Google is not an authority, rather controlled by INterNic, which in turn is part of the big gang, which was a project of DARPA and shhh again, DARPA is an advanced research dept. for United States, big brains work overthere and they know what to post and what not, it works on the policies of US Defence!!!. Also, if you are oh so TRUTHFUL, can you please quote any of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahaabs opinion which contradicts Quran and Sunnah? I bet you cant, because he never left 2 sources!

I didnt wanted to mention this, but as you are oh so vorocious in attacking us, because of your personal prejudice. Guess who was the chief guest in India's biggest institute for islamic studies in UP [I wont mention the name of the exact insitute] Because people will laugh at the likes of you, including yourself! Answer is "INDRA GANDHI, Guess which institute is mentioned in British Parliment, stating that they have no issues with their way of following religion, Answer is the Islamic Institute in UP[I wont name it again, U have enough brains to decrypt it]. Guess which islamic institute gets offical holiday on 26 Jan. Shhh, damn it its again the same institute. Yay, you must be happy, you have scored all the 3. Lucky You!

Regarding you not contradicting Salaf, its a joke that makes me ROFL. Because you are contradicting your statements. Read your statement posted on Post number 18. Read it loud may be you will understand what you have written.




"18 | DR FAROOQ AHMAD WANI
@DR FAROOQ AHMAD WANI for your kind information no true Muslim in Kashmir worships graves, Dasteer sahib (RA) never visited Kashmir so at his shrine`s in Srinagar people visit to get blessing and offer prayer ,so where are we wrong?
— posted 05/05/2012 at 17:20 by Niyaz"

So who from our blessed Salaf went to get blessings from a Concrete, because you mentioned there is no grave and if there would have been a grave also, they wont get any blessings. Because a dead person never benefits the one living.

Check the danger of asking blessing from a grave :

That they (the Mushrikeen) say:
“We do not call upon and turn towards them except to seek nearness and intercession (i.e.-with Allah)”. So the proof against seeking this nearness (through others, like Awliyyah) is the saying of the Most High:
{And those who you take awliyyah besides Him (they say): ‘We worship them only that they may bring us near to Allah.” Verily, Allah will judge between them concerning that wherein they differ. Truly, Allah guides not him who is a liar, and a disbeliever.} Az Zumar (39):3
And the proof of (i.e.-against) intercession (through Awliyyah) is the saying of the Most High: {And they worship besides Allah things that hurt them not, nor profit them, and they say: “These are our intercessors with Allah.”} Yunus (10):18

and......

Hadith of Abu Waaqid Al Laythee رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ who said: “We departed with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to Hunayn and we had recently left kufr (disbelief). The Mushrikeen (polytheists) used to have a tree they used to devote themselves to and hang their weapons upon, they called it Dhat Anwaat. So we passed by a tree and we said: ‘Ya Rasoolullah appoint for us a Dhat Anwaat like they have a Dhat Anwaat.’
So the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said: ‘Allahu Akbar! By Him in Whose Hand is my soul, verily you have said just s the Bani Isra’eel said to Moosaa:
{Appoint for us a god, just like they have gods, he (Moosaa) said: Verily you are an ignorant people.} Al ‘Araaf (7):138
Verily you will follow the ways of those before you.’ ”

... Now who is contradicting Salaf and bragging "We Are Not, We Are Not!!!"

----- Lastly, I am not blaming you of shirk or kufr, your deeds are with your lord and so are mine and I dont know how much your adherence to the Manhak of Salaf is, but as your earlier post contradicted your latest post, I had to point it out for YOU!

Dear, Ms. Asha, we might or might not be related is not important but, what is important is we agree on the need for speaking up against this frighteningly growing tendency of our fellow Muslims taking up upon themselves the right of speaking for Islam and, that too in such extreme fashion of denouncing those who disagree with their worldview and calling them heretics. We need to speak out against all these movements that are being aided and funded by India, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to spread their crazy ideologies in our motherland.

Aa

This what i was trying to make Mr abdullah understand that these neo groups are offshoots of intelligence agencies like, moosad,CIA and RAW they want to work in disguise etc
just to divide us and malign our rich culture of Kashmir which is based on true Islamic fundamentals
so please try to make him understand ......reality of salfist in kashmir

Walikum asalaam,

It again makes me laugh. Firstly, I know the reality of Salafia in kashmir and I am not ignorant of it; mashallaah they all are trying to follow the pure religion and are shunning every innovation!

Regarding all the agencies being behind Salafia/Deoband/Barelvia/Sufia/Naqshbandhia etc. etc. makes me think that there is not any other sect in kashmir, that I know of. So which pure religion in kashmir are you talking about then, in case the mentioned agencies in your post are behind these groups/sects? So what is the name of the sect/ideology that kashmiris are following and the agencies mentioned above are not backing them?

Asalaam alikum Arif,

Its very unfortunate that people have lots of misconception about the dawah of Salafia, I would again repeat myself by saying " Know Salafia, before condemning them" and that would be much better. I am not saying that Salafia is the group who have the direct ticket to paradise. But you need to look into each and every groups ideology and methodology as well, before you go and get a your tins of paint and start branding/marking different sects! Declaring groups correct/wrong based on your perception or because of the black sheep in the group. Rather, you need to yourself learn the different sciences of religion and then check who is correct or atleast know the ideology/methodology of the group and then decide, who can be more close to truth.

Salafia try their level best to stick to Quran/Sunnah on the methodology of first 3 blessed generations. We try to stick to both the sources, so that we wont deviate from the path laid and shown by our beloved Prophet salallaahu alyhiwa'salam. Let me know, if you know of better role model than Him salaalaahu alayhiwa'salam.

Moreover, Salafia is branding good and evil only that, which is proven from both the sources to be good or evil and in case of doubtful matters, one needs to chose something that is not wavering in ones chest and that is the sign of Taqwaa. So stick to 2 sources and victory and recompense is with Allaah subhaanahu wa'tala.

i think the writer needs to understand the quran & hadith but he want to do poltics on the quran & hadith for this on the day of judgement Allah will make him stand for this reason & will be punished becoz he utilizes his intellect against the ullemai rabani & its very easy to comment frm usa rather to stay here & sort out the probls which u think r existing in kashmir

The Author lacks the Islamic knowledge . one of the brother rightly said that we should learn and read quran for any information..

this is what islam is all about..provide a single line which is against quran n sunnah told by sheikh al - kindi..the author has no knowledge of islam...

when i was reading this article i cudnt stop my self from laughing that for a publicity in Kashmir what this tariq mir has done,i know shiekh alkindi from last 6 years and what i can say is that he is a great Islamic personality in Kashmir but unfortunately as history repeats itself some black sheeps always tried to malign the ulemas and it was in past and itz in present also...i am from Srinagar and i knw shikeh alkindi very well he is just spreading the true faith and spirit of Islam but there are some people who are jealous of him,may allah give tem hidayah and give health and safety to ur shiekh....

The Origins of Shirk


From that which has been established in the Sharee'ah (prescribed law) is that mankind was - in the beginning - a single nation upn true Tawheed, then Shirk (directing any part or form of worship, or anything else that is solely the right of Allaah, to other than Allaah) gradually overcame them. The basis for this is the saying of Allaah - the Most Blessed, the Most High:

"Mankind was one Ummah, then Allaah sent prophets bringing good news and warnings." (Soorah Baqarah 2:213)

Ibn 'Abbaas - radiallaahu 'anhu - said: "Between Nooh (Noah) and Adam were ten generations, all of them were upon Sharee'ah (law) of the truth, then they differed. So Allaah sent prophets as bringers of good news and as warners." [2]

Ibn 'Urwah al-Hanbalee (d.837 H) said: "This saying refutes those historians from the People of the Book who claim that Qaabil (Cain) and his sons were fire-worshippers." [3]

I say: In it is also a refutation of some of the philosophers and athists who claim that the (natural) basis of man is Shirk, and that Tawheed evolved in man! The preceeding aayah (verse) falsifies this claim, as do the two following authentic hadith:

Firstly: His (the prophet sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) saying that he related from his Lord (Allaah) : "I created all my servants upon the true Religion (upon Tawheed, fre from Shirk). Then the devils came to them and led them astray from their true Religion. They made unlawful to people that which I had made lawful for them, and they commanded them to associate in worship with Me, that which I had sent down no authority." [4]

Secondly: His (the prophet sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) saying: "Every child is born upon the Fitrah [5] but his parents make him a jew or a christian or a magian. It is like the way an animal gives birth to a natural offspring. have you noticed any born mutilated, before you mutilate them."

