BLOG 58 - Islam: What The West Needs To Know # 22

[Dr. Shabbir]

REBUTTAL – 22
May 19th, 2008 by Dr. Shabbir

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-871902797772997781

Mr. Robert Spencer, JihadWatch.com: Islam from its beginnings was both a religion and a system of government. For example, the Islamic calendar doesn’t base year one from the time that Muhammad was born or the time Muhammad received his first revelation from God, which I think are both what Westerners might expect, but from the time that Muhammad became the leader of an army and head of state in Medinah. This is the beginning of the Islamic calendar because in the Islamic understanding, Islam is a political and social system as well as an individual faith.

Answer: Dear Sir, a knowledgeable gentleman like yourself surprises me with such a gross error! Most people know that the Islamic Calendar is known as AH meaning Al-Hijrah or the Migration. After suffering relentless persecution at the hands of the people of Makkah, the exalted Prophet ordered the Muslims to migrate to Madinah at the request of Madanites. He himself initiated his migration on 16 July 622. This is the date of the beginning of the Islamic calendar. It took more than one year thereafter for the exalted Prophet to establish firm brotherhood between the Immigrants and the local Helpers (Ansar), make peace treaties with numerous tribes of the City-state, and formulate the most benevolent Madinah Charter (Meethaq Madinah). The Madinah Charter is unanimously agreed upon as the first ever written Constitution of a State. Space disallows me to post the Charter here but it guaranteed freedom of speech, religion, and equal human rights to all citizens, regardless of race, color, creed or religion, worldly status, wealth or lineage. All citizens were guaranteed the basic human needs, food, clothing and shelter, peace and security.

You said, “Islam is a political and social system as well as an individual faith.” Dear Sir, if you study the Qur’an with an open mind, you will notice that human intellect cannot even think of such excellent socio-political principles as given in the Qur’an. An intelligent librarian would place the Qur’an in the Sociology section of the library, and not in the section on religion.

Herbert George Wells - Happiness of Mankind, Kent, 1938: The Islamic teachings have left great traditions for equitable and gentle dealings and behavior, and inspire people with nobility and tolerance. These are human teachings of the highest order and at the same time practicable. …. Islam is replete with gentleness, courtesy, and fraternity.

Mr. Serge Trifkovic, Foreign Affairs Editor, Chronicles Magazine: In Islam, the separation between temporal, secular, and religious power is not only impossible, it is heretical. Only in the complete blending of all aspects of human activity and all aspects of political and legal functions of the state can we have the Caliphate, the properly organized state that is pleasing to Allah.

Answer: Dear Sir, Islam being a System of Life (Deen) does see life as a whole. But how many Muslim “heretics” have you seen just because they believe in their religion as a personal matter? Probably not one!

As for Secularism, it is the antithesis of all religion, whether Islam, Judaism, Christianity or any other religion. I don’t think that you would like to confine the Golden Rule within the four walls of the Church alone. This example suffices to prove that, fortunately, the separation of the Church and State (and the individual) is practically non-existent in Christianity either. It would be a great tragedy for Christianity if all moral values were practiced within the confines of the Church.

Even more pertinently, think of the WWII when Hitler and Churchill both fought in the name of God. Where was that “Separation” then? The last Muslim Caliphate, the Ottomans, dwindled for disregarding the moral values given in the Qur’an and for no other reason.

In Islam, the only way to “please” Allah is: Serve His creation, serve humanity. [13]

Bishop Thomas Ward - The Bible: Its Source, “The Golden Rule was plagiarized from The Treatise on Morality by Confucius of the 6th century BC.”

But, of course, it’s a most beautiful moral value.
The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Mathew 7:12

And Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: “None can be a believer unless he likes for the fellow man that which he likes for himself.” [Bukhari, Muslim]

(Respectfully submitted by a life-long student)