In her recent Wall Street Journal opinion-editorial, Irshad Manji claims that not just Muslims, but the Quran and Islam itself needs reformation. In conflating the two, Manji ignores the possibility that the owner's manual might be fine, while the issues lie with the owner. Manji concludes by assuming, again incorrectly, that Muslims are not addressing the Muslim-on-Muslim violence or extremist's "violent ideology."
The Quran commands Muslims to conduct a thorough investigation of its meaning (4:95) and, as Manji rightly noted, to repeatedly reflect (2:220) and meditate (4:83). It warns that those with a perverted heart will ignore the decisive foundational verses of the Quran, and manipulate the interpretive verses to promote discord and incorrect interpretations (3:8). Manji's defeatist approach of "acknowledging and reinterpreting the [Quran's] awkward verses" solves nothing because it does not explain to extremists, or to the world, why the extremist understanding of Islam is wholly incorrect. This is crucial because otherwise, the false allegation that Islam promotes violence goes unanswered. If Manji is correct that bin Laden represents a real interpretation of Islam, then who represents the perverted understanding of which the Quran warns?
According to Manji, it might be moderate Muslims. Though Manji and I agree that the Quran is being manipulated, we strongly disagree on the solution. Manji glazes over the Quranic guidance to investigate, folds her hand to "publically acknowledge awkward verses," and seeks a new interpretation, all the while hoping violent Muslims will simply forget the "awkward" meanings. The real solution, instead, is based on logic and explained in the Quran itself, "And none knows its right interpretation except God and those who are firmly grounded in knowledge; they say, 'We believe in it; the whole is from our Lord.' -- And none heed except those gifted with understanding" (3:8). Only with a firm foundation in knowledge and a concerted investigation -- not blind avoidance -- can a person properly understand the Quran, including the allegedly awkward verses.
Extremists like bin Laden arrive at their perverted understanding of Islam due to ignorance combined with a lack of sincere investigation. While on the opposite end, self-declared reformists like Manji arrive at their defeatist understanding of Islam for the same reasons. The reformation of those who support violent interpretations of the Quran can never happen with Manji's proposed solution.
Manji describes the backlash she received from the Muslim community due to her "call to reform," as if her call was unprecedented. She should take a page out of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's book, who sounded the call to reform Muslims -- not Islam -- over 120 years ago. Ahmad established the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in 1889 and laid claim to be the long-awaited Messiah, commissioned to re-unite all Muslims through love, logic, and peace. He condemned every type of religious violence as completely un-Islamic and instead championed the Jihad of the Pen. Among his 82 books and thousands of essays he wrote, "that faith which uses the sword to spread itself needs no other proof of its falsification. It slays its own throat before reaching others."
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, who Manji-described Muslim leaders consider heretical, was founded on an interpretation of Islam that is practical, peaceful, and wholly ingrained in the whole of the Quran. Ahmadi Muslims champion a complete separation of mosque and state (4:60), condemn any compulsion in religion (2:257), promote universal religious freedom (22:41), believe in spiritual equality and practical equity between the sexes (4:125), preach universal salvation (2:63), and teach that war can only be in self-defense (22:40) and as an absolute last resort (4:98).
Ahmadi Muslims do believe 5:33 establishes that killing one is to kill all mankind, and demonstrate that the Qur'an defines "villainy in the land" not as political warfare, but religious persecution (22:39-40). As the Iraq war is a political war, the Quran provides no "loophole for British [extremists]" as Manji would have us believe.
And to be sure, Ahmadi Muslims are not the only peaceful Muslims in the world. Indeed, the vast majority of the Muslim world is peaceful. I present them as one specific example that the aforementioned practical and peaceful Islam works. Consider that tens of millions of Ahmadi Muslims reside peacefully in nearly 200 nations of the world, face vehement state-sanctioned persecution, but have never once instigated, nor retaliated with, violence. Instead, they publicly decry such violence, (including Muslim-on-Muslim violence) and advocate the Islam of self-restraint that Prophet Muhammad taught. United under a system of Khilafat, Ahmadi Muslims continue to advocate for self-reformation, and Muslim-reformation, as they have successfully for over a century. In doing so, they directly address the allegedly "awkward verses." Thus, unlike defeatists like Manji who accomplish nothing by brushing such verses under the rug, Ahmadi Muslims effectively dismantle extremist's violent ideology and bring true reformation to the Muslim world.
