Muslim cleric issues fatwa against Sara Ali Khan over Kedarnath temple visit
Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, has declared the actress's prayers at the Hindu shrine impermissible under Sharia and urged her to repent.
Muslim clerics have criticised actress Sara Ali Khan after she visited the Kedarnath Temple in the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, and one prominent cleric has issued a fatwa against her. Maulana Mufti Shahabuddin Razvi Barelvi, president of the All India Muslim Jamaat, called the visit «impermissible and haram under Sharia» and said she had committed a sin by offering prayers at the shrine.
Sara was seen waiting in a queue outside the Kedarnath shrine for darshan on Sunday, October 25. After offering prayers, she was seen outside the temple with folded hands, as reported by News18. In a video statement released by ANI, Barelvi said that for any Muslim, whether a man or a woman, to take part in the faith of another religion, including offering prayers and performing religious rituals, is considered najayaz, or impermissible, under Sharia. He added that if Sara had done these things of her own free will, including visiting the temple, offering prayers and seeking blessings, she had committed a sin. He urged her to repent before Allah «like a guilty person».
The cleric said he had been approached by several young Muslims who asked whether such a visit was permissible under Sharia, and that this prompted his statement. He framed his remarks as a clarification of the position of Islamic Sharia on the matter. A fatwa is a religious opinion or ruling on a question of Islamic law issued by a qualified Islamic scholar. Barelvi's ruling is therefore a religious judgment rather than a legal decision, though it has drawn attention because of the actress's public profile.
The criticism is not the first directed at Sara over her visits to the shrine. She has been visiting Kedarnath regularly for the past four years. Her debut film, Kedarnath, co-starring the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, faced opposition from right-wing groups in Uttarakhand around its release in 2018. Sara is the daughter of actors Amrita Singh and Saif Ali Khan.
The temple's management has also set rules for visitors. The Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC), which manages the Badrinath and Kedarnath temples, has made it mandatory for non-Hindu visitors seeking to offer prayers at the shrines to submit an affidavit stating that they have faith in the deity. BKTC chief executive officer Sohan Singh Rangar has confirmed that Sara's team submitted such an affidavit before her visit, meaning the requirement was met ahead of the October 25 darshan.
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