In answer to the video "Paul Won Converts Through Peaceful Preaching; Muhammad Used Bribes and Threats (PvM 17)"
The prophet Muhammad fought wars for 3 reasons, first to fend off opression, second to establish God's will on a nation of rejecters and 3rd to remove the unworthy custodians of the Kaaba. This is jihad in all its scopes.
To understand the concept of physical struggle/jihad, we have to analyze the context of its use in the times of the last prophet and before.
It is the unalterable law of God that when He sends a messenger in a people, these particular people are left with no option, but to hearken His warnings and calls during an interval of time whose expiry can not be hastened nor delayed except by Allah 15:5,16:61,53:58. Allah states about this period that
His messengers show the community, starting from the leaders in mischief greatly responsible for the general moral degradation of their people down to the poorest and most insignificant elements of the community 17:16,73:11 the signs of the truth in the heavens and earth, as well as in their own deepest selves 41:53,51:27 to the point that the people must recognize it and mend their evil ways. During that process, they are seized with affliction or tried with a sign from God when they reject the messenger 11:52-60,64-68 sent to them in order to humble themselves and mend their ways 7:94.
They are urged to reason and ask for God's forgiveness lest the fate of past sinful nations each greater than other in might 43:8, befalls them. They all received God's messengers with the bayinat ie the undeniable evidence, but on account of persistent rejection, were all uprooted by a grasp so encompassing and violent that it is pictured as beginning from their foundations up
16:26,40:22,18:55,22:42-8"And if they reject you, then already before you did the people of Nuh and Ad and Samood reject (prophets). And the people of Ibrahim and the people of Lut, As well as those of Madyan and Musa (too) was rejected, but I gave respite to the unbelievers, then did I overtake them, so how (severe) was My disapproval. So how many a town did We destroy while it was unjust, so it was fallen down upon its roofs, and (how many a) deserted well and palace raised high. Have they not travelled in the land so that they should have hearts with which to understand, or ears with which to hear? For surely it is not the eyes that are blind, but blind are the hearts which are in the breasts. And they ask you to hasten on the punishment, and Allah will by no means fail in His promise, and surely a day with your Lord is as a thousand years of what you number. And how many a town to which I gave respite while it was unjust, then I overtook it, and to Me is the return".Mankind is continuously encouraged to research and analyse the history of past nations, unavoidably seeing in it the divine pattern. History is the only extensive evidential base for the contemplation and analysis of how societies function. Proper contemplation of that evidence leads to moral reform, providing a background for one to test his own moral sense against that of individuals and societies of the past when faced with similar situations. The past causes the present, and so the future.
This shows that even in this life, the Creator's relationship with man is not merely based on the physical law, as with other creatures devoid of moral accountability and freewill. The moral law is working side by side with it. Sometimes that higher reality is clearer than at other times, and the clearest manifestation of it is during the times of the prophets. Past nations to whom messengers were sent become means by which the evidence for the hereafter is presented. If moral acts have results in this world, and these results never manifest fully in the world, then it necessitates that another world must exist where the consequences of sin and righteousness will fully appear.
Some of these nations completely mend their ways during their time of respite and prior to their annihilation by Divine affliction, as happenned in the prophet Jonas' lifetime during which they all believed 10:98"When they believed, We removed from them the chastisement of disgrace in this world's life and We gave them provision till a time". If they dont and in addition try uprooting or killing the messengers sent to them with the undeniable bayinat, continuously oppose them and conspire against them to prevent the establishement of the way of God 42:13 then those pinpointed as the guilty ones by the prophets 44:22 in these nations will incure Divine affliction. They may be put to the sword by the believers themselves as in Moses and Muhammad's time, or completely annihilated by natural cataclysms. At other times God might send a powerful ennemy to bring destruction as happened to the Israelites that rejected Jesus, or they are subjugated to the followers of the messengers for generations to come. Concerning this reality, the Psalmist states Ps46:9"Go and see the works of the Lord, that He has wrought devastation in the earth". Allah in the Quran alludes to all these potential outcomes, including the one that will be inflicted upon the rejecters of the prophet Muhammad, similarly to what He had decreed in the times of Moses 6:65-7"Say: "He has the power that He should send on you a chastisement from above you or from beneath your feet, or that He should throw you into confusion, (making you) of different parties; and make some of you taste the fighting of others." See how repeatedly We display the signs that they may understand. And your people call it a lie and it is the very truth. Say: "I am not placed in charge of you." For every prophecy is a term and you will come to know (it)".
No comments:
Post a Comment