Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Bookmark and Share

Sura 2, an excerpt from 'The Critical Quran' by Robert Spencer.

The Koran is the problem.

by Ferdinand III


Sura 2 translated into English is here (Translated by Yusuf Ali, a fanatical Muslim apologist, so there is no ‘mistranslations’ which so bemuse Muslimophiles when discussing problematic texts).

Sura 2 is called ‘The Cow’, which is referenced once in the chapter and has no real importance in its context or messaging.  This is not unusual for Muhammandan texts, logic is hardly a strong suit for Muhammad’s cult.  Sura 2 is the longest chapter and one of the most violent against Jews and Christians.  It advocates Jihad, supremacism and forced conversion of non-Muslims.  There is no gospel odes to love, forgiveness or equality in the eyes of the Al-Lah (who was Baal the moon deity of Mecca).  Excerpts from Robert Spencer’s book below and explanations on key verses within Sura 2.  This link can be used (or the link above) to read the translation of the verses which are not copied out in their entirety.  The commentary is against that specific verse (italics).

Verse 105.  Jews and Christians are evil.

The “unbelievers among the people of the book” are the Jews and Christians who do not become Muslims. See 2:62 and 57:27. Here, Allah tells Muslims that unbelievers wish them only ill; Ibn Kathir explains: “Allah described the deep enmity that the disbelieving polytheists and People of the Scripture, whom Allah warned against imitating, have against the believers, so that Muslims should sever all friendship with them.”  “Allah chooses for his mercy whom he wills,” see 7:179, 10:99, 32:13.

Verse 106.  Abrogation or negating earlier verses with later ones, as Muhammad deems necessary.

The torrent of condemnations of the Jews is interrupted to introduce the Islamic doctrine of abrogation, in which Allah replaces a verse he has previously revealed but abrogated with one that is like it or even better. The doctrine of abrogation is also the foundation of the widespread Islamic understanding that the violent verses of the Qur’an take precedence over the more peaceful verses revealed earlier, since they come later in the lifetime of Muhammad.

Verse 116. Rejection of the Christ and the Christian Trinity.

This is the first of several Qur’anic articulations of Islam’s indignant rejection of the Christian belief in Jesus as the Son of God. The Qur’an repeatedly insists that Allah has neither sons nor daughters (other instances of this can be found at 6:100, 9:30, 10:68, 17:40, 17:111, 18:4, 19:35, 19:88, 21:26, 25:2, 37:149, 39:4, 43:16, 43:81, 52:39, 53:21, 72:3, 112:3). The idea that Allah could have a son is considered to compromise monotheism, and to imply that Allah is not all-powerful and thus capable of performing his celestial tasks by himself, without any helper.

Verse 123. No intercessors between you and the Allah (eg. a Son) except when there is.

Everyone will stand alone before Allah; no intercession from others will be accepted (2:48, 6:94, 23:101, 39:43, 42:46). However, the Qur’an elsewhere accepts intercession with Allah’s permission (10:3, 20:109, 21:28, 34:23, 53:26).

Verse 128. All the prophets including Christ were in fact Muslims.

Abraham and Ishmael are submitters to Allah, that is, Muslims. This underscores the recurring Qur’anic theme that the people we know of today as Jews and Christians are only renegades from the true religion actually taught by Abraham and Moses, as well as Jesus. That true religion was Islam. Much of sura 2 is devoted to addressing the renegade Jews who have rejected the messenger and calling them back to the true faith, the faith of Abraham and Moses as well as the messenger. Thus Islam challenges Judaism and Christianity by claiming that the true and original form of both religions is Islam.

Verse 142. Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Quran.

Allah tells the messenger that only “the foolish among the people” will protest the change in the qibla, the direction for prayer. Islamic tradition holds that the direction for prayer was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca, Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Qur’an, and Mecca only once…and instructs Muslims repeatedly to obey him (3:32, 3:132, 4:13, 4:59, 4:69, 5:92, 8:1, 8:20, 8:46, 9:71, 24:47, 24:51, 24:52, 24:54, 24:56, 33:33, 33:36, 47:33, 49:14, 58:13, 64:12

Verse 178. Infidel lives are worth much less than a Muslim life.

Allah establishes the law of retaliation (qisas) for murder: equal recompense must be given for the life of the victim, which can take the form of blood money (diyah): a payment to compensate for the loss suffered. In Islamic law (Sharia) the amount of compensation varies depending on the religion of the victim: non-Muslim lives simply aren’t worth as much as Muslim lives. Reliance of the Traveller, a Sharia manual that Cairo’s prestigious Al-Azhar University certifies as conforming to the “practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni community,” says that the payment for killing a woman is half of that to be paid for a man and for killing a Jew or Christian one-third that paid for killing a male Muslim.

