AIMPLB member Maulana Syed Salman Hussain Nadvi says shifting of mosque is permissible

Maulana Syed Salman Hussain Nadvi, an executive member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), who met Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar earlier this week, on Saturday said he favoured an amicable settlement of the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute. 

“The atmosphere should be good (between the two communities).There is permission for this in the Sharia. As per the Hanbali school of (Islamic) thought, a mosque can be shifted,” Nadvi said.

He put forth his views at the board’s meeting here last night, and there was a disagreement, he said.  “We have to conserve our mosque. Conserving does not mean we will fight at the same place and take it. We can shift the mosque. A grand mosque can be built where a university can also be set up,” Nadvi added.

A meeting of the working committee of the AIMPLB took place in Hyderabad on Friday night, as part of the board’s ongoing 26th plenary session.

Nadvi said while he expressed his views at the meeting, the board’s stand was that once a mosque is constructed at a certain place, it remained a mosque forever.  The board had said after the meeting last night that land dedicated for a mosque cannot be sold, gifted or in any way alienated.

Ravi Shankar, on February 8, held a meeting with Muslim leaders including, Maulana Nadvi, renewing his effort to mediate in the Ayodhya dispute, even as final hearing on the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case began in the Supreme Court. 

After the meeting, the AOL said some eminent members of the Sunni Waqf Board, the AIMPLB and others met Ravi Shankar and expressed support for an out-of-court settlement of the dispute and “supported the proposal of shifting the Masjid outside to another place”.

Meanwhile, sources said the board would appoint a committee to recommend its course of action vis-a-vis Maulana Nadvi, after he expressed divergent views on the Ayodhya issue.