Abu Hurayrah said: Recite if you wish: "Allaah's fitrah with which He created mankind. There is to be no change to the creation (Religion) of Allaah." (Soorah ar-Rum 30:30) [6]

After this clear explanation, it is of the upmost importance for the Muslim to know how Shirk spread amongst the believers, after they were muwahhideen (people upon Tawheed). Concerning the saying of Allaah - the most perfect - about the people of Nooh:

"And they have said : You shall not forsake your gods, nor shall you forsake Wadd, nor Suwaa', nor Yaghooth, nor Ya'ooq, nor Nasr." (Soorah Nooh 71:23)

It has been related by a group from the Salaf (Pious Predecessors), in many narrations, that these five deities were righteous worshippers. However, when they died, Shaytaan (Satan) whispered into their people to retreat and sit at their graves. Then Shaytaan whispered to those who came after them that they should take them as idols, beautifying to them the idea that you will be reminded of them and thereby follow them in righteous conduct. Then Shaytaan suggested to the third generation that they should worship these idols besides Allaah - the most high - and he whispered to them that this is what their forefathers used to do!!!

So Allaah sent to them Nooh alayhis-salaam, commanding them to worship Allaah alone. However none responded to hiscall except a few. Allaah - the mighty and majestic - related this whole incident in Soorah Nooh Ibn 'Abbas relates: "Indeed these five names of righteous men from the people of Nooh. When they died Shataan whispered to their people to make statues of them and to place these statues in their places of gathering as a reminder of them, so they did this. However, none from amongst them worshipped these statues, until when they died and the purpose of the statues was forgotten. Then (the next generation) began to worship them."[7]

The likes of this has also been related by Ibn Jareer at-Tabaree and others, from a number of the salaf (Pious Predecessors) - radiallaahu 'anhum. In ad-Durral-Manthoor (6/269): 'Abdullaah ibn Humaid relates from Abu Muttahar, who said: Yazeed ibn al-Muhallab was mentioned to Abu Ja'far al-Baaqir (d.11H), so he said: He was killed at the place where another besides Allaah was first worshipped. Then he mentioned Wadd and said: "Wadd was a Muslim man who was loved by his people. When he died, the people began to gather around his grave in the land of Baabil (Babel), lamenting and mourning. So when Iblees (Satan) saw them mourning and lamenting over him, he took the form of a man and came to them, saying : I see that you are mourning and lamenting over him. So why don't you make a picture of him (i.e. a statue) and place it in your places of gatherings so that you maybe reminded of him. So they said: Yes, and they made a picture of him and put in their place of gathering; which reminded them of him. When Iblees saw how they were (excessively) remembering him, he said : "Why doesn't every man amongst you make a similar picture to keep in your own houses, so that you can be (constantly) reminded of him." So they all said "yes". So each household made a picture of him, which they adored and venerated and which constantly reminded them of him. Abu Ja'far said: "Those from the later generation saw what the (pevious generation) had done and considered that........to the extent that they took him as an ilah (diety) to be worshipped besides Allaah. He then said :" This was the first idol worshipped other than Allaah, and they called this idol Wadd"[8]

Thus the wisdom of Allaah - the Blessed, the Most High - was fufilled, when he sent Muhammed sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam as the final prophet and made his Sharee'ah the completion of all divinely Prescribed Laws, in that He prohibited all means and avenues by which people may fall into Shirk - which is the greatest of sins. For this reason, building shrines over graves and intending to specifically travel to them, taking them as places of festivity and gathering and swearing an oath by the inmate of a grave; have all been prohibited. All of these lead to excessiveness and lead to the worship of other than Allaah - the Most High.

This being the case even more so in an age in which knowledge is diminishing, ignorance is increasing, thre are few sincere advisors ( to the truth) and shaytaan is co-operating with men and jinn to misguide mankind and to take them away from the worship of Allaah alone - the Blessed, the Most High.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOOTNOTES:

1. Tahdheerus-Saajid min Ittikhaadhil-Quboori Masaajid (pp.101-106)

2. Related by Ibn Jareer at-Tabaree in his tafseer (4/275) and al-Haakim (2/546) who said: "It is authentic according to the criterion of al-Bukhari." Adh-Dhahabee also agreed.

3. Al-Khawaakibud-Duraaree fee Tarteeb Musnadul-Imaam Ahmad'alaa Abwaabil-Bukhaaree (6/212/1), still in manuscript form.

4. Related by Muslim (8/159) and Ahmad (4/162) from 'Iyaadh ibn Himaar al-Mujaashi'ee radiallaahu 'anhu

5. [From the Editors] Ibn-al-Atheer said in an-Nihaayah (3/457): "Al-Fitr: means to begin and create, and al-Fitrah is the condition resulting from it. The meaning is that mankind were born upona disposition and a nature which is ready to accept the true Religion. So if he were to be left upon this, then he would continue upon it. However, those who deviate from this do so due to following human weaknesses and blind following of others....." Al-Haafidh Ibn Hajar said in Al-Fath (3/248): "The people differ concerning what is meant by al-Fitrah and the most famous saying is that it means Islaam. Ibn 'abdul-Barr said: That is what was well known with most of the salaf (pious predecessors), and the scholars of tafseer are agreed that what is meant by the saying of Allaah - the Most High - "Allaah's fitrah wiht which He created mankind." is Islaam

6. Related by Al-Bukhaaree (11/418) and Muslim (18/52)

7. Related by al-Bukhaaree (8/534)

8. Related by Ibn Abee Haatim also, as is in al-Kawaakibud-Duraaree (6/112/2) of Ibn 'Urwah al-Hanbalee, along with an isnaad which is Hasan, up to Abu Muttahar. However, no biography could be found for him, neither in ad-Dawlaabee's al-Kunaa wal-Asmaa, nor Muslim's al-Kunaa, nor any one elses. And the hidden defect here is that he is from the Shee'ah, but his biography is not included in at-Toosee's al-Kunaa -- from the index of Shee'ah narrators.

i'm really sad by reading this post
@Tariq you should know the islam first then you'll know about the islam preacher like al kindi. He is teaching nothing but quran and hadith.
You posted this because you want to modify islam. But we love islam as it is showed by our beloved prophet s.a.w
And the salfi scholars are doing the right path as myself when read about their teachings i loved it as i found it real islam with authentic source from quran and sunnah.
You should better read it and read the Holy book Al Quran.
May Allah the almighty show you the best and right path. Ameen

Praise be to Allaah.

The Salafis are the followers of the way of the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and his Companions, because they are the ones who came before us (the Salaf) and who advanced ahead of us, so their followers are the Salafis.

Each person is obliged to
follow the guidance of the
Messenger of Allaah (peace
and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) and his
Companions. This is the way of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-
Jamaa’ah and the followers
of the righteous
predecessors (al-salaf al-
saalih). Allaah says
(interpretation of the meanings): “Say (O Muhammad): ‘This is my way; I invite unto Allaah with sure knowledge, I and whosoever follows me with sure knowledge. And Glorified and Exalted be Allaah (above all that they associate as partners with Him). And I am not of the mushrikeen (polytheists… those who worship others along with Allaah or set up rivals or partners to Allaah).” [Yoosuf 12:108] “And whoever contradicts and opposes the Messenger
(Muhammad) after the right path has been shown clearly to him, and follows other than the believers’ way, We shall keep him in the oath he has chosen, and burn him in Hell – what an evil destination!” [al- Nisa’ 4:115]

If a person calls himself a
Salafi to express his
gratitude for having been
guided to this way, or to
clearly distinguish himself
from innovation, then this is OK and is allowed in
Islam. But if he says it only
for the purpose of praising
himself, then this is not
allowed, because Allaah
says (interpretation of the meaning): “… therefore
justify not
yourselves…” [al-Najm
53:32 –

Abû Hurayrah relates that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “Islam began strange, and it will become strange again just like it was at the beginning, so blessed are the strangers.” [Sahîh Muslim (1/130)]

`Amr b. `Awf relates that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “The religion will shrink back to the Hijâz like the snake shrinks back into its hole. It will cling to the Hijâz like the mountain goat clings to the mountaintop. The religion began strange, and it will become strange again just like it was at the beginning, so blessed are the strangers who restore what the people corrupt of my Sunnah.” [Sunan al-Tirmidhî (#2630)] Al-Tirmidhî grades it as good and authentic (hasan sahîh).

`Abd Allah b. `Amr b. al-`As relates that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him), said one day when the Companions were with him: “Blessed are the strangers.” He was then asked: “Who are the strangers, O Messenger of Allah?” He replied: “They are righteous people among many evil people who disobey them more than they obey them.” [Musnad Ahmad (2/177 & 2/222) and Ibn al-Mubârak, Kitâb al-Zuhd (#775 p. 267)]

This hadîth has reached us in many ways with both complete and incomplete chains of transmission. Some scholars have graded this hadîth as well-known (mashhûr) or even mutawâtir.

The hadîth tells us that a time will come when person, on account of his uprightness in knowledge and in deed, finds few who agree with him but many who disagree with him and ridicule him. When he calls the people to what he is on, he gets few followers.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) made this meaning clear when, after being asked about the strangers, he said: “They are righteous people among many evil people who disobey them more than they obey them.”

