Teachings of The Koran, part two

6/21/2011

Teachings of The Koran, part two
jonmc

Words in () in main text are the translators’ interpolations, those in [ ] are added by me for:

1. clarifications where the text lacks clarity,
2. Amplifications of meaning.

In the first part of this series “On non-Muslims” I identified the Koran’s attitude to non-Muslims.

(see: http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/quran-koran/teachings-of-the-koran-part-1/)

So I thought, to be fair, I should now consider the Koran’s view of Islam and Muslims – the “Umma”.

On Islamic Supremacy.

8:39 (Malik): (O believers,) fight them [non-Muslims] until there is no more mischief and the Deen of Allah (way of life prescribed by Allah) is established completely…[Hilali-Khan adds: “(over the whole of the Earth)”]

Comment: Thus the “Islamic life” must be established fully. Other translations say “…is for Allah alone” or “…Allah only.” Implicit here is that all people are living according to Sharia Law and thus Islam “rules the World”.

9:33 (Hilali-Khan). It is He Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad SAW) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam), to make it SUPERIOR over all religions even though the Mushrikoon (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) hate (it).

48:28 (Hilali-Khan): He it is Who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad SAW) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam), that He may make it (Islam) SUPERIOR over all religions. And All-Sufficient is Allah as a Witness.

61:9 (Shakir): He it is Who sent His Messenger with the guidance and the true religion, that He may make it [Islam] OVERCOME the religions, all of them, though the polytheists may be averse. Note: Pickthall uses “conqueror of all religion” instead of “overcome … them”, Hilali-Khan uses “victorious over” .

Comment: These latter three verses state that Islam must be “superior over” (overcome, conquer) all religions (here meaning “belief systems” thus including agnosticism or atheism), other than Islam. Thus Islam can never exist alongside other belief systems in mutual tolerance. Further, these “superiority/conquest” verses may be taken to mean that Islam must dominate not just theologically but, since Islam is a comprehensive way of life, that it must dominate all aspects of world society. Simply put, Islam must rule the world.

On Muslims

2.207 (Yousaf Ali): And there is the type of man who gives his life [or: sells himself] to earn the pleasure of Allah: And Allah is full of kindness to (His) devotees [or servants or slaves].

Comment: Allah is kind to Muslims, if they are devoted to him. See also 3:30

3:110 (Saheeh international): You are the best nation produced (as an example) for mankind. You enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah. If only the People of the Scripture had believed, it would have been better for them. Among them are believers, but most of them are defiantly disobedient [or: evil-livers, or: iniquitous]

Comment: here muslims are told that they are the “best people in all the world” and also that most Jews and Christians are “defiantly disobedient”. The word “believers” as applied to “people of the book” means those who become Muslim; i.e. those who don’t convert are defying Allah.

3:139 (Irving): do not falter nor feel saddened since you [Muslims] are superior, if you are believers.

Comment: Here Muslims are told they are “superior” to non-Muslims. Other translations say that Muslims will “gain mastery” over non-Muslims, implying a god-given right for muslims to rule all non-Muslims.

6:18 (Pickthall): He [Allah] is the Omnipotent over his slaves [Arabic:'alqahiru ibadihi', lit: “subjugator of his slaves”] , and He is the Wise, the Knower.

Comment: Muslims are enslaved and, if we take the meaning of “subjugator” literally, there is an element of coercion here, by Allah and have no power over their own lives. See also 6:61.

7:181 (Hilali-Khan) And of those whom We have created, there is a community [the Muslim Umma] who guides (others) with the truth, and establishes justice therewith.

Comment: Here justice is defined as being what Islam says it is and that it is the duty of the Muslims to “guide others” with it – implying the imposition of Sharia Law on non-Muslims.

98:7 (Malik): Surely those who believe [in Islam] and do good deeds, are the best of all creatures. Comment: Again, Muslims are the best people in the World. Compare and contrast with the 8:22 8:55 and 98:6 for non-Muslims in the previous article.

10:106 (Malik): If Allah afflicts you with a calamity, none can remove it but He; and if He intends to bestow a favour, none can withhold His bounty. He bestows it on whomsoever of His servants He pleases; He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Comment: Both good and ill come directly from “the god”. If it is a “calamity” only Allah can remove it – so help/charity is either pointless or from Allah. Also implicit here is a duality in the nature of Allah – Allah directly inflicts evil on people as well as doing them “a good turn”.

Note: A common theme in the Koran’s dealing with humanity is to describe the relationship as that of master-slave with Muslims being described as “slaves [=abd] of Allah”. This is variously translated as slave, servant or devotee.

Everyone starts life as a Muslim (?)

7:172 (MALIK): (O Prophet, remind mankind about the incident) when your Lord brought into existence the offspring from the loins of Adam and his descendants (virtually each single individual of mankind) and made them testify about themselves. (Allah asked them:) “Am I not your Lord?” They all replied: “Yes! We bear witness that You are.” (This We did,) lest you mankind should say on the Day of Resurrection: “We were not aware of this fact (that You are our Lord and that there will be a Day of Judgement.)

Comment: Although this verse is heavily interpolated by the translator the key point is that it states that ALL of mankind (past, present and future) has born witness that Allah is their lord and, by implication, that Mohammed is Allah’s prophet. Thus everybody is born a Muslim and all non-Muslims are, in effect, apostates, who have been “perverted” from the “straight path” of Islam.

This is why many Muslims speak of converts to Islam as “reverts”, in their eyes the person is reverting to the Islam of his/her birth.

