₦airaland Forum

Unfortunately, as Muslims we can be susceptible to 're-interpretation bias' when we find these hadith and verses. It is not enough to mention them without explaining their apparent flaws.

Reinterpretation bias is when we reject the straight forward and often traditionally established interpretation of a verse or hadith, in order to derive an interpretation that suit our personal or cultural convictions. I confess I've been guilty of this in the past, but so are most Muslims.

Next time, we'll analyze the above verses and hadith in detail to express their apparent faults.

Why the unverified claims in the scriptures?

Theism can't explain the presence of unverified claims in the scriptures purported to be the word of infallible God. The Abrahamic religious texts are burdened with these claims. As am posting in Islam For Muslim section, I'll stick to Qur'an and Hadith.

I usually don't like critiquing Qur'an verses as Hadith, but I'm afraid I have to be honest here. Here are 6 unverified claims from Qur'an & Hadith;

1. The Sun runs to her 'resting/dwelling place' - Wal shamsu tajri limustaqarri laha (Qur'an 36:38)

2. Fever comes from the heat of hell. Abate it with cold water. (Sahih al-Bukhari » Book of Beginning of Creation)

3. Dhul Qarnayn traveled till when he reached the rising (place) of the sun. (Qur'an 18:90)

4. Summer heat and winter cold is due to breathing of the hell fire. (Sahih al-Bukhari » Book of Times of the Prayers)

5. As for those women whom you fear unfaithfulness; admonish them, and separate from their beds, and strike them. (Qur'an 4:34)

6. Allah descends to the lower heaven in the third part of the night to listen to His servants. ( Sahih Muslim » The Book of Prayer - Travellers)

A valid Muslim argument is that sharia does not mandate or recommend consanguineous marriages, it only permit it. This is true, but consanguineous marriage need to be discouraged. And anything permitted under sharia cannot be discouraged. Especially, if practiced by Muhammad and his companions.

This is why in parts of the Muslim world, this kind of marriage remain common and preferable to marrying outside the family, despite scientifically proven risks.

In a family, these unexpressed recessive alleles may already be present among most members. Marrying among themselves increases the risk of homozygous recessive genes after fertilization, creating babies with genetic disorders.

How Consanguineous marriage detract from scientific growth

Consanguineous marriages prevent the diversification of family genes. This mean that desirable genes may be retained within the family, and this seem good. But there is also the cost of retaining undesirable genes within the family gene pool.

The human genome consist of undesirable recessive alleles for genetic disorders like thalassemia or albinism, usually expressed in homozygous recessive gene. The recessive alleles for such disorders may be present in our genes but not expressed due to suppression by the dominant allele in heterozygous gene.

6. First cousin marriages Legal:

Qur'an 4:23
This verse specifies the categories of female relatives PROHIBITED for married to Muslim men. There is NO MENTION of direct or first cousins. First cousins are blood relatives. Strangely enough the verse prohibits marriage to foster brother or sister despite these not being blood relatives.

Qur'an 33:50
The prophet is permitted to marry female cousins in this verse.

Muhammad reportedly married off his daughter Fatimah, to her cousin Ali. Muhammad is reported to have married his cousin, Zainab bint Jash. Numerous companions of Muhammad are reported to have married their first cousins.

najib632:
Yes I believe it and anyone who disbelieves in even a single verse of Allah is a kaafir I would advice you to stop lying to yourself that you're still a Muslim, because you clearly don't know the meaning of the word Islam.

Look, Islam to me is like medical profession is to a physician. Yes, I've practiced it all my life. But that doesn't mean if I find a fault in its texts or tradition I should simply reinterpret it to make sense.

You can't recognise a simple metaphor you're claiming intelligent Qur'anist, you with comfort in your home and spew thrash out of your mouth and call me who spend 30 years studying over glorified. Look at how lazy you are, did you even check the tafsir? or ask someone with knowledge? I bet you don't even know a single book of tafsir. Clown.

