Naeem's Blog

I recently started reading this book, "Islam, Fundamentalism, and the Betrayal of Tradition", which is a compilation of various short essays on the assault on traditional Islam. Frankly, I prefer this format of writing as my ADD-afflicted self is not capable of concentrating on more than 40 pages at a time.

When reading the first essay by David Dakake (who taught an Intro to Islam class at the very expensive George Washington University which I attended for one week during my botched attempt to join the MA program under Syed Hossein Nasr – anyone have $20K to help a brotha out?!), he referenced a beautiful incident in the life of our dear Prophet (saw) to which I couldn’t help to think how it clearly deconstructs the argument used to attack non-combatants in non-Muslim lands. Here is the passage:

“Asma bint Abi Bakr, who was a Muslim living in Medina, received some gifts from her mother, Qutaylah, who lived in Makka. Qutaylah had refused to convert to Islam and continued to practice the idolatrous ways of the Maakans. Asma said, upon receiving the gifts, that she would not accept them, given that they came from one who had rejected the message of Islam and indeed one who had chosen to live among the arch-enemies of the Muslims; but then the above Quranic verse (“God does not forbid that you should deal kindly and justly with those who do not fight you for the sake of [your] religion or drive you out of your homes. Truly, God loves those who are just.”, 60:8) was revealed to the Prophet, indicating that there was no need to be ungracious towards the one who gave these gifts, even though she had rejected the message of the Prophet and was living with the enemies of Islam….Indeed this shows the essential distinction between combatants and non-combatants in the rules of Muslim warfare. This distinction, as we see from the example of Qutaylah, is to be upheld even in the context of engagement with an actively hostile enemy, as were the Makkans.” The Myth of a Militant Islam, David Dakake

So lets take the position that America and the UK are hostile to the entire Muslim Ummah – based on the above story, it still does not justify carrying out acts of aggression *by any Muslim* against their non-combatant population.

I normally am very critical of the hadith-hurlers and Quran-quoters who like to take a verse here and a hadith there to come to some sort of pseudo-Islamic judgment. And thus I myself do not employ such tactics when discussing Islam with the jurisprudentially-challenged. So I’m not claiming to make an absolute argument by citing this passage. I just felt so moved by the beauty of our Prophet (saw) and the mercy of Allah (swt) that even in the most hostile of environments, Ihsan won the day.