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‘I contacted Yemeni scholars, made them understand': India's Grand Mufti on Nimisha Priya's execution stay
Nimisha Priya, from Kerala's Palakkad district, was arrested in 2017 and later convicted for the murder of her business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi. Image courtesy X
India's influential Sunni Muslim leader Kanthapuram AP Abubacker Musliyar is receiving praise for his intervention in the case of Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala who faces murder charges and execution in Yemen.
On Tuesday (July 15), the Yemeni government stayed the planned execution on July 16, giving new hope to the nurse's family.
Musliyar is the General Secretary of All India Sunni Jamiiyyatul Ulama and the chancellor of Jamia Markaz.
Talking to Network 18, the religious leader confirmed that he got official communication from Yemen regarding the postponement of Nimisha Priya's execution.
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He said he had earlier talked to the concerned scholars in Yemen and urged them to intervene in the matter.
'Islam has another law. If the murder convict is sentenced to death, family of victim has the right to pardon. I don't know who this family is but from a long distance, I contacted the responsible scholars in Yemen. I made them understand the issues. Islam is a religion that gives a lot of importance to humanity. There is no difference of religion, caste but the importance is for human beings. This is something the scholars there also understood when we spoke about it. After my request if they could intervene in it and do something about it, scholars there met, discussed and said they will do what they can. They have officially informed and send the document that the date of execution has been postponed helping the discussions that are happening,' the mufti said.
He said he has also informed the central government about his efforts and has also sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'I have also informed the Central government about the discussions and the process. I have also sent a letter to the Prime Minister's office saying we are trying for this and this is the current stage. We don't look for religion or caste in public issues. You all know that,' he said.
Nimisha, a 37-year-old nurse from Kerala, has been on death row in Yemeni capital Sanaa since her conviction for the 2017 murder of her Yemeni business partner Mahdi.
Her legal team states that Nimisha administered sedatives to Mahdi to recover her passport and escape what she described as ongoing abuse.
Mahdi allegedly died from an overdose, and Nimisha was arrested while trying to flee Yemen.
Meanwhile, Congress leader and lawmaker Shashi Tharoor praised the Grand Mufti for his intervention in the case.
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'Kerala is praying unitedly for his efforts to be successful. Honourable Kanthapuram Ustad has shown us that humanity is the most important in today's era where there are attempts to divide humans and cultivate hatred and hatred in the name of religion and community,' Tharor, an MP from Kerala, wrote in a post on Facebook.
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Much like Audrey Truschke on the global stage—who tried to rehabilitate Aurangzeb as a misunderstood ruler—Sharma has gained sudden national prominence by dismissing historical Islamic violence, trivialising religiously motivated atrocities like jizya, and drawing false moral equivalences between native Hindu dynasties and foreign Islamic invaders. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Manufacturing Outrage The trigger for Sharma's recent media storm was her vocal opposition to the NCERT's revisions, particularly its explanation of jizya—a tax historically imposed on non-Muslims under Islamic rule. Sharma seemed outraged by the idea that jizya was used to pressure Hindus into conversion, branding the claim a 'baseless myth'. She even announced plans to file a Right to Information (RTI) request to challenge the educational content. Her stance is remarkable—not because it is new and ground-breaking, but because it's fictitious and fabricated. The Quran itself, in Surah At-Tawbah (9:29), mandates: 'Fight those who do not believe in Allah… until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.' This verse is not obscure; it is widely cited by classical Islamic jurists—including Imam Malik, Abu Hanifa, and Al-Shafi'i—as the foundational directive for the imposition of jizya. Importantly, the condition that the payer must feel 'subdued' was not metaphorical. In theology, jizya only lapses on death or on acceptance of Islam. Seized by the Collar Medieval Muslim scholars such as Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, Mulla Ahmad, and Shah Waliullah left little room for ambiguity. Sirhindi wrote: 'The real purpose of levying the jizya is to humiliate the non-Muslims… to such an extent that they may not be able to dress well or live in grandeur… and thus remain terrified and trembling.' Western scholars echoed the same. NP Aghnides, an authority on Islamic finance, wrote in Muhammadan Theories of Finance: '…the main object in levying the (jizya) tax is the subjection of the infidels to humiliation… the Zimmi is seized by the collar and vigorously shaken and pulled about in order to show him his degradation.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Mirat-i-Ahmadi, a history of Gujarat written by Ali Mohammed Khan, an imperial dewan at Ahmedabad, clearly explains how jizya should be collected: 'The collector of jizya should collect it from a zimmi in this manner: A zimmi should himself come to pay it. He should come on foot. The collector should sit while the zimmi should stand. The collector should place his hand over the hand of the zimmi saying, 'I take jizya, oh! Zimmi.' It should not be accepted when sent indirectly through his deputy…' Rulers like Firoz Shah Tughlaq and Aurangzeb openly used jizya to coerce conversions. 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The writer is the author of the book, 'Eminent Distorians: Twists and Truths in Bharat's History', published early this year by BluOne Ink publications. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
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