I consider this an insult to my research work. I have access to no less than 5 tafsir on this verse; https://quranx.com/tafsirs/18.86. If you want us to go by tafsir, I can show you numerous apparently erroneous verses where the tafsir do not help.

For instance the Qur'an describe a stage of human fetal development as 'alaqa', all the tafsir agree that 'alaqa' mean blood clot; https://quranx.com/tafsirs/23.14. But the human fetus is never a blood clot.

With regards to a non-literal interpretation of "..he found it setting in a spring of muddy water", how do we know this is not to be taken literal as the scholars of tafsir recommend? Do we just assume that a phrase in Qur'an should be read non-literally because the a literal reading makes no sense to us?

NOTE; Until the 15th century, earth rotation was not fully understood. People thought the earth was immobile while the sun revolved the earth. People understood sunset as the sun disappearing out of the physical realm.

Around the 7th century, there were circulating tales in the middle east that Dhul Qarnayn or Alexander the great, traveled to the end of the earth to see the sun literally disappear into a muddy spring. Please Google "Alexander Romance".

To a typical bedouin, the phrase "....he found it setting in a spring of muddy water" could mean "he found it disappear in a spring of muddy water". The moment we find a Qur'anic verse that resemble ancient myth of unenlightened folks, we need to reconsider.

Retardation of Scientific Growth by Worn Hijab touching the soil

One word; Germs. Germs on the soil attach to clothes and contaminate clean surfaces in our houses, and can infect the bodies to cause all kinds of diseases. Such extra long hijab that trail on the soil as the wearer walk is wasteful of textile and wasteful of water and soap for laundry.

5. Worn Hijab shall be long enough to touch the soil

[quote author=Sunan Ibn Majah » Chapters on Dress]“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) was asked about how long a woman’s hem should hang down. He said: ‘A hand span.’ I said: ‘But then (her legs and feet) will be uncovered.’ He said: ‘Then a forearm’s length, but no more than that.’”[/quote][quote author= Sunan Ibn Majah » The Book of Purification and its Sunnah]"I am a woman whose hem is lengthy, and I may walk through a dirty place. The Messenger of Allah said: 'That which comes after it purifies it.'"[/quote]

Even if one or two of these were true, how can we rule out coincidence or smart prediction? Look, we have an 1898 novella by Morgan Robertson - Futility or Wreck of the Titan - about a sinking ship with very striking resemblance to the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. Please, think.

They seem more convincing but if you look deeper, there are cracks. Conquest of Jerusalem happened in the 7th century when a hadith could have easily been fabricated after it. Same applies to conquest of India which began in the 8th century.

Conquest of Constantinopole happened much later about 15th century, this is less likely to be fabricated after the event. You can never tell, though. But the Dajjal(Antichrist) is to emerge about the same time as the conquest of Constantinople. So, where is this Dajjal?

Here are more specific minor signs;

The conquest of Jerusalem by Muslims
Conquest of India by Muslims
Conquest of Constantinopole by Muslims.

Consumption of alcohol will be widespread
A man will pass a grave and wish that he was in it.
Earthquakes will increase
Female singers and musical instruments will be popular.
The last ones of the Ummah begin to curse the first ones.

Notice all of these signs existed since the dawn or even prior the dawn of Islam. And just anyone with common sense could predict them. And as they are so unspecific, any Muslim at any point of history can observe them. But you'll find Muslims and Christians who still parrot them with infinite conviction.

najib: You should stop associating Muslims with violence. As long as no one insults the messenger of Allah S.A.W and Allah S.W.T. you can do what ever you want. Why do you think Muslims of Sokoto and Islamabad will protest if I may ask you? Anyway that aside, if there's no hypocrisy in your heart you wouldn't support, immorality and Satanism.

