Islam is without doubt or close second one of the Greatest of All Religions. For one thing, it has been delivered to us through one of the finest human beings who ever lived on the cooling floating surfaces of this hot ball, the Prophet Mohammad. Unfortunately, not everyone pays heed to the fundamental message of tolerance so poetically expressed in the Koran. What is the great lesson here? Is there any message of grace that cannot be distorted by a fanatic thug into a rationale for seizing someone else's stuff?
I for one am thankful that at least Mohammad had the courage to be INTOLERANT of one thing: INTOLERANCE. He recognized that there are times you have to take a sword to power, and overthrow the thugs who oppress others. All of us act "in God's name", but what God/Allah/Divine acts in the name of some human who puts his image up in giant posters?
Not a single citizen of that great region now called Iraq -- none of whose borders have any historical legitimacy -- is an "Islamicist" -- not allowed to be. If they worship other than Sadaam Hussein, they get disappeared. Any Islamic believer knows how utterly offensive "images" of persons are to his or her beliefs and to Allah. All of Islam must rise to its Truth. And the Truth is not Sadaam Hussein, and it is not Iraq, or "Palestine" or hatred of any people.
Qur’an 8:12 “I shall terrorize the infidels. So wound their bodies and incapacitate them because they oppose Allah and His Apostle.”
.....uh, yeah, some "fine human being".
The Qur'an makes reference to different groups of non-Muslims. First, the Qur'an recognizes the natural diversity of humanity, "O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things)." (Qu'ran, 49:13)
What then does the Qur'an say about "infidels?" First, what does the term infidel mean? It is not a Qur'anic term. It is a term that Christians have historically applied to non-Christians, particularly Muslims. Christian doctrine simply did not recognize the legitimacy of Islam. Hence, Muslims were "infidels," and usually placed in the same category as "pagans" and "savages."
The Qur'an talks about a group of non-Muslims called "Ahl al-Kitab," or People of Scripture. These are people who have received divine revelation, particularly Christians and Jews. Therefore, the Qur'an automatically recognizes previous Abrahamic faiths and accords special status to the adherents of Christianity and Judaism. What is ironic is that Christian and Jewish doctrine makes no provision for the recognition of Islam; however, Islam recognizes both Christianity and Judaism as divinely-revealed religions. But it is Islam that is always accused of intolerance!
Here's the entire passage:
"And fight in the cause of Allah with those who fight with you, and do not exceed the limits, surely Allah does not love those who exceed the limits. And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from where they drove you out and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque (in Makkah) until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the reward of the unbelievers. But if they desist, then surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. And fight with them until there is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah, but if they desist, then there should be no hostility except against the oppressors." (Qur'an, 2:190-192)
Let's look at the interpretation of the above verses. First, examine the historical context. These verses were revealed at a time when Islam was under siege, when the small Muslim community was fighting for its very existence against powerful polytheists. The biography of the Prophet Muhammad, Allah bless him and give him peace, makes it very clear that the Prophet preached peacefully for the first 13 years of his mission. He left Mecca for Medina to make a new start. Even when the polytheists in Mecca were persecuting Muslims and looting their houses, the Prophet hesitated to fight. He only took up arms when God gave him permission:
"Permission (to fight) is given to those upon whom war is made because they are oppressed, and most surely Allah is well able to assist them." (Qur'an, 22:39)
The first battles the Muslims waged were in self-defense. They were disciplined and adhered to strict codes of conduct. Noncombatants, including women and children were not targeted. Furthermore, the Muslims avoided destroying property, livestock, and trees.
I think you need to read your Koran again. It is full of hate and intolerance. Perhaps if you read it and then compared it with the Gospels you might understand what true religion was all about. It is not to be found in Islam.
The verse 8.12 is about being bold when facing your enemy in battle. In battle if you are a wuss, then you will be obliterated, of course the Quran talks about smiting the necks of your enemy in battle.
You guys are very strange, do you do search for word 'terror', 'kill', and the like in the electronic Quran and just copy paste the sentence without understanding what the message is, what the story is, and what the context is?
More Converts to Terrorism
By Daniel Pipes
FrontPageMagazine.com | December 7, 2005
My column yesterday, “Converts to Terrorism,” delved into the issue of converts to Islam who engage in terrorism. Space constraints limited the information I could include, so here, I add to it in three ways: (1) providing names of converts suspected, arrested, or indicted of terrorism but who have not yet either gone into action or been convicted; (2) reviewing the matter of non-terrorist jihadis; and (3) summarizing a French intelligence report on converts to Islam.
(1) Yesterday’s list included converts who had either engaged in or been convicted of terrorism. That leaves many other converts who have not yet reached either of those stages, including:
· Australia: David Hicks, accused of joining Lashkar-i Tayyiba. Shane Kent, a red-haired, light-skinned former rock musician who trained in an Afghan terrorist camp, was one of the seventeen terrorist suspects detained in November 2005. Joseph Terrence Thomas, accused of training with and financing Al-Qaeda.
