A Clause in a Poster Announcing a Debate with the Innovators: Should They Be Challenged to a Munazara?

Question

In Akola the Raza-Khanis (followers of Ahmad Raza Khan, i.e. Barelvis) flung a good deal of mud at the ulama of Deoband and, in order to defame them, issued about five posters. We exercised patience, but when the atmosphere of the town began to deteriorate, we too issued a poster. One clause of this poster has become the object of objection; it is this: “Both parties shall deposit in advance ten thousand rupees each with the Government as security; from this sum only the expenses of the judges shall be paid, and…

Answer

Their whole stock-in-trade in life consists of nothing but abusing the elders of Deoband, thereby ruining their own iman and leading people astray. At the outset the challenge to a debate is a means of procuring money; then come the gathering, the stage, the posters, the expenses of the debaters, the procurement of books, and so on and so forth — in short, a very large bill is…

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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