Disclaimer: My primary interest is in study of humanism, psychology, parapsychology, metaphysics and new age subjects. My interest in reading Quran is due to the fact that I was born in a relatively religious family but have strong reservations against many beliefs of Islam. Following post is not an advocation of any particular practice of Islam but my understanding on one aspect of political Islam. To date, I consider myself 'agnostic'.
Islam has been subject to allegation as a religion of sword, a lot on the basis of Ayat 5 of Surah Taubah. This is the only surah without Bismillah (Where there is a war, blessing does not count). I spend many hours in my younghood to study this allegation. My unbiased study actually came out a lot simpler than I thought. I took help (no internet on those days) mostly from Arabic dictionary to understand the meaning of words beside available books at Liaqat National Library, Karachi and later at Chicago Public Library.
First para of Surah Tauba (Rukuh) set the tone and theme for whole surah. It can be summarize as follow. I will keep it very concise as there would be no end to write details. It would be very unfair and actually biased just to read Ayat 5. The whole para (Rukuh) needs to be read to understand the full reference to context.
This is all about on notion of breaking down of an agreement between Muslims and Pagans (ayat 1). Advice is not to rush to fighting while keeping trust on Allah (Ayat 2-3). It also calls for respect to other party if they keep their promises (Ayat 4). Later fight is advocated with full intensity ONLY if they break their promises. Again, it has been instructed to stop fighting if they embrace Islam (ayat 5). But LAST AAYA (# 6) is the conclusion and major cushion. If other party accepts defeat, even though they don't embrace Islam and remains pagan, it has been instructed to protect them in hope that they may eventually would listen to God's message - and advice is to transport them to a peaceful and war free zone of their choice!
Islam has been subject to allegation as a religion of sword, a lot on the basis of Ayat 5 of Surah Taubah. This is the only surah without Bismillah (Where there is a war, blessing does not count). I spend many hours in my younghood to study this allegation. My unbiased study actually came out a lot simpler than I thought. I took help (no internet on those days) mostly from Arabic dictionary to understand the meaning of words beside available books at Liaqat National Library, Karachi and later at Chicago Public Library.
First para of Surah Tauba (Rukuh) set the tone and theme for whole surah. It can be summarize as follow. I will keep it very concise as there would be no end to write details. It would be very unfair and actually biased just to read Ayat 5. The whole para (Rukuh) needs to be read to understand the full reference to context.
This is all about on notion of breaking down of an agreement between Muslims and Pagans (ayat 1). Advice is not to rush to fighting while keeping trust on Allah (Ayat 2-3). It also calls for respect to other party if they keep their promises (Ayat 4). Later fight is advocated with full intensity ONLY if they break their promises. Again, it has been instructed to stop fighting if they embrace Islam (ayat 5). But LAST AAYA (# 6) is the conclusion and major cushion. If other party accepts defeat, even though they don't embrace Islam and remains pagan, it has been instructed to protect them in hope that they may eventually would listen to God's message - and advice is to transport them to a peaceful and war free zone of their choice!
2 comments:
Very interesting because so much hullabloo has been seen about such ayaat. You give the real point
"the whole ruhooa needs to be read" in order to understand. People often forget that
In my childhood I was given this example say "roko--mat janay do" or say Roko mat- janay do.
روکو----مت جانےدو
روکومت----جانے دو
When it comes to Quran my take is that..
Independent reading of Quran is much simpler than what we think!
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