Quoting the Koran (Qur’an) without context.
Dr. Javeed Akhter, Executive Director, The International Strategy and Policy Institute
The evangelist, Franklin Graham and the conservative Christian commentator, Pat Robertson’s, assertions that Islam exhorts its followers to be violent against non-Muslims, are only two of the most prominent voices that are part of a rising cacophony of vicious criticism of the Koran. One can read and hear a whole range of negative opinions about this issue in the media. Few have taken an in-depth look at the issue. What does the Koran actually say about violence against non-Muslims? Does it say what Robertson and Graham claim it does? Does it say that it is the religious duty of Muslims to kill infidels? But first some basic principles about reading and understanding the Koran. After all, studying the Koran is not exactly like reading Harry Potter. Like any other scripture, there are rules that may be followed for a proper understanding of the text.
Muslim scholars suggest that those who read the Koran should keep at a minimum the following principles in mind:
FIRST, the reader should have
an awareness of the inner coherence in the Koran. As the verses are connected to each other, the reader should study, at the least, the preceding and following verses for a sense of the immediate context.
ALSO, the reader should
look at all of the verses that deal with the same subject in the book. These are frequently scattered all over the scripture. The indices provided in many of the exegeses of the Koran as well as the books of concordance allow the reader to get this information relatively easily. Often, there is information available about the occasion of revelation of a particular verse. This requires at least a cursory knowledge of Prophet Muhammad’s life. As Professor Fazlur Rahman of the University of Chicago would frequently point out, the Koran, in part at least, may be looked upon as a running commentary on the mission of Prophet Muhammad.
FINALLY, Koranic scholars advise us to
analyze the way the Prophet implemented a particular directive in a verse of the Koran in his own life and ministry. For all Muslims, Prophet Muhammad was the ultimate exemplar of the Koran and its living embodiment.
Let us examine the verses in question with these exegetical principles in mind. One of the verses says:
“put down the polytheists wherever you find them, and capture them and beleaguer them and lie in wait for them at every ambush” (Koran 9:5).
The immediate context, as Muhammad Asad (The Message Of The Qur’an) points out, is that of a
“war in progress” and not a general directive.
It was an attempt to motivate Muslims in self-defense.
Muslims were given permission to
defend themselves just before Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Makkah (where he grew up) to the city of Madinah, which occurred in the 13th year of his 23-year mission. The danger to Muslims in Makkah at this time was extreme and there was a real possibility of their total eradication. They
were permitted to fight back in self-defense against those who violently oppressed them. “Permission is given (to fight) those who have taken up arms against you wrongfully. And, verily, God (Allah) is well able to give you succor. To those who have been driven forth from their homes for no reason than this that, say ‘Our Lord is God.”
The Koran goes on to add:
"To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight), because they
are wronged;- and verily, Allah is most powerful for their aid; (They are) those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of right,-
(for no cause) except that they say, "our Lord is Allah". Did not Allah check
one set of people by means of another, there would surely have been pulled down
monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, in which the name of Allah is
commemorated in abundant measure. Allah will certainly aid those who aid his
(cause);- for verily Allah is full of Strength, Exalted in Might, (able to
enforce His Will). (They are) those who, if We establish them in the land, establish regular prayer
and give regular charity, enjoin the right and forbid wrong: with Allah rests
the end (and decision) of (all) affairs" (Al Hajj 22:39-41).
