There are a lot of differences of opinion among people who follow Islam themselves. Shias and Sunnis often say that the others are not ‘real Muslims’. Ahmadiyas are Muslims who believe that Muhammad was not the final Prophet. They are treated as non-Muslims in Pakistan since they do not believe in the finality of Muhammad’s Prophethood. The basis of the Shia-Sunni divide was actually succession to Muhammad. After Muhammad, his friend and close aid Abu Bakr became the Caliph, but some of Muhammad’s kin felt that they had the claim to the Caliph’s throne.
There are many things which are very clear but interpreted differently. For example, according to Islam, apostates are to be given death penalty. But then there are many others who try to interpret this differently. The encyclopedia wikipedia on Apostasy in Islam reports : “The Quran itself does not prescribe any earthly punishment for apostasy; Islamic scholarship differs on its punishment, ranging from execution – on an interpretation of certain hadiths – to no punishment at all as long as they “do not work against the Muslim society or nation.” According to Islamic law apostasy is identified by a list of actions such as conversion to another religion, denying the existence of God, rejecting the prophets, mocking God or the prophets, idol worship, rejecting the sharia, or permitting behavior that is forbidden by the sharia, such as adultery.”
Would God who made Islam as his only true religion leave so much ambiguity and difference of opinion among followers of his own true religion about a thing so important as apostasy? Apostates are given death penalty in many places. This is the legal provision in many Muslim countries even today, like Afghanistan a state supposedly rescued by liberals from the radical Taliban, which gives death penalty for leaving Islam and of course Saudi Arabia where there are laws to punish people for sorcery in today’s 21st century! If there is no compulsion in religion and God can easily make all humans as believers then why should apostates be given death penalty?The Quran in 2:27, 2:39, 3:90-91, 4:89, 9:66, 9:74, 47:25-26 makes it clear that apostates are to be punished. Let us see what it says:
“Those who break the covenant of Allah after ratifying it, and sever that which Allah ordered to be joined, and (who) make mischief in the earth: Those are they who are the losers. How disbelieve ye in Allah when ye were dead and He gave life to you! Then He will give you death, then life again, and then unto Him ye will return. ” (Quran 2:27-28)
“They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them”. (Quran 4:89)
“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). And they purposed that which they could not attain, and they sought revenge only that Allah by His messenger should enrich them of His bounty. If they 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. ” (Quran 9:74)
Let us see wikipedia again:
“In medieval times, several Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence held that apostasy by a male Muslim is punishable by death, differing on whether to execute the apostate immediately or grant the apostate an initial opportunity to repent and thus avoid penalty. They also differentiated between harmful and harmless apostasy (also known as major and minor apostasy) in accepting repentance. However, other scholars also held different views, such as that of Ibrahim al-Nakha’i (d. 715) and Sufyan al-Thawri and their followers, who rejected the death penalty and prescribed indefinite imprisonment until repentance. The hanafi jurist Sarakhsi also called for different punishments between the non-seditious religious apostasy and that of seditious and political nature, or high treason.
Medieval Islamic scholars also differed on the punishment of a female apostate: death, enslavement, or imprisonment until repentance. Abu Hanifa and his followers refused the death penalty for female apostates, supporting imprisonment until they re-embrace Islam. Hanafi scholars maintain that a female apostate should not be killed because it was forbidden to kill women by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and because women are unlikely to take up arms and endanger the community.
According to Wael Hallaq apostasy laws are not derived from the Qur’an. In modern times, some Islamic scholars oppose any penalty for apostasy, including Gamal Al-Banna, Taha Jabir Alalwani and Shabir Ally. Quran Alone Muslims do not support the apostasy penalty, citing verses from Qur’an which advocate free will.
Others believe that the death penalty can only be applied when apostasy is coupled with attempts to “harm” the Muslim community, rejecting the death penalty in other cases. These include Ahmad Shafaat, Jamal Badawi, Yusuf Estes, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid al-Baji.
However, Zakir Naik stated that if a former Muslim speaks against Islam then that is considered as treason and punishable by death in a country ruled by Islamic law, he also stated that he does not know of any country which is ruled by 100% Islamic law, a view which is held by other contemporary Islamic scholars such as Bilal Philips, and Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the latter reduces the punishment to imprisonment till repentance in the case of an apostate who did not proclaim apostasy, whereas the judgement which is still widely adopted advocates death for every ex-Muslim, for instance, Sheik Muhammad Al-Munajid the owner, writer and administrator for the popular islam-qa.com site advocates that judgement stating that leaving them alive “may encourage others to forsake the truth”.