Call us fanatics and whatever that's worse than that, but we do not care Allah knows what is in our hearts. I swear by Allah, something big is coming and it will consume the people of falsehood, their promoters and allies. Let them rejoice it is but a little while that ibn Maryam A.S will come. Almost all the minor signs have come to pass, it is time for those of us who are not deluded by the duniya to increase in our ibada, sincerity, and memorize the holy Qur'an.

OK. So, najib is still relatively new in this section and you can tell from the tone and choice of his words that he is morose and ignorant. He basically jumped in and rips into tru2god. He invokes the minor signs and the second coming of Jesus.

In traditional Islamic eschatology, the minor signs are basically unspecific and vague predictions open to multiple interpretations. Some of them include;

5. Everything happens according to God's plan. So everything that happened before Adam and Eve were sent to earth were all designed by God.

6. God tells the Children of Adam that this world is a test, and although none of the Children of Adam remember being consented or informed before put to this test, and although God already knows their result for this test, all the Children of Adam must partake in the test whether they like it or not.

3. God knows that Adam & Eve will eat from the tree, but He decides to test them anyway. In fact, He destined them to eat from the tree.
He leaves the tree with them and ask them not to eat from it.

4. When Adam and Eve were about to bite on the fruit, God did not stop them. He wait until they've eaten and began to feel the effect before He appears to remind them of His warning.

4. Why the Loopholes in the accounts of the Origin of Man?

Here are 6 loopholes in the account of the origin of man according to Abrahamic scriptures;

1. God designed Adam & Eve vulnerable to satanic temptation, although He didn't want them to succumb to such temptation.

2. God taught only Adam the names of everything, He didn't teach the angels. He then conduct a test for Adam and the angels, on the name of everything. When only Adam passes the test, God ordered the angels to bow before Adam.

tintingz: Angel Gabriel is the mouthpiece of Allah. Whatever Angel Gabriel said is from Allah and whatever Muhammad said is from Allah. The Quran is also about God's commandments, rules, what he likes and hate, fairytales and myths.

I was confused myself when I read budaatum, because all believers in the Qur'an agree it is the literal speech of God. But I decide to let him off the hook because these days I find myself reconsidering a lot.

Some verses of Qur'an would be easier to understand if God is not the speaker;

70:40
But nay! I swear by the Lord of the risings and settings that we are surely able.

51:23
By the Lord of the heavens and earth, I swear that this is the truth.

A valid case can be made that these verses are the speech of other than God. But that's an issue for another day.

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By the way, I wonder if you noticed this;

sino: The most important thing is that Allah (SWT) created this world as a test, so whatever human beings go through, the challenges are indeed part of the test, and the solutions are all within our capacity in this world, whether we understand the reasons why or the wisdom behind them, Allah (SWT) would not ask us about that, but how we made good use of the free gift of being able to choose wisely our own deeds and actions and the intentions behind them!

I draw you to this because it reminds me of an alternate universe, from where you got your signature. The Divergent book/film series where the people come to learn their whole world and life is a test run from the outside by the bureau.

Without their consent or even their knowledge; the bureau pluck them into this test, and through an all seeing camera, the bureau watches them suffer, fight and kill themselves without help. All to gather the 'test' data.

I don't know if you've read/watched Maze Runner, different story but same premise of 'We're all here as a test'. I have a theory that these stories are basically parodies of the theistic concept of the world as a divine test for man.

It is 2019, the flaw in the concept of the world as a divine test should be evident even for a theist.

But unlike the earlier Muslim dynasties, Al Saud dynasty do not have their own army to resist similar threats. This can be seen in 1979 seizure of the Grand mosque at Makkah, where French forces had to come to rescue. If the pact between US and Saudi breaks today, and Saudis do not find a powerful ally immediately, ISIS, Hizbollah or Al Qaeda will bring the end of Al Saud era.

I have already explained how the Iranian Ayatollahs sided with US in the successful coup against Mossadegh. It is all politics. The only reason why Iran opposes the US is all due to politics. It has nothing to do with US being non-Muslims or anti-Islam as Khamanei or Khomeini would have you believe.