This estrangement is typified by the small number of those who assist in doing right and the paucity of those who answer the call to Allah.

Another aspect of this estrangement is the difficulty faced by the one who attempts to travel on the straight path without stumbling. Evil and iniquity will continue to increase and righteousness will continue to decrease as the time between the people and the era of prophethood grows longer. It will become more and more difficult to achieve anything of benefit without getting involved in something detrimental as well. It will also be difficult to do what is best, due to the great number of impediments that discourage a person from trying.

And Allah knows best. .

One who has written this article is a spiteful, shameful unscrupulous and baised person who has no idea of the facts.Has he got even a trivial knowledge of what salafi dawah is about? I am sure he is a Murid of some saints grave which is why he is so found of "Grave worship" . If following the Qur'an and authetic sunnah has got something to with "Terrorism" then terrorist i am. If worshipping dead graves is being on "peace path" then peaceful i am not. I am sure he has written this article to gain appreciation from his Qadyani or Rafzi masters which was quite evident through out the topic. West wants Muslim to be dead like corpses who do nothing even if the honour of their sisters is shattered in public so what fine way can their be than promoting grave worship which spoils the seed of Tawheed and eventually turn people into impotents who then possess no courage and People like Tariq Mir are the one who sell their conscience and help islamophobes fulfil their motto by pointing finger towrads Prophet(pbuh) by means of pointing finger towards Prophet's true Manhaj.

One who has written this article is a spiteful, shameful unscrupulous and baised person who has no idea of the facts.Has he got even a trivial knowledge of what salafi dawah is about? I am sure he is a Murid of some saints grave which is why he is so found of "Grave worship" . If following the Qur'an and authetic sunnah has got something to with "Terrorism" then terrorist i am. If worshipping dead graves is being on "peace path" then peaceful i am not. I am sure he has written this article to gain appreciation from his Qadyani or Rafzi masters which was quite evident through out the topic. West wants Muslim to be dead like corpses who do nothing even if the honour of their sisters is shattered in public so what fine way can their be than promoting grave worship and innovations which spoils the seed of Tawheed and eventually turn people into impotents who then possess no courage and People like Tariq Mir are the one who sell their conscience and help islamophobes fulfil their motto by pointing finger towrads Prophet(pbuh) by means of pointing finger towards Prophet's true Manhaj.

Dear Tariq sir, I always admired your reporting. Now with these reports my respect for you has only gone up. By the way, i am also uploading another piece of his here, Kashmir: from Sufi to Salfi.

The jihadi campaign in Kashmir appears to be on its last legs, but it has left behind a troubling legacy in the shape of a rising Salafism that is in conflict with the state’s centuries-old Sufi traditions.
BY TARIQ MIR
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ABID BHAT
ILLUSTRATION BY KARTHIKEYAN R
One sunny afternoon in April last year, Maulvi Showkat Ahmed Shah, controversial head of Jamiat-e-ahle Hadith, local moniker for hardline Salafis in Jammu and Kashmir, was walking along a crowded bazaar of Islamic bookstores, automobile spare parts, barbecue and electrical goods in an old and dilapidated locality of Srinagar, the capital.
The drains overflowing with human waste, mounds of garbage and a jumble of tightly crammed box-like houses with rusty tin roofs were as wretched as the snow-topped ridges of the Himalayas surrounding it were majestic. Its maze of narrow alleys was the place where nearly 50 people were killed in January 1990 when state troops fired on demonstrators demanding that Indians leave Kashmir.
More than two decades later, the sense of siege was still strong. Sandbagged bunkers, loops of barbed wire and armoured vehicles mounted with machine guns ringed the neighbourhood as if it was a prison camp.
On this Friday, as he had done for nearly ten years, Shah, a wiry and mild-mannered man in the mid-fifties, wearing a frizzy beard, fur cap and long tunic over baggy trousers strode past the soldiers, stopping on occasion to shake hands with deferential traders shutting their businesses for his Friday sermon. As loudspeakers atop the minarets of mosques in the area hummed with the voices of worshippers at prayer, Shah, leaving his two armed guards behind, turned into an alleyway towards the back door of a Salafi mosque, a route he had always followed.
A bicycle placed near the door didn’t seem to trouble him, much less warn him of impending danger. As he took his first step into the doorway, a heavy explosion from a remote-controlled bomb rigged to the bicycle knocked him down, shrapnel shredding his body. Shah, a survivor of earlier assassination bids, died on the way to a city hospital.

For the natives of Kashmir, no strangers to bloodshed, the murder of the head of a growing religious movement was a step too far, an “unholy deed” made all the more unconscionable by the spilling of blood at the mosque door on the Muslim Sabbath.
Condemnation of the murder was fast and wide. In an atmosphere of anger and suspicion, the authorities—already besieged by allegations of complicity in the killing—announced the arrests of six men, estranged comrades of Shah in the Salafi movement. According to police, the detained men, in collaboration with Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani jihadi group active in Kashmir for the last two decades and blamed for the Mumbai carnage in 2008, plotted the murder of the cleric. Lashkar, whose cadres follow Salafi Islam, said its own probe found “the killers within us” murdered Shah. Many viewed this not as a public apology or admission of guilt but a blunt warning that betrayal of the Islamist struggle in Kashmir would be met with force.
Shah, a scion of one of the notable Salafi families in Kashmir, was in the eyes of some Salafis responsible for an act of unforgivable perfidy: he forswore his loyalty to the fight for liberating Kashmir from “idolatrous” India, and made peace. He changed from fiery Salafi orator and jihadi commander in the early 1990s to head, ten years later, of a more than one-million-strong group aiming to cut its ties to the resistance.
“ Shah, a scion of one of the notable Salafi families in Kashmir, was in the eyes of some Salafis responsible for an act of unforgivable perfidy: he forswore his loyalty to the fight for liberating Kashmir from India, and made peace. He changed from fiery Salafi orator and jihadi commander in the early 1990s to head, ten years later, of a more than one-million-strong group aiming to cut its ties to the resistance.”
Shah was sitting astride a divide that few in Kashmir’s bloody history have succeeded in navigating. The explosive combination of politics and a militant Islam that he encouraged fuelled a radical movement infused with jihad, intolerance, radicalism and a contemptuous disregard for Kashmir’s nearly 700-yearold tradition of Sufi Islam, whose practices are offensive to the puritans.
The introduction of the Salafi school in Kashmir goes back nearly a hundred years but such was the belief in the local traditions of Sufi Islam that the puritans remained on the remote fringes of Kashmir’s religious and cultural life. That began to change as the insurgency gathered force from 1989. A struggle for a separate homeland featuring mass protests, acts of sabotage, hit and run attacks against military units and Kashmiri Pandits was met with force.
Soon, hordes of Pakistan-trained jihadi groups, fresh from their success against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan, hijacked the local sentiment for aazadi (freedom), transforming the struggle into a continuation of their holy war for an Islamic caliphate. Local Islamists like Maulvi Showkat helped, playing on the fears of the people on how the massive army presence was fast erasing Kashmir’s Muslim identity, and how their only hope lay in joining the holy war for establishing a universal community of believers. They found wide acceptance for this kind of radical Islam, unheard of before in Kashmir.
For decades now, Kashmiris have harboured this existential fear of becoming culturally homogenised into a larger India, a fear that stemmed from its lost political autonomy that successive governments in New Delhi undermined after it joined India at Partition.
By 2002 and the years that followed, New Delhi through a combination of force and diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to stop its covert support of jihadis in Kashmir, had quelled the insurgency, killing and arresting many. But militant Islam took root in the cultural landscape. Shah, sensing the change and eager to preserve the theological creed of his sect focused on preaching conservative values, building hundreds of madarsas and mosques, setting up social welfare centres but stopping short of rebuilding ties to the jihadi groups. All this was possible thanks to the petrodollars that Saudi Arabia, the home of Salafi Islam, was pouring into Kashmir while New Delhi looked the other way.
The material assistance was complemented by training hundreds of young men in the Islamist discourse in many universities of Saudi Arabia and sending tons of free Islamist literature. All this while a suspicion that Shah was a pawn in the hands of Indian security agencies was gaining ground, a political transgression which was reason enough for Salafi extremists to plot his assassination.