Contemporary reform Muslims such as Quran Alone intellectuals Ahmed Subhy Mansour, Edip Yuksel, and Mohammed Shahrour have suffered from accusations of apostasy and demands to execute them, issued by Islamic clerics such as Mahmoud Ashur, Mustafa Al-Shak’a, Mohammed Ra’fat Othman and Yusif Al-Badri.
Prominent recent examples of writers and activists killed because of apostasy claims include Mahmoud Mohammed Taha, Faraj Foda, Rashad Khalifa, Ghorban Tourani, Necati Aydin, Uğur Yüksel, and the Egyptian Nobel prize winner Najib Mahfouz was injured in an attempted assassination, disabling him until his death in 2006.
The case of Abdul Rahman, an Afghan who converted from Islam to Christianity, sparked debate on the issue. While he initially faced the death penalty, he was eventually released as he was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial.”
Naturally, how can God leave matters so ambiguous in such a crucial thing? Even a cursory reading of wikipedia page on apostasy shows the massive difference of opinion on the subject. In some countries like Malaysia, permission has to be obtained by a Muslim for becoming an apostate. An article on Shia-Sunni divide on wikipedia is here. Would a true God leave so many differences among followers of his religion? He would have made the Quran clear and simple and left no doubt in anyone’s mind on all issues. As a minimum, God can come today, show himself to the rest of the world, or at least send angels on earth to reveal to all Muslims which is the correct form of Islam.
There are also various differences of opinion on issues such as photography being allowed or banned in Islam (Taliban interpreted it as ‘total ban’ on photography banning television, cameras, photos). If this is wrong and Islam does allow photography and TV, then why would God give Islamic scriptures in a manner whereby followers of his ‘only true religion’ who most genuinely are devoted to his religion and genuinely believe that what they are doing is right and as per God’s command misunderstand Islam and ban TV and internet and take Afghanistan back to the 7th century? Or if photography is indeed banned, then why do most Muslim nations allow TV? And then there are issues like wearing veils for women in Islam, men growing beards (whether necessary or not), whether there should be a minimum age for marriage in Muslim countries. Many Muslims who have supported 14 as the age for marriage for girls (which is also very low, it should be at least 16 if not 18 as in India) and those Muslims who have demanded this have been called as ‘apostates’ by others. God could have simply clarified in the Quran and given precise details of what he wanted, how he wanted laws to be applied.
There are many who genuinely believe that Taliban interpretation of Islam is wrong and that terrorists who killed innocents in the name of Islam and God are not true Muslims. These Muslims who genuinely believe that Islam is a religion of peace believe that Islam is true and is from God, Muhammad was His best and last prophet. The Taliban which is completely different in ideology and practice also genuinely believes what it does and believes that Islam is true and from God and that Muhammad was His best and last Prophet. If this is the case, why would God make a religion in a manner where his genuine followers interpret things differently? God can today send angels and correct one of the two different ideologies which must be wrong- i.e. either Taliban or the people who genuinely believe that Islam is a religion of peace.
An eminent world-famous scholar has written: “Allah is supposed to be omniscient. For such a Being it should be very easy to demonstrate some knowledge which is beyond the reach of ordinary human beings like Muhammad, say, being able in 620 AD to predict the events of 2000 AD, or to give the then-unknown chemical formula of water, or to write a then-unknown language including modern Arabic. This would not be proof of omniscience yet, but at least proof that the Quran is not the handiwork of an ordinary mortal; but nothing of the sort is done in the Quran. Moreover, the Quran contains many contradictions and inaccuracies, both in terms of modern physical and medical knowledge and in terms of its references to Biblical characters and events, e.g. mistaking Moses’ sister Miriam for Jesus’ mother Miriam/Mary, though there is a time-gap of more than twelve centuries between the two. The omniscient Allah, who claims to be the God of Abraham and Moses, had somehow forgotten the details of his interactions with the Hebrew prophets, and while confidently predicting the Doomsday, He was ignorant of the scientific knowledge accumulated by mankind centuries before this Doomsday.”
We notice now that in the Muslim world itself, many writers have stood up to publicize their break with Islam, and to show their brethren the way out of the religion which was forced on them by Mohammed and his companions. Some have done so from a newfound atheist conviction (e.g. Taslima Nasrin), others from a rediscovery of the ancient ever-young spirituality of the Vedic tradition (e.g. Anwar Shaikh). Given the intolerance for dissident opinions in the Muslim world, and given the actual spate of murders and murder attempts against fellow dissidents, each one of these apostates has had to muster far more courage than what non-Muslim countries like USA will have to show when they finally speak out against the ideology of Islam, which is convert-or-kill.
