Islamic Reformation?

Can Islam Be Reformed?  Dennis Prager asserts that it needs and is capable of reformation.  While stating his belief that Islam is reformable, Prager fails to offer any evidence to support his belief.  Instead, he gives us a five point ordered list of tasks which must be performed. With that great accomplishment, he give us a little information about some supposed reformers. 

    The third point in his task list is a major stumbling block: "Publicly and unambiguously condemn all violence in the name of Islam, including violence against Israel." That presents a problem because any Muslim who does so thereby writes his own death warrant.  Perhaps, as a self-acknowledged student of Arabic and lecturer on comparative religions, Prager should be aware of this provision of Shari'ah, found in Reliance of the Traveller, Book O,. Chapter 8.  First, it prescribes the death penalty for apostasy, next it lists 20 acts entailing apostasy.

O8.1.

When a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed.

O8.2

In such a case, it is obligatory for the caliph (A: or his representive) to ask him to repent and return to Islam. If he does, it is accepted from him, but if he refuses, he is immediately killed.

O8.7: Acts that Entail Leaving Islam[...]

-7- to deny any verse of the Koran or anything which by scholarly consensus (def: b7) belongs to it, or to add a verse that does belong to it;
[...]

    Islamic law forbids rejecting any part of the Qur'an.  For example:

2:216. Jihâd (holy fighting in Allâh's Cause) is ordained for you (Muslims) though you dislike it, and it may be that you dislike a thing which is good for you and that you like a thing which is bad for you. Allâh knows but you do not know.

8:39. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshipping others besides Allâh) and the religion (worship) will all be for Allâh Alone [in the whole of the world ]. But if they cease (worshipping others besides Allâh), then certainly, Allâh is All-Seer of what they do.

9:29. Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allâh, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allâh and His Messenger (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islâm) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

    Allah ordained jihad for Muslims and commanded them to fight us until resistance ceases, Allah has a global monopoly and Jews & Christians are subjugated and extorted. Prager expects Muslim reformers to abjure those verses; Islamic law demands their heads if they do. 

    There are other insurmountable obstacles to be overcome.  How do you improve on perfection?   Islam can only be defiled, never improved. 

5:3. [...]This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islâm as your religion.[...]

    How do you change that which is compiled into a book, printed & widely published in many languages and strictly forbids  editing? 

6:115. And the Word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and in justice. None can change His Words. And He is the All­Hearer, the All­Knower.
10:64. [...]No change can there be in the Words of Allâh, this is indeed the supreme success.[...]

30:30. [...]No change let there be in Khalq­illâh (i.e. the Religion of Allâh Islâmic Monotheism), that is the straight religion, but most of men know not. [...]

    Moe confirmed the fatal fact with a curse.

Sahih Bukhari Volume 9, Book 88, Number 174:

Narrated Sahl bin Sa'd:

I heard the Prophet saying, "I am your predecessor at the Lake-Fount (Kauthar), and whoever will come to it, will drink from it, and whoever will drink from it, will never become thirsty after that. There will come to me some people whom I know and they know me, and then a barrier will be set up between me and them." Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri added that the Prophet further said: "I will say those people are from me. It will be said, 'You do not know what changes and new things they did after you.' Then I will say, 'Far removed (from mercy), far removed (from mercy), those who changed (the religion) after me! "

    In another hadith, Moe cursed the Muslims with disgrace if they abandon warfare as a way of life exchanging it for trade or agriculture. 

Sunan Abu Dawud Book 23, Number 3455:

Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar:

I heard the Apostle of Allah, (peace_be_upon_him) say: When you enter into the inah transaction, hold the tails of oxen, are pleased with agriculture, and give up conducting jihad (struggle in the way of Allah). Allah will make disgrace prevail over you, and will not withdraw it until you return to your original religion.

    Only a deluded fool or a liar will claim that Islam can be reformed to render it anodyne. It may go off track for brief periods, but Allah will send someone to return it to his path.

Sunan Abu Dawud Book 37, Number 4278:

Narrated AbuHurayrah:

The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Allah will raise for this community at the end of every hundred years the one who will renovate its religion for it.

Ineffable Questions for the Leaders of Islam

One of my Google Alerts turned up an article  at News Blaze purportedly written by two Australian Muslims.  Their names arouse some suspicion: Salem Yalekum and Ashraef Ahmed.  The questions which they propound tend to arouse further doubts.  

