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Thursday, May 24, 2012
9/24/06, Letter to the Editor, printed in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Force and religion have situational link”
The pope recently quoted the Qur’an, Chapter 2, Verse 256, "there is no compulsion in religion," and he stated that this was the lowest point of power in Islam. What a beautiful teaching it is by itself. And the sweetest part of it is that it was revealed to the prophet Muhammad at the highest point of power. Why? Islam had gained ascendancy in Arabia, but God cautioned man to allow for free will. Consequently, the idea of Islam “spread by the sword” must be false. Who is attracted to any religion by force? To the contrary, one Arab mercenary was bent on killing Muhammad with a sword, but when he hear his sister reciting the Qur’an, he fell in love with it and became a Muslim instead.
Allison Knight-Khan
Powder Springs, GA
Editor's Note: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the largest newspaper south of Washington, D.C., and east of Houston.
Copyright 2011 Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya USA. All Rights Reserved.
Comments (2)
Indeed it is a beautiful teaching, the verse you cite. But you fail to read the verse in its' full context, which is the flaw of most muslims citing the Quran and what usually accuse Islam critics of. You see there is compulsion (rules) in religion, we can not cherry pick. We can't eat pork, we can't fornicate, we can't lie unless our lives are threatened, we can't pray in any direction but must face Qiblah, we must give Zakat (charity) etc. Otherwise sending the divine message of the holy Quran would be redundant. It would suffice to simply believe in God and make up the rest as we proceed.
The full context of the verse is the entire book of Quran and the chapter of Sura 2 especially. It should be common knowledge that the chapter 2 refers to fighting. But sadly most muslims do not take the time to read the book let alone understand it. Instead we cherry pick. Then we must not blame to opposing camp when they do too. As they are simply following our example.
I disagree with you because the fact is that there is NO compulsion in religion and there are many other verses aside from 2:257 that make this matter clear. The examples you cite as evidence of compulsion that "We can't eat pork, we can't fornicate, we can't lie unless our lives are threatened, we can't pray in any direction but must face Qiblah, we must give Zakat (charity) etc" are misplaced. These are not matters of compulsion, but matters of faith. Someone can violate all those things and still call himself a Muslim, and neither I nor you nor anyone has the right to tell him he is not a Muslim. If a person e.g. eats pork, he is committing a wrong against himself and against God. No man has a right to 'punish' or compel him to behave otherwise. If a person prays towards Jerusalem instead of Mecca, no one can compel him to change his prayer direction. That is a matter between him and God, and only between him and God.
If a person commits murder, then yes, he will be held accountable but not because of compulsion in religion, but because of the nature of his crime, i.e. now his crime violates the rights of another human being. It is for that violation that he will be held accountable, not because of some compulsion of his faith.
Nothing about here is cherry picking and I'm not quite sure how you can label all of chapter to as to "refer to fighting." That blanket statement is contradicted by dozens of verses in Chapter 2 that discuss a plethora of other topics that have nothing to do with fighting what-so-ever.
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