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At first, the demand-cum-assurance was, "If you can bring any proof showing a temple had been demolished to construct the mosque, we will

ourselves demolish the mosque". A host of documents -- reports of theArchaeological Survey of India going back to 1891, Gazetteers going

back to 1854, survey reports going back to 1838 were produced whichstated unambiguously that a Ram temple had been demolished toconstruct the mosque".

The demand suddenly changed. "These are all British documents", it was

Arun Shourie

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now said. "The British concocted this story to divide and rule. "Show ussome Pre-British documents" was an invention to get over inconvenientfacts. It became evident soon enough, when in response toChandrashekhar's initiative the All India Babri Masjid Action Committee

submitted documents, most of these turned out to be nothing but therulings of sundry British magistrates. Worse, they confirmed what theVishwa Hindu Parishad had been saying: that the mosque had not been inuse since 1936;that it has been built by demolishing the Ram temple: thatthe Hindus had, at the cost of many lives, been trying throughout tocapture the spot, as they held it to be the sacred birth place of Lord Ram.

In any event, non-British, specifically Muslim documents as well as pre-British documents, including the account of an Austrian Jesuit priest whohad stayed in Ayodhya in 1766-71 were produced. Each of them statedthe same facts.

But each of these is only repeating what the other is saying. It wasdemanded that show some contemporary document". The demand for such a document was manifestly a dodge : the one document -- theBabarnama -- which could have settled the matter is truncated: Babar records his reaching Ayodhya on 2 April 1528. The pages from then to 18September 1528 are missing, and are surmised to have been lost in astorm in May 1529, or during Humayun's subsequent wanderings in thedesert as a fugitive. The matter, however, was soon nailed. If the absenceof a contemporary accounts - the very day's Court bulletins recording the

destruction of the temples of Mathura, Kashi, Pandharpur and scores andscores of other places and their replacement by mosques are available

proof enough to propel Shahabuddin etc to demolish those mosques?

No answer was forthcoming, instead, there were demands for moreconcrete proof. This was soon available in the results of thearchaeological excavations which had been conducted in 1975-86, whenattention was drawn to the pillars on which the domes etc. of the mosquerest to this day. to the carvings on these, it was said that these could wellhave been brought from elsewhere. But that alibi too floundered. It couldnot account for the pillar bases which were found three to four feet below

the surface just outside the boundary wall; these were in perfectalignment with the pillars inside the mosque, and it was clear that, alongwith them, there must have been pillars on these bases which supportedthe larger structure of the temple; no one would have dragged bases of

pillars from a distance and buried them outside the mosque to align with pillars inside the mosque!

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murders take place today because murdering is prohibited by the law.

But there is a more conclusive point. Is it at all the case that demolishinga place of worship to replace it with a mosque is prohibited by theShariat?

Encyclopedia of Islam

Every single Muslim historian of medieval India lists temples which theruler he is writing about has destroyed and the mosques he has builtinstead. In his famous work, Sita Ram Goel reproduces some of theseaccount verbatim1. Doing nothing but this, without any comments at all,takes over 170 printed pages of the book.

Nor was the practice confined to India, or to temples. Here are just two paragraphs from the 75 pages long entry. In the Encyclopedia of Islam2

"...it is rather doubtful whether the process (of acquiring churches) was a

regular one; in any case the Muslims in course of time appropriated manychurches to themselves. With the mass-conversions to Islam, this was anatural result. The churches taken over by the Muslims were occasionallyused as dwellings3. At a later date, it also happened that they were used asgovernment offices, as in Egypt in 146.4 The obvious thing, however, wasto transform the churches taken into mosques. It is related of ‘Amr b, al-Asi’ that he performed the salat in a church (Makrizi, iv. 6) and Zaid b.‘Ali says regarding churches and synagogues, ‘Perform thy salat in them:it will not harm thee5. It is not clear whether the reference in these casesis to conquered sanctuaries; it is evident, in any case, that the saying isintended to remove any misgivings about the use of captured churchesand synagogues as mosques. The most important example of this kindwas in Damascus where al-Walid b. ‘Abb al-Malik in 86 (705) took thechurch of St. John from the Christians and had it rebuilt; he is said tohave offered the Christians another church in its stead6. He is said to havetransformed into mosques ten churches in all in Damascus. It must have

been particularly in the villages, with the gradual conversion of the people to Islam, that the churches were turned into mosques. In theEgyptian village there were no mosques in the earlier generation of

