De Nobele Koran bevat het (letterlijke) woord van de Schepper der hemelen en aarde, Allah, dus daar gaan wij moslims met respect mee om. Wanneer een Koran niet meer in goede staat is, dan heb je als moslim de optie om het te verbranden, dus een Koran verbranden is niets nieuws. De woorden van God zijn sowieso in onze harten, de (Arabische versie van de) Koran is door miljoenen moslims (waaronder vele niet-Arabieren) wereldwijd van kaft tot kaft gememoriseerd (let this sink in, want het is één van de wonderen van de Koran):

54/17 And We have certainly made the Qur’an easy for remembrance, so is there any who will remember?

Als vandaag wereldwijd alle boeken tegelijkertijd worden verbrand, is de Koran het enige boek dat binnen een uurtje of minder volledig terugkeert, en om de uitdaging nog moeilijker (en miraculeuzer) te maken, dient het terug te keren via de handen van kinderen (zonder hulp van een volwassene!). Erg moeilijk dus om zoiets voor elkaar te krijgen voor ieder ander boek, behalve als het om de Heilige Koran gaat, wiens inhoud onder Goddelijke bescherming staat, aangezien het de Laatste Revelatie bevat aan de mensheid tot het einde der tijden en dus niet verloren dient te gaan:

15/9 Indeed, it is We who sent down the Qur’an and indeed, We will be its guardian.

Wat is de betekenis van het Arabische woord “Koran” zelf? De waarschijnlijke letterlijke betekenis is: “het gereciteerde”, “reciteren”. Zie de video hieronder voor een voorbeeld van een recitatie in de oorspronkelijke taal.

Het is dus begrijpelijk dat sommige moslimjongeren getriggerd kunnen worden door de provocaties van een rechtsextremist in Zweden en gaan rellen. Het gaat om de slechte intentie achter de Koranverbranding. Deze zogenaamde vrijheid van een rechtsextremist om een Koran te verbranden in een overwegend allochtone wijk en een religieuze minderheid te schofferen komt erg onderontwikkeld over. Dit is het gevolg van het faalsysteem genaamd demo(n)cratie waar dagelijks de rechten van minderheden op het spel staan en geschonden worden volgens de grillen van de meerderheid en populisten die hen bespelen, terwijl in de Islam de rechten van minderheden al 14 eeuwen vaststaan en niet ter discussie staan van demagogen.

Daarnaast is het sowieso raar dat we in een “woke-tijdperk” met iedereen rekening moeten houden om maar niet op hun lange teentjes te trappen, maar blijkbaar mag je wel keer op keer moslims beledigen. De oorzaak hiervan ligt in het feit dat tirannen wereldwijd (onder leiding van Satan) niet blij zijn met de woorden van God in de Koran.

17/53 Indeed Satan is ever, to mankind, a clear enemy.
4/119 And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of Allah has certainly sustained a clear loss.

Zweden is inmiddels veroordeeld door Irak, Iran, Saoedi-Arabië, Maleisië, Turkije, Jordanië en Qatar. Er wordt een boycot van Zweedse bedrijven voorbereid. We weten dat hun zogenaamde vrijheid van meningsuiting op lucht gebaseerd is, dus ze kunnen zich niet daarachter schuilen om moslims wereldwijd te schofferen, terwijl ze ondertussen het verbranden van de Zweedse vlag al niet toestaan.

Wat ook opvalt is dat de Zweedse politie de extreemrechtse provocateur als een soort VIP rondrijdt zodat hij zijn wandaad kan plegen in meerdere steden. Zouden zij bijvoorbeeld een Palestijnse activist ook zo rondrijden door Zweden zodat hij in elke stad de Israëlische vlag kan verbranden uit protest tegen de misdaden van die, door Amnesty International beschreven als, racistische apartheidsstaat? Natuurlijk niet.