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Harris Zafar: Demystifying the Second Coming
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What do you mean by defeatist?
Also, how does the Koran not advocate violence as the Prophet Muhammad was a violent man, the Koran has plenty of quotations from him and Muhammads companions and earliest successors waged war all over the Middle East.
In the end the Koran advocates expansion and solidication of Muslim society and violence is one of the most common ways this was achieved.
Also, Ahmadi Muslims are considered apostates by even many "moderate" Muslims so what is the point of quoting their take on violence? Why not the Baha'i for that matter?
You overlook that it was in the 53rd year of the Holy Prophet's life in old age (of his 63 years he passed on earth) when he first took up arms, and that in self dfense.
And when the Holy Prophet Muhammad re-entered Makka after these years of persecution along with his followers, rather than seek revenge, he provided a general amnesty in the words: "No reproof be against you this day; Allah may forgive you, and He is the most Merciful of those who show mercy." (Qur’an 12:92) This was indeed the greatest act of forgiveness ever witnessed in all of history, an act that would ultimately unite all of Arabia.
It is Ahmadiyya which preaches a true peaceful rational non-sectarian Islam, one that will win hearts and minds, not through aggression and warfare, but rather through beautiful deed and action. This has been the philosophy of the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam since its very inception and this is the understanding of Islam Ahmadi Muslims seek to promote based upon the teachings of the Holy Qur'an and example of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.
See: https://sites.google.com/site/sunrisinginwest/muhammad/articles/epitome-of-peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgiTf2pKhfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70nhPkq7MwU&NR=1
"We need to reject literal reads of the Quran and recognize that these verses were communicated during specific moments of war, and they aren't edicts for all time. We, as Muslims, must reject the notion that we read these words literally. To many, that would be an act of blasphemy. But, until we do, the literal words of the Quran will be used to rally hate against the faith. And that is why, indeed, Qurans will be burned by the small congregation of about 50 folks from the Rev. Terry Jones' Dove World Outreach Center. It's really just these particular verses that need to go up in smoke."
Asra Q. Nomani
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-08/get-over-the-quran-burning/
http://www.bj.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/daniel_pearl_memorial.pdf
Excerpt:
"We are here to assert the Islamic conviction of the moral equivalency of our
Abrahamic faiths.
If to be a Jew means to say with all one’s heart, mind and soul Shma` Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ahad; hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one, Mr. Pearl.
If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul,
and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a
Christian, but I have always been one Mr. Pearl.
And I am here to inform you, with the full authority of the Quranic texts and the
practice of the Prophet Muhammad, that to say La ilaha illallah Muhammadun
rasulullah is no different. It expresses the same theological and ethical principles
and values.
We are here especially to seek your forgiveness and of your family for what has
been done in the name of Islam."
From a Gyana pov, these all are Bhakti cults, and some of them are really dangerous in their self-delusions, while others simply lead to superstitions. The Dharmic cults exist within the critique of Gyana, whereas the monotheist personality cults are Bhakti cults without the reining in that the internal critique of Gyana allows, and hence become dangerous to the "other".
Qur'an (4:11) - (Inheritance) "The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females" (see also verse 4:176).
Qur'an (2:228) - "and the men are a degree above them [women]"
Qur'an (2:223) - "Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will..." A man has dominion over his wives' bodies as he does his land. This verse is overtly sexual. There is some dispute as to whether it is referring to the practice of anal intercourse, which it has been used historically to justify. If this is what Muhammad meant, however, then it would appear to contradict what he said in Muslim (8:3365).
Qur'an (4:3) - (Wife-to-husband ratio) "Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four"
Qur'an (53:27) - "Those who believe not in the Hereafter, name the angels with female names." Angels are sublime beings, and would therefore be male.
Qur'an (4:24) and Qur'an (33:50) - A man is permitted to take women as sex slaves outside of marriage. Note that the verse distinguishes wives from captives (those whom they right hand possesses).
