From Munich, Germany

[Reader Comments]

Dear Brother Joseph,

I came across your website after I read your interesting article on misinterpretation of the koranic verse supposedly related to wife beating. My conscience, limited understanding and logic never accepted this outrageous explanation and adding to this nightmare, the most idiotic statement of most so called scholars, the gentle beating of women using a "Siwak" stick. Some go as far as introducing a method how to apply such a rule. Put the Koran under one armpit and the stick under the other and while both arms are tight against the upper abdomen, one needs to twist the upper body to gently strike his poor downtrodden wife.

The worse thing I heard not as far as yesterday, a sheikh from Saudi Arabia, the epicentre of ignorance on planet earth despite being God's epicentre of the earth, saying that Allah elevated the woman's honour to such high degree that even though the man can beat her up, he's not allowed to swear at her and this is the highest status given to the woman.

I am not sure how low can one go to even believe such ridiculous statements coming from a man of religion can be made public. No wonder we Muslims reached rock bottom.

The main reason I am writing to you is not just about this specific point but the Muslim situation in general. I am not sure the problem is tackled at the right level nor have we managed to agree on the root cause of the problem. Most of our so called scholars tend to avoid discussing the past fearing fitna which I believe is a trick to deviate people's attention from the real problem and they are paid to do so.

Atrocities committed today in Syria, Iraq and other Muslim countries is not something new in the Muslim world. This has been happening since the demise of our Prophet (PBUH) and continued throughout the kalifate era until today. Whoever has power destroys the weaker one and if in turn the weaker gets that power, he will do the same to others and so on.

When the British established the Al Saud dynasty or monopoly over the people of Hijaz and Mohamed ibn Abdelwahab as its mufti around 1740's, we read similar atrocities committed against their people and the people of neighbouring countries like Iraq.

The question is what went wrong after the Prophet's death? Did He really leave the decision open to the people to appoint a successor or did He appoint someone but the decision was overturned by a hostile group/movement to snatch this position after His death?

I believe the problem lies at this very level and if we, Muslims aren't prepared to turn every stone and face this problem that caused us to drift away from the right path, we'll never unite and we'll remain divided as long as we are on the face of planet earth.

The other question is "Who will be ready to commit to this humongous task?"

I would appreciate your comment/critic on my perspective and I would be very happy to hear from you no matter what your view on this is.

I wish you all the best and may Allah bestow his mercy upon you and your family especially in this month of Ramadhan.


Wassalaam

From Munich Germany.