Between Bringing Glad Tidings and Declaring Others as Infidels

Published in January 24, 2017

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

1- Within real Islam (Quranism), absolute religious freedom for every person is an essential value which is protected, because each person will be judged about one's faith before Almighty God: "There is none in the heavens and the earth but will come to God the Dominant as a servant. He has enumerated them, and counted them one by one. And each one of them will come to Him on the Day of Resurrection alone." (19:93-95); "On the Day when every soul will come pleading for itself, and every soul will be paid in full for what it has done, and they will not be wronged." (16:111).

2- God alone, as the Creator of heavens and the earth and the Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent, is the Only Judge over religious differences among people, on the Day of Resurrection: "Say, "Our God, Initiator of the heavens and the earth, Knower of all secrets and declarations. You will judge between your servants regarding what they had differed about."" (39:46). This is why coercion or compulsion in religion is prohibited in Islam: "There shall be no compulsion in religion; the right way has become distinct from the wrong way…" (2:256). When Muhammad at one point in time was very ambitious in preaching and pressurized some people and urged them zealously to believe in the Quran, God has said the following to him: "Had your Lord willed, everyone on earth would have believed. Will you compel people to become believers?" (10:99). It is the divine will that people are created free to choose between belief and disbelief, obedience and disobedience, and then their choice will be judged on the Last Day. God says to all humanity: "If you disbelieve, God is Independent of you, yet He does not approve ingratitude on the part of His servants. And if you are thankful, He will approve that in you. No bearer of burden can bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return; and He will inform you of what you used to do. He is aware of what the hearts contain." (39:7).      

3- The absolute religious freedom for each individual and each group means the freedom to (dis)believe and the freedom of the performance of worship acts as well as to proselytize and preach any religion of any type in any society.  

4- Religious call and proselytization implies as well one declares others as disbelievers/infidels; both the divine, celestial religion (Quranism) and the earthly, man-made religions are based on the fact that they are on the right and preach the Truth, and others within other creeds and religions are on the wrong and preach falsehoods.    

5- Declaring others as infidels is an essential and integral part of God's religion (Quranism) in order to make clear distinction between the Truth and falsehoods, so as not to make them overlap in the minds and hearts of people. God says that His religion is the Truth and the other religions are false: "Such is God, your Lord-the True. What is there, beyond the Truth, except falsehood? …" (10:32). The testimony of Islam (There is no God but Allah [in Arabic, La Ilah Ila Allah]) begins in its first part with the disbelief in all false deities and gods and its last part is about the belief in the Only True God: Allah. In other words, this testimony begins with the disbelief in Taghut (N.B., this Arabic/Quranic term means all discourses, hadiths, and narratives fabricated by devilish revelation and ascribed falsely to God and Muhammad) in order to attain the belief only in God and His discourse alone: the Quran. God preaches and brings glad tidings to those real believers in this verse: "As for those who avoid the worship of idols, and devote themselves to God-theirs is the good news. So give good news to My servants." (39:17). Hence, the Quranic Truth is the only Truth for real believers, and anything after it is Taghut, or falsehoods fabricated by men. There never could be a medial position, a happy medium, or any way to combine the Truth and fabrications together: "That is because God is the Truth, and what they invoke besides Him is falsehood, and because God is the Exalted, the Supreme." (31:30). Therefore, those who seek way to combine the Truth and fabrications together are disbelievers in the Quran, as they insist to mix falsehoods with true revelation whose interpretations are distorted intentionally; God says the following to the People of the Book: "O People of the Book! Why do you confound the truth with falsehood, and knowingly conceal the truth?" (3:71). This includes false and distorted interpretations that aim to believe in part of the Divine Book and to disbelieve in other parts of it; God says the following to the People of the Book: "…Is it that you believe in part of the Scripture, and disbelieve in part? What is the reward for those among you who do that but humiliation in this life? And on the Day of Resurrection, they will be assigned to the most severe torment. God is not unaware of what you do." (2:85). Of course, such false interpretations and added, or rather imposed, fabrications are the bases of the earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans until now, and they debate using their fabrications and falsehoods to try to refute and/or undermine the Quranic Truth; this verse applies to them: "We send the messengers only as deliverers of good news and warners. Those who disbelieve argue with false argument, in order to defeat the truth thereby. They take My Verses, and the warnings, for a joke." (18:56). We assert here that to believe in fabrications and falsehoods is to disbelieve in God, as per this Quranic verse: "Say, "God suffices as witness between you and me. He knows everything in the heavens and the Earth. Those who believe in vanity and reject God-it is they who are the losers."" (29:52). Hence, to believe, like the Muhammadans, in any other discourse apart from the Quran, God's Word or Discourse, is to disbelieve in God, and He preaches and warns against Hell for those Muhammadans that believe false narratives that lead them to reject the Quran: "These are God's Verses which We recite to you in truth. In which message, after God and His revelations, will they believe? Woe to every sinful liar. Who hears God's revelations being recited to him, yet he persists arrogantly, as though he did not hear them. Announce to him a painful punishment." (45:6-8); " Have they not observed the government of the heavens and the earth, and all the things that God created, and that their time may have drawn near? Which discourse, besides this, will they believe in?" (7:185); "Woe on that Day to the rejecters. In what message, beyond this, will they believe?" (77:49-50).        