On Muslim Apostates

3:86-87 (Hilali-Khan): How shall Allah guide a people who disbelieved after their belief [i.e. became apostates] and after they bore witness that the Messenger [Muhammad] is true and after clear proofs had come unto them? And Allah guides not the people who are Zalimoon (polytheists and wrong-doers). They [apostates etc] are those whose recompense is that on them (rests) the Curse of Allah, of the angels, and of all mankind.

Comment: Thus Allah, the angels and all mankind curse apostates from Islam – if only that were all!

4:137 (Shakir): Surely (as for) those who believe then disbelieve [become apostate], again believe and again disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, Allah will not forgive them nor guide them in the (right) path.

Comment: This verse declares that (repeated) apostasy is an unforgivable sin.

9:11-12 (Saheeh Int’l): But if they [non-Muslims] repent, establish prayer, and give zakat [i.e. become Muslims], then they are your brothers in religion; and We detail the verses for a people who know. And if they break their oaths after their treaty and defame your religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief, for indeed, there are no oaths (sacred) to them; (fight them that) they might cease.

Comment: Here we have non-Muslims who convert to Islam (only Muslims pay Zakat, non-Muslims – dhimmis – pay the Jizya) then “break their oaths after their treaty” (which here means deny the Shahada -the oath, and their submission to Allah -the treaty) which makes them apostates, the verse is a command to fight the apostates’ leaders, though the verse is rather opaque at first sight.

9:66 (Eeman): Make no excuses, you have already become disbelievers [i.e. become apostates] after being Muslims. If We forgive some of you, then We shall chastise others because they were guilty. (or: criminals, sinners).

Comment: In this verse apostasy is declared a crime (and a sin). This conflation of c rime and sin is common under Sharia Law. Also here is a promise of punishment by Allah for Apostasy. Those who may be forgiven are usually regarded as those who apostatised temporarily in “a moment of weakness”.

9:73-74 (Pickthall): O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them …. They swear by Allah that they said nothing (wrong), yet they did say the word of disbelief, and did disbelieve after their Surrender (to Allah)… If they [both] repent it will be better for them; and if they turn away, Allah will afflict them with a painful doom in the world and the Hereafter, and they have no protecting friend nor helper in the earth.

Comment: The “word of disbelief” is the action of returning to disbelief (kufr). The “hypocrites” who “disbelieve after their surrender [Arabic Islamihim] to Allah” are thus apostates. Hence one meaning of “hypocrite” within the Koran is “apostate”. If we extend the “they” in v.74 to the “disbelievers” – i.e. non-Muslims – then their “word of disbelief” is the action of refusal to convert, but whether this is correct is arguable. Thus (non-Muslims and) apostates, if they “turn away” from Islam by (not converting or) apostatising, will receive a “painful doom” (unspecified) in this world.

4.88-9 (Hilali-Khan): Then what is the matter with you that you are divided into two parties about the hypocrites? Allah has cast them back (to disbelief) because of what they have earned. Do you want to guide him whom Allah has made to go astray? And he whom Allah has made to go astray, you will never find for him any way (of guidance). They wish that you reject Faith, as they have rejected (Faith), and thus that you all become equal (like one another). So take not Auliya (protectors or friends) from them, till they emigrate in the way of Allah (to Muhammad SAW). But if they turn back (from Islam), take (hold) of them and kill them wherever you find them, and take neither Auliya (protectors or friends) nor helpers from them.

Comment: This verse is a command to slay apostates. “emigrate in the way of Allah” (Arabic: “yuhajiroo fee sabili Allahi”, transliterated: “make Hijra in the way of Allah”) means; interpreting “hijra” in its spiritual sense, to “become Muslim” and thus people who “turn back” are turning back or away from Islam – ie becoming apostate. Some apologists claim this verse refers to people who failed to follow Mohammed to Medina in the Hijra, but the context makes a mock of this since they were “cast back to disbelief”, making it plain that the verse refers to people who had apostatised from Islam, or adopted heretical belief. This latter is used by both Sunni and Shia to “justify” their fratricide.

33:60-62 (Malik): If the hypocrites, those in whose hearts is malice and the scandal mongers of Medina [lit. “The City”] do not desist; We shall rouse you against them, and their days in the city – as your neighbours – will be numbered. They shall be cursed wherever they are found and they shall be seized and killed mercilessly. This has been the Way of Allah (regarding such people) among those who lived before you, and you will never find any change in the Way of Allah.

Comment: The word “hypocrite”, as we know, means apostates and/or heretics and they are to be killed mercilessly wherever they are found (not just in Medina) (See also 8:38-39 & 9:38-39 though the reference is obscure). These verses also presage the ethnic cleansing of Medina and, later, the Arabian peninsula.

Further, these verses can be taken as justification for the fatwas calling on Muslims world-wide to catch and kill (e.g.) Salman Rushdie for apostasy. Any Muslim can, under Sharia, “legally” kill an apostate.

Conclusion.

In summary the Koran teaches that:

• Islam is pre-destined to become the sole world-religion and to destroy all other belief systems.
• Islam is pre-destined to rule the world.
• Muslims are a superior “master-race”, the best of all people.
• the Muslim community (civilisation) is superior to all other civilisations.
• Everybody is born a Muslim, thus no-one “converts” to Islam, they “revert” to it.
• Allah is kind to his Muslim slaves – with the proviso that they are devoted to him (i.e. follow Koran, Sunnah, (Tafseer) and Sharia completely and fully).
• Allah is all-powerful over his Muslim slaves and he can inflict harm on them, or do them good, as he wishes.
• apostates from Islam are to be killed “wherever they are found”, by whoever identifies them, in a merciless manner.

Post-script: If anyone knows of any other relevant verses, please contribute them in comments, I do not regard the verse lists in these articles as definitive in any way.

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Posted by jonmc on June 21 2011. Filed under Quran (Koran). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.