A Critical Review of the Arguments of Muslim Fundamentalists

Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam 5 September, 2022 Main Points: 1-Quran prescribes Shura (consultation) for running a government, not a dictatorship. 2-The commandment of Jihad is given to an established and sovereign state, not to individuals. 3-Shirk(association)disbelieving and apostasy are sins, but only God can provide punishments for them, not humans. 4-It is not permissible for any Muslim government to force a person to fast, go for Hajj or Umrah, etc. ---------- The Taliban in South East Asia finest exemplifies the entire universe of fanatics. The Taliban, who claimed to be God's army in their area, successfully retook Kabul one year ago. On completing one year of their victory, they celebrated the event without any participation from ordinary Afghan people. They have murdered so many innocent people in the past 20 years that it is impossible to keep track. Prominent individuals like Maulana Hasan Jan, Mufti Sarfraz Naimi, and Dr. Mohammad Faruq Khan, all Pakistani nationals, to name a few, were among their innocent victims. Malala Yusuf Zai, the youngest Nobel laureate, was also the target of an unsuccessful murder attempt. Then what kind of Shariah is it? Under the dictates of that Sharia, do The Taliban continue to murder innocent people? Numerous ulama and Islamists from India and Pakistan, particularly those from the Deobandi sect, warmly welcomed the Taliban's occupation of Afghanistan and the establishment of their government there. Some also swore allegiance to the Taliban emir (in absentia)! No surprise there since some of these zealots wrote love letters to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, too, when he declared his notorious caliphate! The Taliban's victory was celebrated by Ulama and Islamists, and they are currently spreading the myth among their followers that because of the Taliban, Allah's mercy and grace have finally reached earth, and His blessings will now fall on the area. Shouldn't someone question these ignorant people if they have any idea what kind of blessings the Afghan people experience daily? Someone should ask the Taliban followers what Shariah dictates that women should be imprisoned in their houses. Should girls' education be outlawed? Why shouldn't non-Muslim minorities be protected? There are two types of rulings in Islamic Sharia, one of which is given to the individual and the other to the Islamic community. The first type is between God and His servant. He is responsible to his Lord and not to any government. Therefore, it is not permissible for any Muslim government to force a person to fast, to go for Hajj or Umrah, to circumcise or shorten his moustache, to grow his beard and cover her chest if she is a woman, and so on. It has no authority beyond education, guidance, and preaching in such matters.Contrasting this clear Quranic order, now see what the Taliban are doing with the poor Afghan people. The foundation of man's accountability before God on the day of judgment is his understanding, intellect, and total freedom. He has also been endowed with the characteristic of discernment, the inner awareness of what is good and what is evil. As a result, even if some acts may be considered sins and wrongdoings as association with God (shirk), disbelief, and apostasy. After all, they are offenses against Almighty Allah, and it is His sole right only to chastise those who commit these sins or pardon them. How can a man punish someone for committing one of these three offenses when the Divine has not given anyone the authority to do so on His behalf? There have been divine interventions in certain sins and offenses throughout human history. However, the sheer nature of these Divine interventions makes clear that no one after the final prophet of God (PBUH) is qualified to punish these offenses in any way. Therefore, the premise of Muslim fundamentalists that what they are doing in several Muslim and non-Muslim countries is following God's orders and doing it as His foot soldiers, is necessarily faulty and incorrect. Taliban adamantly insist on what they are doing,doing according to the Divine commandment and for the sack of God. They are justifying their stand by citing some incidents from the prophet's era and some texts from Quran and Sunnah. Here we would like to comment on some of their arguments and reasoning. 1-Jihad is unquestionably a mandate in Islam If Muslims have the means. The Quran commands his followers to engage in war against oppression and torture. It is, in fact, intended to put an end to what is known as in Arabic فتنة (religious persecution), which is robbing someone of his religion through torture and oppression. This directive is meant for a Muslim government, not the common man. 2- Individuals are not the target audience of the verses in the Quran that refer to Jihad and related issues; therefore, only a collective Muslim system may put them into practice. No one or group from them can enforce them on their own. Hadis also made an unambiguous indication of that. :A governor is God's bulwark for Muslims jihad is permitted while he is in office. الامام جنة يقاتل وراءه(رواه البخاري) Therefore, anyone who claims to be carrying out a jihad on their own is obviously disregarding this explicit Qur'anic ruling. 