This Sura is the biggie. It’s the John 3:16 of Islam.

As I see it a Muslim will do anything include kill himself to make sure you go to hell. A Christian will do anything including sacrificing his life to make sure you go to heaven. All religions are not created equal.

crazy_legs on December 31, 2007 at 12:27 PM

Interesting. I never saw this before. Maybe its a cosmic coincidence, or Allah planned it that way – his hands are not fettered! Maybe he is the one true god after all.

You would think after all these centuries that one of them would reference a primary source.

But you forget that they don’t consider the Bible to be a primary source. They honestly believe that the Bible is “corrupted” and that the Quran straightenes it out. When that’s your belief, there’s no need to go back to the “corrupted” primary source.

Now, asking exactly why your prophet insisted that the Bible was corrupted… that’s another story.

And yes, I agree with thejackal. Achmed the Dead Terrorist is freakin’ HILARIOUS!!

V. 111, with its guarantee of Paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah, has become in the modern age the rationale for suicide bombing.

I wonder if that’s why 9/11 happened on that exact day. Call me crazy or a conspiracy-theorist, but the numbers 9/11/01 line up way to closely to 9:111 for my liking.

You would think after all these centuries that one of them would reference a primary source.

Hening on December 31, 2007 at 8:48 AM

You would, if you credited them with the power of independent thought. Sadly, they consider only one primary source of all knowledge in the universe (the Koran, with the Hadith and a few other comic books in tow). And if only one of them tried to think outside the box, he’d better get the hell out of Dodge before he got caught using his brain.

You’re really missing out!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go

Enjoy!!!

Thanks. I don’t know who Achmed the Dead Terrorist is. Some kind of comedy act, I guess? Pardon me for being obtuse, but I haven’t really been keeping up with pop culture since, oh, about 1981.

Anyway, I knew jackal’s question was some kind of a send-up, but didn’t know what kind, so I figured I’d answer it seriously and see if I found out that way. Anyway, thanks.

mram on December 30, 2007 at 8:02 PM

Yes, it is in reference to Achmed. He keels me.

No offense intended. I’m a huge fan, both of yours and Daniel Pipes (you know…educated, informed people). I just have an uncontrollable weakness for comedy. I lived in Saudi Arabia for 4 years (1996-2000) and, much as I thrive on the more serious points of Islamic history and society, my revulsion for the whole Jihadist stuff pushes me to the point of silliness.

I promise I won’t posit any more nonsense on your post again.

Big, huge, whopping kudos for your scholarship on this stuff.

I think thejackal is jokingly referring to Achmed the Dead Terrorist.

What’s your game?

Just wondering. It isn’t clear.

Robert Spencer on December 30, 2007 at 6:01 PM

It had that kind of Al-Bukhari flavor to it. Just wanted your confirmation on the point.

I suspect you’re trying to put us on, but I’ll answer anyway: that phrase does not appear in the Qur’an or Hadith, and I have never claimed that it does.

Thanks. I re-read what you had said on this in the first installment of surah 9. That clears it.

And yes, I should have noted that the verse in question was 110, not 114.

Any advice? Is this from the Koran or the Hadith?

No, not 114. Sura 110 comes after 9, and is, according to Islamic tradition, the last sura to have been revealed. Muhammad was in the midst of consolidating his power and was planning further expansion of his burgeoning empire — he had just ordered jihad warriors into the Byzantine holdings of Syria and Palestine — when he fell ill. According to Islamic tradition, he foresaw his end approaching. A few months before his final illness began he received one last, brief Qur’anic revelation, and he believed it was telling him to ask for Allah’s mercy in preparation for his own death: “When comes the help of Allah, and victory, and thou dost see the people enter Allah’s religion in crowds, celebrate the praises of thy Lord, and pray for His Forgiveness: for He is Oft-Returning (in Grace and Mercy)” (110:1-3).

Aisha said later that Muhammad told her: “Gabriel used to recite the Qur’an to me once a year and for this year it was twice and so I perceived that my death had drawn near.”

To revisit the original assertion that Surah 9 is the last of the surahs, is that unanimous? There is this link here that suggests that surah 114 comes after it.

I’m interested in whether this means a literal, physical change, or a symbolic, spiritual change – since Mohammad was reported to be a white man, and he refered to ethiopians as “raisin heads”

Lo! Jesus hath bought from the believers their lives and their wealth because the Garden will be theirs: they shall fight in the way of Jesus and shall slay and be slain…..(bastardized) sura 9:111

Somehow, that just doesn’t work.

But then again, “The suras of the Qur’an increase the Muslims’ faith (v. 124), but only add to the doubts of the disbelievers (vv. 125-127).”

Of course!

Started a trend among his brethren that continues to this day. (See: the Golden Mosque of Samara, the Red Mosque in Pakistan, et al.)

Begin with a murderous pedophile warlord, end in grief.

(That must be the Sura the goat ate.)

It just seems like these two verses have no flow or consistancy with each other. It makes me suspicious about authorship.

So far, I agree with verse 125 more than any other so far:

But those in whose hearts is a disease,- it will add doubt to their doubt, and they will die in a state of Unbelief.

Yup. The more I read the Quran, the more I don’t believe it.