Laten we wel wezen, Zweden zou nooit een moslim het hele land rondrijden met miljoenen euro’s aan politiebescherming om een bijbel te verbranden. Hun vrijheid van meningsuiting is alleen bedoeld om moslimhaat aan te wakkeren, dit is wat hun islamofobe elite wil, verder niets. Dit wordt goed begrepen door niet-gehersenspoelde weldenkende mensen die niet in allerlei westerse sprookjes geloven.

Some people try to suggest that issues of politics, ruling and governance have nothing to do with Islam and those who speak for it are misguided and power hungry freaks. The truth, however, is the exact opposite. Ruling, governance and politics are a part of Islam just like prayers are. Those who stand for an apolitical image of Islam actually fail to understand Islam in its totality. The claim that ruling and governance is an essential part of Islam like prayers is based on a categorical and authentic saying of the Holy Prophet

عن أبي أمامة الباهلي، عن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: لتنقضن عرى الإسلام عروة عروة، فكلما انتقضت عروة تشبث الناس بالتي تليها، وأولهن نقضا الحكم وآخرهن الصلاة

Abu Umamah narrated from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that he said: “Islam will be stripped away, piece by piece. Every time a piece will be stripped people would hold tight to the next one. The first of things taken would be ruling and governance, and the last thing would be salah (i.e. ritual prayers). (Ahmad, Ibn Hibban and others)

al-Albani classified it as sahih – Sahih Ibn Hibban (Hadith 6680, Ba Wazir ed.)

Shu’aib al-Arna’ut said its isnaad is good (jayyid) – Musnad Ahmad (Hadith 22160, ar-Risalah ed.)

Bron: https://islamicauthority.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/rule-and-governance-part-of-islam-just-like-prayers/

Mali has blocked access to Radio France Internationale and France 24 news outlets.

The reason for this is that these outlets had reported on civilian deaths in Mali, the blame for which they said fell on Malian soldiers.

It very well could have. And if so, shame on them. The only problem is that by those standards, Mali should have thrown out France when they bombed a wedding.

Liberty-Equality-Fraternity France is, of course, against Mali’s move of blocking their news channels (the EU is as well), with Macron declaring:

“I condemn with the greatest firmness this decision, which seems to me totally at odds with the values espoused by the people of Mali since its independence.”

It’s kind of amusing considering they’re part of the European block of countries that have banned RT (Russia Today) and Sputnik news agency. I guess a bit more frankness is too much to ask for.

Bron: https://muslimskeptic.com/2022/03/28/from-mali-to-niger-france-moves-military-operations-questions-about-motives-abound/

As Muslims, we know that the original revelation sent to Jews and Christians has been corrupted, but not in totality, so we can still find prophecies about Muhammad ﷺ.

We find many Qur’anic verses on this matter, such as 7:157:

Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written [i.e., described] in what they have of the Torah and the Gospel, who enjoins upon them what is right and prohibits them from what is wrong and makes lawful for them what is good and forbids them from what is evil and relieves them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them. So they who have believed in him, honored him, supported him and followed the light which was sent down with him – it is those who will be the successful.

There are many Biblical verses announcing the Final Messenger ﷺ but here we’ll look at one particularly potent, and also easy to explain, example which shows that the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ was indeed announced centuries before his blessed birth.

More specifically, we’ll look at Genesis 17:20.

Reading Genesis 17:20
The book of Genesis is the first book of the Bible in the Jewish and Christian canons.

Ascribed to Moses (‘alayhi as-salam), it describes the creation of the world up to the origins of the Israelites, with the story of Jacob and Joseph (‘alayhima as-salam).

Thus, in-between it also contains the stories of Abraham and his son, Ishmael (‘alayhima as-salam).

It’s in such context that we read in Genesis 17:20:

And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.

We could in fact just stop here. Ask any Jew or Christian, which descendant of Ismail (‘alayhi as-salam) created a nation which has been “fruitful” in numbers?

None but the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ.

But let’s dig further.

A Convert to Islam on Genesis 17:20
Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, not to be confused with the more famous Qur’anic commentator and historian, was born in ninth-century Iran.