It is in the best political interest of Al Saud family to ally with US. The Al Saud dynasty need the US to shield their rule in case of rebellion. Throughout Muslim history, the dynasties struggled with insurgencies from within Muslimdom. In the middle ages, these dynasties commanded powerful armies to preserve their reign.

In the era Arab Nationalism and Secularism(1950s-1970s), Egypt had a dictator, Gamal Abdel Naseer, who was arguably the most popular and powerful Arab at the time. Naseer was opposed to western imperialism and state of Israel, which as a military commander, he plotted to invade(and he did invade). He thus posed a threat to the Western hedgemony over the middle east.

At the same time, Naseer was a secularist. He rejected the Muslim Brotherhood(MB) proposal to enforce sharia. They sought to radicalize and mobilize Egyptian Muslims against him, but he cracked hard on them. Throughout Naseer's reign, the MB formed an unholy alliance with western imperials, whom they worked closely with, to undermine Naseer's reign and oust him out of power, and rule Egypt under sharia.

tru2god: The Saudis would rather destroy the Shi'a Iran yet make a good friend of the Israelis. No matter what the Israeli do, the Saudis will always back them up secretly while the ignorant Muslims will protest in their various countries or embassies.

Persians and Arabs are no bed fellows. It is a bigger issue than Shia - Sunni divide. And even if they're of the same sect, that doesn't make them the same team. Let me explain.

In the WW1, the Saudis took the side of British against the Ottomans. Even before WW1, the Saudis Wahhabis have been at war with the Ottomans, whose caliphate they undermined and wanted to replace. Of course, you might assume racial difference would be the cause of this, but this is not the full truth. I'll explain further.

budaatum:
This is not true! Women after birth are not prohibited from salat or fasting for 40 days "because they need a break"!

Ijma and hadith specifically forbid salat till postpartum bleeding subsides, usually after 40 days.

They are prohibited from fasting because fasting will not allow them to provide nourishment for their new born baby, but because people were stupid and did "not know enough to appreciate yet", we tell you it is the "perfect plan of God" so you will comply without argument!

Ok, fasting after birth is harmful. But wait, I still stand to be corrected. I'm not convinced the basis of this is welfare of the newborn. Because the women still have to perform ghusl(spiritual purification) before they resume their salat. So, no misrepresentation on my part.

budaatum:
Well, if you cannot avoid making a mess in the mosque with your menses, which was more likely the case when this law was passed, please don't come and mess up the mosque and disturb the prayers with it!

You don't get it. Menstruating women are prohibited from salat, not just the mosque. They cannot hold salat even in the privacy of their bedrooms, in traditional Islam. This isn't about mosque sanitation.

The pain will not kill you. Women will even inform you that it makes them appreciate the giving birth, but that's not why you have pain. The pain is like a restriction. If you did not have pain, you might be giving birth way too early, like at the age of 12 because it will be so easy to do so.

How do you know this? Come on! Before modern medicine, many more women and newborns died owing to labor complications. I know I mentioned only pain, but it is not just pain. It is the delicate nature of the process that is potentially fatal to mother and baby.

The pain at 12 is like you died, and it reduces the more mature you become. But so you wait till you are more mature and have accumulated enough resources and wisdom to nourish a life we give you pain to stop you having a child too early so you appreciate and are able to nourish that new life when it arrives. The Almighty God is most Merciful and Wise, and you humans after all, do not appreciate that which comes easy to you!

Restriction? Well, now that we have option of painless delivery - epidural, what does this mean to you? I hope I'm not sinning by wondering why God wouldn't design menstruation to start much later than 8 years - say 16 years - if the wisdom is to restrict adolescent pregnancies.

sino:
Knowledge is never fully grasped by any human living or dead, to try and seek answers to everything, and the way you want it to be and mean is akin to being crazy!

