Marz87
Member
Salam All,
I preface this by saying nothing I say here is conclusive, they are my experience and humble musings and conclusions, whatever proof I state I invite you to verify and investigate on your own Inshallah, Allah knows best. My entire upbringing I was taught that zina(adultery) was an offense punishable by stoning to death according to Shari'ah law, which I accepted on the premise that is derived from revelation and never thought twice about it. However today, a discussion with a friend prompted me to research more about this, which lead me to discover that this stoning punishment has no mention whatsoever in Quran, I checked myself(Surah an-Nur), compared the English translation against the Arabic text(I am an intermediate Arabic speaker). I noticed that the stoning aspect was included in the English translation though not in the holy verses, which deceptively includes the interpretation of scholars into the words of Allah, which was troubling to me because it is very manipulative and misleading that the interpretation of scholars, to the vast non-Arabic speaking majority who don't know any better, are propagated as mandate of Allah. Alhamdulillah I have the intellectual capability and linguistic ability to investigate on my own and clear a misconception that I've carried since childhood. Upon further investigation, I found that this ruling of stoning adulterers to death was established not through Qur'an but only 2 authentic Bukhari hadiths in which the the prophet PBUH allowed for adulterers to be stoned, 1 incident in which they were non-Muslims practicing laws of the Torah and he instructed that the justice set out by their faith be carried out. These incidents are tales narrated through third party hadiths, NONE OF WHICH THE PROPHET EXPLICITLY DICTATES THAT ADULTERERS ARE TO BE STONED TO DEATH, BUT MERELY ARBITRATED IN RARE ISOLATED INCIDENTS, and those hadiths give no background or insight into the seerah/circumstances/stories surrounding these incidents...which lead me to this unsettling thought: The grave punishment of stoning for adultery was established by scholars though there is NO VERSE IN THE QUR'AN DICTATING IT, but merely based on ambiguous hadiths which also do not dictate this punishment for the ummah, however scholars chose to incorporate this horrendous punishment in Shari'ah law which is universally accepted, and abused, propagating this violent and hateful image of Islam, whereas Islam is so peaceful and beautiful. Mashallah while reading Sur'ah an-Nur, which speaks about these issues, the prevalent theme and ayah that kept repeating is 'Allah is most-forgiving, Most Merciful', every verse that admonished indecent behavior was followed by a reminder of Allah's mercy, Subhanallah. This further lead me to question EVERYTHING I was taught about Shari'ah law which I accepted and was conditioned to believe, I've always had doubts that Shari'ah law is sometimes the interpretation of scholars which cannot conclusively be backed up by the one true source, Qur'an, and some aspects culturally skewed, fatwas established on mere opinion and accepted Arabian, or other, traditions etc but this discovery today really opened my eyes for the millionth time. I do not accept faith blindly but try to my limited capability to understand the logic, essence, sources etc for myself and draw my own conclusions.. we never stop learning about Islam, its a lifelong journey. Subhanallah, Allah knows best and my intention here today is to implore you all to please do the same. I know that in many societies it is taboo to question/challenge anything in the religion but I assure you that if your intention is pure and your path of discovery is one you hope will heighten your spirituality, your doubts will subside and your love of Islam will intensify. I am no scholar, but I/you can interpret and dissect the religion for yourself, as the very first revelation was 'read', and throughout the Qur'an Allah invites us to contemplate on his signs and revelations, and through deep exploration, analysis of our religion, we grow to love Islam more, which is the case for me. May Allah guide us all, God bless
I preface this by saying nothing I say here is conclusive, they are my experience and humble musings and conclusions, whatever proof I state I invite you to verify and investigate on your own Inshallah, Allah knows best. My entire upbringing I was taught that zina(adultery) was an offense punishable by stoning to death according to Shari'ah law, which I accepted on the premise that is derived from revelation and never thought twice about it. However today, a discussion with a friend prompted me to research more about this, which lead me to discover that this stoning punishment has no mention whatsoever in Quran, I checked myself(Surah an-Nur), compared the English translation against the Arabic text(I am an intermediate Arabic speaker). I noticed that the stoning aspect was included in the English translation though not in the holy verses, which deceptively includes the interpretation of scholars into the words of Allah, which was troubling to me because it is very manipulative and misleading that the interpretation of scholars, to the vast non-Arabic speaking majority who don't know any better, are propagated as mandate of Allah. Alhamdulillah I have the intellectual capability and linguistic ability to investigate on my own and clear a misconception that I've carried since childhood. Upon further investigation, I found that this ruling of stoning adulterers to death was established not through Qur'an but only 2 authentic Bukhari hadiths in which the the prophet PBUH allowed for adulterers to be stoned, 1 incident in which they were non-Muslims practicing laws of the Torah and he instructed that the justice set out by their faith be carried out. These incidents are tales narrated through third party hadiths, NONE OF WHICH THE PROPHET EXPLICITLY DICTATES THAT ADULTERERS ARE TO BE STONED TO DEATH, BUT MERELY ARBITRATED IN RARE ISOLATED INCIDENTS, and those hadiths give no background or insight into the seerah/circumstances/stories surrounding these incidents...which lead me to this unsettling thought: The grave punishment of stoning for adultery was established by scholars though there is NO VERSE IN THE QUR'AN DICTATING IT, but merely based on ambiguous hadiths which also do not dictate this punishment for the ummah, however scholars chose to incorporate this horrendous punishment in Shari'ah law which is universally accepted, and abused, propagating this violent and hateful image of Islam, whereas Islam is so peaceful and beautiful. Mashallah while reading Sur'ah an-Nur, which speaks about these issues, the prevalent theme and ayah that kept repeating is 'Allah is most-forgiving, Most Merciful', every verse that admonished indecent behavior was followed by a reminder of Allah's mercy, Subhanallah. This further lead me to question EVERYTHING I was taught about Shari'ah law which I accepted and was conditioned to believe, I've always had doubts that Shari'ah law is sometimes the interpretation of scholars which cannot conclusively be backed up by the one true source, Qur'an, and some aspects culturally skewed, fatwas established on mere opinion and accepted Arabian, or other, traditions etc but this discovery today really opened my eyes for the millionth time. I do not accept faith blindly but try to my limited capability to understand the logic, essence, sources etc for myself and draw my own conclusions.. we never stop learning about Islam, its a lifelong journey. Subhanallah, Allah knows best and my intention here today is to implore you all to please do the same. I know that in many societies it is taboo to question/challenge anything in the religion but I assure you that if your intention is pure and your path of discovery is one you hope will heighten your spirituality, your doubts will subside and your love of Islam will intensify. I am no scholar, but I/you can interpret and dissect the religion for yourself, as the very first revelation was 'read', and throughout the Qur'an Allah invites us to contemplate on his signs and revelations, and through deep exploration, analysis of our religion, we grow to love Islam more, which is the case for me. May Allah guide us all, God bless