The god of the Qur’ān set legislation and punishments for Muhammadan Islam to apply to the people, and Muhammad and his Companions actually did apply them harshly to men in a time long ago that was called ‘the best of centuries’, punishments that included stoning, the cutting off of hands and beheadings.
BUT WITH THE PROGRESS of time and civilization, mankind has developed laws that are much more merciful than the legislation and harsh punishments of the god of the Qur’ān. Courts now organise the investigating of cases and the circumstances of each crime, and the decide the appropriate sentence accordingly. The harshness of the sentences and punishments are made commensurate to the circumstances and the mental and psychological condition of the perpetrator and whether or not the crime was premeditated.
Man has legislated positive laws and annulled the legislation and rulings brought by the Qur’ān or completely placed moratoria on their application, even in strict Islamic countries, with the exception of some rare cases. Some of these laws, legislations and punishments have been suspended along with the codification of deterrent penalties. Man has ceased to adjudicate by the laws of the Qur’ān all the while that these remain recited to no purpose and merely reminding us of their harshness. Examples are:
1- The cutting off the hand of the thief and the penalty of crucifixion.
The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom.[1]
Has the crucifixion and cutting off the extremities on alternate sides actually been applied in practice by the courts in Islamic lands at the present time? So what is Al-Azhar doing about this suspension of the law of the Qur’ān?
2- The non-application by the courts of the punishment of stoning for the adulterer and the adulteress;
3- The cessation of raiding parties, looting and booty, and the seizing of women as captives in this era of cultural pluralism;
4- The abolition and prohibition of human trafficking and the selling of captive slaves in slave-markets;
5- The prevention of imposing jizya on the People of the Book living alongside Muslims in Islamic lands. Note what sūrat al-Tawba verse 29 stipulates:
Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
6- Preventing any acting upon the legislation of milk al-yamīn (‘what thy right arm possesses’):
Marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four; but if you fear that you will not do justice (between them), then (marry) only one or what your right hands possess [2]
Can every Muslim male marry two, three and four women in the present time, as their ancestors did in the distant past, and can he own maidservants and women for his sexual enjoyment in the present time?
7- The legislation for freedom of thought and the ability to abandon’s one’s religion and embrace any religion or denomination he so desires – although this flatly contradicts the principle of Islamic takfir (the declaring of others as ‘infidel’)
8 – Preventing the killing of an apostate and those ‘who abandon their religion and sew dissension in the group’. The hadith Whoever changes his religion, kill him[3] is an ignoble hadith of the Prophet. In the world today there are billions of polytheists and pagans who do not believe in God, Islam or the Qur’ān, so can Islam apply this punishment to them now? “
So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush[4]
Admit that the Qur’ān is not suitable for every time and place.
9 – The act of giving alms to ‘those whose hearts are to be reconciled’ has been suspended. The ruling and its practice came to an end during the time of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, because it is not acceptable to to purchase projection and sell the religion with money to those who are weak in faith. The alms are only for the poor and the needy, and those who collect them, and those whose hearts are to be reconciled[5] yet how can Allah, the All-Knowing, and the Wise, not know that His obligation would soon be abolished and its application cease to be implemented by the Caliph of His Messenger Abū Bakr?
10 – O you who believe! retaliation is prescribed for you in the matter of the slain, the free for the free, and the slave for the slave, and the female for the female (sūrat al-Baqara, 178) Does any court in the world, including the courts of Islamic countries, adjudicate for the killing of a free man for the death of a free man, or of a slave for a slave , or a female for a female? Do these courts of law apply the ruling of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Or is it human laws that are being applied in the courts instead of the Sharī‘a of the Qur’ān? Why do the religious scholars and shaykhs of Islam not come out and protest against the repeal of the Lord of the Qur’ān’s legislation?
