Why Islam cannot be defined by your “nice Muslim friend”
“Islam cannot be bad because I have a nice Muslim friend”. Classic anecdotal fallacy! It is one of the logical reasoning errors even the brightest of minds have a tendency to fall into when Islam is discussed with the average Joe. My experience of Islam is this, therefore that must be what Islam really is.
What if you lived in Shia Iran or Northern Nigeria or Gaza or Pakistan where you are perpetually faced with the oppression and tyranny of Islam? Where you have seen savage Muslim mobs stone a person to death for blaspheming the prophet, would your view of Islam remain the same?
First things first, Islam is defined by the Quran and the Hadith. It is an ideology defined by Allah and his messenger. The Muslim’s job is to surrender (Which is what “Islam” means, contrary to the much touted “submission” we hear about) to the guidelines of what has been defined by Allah and his prophet, not to define the religion.
“It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, that they should [thereafter] have any choice about their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error.”
(Surah 33:36)
Islam is an ideology with a life of its own, one with a nature it has defined. Anyone who chooses to disagree with its tenets cannot in all honesty call himself/herself a Muslim. And these are not my words, these are the words of Allah in the Quran as reproduced above.
Islam is not up to me to define, neither is it up to your Muslim friend. And speaking of “Muslim friend”. Can a Muslim really be friends with a non-Muslim according to Allah?
“Let not the believers take disbelievers for their friends in preference to believers. Whoso doeth that hath no connection with Allah unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them, taking (as it were) security.”
(Surah 3:28)
And again,
“O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them.”
(Surah 5:51)
So the Quran teaches that a Muslim should not take a Christian, a Jew or an unbeliever as a friend. Now, note the implication of the above two verses (and there are many more of those by the way, see 4:139, 4:144, 58:22, 9:23, 9:113–114, 5:80–82).
Any one who makes friends with an unbeliever has no connection with Allah and anyone who makes Jews or Christians their friends is one of them (i.e. a Jew and a Christian). This quickly becomes sinister when you realise that Muslims are commanded to wage war against Christians, Jews and unbelievers, as commanded by Allah,
“Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture — [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.”
(Surah 9:29)
So a Muslim who has a Christian friend becomes a Christian who then falls under the receiving end of the above verse. The same Surah commands Muslims,
“O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him).”
(Surah 9:123)
The Muslim who takes an unbeliever as a friend has no connection with Allah in line with Surah 3:28, therefore the Muslims who follow the Quran would be obligated to treat such a Muslim as a disbeliever. As if this is not enough, the same Surah commands Muhammad,
“O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell…”
(Surah 9:73)
So not only are disbelievers supposed to be fought, hypocrites should be fought as well! Who are hypocrites according to the Quran? In general,
“And of the people are some who say, “We believe in Allah and the Last Day,” but they are not believers.”
(Surah 2:8)
A hypocrite is someone who says they believe in Islam but really does not.
More relevant to the context of Surah 9,
“Those who believe in Allah and the Last Day ask thee for no exemption from fighting with their goods and persons. And Allah knoweth well those who do their duty.
Only those ask thee for exemption who believe not in Allah and the Last Day, and whose hearts are in doubt, so that they are tossed in their doubts to and fro.”
(Surah 9:44–45)
A hypocrite in the direct context of Surah 9 is a person who is against Jihad that Allah has commanded.
“Do you think that you will be left [as you are] while Allah has not yet made evident those among you who strive [for His cause] and do not take other than Allah , His Messenger and the believers as intimates? And Allah is Acquainted with what you do.”
(Surah 9:16)
Remember Jihad against unbelievers is a command of Allah and of the prophet. Muhammad says he has been commanded to fight the people until they say they do not worship any but Allah,
“The Prophet (ﷺ) said: I am commanded to fight with men till they testify that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and His Apostle, face our qiblah (direction of prayer), eat what we slaughter, and pray like us. When they do that, their life and property are unlawful for us except what is due to them. They will have the same rights as the Muslims have, and have the same responsibilities as the Muslims have.”
(Sunan Abi Dawud Book 15 Hadith 165)
Now this is the entire point of this article,
In an ideal Islamic state, a real one, not the one that exists in the minds of Muslims who know nothing about their books and want to make friends with the “Kufr”. A state where Islam is strong enough to impose itself, your peaceful Muslim friend would be given two options:
Option 1: “Get with the program! We are powerful enough to wage Jihad on the Christians, Jews and disbelievers now, so get with the program and embrace Islam as well as this Jihad, even against your Kufr friends”
OR
Option 2: YOUR NICE AND PEACEFUL MUSLIM FRIEND WOULD BE EXECUTED AS AN APOSTATE FOR OPPOSING JIHAD AND BEING ONE OF THE KUFR BY ASSOCIATION (SURAH 5:51,3:28).
If you think this is far fetched, consider the very companions of Muhammad,
“Narrated Abu Huraira:
When Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) died and Abu Bakr was elected as a Caliph after him, some of the Arabs reverted to disbelief, `Umar said to Abu Bakr, “How dare you fight the people while Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said, I have been ordered to fight the people till they say ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah’ And whoever says: None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.’ waves his wealth and his life from me unless he deserves a legal punishment lusty, and his account will be with Allah! Abu Bakr said, “By Allah, I will fight him who discriminates between Zakat and prayers, for Zakat is the Compulsory right to be taken from the wealth By Allah, if they refuse to give me even a tying rope which they use to give to Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ), I would fight them for withholding it.” `Umar said, ‘By Allah, It was nothing, except I saw that Allah had opened the chest of Abu Bakr to the fight, and I came to know for certain that was the truth.”
(Sahih Bukhari Book 96 Hadith 16)
The summary of the above hadith is this, Abu Bakr (The first of the rightly guided caliphs) waged war on some Muslims who were no longer paying the Zakat (obligatory tax) the same way after the death of Muhammad. Umar confronts him on why he is fighting Muslims when Muhammad said he was only to fight until people became Muslims and afterwards fight no more. Abu Bakr’s response is that if they do not give him a piece of rope that they used to give Muhammad, he would treat them as apostates and disbelievers. Now imagine how your nice Muslim friend would be treated if he says he opposes Jihad and chooses to live peacefully with his non-Muslim friend in such a context!
Point is Islam is what it is and your Muslim friend has no say in it. When push comes to shove, your Muslim friend would be forced to either turn on you or be unalived pretty quickly as an apostate of Islam.
And this, folks, is why Islam cannot be defined by your nice Muslim friend and this is why Islam has to continually be criticised because by doing so you spread awareness about its evils and prevent it from becoming the dominant ideology and when you do so you are protecting the interests of nice, peace-loving Muslims everywhere….including your “Muslim friend” who thankfully is against Jihad.