Islam is proven to be false not only from the mistakes in the Quran, but also by logical proofs. Many Muslims, despite seeing these mistakes in the Quran, stick to Islam and dismiss these errors as ‘tests by God’ to test their faith, merely with the Mirage of Paradise and for fear of Hell. One wonders then whether mankind will ever be able to get rid of the fanatical ideologies and able to see world peace? Or will human freedom continue to be stifled by followers of a false religion with the mirage of Paradise and fear of Hell?
Actually in the view of the written Word of God, the Bible,both versions of Islam,Sunni and Shi ‘ite are wrong in error and in darkness. This is because those two main branches of Islam as well as other kinds of Islam deny the very Bible based nature of Jesus. For the way for a person to discover the truth concerning the nature of Jesus is found in the Bible verse Isaiah 8:20. This instructs “To the law of the testimony. If they do not speak according to the word, it is because there is no light in them.” [N.K.J.V.] In other words, if a religious teacher has teaching that are in contradiction to the Word, the Bible, then that teachers is a false teacher who teaches false doctrines. The Muslim clerics, as the imam and mullahs, teach and speak doctrines about God from the Quran .
As the Quran in 112 teaches “He is God alone: God is the eternal begetteth not…” Likewise, this religious book which is the entire foundation of and for Islam further teaches in 19:35. “It is not befitting to God that He should beget a son.” In great contrast the Bible teaches in John 1:14. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory , the glory of the only begotten of the Father ,full of grace and truth.” Likewise John 3:16 teaches “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… Then just a little further in verse 18 it is written about Jesus Who is “the only begotten Son of God. “ Other places in the Bible further teach that Jesus is the Son of God as in Matthew 16:15:16. Luke 1:35. John 3:36. First John 4:14. 15. 5:14,15. Moreover to be even more clear the Bible teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, Who is God the Father. As found in Matthew 3:16,17. First John 2:22,23. 4:14,15. Of course , it ,very much, needs to made even more specific . The Bible teaches that Jesus is also God the Son. As seen in Hebrew1:8 and First John 5:20. The imams and mullahs as well as the other apologists for Islam will try to “explain” this all away. As in they will try brush off all those Bible verse off by making the claim that the Bible had been corrupted, through time, by Christians and that’s why the Bible reads as it does. That claim they make actually underestimate the Power of God to protect and keep His Word safe and intact ,through time, and away from the corruption of men.
In conclusion ,with the above instruction of the way to find doctrinal truth in Isaiah 8:20 and in the light of the Bible verse provided it may be clearly seen, by all those who are willing to see, that Islam is in terrible doctrinal error and it is therefore a false religion, Proverbs 14:12. John 14;6.
What I do not get here is the claim God should have ever left to humans a clear and perfect book. For Christians the Bible is not the work of God, just written by people inspired. For the Quran it looks similar to me, because it is not written by God himself, but it is only a revelation (as so many others to many prophets including but not only, Moses, Isaiah, Jesus,…) of the archangel Gabriel to a man, Mohamed. Second point I do not get, why God/s can not change his mind, point of view, decision, at some point? This is what happens for example, when God make the Alliance to the Judeans, which has not always been. Or when God punished Moses not letting him to arrive to the promised land Israel. So God gave me an order, the day after he gave me another one contradicting his previous one (what happend to Abraham, who was asked first to kill his son, second later not to kill anymore). Lastly, why God/s should bot be a liar? This was quite normal with Zeus/Apollo/Athena and so many other more undestanble ancient Gods.
All true messengers of God must have Spirit of God with them and they cannot telling lie. The Bible was written by humans, all of they must had Spirit of God with them or inside them.
The Quran makes a unique claim that it is the verbal word of God. The Bible and other sacred books merely assert that the texts were inspired by God. Thus, the Quran must be held to a higher standard, and it fails miserably. The best test for any religion is by observing the works of people inspired by that religion. “You can tell a tree by its fruit.” Again, Islam fails miserably. A few years ago, Yusuf al-Qaradawi said, “If they [Muslims] had gotten rid of the punishment for apostasy, Islam would not exist today.” Obviously, this religion is not held together by the love of God as much as it is by the fear of man’s punishment.
Bible, Turah, Quran all three are false book. Human were exist even before arrival of these books. No one is messenger of God. God does not act through messengers.
One must first test the truth of the claim that allah is the true God…. every Muslim accepts that as a fact without question. From the acceptance of that lie, it leads to a further one: That allah is the same God of the Jews and Christians….
If any sane Muslim will take the time to investigate the origins of allah, he will come to the conclusion that allah is a demonic spirit, that was worshiped for centuries before Mohammad ever arrived on the scene and that allah was known by different names in various tribes and cultures.
Now when you realize that allah is not the true God, you then have no problem dealing with the question of this post:
Would a true God leave so many differences among followers of his religion?
As the Bible declares: God is not the author of confusion.