أُذِنَ لِلَّذِينَ يُقَاتَلُونَ بِأَنَّهُمْ ظُلِمُوا ۚ وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَىٰ نَصْرِهِمْ لَقَدِيرٌ الَّذِينَ أُخْرِجُوا مِنْ دِيَارِهِمْ بِغَيْرِ
حَقٍّ إِلَّا أَنْ يَقُولُوا رَبُّنَا اللَّهُ ۗ وَلَوْلَا دَفْعُ اللَّهِ النَّاسَ بَعْضَهُمْ
بِبَعْضٍ لَهُدِّمَتْ صَوَامِعُ وَبِيَعٌ وَصَلَوَاتٌ وَمَسَاجِدُ يُذْكَرُ فِيهَا
اسْمُ اللَّهِ كَثِيرًا ۗ وَلَيَنْصُرَنَّ اللَّهُ مَنْ يَنْصُرُهُ ۗ إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَقَوِيٌّ عَزِيزٌ الَّذِينَ إِنْ
مَكَّنَّاهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ أَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتَوُا الزَّكَاةَ وَأَمَرُوا
بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَنَهَوْا عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ ۗ وَلِلَّهِ عَاقِبَةُ الْأُمُورِ" (الحج 39-41)
On another occasion the Koran says:
" Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loves not transgressors. And kill them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there; but if they fight you, kill them. Such is the reward of those who reject faith. But if they cease, Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah; but if they cease, let there be no hostility except to those who practice oppression. The prohibited month, for the prohibited month, and so for all things prohibited, there is the law of equality. If then any one transgresses the prohibition against you, transgress ye likewise against him. But fear Allah, and know that Allah is with those who restrain themselves.” (al-Baqarah 2:190-194)
"وَقَاتِلُوا فِي
سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ الَّذِينَ يُقَاتِلُونَكُمْ وَلاَ تَعْتَدُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ
يُحِبُّ الْمُعْتَدِينَ وَاقْتُلُوهُمْ حَيْثُ ثَقِفْتُمُوهُمْ وَأَخْرِجُوهُمْ
مِنْ حَيْثُ أَخْرَجُوكُمْ وَالْفِتْنَةُ أَشَدُّ مِنْ الْقَتْلِ وَلاَ
تُقَاتِلُوهُمْ عِنْدَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ حَتَّى يُقَاتِلُوكُمْ فِيهِ فَإِنْ
قَاتَلُوكُمْ فَاقْتُلُوهُمْ كَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الْكَافِرِينَ فَإِنْ انتَهَوْا
فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ وَقَاتِلُوهُمْ حَتَّى لاَ تَكُونَ فِتْنَةٌ
وَيَكُونَ الدِّينُ لِلَّهِ فَإِنْ انتَهَوْا فَلاَ عُدْوَانَ إِلاَّ عَلَى
الظَّالِمِينَ الشَّهْرُ الْحَرَامُ بِالشَّهْرِ الْحَرَامِ وَالْحُرُمَاتُ
قِصَاصٌ فَمَنْ اعْتَدَى عَلَيْكُمْ فَاعْتَدُوا عَلَيْهِ بِمِثْلِ مَا اعْتَدَى
عَلَيْكُمْ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ وَاعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ مَعَ
الْمُتَّقِينَ" (البقرة 190-194)
Muslim scholars are of the opinion that
war is permitted in self defense, when other nations have attacked an Islamic state, or
if another state is oppressing a section of its own people. However, this is only a part of Jihad that Muslims are allowed to practice. A
greater Jihad is struggle against one’s own inner self.
The word
Jihad comes from the root letters
JHD (جهد), which means
to struggle or to strive. It is understood
by piety minded Muslims as a positive, noble and laudatory term. That is how most apply it in their personal, social, political and military lives. The history of the Muslims rulers, on the other hand, gives us examples of those who attempted to sanctify their wars of personal aggrandizement as wars for a noble cause by applying the label Jihad to them. A few even named their war departments as the departments of Jihad. This kind of behavior may be likened to a politician’s attempt to wrap him in the flag.
Such exploitation of the term should not be allowed to corrupt the original or the commonly understood meaning of the word, which is to strive for the highest possible goals, struggle against injustice and practice self denial and self control to achieve the moral purity to which all piety minded people aspire.
The “holy war” concept, for which many non-Muslims use the word Jihad, is foreign to Islam. Rather, it comes from a concept first used to justify the Crusades by the Christian Church during the middle Ages. The concept of “holy war” may even go back to the time when the emperor Constantine the Great allegedly saw the vision in the sky with the inscription on the cross, “in hoc signo vinces” (in this sign you will be the victor). The Arabic term, as has been pointed out by scholars, for
“the holy war” would be al-harab al-muqaddas (الحرب المقدسة), which neither appears in the Koran or the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (Hadith.) Muhammad’s wars were defensive wars against groups who sought to eradicate Islam and the Muslims.
It is interesting and useful for social scientists or philologists to study how the meaning and usage of words differ in different communities. Ironically, the word “crusade”, because of its association with the crusades in the middle ages, should have had a pejorative sense to it and yet the word has acquired an ennobled meaning in the West. This, in spite of the fact that the Church itself, along with most historians, acknowledge the injustice of the Crusades and the atrocities done in the name of faith. On the other hand, the word “Jihad"which means for Muslims, striving for the highest possible goal, has acquired the negative connotation of the holy war.
It is clear from even a cursory study of the Koran that Islam does not permit, condone or promote violence. Just the opposite, it abhors violence and allows it only in self-defense. A claim to the contrary is no more than bad fiction.
The critics of the Koran should remember that if the Bible were similarly quoted out of context it would appear to be an extra ordinarily violent scripture. I will leave Graham and Robertson to defend the violence in the Bible and the history of Christianity.