Like other Muslim scholars, he was a polymath, mastering mathematics, astronomy, and calligraphy, but he is best remembered for his works in medicine, penning Firdous al–Hikmah (Paradise of Wisdom) c. 860, the first encyclopedia of medicine in the Arabic language, containing innovative ideas in pediatrics and child psychology.

Described as an ethnic Jew, Persian, or Syriac in different sources, what’s of interest for us is that he was an ex-Christian who wrote two books against his former religion, Al-Radd ´ala al-Nasara (The Refutation of the Christians) and Kitab al-Din Wa’l Dawla (The Book of Religion and Empire).

In the latter, he gave and commented upon dozens of Biblical prophecies about Muhammad ﷺ, but when it comes to Genesis 17:20, he wrote:

He made clear and open announcements to Abraham (peace be upon him) and Hagar (God’s mercy be upon her), and we have seen them come to fulfilment or made apparent only with the appearance of the Prophet (may God bless him and give him peace). Hagar was given the kind of announcement about this greater than we have ever seen any wife of past men receive apart from Mary the pure virgin, mother of Christ (peace be upon him). However, Mary, (peace be upon her) was given the announcement about Christ once, while Hagar was given the announcement about Ishmael twice, and his father (peace be upon him) was given the announcement a number of times. Then, after her passing, God, great and mighty, mentioned Hagar many times on the tongues of the prophets, as though addressing her. I will explain this, as God wills, in its due place.

What God almighty revealed to Abraham (peace be upon him) about Ishmael alone are his words on the tongue of Moses (peace be upon him) in the first Book of the Torah in Chapter 10, for God said to Abraham (peace be upon him), ‘I have answered your prayer about Ishmael and have blessed him and increased him and made him exceedingly great. He will beget twelve mighty beings, and I will make him a mighty nation.’[Genesis 17:20] This is in the translation of Marcus the translator, though in the Torah interpreted by the seventy-two Jewish priests it says, ‘He will beget twelve nations.’ For there is nothing greater among the promises and announcements about anyone than the word of God, great and mighty, ‘I have blessed him and increased him and made him exceedingly mighty.’ Less than this from God, great and mighty, is great, and something smaller than it is significant, because the scope of what God sees is exceedingly great and mighty, and there is no more mighty scope than it.

This is a reproach and refutation of that rude and uncouth person who slandered Ishmael and dishonoured him with the words of God about him, ‘He will be a wild ass of the people’. I will explain this under this point as a rebuke to this insane sniveller. For Moses (peace be upon him) prophesied about such a prophecy in the first Book, Chapter 9, saying, ‘When Hagar fled from Sarah, the angel of God appeared to her and said, “Hagar, Sarah’s slave-girl, where have you come from and where are you going ?” Answering him, Hagar said, “I am running away from my mistress Sarah.” The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and be submissive to her, for I will multiply your offspring and your seed until they cannot be counted in number. And you will bear a child and give birth to a son and will name him Ishmael, because God has heard your self-denial and humility. He will be a wild ass of the people, and his hand will be over all and the hand of all will be stretched out to him, and his dwelling will be on the boundaries of all his brothers.”’[Genesis 16:7–12]

This is a second announcement which the angel delivered directly to Hagar (peace be upon her) from God, great and mighty, giving the news that God would make the hand of her son uppermost and the hands of all the people lower with respect to him. And among the prophecies of Moses (peace be upon him) we have not seen this come to fulfilment or made manifest except after the appearance of the Prophet Muḥammad (may God bless him and give him peace).

He goes on about other prophecies about Ishmael (‘alahi as-salam) and how they’re linked with the rise of Islam.

Is Ishmael (‘alayhi as-salam) Portrayed Badly?
Apart from Genesis 17:20, we see al-Tabari’s comments about another prophecy, that found in Genesis 16:7-12. Many Christian polemicists see Ishmael (‘alayhi as-salam) being described as a “wild ass” or “wild donkey” as a negative description, but in Genesis 49 many of the twelve tribes of Israel are themselves compared to animals, such as the tribe of Dan being called a snake in Genesis 49:17, without being a sort of insult.