· France: Willie Virgile Brigitte, accused of membership in Al-Qaeda and helping the Taliban murder Afghan leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. Jérôme Courtailler (brother of David), arrested with two other French converts, Johann Bonté and Jean-Marc Grandvisir, for a plot to blow up the American embassy in Paris. Lionel Dumont, blamed for several terrorist attacks, including one connected to a Group of Seven summit in 1996...
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20466
Message was edited by: oD Forum Moderator [please do not post full articles from other sites but give an extract and a link]
i agree with jyang, it seems like ppl who dont like islam/muslims just find the worst sounding thing, to them, in the quran and copy.paste without understanding what they wrote...
although it is true, theres no leader in history the least appreciated in the west then Muhammed(saw)
Well you have to ask exactly what Mohammed did bring to the world. It seems that more and more the answer is murder, bloodshed and mayhem. It was certainly not peace, love and understanding.
read any religious scriptures and you will find death killing hatred towards all who oppose any faiths.
God, Alla if they in fact exsist only want people to enjoy life what else could Gods want ....
Jesus was only a man, Mohammad was only a man and there teachings are for men and the oppression of women. The beliefs in religion are what have screwed up this world... God save me from your people...Staff out
Message was edited by: cpellizzari
It is true that the Christian Gospel is filled with evocations of Loving. The story of Jesus putting a halt to the stoning of a woman by saying "He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone". And when asked what Law was most important, "To love thy neighbor". And St. Paul writing of virtues, that the greatest is To Love one another -- no exceptions were made.
Yet, we know that Christians for a thousand years were falling upon each other with swords, and only created Crusades in an effort to direct the blood-letting to others. Eventually, the Christians calmed down considerably. It is the Pentateuch and the texts collected under the Christian "Old" Testament which are filled with blood, not the New.
So Mohammad did the same. He did bring peace to warring tribes, even making alliances with his enemies in Medina and Mecca -- ironically laying the foundation for the schism between Shia and Sunni. And for the most part, all of these Great Religions have enfranchised the concept of GRACE.
We still see terrible things, and hypocrites invoking religion to do things which the actual religion prohibits. For example, it simply HAS to be a "sin" to murder others who are here by the grace of divine power, or else there is no such power.
There is no Allah. There is no God. But there is Grace. There is the common ground of "religion" which is hard-wired deeply into our lives.
If you talk about personalities -- Jesus, Mohammed, or a political figure -- you get a conversation. You mention GRACE, and the conversation comes to a halt.
The Prophet Muhammad is introduced in the Qur’an in these words:
[And We have not sent you forth but as a mercy to mankind.] (Al-Anbiyaa’: 107)
This shows that his distinctive quality was that he was a blessing incarnate in word and deed.
According to a tradition recorded in the Sahih of Imam Muslim, when the Prophet’s opponents greatly increased their persecution, his Companions asked him to curse them. At this the Prophet replied, “I have not been sent to lay a curse upon men but to be a blessing to them.” His opponents continued to treat him and his Companions unjustly and cruelly, but he always prayed for them.
Once he was so badly stoned by his enemies that the blood began to spurt from all over his body. This happened when he went to Ta’if, where the Hijaz aristocracy used to while away their summer days. When he attempted to call them to Islam, instead of listening to his words of wisdom, they set the street urchins upon him, who kept chasing him till nightfall. Even at that point, when he was utterly exhausted and bleeding from head to foot, all he said was, “O my Lord, guide my people along the true path, as they are ignorant of the truth.”
His heart was filled with intense love for all human kind irrespective of caste, creed, or color. Once he advised his Companions to regard all people as their brothers and sisters. He added, “You are all Adam’s offspring and Adam was born of clay.”
All this tells us what kind of awareness he wanted to bring about in man. His mission was to bring people abreast of the reality that all men and women, although inhabiting different regions of the world, and seemingly different from one another as regards their color, language, dress, culture, etc., were each other’s blood brothers. Hence a proper relationship will be established between all human beings only if they regard one another as sisters and brothers. Only then will proper feelings of love and respect prevail throughout the world.
According to a hadith, the Prophet once said, “A true believer is one with whom others feel secure. One who returns love for hatred.” The Prophet made it clear that one who would only return love for love was on a lower ethical plane. We should never think that we should treat people well only if they treat us well. We should, rather, be accustomed to being good to those who are not good to us and to not wronging those who harm us.