Islam

7

. But when al-Mamun was fighting the Copts, many churches wereturned into mosques8. It is also recorded of mosques in Cairo that theywere converted churches. According to one tradition, the Rashida mosquewas an unfinished Jacobite church, which was surrounded by Jewish andChristian graves9. In the immediate vicinity al-Hakim turned a Jacobiteand a Nestorian Church into mosques10. When Djawhar built a palace inal-Kahira, a dir was taken in and transformed into a mosque11. Similar

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changes took place at later dates12 and synagogues also were transformedin this way13. The chief mosque in Palermo was previously a church14.After the Crusades, several churches were turned into mosques inPalestine15.

"Other sanctuaries than those of the ‘people of the scripture’ were turnedinto mosques. For example a Masjid al-Shams between Hilla and Kerbelawas the successor of an old temple of Shamash16. Not far from Ishtakhr was a Masjid Sulaiman which was an old 'fire-temple'. the pictures on thewalls of which could still be seen in the time of Mas’udi and al-Makdisi17.In Ishtakhr itself there was a djami’, which was a converted fire-temple18.In Masisa, the ancient Mopsuhestia, al-Mansur in 140 built a mosque onthe site of an ancient temple19. The chief mosque in Dihli was originally atemple20. Thus in Islam also the old rule holds that sacred places survivechanges of religion. It was especially easy in cases where Christian

sanctuaries were associated with Biblical personalities who were alsorecognised by Islam: e.g., the Church of St John in Damascus and manyholy places in Palestine. One example is the mosque of Job in Shekh Sad,associated with Sura xxi. 83, xxxviii. 40; here in Silvia's time (fourthcentury) there was a church of Job.

Prophet and Shariat

But could it not be that, like the Muslim rulers in India, these Muslimrulers of the Middle East were also doing all this in violation of theShariat? As we know, the Shariat is based on what the Quran says and on

what the prophet did, that is on the Sunnah. The Quran is sanguinary inthe extreme, there can be little doubt on the matter. The only questiontherefore is about what the Prophet himself did.

The evidence is incontrovertible -- it leaves nothing of Shahabuddin'slatest argument. The Prophet's companions as well as his biographers --the earliest. all devout Muslim, whose accounts are the most authoritativesources we have of the Prophet's life -- report his ordering the destructionof a mosque as it had been set up by persons he did not think well of, theyreport his ordering new converts to demolish a church and establish a

mosque instead at the site, they report his converting what had on allaccounts become a pagan temple, with idols, paintings and all, into thegreatest mosque of all -- that is, the Kaba itself. There is space to recall

just an incident or two.

We learn from Ibn Sa’d’s book and widely used collection of Hadis, of adelegation of 13 to 19 members of Banu Hanifah calling upon theProphet. We learn of them being looked after generously -- with bread,

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meat, milk, butter, dates. They receive instruction in Islam. They swear allegiance to the Prophet. It is time to leave. Talq b. Ali, who was in thedelegation, states: "We went out as a deputation to God's messenger andswore allegiance to him and prayed along with him. We told him that we

had a church in our land, and we asked him for some of the leavings of the water he used for ablution. He called for water, performed ablution,then poured it out for us into a skin vessel, and gave us the followingcommand. ‘Go away, and when you come to your land break down your church, sprinkle this water on its site, and use it as a mosque’. We toldhim that our land was distant, the heat severe, and that the water wouldevaporate, to which he replied, ‘Add some water to it. for it will only

bring more good to it23.’