The rise of this doctrinaire sect has raised a host of questions. Is Kashmir making a cultural shift toward a more hardline Islam at a time when the larger region is so convulsed by Islamic radicalism? What will become of its cultural traditions that for centuries have defined Kashmir’s unique identity in the region? Has the Central government’s refusal to offer political concessions brightened the appeal of militant Islam? How might unorganised believers of Sufi Islam wrestle with foreign cultural practices in an age of satellite television, free media and travel? Or will Sufism soften this hard faith as well, serving as a lesson to the larger region riven by Islamic extremism?
“ Is Kashmir making a cultural shift toward a more hardline Islam? What will become of its cultural traditions that for centuries have defined Kashmir’s unique identity in the region? How might unorganised believers of Sufi Islam wrestle with foreign cultural practices in an age of satellite television, free media and travel? Or will Sufism soften this hard faith as well.”
Noorbagh is a suburb in the northeastern corner of Srinagar—a few miles from where Shah was killed—spread out along the willowy banks of the Jhelum. A narrow, broken alley leads to the gates of an outsize Salafi mosque with a large dome and minaret soaring over the rooftops of houses whose open windows look on its fenced-in compound. The structure, grey and all concrete, is among nearly 700 places of worship Salafis have built in neighbourhoods like Noorbagh all over Kashmir.
In a typical old Kashmiri neighbourhood, your association with a particular mosque was scarcely a measure of your sectarian belief.
But that was before the Salafis.
In their world the purity of the faith cannot be tainted by impure polytheistic practices of Sufi Islam, so only a separate place of worship can secure this puritan sensibility.
One warm Friday last fall, the three floors of the mosque were packed with mostly young worshippers of varied social backgrounds.They awaited in silence the arrival of Abdul Lateef al-Kindi, Kashmir’s Salafi poster boy. A plump and priggish man of 46, al-Kindi has a thick salt-and-pepper beard, and a reputation for controversy with his deeply polarising views. His popularity comes from having lived and studied in Saudi Arabia for 18 years, where he earned a PhD in Islamic studies.
Like many graduates of the Islamic University of Medina, he goes by his nickname, al–Kindi. It’s a growing trend; young Salafis in Kashmir adopt an Arabic-sounding moniker to show their proximity to Islam’s birthplace. Al-Kindi is the lone doctor of divinity, but about 200 other graduates from the university help him reinforce the puritan creed. They not only preach in their mosques but are also schooling a new generation of students in a narrow interpretation of the faith at a madarsa in Srinagar.
In days gone by, religious instruction was invested in a hereditary pir, a religious figure endowed with holiness, either by his lineage traced to the Prophet Muhammad or because of his interpretations of the religious text. In the new socio-religious order, though, al-Kindi is instructing his followers to interpret the Quran and the traditions of the Prophet for themselves. This, in the view of many, is shaping new attitudes that challenge the traditional and is making the ground fertile for sectarian divisions.
A mile or so north of al-Kindi’s mosque an ugly brawl broke out in Palpora in October last year. A few families who had adopted Salafi ways in recent years were beginning to assert the primacy of their creed in the locality. Young men bustling with the zeal of new converts and encouraged by their clerics were questioning the authenticity of certain traditions followed by the majority of worshippers of the Hanafi school, a tradition compatible with Sufi Islam. The irony lay in the fact that that a few years earlier, these Salafis saw nothing wrong in the practices they were railing against now.
Police stepped in to defuse tensions and many separatist leaders went to the area to restore calm.
The Salafis broke away from the community, setting up a makeshift mosque in a nearby apple orchard.
Al-Kindi strides past the rows of men to the recess in the front wall, mounting the pulpit behind the carved lectern. He loses no time laying out his vision of Islam for Kashmir: a total break with the past is a religious imperative to build a pious society of believers evoking the spirit of Islam observed 14 centuries ago in the Prophet’s time.
The Salafi worldview that the centuries-old Kashmiri tradition of venerating the tombs and relics of saints is outside the pale of Islam, belonging instead to Greek and Hindu mythologies, is the sort of iconoclasm that is typical of a Salafi in Kashmir. To become a “real Muslim” both the body and the soul have to be cleansed of the sins of the past before it is imbued with the true and pure faith. It matters little that traditions are intertwined in the tapestry of social and cultural life.
The exquisitely built mausoleums and shrines were not just a place of contemplation, they served as centres of craftsmanship and community centres in times of economic trouble, a sanctuary in times of political persecution. More importantly, they were monuments to the memory of the saints whose spiritual powers had healed people in distress and formed the bonds of brotherhood.
Al-Kindi’s sermon is a measure of the boundaries of acceptable behaviour that a Salafi cleric can violate. It’s all right to ridicule the local tradition of visiting the mausoleum of a saint, whip worshippers into a frenzy over Western aggression in Muslim lands, decry the acceptance of Western values, and blast Palestinians for living like Jews.
Yet he isn’t willing to take talk of home. He cleverly skirts the problems in his backyard, as if life is but a long dream in Kashmir. A few months earlier the head of their movement was killed in a bomb explosion by his cohorts; less than a year before, more than 100 young men died in demonstrations against the security forces, when troops fired at stone-throwing protestors in a six-month-long standoff in the summer of 2010.
A few of the dead came from the area where al-Kindi delivers his Friday sermon. For many Salafi adherents it is like an act of treachery—talking about everything under the sun but remaining silent on Kashmir’s travails.
Many feel it is a glaring contradiction in a movement that for years openly confronted the Centre. In return for their silence, the Salafis are free to preach their sectarian theology, benefiting from an unrestricted flow of Saudi petrodollars.
While researching this story, I kept meeting young Salafis complaining how a police official, posing as a Salafi, was being used to keep tabs on the “internal workings” of the movement. I received a telephone call myself one morning from one of the top office-bearers of Jamiat ahle-e-Hadith suggesting I meet a police officer, a Salafi follower.
On a cool October morning, I meet Mohammad Irshad, a 38-old police officer wearing a striped blue shirt and denims. He has a self-possessed manner. Clean-shaven Irshad, an oddity for a Salafi who as a trademark wear long beards, is part of the security apparatus fighting the Pakistan-supported jihadis in Kashmir. He is a self-confessed Salafi. He doesn’t see a contradiction in this; he believes that the “extremist elements” within the movement are encouraging a political confrontation but the current leadership is concentrating on preaching their puritan faith.
To him, jihadi groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba are a “perversion of the Salafi school of thought.” It was the political aspect of his beliefs that put him at odds with others in the Islamist movement.
For some Salafis, it isn’t just doctrinal primacy that is alluring, but also the chances of social mobility. Al-Kindi’s ascent is a testament to it. He was raised in a remote and poor area of southeastern Kashmir. Transport, healthcare, safe drinking water and electricity were scarce. For him it must have opened up a world of opportunities when, after madarsa in Srinagar, he was recommended by the Salafi leadership for higher religious education to Saudi Arabia.
In the five years since his return, he’s been a star attraction at large gatherings held to recruit fresh members, a permanent fixture on television discussions of Islamic theology, a popular teacher at a Salafi college in Srinagar, where nearly 200 students from low income families are studying to be clerics.
In the afternoon we drive to al-Kindi’s rented apartment in a relatively prosperous locality of big houses with fenced-in compounds, stretching along the barbed wire-topped boundary wall of a sprawling army camp smack in the centre of the city. The three-room flat is temporary accommodation for his family; he is building a house in a new suburb of Srinagar.
In Kashmir, families prefer a spacious house with a walled garden and a small kitchen garden at the back. Apartment blocks have never met with approval. But constructing even a modest house is becoming difficult as the price of real estate in Srinagar explodes. But al-Kindi is managing well.
We sit on plastic garden chairs inside his makeshift library of Islamic jurisprudence and history. A book on the Saudi royal family is displayed proudly on a shelf. Al-Kindi does not hide his admiration for the custodians of the Salafi school. I ask why the sect is gaining in popularity.
“Then, we didn’t have the support we have now,” he says fingering his two cell phones. He is referring not just to the free Saudi printed literature available to anyone who cares to read, but tools of modern technology, the Internet, mobile telephone, satellite television, popular carriers of their message for the masses. A short video clip of Tauseef-u-Rehman, a popular Salafi cleric in Pakistan—calling for the implementation of Islamic law in all Muslim societies—features on the cell phone of devotees, a perfect synthesis of religion and modern technology.
As we talk late into the afternoon, I hear children giggling in the nearby courtyard. Al-Kindi excuses himself and returns after a few moments, irritated. The neighbourhood boys were playing with his children, he complains. He shooed them away, reprimanding them for spoiling his children.
“I don’t want my children to be spoilt by outside influences. I forbade them from playing with these boys,” he exclaims.
Clearly, al-Kindi is as much a strict enforcer of the dogma among his children as among his followers. Finally, I ask why he mentioned the Palestinian political dispute with Israel in his sermon but avoided speaking about Kashmir.
“You know under how much pressure we’re working in Kashmir. You have to be careful about what you say in sermons, speeches. We have been instructed by our leadership not to talk politics.” Laying out a guideline for a devotee that makes Islam simple and easy to follow is his contribution to a society traumatised by living in a militarised zone.
Kashmiris have been described as a peaceable people inhabiting a land called Pir Vaar (the garden of saints) in a turbulent region surrounded by powerful neighbours. It was their reputation for offering little resistance to successive foreign invaders in the last nearly 450 years that became, in the view of so many natives, the bane of their existence.
An already weak sense of identity was further undermined after 1947 and union with India. For some it was the combination a of loss of identity and frustration with the political status quo that made the appeal of militant Islam hard to resist.
The mid-September breeze is refreshing. The ripening rice fields, apple, pear and walnut trees abundant with fruit form a lovely tableau of the pastoral life against the lofty ridges of the Himalayas. I’m driving to the village of Boniyar, northwestern Kashmir, on a smooth, tarred highway. It’s about ten miles short of the Line of Control. The army is everywhere, heavily fortified military camps, checkpoints, olive-green armoured vehicles, army convoys, and tall, strapping soldiers clutching automatic rifles.
Farooq Ahmad Bhat, a 29-year-old MPhil student is a former guerrilla fighter who lives in an area where for generations a moderate version of Islam flourished, a part of which was the annual commemoration of the birth anniversary of a Muslim saint. The day featured a visit to the tomb for blessings and a special meal at home for friends and relatives.
A bachelor, Bhat comes from a family that reveres mausoleums and shrines and believes them to be a part of Kashmir’s cultural history.
A stout man with an easy manner, a small beard and a head of slicked back black hair, Bhat is a rebel in many ways. He feels the mere act of visiting a mausoleum and venerating it is a sign of weak Muslim identity, which should be jettisoned for something that emphasises an Islamic identity.
His explanation, like many among the young in Kashmir, is that identifying Islam with shrines and mausoleums is portraying an image of tolerance, pacifism and meekness. This, he feels, encouraged foreign invaders to occupy Kashmir. A hard faith, in his view, is needed to save not only Kashmir’s Muslim identity but to liberate it from the “infidels”. His transformation, though, happened at the unlikeliest of the places: a high security Indian prison.
On a cold night in the winter of 2002, up a steep path to the pine forest not far from his home, soldiers laid siege to his hideaway, an abandoned shack of rotting timber and mud. He and his comrades kept firing for two hours; they were captured when their ammunition was exhausted. Bhat was tortured for two months at an interrogation centre.
“They gave electric shocks to my genitals, inserted a rod laced with the red hot chili up my backside. A big wooden roller with two people sitting on either side was rolled on my thighs and I wasn’t allowed to sleep for days,” he remembers.
Bhat feels the mere act of visiting a mausoleum and venerating it is a sign of weak Muslim identity. Identifying Islam with shrines and mausoleums is portraying an image of tolerance, pacifism and meekness. This, he feels, encouraged foreign invaders to occupy Kashmir. A hard faith, in his view, is needed to save not only Kashmir’s Muslim identity but to liberate it from the “infidels”
It was a Salafi legend in Kashmir that Pakistani jihadis captured in the first years of the campaign and lodged in high security prisons outside Kashmir, played a key role in evangelising local youth imprisoned at the same time for political activities against the government. Bhat was one such case.
After the two-month stretch at various interrogation centres, he was shifted to a prison in Jammu.
