Thank you very much for your reply a_stranger!
I feel a bit better about it now, but still these different verses look a bit contradicting to me. I also just saw a video of a 17 year old Muslim girl being hit 43 times with belt because she had been seen walking together with a man which was not her husband. Why was only the girl being punished and not the man? And why was the girl not allowed to have other male friends? I cannot be part of a religion which accepts this kind of discrimination towards women. So I hope the ones behind this are not true Muslims, even though they say they are.
I will investigate more about what the Quran says and I hope it is not as hostile as it can look like at first glance.. I'm thinking about Jihad etc. No wonder there are a lot of violent Muslims or wanna-be Muslims when the Quran is so hard to understand properly.
If the true nature of the Holy Quran is really all about peace then we should make this very clear with good examples from the Quran to make the world a better place to live!
Stay strong!
Kind Regards
-BZ
:salam2:
There are no contradiction in these verses. Infact the Quran invites the unbelievers to examine the Quran and see if they can find a contradiction in it.
Do they not then consider the Quran carefully? Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein much contradictions. (4:82)
Coming to the video bit:
Lets first examine what the Quran says;
A sura which We have sent down and which We have ordained in it have We sent down Clear Signs, in order that ye may receive admonition. The woman and the man guilty of illegal sexual intercourse, flog each of them with a hundred stripes. Let not pity withhold you in their case, in a punishment prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a party of the believers witness their punishment (24:1-2)
The Quran does not discriminate between Man and Women. Thus we find that what ever worship that is enjoyned upon Women is enjoyned upon Man. Women under several circumstance (for e.g. Mensural cycle or Pregnancy) have been given provision. What ever reward a Man get for a deed the Women gets the same. What ever punishment is prescribed for women is prescribed for man. Following verse makes that clear.
For Muslim men and women,- for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for true men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in Charity, for men and women who fast (and deny themselves), for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in Allah's praise,- for them has Allah prepared forgiveness and great reward. (33:35)
To the video itself:
In Islam you do not comment unless you have the facts and you do not make an accusation unless you have evidence.
O you who have believed, if there comes to you a disobedient one with information, investigate, lest you harm a people out of ignorance and become, over what you have done, regretful. (49:6)
Various Reports in the Media:
There are various conflicting reports in the media, I'll just highlights what these reports are, Chief Justice has taken a notice of the incidence, all concerned parties have been physically called to the court on Monday. Let us wait and see what evidence will be brough forwad and not jump to the conclusion. The various reports are;
1. No where does it say the man was not flogged, infact it has been reported that the man was flogged. Video of the girl was made from a mobile camera and the video of the man wasn't made.
2. No such incident happened and the video is fake and is deliberataly made to jeopardize the peace deal in the trouble area of swat. This is an observation of many people. Local people have denied that any such incident took place.
3. The video was made on 3rd January 2009 (incident roughly 4 months old).
4. The incident is 9 months old.
5. Incident is before the peace deal was signed vs. the incident is after the signing of the peace deal.
6. Video is 2 weeks old and the girl was flogged for refusing to marry a man (statement of man who shot the video). (If this is the case, if, than this is highly unislamic as women cannot be forced to marry in Islam).
O ye who believe! Ye are forbidden to inherit women against their will. Nor should ye treat them with harshness, that ye may Take away part of the dower ye have given them,-except where they have been guilty of open lewdness; on the contrary live with them on a footing of kindness and equity. If ye take a dislike to them it may be that ye dislike a thing, and Allah brings about through it a great deal of good (4:19)
7. They committed adultery vs. they didn't.
There are many other other conflicting news, lets not draw conclusions yet.
Islamic Law is clear. Both man and women is to be flogged only after it has been proven that they are guilty of adultery. The person making the accusation has to bring forth atleast 4 witnesses.
Concept of Jihad
The word Jihad means to strive and to struggle. Jihad refers to stive against one's own evil inclinations, to strive in battle field either in self defence or to fight opression and tyrany and it also refers to strive to improve the society. If a Muslim fights it does not necessarily (i.e. in all circumstance) means he is doing Jihad. Jihad (in the fighting concept) can only be done (a) under self defence and (b) to eliminate Fitnah (oppression and injustice).
