Watered-down religion?
This book review continues...
WALLACE TOM Jr. (2015) Refuting Islam, The Christian Patriots Guide to Exposing the Evils of Islam, Bellingham, Fundamental Publishers.
Chapter 9: An ideology of violent conquests
Mr. Wallace opines that Islam is more so an ideology than it is a religion.(71). He reasons that Islam is a man-made worldview that presents itself as a religion. (71).
As I noted in a previous entry of review:
Mr. Wallace reasons that the best English source for learning about Islam is not the Qu'ran, nor it is the Sunnah. (58). The author suggests a classic text on Islamic law titled Reliance of the Traveller (ROT). (58) This text, according to Mr. Wallace will state an Islamic law, provide an interpretation, and then provide a source (s) from the Qu'ran and/or the Sunnah. (58).
From ROT O9.0: Mr. Wallace provides a definition of Jihad which defines it as war against non-Muslims.(71). The word is etymologically derived from the word mujahada which means signifying warfare to establish religion. (71). This is considered the lesser Jihad, as the greater Jihad is the war against self. (71).
Cited from (RoT) (Not from the Wallace text):
09.0 JIHAD (0: Jihad means to war against non-Muslims, and is etymologically derived from the word mujahada, signifying warfare to establish the religion. And it is the lesser jihad. As for the greater jihad, it is spiritual warfare against the lower self (nafs), which is why the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said as he was returning from jihad, "We have returned from the lesser jihad to the greater jihad."
The scriptural basis for jihad, prior to scholarly consensus (def: b7) is such Koranic verses as:
(1) "Fighting is prescribed for you" (Koran 2:216);
(2) "Slay them wherever you find them" (Koran 4:89);
(3) "Fight the idolators utterly" (Koran 9:36);
and such hadiths as the one related by Bukhari and Muslim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said:
"I have been commanded to fight people until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and perform the prayer, and pay zakat. If they say it, they have saved their blood and possessions from me, except for the rights of Islam over them. And their final reckoning is with Allah";
and the hadith reported by Muslim, "To go forth in the morning or evening to fight in the path of Allah is better than the whole world and everything in it." Details concerning jihad are found in the accounts of the military expeditions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), including his own martial forays and those on which he dispatched others. The former consist of
0.9.1
the ones he personally attended, some twentyseven (others say twenty-nine) of them. He fought in eight of them, and killed only one person with his noble hand, Ubayy ibn Khalaf, at the battle of UhuJ. On the latter expeditions he sent others to fight. himself remaining at Medina, and these were forty-seven in number.) (599-600).
End citation
Reliance of the Traveller, (1991) Amana Publications, Beltsville, Maryland. The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law 'Umdat al-Salik by Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri (d. 769/1368) in Arabic with Facing English Text, Commentary, and Appendices Edited and Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller.
Mr. Wallace reasons that Islamic instructions in regard to Jihad is consistent with the Qur'an and with the teachings of Muhammad (Sunnah). (73). The law in regard to Jihad would still be applicable for modern-day Muslims within Islam. (73).
Based on Islamic scriptural evidence, it could be reasoned that modern liberalized Islamic scholars and teachers have softened the original meaning of Jihad (and other doctrines as well) to make it more palatable in Western and non-Islamic contexts.
Mr. Wallace writes that Islamic texts expose this worldview as militant ideology. (76). I reason that this is true. The more peaceful face of Islam that is usually presented in modern non-Islamic cultures, and in the Western world, is that of a watered-down version in order to be more acceptable within non-Islamic societies.
To be clear, I am not reasoning, based on Mr. Wallace texts and the Qu'ran, Sunnah and ROT, that most people in Islam, or even most leaders and scholars in Islam, are intentionally dishonest, secretly holding to more conservative views on Jihad with some type of sinister intent. Rather, I reason that many modern Muslims hold to a more liberal version of Islam, a less literally interpreted, version of Islam, than was originally intended by the writers of Islamic scripture.
There is a similarity in how in some cases, modern Christianity is watered-down from the more literal contextual Scriptural version (degrees of literalness). But that is another subject and this entry is long enough and I have other work to do...
