Once again thank you. I am really learning a lot and I turn around and brief my husband who is learning too… He’s just not into reading blogs… Anyway, I do look forward to the time I can sit down and read Blogging the Q’ran uninterrupted. With two teenageers it’s kind of hard but I always get to it.

Take care of yourself.

Yes, I did, and I forgot to wear my dark glasses and red fright wig. Next time, say hello!

Yrs
R

The Qur’an does represent the divisions among Christians as a result of the divine displeasure, and I have spoken with Muslims who have insisted that the unity among Muslims is a manifestation of the divine favor — they brush aside the Sunni/Shi’ite split as minor and irrelevant. (This was, of course, 1980 or 1981, when that split was not in the daily headlines.)

Anyway, according to a hadith, Muhammad anticipated divisions among Muslims:

The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: The Jews were split up into seventy-one or seventy-two sects; and the Christians were split up into seventy one or seventy-two sects; and my community will be split up into seventy-three sects.

How would I respond to that? By asking you to look at the segments of the Blogging the Qur’an series so far. Note that I am not offering my own interpretation of the various Qur’anic passages, but merely reporting on how various Muslim commentators, including on occasion Muhammad Asad, interpret them.

People like your letter-writer continually ignore this and try to give the impression that I am creating my own negative interpretations through selectivity. Well, every segment has contained multiple links, not only to the Qur’an but to online Islamic tafasir — Qur’an commentaries. Check the links and judge for yourself whether I am misusing the material.

That also is how the books by Asad and Reza Aslan should be judged: do they accurately and fully portray the reality of Islamic belief as Muslims themselves do in other contexts, particularly when they are speaking to other Muslims? I don’t think they do, but here again: judge for yourself.

All my work is transparent. About five times a day I get emails from Muslims and allies of the jihadists, telling me my work is full of errors, lies, etc. I always ask the letter writers to point out, please, even one error of fact, one misrepresentation of the Islamic texts, one lie. They never have. I invite anyone reading this to check the texts also and see for yourself whether or not what I am saying is true.

I see that you’re interested in learning about Islam through the Qur’an, I must say however Robert Spencer is a polemic who deliberately distorts everything about Islam in order to make it seem hateful and violent. its no wonder he interprets things wrongly in order to make it seem that way. keep in mind he has made a career out of bashing Muslims in any way he can and his a strong base of right ring christian evangelicals and ‘born agains’ who subscribe to his ideology. If you’re interested in learning about another religion, its important to learn it from a non-bias and neutral perspective. for start i would recommend

No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam by reza aslan and an accurate commentary of the Quran by Muhammad Asad.

I am sure you have heard this critique only about a million times, in fact this is probably the fifth time you have heard it just this morning. How do you respond to this, and can you recommend Asad’s book?

Note, that on our website I am not a Robert Spencer apologist, since I actually know very little about you, however I cannot think of a better way to learn about Islam than by reading their own Scriptures one word at a time. Thanks again for your effort.

…and is no reflection of the Trinity…

Oh no, I knew there was absolutely no way a Trinity was being implied. I just never thought of it being a royal fullness of power or being, thus my confusion.

No, you’re not wrong.

HeIsSailing:

Yes, Allah always refers to himself as “We” in the Qur’an, but Muslim exegetes insist it is just a royal “We,” consistent with the strictness of Islamic monotheism, and is no reflection of the Trinity.

I was under the impression that 5:33 actually alluded to the incident between Mohammed and the apostates from the Ukil/Urainna tribe, who after killing a shepherd and stealing his camels received that amputation punishment – not because of murder, but because they abandoned Islam in the process.

Am I wrong?

Says Ibn Kathir, “Indeed, the numerous Christian sects have always been enemies and adversaries of each other, accusing each other of heresy and cursing each other

It is amazing that Ibn Kathir wrote this commentary centuries before the Protestant Reformation. One has to wonder what he would think of the modern schisms and denominations in the Christian Church.

I have had critics imply to me that I should read the koran before I judge the islamic religion. I am honestly fearful of what kind of damage such a task could do to my thoughts and well being.

Kahuna, I am going to side with your critics and encourage you and everyone else to read along in the Quran. So far, I have read every word up through Sura 5, and I am really gaining an overall perspecive in the text of the Scripture, along with Mr Specer’s commentary. So far in the reading, Islam seems less like a religion, and more of just a violent polemic against Judaism and Christianity. With the exception of the violence against the rival religions, the moral stance of Islam is very similar to what is found in the Old Testament. True, it does not meet the moral high ground of the Sermon on the Mount for instance, but there is nothing really.. new.. to be found in the Quran, unlike what the New Testament provides.