Upon returning they did as the Prophet had commanded. Our narrator.Talq b, Ali, became the muezzin of the mosque and recited the azaan.

The friar of the church. the reverential Ibu Sa’d records. "heard it (theazaan) and said, ‘It is a word of truth and call to truth’. Then he escapedand it was the end of the regime’24. Any ambiguity there?

Nor can Shahabuddin's claim that Shariat forbids the destruction of temples etc. in peace time be sustained in view of what the Prophethimself commanded and did. His earliest biographers -- Ibn Ishaq and IbnSa’d, for instance -- record instance after instance in which idols andtemples were smashed, destroyed and burnt down at his orders. Thetemples of al-Uzza, al-Laat, and al-Manaat -- the three goddesses who are

subjects of the Satanic verses in the Quran -- the temples around Ta’if,those of Fils and Ruda in Tayys -- are all reported by them to have beendestroyed on the direct orders of the Prophet. Similarly, the biographersreport the Prophet's joy when converts came and reported to him that theyhad destroyed this temple or that, or smashed to smithereens this idol or that. These were not instances when during a battle an army over-ran asite which happened to be a temple. These were instances of persons or tribes having come over to Islam, and then, as part of their newcommitment, destroying the places of worship.

Nor, it must be noted, was the Prophet less stem about some refractory

party setting up even a mosque. His orders at Dhu Awan are well known.Ibn Ishaq reports that as the Prophet approached the town, the devoteesapproached him saying, "We have built a mosque for the sick and needyand for nights of bad weather, and we would like you to come to us and

pray for us there". The Prophet, Ibn Ishaq records, said that "he was onthe point of travelling, and was preoccupied, or words to that effect, andthat when he came back, if God willed, he would come to them and pray

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for them in it". But at Dhu Awan, upon hearing about the mosque, hesummoned the followers, "and told them to go to the mosque of these evilmen and destroy and burn it". That is exactly what the followers then did.A revelation came down from Allah and sanctified the destruction25.

I just do not see where Shahabuddin derives his cumenical rule from.

A Conclusive Example

But the most telling example is that of the Kaba, and the Masjidal-Haram,the mosque -- the most revered in Islam around it. And it is to this that weshould turn to settle the matter.

As we saw, Shahabuddin’s latest argument is that no Muslim ruler couldever have destroyed a temple to build a mosque as doing so is prohibited

by the Shariat. The Shariat is derived pre-eminently from what theProphet himself did and said. So, the question is; how does that argument

fare in the light of what the Prophet himself did?

The conclusive answer to this matter -- as to several others which havecropped up in the Ramjanmabhoomi controversy -- lies In the history of the Kaba and the Masjid al-Haram in which it is situated.

Mat the Kaba was

Till the very day the Prophet took it under his control after his conquestof Mecca, the Kaba and the structure around it were a place of paganworship with idols and paintings of all sorts of gods and goddesses.

From the earliest to the most recent biographers of the Prophet, all speak of it as such. Recalling days long before the Prophet, Ibn Ishaq reports theanswer of the Hudhaylis to the king when he asked them why they toowould not do in regard to the Kaba -- circumambulate the temple,venerate it, shave their heads etc. -- as they were exhorting him to do ,"They replied that it was indeed the temple of their father Abraham, butthe idols which the inhabitants had set up round it, and the blood whichthey shed there (by sacrificing animals) presented an insuperableobstacle. They are unclean polytheists, said they -- or words to thateffect". We learn of the Prophet's arguments with the Controllers of the

shrine about the idols. We learn of their fear that should his iconoclasm prevail they would lose the livelihood they now secured out of the pilgrims who came to worship the idols, and accordingly their fierceopposition to the Prophet. We learn of his returning to Mecca for "thelesser pilgrimage" and going to the Kaba "cluttered with idols though itwas." Such are the accounts in the earliest and most authoritative of his

biographies. The accounts continue to this day.

