Holy Qur'an at Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School, one of the most prestigious institutions of its kind in the world, has recently posted a verse of the Holy Qur’an at the entrance of its Faculty Library, describing the verse as one of the greatest expressions of justice in history. Verse 135 of Surah Al Nisa (The Women) has been posted at a wall facing the faculty’s main entrance, dedicated to the best phrases articulating justice: 

“O you who believe!

Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses 

To Allah, even as against 

Yourselves or your parents, 

Or your kin, and whether

It be (against) rich or poor; 

For Allah can best protect both". 

Established in 1817, Harvard is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. Among its alumni is US President Barack Hussein Obama and a host of influential journalists, writers, media and business leaders and even professional athletes. According to its official website, The Words of Justice exhibition is a testimony of the endurance of humanity’s yearning for fairness and dignity through law. “The words on these walls affirm the power and irrepressibility of the idea of justice.”

We reproduce below an insightful explanation of this particular verse provided by the Khalifatullah Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius as part of his forthcoming Commentary on the Holy Qur’an:

‘Humanity at the Brink of Disaster!’

Through recurring revelations of unmistakable intensity and clarity, Allah the Almighty has charged Hadhrat Khalifatullah Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius with a heavy responsibility as a Warner sent unto mankind: to alert and warn the world about the impending Disasters. Thus, in his Friday Sermon of  01 March 2013 (17 Rabi’ul Aakhir ; 1434 Hijri ) Hadhrat Sahib has had to convey to the world the spine-chilling news about the Disasters waiting to unfold in a striking way all over the world. The world appears to be condemned to witness the consequences of its evil ways : for the chronicle of earth-shattering events foretold include wars, calamities, ethnic conflicts, communal violence/racial riots, the destruction of despots and the desecration of cities.

Read the Extracts from the Friday Sermon:  

Allah (swt) chose me as His Khalifatullah in this era and my Creator has informed me through revelation several times since Friday, 08 February 2013 and continually so, till now that a third world calamity is to come. Despite the fact that these days all these calamities are hitting the world, yet people do not learn from these happenings, and these do them nothing that these calamities come from the Creator of the universe. They continue to persist in their sin and continue in the practice of Shirk on several levels. They have all forgotten the divine teaching; they trampled the teachings of God and give man’s words the greatest value. The majority of people in the world have turned their backs to the divine messages and rejected the Messenger of God in this present age.

Pakistan and the cult of Militancy

[According to the Holy Qur’an, peace, amity and brotherhood among the people are among the blessings of Allah, Correspondingly, the Divine wrath and punishments take different forms, including civil strife and “violence of one another”. In the last decade, Pakistan’s descent into chaos has been observed with deep anguish and profound sadness by the Messenger of Allah of our times, Hadhrat Munir Ahmad Azim Sahib (atba) of Mauritius. Time and again, he has warned the Muslim country and its religious and political leadership against the egregious violations of freedom of conscience, of basic human rights and the norms of Islamic propriety and decency in the country. Recent events from there confirm that country is in the grips of Divine wrath: the deer prophecies and warnings made by the Divine Messenger have been proved to be presciently true and correct.    

For the benefit of our readers, we reproduce below an essay on the cult of militancy in Pakistan from one of the leading writers from contemporary Pakistan, the Award-winning novelist Mohsin Hamid who is the author of the novels 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' and the forthcoming 'How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia'. The essay was originally written for, and published in, the New York Times. India’s leading newspaper, The Hindu also carried it on February 24, 2013].

At the heart of Pakistan’s troubles is the celebration of the militant

On Monday, my mother’s and sister’s eye doctor was assassinated. He was a Shia. He was shot six times while driving to drop his son off at school. His son, age 12, was executed with a single shot to the head.

Tuesday, I attended a protest in front of the Governor’s House in Lahore demanding that more be done to protect Pakistan’s Shias from sectarian extremists. These extremists are responsible for increasingly frequent attacks, including bombings this year that killed more than 200 people, most of them Hazara Shias, in the city of Quetta.

As I stood in the anguished crowd in Lahore, similar protests were being held throughout Pakistan. Roads were shut. Demonstrators blocked access to airports. My father was trapped in one for the evening, yet he said most of his fellow travellers bore the delay without anger. They sympathised with the protesters’ objectives.