Nouman Ali Khan: With An Ummah Like His – Who Needs Enemies?

I have to be very frank with you – I do not like Nouman Ali Khan (NAK). I admire his knowledge greatly, to be sure, but I do not like him. I admire him for his knowledge of the Quran. He has an uncanny ability to detect subtleties in the text which are lost to most scholars thus helping us to discover its deeper wisdom. So why do I not like him? Because he used intellectual sleight of hand to impute Quranists like myself as hypocrites. He will not brook any discussion on the matter, despite our requests. So yeah, there’s that.

But whatever the case, he does not deserve to be crucified in this way.

I received news about this from someone close only yesterday. A person named Omer Muzaffer who has been NAK’s ‘friend’ for twenty years posted a ‘regretful’ message about NAK confessing to some inappropriate behaviour with multiple women. Immediately, the rumour mill went into overdrive. Even Google was helplessly roped in. All you had to do was type ‘nouman’ and it helpfully suggested ‘nouman ali khan accused’ for you! Suddenly NAK popped up all over my FB and Twitter feed as well! Sharing Quranic wisdom is a big chore but sharing dirt on someone is no problem at all. That’s the Muslim Ummah for you…

Today, we have Nouman’s response, finally. He rejected any confession of inappropriate behaviour as claimed by his so-called ‘friend’. Yet we still find postings that insist that he confessed and this action was admitted by multiple people but at least denying that behaviour was rape or sexual assault which does not really absolve NAK except legally. There is even a website now which compiles various screenshots with names of the ‘victims’ blacked out. How is this even fair to Nouman? How do we know the motives of these so-called victims? Victimhood does not equate to necessarily being truthful.

Should NAK be punished? Of course. But only if he’s guilty. Right now, we have only information submitted by anonymous people. These people want to remain anonymous yet shoot down NAK from a distance like cowardly snipers. Is this fair? Is this what Quranic justice demands of us? NAK is a public figure and any imputation – never mind conviction or admission of guilt – would badly ruin his reputation. As Muslims, it is our duty to ensure that NAK would get the best process of justice possible. But that is not what’s happening at all. NAK may already be ruined! Anyone who carries this news must know who the accusers are and disclose that information so it may be checked with absolute transparency. Anything less is tantamount to slander and the Quran says woe to slanders and fault-finders (104/1).

This is how the ‘ummah’ acts? I laugh when the same Muslims say we’re the ‘best ummah’. Best at acting like Muslims, perhaps…