Radi (Radical): As-Salaamu ‘alaykum, Modi. (Peace be with you)
Modi (Moderate): Wa alaykum as-salaam, Radi. (And with you, peace.)
Radi: We have had a few arguments last year.
Modi: Of course, Radi. We look at things differently. You are strict about each word of the Qur’an, and I am not. It is good, very good if you knew the Qur’an, Radi, but you seem to know selected ayats (verses) only. You use those selected ayats to threaten any person, group, or nation that does not completely agree with you.
Radi: That is where you are wrong, Modi. Everyone in my family has learned to recite the Qur’an.
Mani (Mainstream): Sabaah al-khayr, everyone (Good Morning).
Radi and Modi: Marhaban, Mani. (Hello)
Mani: I know that Radi and his family are reciters, Modi.
Modi: That is fine; however, reciting and understanding are two different things, and they are worlds apart. Take for instance all those great kids you see in the news videos of the Pakistani madrassas. Do you think for one moment the poor students in those know what they are saying?
Radi: Why wouldn’t they?
Modi: For one thing, it is not their language! They are reading Arabic, but their own language is either Pashtu, Urdu, or another of the many languages spoken there. Did you know that the national language of Pakistan is English?
Radi: What? You are kidding! I thought they spoke Arabic.
Modi: Very few speak Arabic as a native language, but many can recite the 114 suras (chapters) of the Qur’an in Arabic. Now one can truly understand what a tasking those children have, memorizing 114 chapters of the Qur’an in a language they do not know.
Mani: Modi, I am astounded. Is that not a terrible waste of time if they truly do not know what they are saying?
Modi: I can understand that many lessons about other important subjects could be taught in that period—including the Qur’an and the Hadiths.
Radi: I would like to teach the Qur’an to young minds.
Modi: Radi, you do not know the Qur’an; you would teach only those warlike phrases you like to amplify and strut around like a veteran warrior, waving an imaginary sword at an imaginary enemy. The West laughs at people like that, but many of our people are not educated enough to know one should not take them seriously.
Mani: I have studied the Qur’an extensively, and I do not find fault with what Radi says. He has always quoted it correctly.
Modi: I can attest to his quoting it correctly. That is not the point. I will give you an example: he is always yelling, “Kill them wherever you find them.” He uses that phrase to justify killing Westerners and anyone who does not agree with him.
Radi: Well, that is the way it is.
Modi: Not quite. The first use of that term was in the Qur’an 2:191, which was preceded by 2:190: “And Fight in God’s cause against those who wage war against you, but do not commit aggression—for verily God does not love aggressors.” The ayat 2:191 continues, “And slay them wherever you may come upon them, and drive them away from wherever they drove you away—for oppression is worse than killing.[1] And fight not against them near the Inviolable House of Worship (Mecca), unless they fight against you there first; but if they fight against you, slay them: such shall be the recompense of those who deny the truth (Meccans).
Surah 9:5 uses the terms also; however, it is the same usage as 2:191.[2]
Mani: Did you forget Qur’an 4:89, Modi?
Modi: I was saving it for last. It does not differ very much from the others, except that it was much clearer that the infidels were the Meccans.[3] In fact, one of the conditions that allowed the believers to take Meccans for their allies again was “if they forsake the domain of evil.” That meant if the Meccans followed the Hajira and left Mecca for Medina.
Radi: Mani, I think Modi is making that up.
Mani: Well, Radi, it is easy enough to check. Go look in your Qur’an.
Radi: Perhaps later; I would have to go through my ablutions, just as I do for prayer, to open al-Kitab. Perhaps I will do so after Noon Prayer.
Mani: I cannot believe Radi. He will not look up your answers because he does not want to go through the motions to open the Qur’an.
Modi: I can understand. Too bad we are not allowed to have “working copies.”
Mani: I do not completely understand the difference between us about the Qur’an. You are always so levelheaded, but Radi and I seem to agree on one aspect and you do not.
Modi: I will try to make it simple. If the Qur’an talks about killing people wherever you find them and then identifies the fact that killing them means in a de facto war only—not one in which your imagination makes you THINK someone is oppressing you—and they are truly the aggressors, like Saddam Hussein against Kuwait, then you can fight. But the fight has to be God’s war, in which the aggressor is trying to kill all of the Muslims, for example. It does not include a war in which a coalition is trying to help a Muslim country recover from a past tyrant and is now fighting against insurgents.
You also must understand that, as Muhammad Asad
points out, the “them” in “kill THEM wherever you find THEM” has been
unarguably pointed out as Meccans and no one else. While you can extend
the idea of the defensive war beyond the confines of the seventh century,
according to Asad, it would be a lie to extend the seventh-century “infidels” or
“polytheists” or “hypocrites”, etc., beyond that period.
Mani: I think I understand now. Radi is saying that when the Qur’an says “kill them” it means if you see an American tourist walking down the street in Cairo, minding his own business, you can walk right up to him and slit his throat.
Radi: Yep! The Qur’an spells it out that way: “wherever you find them.”
Mani: But you say, Modi, that the Qur’an is talking about only the seventh-century enemies in those particular ayats.
Modi: That is right. Do you think for one minute that Allah, the merciful and forgiving God, wants us running around with swords, killing everyone?
Radi: Yep! That is what he wants! Isn’t that right, Mani?
Mani: I do not know. I will have to think about it and ask an imam.
Modi: If you were to be in a position where you had to make that decision in a second because things are happening, Mani, what would you decide? Remember, you have one second only.
Mani: It depends. If Radi is right beside me and he starts hacking away at non-Muslims, I would have to join him, I guess. I have never heard an imam say what you have said to me. I am not sure you are right.
Modi: You can take only one road or the other, Mani. We have come to a fork in the road, and you can take the road to war and bloodshed with Radi or you can take the road to peace with me. You must go one way or the other . Which road do you take?
Mani: I do not know. I like you both.
Modi: It is not about friends, it is about killing non-Muslims or leaving them alone. Which road will you take?
Mani: I just do not know. Now leave me alone.
Modi: Sometimes, Mani, you are more dangerous than Radi. We know what he will do if we turn our back on him. He is committed; you are not. You will have to choose sooner or later.
HJS
[1] Muhammad Asad’s notes on page 51 of his Qur'an, Message of the Qur’an, assures us that the injunction “slay them wherever you come upon them” is valid only in the context of hostilities already in progress, on the understanding that “those who wage war against you” are aggressors or oppressors. Asad hints that it must be a war in God’s cause, not necessarily a war against another Muslim state, or against a Western power assisting a Muslim state.
[2] Ibid, page 289, notes 6-9. “Forsaking the Domain of Evil” meant leaving Mecca for Medina.
[3] Ibid, page 139, notes 108 and 109
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