Harmful Mosques, Again

Published in August 9, 2018

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

 We have received this question via an email message; we quote it partially here followed by our reply.

  (... I've read your views about never to enter into mosques of the Muhammadans ... Does this include the Yathreb Mosque and the Sacred Kaaba Mosque? Of course, as you know, sermons in both mosques include hadiths (of Al-Bokhary and others) and supplications addressed to deified mortals (Prophet Muhammad and others) day and night. Are we to avoid pilgrimage to Mecca then?! many rituals there now include sermons that contain the so-called hadiths ... You are prohibiting the performance of prayers inside the mosques of the Muhammadans despite the fact that you have mentioned before that no one is to prohibit things never mentioned as such in the Holy Quran ...God has said the following to Prophet Muhammad: "Then there are those who establish a mosque to cause harm, and disbelief, and disunity among the believers, and as an outpost for those who fight God and His Messenger. They will swear: "Our intentions are nothing but good." But God bears witness that they are liars. Do not stand in it, ever..." (9:109-110). Is the command addressing Muhammad never to enter into a harm-causing mosque addressed to all believers in all eras as well? If so, how are we gonna investigate in order to recognize harmful mosques that spread ideas of terrorism, extremism, and any other corrupt notions?! God is the Only One Who knows the intentions of people, you know ... We are to avoid violent, aggressive people, of course, and those who incite violence ... God says in the Quran: "O you who believe! When you journey in the way of God, investigate, and do not say to him who offers you peace, "You are not a believer," aspiring for the goods of this world. With God are abundant riches. You yourselves were like this before, and God bestowed favor on you; so investigate. God is well aware of what you do." (4:94) ... Thank you ...).

OUR REPLY

Firstly: brief answers:

1- Please (re)read our article titled "The Prohibition of Performing the Friday Congregational Prayers and Listening to Sermons inside the Harmful Mosques of the Muhammadans" (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=18522). This article is filled with quoted Quranic verses which include the ones about the prohibition of attending gatherings that include arguing against God's Quranic verses. The general Quranic rules focus on topics like acts of worship and monotheism (There is no God but Allah), and verses containing these rules include descriptions of believers, disbelievers, and hypocrites; this is NOT confined to Arabs or Qorayish or to Mecca and Yathreb dwellers. It is easy to spot the harmful or harm-causing mosques by the nature of the sermons preached inside them; the content of such sermons will show if they are polytheistic Muhammadans who deify mortals or not and if they are peaceful people or not (i.e., they incite acts of violence or not). The criterion here is that sermons should reflect the belief in the Only Discourse in Islam: the Quran. The sermons delivered within the mosques of the Muhammadans typically reflect the belief in hadiths and fiqh narratives that are placed above the Quran as if they were supplanting the Quranic verses; such people in such mosques, then, are against the Quran and Quranists; they incite violence against those who adhere to the Quran only and declare them as (infidels) as they reject the polytheistic Sunnite or Shiite religion.  

2- Of course, pilgrimage at the Kaaba in Mecca is a duty in Islam: "...Pilgrimage to the House is a duty to God for all who can make the journey..." (3:97); yet, you can avoid performing Friday congregational prayers there as its sermons typically contain the cursed hadiths that repel people away from God and the Quran and supplications addressed to God to preserve and lend victory to the kings/sultans.

3- You should the so-called Yathreb mosque; it is a pagan temple dedicated to the worship of the abomination/mausoleum dedicated to a buried 'immortal' deity whom they have named 'Muhammad'; it has nothing to do with the real Prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Quran. It is not prohibited that you enter into Yathreb like a tourist; yet, you are never to worship at such an abomination or a pagan temple so as to avoid polytheism: "...So stay away from the abomination of idols, and stay away from telling falsehoods." (22:30). This abomination/mausoleum is a pagan, polytheistic location that must be avoided and sermons delivered there contain nothing but lies, myths, and falsehoods.   

