Messages

Brother Joseph,

I thank you so much for sharing your insight and erudition with me on this crucial matter. I hate how Islamophobes like Robert Spencer and others slander our faith and our holy book with being anti-Semitic. Islam breathes peace and brotherhood to all. Thank you again!

Salam, Sharif 

Joseph Islam,

I hope you could bring some of your considerable erudition to bear on a vexing questions of mine.  Of Sura 5:32, which says:

"Because of this, we decreed for the Children of Israel that anyone who murders any person who had not committed murder or horrendous crimes, it shall be as if he murdered all the people. And anyone who spares a life it shall be as if he spared the lives of all the people. Our messengers went to them with clear proofs and revelations, but most of them, after all this, are still transgressing."

There is something, however, that I would value your opinion on. Robert Spencer has written of Sura 5:32 that it

'comes within the context of a warning to the Jews, and is not presented as a universal principle; it contains the important exception "unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land," and it is followed by v. 33, which specifies the punishment for that mischief: "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.

Thus this passage is explaining what must be done with Jews who reject Muhammad, not dictating lofty moral principles. Ibn Warraq sums it up:

"The supposedly noble sentiments are in fact a warning to Jews." Behave, or else' is the message. Far from abjuring violence, these verses aggressively point out that anyone opposing the Prophet will be killed, crucified, mutilated, and banished!"'

While I know better to credit just about anything uttered by Spencer, I have always thought that verse 33 concerns punishment by an Islamic state of crimes such as murder and rebellion, not "warning" non-Muslims not to "oppose" the Prophet Muhammad. The verse seems to honor the Jewish respect for life, and the Quran is using here a Christian trope about the murder of prophets...telling them that when they did that, they broke their own law.

I am thinking this interpretation by Warraq is his own, i.e., that verse 33 is addressed directly and solely to the "Children of Israel" (Jews) mentioned in verse 32, and is thus warning them to "behave or else." I have consulted the tafsir of Mawdudi, Shafi'i, even Qutb and I have not found any corroboration for this view even among these Islamist-friendly writers. As far as you know, does this interpretation by Ibn Warraq have any basis in either classical or contemporary exegesis that you are aware of, verse 33 being a "threat" and warning to the Jews to "behave or else?" ?   

Any light you could shed on these questions would be most appreciated!

Salam, Sharif of Lebanon