Fahadullah Rabbani, a Pakistani seized in a firefight, was held in the same prison. Rabbani—deported to Pakistan in 2009 after 16 years—already had a reputation as a pious man. A month after Bhat was brought into the prison they ran into each other while collecting their rations. Rabbani invited him to join his “lectures on Islam” which he held three times a week. Piles of Salafi literature were available inside the prison. Bhat was amazed at how prison officials would dispatch a list of books to be ordered from shops in the city whenever jihadists asked.
At first their iconoclasm infuriated Bhat but slowly Rabbani’s emphasis on Tawhid (the oneness of God), piety and Islamic brotherhood began to have an effect. Bhat began to see in Salafi doctrine a means not just of purifying Islam of its centuries-old eclectic influences but evolving a brand of Islam in Kashmir that would rid it of the taint of meekness and pacifism.
For about two years he read from the works of the greatest Salafi Islam’s icons, Ibn Tammiyah and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and then engaged in debate with jihadists about the finer nuances of the Salafi doctrine.
Seven years after he was set free, Bhat represents the intersection of politics and religion within the Salafi movement in Kashmir, advocating an uncompromising anti-India stand and the imposition of puritan values in a place where religion was always a relaxed affair. His hard-line outlook is influenced as much by his encounter with jihadists as by the experience of government oppression.
We take a walk to a clearing on a hillside where he points out nearly 70 “unmarked graves”. Further north, more graves dot the landscape. A Kashmir-based human rights group has discovered nearly 2,000 such graves in the last few years. Some of the nearly 8,000 men who, in their words, “disappeared” in captivity might have ended in them.
“This was how India responded to our demands for political rights. By killing our innocent people,” he says. As a 10-year-old boy he watched security men bringing in the bodies of “terrorists” shot, as they said, in skirmishes at the LoC, telling the local population to bury them. The disfigured faces of the dead still haunt him.
If al-Kindi represents the side of Salafism that espouses conservative values and the Islamic spirit, Bhat exemplifies the face of political Islam within the movement. These are the two differing views fracturing the puritan agenda in Kashmir. For many followers, apart from the divisions in their ranks, it is the gradual acceptance of the extremist doctrine of takfir, (a heretical belief held by some Salafis calling for excommunication and, in extreme cases, the killing of a Muslim thought to have deviated from the path) that alarms them. It was extremists from this group that plotted the assassination of Maulvi Showkat Ahmed Shah.
Discussions in the sitting rooms of Kashmir are now are no longer just about the intractability of their dispute and the hardships of life in a militarised zone. The fear of sectarian strife breaking out is voiced as clearly.
What fuels the anxiety is a constant stream of news about the bombings of religious places by rival sectarian militias in Pakistan. Kashmir may not take that fratricidal step but the conditions that led to the violence in Pakistan are not absent from Kashmir: vocal sectarian groups with access to funds from dubious sources are engaging in mutual vilification campaigns and gaining increasing sway in matters of social importance.
Looking back on the days he spent with the Salafi priest Purra concluded that it was a dogma with no spirituality. ‘To retain our identity we have to ground our political movement in our cultural traditions and customs. It is all the more important now for us to stand united. All these ideological forces wanting to fight on our behalf have no role in this and we should not encourage them’
According to Shahid Yusuf Gilkar, a post-graduate student of linguistics in Srinagar, the conversation among his friends earlier used to be politics involving Kashmir, India and Pakistan, but in the last few years the debates are increasingly polarised on sectarian lines about which sect is theologically superior.
I have detected a wariness among locals about talking openly about this polarisation. They talk freely, though, in private about the fear that disagreements among various sects only strengthen their political opponents. But very few will speak out.
Even the local English language and regional newspapers hardly reported the public spat in Palpora. All they did was to report the statements of various religious and separatist leaders calling for people to beware of the “paid army of maulanas” inciting hatred among the people.
G N Gowhar, a 73-year-old retired judge and writer, is one of the few brave ones. “It is not just one sect but students from other seminaries, too, who are coming here and sowing discord. In this they have been helped both by India and Pakistan for many years,” he says, sitting on an overstuffed chair in his living room in Srinagar.
“Pakistan Islamised the dispute to woo the jihadis and India depicted the struggle of Kashmiris as part of a pan-Islamic movement for a caliphate to weaken Kashmir’s struggle for self-determination.” For him, protecting Kashmir’s cultural identity, its old shrines and mausoleums, is key to keeping the dream of a separate homeland alive.
For a community living in the one of the world’s most militarised zones with a political status they question, to be at odds with itself is a nightmare for a leadership that represent its aspirations for political autonomy. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, head of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, blames New Delhi for sowing division in Kashmir.
“India wants to project that religious division is a bigger problem in Kashmir than the political problem. It’s creating chaos,” he told Friday worshippers at Jamia mosque in Srinagar earlier this year.
He said millions of rupees were being spent on promoting a particular sect. “Sufism in Kashmir has its icons and roots in Central Asia, not in India. The attempt to Indianise Kashmiri Sufism and Islam is fraught with danger and we will oppose it tooth and nail,” he said.
Al-Kindi’s rants against Sufi Islam have galvanised its devotees to show off their strength in the land of saints and mystics. Last year, hundreds of men in green turbans gathered at a park in Srinagar for a rally organised by the Barelvi school. People were bussed in from various parts of Kashmir for the gathering. The ambassador of a Central Asian country was among the speakers. Nobody knows who paid for the event.
The Barelvis represent a syncretic form of Islam closest to Kashmiri Sufism. In the last few years the Barelvis placed themselves at the vanguard of Sufi Islam in Kashmir. The doubters point to its proximity to the political establishment in New Delhi. Many believers of Sufi Islam see them as “outsiders with a hidden political agenda”.
Syed Gulzar Qalandar is a mystic who, his disciples say, has slept only on a few rare occasions in the last 20 years of self-absorbed meditation and prayer. A small, slender man with a long beard and serene face, Syed Gulzar appears all the more otherworldly in a white scarf held in place by a striking blue bandana tied around his head. He speaks with a soft voice so low one has to strain to hear him speak in reverence of the Creator and His love for the people who do good deeds and help ease the suffering of the poor and needy.
The mystic, who renounced the affairs of life at a very young age to spend time in contemplation, is the antithesis of the aggressive, priggish, and iconoclastic Salafi adherent whose bruising mockery of the mysticism Qalandar espouses—a tradition going back nearly 700 years when Islam came to Kashmir preached by saints and mystics from the Central Asia—was encouraging young and well read students into the open to defend a respected tradition. Almost a dozen young men with knitted skullcaps over long black hair that fell to their shoulders were close followers of the mystic.
Sameer Purra, a 22-year-old studying to be a doctor, is among them. Purra, a mild-mannered man who, unlike his friends, wears his hair short, grew up in an old part of Srinagar. He went to a local mosque in the neighbourhood for his prayers. There, he came under the influence of a priest who turned out to be a Salafi.
For a time Purra was fascinated by his discourse on Islamic history and the need for taking Islam back to its pure past. But he grew irritated each time the priest spoke disrespectfully about the local belief in mystics and their spiritual powers. Purra could not tolerate the tirade and decided it was time to cut off ties with the priest.
Looking back on the days he spent with the Salafi priest he concluded that it was “a dogma with no spirituality” and was apprehensive about the rise of what he described as foreign ideologies spewing sectarian hatred and intolerance.
“To retain our identity we have to ground our political movement in our cultural traditions and customs. It is all the more important now for us to stand united as a people to struggle for our political rights. All these ideological forces wanting to fight on our behalf have no role in this and we should not encourage them,” he says, reflecting a belief antithetical to Bhat’s.
The town of Chrar-i-Sharif is tucked away in the hills of southwestern Kashmir, about 20 miles from Srinagar. There’s a sweeping panorama of apple and pear orchards and maize and rice fields. A pagoda style ochre roof indicates the 15th century mausoleum of Kashmir’s patron saint, Sheikh Nur-u-din, popularly called Alamdar. It’s shining in a warm fall afternoon sun. The smell of incense hangs in the air. Men and women sit in quiet contemplation on a soft green carpet around the saint’s tomb.
For hundreds of years, people of all the faiths have made their pilgrimage here, some praying for a cure to their ills, a few seeking a blessing for a better future, a couple coming to offer thanks for a wish that came true.
The prayers are not just a display of individual faith in the spiritual powers of the saint; they are equally a renewal of the message of tolerance that the saint propagated in his teachings. It didn’t matter to the devotees that in the summer of 1995 the shrine was burned down in a firefight between jihadis, who had turned it into a sanctuary and the military, who laid siege to the mausoleum; their devotion remained the same.
The prayers are not just a display of individual faith in the spiritual powers
of the saint; they are equally a renewal of the message of tolerance that the saint
propagated in his teachings. The belief in the spiritual powers of the saint is so strong that they expect miracles for ills for which there is no cure outside
The belief in the spiritual powers of the saint is so strong that they expect miracles for ills for which there is no cure outside. Abdul Gaffar, a 47-year-old farmer, comes from the village of Tral in southern Kashmir. Seven years before, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Doctors said it was at a stage where chemotherapy would be of no use. A neighbour pleaded with Gaffar to visit Alamdar.
“I had never been here before,” he says. But I began visiting every week, feeling some change in myself. My body, almost finished by the disease, began feeling stronger.”
Gaffar outlived the time he had been given by the doctors at a hospital in Srinagar. Two years after he began visiting the shrine, he visited the doctor again. He was stumped. Gaffar told him the story about the miracle. He said the doctor, never a believer in miracles, comes to the shrine from Srinagar to pray.
Gaffar’s miracle cure has no medical explanation. Yet his belief in the healing powers of the saint fits in with age-old practice of turning to the mausoleums in the times of personal distress and suffering.
At a time of fast moving ideas and doctrines backed by tools of modern technology, foreign donations and the encouragement of state actors, can this practice survive?
Sufi Islam’s greatest strength in Kashmir was its ability to absorb cultural influences of other traditions and retain its appeal among peoples of all faiths and sects, giving rise in time to a culture of diversity and mutual tolerance.
But there’s been little tolerance on display in the last few month of shrine and mosque burnings. Some six places of worship have been either completely or partially burnt in mysterious fires.
The most tragic was the destruction of the Dastageer sahib shrine in Srinagar, a splendid nearly 200-year-old structure of carved wood and papier mâché. Men and women mourned outside as it went up in flames.
At first, it was thought faulty wiring caused the fire but that was ruled out as power to the area had been cut off at the time. Most people believe this is an act of arson but investigations have so far have revealed nothing of the sort.
As mourners outside the burning shrine cursed the Salafis for creating an atmosphere of hate, some Salafis began posting incendiary messages on Facebook, terming the destruction of the shrine a “divine act of God”.
Sectarian tensions are no stranger to Kashmir. Sunni-Shia divisions have flared up in the past but with the intervention of community heads of either side, passions would invariably cool.
Today, however, the voices calling for tolerance and moderation are drowned out by a torrent of religious rhetoric encouraging hatred against each other.
Many feel it’s a bomb waiting to explode. Given the high levels of security prevalent here, Kashmir may not go down the path of Pakistan’s fratricidal strife. But there’s a dangerous likelihood of ever-present resentment between entrenched religious groups, one that would emasculate Kashmir politically.
Back in the narrow, twisting alleys of Gawkadal, where Maulvi Showkat was killed in a bomb explosion, the neighbourhood and the rest of Kashmir was commemorating the hanging of Maqbool Bhat in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail on February 11, 1984.
Bhat, a Kashmiri nationalist, was persecuted both in India and Pakistan for his fight for an independent homeland. Hundreds of policemen were deployed in the locality to thwart protests in a neighbourhood long used to protests against New Delhi.
Twenty-eight years after his hanging Kashmir still simmers with restlessness and hope for a better political future. This constant political ferment has made the ground in Kashmir conducive for foreign ideologies.
The demand for azaadi is unwavering but so is the commitment of the jihadis to mould this struggle into their extremist vision for a common Islamist bloc in the region. New Delhi’s refusal to concede further ground is only brightening the appeal of these ideologies.
(Tariq Mir is a Persephone Miel fellow at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, filing from Kashmir.

