Should
Almighty God Order Human Being
to Kill Fellow Human?
by Syed
Kamran Mirza
24
January, 2005
In
the theological dogmas of Islam there are plenty of unanswered questions
to which most apologists play same old game of sidetracking and putting
lame excuse to the “out of context”, or faulty Quranic translations. Among
them, I like to discuss one question about which I have been asking/searching
the truth for long time, but till today nobody could give me satisfactory
answer. This is the question of “killing/slaying” human
being by another human being. Several years back when I read Holy
Quran from beginning to end, I was totally dismayed when I found Allah
telling/advocating to “kill” another human being by numerous Ayats.
I could not conceive this idea of insisting by Allah to kill somebody.
How come? Question which bothered me most is why an omnipotent/almighty
God will ask for killing human being—His own creation? Who knows,
may be this advice by Allah to “kill Kaffirs” is working as the main fuel/ingredients
behind the very spirit of Islamic Jihad—helping create more and more Osama
bin-Laden and other potential killer terrorists?
My
father used to read Quran twice a day (after Fazr and before magreb) with
so much devotion until his death. One day I asked him if he (my
father) understand what he was reciting with such a melody and devotions.
My father’s answer was negative. My father did not understand a single
word of what he was reciting daily. Now I can count how many thousands
of times he uttered the word “killing”, of course, with sweet melody.
We can even count how many trillion trillion times this word of “killing” is
being uttered by devout Muslims throughout the whole world.
Let
me cite an example to illustrate this better. Say I am the owner of a
flock of 100 cows. These hundred cows are mine, I am the sole owner,
and by virtue/authority of my ownership, I have every right to do, what
ever I want to do with these 100 cows. Now, if in the course of
time, I find that some cows have become very destructive and wicked up
to a degree that these cows are out of control. Then, I have two
choices in front of me to handle these wicked cows: (a) tell other
good and docile cows to kill those wicked cows by their sharp horns, or
(b) because of my authority, I sell them, or killed (Zabai kare
khaeyya felba) those wicked cows and invite friends to a feast.
Quite obviously, I will choose (b), and never will advocate poor docile
cows to kill those wicked cows, right? But here in the God’s business
of correcting wicked people, I really do not find any logic why Omnipotent
God should ask human (who are less than cows/sheep to God) to kill other
wicked humans. This problem of disobedient by some humans is so little
problem for an Omnipotent/almighty Allah that, it should take only a wishful
thinking for Him to correct all Kaffirs. Does any reader see any logic
to it? So far, I could not get any logical/convincing
answer from any Islamic apologists to this very dynamic question.
I
cannot believe that, God can really ask human being to kill/slay another
human being! The center of my question is not the word “killing,” but
WHO actually is asking for “Killing.” This “WHO” is nobody but OMNIPOTENT/ALMIGHTY
GOD. Is it the Allah really telling/advocating to “kill” another human
being by numerous Qur’anic Ayats? I could not conceive this idea
that Allah is insisting his creation to kill somebody who is also his
creation. Question that bothered me the most is why an Omnipotent,
Almighty, and Merciful God will ask for killing human beings. Why
then He is called a Merciful? Omnipotent God is not like human being
of flesh and blood that He will take revenge through others. Even
the mother of a serial killer will not ask others to kill her son, rather
she will ask for forgiveness. Is the Almighty God crueler, or weaker
than the mother of a serial killer is?
Of
course, if these killing orders (i.e., Ayats like: 9:5, 2.191, 5.33.or
2.193) have had come from Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) himself then, I would
not ask this question. Because, Prophet Muhammad was also a human
being of flesh and blood, and in need, he also can ask for necessary killings.
Apologist’s example/comparisons with history of mankind --killing by American
Civil War, battle of Kurukhetra or Hitler, Yahya Khan, Tikka Khan, Winston
Churchill, etc., would fit here very well. Because, these are simply
earthly (parthive) happenings and humans are not omnipotent/almighty
by any standard. Human cannot achieve something simply by wishful
thinking like an Omnipotent God. But God of course can achieve something
simply by His wish. As we are told in Quran that, “Of course
if Allah (swt) wills He can create anything just by saying “Qun” (Be)
and it exists. Likewise Allah (swt) can destroy at will.”
If we are to believe the text of preceding quotation by Mullahs/Maoulanas
then we cannot find any validity of asking by God to kill anybody.