6- Each earthly, man-made religion confiscates truth to itself and ascribe heresy and falsehoods to other religions, and even inside one religion, divisions, sects, doctrines, and denominations are endless and each declare the others as apostasy and blasphemy: Shiites, Sunnites, Sufis, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Baha'is, etc.   

7- The difference is that Islam (Quranism) makes religious freedom as absolute (including the freedom to declare others as infidels) but without coercion/compulsion in religion, a prohibited crime in Islam, and the Quran prohibits Muslim preachers from claiming they own or have reached the 'absolute truth' in any topic; they are to say what they think as true and postpone judgment on people, on themselves, and on the others (infidels) until the Last Day to the Eternal Judge: God. Muslims preachers are to respect the religious freedom of others; this is the meaning of this Quranic command addressed to Muhammad as God has told him to say it: "Say, "O my people! Work according to your ability, and so will I." You will come to know to whom will belong the sequel of the abode." The wrongdoers will not prevail." (6:135); "And say to those who do not believe, "Act according to your ability; and so will we. "And wait; we too are waiting."" (11:121-122); "Say: "O my people, work according to your ability; and so will I. Then you will know. Who will receive a humiliating punishment, and on whom will fall a lasting torment." We sent down upon you the Book for mankind in truth. He who follows guidance does so for the good of his soul. And he who strays in error does so to its detriment. You are not their overseer." (39:39-41).    

8- Therefore, when the Quran declare others as infidels, the aim is to preach for the sake of reform and to make living people save themselves from eternity in Hell, whereas the Muhammadans declare others as infidels so as to endorse massacring them. When the Muhammad clergymen declare anyone as 'infidel', this is deemed as an open invitation to kill/murder that person as an apostate who deserves to be put to death, as per the Muhammadans' creeds and notions, or to  fight and massacre certain groups/sects declared as apostates/infidels. This is applied forcibly within the societies of the Muhammadans, as decrees written in blood and disremembered limbs, in the way of Sunnite ISIS terrorists. This is the vast difference between declaring others as infidels in the Quran for the sake of peaceful preaching and warning and declaring others as infidels in the Muhammadans' religions of terror and bloodshed in their man-made sharia laws based on compulsion in religion.

9- To bring glad tidings of Paradise and to warn against Hell are among the methodology of the Quranic preaching in Islam. This is the topic of this article now. 

Religious preaching by divine books and messengers/prophets:

  God has sent messengers/prophets with celestial, divine messages to preach by bringing glad tidings and to warn people. 

1- God says the following in the Quran: "Humanity used to be one community; then God sent the prophets, bringing good news and giving warnings. And He sent down with them the Scripture, with the truth, to judge between people regarding their differences…" (2:213); "We send the messengers only as deliverers of good news and warners…" (18:56); "We sent the messengers only as bearers of good news and as warners. Those who believe and reform have nothing to fear, nor shall they grieve." (6:48).

2- Thus, these warners preach people, and the people are free to accept or to reject, to obey or to disobey, as far as religion is concerned, and the reason for this is explained in the following verse: "Messengers delivering good news, and bringing warnings; so that people may have no excuse before God after the coming of the messengers…" (4:165).  

God has revealed the Quran and made it descend on earth as a warning and as a bringer of good news:

1- God says that the Quran itself is deliverer of good news to real believers in it: "…These are the Verses of the Quran-a book that makes things clear. Guidance and good news for the believers. Those who observe the prayers, and give charity regularly, and are certain of the Hereafter." (27:1-3). "Say, "Whoever is hostile to Gabriel-it is he who revealed it to your heart by God's leave, confirming what preceded it, and guidance and good news for the believers."" (2:97). "Say, "The Holy Spirit has brought it down from your Lord, truthfully, in order to stabilize those who believe, and as guidance and good news for those who submit."" (16:102). "This Quran guides to what is most upright; and it gives good news to the believers who do good deeds, that they will have a great reward." (17:9).

