''Babari Masjid'' is no mosque

The building at Sri Rama Janma Bhumi, miscalled ''Babari Masjid'' is no mosque. It has no minarets. According to Ganapathi Aiyar (Law Relating to Hindu and Mahomedan Endowments: 2nd Edition 1918, Chapter XVII, at page 388): "After the first half century from the Flight there is no mosque without a minaret." The obvious reason is that the muazzin used to give the call for prayers, called azan, from the upper gallery of the minaret. According to Baillie: "When an assembly of worshippers pray in a masjid with permission, that is delivery. But it is a condition that the prayers be with izan, or the regular call, and be public and not private, for though there should be an assembly yet if it is without izan, and the prayers are private instead of public, the place is no masjid. The call of azan could not be properly given to the Faithful without a minaret.

That there was an ancient temple of Maharaja Vikramaditya's time at Sri Rama Janma Bhumi is an indisputable fact of history. Fourteen of its Kasauti pillars in the present building at Sri Rama Janma Bhumi tell their own tale. That temple was destroyed by Mir Baqi, a commander of Babar's hordes, and an attempt was made to raise a mosque in its place. The subsequent history of the place is bloodstained. According to the Faizabad District Gazetteer (1928 Edition, at page 180):

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Further according to the Gazetteer:

"It is said that upto this time both Hindus and Musalmans used to worship in the same building; but since the mutiny an outer enclosure has been put up in front of the mosque and the Hindus who are forbidden access to the inner yard, make their offerings on a platform which they have raised in the outer one."

It is thus established by the official records, that immediately before the annexation of Avadh by the British, the alleged mosque at Sri Rama Janma Bhumi with all its precincts was in the possession of the Hindus; and that it could not have been a mosque, for the law is well settled that there can be no co-sharing of title or possession in a mosque, and its passage must be free from obstruction and open to the Faithful at all times. Indeed, a building cannot be a mosque if Hindu idols are worshipped in its precincts.

The Hindus did not allow the completion of the mosque by the erection of minarets for calling the azan at Sri Rama Janma Bhumi. Ceaseless battles were fought by them. During the reign of Babar's grandson Akbar, they built a Temple of Bhagwan Sri Rama La/a Virajman within the court-yard right in front of the open arches of the building, and continued to worship Sri Rama Janma Bhumi and the Sita Rasoi, the Charans and the Chhatti-Sthan, thereat. The Hindus continued to worship these Deities without interruption until the time of Aurangzeb, who destroyed the said temple within the courtyard of the building. But even he could not complete the mosque by erecting minarets for calling the azan. His idea might have been to put down Idolatry rather than to establish a mosque for according to Fatwa-E-Almgiri (Volume 6, Page 214):

"It is not permissible to build mosque on unlawfully acquired land. There may be many forms of unlawful acquisition. For instance, if some people forcibly take somebody's house (or land) and build a mosque or even Jama Masjid on it, then Namaz in such a mosque will be against Shariat."

According to Shariat ALLAH does not accept dedication of property for pious and charitable objects that is, as waqf, from a person who is not its rightful owner, and he the waqif, must be a Muslim. ALLAH does not accept the donation of property acquired by Gasba, that is, by trespass or illegally by force. He would not accept stolen properly from a thief. While destruction of a temple for putting down Idolatry may have been approved of by Islam, to erect a mosque on its site is an un-Islamic act. The property in a mosque-like building erected on such usurped land does not become waqf. ALLAH does not accept Namaz offered at such a place. Maulana Syed Sahabuddin Abdur Rahman in his treatise 'Babari Masjid' says at the very beginning of the preface (at page 5):

"On behalf of Muslims I ...say that if it is proved that Babri Masjid has been built after demolishing Rama Janma Bhumi Mandir on its place, then such a mosque built on such an usurped land deserves to be destroyed. No theologian or Alim can give Fatwa to hold Namaz in it."

It seems that it is because of this rule of Islamic Law that Muslim politicians have of late started asserting that the ''Babari Masjid'' was erected on vacant land, and not after demolishing the ancient Hindu Temple at Sri Rama Janma Bhumi on its site.