The case of Abdul Rahman

[Devadatta]

Peace be to all of you.

I am a Muslim and do not agree with the threat to kill this man's life. First of all, the hadith quoted by some is a hadith thought to be said by the Prophet Muhammad savs. We cannot know this for sure.

Second of all, if Prophet Muhammad savs ordered people killed simply for apostasy, then that would contradict the Holy Qur'an and its commandments about no compulsion in religion, 'you have your faith and I have mine, ' etc.

A Muslim is to kill a disbeliever only when he is attacked and his life, the life of his family and Muslim community is in danger. Of course if Islam is being prevented from practice--that is opression of Muslims.

Second of all, Allah Almighty never says (to my understanding, at least) that the Jews and Christians are disbelievers. It is stated that they are in error about certain things, that many of them do not believe in Him, but the Almighty constantly reminds us that some among the People of the Bible do believe!

If the hadith where Prophet Muhammad savs was reported ordering of the apostates to be killed is true, the question then should be asked what else was considered in the decision because in the Prophet's time the apostasy meant treason because those who left Islam in his time went to fight and kill Muslims later. In our day this may not be the case. Abdul Rahman while converted to Christianity, did not threaten Muslims around him and did not certainly try to kill anyone.

I read in my local newspapers that a family member notified the 'authorities' about this new Christian man after an argument. One cannot help but wonder what was reported about him to the afghan authorities.

Because after all if this man's 'guilt' is only conversion to Christianity, then what should they do to the president Karhzai who is ally of the Christians, and helped create a constitution providing 'freedom of religion' in Afghanistan, meaning Islam cannot be a dominant one.

I believe there is more to the story. And I believe this man has a right to choose his own belief system. If God wanted to leave him in Islam, Abdul Rahman would still be a Muslim. Maybe through this man, God Almighty is trying to teach Muslims to remember that God Almighty did not create everyone in the world to be Muslim and that so long as people are not killing us, attacking us and opressing Islam, we are not allowed to mistreat and attack other people.

Greatly appreciate your post, Amica. And I think you’ve put your finger on the problem: the identification of apostasy with treason. This identification dates from the early days of the so-called wars of apostasy when Mohammed and his successors struggled with the pagans of the Arabian peninsula. These “apostates” in those barbaric times were literally at war with Islam and quite understandably the rules of war applied. But to say that this means automatically than any form of “apostasy” – which some clerics apply to everything from disrespecting the Qu’ran or Mohammed to having wrong metaphysical views – merits death goes against not only 2:256 (No compulsion in religion) but against a whole host of surahs that make clear that Christians & Jews like Muslims all worship the God of Abraham, and that any Jew or Christian that submits to Abraham’s God and follows his law will have nothing to fear on judgement day. Mohammed’s critique of Jews & Christians is fundamentally the same as all the prophets of the Jewish scriptures as well as Jesus: that they were not living up to their own scriptures and to the original covenant.

One other thing, it’s bad enough that the tradition fell into this trap of equating all “apostasy” with treason, but what’s worse is that modern so-called reformers of the faith have only more rigidly confirmed (what I would call) this tragic error. For example, Maududi, who is reputed to be one of the greatest revivers of the legal tradition in the 20th century (after a period of some decline under the colonial impact) makes this exact equation., He very cogently sets out all the obvious objections to the death penalty, and then dismisses them all with the notion of treason. To dissent from Islam is to commit treason, end of story. (You'll find this buried in this long article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam).

Now, to me this is huge. When you consider that many clerics, as I’ve said, assimilate every form of “blasphemy” or deviance in thought or behaviour to apostasy, then really you have an entire system of social control which in my view is not only at variance with the noble & vigorous core of Islam but is a recipe for cultural stagnation and a ready rational for every form of religiously sanctioned violence. In this sense, there’s a direct line between Maududi and the Taliban, Qutb and every other totalitarian ideology now going under the name of Islam.

Now perhaps I’ve said too much. But I want to emphasize that I’m not putting into question any of Islam’s core claims as to its grasp of ultimate truth, its claim of Mohammed as the final prophet, or its right to defend itself by whatever means it thinks proper. What I’m putting into question is this whole legalist/cultural construction of apostasy, which I and others are saying is not part of Islam’s core but an increasingly destructive elaboration.

Sincerely,
Devadatta.

 

[Devadatta]

Salaam/peace.

I feel sometimes like from another planet when I hear certain people among the Muslim community saying/doing certain things that, to my islamic upbringing, contradicts Islam.

I was raised among Muslims, went to religious classes to learn to pray and learn to be a better Muslim, and never heard that a person is to be killed if they left Islam. The imams in my bosnian hometown and in our Bosnia in general thought us that Islam does not teach to hate others, that we cannot force people to be Muslims and that we have to remember that if someone is pressuring us to believe other than Allah (God) then we should tell them that they have their faith and we have ours. Respectfully. I was never told by any of our imams to hate others because of what they believe and I was never told that converting to a faith that is monotheistic is something to kill for.

My eyes pop out when I see some things or hear certain individuals say some stuff! Can't comprehend that some people would hold a hadith in higher esteem than the Word of God (Qur'an) because the Holy Qur'an should topple every other writing we have in regards to the Shari'a laws! If the hadiths that some people are gripping on to in order to explain certain 'sharia' laws were true, they would not be contradicting the Holy Qur'an. And Allah Almighty said that if something is contradictory it is not from Him! Obviously then a murder for apostasy would be contradictory to the Holy Qur'an because Allah/God in the Qur'an says that He did not create the people in the world to be all Muslims, that there must be no compulsion in religion, that we should respect others' believes but love our own, that Islam is the right path but that some people have a choice to turn a blind eye if they wish, that the death is spiritual and not something that we should cause.

Am I missing something or what? I believe that the Afghanistan needs a lot of social development, they need a lot of more reading into the Qur'an, etc.
We do not need an imam/cleric to tell me what is in the Qur'an. I can read the Book by myself and with God given help of my mind I can know in my mind and my heart what God is conveying to me. If there is something I do not understand I may ask others who may be knowledgable for possible interpretation, but most of all I could pray to the Almighty for help to understand. But I am not going to believe just anything some cleric tells me to believe. I am not receiving anyone to be my teacher because God is my Only True Teacher and I cannot accept that God would contradict Himself because He would never do that!

God forbid, why do some Muslims make Islam seem so horrific! Because of them there is increase in the islamophobia and because of them even those people who try to understand our struggles are taken by a shock!

I guess one hadith was certainly true: it says that in the End Times, there will be those who will speak things about Islam that will be new and something believers did not hear before, something of practice that was never practiced in Islam (i.e. accept Islam or die, stoning women, killing rape victims, etc. and all this claiming that it is from Islam and in truth these do not come from Islam).

I say, I am a Muslim. I believe in human freedom and right to believe what they want. I believe in Allah the Merciful, Almighty. I believe in His Word and His Truth. I believe in His Prophets pbut and I denounce those who want to speak in my name and in the name of my religion while commiting or demanding acts that are not islamic!

A beautiful post, Amica, and very heartening. You're the future, IMHO.

Peace,
Devadatta.