3-Jihad is undoubtedly commanded by Islam, but what kind of Jihad? Jihad must follow God's way. Hence it is impossible to carry it out without abiding by the moral guidelines established by Him and His prophet. Ethics are typically seen as superior to all else, and must be strictly upheld at all costs, even on the battlefield. Nobody is permitted to go beyond that point. 4-It is a strict requirement that only combatants engage in a combat. According to the Quranic law, a guy who verbally attacks Muslims will also be responded to vocally. As a result, the fatwa issued by Iranian leader Ayatullah Khomeini against Salman Rushdi, the infamous author of the Satanic Verses, is ungrounded and unreasonable. Attacking someone with the intent to kill him is improper, un-Islamic, and disgusting. Additionally, it is a declaration of defeat on the level of logic and thought on the part of Muslims. One won't be killed even if he throws his arms up in the middle of a fight; instead, he will merely be held captive. The holy Quran has, in this regard, the following words: "Fight in God's path those who fight you, but don't commit aggression. God doesn't like the aggressors. (The Cow:190) Javed Ahmad Ghamdi sums up their flawed argumentation very aptly in the following: "Some argue that democracy depicts a foreign intruder into Islam. And that the ideal way to establish the government from the Islamic point of view is the one chosen by the "Taliban" organization in establishing the government of Mullah Omar (in their first reign) in Afghanistan. Accordingly, the constitution, Parliament, and elections are all un-Islamic inventions of the modern era, and Islam does not restrict its implementation to any of them. The interpretation of Islam that has been done in the Hanafi jurisprudence is inevitable for us. The jurists have arranged their decisions related to individual and collective life in the Fiqh corpus, which is available for us. And they are compiled according to four sources, the Qur'an, the Sunnah, the Consensus, and the Qiyas(analogy). So, these fatwas and decries must be implemented. This does not require acceptance by Parliament. The simplistic approach to this is that the Ulama must control all state administrations, for they are the ones who are experts at Islamic law. Fundamentalists say that the history of the past twelve centuries bears witness to this method. And the same course of action was taken everywhere after Imam Abu Yusuf was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Abbasid Sultanate, and this system only ended with Western colonialism. Since Muslims are free now, this course of action must be restored once again to run the state's affairs according to Sharia anew. Based on my understanding of Islam, I (Ghamdi)can say that the Qur'an does not accept this theory. The method for managing the affairs of the state that the Qur'an has chosen is a democracy, as the Qur'an says: "and their command is consultation among themselves," and HazratUmer, may God be pleased with him, clarified it by his saying: "Whoever pledges allegiance to someone without the advice of Muslims exposes himself to death." Yes, we find in our long history the two ways of despotic kingship and tyrannical dictatorship too (yet it was a deviation, not a permissible rule). Some groups and parties say that the imam should be appointed by God, but the Qur'an has settled the matter in this by setting the direction of Shura (consultation) to manage political affairs." ( Maqamat, Urdu: P240, translation with some in bracketbrief notes is mine) Even if they are out of date, most religious fanatics want the world to adopt their way of thinking and dictate. They pathetically fail to comprehend that there is always a common psyche trending around the world. According to the current political trend, women must be granted absolute rights. Each and every citizen of the nation has equal rights. There is an agreement between the East and the West on these parameters. If you defy or reject this consensus, you won't make it. No nation or community can exist in isolation from other nations and countries in the modern, globalized world. Because of this, no country in the world is prepared to acknowledge the Taliban, not even Pakistan, which serves as their main backer. Recently, a high-level delegation of notable ulama from Pakistan visited Kabul on behalf of the Pakistani government. They met with TTP and Taliban leaders, but their meetings were unsuccessful. The two sides could not persuade one another, and after two days, the group left without attaining their intended objectives. This demonstrates the Taliban's and their cohorts' level of obstinacy. And their impending failure rests on it. *Research Associate with the Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India, AMU Aligarh. URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/arguments-muslim-fundamentalists-quran/d/127879 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism