To s.Kanhanna

Submitted by Nabil Ahmad (United States), Jun 25, 2007 at 08:37

> Is Quran a contemporary text or a whole time text for the entire human being?

That's a pretty simplistic question to ask. Would you ask the same question of the Bible? The Qur'an is an affirmation of what had been revealed before it in other religions all across the world, not just in ancient Israel. It is a book of guidance and knowledge for mankind, but is not the only book of guidance and knowledge. There are people out there who hold their respective sacred texts to be the source of ALL knowledge. The Qur'an repeatedly challenges its readers to use COMMON SENSE and Muhammad himself commanded his followers to "seek knowledge, even if it means going all the way to China". This goes completely against those who tend to argue that the world is flat or that the earth is only a few thousand years old "because the says so."

> who are the kafirs? Are they the contemporaries of Mohamed who fought him in the

> hot desert or the non-Islamic Ummah of the whole world inclusive of the yet to be born non-Muslims?

Back during the time of Muhammad, the "kaffirs" were considered to be those who committed acts of persecution, murder and, eventually warfare against the Muslims simply for being Muslims, and those who rejected his revelations outright and made a jest of them. In today's world, the same can be said to apply, but I have also come across many non-Muslims here in the USA, some of who are among my best friends, who have never done anything against me on account of my religious beliefs, and the Christians and Jews among them have never told me that the God that I worship is different from the God that they worship. The Qur'an does contain verses in which God says that there are Christians, Jews, Sabaeans and idolaters who will attain Paradise in the Hereafter. On the other hand, some so-called Muslims have engaged in horrific acts of persecution and mass-murder against others for not being Muslims. Such so-called "Muslims" are in my opinion, a lot closer to being "kaffirs" than my non-Muslim friends.

> If the attribution is only to the contemporary desert rivals, then the universal

> credence of Islam and the whole time text status of the Al Quran will be doomed.

I have a simple answer for that: It isn't.

> What are the murderous sacred verses of Quran? Are they literal or allegorical? Who has the authority to interpret Quran? -Sunnihs, Shias, Muslim Islamic scholars, non-Muslim Islamic scholars, Osamas ,Daniel Pipes or George Bushes?
> Can the mystic interpretation of moderate, apologetic Muslims justify the beheading agenda of Islam and Quran?

The Qur'an contains commands to people to fight against those who persecute and oppress us. But it also commands us to give shelter and protection to those who seek it from us. Most anti-Muslim polemics as well as extremist Muslims turn to the 9th Sura in the Qur'an for "murderous" verses, but tend to either misread them, take them out of context and/or skip over those ayas that throw sand on their bigoted worldviews.

Each of us is responsible for reading, understanding and interpreting the Qur'an in our own way. We shall all have to stand before God on Judgment Day to answer for what we have done during our lives here in this world.

There is no "beheading" agenda in the Qur'an. On the other hand, I would rather be beheaded with one chop than be electrocuted, poisoned, stoned, hanged or shot if I were to be condemned to death...it's a lot quicker and less painful, even if it's messy and gruesome for those around me. I guess I'm just being selfish here...

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".