This big piece is in the November issue of Fountain Ink published from Chennai,

I would say instead of writing a huge passage and deviating the topic to a mere political issue; which obviously sounds more like a movie script! You should have tried to read a small booklet on the "Manhaj us Salafiah" [Methodology of the Salafi]. You surely must have cracked your nuckles a lot, as this topic would have for sure taken a toll on your little fingers.

http://www.qsep.com/books/salafimanhaj.html

Firstly, if Sufi's are 700 years old; it will still not be part of Islamic teachings. As our Salaf knew it for the fact that what was not part of the religion at the time of Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam" will not be part of the religion after him!

As Umm ul mumineen Aisha "Radiyallaahu anha" reported the Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam" said: " Oh Aisha r.a do you know what deeds will not be accepted by Allaah "Subhaanahu wa'tala" on the day of resurrection; she r.a replied no and He "Salaalu Alyhiwa'salam" said "Every deed that doesnt match the deeds of our times" -- [Aw Kama qoul]. So if you have a clear idea and can understand the meaning of the hadeeth translated above; it will surely give you goose bumps and will force your conscience to start looking for the truth.

Matter of fact truth is not attained by blogging on sites, surfing channels and writing scripts. Rather its attained by sitting with scholars and extensive reading of the books on Aqeedah/Manhaj/Hadeeth/Fiqh and the differences of opinions among the Ahlul Ilm and then looking at the proofs of all the scholars and then by the blessing of Allaah "subhaanahu wa'tala" choosing the opinion that is the closet to the 2 Sources i.e. QURAN and SUNNAH upon the understanding of SAHABA "Radiyallaahu Anhum" and in short we call this the Manhaj of the Salaf. Words that are less with lot of meaning are always good :-)

It may surprise you, but that is the fact and we need to live with it. Whether you know the truth or you dont. It wont affect anyone of us, but it will surely affect you; being vorocious in writing articles against some ideology without even knowing about it, is what really turns me off. My question to you is " What if by the grace of Allaah 'Azawajal' Salafi will be the group the Prophet 'Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam' told about that there will always be one group that will always be on truth and they will not be affected by people who will oppose them" Wouldnt the faces of the people opposing them then turn black on the yaumul Qiyamah?

Again I am not claiming the Salafi is the group that will 100% enter the blessed gardens of the Ar-Rehmaan. I am saying that learn your religion, before passing verdicts and see the differences and see who is on the truth by doing extensive reasearch on it and not just being biased and passing verdicts without knowledge; because your fore fathers have been following some ideology and you want to stick to the same ideology!

