Islam: Religion of Peace Responding to the criticism of an - TopicsExpress



          

Islam: Religion of Peace Responding to the criticism of an ingrate regarding the violent aspect of jihad and his sarcastic statement that Islam is “the religion of peace”, the following is a basic explanation of the purely linguistic meaning of islām. To proceed: al-Khalil (d. 170) said: Salm is the opposite of ḥarb [war] and it’s said: salm andsilm are the same. [ al-Khalil, al-ʿAyn (7/266)] So silm means “peace”, as it is the opposite of “war”; butislām does not necessarily mean silm. Just because something comes from a root does not necessitate it shares the same meaning as that root (if it did, there would be no added benefit to using that word instead of the root itself). Islām is in the causal form (sometimes numbered the fourth form) of the root. It would mean that islām is to cause silm, i.e. to make peace. However, before the apologetic Muslims stand up and cheer me for my support of their pacifistic stance on Islam, there is more: Every word in this causal form of the root requires both an actor and that upon which it’s acted, i.e. a subject and an object. Obviously, we know that the Muslim is the actor/subject, so what is the object? Is it everyone, i.e. to make peace with everyone? Is it the kafir, i.e. to make peace with the kuffar? Allah said (using an ultra-literal translation in brackets): إِذْ قَالَ لَهُ رَبُّهُ أَسْلِمْ قَالَ أَسْلَمْتُ لِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ {When his master said to him, “[do islām]!” He said, “I have [done islām] to the master of the worlds.”} (2) This shows to whom one performs islām: Allah. That is, according to this religion, the one being acted upon, i.e. the object of islām, is Allah, the master of the worlds. So this is to say that one makes peace with Allah. This is the opposite of those who are at war with Allah, i.e. the kuffar. Another word that is derived from silm is istislām, which comes from the Arabic form that means “to seek or request”, so istislām linguistically means to seek or request peace (as opposed to war). This is translated and understood as “to surrender”. Since the person who surrenders is actually making peace with the one to whom he surrenders, one can say that islām andistislām share the same meaning. This is found in the Qurʾan itself. Allah said (again, using an ultra-literal translation in brackets): قُل لِّلْمُخَلَّفِينَ مِنَ الْأَعْرَابِ سَتُدْعَوْنَ إِلَىٰ قَوْمٍ أُولِي بَأْسٍ شَدِيدٍ تُقَاتِلُونَهُمْ أَوْ يُسْلِمُون ... {Say to the remnants of the nomadic Arabs, “You shall be invited to a people possessing severe might. You will fight them or they will [do islām(3) #His saying {they will [do islām in this context means “they will surrender”, since such is the negation of fighting. This is why people say that islām means “to surrender”. #alKhalil said: Islām is istislām [surrendering] to the authority of Allah and such is the execution of obedience to Him and the acceptance of His command. [al-Nisa:125] وَمَنْ أَحْسَنُ دِينًا مِّمَّنْ أَسْلَمَ وَجْهَهُ لِلَّهِ وَهُوَ مُحْسِنٌ وَاتَّبَعَ مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا وَاتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ خَلِيلًا {And who is better in religion than one who [did islām, surrendered] his whole self to Allah while doing good and followed the sect of Ibrahim; and Allah took Ibrahim as an intimate friend.} [al-Khalil, al-ʿAyn (7/266).] _
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 04:32:44 +0000

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