At the bottom line, the authors seem to confirm my suspicions in one sentence, and pull back from the precipice in the next. [Emphasis added.]

Reform Islam, protect the faith. Muslim people are now questioning their own faith and want clarification. We want assimilation we do not want to stick out like a sore thumb. We have had enough of the inaction.

Their use of the third person in the first sentence inspires doubt.  Reversion to the first person in the next raises the question: is it style, or is it content.

    There is another crucial tip off: did they quote from an appendix to Craig Winn's The Prophet of Doom.

• "Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends." (Surah 5:51)
• "Believers, take not Jews and Christians for your friends. They are but friends and protectors to each other."

Islam Awakened has the largest collection of parallel translations known to me; none of them  exactly matched the quote. I tried their quote of 8:36- with the same frustrating results. Those quotes are all over the web, without attribution to the translator.  The meaning transmitted can be justified, but  it appears that someone has selected bits and pieces from several translations and melded them together in the style of Craig Winn.  

    Are the authors reform minded Muslims or agent provocateurs?  I do not have sufficient evidence, though I lean to the latter conclusion.  The time has come to consider some of their questions.

    The fifteen questions in this enumerated list, followed by a very sharp supernumerary question  cause me to conclude that the authors are either Kaffirs  poking Muslims with a sharp stick or Muslims in name only, taking a leap of apostasy.  

1. Why is the Islamic community allowing terrorists to hijack their religion to justify their hideous evil attacks on western countries?

2. What are the true "moderate Muslims" doing to prevent this abuse of our religion by their radical brothers and sisters in Islam?

3. When the Muslim community do nothing except complain about the reaction of the west to the radical elements in Islam, what do we expect them to do?

4. Why are we are doing nothing about them?

5. Isn't it the responsibility of every moderate Muslim to claim ownership of Islam, and openly denounce any Muslim using the Koran to justify their evil acts?

6. Do you agree that when the civilized Islamic community takes control of Islam, people might view us in a different light and we might regain our dignity?

7. Do the Islamic nations agree it should NOT be up to the western nations to clean up the mess left behind by radical Islamists?

8. Do Muslims living in the west totally accept that as a direct result of the inaction of the Islamic community, the west has no option but to protect themselves?

9. Why have Islamic communities failed to protect our religion?

10. Do the true Muslims feel ashamed and embarrassed by the 100,000's of YouTube videos and internet sites where our religious leaders are promoting absolute vile barbaric and evil doctrines in the name of Islam?

11. What are our Islamic leaders doing to protect the name of Islam from these radicals?

12. Why do the Islamic leaders fail to acknowledge these people are the ones totally damaging the name of Islam and turning the west against Islam?

13. What is the Muslim community doing about them or going to do about them and when?

14. When is Islam going to accept responsibility for the evil actions of radical Muslims acting in the name of ALLAH?

15. What does the Koran tell us Muslims about dealing with any Muslim perverting the word of the Koran? 

More so, we ask what Islamic scholars are going to do about the suras in the Koran that incite violence, call for the killing of Jews and Christians.

 

1. They ain't.  Islam was contrived for the purpose of rationalizing, justifying and perpetuating attacks because its founder derived his  wealth and income from razia, ghazwat & extortion. Refer to Islam's Mercenary Mission  for the details. Islam has not been hijacked, it is violent by design.  
2. Passive Muslims do nothing to resist believers because they are pacifists. It is the believers who are armed & dangerous. They have the will  to kill as well as the capacity.  Those pacifist Muslims who abjure jihad  got a label from Moe: hypocrites. See 4:88-89. 
3. What is your alternative?  Will you debate the fine points of fard al-kifaya with the salafists?  On what scriptural basis will you defeat them in debate? Consider what Allah said about Jihad. Consider what Moe said and did about it. How can you argue  against Allah and his Messenger?
4. Because there is nothing you can do  or will do. You are not armed and you lack the initiative to take action. You have neither the will nor the means to remove the salafists from the face of the earth. 
5. How can you condemn  salafists for using the Qur'an for its intended purpose?  The Qur'an was revealed for the purpose of incentivising and perpetuating warfare. 
6. There is no civilized community in Islam. Civilization and Islam are polar opposites.  You do not take control of Islam, it took control of you.  Are you aware of the fact that Islam's loss of dignity is a function of abandoning jihad?  Read the translator's foot note to 2:190, which defines jihad. The sad fact is confirmed in  Sunan Abu Dawud 23.3455. 
7. No, they don't agree that they should "clean up the mess" of the salafists. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution. 
8. No, they don't agree that we have no option but self-defense.  The Islamic position is that kuffar have no right to defend themselves and must submit to Islam.
9. Protect it from what / whom?  From the salafists?  Islam is all about salafism!  Did you read the Qur'an?  It tells you to obey Allah and his Messenger. What did they command you to do?  
10. No, they are not ashamed, they are proud of Islam. 
11. Spewing al-taqiyya to deceive the kuffars, telling us that Islam is "the religion of peace".
12. Because they bought into the promises of Allah, that  it will give you victory and you will dominate the world. 
13. You  will continue to obey them and honor them. 
14. On the 33^rd day of the month of Never.
15. It tells you to wage war against the hypocrites and gather them into Hell along with the kuffar. 

