Koran - The Book lost in translation?
Nithin.S
Apropos to the editorial “Islam's enemy within” [Poineer,April-15] the author portrays a picture, that the root cause of Islamic terrorism lies in misinterpretation of the Islamic doctrines by the priesthood. The author while commenting that the present teaching of Islamic priesthood writes-“ most of which reflect nothing beyond prejudice, superstition and a range of values derived from the local culture, and that have little to do with the teachings of the Prophet.”
I would like to bring few facts into notice. Biographers of Muhammad have listed as many as eighty-two expeditions which he mounted against various tribes of Arabia and the neighboring lands, in a brief span of ten years between his migration to Medina in 622 CE and his death in 632 CE1.
Sita Ram Goel, renowned Historian after making an analysis of the life of Prophet Mohamud and his wars concludes that- “In fact, prophets other than Muhammad had arisen in Arabia itself, before, alongside and after Muhammad. But all of them had failed because they did not raise armies and assemble arsenals. Muhammad succeeded because he equipped his mission with a mailed fist. It may be noted that while he had only 301 ill-equipped warriors with him in the Battle of Badr (622 CE), he had 10,000 well-equipped men when he marched into Mecca eight years later (630 CE) and 30,000 when he planned an invasion of Palestine on the eve of his death (632 CE).2”
The Quran does not permit the existence or continuance of other faiths and their religious practices. Of the 6236 ayats in the Quran about 3,900 fall into two categories - those relating to Muslims who for their faith will be rewarded and those relating to Kafirs or nonbelievers who are to be punished.3
Nirad Chaudhury has pointed out, the division of Islam into two variants - the one Fundamentalist and the other Liberal - is the result of “either ignorance or repulsive hypocrisy”. Suhas Majumdar has concluded Jihad in these words- “To put the whole matter in a nutshell: the Koran as the word of Allah supplies the injunction; the Hadis in the language of the Prophet confirms it; and the Sunnah gives a practical demonstration of the same and thereby acts as an exemplar to future performers of the hallowed exercise called jihăd.4”
1 http://www.voi.org/books/tcqp/chi3.htm
2 http://www.voi.org/books/tcqp/chi4.htm
3 http://www.voi.org/books/tpmsi/ch01.htm
4 http://voiceofdharma.org/books/jihad/