11 – The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females – Cf. sūrat al-Nisā’ 11: Allah enjoins you concerning your children: The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females. The Tunisian Dār al-Iftā’ issued a decree with the force of law that equalizes the inheritance rights between men and women. It also issued a decree allowing Tunisian Muslim women to marry non-Muslims. Thus the Sharī‘a of the Qur’an was officially cancelled and the effect of the Islamic Sharī‘a in this regard was nullified, despite the objections voiced by Al-Azhar, to which no one listened.
12 – Concerning the prohibition of adopting orphans – Muḥammad cancelled the right to adopt in order to allow himself to marry a beautiful woman he craved. He did this so that people would not thereby censure him for marrying the wife of his adopted son Zayd ibn Ḥāritha and taking over his wife after instructing Zayd to divorce her, having concealed his love for her. Finally, his god from above the seven heavens obliged by marrying Zaynab the wife of his adopted son to him with a specially revealed Qur’ānic verse, and so his desire was fulfilled. God’s command was thereby effected.
And when thou saidst unto him on whom Allah hath conferred favour and thou hast conferred favour: Keep thy wife to thyself, and fear Allah. And thou didst hide in thy mind that which Allah was to bring to light, and thou didst fear mankind whereas Allah hath a better right that thou shouldst fear Him. So when Zeyd had performed that necessary formality (of divorce) from her, We gave her unto thee in marriage, so that (henceforth) there may be no sin for believers in respect of wives of their adopted sons, when the latter have performed the necessary formality (of release) from them. The commandment of Allah must be fulfilled.[6]
Have governments not reinstated the laws permitting adoption and the care of orphans? Adoption is a humane practice applied in most countries of the civilized world. Many people also applied it before Islam, and current man-made laws allow it.
13 – Forcing women to stay in their homes unless absolutely necessary (And stay in your houses and do not display your finery like the displaying of the ignorance of yore[7]). This verse has become part of a now-cancelled ancient heritage, since Muslim women today work in many governmental or private departments to earn a living like men, even in Wahhābī Saudi Arabia, in the face of objections from the shaykhs and the teachings of their Qur’ān.
Suggested Reading
Islamic corporal punishments and sanctions have been completely abolished by the laws and canons of civilized societies in all countries in the world, and are now being applied only by terrorist gangs that apply the ‘desert Sharī‘a’ of Islam that issued the Qur’ānic legislation composed by Muḥammad in the seventh century, gangs such as the Afghan Taliban, the terrorist organization ISIS, Boko Haram and the terrorist Al-Nuṣra Front. As for the verse Surely We have revealed the Reminder and We will most surely be its guardian[8] this is now old news. It is no longer any Reminder from God and it has not been guarded, since both its ruling and its application have been abolished.
Mankind has judged such legislations to run counter to human rights and are cruel and inhumane. They have been suspended in favour of superior and more merciful legislation. The best indication of this is the Universal Charter of Human Rights issued in 1948 which has been approved by all countries of the world and recognized as superior to the laws of the Qur’ān. Even Islamic countries have refused to apply the punishments and laws of the Qur’ān because they are unfit for a time of civilization and progress and cannot be applied anywhere for their essential inhumanity.
Is the Qur’ān then valid for every time and place? The fact is, man-made, positive laws on human rights laws have abolished the Sharī‘a of the Qur’ān.
[1] Qur’ān V (al-Mā’ida), 33.
[2] Qur’ān IV (al-Nisā’), 3
[3] Cf, for this text: https://sunnah.com/nasai:4059 ; https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:2535 ; https://sunnah.com/mishkat:3678 et al.
[4] Qur’ān IX (al-Tawba), 5.
[5] Qur’ān IX (al-Tawba), 60.
[6] Qur’ān XXXIII (al-Aḥzāb), 37.
[7] Qur’ān XXXIII (al-Aḥzāb), 33.
[8] Qur’ān XV (al-Ḥijr), 9.
Main image: Taliban enforcement of Shari’a directives on women in Afghanistan.
