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[W:146]**The Qur'an in chronological order.

I forgot to include the following after surah 9:


In his tafsir of surah 9, Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi (9. Surah At Taubah (The Repentance) - Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi - Tafhim al-Qur'an - The Meaning of the Qur'an), summarizes "the problems that were confronting the [Islamic] Community at that time" thus:

- to make the whole of Arabia a perfect Dar-ul-Islam [abode of Islam],
- to extend the influence of Islam to the adjoining countries,
- to crush the mischiefs of the hypocrites, and
- to prepare the Muslims for Jihad against the non- Muslim world.

In order to prepare the Muslims for Jihad against the whole non-Muslim world, it was necessary to cure them even of that slight weakness of faith from which they were still suffering. For there could be no greater internal danger to the Islamic Community than the weakness of faith, especially where it was going to engage itself single-handed in a' conflict with the whole non-Muslim world. That is why those people who had lagged behind in the Campaign to Tabuk or had shown the least negligence were severely taken to task, and were considered hypocrites if they had no plausible excuse for not fulfilling that obligation. Moreover, a clear declaration was made that in future the sole criterion of a Muslim's faith shall be the exertions he makes for the uplift of the Word of Allah and the role he plays in the conflict between Islam and kufr. Therefore, if anyone will show any hesitation in sacrificing his life, money, time and energies, his faith shall not be regarded as genuine.
 
I should have added this paragraph from the above tafsir:

In order to enable the Muslims to extend the influence of Islam outside Arabia, they were enjoined to crush with sword the non- Muslim powers and to force them to accept the sovereignty of the Islamic State. As the great Roman and Iranian Empires were the biggest hindrances in the way, a conflict with them was inevitable. The object of*Jihad*was not to coerce them to accept Islam they were free to accept or not to accept it-but to prevent them from thrusting forcibly their deviations [non-Islamic religions] upon others and the coming generations. The Muslims were enjoined to tolerate their misguidance only to the extent that they might have the freedom to remain misguided, if they chose to be so, provided that they paid Jizyah (v. 29) as a sign of their subjugation to the Islamic State.
 
As with the Meccan surahs, I believe of essence of those from the Medina period can be defined by one verse (9:111), "Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their properties; for the price that theirs shall be the Paradise. They fight in Allah's Cause, so they kill and are killed".

When read chronologically, the transformation the Qur'an undergoes is as stunning as it is obvious. It progresses from endless warnings of God's wrath in the first 12 years in Mecca to calls for conquest and the spread of Islamic hegemony in the last 10 years. All of the rules that set Islam apart from other religions were created in Medina, and not just those that demand jihad. Also defined are all laws concerning civil affairs and daily life. In order to understand Islam, the Meccan surahs do not have to be read at all, as there is enough repetition from Medina to cover the message of the first 86 surahs (with the exception of verse 17:1, which as stated earlier, led to the claim on Jerusalem as the third holiest site in Islam).

There are two aspects of the Qur'an that I found odd, and in my opinion, more characteristic of the way in which a mere mortal would try to convey a point than would a god. First is the amount of repetition employed. The Qur'an could easily be condensed into fewer than five hundred verses by simply telling a story or stating a fact once. Second, is liberal use of the rhetorical question as a vehicle for instruction. It creates in my mind not an image of a god making proclamations from on high, but of a man trying to explain something to another man, much as Mohamed must have been forced to do when, for example, the Battle of Uhud did not go as expected.

One Islamic tenet that never varied in 22 1/2 years, regardless of compilation order or whether a verse was from Mecca or Medina, is that Islam labels every person as being either a believer or an unbeliever, and therefore as good or bad, Heaven-bound or Hell-bound. It does not recognize a none-of-the-above category. By every definition in the Qur'an, a person who does not accept it as God's final message is not merely misguided, but evil, and richly deserving of being tortured for eternity.

In conclusion, my opinion is that the essence of Islam as defined by the Qur'an can be encapsulated in one short sentence from verse 2:98, "Allah is the enemy of unbelievers".



Barring any additions or rewrites, that's all, folks.
 
As with the Meccan surahs, I believe of essence of those from the Medina period can be defined by one verse (9:111), "Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their properties; for the price that theirs shall be the Paradise. They fight in Allah's Cause, so they kill and are killed".

When read chronologically, the transformation the Qur'an undergoes is as stunning as it is obvious. It progresses from endless warnings of God's wrath in the first 12 years in Mecca to calls for conquest and the spread of Islamic hegemony in the last 10 years. All of the rules that set Islam apart from other religions were created in Medina, and not just those that demand jihad. Also defined are all laws concerning civil affairs and daily life. In order to understand Islam, the Meccan surahs do not have to be read at all, as there is enough repetition from Medina to cover the message of the first 86 surahs (with the exception of verse 17:1, which as stated earlier, led to the claim on Jerusalem as the third holiest site in Islam).

There are two aspects of the Qur'an that I found odd, and in my opinion, more characteristic of the way in which a mere mortal would try to convey a point than would a god. First is the amount of repetition employed. The Qur'an could easily be condensed into fewer than five hundred verses by simply telling a story or stating a fact once. Second, is liberal use of the rhetorical question as a vehicle for instruction. It creates in my mind not an image of a god making proclamations from on high, but of a man trying to explain something to another man, much as Mohamed must have been forced to do when, for example, the Battle of Uhud did not go as expected.

One Islamic tenet that never varied in 22 1/2 years, regardless of compilation order or whether a verse was from Mecca or Medina, is that Islam labels every person as being either a believer or an unbeliever, and therefore as good or bad, Heaven-bound or Hell-bound. It does not recognize a none-of-the-above category. By every definition in the Qur'an, a person who does not accept it as God's final message is not merely misguided, but evil, and richly deserving of being tortured for eternity.

In conclusion, my opinion is that the essence of Islam as defined by the Qur'an can be encapsulated in one short sentence from verse 2:98, "Allah is the enemy of unbelievers".



Barring any additions or rewrites, that's all, folks.

Christians are urged to kill unbelievers
 
Christians are urged to kill unbelievers

What scripture would that be? And don't bother quoting from the Hebrew Scriptures, which was written to/for/about the Israelite nation, not Christians...
 
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