The Islamic Ministry has expressed concern at the rising number of privately-held, unsanctioned congregations.
The ministry said it was “advisable” for such congregations to immediately cease worshipping in isolation and conducting sermons administered by scholars not licensed by the ministry.
The Islamic Ministry said that private congregations were against laws protecting religious unity.
”The Islamic Ministry does not believe that there is any reason to perform isolated congregations as the state is based on Sunni Islam, and formal congregations in the mosques are approved,” the Islamic Ministry said in a press statement.
The ministry advised Imams not to dispute religious issues or get into disputes over ‘Madhab’ (way of thinking, persuasion) , and to instead follow the Sunnah of Prophet Mohamed (PBUH) and to believe and return to the way that trusted Islamic scholars had advised.
Sheikh Ali Zahir said that the issue could be spoken about for a long time, but that the Islamic Ministry was the authorised department and had said its word.
However, a man who follows Islam in a private congregation told Minivan News on condition on anonymity that his group had decided to isolate themselves “because the current government is following a law established in 1982 by the former government, a law protecting religious unity which is contrary to the tenets of Islam.”
He said that according to the Constitution Article 10[b], “no law can be enacted contrary to the tenets of Islam.”
”So we do not have to follow the law protecting religious unity,” he said.
He said that according to the tenets of Islam there were no different ‘Madhabs’ on the Sunnah of Prophet Mohamed (PBUH).
”They force all the Imams to pray according to the Shafi’e Madhab, so we cannot follow the Imams who pray according to a Madhab, we follow Prophet Mohamed (PBUH),” he said.
He said another reason for the isolated congregations was that the former government ordered the Imams not to read ‘Gunooth’ during the fajr prayers.
”Now they read Gunooth when the Imams feels like it,” he said.
Furthermore, he said, the three powers of the government had been divided and Shari’ah Law had not been implemented in the Constitution and Penal Code, contradicting the tenets of Islam.
”According to Islam all the powers should be in one hand,” he said.
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ISLAMIC MINISTRY needs to also express convern over the article of Hilath Rasheed in open call for GAY rights..and more shockingly it was published on the Dhivehiobserver too (which is owned by Government senior official Sappe')!! I call upon all true Maldivians to read Hilath' blog (his mocking of Islamic values) and express concern peacefully!! We need to stop this! One bad apple in the basket need not distroy all the good this government (MDP) did for reforming the maldives!! I call upon everybody to voice the support against Hilath's and similar views on distorying our social fabric..and if you investigate properly we would know Gay's and Alcohol drinkers are the key criminal minds in this society! Child abuse is mostly rooted from these characters!!
Dear Editor,
”According to Islam all the powers should be in one [person's] hand,” he said.
The last sentence of this piece quotes from an anonymous source.
We believe the anonymous person is referring to Allah sub-haanahu-watha'ala when he says "According to Islam all the power should be in one hand".
So, we advice Minivan News to remove the interpreted "[person's]" from that sentence.
Eventhough we would like to refrain from commenting on this "independent" news website (because all our lives should then be spent commenting; most of what is written here opposes Islam in one form or the other. If the Ministry didn't say anything then it would be them encouraging "radicalism" in one of Minivan's opinion piece and if the Ministry is taking steps to unify Muslims then Minivan would promote the anonymous view point and the story continues.....)we thought this mistake is worth highlighting.
Pls do not approve our comments as we dont want to publish them
go mariya dhatha
"The ministry said it was “advisable” for such congregations to immediately cease worshipping in isolation and conducting sermons administered by scholars not licensed by the ministry"
What about Zakiru Nike? if Zakir can preach, so can the 'dotcom' imams.
What they have said about 'Mazhab' or school of thought is bulls***t. they are asking to 'return to sunnah', as if other sunni muslims are not following it. There is no official mazhab of the state...and it has been accepted (and said even by Dr.Majeed) that Maldives follow the Shafiee School of thought.but that is mostly in matters of Fiqh...and today even in Fiqh and Creed...maldives has been converted in to a Wahhabi State. the moment one mention the term 'wahhabi' they will start arguing that it is not a sect or a mazhab and say it is 'following the sunnah'. this is a trick to mislead others and convert more people in to wahhabi islam.
I believe it is not against the laws of the republic of maldives to follow any mazhab. Some Maldivian muslims dont accept some Hadiths, other believe Hadiths are fabricated stories. but they too are muslims. Islam is not Adhaalath Party's property. Islam is a bond between man and god. so, fear not Maldivians. Speak against these wahhabis and their work. it is NOT against islam or our constitution. We are free to express our opinions within the bounds of islam and without going against any basic principle of islam.
The Private congregation guy actually has a point here. religious unity act IS contrary to the tenets of Islam. And limiting freedom of expression?!! the prophet encouraged people to ask questions and he ANSWERED those...he did not butcher them with a sword or threaten em.
We can either be a theocracy [with religious scholars as the highest authority, like in iran...as adhaalath party once suggested]...or we can have democracy where belief is a personal matter. we cant have both, because there are too many contradictions.
where is freedom of expression and assembly. No way Dr Bari, you can't stop it this time.
bla, bla bla.
anything real, important to human progress please report!
First, I lol'd at this mariya dhaitha accusing Hilath of carrying out crimes against our future mothers. It seems that according to them, reporting and exposing the crimes they want to hide is tantamount to doing the crime itself.
I am convinced of this when I further interrogated another one called Shiru Mustafa, who told me that "western countries have more rape occurrences, and Saudi Arabia has low to none", not realizing that in the western world, rapes are publicized, and the perpetrators get punished and in the Middle East(and other Islamized countries), rape occurences tends to get shushed up and the victim is punished/murdered to prevent her from talking to the press.
Then I lol'd harder at buscador for claiming to be a good muslim - and then cheering on the creation of baseless untruths.
OH man, the big picture of this country is current Pakistan... We have to stop this freedom of Islamic scholars, here...They can't just say what ever they want. This government have to be responsible for whatever will happen because of these kind of matters.
My dear Guide!
Lets see how you shut the freedom of Islamic Scholars! Remember its a democracy!! Taste your own poison! Remember Progressive Islamic Ummah is on the rise and there is nothing you athesists could do this time! THE GAME BEGINS!
why does these hate filled haabees see everything as a confrontation? hear every single words we say as drums of war? guys, everyone who speak against your wahhabi agenda is NOT a kafir, fasiq, jahil or atheist. remember, maldivians have been muslims for a looong long time. long before your wahhabi ideology was born. so just friggin drop your imaginary war between atheists and muslims. there is none. it is a power struggle by extremists to destroy our hard earned democracy and freedom in the name of islam. but guys, we dont need you to import islam from arabia, weve had it here for long. so thank you, and leave us alone.kay?