Bukhari (6:301) - "[Muhammad] said, 'Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?' They replied in the affirmative. He said, 'This is the deficiency in her intelligence.'"
(2:228) The "degree" only refers to the degree of responsibility to provide.
(2:223) You forgot the rest of the verse. "but first provide something for your souls, and remain conscious of God, and know that you are destined to meet Him. And give glad tidings unto those who believe." In other words, a spiritual relationship between a man and woman is the indispensable basis of sexual relations (M.Asad)
(4:3) "If you fear you shall not be able to deal justly with orphans.." is dealing specifically the orphans created by constant tribal war and the excess of unprotected, unprovided for women. The rest: "but if you fear you will not be able to deal justly with them, then only one." Verse (4:129)- "And it will not be within your power to treat women with equal fairness, however much you may desire it" is addressed to the Prophet and shows that even at the highest level of consciousness one cannot completely control feelings- thus discouraging polygamy when it was normative.
(53:27) Angelic powers (mala'ik) are in a realm of intelligence with no gender. (Cont.)
2:223 "Your wives are as a tilth" enough said here no matter what comes after that.
4:3 to be fair is to let 1 Women marry 4 different men at the same time.
Bukhari (6:301) Mohammad himself attests that women have deficiency in intelligenÂce
"Abu Said al-Khudri said: "The apostle of Allah sent a military expedition to Awtas on the occasion of the battle of Hunain. They met their enemy and fought with them. They defeated them and took them captives. Some of the Companions of the apostle of Allah were reluctant to have intercourse with the female captives in the presence of their husbands who were unbelievers. So Allah, the Exalted, sent down the Qur'anic verse, "And all married women (are forbidden) unto your save those (captives) whom your right hand possesses." ~Translation of Sunan Abu-Dawud, Book 11: Marriage (Kitab Al-Nikah) Book 11, Number 2150
So, really if women keep pumping iron as I said earlier, we might not have this muscle superiority any more. And if education remains available to males and females in America and woman are allowed to have the freedom that men have to earn a living, to engage in business, etc., these inequalities are disappearing and they may be all gone and the reverse may happen. For the African American male has been described as a vanishing species for our African American youth or males already the females are beginning to earn more money, they are beginning to take over there males responsibility.
So where G-d said, "Males are to be supportive of females," that means we are to take care of them with our earnings, that is disappearing too. Because females now have access to equal education and maybe a better situation in the job market than our males because our males seem to be self destructive more than interested in educating themselves, I am talking about our youth.
All of these differences may disappear, but we as believers in Religion, students of Religion, the preachers of Religion we know that there is a difference and G-d wants us to preserve that difference. And what is that difference? We need women to balance man's psyche, the psyche of the male.
There is no evidence in the Qur'an for sexual relations outside of marriage. In fact the next verse (4:25) states "And as for those of you who, owing to circumstances, are not in a position to marry free believing women, [let them marry] believing maidens who under your oaths of protection. And God knows all about your faith; each one of you is an issue of the other. Marry them, then, with their people's permission, and give them their dowers in an equitable manner - they being women who give themselves in honest wedlock, not in fornication, nor as secret love-companions."
Though you are not a scholar of hadith or Arabic, the hadith you quote makes no sense when we consider Muhammad (s) lauded the intelligence of Khadijah, Aisha, Fatimah, etc. Intelligence in the Qur'an worldview is based on spirituality and wisdom, bestowed from the active intellect and open to all- the Qur'an repeated states that Men and Women are spiritual equals. We know your mission is discredit and not to understand: but for more info on the Quranic worldview and gender relations, see the "The Tao of Islam" by Sachiko Murata.
GOD has indeed heard the words of the woman who pleads with thee concerning her husband, and complains unto God." (58:1)
Mr. Webber, unless you intend to study the Quran with an open mind and heart, I would suggest that you leave it alone.
"The lovely night has descended and I don't know when you will be here.
The world climate has change. I don't know when you will come.
The lovely night has descended. I don't know when you will be here.
The sights have shown their effects and are now gone.
The stars have brilliantly shone and are now gone
Every lamp that has lit has burnt out and I don't know when you will be here.