Quote: No wonder there are a lot of violent Muslims or wanna-be Muslims when the Quran is so hard to understand properly
Wonder why so many Muslims are living under illegal occupation, just to name a few, Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, chechnya etc. Quran is not hard to understand. Its a fight over a piece of land and not that Muslims want to kill all the Non-Muslims. They are fighting to either regain their land back or to have their right to be able to freely live in the land they have been living for centruies.
Palestine & Iraq: Jews and Christians have been living for centuries under Muslim majority areas in the Arab world. After all there are 14 Million coptic Christians and many Million Jews still living in Arab world.
Kashmir- Pakistan, Bangladesh and India was one nation just over 60 years back. Muslims and Hindus have been living together in that land for over a 1,000 years. Even though Muslims are a majoirty (75%) in Indian held kashmir, they are denied their basic rights. India made a promise over 50 years ago they will hold a referendum in Kashmir and allow Kashmiris to decide what they want. 54 years have gone and nothing has happened. Tens of thousands of Indian army is present in India and thousands of Muslims men have been killed and women raped. Obviously you wont hear that in the corporate media.
I at times wonder why the media knows the name of name of each and every Israel soldier taken capture of war (they are just a few though) by Palestian or Lebanon, but they don't know the name of any ordinary Palestinian killed by the Israeli army. Why is it that there are 1 minute silence each year for those killed on 9/11 and 7/7 and we know the names of each and every one of them, even which country they belong too, but there are no minutes silence for 2,000 Muslim men and women killed in Gujrat, India, there are no minute silence for millions of civilian people dying in Kashmir, Pakistan, Afganistan, Iraq, Chehnya, Palestine. I wonder why we dont know the name of 70 civilians that were killed by US army attending a marriage ceremony in Afghanistan. I wonder why the rapist of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi and those that killed her family are not called terrorist. Think about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeer_Qassim_Hamza_al-Janabi
I can go on and on. Simiarly in Afghanistan too people are fighting an illegal war. We need to first understand what the motive of people are when they fight. Not all Muslims fighting are doing Jihad. The one's who attacked U.S. on 9/11 (if at all they were Muslims, because there are many Non-Muslims, American scientists and scholars who claim 9/11 was an inside job) were not doing Jihad.
The Islamic Law regarding Jihad and War is very clear. Internataionl community has just recently defined the ethics of war, Islam gave the laws regarding war over 1,400 years ago (not to kill women, children or the old, not to fight the non-combantant, not to damage the propety, not to poision the water supply, not to kill the animal or destroy trees and plants, not to damage churches or synagogue and so on). When ever a verse in the Quran talks about fighting the following verse inevitabily talks about either 'Do not trangress the limits' or 'Peace is better' or 'if the enemy wants peace give them peace'
If the person does not understand the Quran, its the not the Quran fault. Infact in one of the verse of the Quran, Quran tells us how to approach the Quran, if you want to understand it, follow the principle it lays down.
It is He who has sent down to you, [O Muْammad], the Book; in it are verses [that are] Explicit - they are the foundation of the Book - and others implicit. As for those in whose hearts is deviation [from truth], they will follow that of it which is implicit, seeking discord and seeking an interpretation [suitable to them]. And no one knows its [true] interpretation except Allah . But those firm in knowledge say, "We believe in it. All [of it] is from our Lord." And no one will be reminded except those of understanding. (3:7)
The reason why there are implicit verses in the Quran, because Quran has self references. The Quran talks about itself in around 70 places, thus some verses are put in top of the others. To understand the implicit verses, we are reminded to look at the explicit verses on that topic. In other words, the best tafsir (explanation) of the Quran is the Quran itself. If that still does not help than there is the sunnah (saying and actions) of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
If you want to understand Islam, understand Quran and Sunnah. Even group of people on the face of the earth has good and bad people. If one want to show us the bad behaviour of some of the Muslims we can do so that of any particular group, what does that prove! Nothing.
Salam Alakum
was full with love for the whole humanity, but some were denying the clear truth:
