We carry on discussing the specific verses in the Holy Quran which command that hands should be ‘cut off’ for specific crimes.
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Cut Off Their Hands – Part One
In the video above, we look at verses 5:33 and 5:38 where the Holy Quran commands that hands should be cut for certain crimes. But the translations of these verses always state “cut off”, instead of just cut.
With this in mind we consider alternative interpretations of the meanings of the Arabic words used in these verses.
Muslim women shocked to learn that their Islam allows wife beating
The Sunni interpretation allows for disobedient wives to be beaten, but how many Sunni women know this?
There could not possibly be any moral ambiguity on the issue of wife beating. Not in this day and age, I reassured myself. After all, Islam had not invented misogyny. Other faith traditions have had to address scriptures and religious laws that have been less than generous to women, I reasoned. Surely, a little time surfing the Internet for perspective and information would help me put the issue to rest before a reasonable bedtime. Late into the night, I continued staring at my computer screen, gripped by my worst fears, enraged by the vile reasoning and the injustice and cruelty that were masquerading as Islam.
I watched an animated cleric revel in the delivery of his sermon, fervently parsing one of the Quran’s most controversial verses: “We must know that wife beating is a punishment in Islamic law. No one should deny this because it was permitted by the creator of man,” he defiantly warned.
As hard as I prayed, I knew I had not stumbled on a lone preacher being aired on some radical network. He was not the only Muslim on the Internet preaching this position. I quickly learned that the troublesome verse has Muslims divided into three different categories of approach in interpretation. This first approach, embraced by the literalists and Wahhabis, is the one that had kept me up horrified late into the night.
The above quote from Ranya Tabari, and taken from ‘womensenews.org’, is a perfect example to show why Muslims should join the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement!
The question of wife beating has reared its ugly head again! Even Muslim women in the West, in the above case the US, are appalled when they discover that according to the traditional Sunni teaching, the Holy Quran allows husbands to beat their wives for disobedience.
This is worrying for two reasons. First, because it shows how little Muslims know of the teaching of Holy Quran and second because such teaching will drive them away. This is why reform of the understanding of the Holy Quran is needed and why the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement was created by Hazrat Mirza Ghulam, the Promised Messiah.
So what is the true meaning of this so called controversial verse? We have the answer right here.
Ask the VM: Muslims to force others to join their religion?
Saeed emails us asking;
Why does the Quran tell Muslims to force others to join their religion?
A whole chapter of the Holy Quran is devoted to this topic even its name is Al Kafiroon or The Disbelievers. It is a short chapter. It simply asks the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s) to say to the Disbelievers that he will not follow their faith and they will not follow his faith. The question then arises about what should be done. The Holy Quran says that for you i.e. Muslims is their faith and for them i.e. the Disbelievers is theirs and it is on the Day of Judgement that Allah will decided who was right and who was wrong. In the light of these instructions how can anyone say that the Holy Quran teaches Muslims to force others to embrace Islam. In another place the Holy Quran tells the Holy Prophet Muhammad (s) that his only duty is to deliver the message after that it is up to people whether believe it or not.
We can also use the story of creation where Satan refused to obey Allah and bow to Adam. What did Allah do? Did he force Satan to bow to Adam? No, he did not. Further, Allah gave Adam intellect and told him to decide for himself whether he wants to obey Allah or to obey Satan. It is meaningless to give Adam the right to choose and then to say that Muslims must force others to follow the right path. Why allow people to choose in the first place!
History also belies this. Muslims were in Spain for hundreds of years and all communities, Christians, Jews etc lived under their rule happily. Muslims ruled Indian for hundreds of years and yet it still had a majority of Hindus. Interesting, in the case of Spain, it was one sect of Christians persecuting another which led to the Muslim invasion at the request of the persecuted minority.
And of course the Holy Quran says: There is no compulsion in religion.