God Himself can kill them by His AZRAEL. Or, Omnipotent God simply
can correct every anomaly by His wishes, period. He should not need
anybody’s help.
Another
new question has generated by the Qur’anic Ayat quoted by most Apologists.
That is, “Let there be no compulsion in religion… (Quran-2: 256).
This Ayat is used repeatedly by all apologists like a broken record to
claim Islam’s tolerance to others, although, there are hundreds of Qur’anic
Ayats and Sahih hadiths (which apologists hardly disclose) proves otherwise.
My humble questions here to all apologists are: What is the punishment
of an apostate as per Islamic Sharia? Isn’t the punishment of an
apostate is death by beheading or stoning? Why in Saudi Arabia all
other religious activities except Islam are completely prohibited?
Why Saudi Government has closed all Shiite Mosques in Saudi Arabia?
Why then early propagators of Islam had to fight so many bloody battles
both defensively and offensively?
What
is the difference between the code of King Hammurabi of Mesopotamia (2900
B.C): Killing for revenge, i. e., “life for life, hand for hand,
eye for eye, ears for ears, tooth for tooth and wounds equal for
equal”, and the Allah’s Guidance of Qur’anic Ayat:
5:45, i.e. “life for life, hand for hand, eye
for eye, ear for ear, tooth for tooth and wounds equal for equal.”
Do we see any similarities between the judgment of King Hammurabi (a human),
and Omnipotent Allah? Here in this decree
of judgment, who probably copied from whom?
Most
important and mysterious questions for us to ponder are: Why Muhammad
(pbuh), the prophet of God, needed to insist/ask people to fight/kill
fellow people violently? And why did he lure Islamic believers that
they will get Jannat el-Ferdous if they kill kaffirs? Why
on the other hand, another Prophet of the same God Jesus Christ said,
“He who live by the sword will die by the sword” or “If you get slapped on
your right cheek then give your left cheek for the another slap.”
Why Jesus asked people to conquer the hearts of enemies by their love?
Why Mahatma Gandhi did asked people not to attack/kill the enemies but
to tolerate all tortures? Was Gandhi or Jesus a better person
than the omnipotent who goes by the name Rahman-ur-Rahim (Kind and forgiving)?
As
a child, we were told by the clerics back home that Almighty Allah has
100 names. The two names show up side-by-side in the book Niam-ul-Qur’an
(By Moulvi Mohammad Shamsul Huda) page 20. One of the names is
Ya-Gaffaru (Oh, forgiver!). The other name mentioned next to
it is Ya-Kah-haru (Oh, big punisher). The Mullahs of the
world should know better that the Almighty couldn’t be both all at the
same time. Whether we like it or not, Jesus seems to have opted
for the forgiving part of Allah, whereas, our Payare-Nabi Mustafa
Karim (pbuh) had shown his proclivity to mete out punishment and thus
opting for the title Kah-haru. No wonder so many bystanders
Arab had to be murdered in the broad daylight because they had their nagging
doubts about the divinity of Muhammad (pbuh).
The
bottom line in this ongoing debate is the following: It would be quite
unjust for the CREATOR to approve killing of his creations by his own
creation. If He thinks that some creations are becoming unruly,
and are deviating from the Seerut-al-Mustaquim, then, why can’t
He come down from his Arash to this lowly place call Arda
(Earth) and do the killing Himself? He most certainly has ever-ready
Azrael under His arm. But could it be that poor Azrael is too tired
doing his job from the time immemorial! In that case, Allah is very
wise to tell us that we men should kill another fellow human being because
in His infinite wisdom He thought we are the right persons for this job.
What a cruel joke this Almighty is playing on us!
Literatures:
1.
The Holy Qur’an, Translated by A. Yousuf Ali, Published by Amana
Corporation, Brentwood, Maryland, 1983
2.
Holy Qur’an, Translated in Bengali by Ahmadiya Muslim Centenary
Publication of Bangladesh, 4 Bakshi Bazar road, Dhaka, 1992
3.
Buchari Sharif, Bengali Translation by Maulana Muhammad Mustafizur
Rahman, Sulemani Printers and Publishers, Dhaka, Second edition-1999
4.
Holy Qur’an, Bengali translation by Maulana Muhiuddin khan, Khademu
Harmain Sharifain, Saudi Arabia, Madina Mannwara, 1413 Hijri. |
