The Truth about the Alleged Punishment for Apostasy in Islam — Page 23
23 were participants in the decision given in 1974, it [the decision] stands on a different pedestal. Or one might argue that the popular sentiment emanating from the laity alone ought to be rejected—just because the laity is of the kind described above by Maud u d i Sahib, yet the Representative Assembly elected by the same laity must necessarily possess the right [to decide questions of faith] and that they are above reproach. Instead of giving my own reply to both these points. I give a reply in Maud u d i Sahib's own words. His reply to the first point is: 'Whether it is the political leaders who have received Western education and training, or it be the ulema of our faith and the mufties * of the Islamic Sharia 12 , the leaders of both these types—on account of their ideology and their policy—have equally lost their way: both categories have gone astray from the path of truth, and are floundering in a myriad of darkness … neither of these possesses the vision of a Muslim. ' 13 As far as the whim that no matter what kind of * Religious divines who are entitled to issue a fatwa , or religious edict. [Publisher] 12 Note that the Assembly—that passed the definition according to which the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam a ‘at is declared outside the pail of Islam—was composed of only these two types of people! [Author] 13 Ibid Page 95.