Senior Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind leader Arshad Madani made controversial statements while speaking on the second day of the 34th Convention by the Islamic organization. Madani’s remarks angered religious leaders of other faiths who were invited saying it was a goodwill conference (Sadbhavana Sammelan).

What did Arshad Madani say?

Madani claimed that Islam originated in Bharat while adding Allah sent Adam to India and Muhammad to Arabia as Islam’s first and last Prophets. Madani further equated Manu and Adam saying Hindus referred to Adam as Manu. “The sound of ‘La ilaha illaah’ first descended in India. Adam worshipped the same Allah as Manu did when he revered the Om. Allah and Om are one. Manu is our ancestor and you tell us to return home (become Hindus again). We will die but never forget our Allah”, he claimed.

“I asked great religious figures when there was no one, neither Shri Ram, nor Bhagwan Shiv, nor Brahma, then whom did Manu worship? Some said, he used to worship Bhagwan Shiv, but they are ignorant. Very few people told me that Manu used to pray to Om. I asked them, who is Om? They said that he is one without any form or colour. He is everywhere, just like air. He created everything. I said, he is the one we call Allah. Persian people call him Khuda and the ones who speak English refer to him as God. It means that Manu, also known as Adam, worshipped one God, who is Om and our Allah”, Madani said.

Madani is the present Principal of Darul Uloom Deoband and is known for making controversial statements. Earlier, he termed notorious Taliban terrorists as ‘freedom fighters’. He had opined that co-education was leading to ‘apostasy’ in Muslim girls and to curb this more educational institutions should be opened.

The Maulana is not alone in making such baseless claims. Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) chief Mahmood Asad Madani, another controversial Jamiat leader, had made similar claims terming Bharat as the ‘birthplace’ of Islam. “The first prophet descended here. It is the homeland of Muslims. To consider Islam as a foreign religion is historically incorrect and completely baseless”, he said.

He had also opposed Uniform Civil Code and regarding the Gyanvapi issue warned that another Pakistan would be created. He was involved in the promotion of the propaganda book “26/11: RSS ki Sazish”, along with filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, that sought to shift the blame for the terror attack from Pakistan to RSS.

Maulana Madani received support from another equally notorious, if not more, Maulana. Maulana Sajid Rashidi backed Madani’s claims and came up with his own for good measure. Among other claims, he said that Prabhu Sri Ram was a ‘descendent of Hazrat Adam’. Furthermore, he took refuge in the constitution saying he has the right to say things according to his faith as the constitution has given him the right to do so.

“I am telling the things as per my faith. Because the constitution allows us to believe in our faith, practice it, and preach it. So, according to our faith, we believe that Hazrat Adam was the first human. He was also a messenger of god. When Akhand Bharat existed, at that time, Sri Lanka, Iran, Iraq, etc. all were united. At that time, he came to Sri Lanka which is Hindustan. He was a messenger of god. we call him Hazrat Adam and he is mentioned many times in Quran”, Rashidi told ANI.

“Quran says that Hazrat Adam also believed in Allah. Because he was the first human. All humans were born only after him. Be it Shri Ram or you take an example of any god or goddess. Every one of them is a descendant of Hazrat Adam. This was the motive behind his (Maulana Madani’s) statement. And this is my faith”, he said.

Rashidi repeatedly peddles lies like the one about Ram Janmabhoomi where he claimed there was no temple beneath the mosque. He further threatened Ram Mandir saying it would be demolished to be replaced by a mosque. He crossed all limits of civilized discourse when he justified the repeated desecration and loot of the Somnath Mandir by Turkic marauder Mahmud of Ghazni, from present-day Afghanistan.

The JUH regularly incites Muslims in the name of conclaves and conventions. In May 2022, a conclave was held in Deoband where Islamists propagated the narrative of Muslim victimhood and pushed the extremist agenda. “In the Deoband conclave, the Jamiat said that there had been a deliberate attempt to discredit Islamic studies, and it will now make efforts to popularise Islamic studies. It also appealed to Muslims to follow Islamic laws”, highlighted Organiser.

Jain Guru Acharya Lokesh Muni slams Arshad Madani

“We only agree with living in harmony and brotherhood, but all the stories regarding, Om, Allah and Manu are rubbish. The tales he weaved, I can narrate even better stories than that. You are like my father. I invite you to come to Delhi for a discussion with me, or even I can come to visit you in Saharanpur”, Acharya Lokesh said expressing his displeasure.

“It should be remembered that Mahavir was twenty-fourth Jain Tirthankar. There was Lord Parshvanath before him. Arishtanemi was Lord Krishna’s cousin. The foremost Jain Tirthankar was Rishabhanatha, and his sons were Bharata and Bahubali, on whose name this country Bharat was named. You can’t erase this history. None of us agrees with his statements. He completely spoiled the atmosphere of the session”, he said before storming off the stage with religious leaders from other faiths.

Appropriation of Hindu Dharma

Cultural appropriation of Hindu Dharma by Abrahamic religions to trick natives into converting is rampant practice. Christian evangelists have been appropriating Hindu symbols for their evangelical activities. Not to be left behind, Islamic Maulanas & Maulvis have also adopted the same trick as is evident from the utterances of Madani, Rashidi, and others of their ilk.

It is this appropriation that has led to the propagation of the myth of Ram Setu being Adam’s bridge. In essence, Abrahamic mythology is being foisted upon Hindus to legitimise both conversion and cultural appropriation. By equating Adam’s Bridge and Ram Setu, the cabal is putting Hindu Dharma, which predates Abrahamism by several centuries, in the same time frame as Abrahamic religions.

If Madani and other Islamists truly believe that Allah and Om are the same, then Darul Uloom Deoband shouldn’t have objected to the chanting of Om during yogic exercises in school. Dharmic thought sees the divine in every object of creation while according to Abrahamic thought, God is an external force.

Madani’s utterances must be seen as setting the narrative to legitimize their usurpation of Hindu Dharma.

A Madani or a Rashidi is able to get away with such blatant distortions due to confusion in Hindu minds stemming from a lack of Dharmic grounding. Adding to the confusion of Hindus are Hindu thinkers and modern ‘gurus & acharyas’, who as journalist Divya Kumar Soti puts it, have corporatized Dharma.

It is not just modern gurus or acharyas but even earlier Hindu religious leaders and thinkers who either tried to fit Hindu Dharma in the Abrahamic framework or attempted to co-opt Abrahamics through ‘Sarva Dharma Samabhav’ and ‘Ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti’ (the universal truth is known by different names by scholars/educated).

Where the Hindu thinkers fell short was in contextualizing ancient sayings. It brings us back to the point of Hindu Dharma predating Abrahamic religions. We must also not forget that Hindu leaders from the Islamic & Post-Islamic to pre-British Eras and from the British Era to Independence were faced with different situations and challenges.

Modern Hindus are facing completely different challenges in addition to dealing with a hostile secular state which treats the so-called majority as eighth-class citizens. A Madani or a Rashidi can only be effectively countered if Hindus are Dharmically grounded. Hindu religious leaders and thinkers also need to guide Hindus keeping societal conditions in mind while adhering to the basic framework of Dharma as enshrined in Hindu Granthas.