We read funny words that since Nowruz is a Zoroastrian heritage, it is forbidden. The infidels also visited the Kaaba before Islam, so shouldn't we today visit what the infidels had visited?
Author: Farid Younes
I was born in Kabul and grew up in this city. When we were children, we didn’t hear for a single day that Nowruz is shirk (polytheism, here is blasphemy), that raising Janda * in the grave of Shah Avliya is shirk, and the celebration of this day is blasphemy and heresy. The reason is that we, the people of Afghanistan, were and remain Hanafis and Shiites, and secondly, Afghanistan was the land of saints, temples, monasteries, Sufis, and mystics from north to south and from east to west. It is important that Imam Abu Hanifa (a) never said that Nowruz is shirk, although he was from the same land.
When we look at the history of wars and conquests, we see that war and jihad have not only positive aspects but also negative ones. As a result of jihad in our country, in terms of religious thinking, because Saudi Arabia financed jihad, Afghanistan was under the influence of Wahhabi and Salafi thoughts, and their Taliban agents promoted the same petrified Salafi and Wahhabi thinking, especially brainwashed mullahs. And one of them is hostility to the five-thousand-year-old culture of our land.
Everything that is contrary to the faith of the Wahhabis is shirk and infidelity. When the Muslims conquered the Khorasan region, they did not destroy the Buddha statue, but the Taliban destroyed it. Because Wahhabis and Salafis are at enmity with culture, history, archeology, and historical cults. And all this is a shirk for the Wahhabis. During the days of the Hajj, I saw that the graves of noble companions were destroyed because from the point of view of the Wahhabis, visiting the graves is a shirk.
Afghanistan is not only a country of awliya and religious leaders such as Imam Abu Hanifa, it is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of ancient history. When I worked at the Kabul Museum forty-three years ago, I studied sculptures that were amazing from the point of view of the art of painting, which is not found anywhere else in the world. For example, a Greek-Buddhist or Roman statue mixed with Greek and Buddhist.
The justifications for shirk, infidelity, and heresy today testify to the dominance of the Wahhabis in the country, who, after three attempts, finally managed to take possession of this ancient historical and cultural land. Firstly, during the reign of Amir Sher Alikhan, they tried to make Afghanistan Wahhabi, and the scientists of Afghanistan at that time rebuffed the Wahhabis and their petrified beliefs, and wrote a treatise “Shahab Saqib” against them and expelled them from Afghanistan. The second time the Wahhabis tried to make Afghanistan Wahhabi was during the reign of Amir Abdul Rahmankhan. Again, since the Afghan ulema sided with Ottoman Turkey, the Wahhabis were rebuffed and published their disagreement in the book "Taqwim ud-din" ("Calendar of Religion"), published during the reign of Amir Abdul Rahmankhan, and expelled them from the country. The late Sardar Mohammad Daoud was approached for the third time, but he did not sign the project to build a Wahhabi center in Afghanistan.
But during the reign of Ashraf Ghani, as he was under the rule of the "triangle of sin" - the United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the Wahhabi center in Afghanistan finally found a way. It was built, which was followed by an increase in anti-cultural propaganda.
Nowruz is a matter of nature, and the celebration of nature does not contradict religion. It is interesting that we read funny words that since Novruz is the heritage of the Zoroastrians, it is forbidden, the Kaaba was also visited by the infidels before Islam, so shouldn't we today visit what the infidels had visited?
When Islam reached the region of Khorasan, during the reign of Jalal Malikshah Seljuk in 467 AH, Taqvimi Jaloli, the Jalali Calendar, was compiled, the same calendar that is used today. The initiator of this calendar, Hajj Nizam al-Mulk Tusi, a wise prime minister and the light of the Seljuk court, entrusted this matter to Hakim Omar Khayyam Nishapuri, a famous mathematician. Khayyam took with him another mathematician named Abu Abbas Loghari, who was also a mathematician, and they began to investigate this astronomical and scientific work. As a result, March 15 was considered the first day of spring. After a more accurate calculation and research, they realized that March 21 coincides with the first day of spring.
The Jalali calendar was compiled based on the rotation of the earth around the sun and the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), which has three advantages. The first, like the lunar hijra, does not change every year for ten whole days. Second, from the point of view of management, especially state accounting, it is very convenient. Thirdly, it is equal to the beginning of spring, which has been celebrated since ancient times.
From a scientific point of view, on the first day of spring, day and night will equalize. This is the equinox. This is the first day, and ancient Nowruz, and more importantly, it is Islamic, that is, it was compiled on the basis of the migration of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) from Mecca to Medina, and finally, it has four seasons that make it easier to farm.
The Jalali calendar was not used for many years until the beginning of the twentieth century when Afghanistan and Iran started using it instead of the lunar calendar, but with the difference that the Iranians took the names of the months from ancient times, such as Urdubihisht, Isfand, and so on, and the Afghanis took from such astronomical signs as Leo, Cancer, Scorpio and so on.
We congratulate you and your dear families on the ancient New Year, New Spring, and Navruz. Thank God we are Muslims and thank God we have a culture. There is no infidelity, blasphemy, or heresy in this culture.
* Janda - the sacred New Year banner of Afghanistan.