    In  the presence of the western media, they will deny those surahs, claiming that they do not exist.  In the Mosque, absent kuffar, they will continue to preach and teach those violent verses and exhort their congregants to join the jihad.

    The Surahs which command  aggressive conquest, particularly Al-Anfal & At-Taubah, are a permanent part of the Qur'an. They are imperatives which  can not be edited, deleted, abrogated, re-interpreted or ignored.  Allah said:   [Emphasis added.]

• 3:78. And verily, among them is a party who distort the Book with their tongues (as they read), so that you may think it is from the Book, but it is not from the Book, and they say: "This is from Allâh," but it is not from Allâh; and they speak a lie against Allâh while they know it. 
• 6:115. And the Word of your Lord has been fulfilled in truth and in justice. None can change His Words. And He is the All­Hearer, the All­Knower.
• 6:93. And who can be more unjust than he who invents a lie against Allâh, or says: "I have received inspiration," whereas he is not inspired in anything; and who says, "I will reveal the like of what Allâh has revealed." And if you could but see when the Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong­doers, etc.) are in the agonies of death, while the angels are stretching forth their hands (saying): "Deliver your souls! This day you shall be recompensed with the torment of degradation because of what you used to utter against Allâh other than the truth. And you used to reject His Ayât (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) with disrespect! " 
• 10:64. For them are glad tidings, in the life of the present world (i.e. righteous dream seen by the person himself or shown to others), and in the Hereafter. No change can there be in the Words of Allâh, this is indeed the supreme success. 
• 18:27. And recite what has been revealed to you (O Muhammad ) of the Book (the Qur'ân) of your Lord (i.e. recite it, understand and follow its teachings and act on its orders and preach it to men). None can change His Words, and none will you find as a refuge other than Him.
• 30:30. So set you (O Muhammad ) your face towards the religion of pure Islâmic Monotheism Hanifa (worship none but Allâh Alone) Allâh's Fitrah (i.e. Allâh's Islâmic Monotheism), with which He has created mankind. No change let there be in Khalq­illâk (i.e. the Religion of Allâh Islâmic Monotheism), that is the straight religion, but most of men know not. [Tafsir At­Tabarî, Vol 21, Page 41] 

    Moe said: [Emphasis added.]

•  

  Sahih Bukhari Volume 9, Book 88, Number 174:

  Narrated Sahl bin Sa'd:

  I heard the Prophet saying, "I am your predecessor at the Lake-Fount (Kauthar), and whoever will come to it, will drink from it, and whoever will drink from it, will never become thirsty after that. There will come to me some people whom I know and they know me, and then a barrier will be set up between me and them." Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri added that the Prophet further said: "I will say those people are from me. It will be said, 'You do not know what changes and new things they did after you.' Then I will say, 'Far removed (from mercy), far removed (from mercy), those who changed (the religion) after me! "

    When you deny any verse of the Qur'an, you sign your death warrant.  Reliance of the Traveller o8.7 lists twenty acts & attitudes that entail apostasy.  This is one of them:

• -7- to deny any verse of the Koran or anything which by scholarly consensus (def: b7) belongs to it, or to add a verse that does belong to it;

Item 7 is on  page  615.  Scroll up to 613 to read 08.1 & 9.2 to confirm the penalty.  

    A Muslim who has moral reservations about conquest, terrorism & genocide has no recourse but apostasy because reform is impossible.   You can't improve perfection.