Playing God

"All rights of this book are reserved for the publisher and the author. This copy is for reading purpose only. This copy cannot be uploaded on any website except those of the publisher and the author." Playing God: Misreading a Divine Practice 58 Disbeliever be a Muslim’s.” 44 Today with numerous conversions taking place all over the world, this issue has become very relevant as often a family ends up in a situation in which one blood relative has entered the fold of Islam. If this Had ī th is understood in the light of the divine practice discussed in the foregoing pages, one can see that the article alif l ā m is appended to the word al-k ā fir. Giving due considerati on to this, an accurate translation of this word wou ld be “such a Disbeliever”. This, in other words, would r efer to th e Disbelievers of the times of Muhammad (sws) who had deliberately denied the truth. 45 Now, according to the Qur’ ā n (4:12), the basis of inheritance between relatives is “benefit of kinship”. If a lack of this benefit is diagnosed in some relations, then the matter of inheritance will be severed between them. After a deliberate denial of the truth by the Quraysh and the People of the Book, this “benefit of kinship” no longer existed between them and the Muslims. Hence, they could not inherit from one another. In other words, this directive is only related to the direct addressees of the Prophet (sws), and has no bearing on later non-Muslims. xi. Prohibition of Testimony of Non-Muslims There is a consensus among Muslim scholars that the testimony of non-Muslims is inadmissible except in cases of will testaments. The reason for this is that the Qur’ ā n 44 . Al-Bukh ā r ī , Al-J ā mi‘ al-sah ī h , vol. 6, 2484, (no. 6383). 45 . Adapted from: Gh ā mid ī , M ī z ā n , 39. www.j vedahmadghamidi.com www .al-mawrid.org