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An Iranian Scholar’s views

"Why did so many tribes sustain the wealth and power of the Qoraysh bycoming to the Kaba?", the Iranian scholar, Ali Dashti, asks about pre-Islamic times in his justly-acclaimed book Twenty Three Years 26, "The

reason was that the Kaba housed famous idols and contained a black stone which the Arabs held sacred... Each group of pilgrims had to shoutits entreaties to its idol while circumambulating the Kaba and runningfrom Safa to Marwa". "The Kaba," he writes, recounting the setting inwhich Islam was established, "was an important idol-temple, muchvisited by Beduin tribesmen and greatly respected as a holy place... Thelivelihood of the Meecans and the prestige of the Quoryash chiefsdepended on this coming and going. The Beduin came to visit the Kaba,which was an idol temple. If the new religion required destruction of theidols, they would not come any more..." Ali Dashti refers to the Kaba

repeatedly as "the idol-temple which the tribes had revered..." as "thefamous idol-temple."

The temple had several idols, among them 360 statues. The Quran itself mentions the three goddesses -- al-Lat, al-Uzza and al-Manaat -- whowere worshipped there. The most prominent idol however was that of Hubal, "who", the first Encyclopedia of Islam states, "may be called theGod of Mecca and of the Kaba". A male figure, it was made of redcarnelian. The statue stood inside the Kaba, says the new edition of theEncyclopedia, above the sacred well which was thought to have been dug

by Abraham to receive the offerings brought to the sanctuary. Though astellar deity, its principal function was that of a "cleromantic divinity", it

being the custom to consult the idol by divining arrows. Hubal, thenumber of idols -- 360 -- as well as the rites associated with them, haveall been taken to point to an astral symbolism, and the temple hasaccordingly been taken to have been dedicated to the sun, the moon andthe planets.

How it was transformed

The temple continued in this condition till the very day on which the

Prophet re-entered it upon capturing Mecca. That moment of triumph isrecorded in great detail by the biographers. The accounts establish bothsets of facts -- they establish what was in the temple at that moment, andwhat the Prophet did to it. Notice that the moment was exactly the kind of moment which would test Shahabuddin's claim about what is and what isnot allowed by the Shariat; this was not a situation of war, quite thecontrary -- the Meccans had surrendered without a real fight; the

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protagonist was the Prophet himself, so there can be no doubt about whatthe Shariat -- based as it pre-eminently is on what he said and did --would entail; the structure had, as we have seen, been a house of worshipof an altogether un-Islamic kind forages.

Upon entering, the Prophet went round the Kaba seven times on hiscamel. He then climbed into the cube -- the Kaba proper. Inside he founda dove made of wood, said in the Encyclopedia to having been possiblydevoted to the Semitic Venus. "He broke it in his hands," records IbnIshaq, "and threw it away," He then saw paintings of Abraham. Jesus andMary inside the structure; by one set of traditions he had all of themdestroyed, by another he had all except those of Jesus and Marydestroyed. At the noon prayer that day "he ordered," Ibn Ishaq reports,"that all the idols which were round the Kaba should be collected and

burned with fire and broken up." That was done. Soon enough idolaters

were forbidden from the shrine.

Here then was a structure which before the Prophet had been for severalgenerations a place of worship of an altogether inclusive, pagan kind. TheProphet took it over -- or reclaimed it, as the faithful would say -- andtransformed into the greatest mosque of Islam. Where does that leave theShahabuddin thesis - "No temple could have been destroyed to build amosque as doing so is against the Shariat"?