In fact, both Jewish and Christian scholars have seen in Ishmael (‘alayhi as-salam) being described as a “wild donkey” a compliment, meaning “independence” and warfare against those who try to submit him, which is again comparable to how Islam is alone in resisting the liberal New World Order nowadays.

John Meuhleisen-Arnold, an English-Christian clergyman and missionary, wrote in Ishmael: Or, a Natural History of Islamism, and Its Relation to Christianity, a book released in 1859 which was quite influential back in those days:

The ”wild ass”, to whom Ishmael is here compared is described in the book of Job as a wild, independent and haughty animal, living in the wilderness. He is known in natural history as the Dsigetai [Mongolian wild ass]; a fine, strong and noble creature; of the size and bearing of a lightly-built horse, light-footed and slender, with a neck resembling that of a stag, which he always carries upright (…) his wild and proud appearance indicates unsubdued power and perfect independence; and indeed no one has hitherto succeeded in taming him. Even when caught young they prefer to die in their fetters, than to submit to the will of man (…) the Arab bears precisely the stamp of the wild ass, here described. He lives in herds and tribes and is as untamed and untameable.

This comes from a Christian missionary who can’t be accused of having hidden affinities for Islam.

But isn’t that interesting? How even a criticism of Islam becomes an argument for Islam: Ishmael (‘alayhi as-salam) as a “wild donkey” announced the fiercely independent and unconquerable nature of Islam, Islam itself being conquering, as al-Tabari wrote!

We again ask the Jews and the Christians: Which nation that claims Ishmael has conquered many while resisting being conquered itself, if not the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ?

Is Ishmael Really the Ancestor of Arabs?
Because of this obvious prophecy, Christian polemicists are so embarrassed that they even have to dissociate Ishmael (‘alayhi as-salam) from the Arabs, mainly aiming at dissociating him from the Prophet ﷺ himself, and thus the Ummah.

Sadly, independent academic scholarship goes against their polemics.

Carol Bakhos, professor of Late Antique Judaism at UCLA, writes in Ishmael on the Border: Rabbinic Portrayals of the First Arab:

As mentioned above, the identification of Arabs as descendants of Ishmael was well established by the time of the redaction of the Talmud, in fact dating back to the Hellenistic period. In the book of Jubilees, Abraham exhorts his sons, including Ishmael and the children of Keturah, and their children to observe circumcision and to avoid fornication, uncleanness, and intermarriage with Canaanites.
(…)
We also find in Josephus several examples where Ishmaelites are identified as Arabs. Discussing the circumcision of lsaac, for example, Josephus writes: “Eight days later they promptly circumcise him; and from that time forward the Jewish practice has been to circumcise so many days after birth. The Arabs defer the ceremony to the thirteenth year, because Ishmael, the founder of their race, born of Abraham’s concubine, was circumcised at that age.”

In fact, the earliest of the Christian critics of Islam, John of Damascus, who died c. 750, called Muslims the “Ishmaelites,” as did many other pre-modern Christian writers, so such link between Ishmael (‘alayhi as-salam) and the Ummah was universally accepted by both Jewish and Christian authorities.

So, now that they can’t deny the prophecy, nor can they deny Ishmael (‘alayhi as-salam) is seen positively, nor can they deny that he’s genealogically connected to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ… let’s actually read some of these Jewish and Christian authorities on the subject, shall we?

Influential Rabbis Admit the Prophecy
Rabbi Bahya ben Asher, from 14th-century Spain, is one of the most influential Jewish commentators of the Bible.

