5. Life & Love
1. Marriage oaths can be considered unintentional and unbinding.
Surah 2:225 - Allah will not call you to account for that which
is unintentional in your oaths. But He will call you to account for that
which is intended in your hearts.
Surah 2:236 - It shall be no offence for you to divorce your
wives before the marriage is consummated or the dowry settled.
Surah 33:49 - If you marry believing women and divorce them before
you have touched them, then there is no period that you should reckon.
But content them and release them handsomely.
2. In contrast to point #1, every oath is a covenant before God and
should be faithfully observed.
Surah 16:91 - Fulfill the covenant of Allah when you have entered
into it, and do not break your oaths after you have confirmed them, and
after you have made Allah surety over you.
3. Men are considered above women.
Surah 2:228 - And (women) have rights similar to those of (men),
in kindness; and men are a degree above them.
4. Islam appears to value sons more than daughters.
Surah 71:10,12 - Ask forgiveness from your Lord: for He is Oft-Forgiving…
And will help you with wealth and sons, and will bestow on you Gardens
and bestow on you rivers.
The Qur'an makes no such reference to daughters.
5. Rules for multiple divorces, marriages, and reconciliations.
Surah 2:230 - If a man divorce his wife (for the third time),
then she is not lawful to him until she has married another man. If (the
latter) divorce her, in which case it is no sin for either of them to return
to the other.
6. The Qur'an threatens wives with replacement.
Surah 66:5 - It may happen that his Lord, if he divorces you,
will give him in your place better wives than yourselves, submissive to
Allah and full of faith, devout, penitent, obedient, and given to fasting;
both formerly married and virgins.
This contrasts with Jesus' proclamation that divorce is unjustified
except in adultery (Matthew 5:32). Here the Qur'an justifies, and encourages,
a number of reasons for divorce.
7. Islam encourages polygamy with women including slaves.
Surah 4:3 - …marry women of your choice, two or three or four,
but if you fear that you cannot deal justly (with so many), then one only,
or (the captives) that your right hand possess.
8. Punishment for adultery.
Surah 4:15 - As for those of your women who are guilty of adultery
(or fornication), call to witness four of you against them. And if they
testify (to their guilt) then confine them to the houses until death takes
them or till Allah finds another way for them.
Surah 24:2 - The adulteress and the adulterer, flog each of them
a hundred stripes, and let not any pity (mercy) for them withhold you from
supporting Allah's religion… And let a party of believers witness their
punishment.
Surah 24:3 - The adulterer shall not marry save an adulteress
or an idolatress. And as for the adulteress, none shall marry her except
an adulterer or an idolater.
[A note following 24:2 states that this punishment "is only applied
to the unmarried man or woman". In the case of married men and women,
they are to be stoned. An additional note states that punishment for the
married adulteress is stoning to death.]
9. Men may marry or have relations with slaves, even those who are
married.
Surah 4:25 - And if any of you is not able to afford to marry
from the free, believing women, let them marry from the believing women
whom your right hands possess.
Surah 4:24 - And all married women (are forbidden to you) except
those your right hands possess.
10. Is slavery and consenting slave prostitution tolerated?
Surah 24:33 - And force not your female slaves into prostitution,
in order to acquire the goods of this worldly life, if they wish to preserve
their chastity; yet if anyone force them, surely Allah will be merciful
to them…
[A note following 24:33 states that the "law of slavery, in the legal
sense of the term, is now obsolete."]
This leaves an opening for the slavery that is still practiced in many
Muslim countries but ignored by public officials since it is a mainstay
of the culture and the economic well-being of the slaveowners. The verse
also seems to imply that if a slave chooses not to preserve her chastity,
prostitution may also be "unofficially" condoned.
11. Men are allowed to beat women, but not severely.
Surah 4:34 - As for those [women] from whom you fear disloyalty,
admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and beat them (lightly, without
visible injury).
12. Variations on "an eye for an eye" and "turn the other cheek".
Surah 5:38 - As for the thief, both male and female, cut off
their hands.
Surah 22:60 - Whoever punishes with the like of that with which
he was punished, and then is (again) oppressed, Allah will indeed succour
him.
[A note after 5:38 states that "death itself is often seen as preferable
to the psychological tortures which prisons inflict", and that liberalism
prefers a punishment that leaves no physical marks and draws no blood.
A note following 22:60 says Muslims should "bear injuries with patience
and return good for evil" but when in a state of conflict or when our
"human
feelings get the better of our wise resolutions", it is permissible
to inflict equal injury.]
13. The regular tithe of Muslims is slightly more than that of Christians.
Surah 9:58 - There are some among them who find fault with you
in the matter of alms.
[A note following 9:58 points out that the regular and binding Zakat
(tithe) is "one-tenth of the fruits of the earth" and "one-fortieth
of merchandise".]
14. Giving too much charity to slaves and raising their status can
be an affront to wisdom and God's grace.