Verse 193. Muslims must fight the Infidels.

The command to fight “until persecution [fitna] is no more, and religion is for Allah” reveals that there is an aspect to the warfare enjoined by the Qur’an that is not purely defensive. Muslims must continue the war until Allah’s law prevails over the world, which implies a conflict without end until that goal is attained. Ibn Kathir explains that the verse means that Muslims must fight “so that the religion of Allah becomes dominant above all other religions.” Says Bulandshahri: “The worst of sins are Infidelity (Kufr) and Polytheism (shirk) which constitute rebellion against Allah, The Creator. To eradicate these, Muslims are required to wage war until there exists none of it in the world, and the only religion is that of Allah.”99 That’s an open-ended declaration of war against every non-Muslim, in all times and in all places.

Verse 217. War or Jihad can be enacted any time, in any place for any reason.

(reiterates) “persecution is worse than slaughter” … This brief phrase has extraordinarily important implications for Islamic law and practice that are never clearly enunciated in the Qur’an. Islamic tradition holds that this all-important but opaque maxim was revealed to Muhammad during controversies over whether or not fighting was permissible during one of the four sacred months of the Arab calendar, during which fighting was forbidden…But then Allah revealed this passage, explaining that the Quraysh’s opposition to Muhammad was more offensive in his eyes than the Muslims’ violation of the sacred month: the raid was therefore justified, “for persecution is worse than slaughter.”

Verse 218. Jihad means war and fighting.

The phrase here translated as “wage jihad for the sake of Allah” is usually translated in some way akin to “strive in the way of Allah,” as Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall has it. The key word here is jahadu, which is a verbal form of the noun jihad; thus the translation here is more accurate than most, and more illuminating of how an Islamic jihadi will read and understand the Qur’an. “Jihad for the sake of Allah” in Islamic theology refers to jihad warfare, not to more spiritualized understandings of jihad.

Verse 255. The greatest verse in the Quran (most poetic supposedly).

This is known as the Throne Verse (Ayat al-Kursi). According to the contemporary Islamic scholar Mahmoud Ayoub, this verse is “regarded by Muslims as one of the most excellent verses of the Qur’an. It has therefore played a very important role in Muslim piety.”  A tradition depicts Muhammad as saying: “The master of all speech is the Qur’an, the master of the Qur’an is Surat al-Baqarah [sura 2], and the master of al-Baqarah is the Throne Verse.”

Verse 256. Subjection of non-Muslims is a goal of Jihad (no compulsion except to rule the Infidel).

Islamic spokesmen in the West frequently quote this verse to disprove the contention that Islam spread by the sword, or even to claim that Islam is a religion of peace. According to an early Muslim, Mujahid ibn Jabr, this verse was abrogated by 9:29in which the Muslims are commanded to fight against the people of the book. Others, however, according to Tabari, say that this verse was never abrogated but was revealed precisely in reference to the people of the book: they are not to be forced to accept Islam but may practice their religions freely as long as they pay the jizya (a poll-tax) and “feel themselves subdued,” as per 9:29. Many see the assertion that “there is no compulsion in religion” as contradicting the Islamic imperative to wage jihad against unbelievers. This is because the aim of jihad is not the forced conversion of non-Muslims, but their subjugation within the Islamic social order. Says Asad: “All Islamic jurists (fuqahd’), without any exception, hold that forcible conversion is under all circumstances null and void, and that any attempt at coercing a non-believer to accept the faith of Islam is a grievous sin: a verdict which disposes of the widespread fallacy that Islam places before the unbelievers the alternative of ‘conversion or the sword.’”

 

The main Koranic themes are all present in Sura 2.  A focus on male Muslims and their superiority over females and Infidels.  The assertion that Infidel lives are worth much less than a Muslim’s, and that all females, including Muslim females’ lives are of far less value than a Muslim male’s.  Muhammad as the last and most important prophet and the necessity to follow what he said and did.  The cold monotheism of the Al Lah who decides all, including your will and actions.  The injunction that your only role in life is to please the unknowable Al Lah and his only mouthpiece Muhammad.  A complete rejection of Christ and the Christian Trinity with endless demands to wage war until all non-Muslim Infidels submit or convert.