2- God says the following about the Quran as a warner and bearer of good news: "…A Scripture whose Verses were perfected, then elaborated, from One who is Wise and Informed. That you shall worship none but God. "I am a warner to you from Him, and a bearer of good news."" (11:1-2); "A Scripture whose Verses are detailed, a Quran in Arabic for people who know. Bringing good news, and giving warnings. But most of them turn away, so they do not listen." (41:3-4); "And before it was the Book of Moses, a model and a mercy. And this is a confirming Book, in the Arabic language, to warn those who do wrong-and good news for the doers of good." (46:12); "Praise be to God, who revealed the Book to His servant, and allowed in it no distortion. Valuable-to warn of severe punishment from Himself; and to deliver good news to the believers who do righteous deeds, that they will have an excellent reward. In which they will abide forever. And to warn those who say, "God has begotten a son."" (18:1-4).

3- The Quran, as a book making all things in religion clear, will be the basis of bearing witness on the Last Day, and this is glad tidings to those who truly and faithfully believed in it: "On the Day when We raise in every community a witness against them, from among them, and bring you as a witness against these. We have revealed to you the Book, as an explanation of all things, and guidance, and mercy and good news for those who submit." (16:89).

God has sent Muhammad as a bringer of good news and as a warner:

1- Muhammad, whose full name was Muhammad Ibn Abdulla Ibn Abdul-Mutalib Ibn Hashem, was not himself, as a person, a warner and a bringer of good news; he was so as a prophet, during his lifetime, conveying the Quranic message from God. hence, the Quran is the basis here, and he was sent to convey this Quranic message to people as the Divine Truth: "With the truth We sent it down, and with the truth it descended. We sent you only as a bearer of good news and a warner." (17:105); "We have sent you with the truth-bringing good news, and giving warnings. You will not be questioned about the dwellers of Hell." (2:119); "We sent you with the truth; a bearer of good news, and a warner…" (35:24).     

2- Muhammad was a mortal and he died, but the Quranic message remains after him until the end of days as a bringer of good news and as a warner to all humanity: "We sent you only universally to all people, a herald and warner, but most people do not know." (34:28). Muhammad was sent to convey the Quran as a mercy to humankind, not to terrorize and massacre people: "We did not send you except as mercy to humankind." (21:107). Muhammad, using the Quran, is the warner to all humanity, and this warning (i.e., the Quran) remains till the end of days: "Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His servant, to be a warning to humanity." (25:1).   

3- The only message conveyed in the tongue of Muhammad was the Quran, and his Qorayish tribe used to express astonishment regarding Muhammad: "We made it easy in your tongue, in order to deliver good news to the righteous, and to warn with it a hostile people." (19:97); "Is it a wonder to the people that We inspired a man from among them: "Warn humankind, and give good news to those who believe that they are on a sound footing with their Lord"? The disbelievers said, "This is a manifest sorcerer."" (10:2).

4- Hence, within that light, we understand the reason behind the Quran describing Muhammad as a bringer of good news and as a warner: "We sent you as a witness, and a bearer of good news, and a warner." (48:8); "We sent you only as a herald of good news and a warner." (25:56); "O prophet! We have sent you as a witness, and a bearer of good news, and a warner. And a caller towards God by His leave, and an illuminating beacon. And give the believers the good news that for them is a great reward." (33:45-47).

5- This means that Muhammad warned people around him during his lifetime using the Quran, and those people include People of the Book (i.e., Quranic terms referring to Jews + Christians): "O People of the Book! Our Messenger has come to you, making things clear to you-after a cessation of messengers-so that you cannot say, "No preacher has come to us, and no warner." In fact, a preacher has come to you, and a warner; and God is Capable of everything." (5:19).

6- Apart from the Quran, Muhammad never knew the unseen and the unknown and he could not bring to himself goodness or to ward off harm, as he was a mere warner: "Say, "I have no control over any benefit or harm to myself, except as God wills. Had I known the future, I would have acquired much good, and no harm would have touched me. I am only a warner, and a herald of good news to a people who believe."" (7:188).

7- Muhammad thus warned and preached and brought glad tidings to all people, including the real believers: "You warn only those who follow the message and fear the Most Gracious inwardly. So give them good news of forgiveness and a generous reward." (36:11).

8- Indeed, Jesus brought glad tidings about the coming of a prophet after him: "And when Jesus son of Mary said, "O Israelites, I am God's Messenger to you, confirming what preceded me of the Torah, and announcing good news of a messenger who will come after me, whose name is Ahmad." But when he showed them the miracles, they said, "This is obvious sorcery."" (61:6).