The lovely night has descended and I don't know when you will be here."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU6FDyahosM&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_432276
I have had rabbis and students of the Torah to tell me that they owed it to Islam the days of the love for science that existed for centuries in Moorish Spain, where Jews, Muslims and Christians were working in a friendly atmosphere, as friends beside each other. This was provided by that Muslim government.
They worked beside each other studying the old sciences of the Greeks and all the sciences that had been neglected during the Dark Ages; they worked together to give the world true sciences and philosophy and many other fields of knowledge.
This period lasted more than 500 years, equal to the lifetime of the people in this New World from the Old World. It is much longer than the lifetime of the United States. And they enjoyed peaceful coexistence and cooperation for at least three or four centuries. The government of Spain did not collapse until about 500 years after it had been enjoying that kind of inclusion of the three major religions working together to help mankind.
Scientists of the West and historians and government people and others who were informed of what happened in the history of Islam in Moorish Spain readily acknowledge and express appreciation for that long period of time there, when that government was open to the world for the great religions to come there and work together for the betterment of mankind.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Language-Commentaries-of-WDeenMohammed/message/787
o11.0 NON-MUSLIM SUBJECTS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE (AHL AL-DHIMMA)
[…]
o11.5 Such non-Muslim subjects are obliged to comply with Islamic rules that pertain to the safety and indemnity of life, reputation, and property. In addition, they:
(1) Are penalized for committing adultery or theft, though not for drunkeness;
(2) Are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar);
(3) Are not greeted with “as-Salamu ‘alaykumâ€;
(4) Must keep to the side of the street;
(5) May not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed;
(6) Are forbidden to openly display wine or pork, (A: to ring church bells or display crosses,) recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays;
(7) And are forbidden to build new churches.
[…]
o11.10 The agreement is also violated [when the non-Muslim]
(1) Commits adultery with a Muslim woman or marries her;
(2) Conceals spies of hostile forces;
(3) Leads a Muslim away from Islam;
(4) Kills a Muslim;
(5) Or mentions something impermissible about Allah, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), or Islam.
o11.11 When a subject’s agreement with the state has been violated, the caliph chooses between the four alternatives mentioned above in connection with prisoners of war (o9.14).
[death, slavery, ransom or release]
I want us also to understand that Islam is a religion that is to be practiced by people all over the world. Islam is not a religion made for one geography and not for another geography. It is not a religion made for Arabia and not for Afghanistan. It is not a religion made for Arabia and not for Chicago. It is a religion made for people wherever they live on this earth.
Islam is a portable religion that you can put in your bag and carry it wherever you go. It has no priesthood. These are the important features of Islam. It has no order for qualifying its leaders to preach Islam. What qualifies us is our respect and studious labor to understand G-d's Word given to us in the Qur'an.
The Qur'an is not to be kept by any priestly order or by any clergy. The Holy Qur'an's language will never become a dead language. It is not given to us as Arabic to practice in some kind of religious circle or order and to have another language for our secular world or for the public. No. It is the language for the common man.
No matter how much you are deprived of a formal education, if you say you have become a Muslim, you were converted, or if you were born a Muslim, you are obligated to study the Qur'an.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Language-Commentaries-of-WDeenMohammed/message/787
We would not have had what we called the Renaissance in the West, if there had not been first the Renaissance in the East made possible only by the Qur'an and the leader Muhammed, the Messenger of G-d, prayers and peace be upon him, our first teacher and first guide in Islam - the one to whom the Qur'an was revealed.
Yes, and we now all hope for a (second) Renaissance & Enlightment of the East.
Check out the language. Words makes people. Man means Mind. We are a creation of words, language. Change the language we change our world. We live in an oppressive word environment.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Language-Commentaries-of-WDeenMohammed/
http://www.newafricaradio.com
http://www.athreedayjourney.com/
They will not agree with the famous poem of Sikh Guru Govind Singh:
Ishwar Allah Teri Naam,
Sabko sanmati de Bhagvan
(Ishwar and Allah are both Your names, give O God this understanding to all.)
How can there be peace between different faiths without such understanding?
==============
There is a delicious irony in the fact that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's teachings amount to a reinterpretation of the Koran's teachings on equity between the sexes, universal salvation, separation of religion and state, equal status for all religions, jihad and political supremacy for Islam.