Brighten up and know the people of Sunnah before condeming them!

--Abdullaah

tariq to me is a lier salafi's are not like what he explained they preach purest form of islam and islam never supports extremism actually true Islam gives rights to all poor and rich and Salafi scolars are well learned and highly educated and modern people like me as i am a computer engineer and an imam and i own my business and what all i have earned is by the grace of Allah. WHAT TARIQ IS DOING IS HYPOCRASY becoz Dr Alkindi is a PHD Doctor and can earn money more than tariq could as tariq is less educated and living good life is not wrong we all dream of it.

Asalaam-u-Alikum Dear Asim,

It is not from the good ettiquetes of a muslim to talk bad about his brother. Inshallaah lets try refraining from calling names to another Muslim brother who has accused Shaykh Al-Kindi of what we do not know from him!

Inshallaah there is a very good booklet written by one of the Mashaykh of Medina and the name of the book is " Advice to the youth of Ahlu Sunnah wal Jamaah " . It is a basic book what every Daee [Caller to Islam] should read.

It deals with the etiquettes/knowledge and the manners of refuting. But before we get there, we need to tread a path of knowledge, which is a very long path and this life is too short.

So lets inshallaah strive for it and acquire it on the methodology of our salaf and the success lies with Allaah "Azawajal".

Wasalaam

Abdullaah

We, the Salafis of kashmir are not feeling harassed because a journalist is writing about us in a very bad way. We feel all the more determined to spread and make popular our sermon and preaching among the people of kashmir. We feel Islam has not been presented to our people in pure and perfect form. So it is our duty to do that to remove impurities and pagan practices. We would inshaallah be rewarded for our efforts by the Almighty Allah. Let all those in Kashmir who want to continue with those pagan practices that true soldiers of Allah have come to kashmir to show its people the correct path. May Allah be with us all the time. Ameen.

I can't believe this. Six months after this article appeared here, Salafis in Kashmir are still enraged why a reporter wrote about Salafism and this Al Kindi man. Your fury just shows your intolerance and zealotry towards people who don't agree with you. You people are taking kashmir to an abyss of division and sectarian war from which we can never emerge. May Allah have mercy on us

Absolutely not!!! We are not angry about the report that doesnt agree to "Salafi" ideology. Rather we are angry about the reporter portraying Sufism as the purest form of religion. When as a matter of fact its not. Because it was not known to the earlier generations, especially the first 3 blessed generations. Imaam Abu Hanifa/Malik/Shai'e/Ahmed Ibn Hanbal/Bukhaari etc. and all the other mujtahids who are like stars in the sky never knew or approved this ideology, rather they shunned it and called any kind of Ibaadah that was not known to our beloved Prophet "Salallaahu Alyhiwa'salam" and his companions "Radiyallaahu Anhum" as BIDAH [Innovation] and followed every step of them and tried their best to follow it. So we are also saying the same thing, to follow Sunnah and inshallaah success lies in Sunnah and not Bidah and not in going to graves and venerating it, nor in celebrating Malud and nor in Horse procession and nor in going to a PEER.

If Shaykh Al-Kindi was to deviate from the Manhaj of Salaf [May Allaah "Azawajal" make him steadfast on it, as inshallaah we all know him that he is], it wont matter to any Salafi to the least, except that we will be dishearten. Because we are content with the fact that we are obliged to follow Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam" and his Companions. Whosoever follows them will be saved and whosoever contradicts them will be doomed. This is well explained by Ameer ul Mumineen - Umar Ibn Al-Khattaab "Radiyallaahu Anhu" : He said : " Truth is not known from people, rather know the truth and you will know its people -- Mashallaah, such a tremendous salaf he was and such a great words he said. All the Maslak call towards understanding religion from 1 person. While as Salafi'ah, say that follow it the way it was followed by the first 3 blessed generations and those who followed them. Because we need to accept the fact only Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam" was infallible; rest we all are humans and make mistakes. Allaah "Azawajal" also informed us in his book, that "We have a best example in Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam" So that is the reason we have to give preference to his "Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam's" narrations over the verdicts and mistakes of any scholar.

Regarding Allaah"Azawajal" saving any place and blessings. Then know that Allaah "Azawjal" doesnt like the people of Bidah and doesnt like their evil practices in deen as well. He "Subhaanahu wa'tala" clearly revealed a verse saying " Whosoever contradicts Messener "Salallaahu Alyhiwa'salam" and chooses a path other than his path; we will keep him in the path he has chosen and will put him into hell fire [Meaning]". So the place will be safe and the blessings will DECEND from Ar-Rehmaan who is established on his blessed throne only when people will give up Bidah and will accept and follow SUNNAH and that is the only way to safety in this world and the hereafter.

This piece of Nasiyah was first for myself and then to all the other brothers who read it. May Allaah "Azawajal" save us all from the Bidah, as it surely leads to hellfire... Aameen


Wasalaam

when truth is heard like falsehood, falsehood by its nature is bound to perish. May Allah educate you all about this salafi manahaj who are the Jamaah of Prophet p.b.u.h

Please keep your self-righteousness to yourself. Please look around and see how you're dividing neighborhoods, families by spreading your intolerant Salafi faith. Your sectarian agenda is only helping our enemies who want to keep us down by creating more divisions among the population of Kashmir.

Indeed the evil of the Bidah is that it divides the society and the blessings of the Sunnah are that it bounds the society in love and care; like the way Sahaba "Radiyallaahu Anhum" and the people who came after them were!

As the bidah started prevailing more and more divide was seen in muslim ummah. As everyone used to support his bidah and evil desires. So refer back to Sunnah in every matter of your lives and Allaah "azawajal" will rectify this ummaah, the way it was in the initial phase of islam!

`Amr b. `Awf relates that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: “The religion will shrink back to the Hijâz like the snake shrinks back into its hole. It will cling to the Hijâz like the mountain goat clings to the mountaintop. The religion began strange, and it will become strange again just like it was at the beginning, so blessed are the strangers who restore what the people corrupt of my Sunnah.” [Sunan al-Tirmidhî (#2630)] Al-Tirmidhî grades it as good and authentic (hasan sahîh).

Dear Mr. Abdullaah why don't just shut up and stop preaching. Who the hell do you think who are? Why have taken it upon yourself to tell kashmiris how and what to practice. Please stop preaching us or if you want to continue with this please go to saudi arabia or india or join that stupid ass called zakir naik. please stop and don't tell us what is correct or incorrect.

Why dont you just turn you blind eye on this website, like the way you have already turned your blind eye on:
1. Bidah that has already prevailed in Muslim communities.
2. Sunnah that is forgotten in todays muslim's lives.
3. Sufi shrines that are full of Shirk.
4. Shrine Land scam's that your so called Peers are invloved in.
5. Not learning and following religion.
6. Following your whims/desires and Fatwa's from the famous Fatwa factory.

The list will go on, if we will really scribble it down here. Regarding who I am, its again none of your business. Because you are a person of desires, whatever is liked by your desires, you appreciate it and whatever is not liked by your desires, you condemn it without refering back to the 2 sources [Quran/Sunnah].

Our Lord "Allaah Azawajal" and his beloved Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwasalam" have commanded us to stop every evil either by hand/tongue/heart and that is what we are doing in kashmir, by preaching a methodology that was preached at the time of Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwasalam" and his blessed companions.

Regarding Saudi Arabia, well let me inform you that the land is already blessed with lot of good scholars and moreover, for you most kind information, Allaah "Azawajal" chose those scholars for that land, for those 2 blessed cities and Alhamdulillaah they are trying there best to preach the truest form of Islam to the laymans overthere. Which is far from the idol worship like shrines and graves.

Regarding preaching it here in India, we will do it till death. You and your government supporting/paid scholars will not do us any harm inshallaah.

Also as its mentioned in a hadeeth, that if a person abuses someone and will not ask for forgiveness will have to give that person his good deeds on the day of resurrection. So you owe an apology to Dr. Zakir Naik as you abused him. To the extent if he is not correct, yet Islam doesnt encourage abusing a muslim brother.

So if Dr. Zakir Naik is wrong in his preaching, Allaah "Azawajal" will deal with him and He "Azawajal" will also deal with each one of us. So may He "Subhaanahu wa'tala" forgive us our sins and save us from the torment..Aameen. So a good brother, ask Dr. Zakir Naik for forgiveness and say sorry as you have abused him. So ask sorry before death overtakes you, as no one will get a chance to repent for his/her sins once death overtakes us.

Have a broad mind and learn your religion the way it was understood by the first 3 generations.

