@
araz: Better was expected from you, a medical doctor practicing in England; in this post, you have disappointed me (and those who admire your posts) dearly, and I really mean it.
This mission is not suicidal, how one can say it is? First of all, one way trip
does not mean that you are going to die for sure.
The whole idea is to establish a human colony on Mars. Technology is not there yet to travel to Mars, and if reached safely, to establish a sustainable colony. It is not that they are putting humans on space ships and '
detaining' them to Mars like tomorrow. It is not going to happen until the technology to travel to Mars and inhabit the planet
safely and
sustainably is in place. The mars missions will be launched from some technologically advanced (and civilized) country(s). Do you think that the respective government(s)/regulatory authorities will let them launch manned-missions without proper technology in place? In addition to that, the travelers will be educated about the risks involved, will be trained for the space travel, and for colony establishment, and only than will they be allowed to blast into the space. It is pretty much science fiction as we are talking about it. Hence questions are being asked that if the proposed journey never took place, how the volunteers will get their money back etc.
Today, commuting between thousands of miles is a norm, but before aviation or sea-faring era, making pilgrimage to Mekkah was considered a one-way trip. The pilgrims were see offed as if the family will never see them again, and in many cases, truly so. What would you call traveling to moon? With whatever cutting edge technology of that time, the astronauts who were launched into the space were never sure of their safe return to the earth. In fact a few did lose their lives. Whenever you go for unknown, risk of losing life is always there.
Now, why do I think that this fatwa is incorrect. First of all, thank you for insulting me by assuming that I don't know nothing about
deen, hence I should not comment. Anyways, I am not going to tell you what and how much I have read, and learnt from the people of knowledge, because it means nothing. Every Muslim should have basic knowledge of
deen, and Alhamdulillah, that much I have. I think this fatwa is incorrect because it is based on the currently available knowledge to Mufti saheb, on the assumption that if and when the volunteers would travel to Mars, they would not be able to sustain the journey, and/or survive on Mars. Hence, the Mufti saheb considered this suicidal. Mufti Saheb had to wait for another 10-20 years from now, get to know if the technology was in place or not in place for all that to happen, and than should he come up with a fatwa,
if at all. The mission is set to take off in 2022 (or later), and fatwa is declared in early 2014.
Ba' quol Mirza Ghalib:
HairaaN hooN dil ko ro'ooN ki peetooN jigar ko maiN
No wonder, we are going no where with these types of Muftis guiding us (and we listening to them). Not long ago, they have declared photography, railway, fountain pen, radio, television, loud speaker (now they cant live without these is another thing), and just about everything
haram that they thought was not present in Prophet's (PBUH) time.