Prophet Adopts Pagan Rituals

Nor does the story end there. While, as the Encyclopedia puts it, "all the pagan trappings which had adhered to the Kaba were thrust aside," "it isincontrovertible that an entire pre-Islamic ritual, previously steeped in

paganism, was adopted by Islam after it had been purified and given astrictly monotheistic orientation. "Treating the area as consecratedground, treating it as a refuge, the sacrificing of animals (shifted nowfrom the Kaba to Mina), the various elements connected with the Haj,including among these, the stoning of the Devil by throwing pebbles, therushing between Safa and Marwa, the halt at Arafat -- all these, as theEncyclopedia and Ali Dashti etc. point out, date from the pre-Islamic

period. Some things, as Ali Dashti notes, were just a bit transformed. The pre-Islamic Arabs approaching for instance the goddess Manaat wouldcall out, "Here I am at your service, (labbayka) O Manaat." The same callwas now addressed to Allah; "Labbayka Allahomma labbayka." "Here Iam at your service, Allah, at your service". The retention of these -- evenafter transformation -- led to great disquiet. Even Umar, one of the mostdevoted adherents of the Prophet, is said to have exclaimed on

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approaching the Black Stone, for Glance. "I know that thou art a stone,that neither helps nor hurts and if the Messenger of Allah had not kissedthee, I would not kiss thee". The special veneration accorded to the stone,to the structure, to everything which comes in contact with it -- for

instance, the rain water which falls off it through the spout, the clothwhich is used to cover it and which is cut into pieces and sold to the

pilgrims after being taken down -- have continued to be contrasted withthe strict admonitions against idolatry. The disquiet has not settled. Hereis Ali Dashti on the decisions the Prophet handed down upon enteringKaba:

"The Prophet Mohammed's decision to set out on a visit to the Kaba in 6A H / 628 A D is puzzling. Did he really believe the Kaba to be God’sabode? Or did he make this move in order to placate followers for whomthe Kaba-visitation was an ancestral tradition? Was his decision, which

came unexpectedly in view of the resolve of the hostile Qorayshites to prevent Moslems from entering Mecca, and which led to thedisappointing truce of Hodaybiya a political stratagem designed toimpress the Qoraysh chiefs with Moslem numerical and military strengthand to draw ordinary unfanatical Meecans to the new religion? Howcould the man who had introduced the new religion and laws and hadrepudiated all the beliefs and superstitions of his own people now revivethe main component of the old tradition in a new form? Islam's zealousfounder and legislator had above all insisted on pure monotheism, tellingthe people that belief in the One God is the only road to happiness and

proclaiming that 'the noblest among you in God's sight are the most piousamong you." 27 Had he now succumbed to national or racial feeling? Didhe want to make veneration of Ishmael’s house a symbol of Arab

National identity?

Why Pilgrimage to Mecca?

"However that may be, the decision was so surprising and so inconsistentwith Islamic principles that many Moslems were upset. Several believersobjected to the running between Safa and Marwa because it had been a

pagan Arab rite; but its retention was imposed by verse 153 Sura 2, "Safa

and Marwa are among God's waymarks". According to well authenticatedreports, Omar b, ol-Khattab, who was one of Mohammad's greatest andwisest companions, said that he would never have kissed the black stoneif he had not personally seen the Prophet kiss it. Ghazzali, whoseauthority in Islamic matters deserves respect, wrote frankly that he couldfind no explanation of the hajj ritual but obeyed because it was an

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accomplished fact.

"There is one verse in the Quran which sheds some light on the matter and is perhaps an answer to questions about it. This is verse 28 of Sura 9(ot-Tawba); "O believers, it is a fact that the polytheists are unclean.

Therefore they shall not approach the mosque of the Sanctuary (i.e. theKaba) after this year of theirs. If you fear poverty, God will enrich youfrom his bounty". According to the Tafsir Ol-Jalalayn, this meant thatGod would compensate the Arabs with victories and receipts of tribute.The Sura of repentance (ot-Tawba) is chronologically the last in theQoran, having been sent down in 10 A H / 631 A D, well after theMoslem conquest of Mecca. The ban on visitation of the Kaba by non-muslim tribes was likely to disquiet the people of Mecca, whoselivelihood and flourishing trade depended on the coming and going of Arab tribes and groups. Although the Meecans were of the same tribe as

the Prophet, most of them had only become Moslem under duress. If Mecca should lose its prosperity, there might be a risk of widespreadapostasy. That risk would be averted by making pilgrimage to Meccaincumbent on Moslems.

