Hot Air » Blog Archive » Blogging the Qur’an: Sura 2, “The Cow,” verses 141-210

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Blogging the Qur’an: Sura 2, “The Cow,” verses 141-210

What constitutes a defensive conflict? A clue to that comes in v. 193: “And
fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah.” Ibn Ishaq
explains that this means that Muslims must fight against unbelievers “until God
alone is worshipped.” Says Bulandshahri: “The worst of sins are Infidelity
(Kufr) and Polytheism (shirk) which constitute rebellion against Allah, The
Creator. To eradicate these, Muslims are required to wage war until there exists
none of it in the world, and the only religion is that of Allah.” This conflict
would be essentially defensive, against the aggressions of unbelief: if Muslims
must fight until unbelief does not exist, the mere presence of unbelief
constitutes sufficient aggression to allow for the beginning of hostilities.
This is one of the foundations for the supremacist notion that Muslims must wage
war against unbelievers until those unbelievers are either converted to Islam or
subjugated under the rule of Islamic law, as 9:29 states explicitly. As the
Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, puts it: “I have been commanded to fight against
people, till they testify to the fact that there is no god but Allah, and
believe in me (that) I am the messenger (from the Lord) and in all that I have
brought. And when they do it, their blood and riches are guaranteed protection
on my behalf except where it is justified by law, and their affairs rest with
Allah.” Thus one may reasonably assume that if one does not accept him as a
prophet, one’s blood and riches are not safe from those who read these words as
the words of a messenger from the one true God.