From: Christopher Whipple (crw@well.com)
Date: Mon Oct 14 2002 - 12:53:58 MDT
Being sick and out of work today, I had time to dig around in the Koran
myself...
FutureQ's posts on Islam got me thinking back to the last time I'd
actually read the Koran - which was back in college when I had to
translate certain chapters for my Arabic class. The chapters I did
translate seemed rather peaceful and focused on the goodness of Allah.
Going back to a translated copy of the book (N.J. Dagwood, 1955) I dug
up some relevant passages.
From: The Slanderer
Traditional Chapter: 104
"Woe to all back-biting slanderers who amass riches and sedulously
hoard them, thinking that their treasures will render them immortal."
(maybe i've been paying too close attention to eldred v. ashcroft, but
i immediately wondered when a war would be raged against the riaa and
mpaa... talk about cultural bias... :)
From: Ornaments of Gold
Traditional Chapter: 43
"Each apostle said: 'What if I bring you a religion more enlightened
than your fathers'?' But they replied: 'We deny the message with which
you have been sent.' So we took vengeance on them. Consider the fate
of those who disbelieved Our warning."
From: The Forgiving One
Traditional Chapter: 40
"Those that do evil shall be rewarded with evil; but those that have
faith and do good works, both men and women, shall enter the gardens of
Paradise and receive blessings without number."
(of course, evil is subjective - but it's interesting to see men and
women receiving equal treatment, no?)
From: The Creator
Traditional Chapter: 35
"But those that plot evil shall be sternly punished; He will bring
their plots to nothing."
From: The Creator
Traditional Chapter: 35
"As for the unbelievers, the fire of Hell awaits them. Death shall not
deliver them, nor shall its torment be ever lightened for them. Thus
shall the thankless be rewarded."
(the last two were rather vague - not in intents, but in methods. If
Death shall not deliver, what's the point of killing? Of course, it's
all in the interpretation)
From: Al-Furqan
Traditional Chapter: 25
"Never have We destroyed a nation whom We did not warn and admonish
beforehand. We are never unjust."
From: Exile
Traditional Chapter: 59
"Allah does not forbid you to be kind and equitable to those who have
neither made war on your religion nor driven you from your homes.
Allah loves the equitable. But He forbids you to make friends with
those who have fought against you on account of your religion and
driven you from your homes or abetted others to do so."
...and on that note I think I'll stop.
These quotes were found from previously underlined passages and margin
notes. The point being, I don't believe there's a quote in the Koran
that states "find non-believers and kill them" - but like any set of
written rules, it's all in the interpretation and implementation.
-crw.
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