4- As for your quoting the verse 4:94, it tackles the self-defense fighting within the battlefield; once an aggressor there utters the word of peace and surrenders, he is to be saved and brought to security and never be killed. This verse has nothing to do with the Quranic command to avoid harmful or harm-causing mosques. Let us remember that the hypocrites within the Yathreb city-state enjoyed absolute religious freedom as they engaged into a peaceful religious and political opposition movement which included building a harmful mosque to speak against the Quran and to conspire against Muhammad and the believers with him. The Quranic commands in that case are to avoid such people and their harm and never to enter into their mosque(s). Let us remember that some of the Yathreb believers (i.e., those who adhered to security and peaceful behavior) worshiped mausoleums and saints/allies/deities and no one deprived them from the absolute religious freedom; citizenship in this Quran-based country or state is based on peaceful demeanor and adherence to security, which is Islam/belief in terms of behavior. Muslims are submitters to God and adherents to peace; they deal peacefully and fairly with non-Muslim peaceful countries and nations who never fight them or ally themselves to aggressors against them: "As for those who have not fought against you for your religion, nor expelled you from your homes, God does not prohibit you from dealing with them kindly and equitably. God loves the equitable. But God prohibits you from allying yourselves to those who fought against you over your religion, and expelled you from your homes, and aided in your expulsion. Whoever takes them for allies - these are the unjust ones." (60:8-9). We have repeated this many times and we sincerely hope that novices and newcomers would read our entire archive of writings first before posing repeated questions which are answered before so many times.      

5- The above-quoted message reflects a real problem; novices and newcomers who find our Quranism website read the recent writings of ours without bothering to read our archive of writings that includes thousands of fatwas, comments, and articles and tens of books about Quranism as the Only True Islam. Many of our recent writings contain details of basic facts and notions tackled within previous writings as we build on accumulated knowledge of Islam (i.e., the Quran) and history, our field of specialization. Novices and newcomers have no prior background of our previous writings and are either too lazy to read or have no time; many are intimidated by the daunting task of having to read and ponder on our archive – a process which may take several months. This is why sometimes, in some articles and books, we have to repeat certain basic ideas as a reminder to old-timers to refresh their memory and to provide a very brief background to novices and newcomers who discover our website for the first time.    

6- We tackle here briefly – again – the very important basis of Islamic/Quranic sharia laws; i.e., the meanings of (Islam) and (belief); we have tackled this topic tens of times before; this will be the last time to write about it.

Secondly: Islamic sharia legislations within the Quran are derived from the meanings of belief (i.e., security) and Islam (i.e., submission to the Lord God):

1- The meanings of (Islam) and (belief) are tackled in our article, in English, titled "Islam: Religion of Peace" (http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=6674) and also within other articles about the meanings of polytheism and disbelief, Quranic legislations about self-defense fighting, and allowing Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men if these men are peaceful people. We urge you to specify time to read our articles about these topics.

2- Briefly, both (Islam) and (belief) have two meanings as follows.

2/1: Both of the terms (Islam) and (belief) have two meanings: in terms of faith, they mean monotheism and avoiding polytheism; in terms of demeanor, both mean adhering to peaceful behavior and security (i.e., people are to ensure the security of others around them and to be trustworthy and peaceful people). Hence, any peaceful persons are (Muslims) regardless of their denominations and religions or even lack of them (i.e., atheism); we are not to judge others based on their religious beliefs; this is God's concern on the Day of Judgment to settle our religious disputes and differences. This means we are to judge overt behavior as peaceful or violent. The Quran-based Yathreb city-state during Muhammad's lifetime was based on absolute religious freedom; citizenship was based at the time on peaceful behavior regardless of faiths; i.e., some peaceful believes still worshipped mausoleums/saints at the time despite the Quranic command of avoiding such things; this command does NOT mean to destroy temples of polytheism and disbelief; real Muslims ensure absolute religious freedom for all citizens. We should remember that the hypocrites in the Yathreb city-state exercised their rights of political and religious opposition that went into extremes within adhering to peace; what mattered at the time was that they never raised arms against peaceful believers, despite their conspiring against Islam. God's Quranic commands are to avoid peaceful, non-violent hypocrites; it is enough that they will be in the lower depths of Hell; this is to be understood within the frame of repeated Quranic verses about avoiding disbelievers and hypocrites and never to enter into harmful mosques.          

2/2: In the Quranic text, disbelief and polytheism are exact synonyms; both have two meanings: in terms of faith and in terms of behavior.

2/2/1: In terms of faith, both terms mean to deify, sanctify, and worship things and mortals; this is OK within Quran-based countries and their major principle of absolute religious freedom as per Quranic sharia laws; the mission of a given Quran-based state is NOT to make people enter into Paradise in the Hereafter; this is a personal, individual responsibility; those who are (mis)guided out of their own free choice will see the result of it on the Last Day when judged by the Dominant Lord God Who will judge the faith and deeds of all humanity.

2/2/2: In terms of behavior, both terms mean to commit acts of violence and aggression against peaceful people (i.e., Muslims in terms of behavior). Such aggression is of two types as follows.

2/2/2/1: Terrorism committed by terrorists inside a given Quran-based state/country to intimidate and terrorize peaceful people. for instance, highwaymen who murder, rob, and frighten the innocent, peaceful people must be faced with severe penalties as they thus fight against God and His Religion of peace; see 5:33-34. 