When Ms. Manji wants the same for mainstream Islam, Mr. Rashid calls her "defeatist".
However, the real work is to be done INTERNALLY within Islam. Most such voices dissipate their energies doing public relations EXTERNALLY instead.
He should establish a forum of Muslims who feel likewise and want to promulgate a newer, more liberal Islam. The group should study the history of Christian Reformation because something similar is needed; but Muslims have avoided taking this project head-on.
In some ways there is duplicity as they say one thing externally to impress others, while internally they simply go along with the bandwagon. This is especially common in India.
Genuine honesty and self-critique be a good place to start.
Restriction on entering certain place is not unique in Islam, just like the Vatican or even countries for that matter that has a strict visa requirement for visitors entering their land, so does the holy city of Islam.
As for some of your other remark let me quote part of the Prophet last sermon:
"O People, it is true that you have certain rights with regard to your women, but they also have right over you. If they abide by your right then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them for they are your partners and comitted helpers. And it is your right that they do not make friends with any one of whom you do not approve, as well as never to commit adultery.
"YOU ARE ALL EQUAL. NOBODY HAS SUPERIORITY OVER OTHER EXCEPT BY PIETY AND GOOD ACTION."
===============
If I were a woman, would that sermon clench the deal for me? What more could any woman want than a man who wouldn't beat her if she obeyed his wishes?
I'll ask around and see what the McDaniel females say and get back to you.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Language-Commentaries-of-WDeenMohammed/message/691
Let us look at reform in Scripture. When we read the story of the creation of man, what we have to understand, students, is that it is not talking about the physical creation of man in the way that most people understand it.
The way it is given to most people is that G-d made the first man from the earth, from clay, and formed him and then breathed into him His Spirit, and he became a living creature or living person.
The way most of us understand that kindergarten language and kindergarten knowledge is not the way educated people in religion understand it. But the public is allowed to have these kindergarten pictures of reality, because the public is not trusted with more knowledge.
Do you know that the commercial world, commercial TV, compose their commercials to reach a 12-year-old mind? They don't compose it higher than that, unless they have changed it recently. I have read documents on this. They compose the commercials to reach no higher than that level.
You can listen to many of them and see that they are designed for children. And that is where most of the public is, right there in a child's state of mind. It's designed for that mind, because they found out that they will reach more of the public when they come that way.
The same goes for religion. Religion has been allowed to stay on a kindergarten level for the public or the masses of people. Pressure is now on the religious establishment to reform the way they preach and the way they perceive the public.
It is coming gradually, and we are going to see a new time when religion is going to come in a way that respects adult minds and adult intelligence. It still will reach children, but it will not ignore or disrespect the intelligence of adult people. The religion now sounds like animation.
What you have to be cautious of now is not to come to conclusions and judge this language with your intelligence and knowledge, if you don't have direct knowledge from learned people or insights into this language. Do not come to hasty judgments and say, "Oh, that's fiction and not real.
"President Barack Obama should be applauded for his risky—and lonely—decision to take out Osama bin Laden. But in announcing bin Laden's demise, the president fudged a vital fact. Echoing George W. Bush, he insisted that al Qaeda's icon "was not a Muslim leader."
But this is untrue. Bin Laden and his followers represent a real interpretation of Islam that begs to be challenged relentlessly and visibly. Why does this happen so rarely?
Notice that I say "used." Islam is being manipulated. That is why Muslims should acknowledge the awkward passages of our own holy book and reinterpret them—publicly. The Quran, I believe, encourages this: It contains three times as many verses promoting critical thought as opposed to blind submission."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703992704576305412360432744.html
Mr. Rashid says:
"Manji's defeatist approach of "acknowledging and reinterpreting the [Quran's] awkward verses" solves nothing because it does not explain to extremists, or to the world, why the extremist understanding of Islam is wholly incorrect."
I am intrigued by his use of the word "defeatist" and would like to know what is being defeated.
I agree with Ms. Manji that a new interpretation is long overdue.
Many have suggested something along the lines of what Mahmoud Taha offered--that the religion is described in the Meccan verses and the Medinan verses are merely the history of the wars to establish the religion in Arabia, not prescriptions for Muslim behavior today.