So, I'm crazy for questioning why an all intelligent and most merciful creator would design women with menstruation, which He describes as both hurtful and impure? I'm crazy for asking why women would be designed to feel menstrual cramps every months? OK.

Applying wisdom to the available knowledge guides in focusing on the right questions and making the right decisions and progress in living a purposeful life.

If all of humanity were content with the available knowledge within their culture and religion, you think our species would've progress this far? You think we'd have discovered vaccines or prophylactics if we were content with affliction and abatement of disease to be perfect design of God?

Of course, when you do believe there is God, who is all Knowing and all Wise, you do not doubt this God's knowledge coupled with the Wisdom behind the creation the way it is...Again God in His divine authority, according to Islam, gave permission for man to think, reflect, explore, investigate, query whatever he can, for at the end of the day, the knowledge you would acquire from all these, cannot help you other than submit to the superiority of the Creator, of course that is if you are sincere to begin with. Hence, when all is said and done, there is no shred of doubt with respect to the fact that indeed Allah (SWT) Knows best!

Are you really sincere on this? What do you know about cloud seeding or genetic engineering? Are these not proof of that questioning the wisdom behind 'God's design' have sometimes served as man's first step in inventing to improve his quality of life?

So when you talk about the female menstruation, first, this is the way the creator wants it to be, no mistakes! Do you have a problem with it?! Well then, why not start by creating your own world and your own creatures the way you want them to be, or what else does it mean when you claim someone didn't do a good job?! Because you can do better right?! And thus the challenge, do better and let's see!

@underlined, Can you tell this to your sister, wife, daughter or niece every month when they have a heating pad on their abdomen to relieve menstrual cramps; or when their fast is broken by the first flow of menses at 5pm on a Ramadan afternoon?

Can you also tell this to all the menstruating women ostracized to menstruation hut every month, far away from their families?

The most important thing is that Allah (SWT) created this world as a test, so whatever human beings go through, the challenges are indeed part of the test, and the solutions are all within our capacity in this world, whether we understand the reasons why or the wisdom behind them, Allah (SWT) would not ask us about that, but how we made good use of the free gift of being able to choose wisely our own deeds and actions and the intentions behind them!

You really never thought of the contradictions between the concept of the world as divine test for man, and the concept of God as an all knowing entity who already knows the result of this test?

You're 150% convinced that God would create people and toss them into a test without consenting them? We're all trapped in this world like those kids in Maze Runner book/movie series?

Yeah, FYI, there is paradise, which happens to be the reward for the tests and challenges, and what is most amusing is that we all seek this place, where everything is just the way we want, just that some want it to be here on earth (which is practically and spiritually impossible), while some of us know that it is indeed in the hereafter!

Basically, all you have said is this, "God's design is perfect. Believe it, just believe it. I'm telling you, believe it". I'll remember to tell that to the next woman I meet who suffered two miscarriages due to ABO hemolytic disease of fetus.

Blood transfusion started way before the discovery of the different blood antigens - A, B, AB, O. Because of this, many lives of blood recipients were lost due to blood reaction.

We discovered rhesus(D) antigen only later, it had been the cause of blood transfusion reactions and hemolytic disease of fetuses. To say that all of this is the plan of the most intelligent, all knowing and most merciful is .......... - you name it.

3. Why Human Blood Antigen Incompatibility?

Theism cannot explain why humans have different and incompatible blood antigens, causing dire consequences like blood transfusion reaction, and hemolytic disease especially in rhesus positive fetuses in rhesus negative mothers.

It remain a puzzle why an all intelligent and most merciful God didn't create all human with the same antigen or design these different antigens to be compatible with one another, to rule out any risk of blood transfusion reaction or hemolytic disease of fetuses.