"This explanation is of course a mere hypothesis; to what extent itcorresponds to the reality can never be known. In any case no rational or religious justification can be found for the retention of ancient pagan

practices in the ritual of the Islamic hajj..."

And it is said that it is Hinduism which "swallows" other religions by

incorporating their rituals and making Avtaars of their deities; However that may be, the Black Stone -- the veneration in which it is held, the

powers which are attributed to it, the benedictions which are assumed toflow from seeing, touching and kissing it; the fact that the ritualsfollowed can so directly be traced to pre-Islamic times, and that their retention has continued to bewilder devout Muslims like Umar andGhazzali -- all these themselves put two things beyond doubt; the Kabawas a place of pagan idol worship with an elaborate set of rituals and anentire mode of life to go with it; second, the Prophet took it over andmade it the holiest shrine of Islam.

Where does that leave Shahabuddin's latest argument?

"But where is the proof?"

When Shahabuddin was expounding his thesis about the Shariat notallowing the destruction of a temple for constructing a mosque, I alludedto what the Kaba had been and how the Prophet himself had made it intoa mosque.

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moment, had the Prophet not said that every spot on earth is sacred, thatAllah has made the entire earth a masjid? There are two views regardingthe importance of Kaba. One is that the Kaba is the navel of the earth. Itis believed to have existed before the earth was created by Allah -- on one

account 40 years earlier, on one 2000 years earlier. Allah created heaven,we are told, and then the earth by stretching out the substance of the eartharound this navel. Creation competed, the Kaba we learn, now is thehighest point of the earth, and its position corresponds exactly to that of the Pole Star, which we also learn, is the highest point in the heavens. Asheaven is above the earth and as Kaba is the highest point on earth, it isthe place by being in which one is nearest to heaven.

The other view is that it is not just the centre of the earth, but of theuniverse. The universe, in this account, consists of seven heavens -- oneabove the other -- and seven earths -- one below the other. All the

fourteen levels are perfectly aligned -- the highest point in each lies perfectly in line with the highest of other levels. Now, the highest point of the seventh heaven is the Throne of Allah, the highest point on earth --and exactly in the centre of the universe -- is the Kaba. The Kaba we seein Mecca, we are further instructed, is an exact replica of the originalstructure which is in heaven and which is made of gold.30

Myths or History?

But why was it necessary to create this replica on earth? The accountsdiffer. As we have seen, on one account it is Abraham who laid its

foundations and with Ishmael built it one the prompting of Gabriel, theangel who, as we know, was later to transmit the revelations from Allahto the Prophet. On the other account, the structure was built by Adam.

Originally Adam was so tall that he could hear the heavenly songs aroundAllah's Throne directly. But after his fall he shrunk so much that theupper realms were out of his reach. Upon his importuning God sent himthe tent around which and through which he could attain to the beatitudes,and this later was made into the Kaba, in answer to his pleas that Meccahad no one, that the shrine had no worshipers Allah promised that it

would become the centre of pilgrimage, and that promise Allah fulfilled.The original structure was later washed away in the Great Flood. Theangels spirited away and kept safe the Black Stone. That is how Abrahamcame to rebuild the structure later on, and Gabriel brought the Black Stone, back to him. We learn that the Stone itself -- now in three largeand several small pieces held together by a silver band as it split in thecourse of a fire -- was originally white; it became black upon contact with

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the sinfulness of the pagan period31.

Such are the reasons on account of which the Kaba and the Black Stoneare of such extraordinary holiness.

Now, which of these elements of the legends can be "proved" in the way proof of Ram's birthplace is sought? Yet it is precisely because of themthat the Kaba is so sacred.

