Page:The Indian Musalmans.djvu/14

 While the more fanatical of the Musalmans have thus engaged in overt sedition, the whole Muhammadan community has been openly deliberating on their obligation to rebel. During the past nine months, the leading newspapers in Bengal have filled their columns with discussions as to the duty of the Muhammadans to wage war against the Queen. The collective wisdom of the Musalman Law Doctors of Northern India was first promulgated in a formal Decision (Fatwa). Next the Bengal Muhammadans put forth a pamphlet on the question ; and even the Shiah sect, a comparatively small body in India, have not been able to restrain themselves from print. For some months the Anglo-Indian Press was inclined to smile at the pains which the loyal sort of Musalmdns were taking to ascertain whether they could abstain from rebellion without perdition to their souls. But the universal promulgation of formal Legal Decisions by the Muhammadan Law Doctors, soon convinced our countrymen that the subject might have a serious as well as a ludicrous aspect. The cumulative papers now published — papers drawn up and issued by the Muhammadans themselves — ^leave not a shadow of doubt as to the danger through which the Indian Empire is passing. They will convince every reasonable mind, that while the more reckless among the Musalmdns have for years been engaged in overt treason, the whole community has been agitated by the greatest State Question that ever occupied the thoughts of a people. The duty of rebellion has been formally and publicly reduced to a nice point of Muhammadan Law. Somehow or other, every Musalmdn seems to have found himself called on to declare his faith : to state, in the face of his co-religionists, whether he will or will not contribute to the