For that reason alone, I find it fascinating reading. Even if the constant promises of violence and hellfire to the infidel have grown somewhat stale.

vs 13:

…We cursed them and made their hearts hard…

vs 14:

…We made a covenant, but they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of…

vs 14:

…We excited among them enmity …

The immediate context seems to point to ‘We’ as being Allah, but I just cannot imagine Muslims refer to their God in the plural. Is the ‘We’ referring to conspiring Muslims? Are they responsible for hardening the hearts of the Christian? vs 13-14 is a really confusing passage to me because of this ambiguity.

vs 13:

…We cursed them and made their hearts hard…

vs 14:

…We made a covenant, but they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of…

vs 14:

…We excited among them enmity …

The immediate context seems to point to ‘We’ as being Allah, but I just cannot imagine Muslims refer to their God in the plural. Is the ‘We’ referring to conspiring Muslims? Are they responsible for hardening the hearts of the Christian? vs 13-14 is a really confusing passage to me because of this ambiguity.

vs 13:

…We cursed them and made their hearts hard…

vs 14:

…We made a covenant, but they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of…

vs 14:

…We excited among them enmity …

The immediate context seems to point to ‘We’ as being Allah, but I just cannot imagine Muslims refer to their God in the plural. Is the ‘We’ referring to conspiring Muslims? Are they responsible for hardening the hearts of the Christian? vs 13-14 is a really confusing passage to me because of this ambiguity.

Thus as far as the Qur’an is concerned, the divisions among Christians demonstrate the falsity of the religion

Sunni (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali), Shiite (Twelvers (iṯnāʿašariyya), Ismaili, the Seveners, and Zaidiyyah), Sufi, Wahabbi, Deobandi, Kharijites, Almohades. And those are just off the top of my head.

From Wikipedia:

# 2 Sunnism

* 2.1 Schools of Fiqh
o 2.1.1 Hanafi
+ 2.1.1.1 Deobandi
+ 2.1.1.2 Barelwi
o 2.1.2 Hanbali
o 2.1.3 Maliki
o 2.1.4 Shafi’i
* 2.2 Schools of Kalam
o 2.2.1 Ash’ari
o 2.2.2 Maturidi
o 2.2.3 Murjite
o 2.2.4 Mu’tazili

# 3 Shi`ism

* 3.1 Twelvers
o 3.1.1 Usooli
o 3.1.2 Akhbari
o 3.1.3 Shaykhi
o 3.1.4 Alawi
o 3.1.5 Alevi
* 3.2 Ismailiyah
o 3.2.1 Nizari
o 3.2.2 Druze
o 3.2.3 Bohras
+ 3.2.3.1 Dawoodi Bohras
+ 3.2.3.2 Sulamaini Bohras
+ 3.2.3.3 Alavi Bohras
* 3.3 Zaiddiyah

# 4 Kharijite Sects

* 4.1 Ibadi
* 4.2 Sufri

# 5 Sufi Orders

* 5.1 Bektashi
* 5.2 Chishti
* 5.3 Naqshbandi
* 5.4 Oveyssi
* 5.5 Qadiri
* 5.6 Suhrawardiyya

# 6 Movements within sects

* 6.1 Salafism
* 6.2 Wahhabism
* 6.3 Liberal
* 6.4 Islamism
* 6.5 Tablighi Jama’at

# 7 Other sects

* 7.1 Zikri
* 7.2 Ahmadiyya
* 7.3 Nation of Islam
* 7.4 Moorish Science
* 7.5 Submitters
* 7.6 Qur’an Alone

Nope, no divisions among Muslims to demonstrate the falsity of Islam. Not at all.

Can’t thank you enough for the work you’re doing on this project. Should be required reading…

Thus as far as the Qur’an is concerned, the divisions among Christians demonstrate the falsity of the religion

So wouldn’t this also mean the divisions between Sunnis and Shiites also demonstrates the falsity of Islam?

“He who allows himself to shed the blood of a Muslim, is like he who allows shedding the blood of all people. He who forbids shedding the blood of one Muslim, is like he who forbids shedding the blood of all people.”

So if a Jew kills a muslim it’s bad, but if it’s muslims killing each other, it’s alright?

This Sura makes it very clear that Muslims may not have Christian or Jewish friends. So not only are they hostages of their own religion, living out their lives with a constant death threat hanging over them, but they can’t have any friends either. Horrible.

Thank you for doing something I dare not do. I have had critics imply to me that I should read the koran before I judge the islamic religion. I am honestly fearful of what kind of damage such a task could do to my thoughts and well being. I don’t need to know every detail of a false religion to know it is false. Thank you for exposing yourself to this nonsense for the good of the rest of us and fighting the good fight.

Thus as far as the Qur’an is concerned, the divisions among Christians demonstrate the falsity of the religion – a proposition for which Jesus stated the obverse: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35)

I have often thought that as the Body of Christ we don’t (as a whole) show the love that we could, and the love we do show isn’t recognized as such. I can see how Satan would use that as an excuse to keep people from believing in Jesus. The apparent lack of love by some Christians is apparently a sticking point for Mr. Hitchens too, for example. While I think we Christians can always do a better job of showing love to each other, and others, we also do a large part of the humanitarian aid around the planet and in our neighborhoods. Maybe Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, and others will look a little deeper and see God’s love in Christians, even though we aren’t perfect!

Thanx again Mr. Spencer. These posts are very valuable!