Surah 16:71 - Allah has favored some of you above others in provision,
but those who have been thus favored do not give away their provisions
to those whom their right hand possesses, so as to be equal in this respect.
Would they deny Allah's grace?
Surah 30:28 - Have you from among those whom your right hands
possess, partners in the wealth We have bestowed upon you, equal with you
in respect thereof, so that you fear them as you fear each other?
15. But isn't any amount of charity a good thing which God rewards
with abundance?
Surah 28:77 - But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that which
Allah has given you, and forget not your portion of the world, and be you
kind even as Allah has been kind to you…
Surah 30:39 - …but that which you give in charity, seeking Allah's
countenance, has increase manifold.
Surah 42:36 - Whatever you have been given is merely a passing
comfort for the life of the world…
Surah 47:38 - Behold, you are those who are called to spend in
the way of Allah…
Surah 63:10 - And spend of that with which We have provided you
before death befalls any of you…
Surah 57:11 - Who will give a generous loan to Allah? He will
pay him back twofold, and he will receive a rich reward.
[A note following 28:77 says "spend your wealth in charity and good
works. It is Allah Who has given it to you, and you should spend it in
Allah's cause." Another note after 42:36 states that this surah was
revealed after Muhammad's devoted follower Abu Bakr was criticized for
spending all his property for Islam's cause. A note after 57:11 explains
that a "generous loan" means giving to those who are in need, but stresses
"being
lenient with them as for getting back the amount."] A charitable loan?
16. God grants worldly favors to the faithful and the unfaithful alike
without partiality or limit, and there is no true equality in either this
world or the next.
Surah 17:20 - Each do We supply, both these (who desire the world)
and those (who desire the Hereafter) from the bounty of your Lord. And
the bounty of your Lord can never be withheld.
Surah 17:21 - See how we exalted some above another; and assuredly
the Hereafter will be greater in degrees and greater in preferment.
[A note following 17:21 states that people are not equal in rank, wealth,
health, beauty, etc., that Allah's favors are for all, that equality is
not feasible for heaven or earth, and those who aspire to mere worldly
position will receive it. However, their hope for salvation rests solely
on the time and effort devoted to the eternal life.]
17. Islam has a different definition of Humanism and Secularism.
Surah 17:70 - We have honored the children of Adam… and preferred
them greatly over many of those We created.
[A note following 17:70 explains that "This is true humanism, a vision
of man that sees him as God's noble deputy in the cosmos…enjoying the good
things which have been set in it for His benefit. Secularity, by contrast,
advocates a pseudo-humanism" where man is "no more than a
clever monkey."]
18. The Qur'an takes no social amenities for granted.
Surah 24:27 - Do not enter houses other than your own houses,
until you ask for permission, and salute those in them. That is best for
you. Perhaps you will remember.
Surah 24:29 - There shall be no harm in your entering uninhabited
houses wherein is supply for your needs…
[A note after 24:29 explains that uninhabited houses are public "inns,
hotels, shops, market places, baths, etc."]
19. Obey your parents, but only if they are Muslims. Your salvation
may depend on it.
Surah 31:14 - …Give thanks unto Me and unto your parents.
Surah 31:15 - But if they strive with you to make you ascribe
unto Me as partner that of which you have no knowledge, then obey them
not.
Surah 52:21 - Those who believe and are followed in faith by
their descendants, We cause their descendants to join them.
[A note after 52:21 states that "Those children who are raised as
believers will join their parents in the Heaven provided that their parents
also died as believers."]
20. Does the Qur'an raise justification for abortion?
Surah 6:140 - They are losers who wantonly have slain their children
without knowledge…
Surah 17:31 - Do not slay your offspring for fear of want.
Surah 17:33 - Do not take the life which Allah has rendered sacrosanct,
except for a just cause.
Surah 53:32 - He is Best-Aware of you from the time when He created
you from the earth, and when you were hidden in the bellies of your mothers.
[Isaiah 49:1]
Surah 40:11 - They will say: "Our Lord! You have made us die
twice and You have made us live twice.
Surah 81:8,9 - … when the child-girl that was buried alive is
asked for what sin was she slain…
[A note following 40:11 states that the "first death" is the
non-existence before life on earth "or the state of man being in the
form of embryo", and "the first life begins with birth - the true
life on this earth."]
Though many Muslims reject abortion, the Qur'an actually opens the door for it here. Based on 40:11 and its note, you cannot kill
something that is still dead. This reveals that the previous surahs referred to "born" children. Female infants were often killed in
Arab countries out of the desire for male offspring, even buried alive
as confirmed in 81:8. Surah 17:31 indicates children were also killed for fear
of provision. In 53:32, The Qur'an mimics the biblical verse
that God knew us and called us while we were still in the womb. Does He
call only on the dead? The beating heart of the fetus suggests otherwise.
Chapter 6: MUHAMMAD
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