The flawed defense for Amputation penalty

Sure, the apologist justify amputation on grounds of deterrence. But if deterrence is the only purpose of punishment, then why stop just amputation? You could crucify or lynch thieves to death to serve as even stronger deterrence. More gruesome penalties were justified for theft back in ancient times.

Amputation is not justice, it is an overkill. The fate of a thief could be more severe than a murderer. Because, in sharia there is room for forgiveness of murderer by the victim's family, in fact forgiveness is encouraged. A murderer may be let free without even a scratch on his body.

A thief, despite committing a far lesser crime, will never be pardoned. For the rest of his life, he will remain an amputee. By mandating amputation, sharia over looks the potential complications that science have taught us.

Severe microbial infections -This is known as amputation stump infection, it is common and may necessitate further amputation. People in ancient times did not know bacteria or antiseptic or antibiotics, so you can imagine how much amputation predisposes them to these infection, threatening hospitalization and death

Now that we understand we live with bacteria, fungi and viruses, we see more reason why the skin ideally should never be deliberately cut open. And thus we see even clearer the ignorance behind amputating thieves.

Harmful Impact of Amputation according to Science

Amputation predisposes amputees to a host of complications. After amputation, there is need to stop the bleeding. For much of the human history, they resorted to cauterization - a procedure that is explicitly forbidden according to hadith.

Cauterization may stop the bleeding, but at the cost of further damage to more tissues. Once the bleeding stops, the amputee copes with the pain. But we've found out there is more to the amputation than pain. For example;

4. Sharia ordain amputation for theft

[quote author=Sunan Abu Dawud >> Book of Prescribed punishments]A thief was brought to the Prophet (ﷺ). He said: Kill him. The people said: He has committed theft, Messenger of Allah! Then he said: Cut off his hand. So his (right) hand was cut off.

He was brought a second time and he said: Kill him. The people said: He has committed theft, Messenger of Allah! Then he said: Cut off his foot.So his (left) foot was cut off.

He was brought a third time and he said: Kill him. The people said: He has committed theft, Messenger of Allah! So he said: Cut off his hand. (So his (left) hand was cut off.)

He was brought a fourth time and he said: Kill him. The people said: He has committed theft, Messenger of Allah! So he said: Cut off his foot. So his (right) foot was cut off.

He was brought a fifth time and he said: Kill him. So we took him away and killed him. We then dragged him and cast him into a well and threw stones over him.[/quote][quote author=Sunan Ibn Majah >> Chapters on Legal Punishments]“May Allah curse the thief! He steals an egg and his hand is cut off, and he steals a rope and his hand is cut off”[/quote]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Ataturk tried to move Turkey foward by suppressing Islamist thoughts and expression, without reforming them. See what have become of Turkey under Edorgan? Shah Reza Pahlavi tried the same in Iran, see how it failed?

You can't just get people to reason by opening cinemas, hosting musicians and lifting the ban on female driver; while their imam is teaching them how to beat their wives, or that women without hijab are immoral sluts or that the sun runs to her resting place.

Real & lasting change will emerge organically in Saudi and the rest of Muslimdom with people, particularly of generation Y and Z, questioning orthodoxy and the religious texts, as is already happening. But real lasting change wont happen with MBS's modernization policies.

true2god: Nigeria Muslims should open their eyes and use their brain. The Saudis are loosing up and have come to realize that religious fanatism is taking them nowhere hence the social engineering going on in Saudi Arabia to make the people think like modern men and not to dwell on the thinking of the primitive sahabas in the 7th century (using the hadith as a guide).

Don't be fooled. They are not realizing anything. I know they have allowed women to drive and now cinemas, but it is all propaganda. If the regime were serious, they'll initate a thorough progressive reform of Islamic thought, that accommodate such changes. These superficial changes we've seen can be easily reversed in future, in the name of Islam.

Before the 80s, women in Saudi A didn't have to wear headscarf, didn't need the company of male guardian to travel, there were cinemas and people weren't force out for salat. You ever learnt why these changed?