HYDERABAD: Influential Islamic seminary Jamia Nizamia on Friday issued a fatwa declaring that "reason" and Islamic "faith" do not allow Muslims to chant the slogan 'Bharat Mata ki jai'.
The fatwa, which is an Islamic cleric's jurisprudential opinion, came after Syed Ghulam Samdani Ali Quadri, a religious figure from the Old City, approached the seminary for an answer three days ago.
Explaining the rationale behind the ruling, Mufti Azeemuddin, who heads the fatwa centre of the seminary, wrote that according to the principles of reason, only a human gives birth to a human and treating the "land of bharat" as a mother is against "reason".
"The mother of a human is human. No piece of land and no animal and no other object gives birth to humans," an excerpt from the fatwa reads. The seminary said that those who wish to treat the "land of Bharat as their mother, then this is the person's individual religious belief and that the person cannot force others (to believe in this)."
The Mufti concluded by writing that "the Muslims of Bharat love the country."
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