The Al Aqsa Mosque

After the Masjid al-Haram in which the Kaba lies, the mosque held mostsacred by the faithful is the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. And why so?The rock around which it is built has a mark. It is believed to be theimprint the Prophet's foot made as he alighted from the winged horseafter his night's journey to this point in Jerusalem and thence to heaven :in heaven, as is well known, he met Moses and Jesus etc. Which elements

of this can we prove? Heaven? The winged horse? The night's journey?That the mark is the imprint of a human foot? That the foot of which it isan imprint was that of the Prophet? (Incidentally the mosque is built onthe site where according to the other set of beliefs stood the church built

by Justinian). The Masjid al-Khaif in Mina is also built around a stonewhich the devout hold sacred; they put their heads on it, why? Becausethe stone has a mark which, it is said, was made by the Prophet placinghis head on it. The Masjid al-Baghla in Medina enshrined the footprintsof the Prophet's mule in stone. The Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Egypt was

built where Musa, that is Moses, talked with the Lord... And so on. Ineach instance, ask that what proof can I provide for the proposition onwhich this structure is built?

The Prophet's distinction

Today we are being told that a mosque can never be dismantled or shifted. It is not just that the inviolability which is being attached to thestructure of a mosque is a later -- much later -- accretion into Islam; thefirst mosque in Basra, the place being an encampment then, was built of reeds so that, as the Encyclopedia notes, it could be taken down with thecamp. It is not just that even the most revered mosques -- the Kaba itself,

the Prophet's mosque in Medina -- have been dismantled more than onceso as to replace them with more imposing structures. It is not just that tothis day in the Middle East mosques are broken and then another structure bearing that name built elsewhere for purposes as mundane aswidening highways. It is that doing so would seem to accord with theProphet's view of the matter.

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"I have been given five things," the Prophet said, "which were not givento any amongst the Prophets before me". Among these he said was; thefact that "The earth has been made for me (and for my followers) a placefor praying and a thing to perform tayammum. Therefore my followers

can pray wherever the time of a prayer is due". (The other four thingswere: "Allah made me victorious by awe (by His frightening my enemies)for a distance of one month's journey"; "Booty has been made halal(lawful) for me (and was not made so for anyone else)"; "Every Prophetused to be sent to his nation exclusively but I have been sent to allmankind"; and, "I have been given the right of intercession (on the Day of Resurrection)"32. There are interesting variations in the precise words insome traditions, the words 'the earth (which) has been made clean and a

place of worship' become 'the treasures of the earth which were placed inmy hand."

In accordance with this view that the whole earth was a place of worship,the very first mosque he founded -- the one in Medina -- was constructedat a site which because of accretions to Islam since then, in fact in large

part due to what it has adopted of other religions, would leave our protagonists looking askance. Soon after his arrival in Medina, theProphet asked the Banu-An-Najjar to sell him a particular plot of land sothat he may build a mosque on it. They would not accept a price for itsaying they would seek it from Allah, and they turned the plot over to theProphet. "There were graves of pagans in it", the hadis goes, "and someof it was unlevelled and there were sonic date-palm trees in it. TheProphet ordered that the graves of the pagans be dug out and theunlevelled land be levelled and the date-palm trees be cut down..." Allthis was done and the mosque built in land which till that moment hadcontained the graves of pagans in it. The adherents today would regardsuch a site polluted, and yet that is where the Prophet himself constructedhis mosque33.

Conclusions

Our brief survey suggests three conclusions. Each of these strikes at thevery root of the arguments which are being asserted by the Babri Masjid

protagonists, and each does so in a different way:

• The latest argument -- that no Muslim ruler destroyed any templesimply because doing so is against the Shariat -- does not hold, notonly because of what Muslim historians have themselves recordedabound. innumerable instances, but also because there seems to beno warrant for the rule in view of what the Prophet himself did:

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• It is as difficult to prove the reasons for holding the most reveredmosque sacred as it is to prove that Lord Ram was born at a

particular place;

• The shifting of mosque is permissible not only in view of the

practice to this day in the most orthodox Islamic countries, but alsoin view of the Prophet's acclamation that Allah had made the entireearth, that is each and every spot in it a place of worship.