AA....Mr Abdullah bhai
Dear ,Hope you are well versed with basic fundamentals of Islam.... as True believer of Islam would suggest you to change your language which you are using ,while conversing with Mr.Sameer , by whatever little knowledge i have about Islam, it advises / recommends us to be gentle, mannered and soft spoken but unfortunately you are acting very crude and taking it personal level
Allahamdullah we are all brothers in Islam ,act as true brother
Regarding your 6 points you have raised with him I am totally disgusted with your questions
To my best knowledge salfist are bent upon to create wedge among Muslims of Kashmir which great sin even Allah can`t forgive for their petty political agendas ,if we go by comparatives we have more mosques than needed , all remain vacant for want of followers but for branding they on spree to build more n more mosques , tell me what they are doing for community , how many vibrant hospitals, schools have they built ,they have become nimazi Muslim rather than amli muslims.
Ws
Thanks
Your Brother

Walikum asalaam wa rahmatullaah ya Ahmad.

Firstly, I never claimed on this portal on any other web portal that I am a scholar! So yes, I am trying to learn the basic fundamentals of this blessed religion, seeking reward from Allaah "Azawajal" who is established upon the throne and hoping that He "Subhaanahu wa'tala" will forgive my sins and will save me and other muslim brothers from the torment. Aameen

Mashallaah, I am very happy that you brought this point to my notice, that I need to change my language. The irony with this statement is that you would have addressed your dear brother "Sameer" instead of addressing me. Reason being, your dear brother called a Scholar of comperative religion [Dr. Zakir Naik] as "Stupid A**..." If you have read his comments correctly and I responded harshly! [Irony]with a hadeeth, that he needs to ask forgiveness to him.

Your dear brother used the words "Who the HELL I am...." and I responded harshly! [Irony] saying that this Ummah has been commanded to Stop an evil with Hand/Tongue/Heart.

Your dear brother expressed his feeling of expelling us to Saudi Arabia or Preaching the religion there... and I responded harshly! [Irony again] by saying that land is already blessed with lot of good scholars.

Regarding your disgust on 6 points. It doesnt matter to me to the least, as I know it is the truth.

Regarding the first 3 points the evil practices on those shrines has already prevailed and one needs the light of Quran/Sunnah to see it happenning everywhere in kashmir. For 4th point, you may go and check this on greater kashmir news paper or on this link on Greater Kashmir news website.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2012/Sep/5/waqf-board-puts-graveyards-on-sale-33.asp

Regarding the best of your knowledge about Salafi Manhaj. Then let me enlight you that you no nothing about Salafia and you are just like another person, who says " We hear and Accept" to whatever your scholars tell you, without even enquiring about the truth/falsehood of their statements.

Regarding creating a wedge among muslims, then I must say we are not doing that. Rather the ones who have introduced Bidah in our communities are responsible for this, as the have mislead people and now the people who have been following a Bidah from long time, think that the Sunnah is Bidah and they dont even want to refer back to 2 sources and make a difference between the truth and the falsehood.

Regarding your comparison on the number of the mosques/schools/hospitals that were made by you. Firstly, I respect the good work and May all the ones involved in these noble causes be rewarded by Allaah "Azawajal". But what good is building a mosque going to do, when the people will not revive any sunnah and will rather innovate [Bidah] in it?

What good is hospital going to do, when a person heart is dead, as he/she doesnt understand Quran/Sunnah, but rather he/she is staunch upon the words like "Ya Shaykh ul Aalam Hathes chaem rupay kam"?

What good is the school going to do, when the students there are being educated about the wordly sciences [Which is good], but are not taught the correct knowledge of this blessed religion?

Regarding we are few, then if we look at the fundamental books on Aqeedah. Its mentioned in some of the books. A list of narrations as listed below.

lmaam Ahmad reports in his Musnad (4/278) with hasan isnaad narration of Nu'maan ibn Basheer: Abu Umaamah al-Baahilee, radiallaahu 'anhu, said, "Stick to the main body (as-Sawaadul - a'dham), so a man said, "What is the 'Main Body'? So Abu Umaamah said,'This Ayah(54) in Soorah an-Noor:
"But if you turn away, He Muhammad “s.a.w is only responsible for the duty placed on him and you for that placed on you."
Ibn Mas'ood, radiallahu 'anhu, said,"The Jamaa'ah is what conforms to the truth, even if you are alone." Reported by Ibn'Asaakir in Taareekh Dimashq with a saheeh isnaad as pointed out by Shaikh al-Albaanee in al-Mishkaat (1/61).

Last but not the least. Namazi Muslim is an Amli Muslim. Because Nimaaz is an Amal and Amal is very much part of the eemaan.

Lets learn and ponder before death overtakes each one of us. There is no learning in the hereafter!

I am sorry, if I sound Racist/Harsh/Crude.

Wasalaam

I should not have used offensive remarks about Dr. Zakir Naik, I admit my fault and seek his forgiveness. But, I still differ with him and cannot ever accept his interpretation of Islam. Mr. Abdullah you can go as long as you wish to defend your sect but you should remember that there are people in kashmir who still hold shrines and mausoleums of saints very dear to themselves. Your tirade against Sufi Islam can go on but, so is our determination to defend our traditions of Sufi Islam.

Thank you

Mashallaah, may Allaah "Azawajal" increase us all in goodness and make us follow the truth and acknowledge it. Aameen.

Firstly, indeed it is a very good thing that you accepted your mistake. I am very happy about it.

If you will read all my posts on this portal. I never said that follow and accept what a Salafi says, never! I have always been saying that follow the 2 sources [Quran/Sunnah] on the methodology of the blessed Sahaba "Radyallaahu Anhum" as they are the blessed generations and learnt islam directly from Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam"

Regarding defending Salafia, then let me clear few things here. I am not defending Salafia, rather I am trying to tell the whole world what Salafia is. As I have seen masses with mis-information about Salafia. Unfortunately, I have seen in those sects who oppose Salafia and accuse us as well; with less knowledge about Salafia.

Salafia is not a Maslak, its the blessed Manhaj of first 5 generations. We take our principles from these blessed generations and we try our best to follow Quran/Sunnah and not following Fatwas, when there is a proof from the 2 sources.

So as a brother in Islam, I am asking you isn't this what our Prophet "Salalaahu Alyhiwa'salam" commanded his Sahaba to follow on Jumatul Wida? If there is any other source of religion, then let us know about it, so that we wont go astray!

Regarding Sufism. How much proofs do you have that Sahaba and the generations after them followed Sufism?

What differences of opinions you know about it. Is it Haqq or Baatil?

When each one of us chooses best clothes, best food, best accessories for ourselves. Shouldnt we all be concerned about the hereafter as well. Where there are only 2 destinations Heaven or Hell!

Shouldnt we learn our religion according to the standards set by the first 5 blessed generations and not just 1 person and differentiate between good and the bad, by looking into evidences, rather looking into verdicts?

Inshallaah I dont see any harm in this methodology and this is what Salafia is upon.

Wasalaam

For the last ten years, I have been living and working outside Kashmir. I go home to Kashmir once every six months to see my parents and siblings and friends. My parents house is located in the old part of Srinagar city, a few hundred feet from a Salafi mosque. This mosque came up just seven years back. In our locality there was an old mosque that my father said is sixty years old. Everybody in our area went to that mosque to say their prayers. But, a handful of youngsters in the area supported by Salafi followers from outside our locality, demanded that certain changes be brought to the way prayers were said in the mosque. The salafi followers said it was wrong the way prayers were being said in the mosque. Heated debate began, which led sometimes to brawls. Eventually Salafi followers with their strength growing day by day broke away and began building separate mosque in the area. The mosque was built in no time, obviously with money coming from Saudi and other sources. Today our neighborhood is split along sectarian lines. On my recent visit in November, I went to my mosque and heard people talking about how Salafi were poaching members of Hanafi community not just in our area but across the old part of Srinagar. My friends tell me that Salafi preachers preach like as though nobody in kashmir has heard about Islam before and they make it appear as if we follow some different faith than Islam. They tell that whatever we are doing in the name of Islam is wrong and we would go to hell for worshipping this way. I am convinced they are preparing ground for sowing hatred against Sufi Islam which we kashmiris have followed for many centuries. Salafi Islam produces division and hate, so different from what Sufi Islam teaches that's love and brotherhood not just between muslims but between all human race. The people of Kashmir just need to look at the muslim world and see what muslims there are going through.

Right now we are 20 percent of the kashmir population and in the next ten years we would be 50 percent and in the next ten years, Inshaallah we would be 100 percent. Slowly people in kashmir are realizing that they are not following Islam by indulging in these so calle Sufi rituals. We will be victorious.

I checked pulitzer center website and saw video of this reporter. He is clean-shaven and dressed in western outfit and appears to be very westernized in his approach to issues. I am told he has studied in america. So I am not surprised he is against Salafi Islam and a fan of Sufi Islam. That is the tragedy of our youngsters who stay away from their religion and adopt an alien culture.