2/2/2/2: Aggression committed against a Quran-based country from outside it; self-defense in that case is a basic right in Islam to deter the aggressive enemy or the transgressors; once violence and aggression stop, the self-defense endeavors should stop; this means that self-defense fighting in Islam aims to restore peace and to deter the aggressors; see 2:190-194 and 8:60.

2/3: There are two types of repentance as follows.

2/3/1: Overt repentance which we judge as per what we see; its types are as follows.

2/3/1/1: The repentance of aggressors or transgressors who come from outside the given Quran-based country; God will forgive them if they repent and stop their aggression: "Say to those who disbelieve: if they desist, their past will be forgiven. But if they persist - the practice of the ancients has passed away." (8:38).

2/3/1/2: The repentance of terrorists/aggressors who live inside the given Quran-based country; their penalty is not applied if they repent before getting arrested or before being resisted, fought, and captured; see 5:34.

2/3/1/3: Aggressive soldiers/fighters who utter the word of peace in the battlefield or seek help and refuge; they are not to be murdered or fought; see 4:94 and 9:6.

2/3/1/4: The repentance of sinners who committed grave sins and transgression regarding rights of people/society within the given Quran-based country, such as sexual slanders, fornication/adultery, theft, and murder. This overt repentance (declared verbally) and making amends for any losses make sinners/criminals avoid exacting penalties on them.

2/3/1/5: Overt repentance means to make amends, to perform acts of worship (prayers, alms, etc.), and to adhere to peace and non-violence (e.g., to stop the war of aggression); this is inferred from this Quranic context about those who breached the peace treaties and committed acts of violence inside Mecca after it surrendered to early believers and its people adhered overtly to peace: "When the Sacred Months have passed, kill the polytheists wherever you find them. And capture them, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayers, and pay the alms, then let them go their way. God is Most Forgiving, Most Merciful." (9:5); "But if they repent, and perform the prayers, and give the obligatory charity, then they are your brethren in faith. We detail the Verses for a people who know." (9:11).

2/4: Arabs adhered to peace (i.e., peaceful coexistence as they stopped their raids and their fighting/attacking early believers) as the Religion of God in multitudes when Muhammad re-entered into Mecca shortly before his death; God considers this as a victory: "When there comes God's victory and triumph. And you see the people entering God's Religion in multitudes." (110:1-2); Muhammad could judge what he saw overtly when they adhered to peaceful behavior en masse; he could not perceive the intentions of disbelievers and hypocrites who feigned being Muslims; he was no mind-reader; God is the Omniscient Lord: "...God is well aware of your faith. You are from one another..." (4:25); "He knows the deceptions of the eyes, and what the hearts conceal." (40:19).

2/5: Thus, as per overt (dis)belief, one can judge (as per human capacity and mental faculties) the behavior of others as peaceful or violent. This asserts the fact that Islamic sharia laws in the Quran are also applied within human capacity and mental faculties.

3- Islam and belief in terms of faith means to dedicate one's religion and acts of worship only to God; this is real monotheism. This means to submit totally to God (i.e., to His Quranic commands) in secret and in public; this is judged ONLY by the Almighty Lord God on the Last Day; people are not to judge one another's faith levels and so on.

3/1: Thus, sincere repentance is for God to judge; repentant ones should perform all acts of worship within piety and monotheism; they are to be among the believers described in the Quranic Chapter 23; as for society/people, they are to judge overt behavior of peace and security. 

3/2: This is why most Quranic verses that contain legislations typically end in urging believers to adhere to piety; all Islamic acts of worship aim at one thing: attainment of and adherence to piety during one's lifetime; the Eternal Life in Paradise of the Hereafter are only for the really pious ones among monotheists. 

3/3: Accordingly those (Muslims) in terms of adherence to peaceful behavior who repent overtly and declare this in public will be spared from penalties (in cases of sexual slanders, fornication/adultery, theft, and murder); but if their repentance is insincere and they are inveterate liars and double-crossers and they die as such, they are hypocrites who will dwell inside Hell for eternity.  

3/4: Of course, there are grave sins that have no penalties (exacted by people on sinners/criminals in this world) within the Quran, such as disbelief in terms of faith, rejection of Islam/Quran, atheism, polytheism, wine-drinking, gambling, practicing divination, worshiping mausoleums/idols, unjust confiscation of money of people, inheritors, and orphans, and usury practiced instead of paying charity and Zakat alms. Sinners who commit such crimes or grave sins and die without repentance will be punished in Hell on the Last Day.