Quoting Rabbi Chananel ben Chushiel, another influential Jewish scholar, who worked in the 11th-century Tunisia, he writes about Genesis 17:20:

ונתתיו לגוי גדול, “and I will make him into a great nation.” Rabbeinu Chananel wrote: we note that this prophecy was fulfilled for them only after 2333 years. [Rabbi Chavell writes that this is an accurate number seeing that Avraham was circumcised in the year 2047 after the creation. The Islamic religion was founded in the year 4374 after the creation. Allow for another ten years until it started spreading throughout the world and you will arrive at the number 2333 after Avraham was circumcised, the date of this prediction.] This delay was not due to their sins as they had been looking forward to fulfillment of the prophecy during all those years. Once the prophecy came true Islam conquered the civilized world like a whirlwind. We, the Jewish people, lost our position of pre-eminence in the world due to our sins. Seeing that at the time of writing we have yearned for the fulfillment of the prophecy that we will be redeemed for a mere 1330 years, we certainly have no reason to abandon hope that it will be fulfilled.

The part between bracket is the editors quoting Rabbi Charles Ber Chavel, from the 20th-century US, so in total you have not one, not two, but three rabbis, quite influential at that, and stretching a period of 1000 years and many continents, making a direct connection between Genesis 17:20 and Islam.

It’s thus no wonder that countless knowledgeable Jews accepted Islam throughout history, such as Ka’b al-Ahbar, active during the times of ‘Umar (radiyAllahu ‘anhu), physicist Abu’l Barakat al-Baghdadi in 11th-century Iraq or mathematician Al-Samawal al-Maghribi in 11th-century Morocco, al-Maghribi also penning a famed book refuting Judaism.

Some of these ex-Jews have also used one of the peculiar Jewish exegetical tools, the “Gematria,” where they give numerical value to words, to establish a connection between Genesis 17:20 and our Prophet ﷺ:

Other popular passages in the biblical patriarchal cycle foretell the coming of Muhammad. God announces the birth of Isaac to Abraham while at the same time promising to “bless [Ishmael]. I will make him fertile and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve chieftains, and I will make of him a great nation” (Genesis 17:15-21). It is hardly surprising that the Muslims took this passage as a direct reference to the great Islamic umma to come. Another prophecy derived from the same passage is based on the numerical value of words rather than literalism and is strikingly “Jewish” in technique. The Hebrew expression for “exceedingly,” bi-me’od me’od, computed mathematically (each letter of the Hebrew alphabet having a numerical value), yields the numerical equivalent of the name of the Prophet (the consonants M Ḥ M D add up to 92, the same total as the letters B M’ D M’ D). This exegetical method, called “gematria” in the Talmud, might be a Jewish import into Islamic polemics, for this and other “gematrias” appear in anti-Jewish polemical works written by Jewish converts to Islam.

In fact, even those erudite Jews who didn’t accept Islam, and were even somehow critical of it, such as Maimonides, considered Islam to be monotheistic, unlike Christianity which they considered “avodah zarah” (idolatry), to the extent a Jew can pray in a mosque but not in a church.

Such Jewish appreciation, and often acceptance, of Islam reminds us of a Quranic verse, 26:197:

And has it not been a sign to them that it is recognized by the scholars of the Children of Israel?

Also note that these rabbis say that while this prophecy has been fulfilled, theirs is still pending… and thus, yet another question: many of the Jews and Christians believe we live in the end of times, so if the prophecy about Ishmael (‘alayhi as-salam) hasn’t been fulfilled with Muhammad ﷺ and his Ummah… when will it be fulfilled?

Are they expecting, in the few years to come, an “Ishmaelite” nation would rise, equaling in terms of intensity the early Islamic conquests and eventually reaching the current numbers of Muslims?

Some Christians Admit It
Some Jews might reject the prophecy of Muhammad ﷺ because they have made Judaism an ethnic religion, so they would say, “He’s a prophet for the Gentiles, but not for us. Him being a prophet doesn’t impact us.”

This is a weak response which deserves an article of its own, but let’s say that for Christians it’s more complicated to accept the prophecy because they see their religion as being universal, the same way Islam is universal, so the obvious conflict.

