Lucknow: Jamait Ulema’s cleric Mufti Mohammad Iliyas has stoked a major controversy by claiming that Lord Shiva was the first prophet of Muslims. He also said that all Muslims are followers of Sanatan Dharma.
“We are not opposed to declaring India a Hindu country. If people residing in China and Japan are called Chinese and Japanese respectively, then we can be also called Hindustani,” he said.
The Mufti was part of a delegation of clerics that was in Ayodhya on Wednesday to garner support for the Jamiat’s communal harmony seminar to be organised on February 27 in Balrampur. His statement has, expectedly, evoked a strong reaction from other clerics who have rubbished his views.
“We know that the first prophet (messenger) of Islam was Prophet Adam and the last one was Prophet Mohammad. Quran has mentioned very few of them. Islam respects all religions and religious figures. But that Lord Shiva was a Prophet has no proof in Islam,” said Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali, head cleric of Aishbagh Eidgah in Lucknow.