The Prophet once borrowed some money from a Jew. After a few days the Jew came to demand payment of his debt. The Prophet told him that at that moment he had nothing to pay him with. The Jew said that he wouldn’t let him go until he had paid him back. And so the Jew stayed there, from morning till night, holding the Prophet captive. At that time the Prophet was the established ruler of Madinah and could have easily taken action against him. His Companions naturally wanted to rebuke the man and chase him away. But the Prophet forbade this, saying, “The Lord has forbidden us to wrong anyone.” The Jew continued to hold the Prophet captive until the following morning. But with the first light of dawn, the Jew was moved by the Prophet’s tolerance, and he thereupon embraced Islam. In spite of being a rich man, he had detained the Prophet the day before on account of a few pence. But now the Prophet’s noble conduct had had such an impact on him that he was willing to give all his wealth to the Prophet, saying, “Spend it as you please.”
According to another hadith, the Prophet once said, “By God, he is not a believer, by God, he is not a believer, by God, he is not a believer, with whom his neighbors are not secure.” This hadith shows how much he loved and cared for all human beings. One of the lessons he taught was that we should live among others like flowers, and not like thorns, without giving trouble to anybody.
In another hadith the Prophet said, “If a believer is not able to benefit others, he must at least do them no harm.” This shows that to the Prophet the man who becomes useful to others leads his life on a higher plane. But if he fails to do so, he should at least create no trouble for his fellow men. For a man to be a really good servant of God, he must live in this world as a no-problem person. There is no third option.
The Prophet’s own example was testified to by Anas ibn Malik, who served the Prophet for ten years. He said that the Prophet never ever rebuked him. “When I did something, he never questioned my manner of doing it; and when I did not do something, he never questioned my failure to do it. He was the most good-natured of all men.” Such conduct gained him the respect even of his enemies, and his followers stood by him through all kinds of hardship and misfortune. He applied the principles on which his own life was based in equal measure to those who followed his path and to those who had harmed or discountenanced him.
In the present world, everyone’s thinking, tastes, aptitude, likes, and dislikes can never exactly coincide. For many reasons, differences do arise in this world. But then, what is the permanent solution to the problem? The solution lies in tolerance. The Prophet’s entire life served as a perfect example of this principle. According to his wife `A’ishah, “He was a personification of the Qur’an.”
That is to say, the Prophet molded his own life in accordance with the ideal pattern of life that he presented to others in the form of the Qur’an. He never beat a servant, or a woman, or anyone else. He did, of course, fight for what was right. Yet, when he had to choose between two alternatives, he would take the easier course, provided it involved no sin. No one was more careful to avoid sin than he. He never sought revenge on his own behalf for any wrong done to him personally. Only if God’s commandments had been broken would he mete out retribution for the sake of God. It was such conduct which gained the Prophet universal respect.
In the early Makkan period when the antagonists far exceeded the Prophet’s Companions in number, it often happened that when the Prophet would stand to pray, his detractors would come near him and whistle and clap in order to disturb him, but the Prophet did not even once show his anger at such acts. He always opted for the policy of tolerance and avoidance of confrontation.
When the opposition became very strong, the Prophet left Makkah for Madinah. But his antagonists did not leave him in peace. They began to attack Madinah. In this way a state of war prevailed between the Muslims and non-Muslims.
Since the Prophet avoided war at all costs, he strove to bring about a peace agreement between him and the Makkans. After great efforts on his part, the non-Muslims agreed to the finalizing of a 10-year peace treaty, which was drafted and signed at Al-Hudaybiyyah.
While the Hudaybiyyah treaty was being drafted, the Makkans indulged in a number of extremely provocative acts. For instance, the agreement mentioned the Prophet’s name as “Muhammad the Messenger of Allah.” They insisted that the phrase “the Messenger of Allah” be taken out and replaced by “son of Abdullah.” The Prophet accepted their unreasonable condition and deleted the appellation with his own hands. Similarly, they made the condition that if they could lay their hands on any Muslim they would make him a hostage, but if the Muslims succeeded in detaining any non-Muslim, they would have to set him free. The Prophet even relented on this point. For the restoration of peace in the region, the Prophet accepted a number of such unjustifiable clauses that were added by the enemy. In this way he set the example of peace and tolerance being linked with one another. If we desire peace, we must tolerate many unpleasant things from others. There is no other way to establish peace in society.
Once the Prophet was seated at some place in Madinah, along with his Companions. During this time a funeral procession passed by. On seeing this, the Prophet stood up. One of his Companion remarked that the funeral was that of a Jew. The Prophet replied, “Was he not a human being?”
This incident illustrates how an atmosphere of mutual love and compassion can be brought about in the world only when we consciously rise above all insidious demarcation of caste, color, and creed. Just as the Prophet did, we, too, must look at all men as human beings who deserve to be respected at all events.
Excerpted, with slight modifications, from: www.alrisala.org
I ask you all to read about his personality from reliable and impartial books .It is unfair to talk about someone just by hearing rumours or reading unislamic derogatory books..U are educated and you are dead sure that for an information to be true or logic,one should be provided with concrete evidences.Pls bring yours if you are truthful.
