Questioner: Al hurru bil hurri, wal abdu bil abdi, wal unsa bil unsa.
Huzoor (rh): Yes, yes, yes.
Questioner: One scholar said it’s the instruction to the Muslims and the other one said this was the practice of the Arabs before Islam. So I was a bit puzzled.
Huzoor (rh): Which one has said that it was a practice before Islam?
Questioner: Now it was in Ramadan, so more than a month ago.
Huzoor (rh): Was it an Ahmadi scholar?
Questioner: One of the scholars was Imam Sahib and the other one was…
Huzoor (rh): Which Imam Sahib?
Questioner: Of the London mosque.
Huzoor (rh): He interpreted in the second way?
Questioner: I don’t remember now who did it in which way.
Huzoor (rh): And the other Imam, who was he?
Questioner: Well, he’s not an Imam, he’s sitting here.
Huzoor (rh): Nasir Ahmed, what was the explanation you gave?
Nasir Ahmed: I translated on the…
Huzoor (rh): Go there to the microphone.
Nasir Ahmed: Huzoor, I told him the translator which Hazrat Musleh Maud has mentioned in Tafsir-e-Sagheer.
Huzoor (rh): Yeah, right.
Nasir Ahmed: And I explained that translation as Huzoor has commented…
Huzoor (rh): Yes, that means that al-unsa means the unsa. Yes. And the slave and the… exactly.
Nasir Ahmed: The one who has killed someone.
Huzoor (rh): Correct, the person who himself is the culprit.
Nasir Ahmed: Yeah. Either that hur or abd or al-unsa, he will be killed.
Huzoor (rh): And what was the other explanation? That must have been forwarded by the Imam because there’s only one person and one explanation are left now.
Questioner: The other explanation was that it was a practice before Islam that if the killed person was a slave, then in retribution a slave would be killed and that was the un-Islamic practice which should be left.
Huzoor (rh): So, what did he mean by saying that? That has it been adopted by the Holy Qur’an or has it been mentioned just as a historical fact?
Questioner: Yeah, well, he said that this is what is condemned in this line.
Huzoor (rh): No, it isn’t. That is wrong. This matter is to be further investigated in my opinion. But the one explanation which has been given by Hazrat Musleh Maud, in my opinion that is the best explanation so far. It holds water, it’s logical, and it doesn’t jar on human nature. But the other explanations, whichever they are, they’re not fully satisfactory. Still, I feel that there is room for further exploration. And I was once thinking of concentrating on this issue myself. Inshallah, I will do now, you have reminded me.