These are conclusions which follow in regard to the immediate issue athand. But I think an even more important lesson is implicit in theforegoing.

I have all too often seen persons lose patience as protagonists of the BabriMasjid shift their arguments, as they obfuscate what they had said earlier,as they adopt one set of criteria for one issue -- to justify overturning the

Shah Bano verdict for instance -- and another set for another issue -- inregard to adhering to the court verdict on some aspect of the Ayodhyaissue for instance. But such exasperation must be eschewed. Instead,every assertion of the protagonists must be examined in detail. Everyargument they advance must be examined logically and in the light of evidence.

Whatever be the outcome in regard to one structure, such an exercise -- of treating the arguments seriously, of dealing with them rationally, of examining event statement thoroughly, of looking up the law, the history

books -- such an exercise will itself yield inestimable returns; instead of hurling calumny and threats at each other, we will learn to talk to eachother: we will learn to settle issues rationally and by evidence: we will --all of us, Muslims as much as-others -- will get to know these leaders andtheir politics: most important, we will open up all parts of our heritage --Islam as much as Hinduism -- and every aspect of each part toexhumation, and thus to discourse.

Footnotes:1. Sitaram Goel, Hindu Temples: What Happened to them (New Delhi,Voice of India, 1991)2. "Masjid", Encyclopedia of Islam, pp. 1931-36.3. Tabari, i. 2405, 2407.4. Makrizi iv.35; of for Kufa, Baladhuri, p.286.5. Corpus jurisdi Zaidb. ‘Ali, ed Griffini, No. 364.6. ibid, Bi; and also J.A. 9 Sec., vii 369 sqq. Quatremere, Hist. Sult Mamt.

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11/1,262 sqq. and the article "Damascus"7. Makrizi, iv. 28 sq.,30.8. ibid., 9.30.9

. Makrizi, iv.63,64.10. ibid. p.65.11. ibid. p. 269.12. ibid. p. 240.13. Masjid Ibn al-Banna, ibid., p. 265.14. Yakut, Mu’djam i. 719.15. Sauvaire, Hist. De Jerus, it d’Hibron,, 1876, p. 77; Quatremere, Hist.Sult. Maml., I/II., 40.

16. see Goldziher, Muh, Stud., ii.331 sq.17. Mas’udi, Murudi, iv. 77; B.G.A., iii.444.18. ibid., p. 436.19. Baladhuri, p. 165 sq.20. (Ibn Battuta, iii.151); as to Ta’if of. Abu Dawud, Salat, bab 10.21. Mas’udi, 1.91; Baedeker, Palast, u. Syrun, 1910, p. 147.22. Kitab at-Tabaqat Al-Kabu, (Pakistan Historical Society, Karachi,Publication No. 46, Volume I. Pp 373-4) Mishkat Al-Masabih23. 1 ibid.24. Kitabal-Tabaqat at-Kabir, op.cit., Volume I, pp. 373-4.25. Quran 9. 108.26. Twenty Three Years, A Study in the Prophetic Career of Mohammed(George Allen and Unwin, London, 1985).27. Sura 49, verse 13.28. Sura ii, 129, iii, 89 etc.29

. Quran 2. 121.30. The Quran too, as is well known, is an exact reproduction of the text of two tablets - also of gold - which are lying in heaven.31. On all this see, for instance, the Encyclopedia of Islam’s entry, Ka’ba.32. Shahih Al-Bukhari, the Book of Salat, tradition 429; also SahihMuslim, the Book of Salat, traditions 1056-1067.

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33. Sahih -Al-Bukhari, the Book of Salat, tradition 420; also SahihMuslim, the Book of Salat, tradition 1068.

(The author is an eminent Indian Journalist.)

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