But some did see the prophecy:

Following the example of many earlier apocalypses about Islamic rule, the APBR also turns to the Old Testament to show that the rise of Islam was foretold. In several passages the Muslims are associated with the progeny of Ishmael. ‘Sons of Ishmael’ is probably the biblical term most frequently used in Eastern Christian texts to refer to Muslims. Islamic rule was considered a fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham that he would make Ishmael a great nation and a progenitor of twelve princes (Gen 17.20).

Abdul Majid Daryabadi, a 20th-century Indian-Muslim scholar, who earlier was an agnostic with interests in philosophy and psychology but later came back to Islam and was known for his knowledge in comparative religions, also saw the prophecy of Ishmael (alayhi as’salam) in the New Testament.

In his commentary, he quotes the following passage, Matthew 21:42-44:

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

“‘The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’

“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.

Daryabadi then comments:

It was the progeny of Ismail that was so long rejected and looked down upon by the Jews (and also by the Christians). It was one of those very Ismailites who at long last was raised to the highest honor. The announcement that this prophet’s opponents shall be smashed is even more clear.

Here is yet another argument against Islam which becomes an argument for Islam: the Christians — when they don’t outright deny the genealogical link — see in Ishmael, and thus in Islam, negative attributes. But it’s precisely such a negative attitude which, as per the New Testament, makes Muslims eligible to be “the rejected stone” which becomes the “cornerstone,” i.e., the despised “Bedouins” who birthed a Prophet ﷺ, himself creating an Ummah, the largest world community of genuine monotheists and the last to genuinely resist against the liberalization (and dajjalization) of the world.

How can Jews and Christians deny such a clear prophecy in their own books?

Bron: https://muslimskeptic.com/2022/03/23/an-indisputable-biblical-prophecy-announcing-islam/

One of the problems that plague the Bible and all other “sacred” scriptures of the other world religions, such as the Bhagavad-Gita, the Avesta and so on, is the issue of the textual reliability.

It is not just that the content of those books is questionable and written down by often anonymous people who lived decades or even centuries after the alleged events they are talking about, but that the manuscripts themselves were heavily edited and tampered with by later scribes.

Majority of Orientalists Admit the Reliability Of The Qur’an
Hence, it is truly a mu´jizah (miracle) of world history that the Qur´an was preserved letter by letter.

The weird pseudo-scientific theories of revisionist western historians (John Wansbrough, Patricia Crone, Dan Gibson, Moshe Sharon, Yehuda Nevo, etc.) who challenged the textual genuineness of the Qur´an have all turned out to be false, as the great discoveries of numerous Quranic manuscripts from the life-time of the Messenger ﷺ have vindicated the Islamic claim on the preservation of the Qur´an.

The expert on Islamic history Andrew Brockett concludes:

The transmission of the Qur’an after the death of Muhammad was essentially static, rather than organic. There was a single text, and nothing significant, not even allegedly abrogated material, could be taken out nor could anything be put in.

He also says about the Qur´an:

All this points to a remarkably unitary transmission in both its graphic form and its oral form.

Even the British Islamophobe and Christian missionary William Muir admits:

Yet but one Koran has always been current amongst them (i.e. Muslims)… There is probably in the world no other work which has remained twelve centuries with such a pure text.

The historian John Burton says:

What we have today in our hands is the mushaf of Muhammad.

The German historian Friedrich Schwally concludes:

As for the various parts of the Revelation, we can be satisfied that its text has generally been conveyed exactly as it was found in the legacy of the Prophet.

The British cleric and historian Kenneth Cragg calls the transmission of the Qur´an “an unbroken sequence of piety.”

But What about the Hadith Literature?
This also shows the reliability of the hadith sciences, whose version of the Islamic history on the Qur´an was obviously affirmed by modern historiography as well.

Sh. Mustafa Al-Azami wrote valuable books in which he refuted western speculations and claims against the hadith sciences, exposing their lies, misconceptions, false assumptions, logical fallacies, and errors.

Even western historians have slowly realized how bad and fallacious their “arguments” against the reliability of hadith were, as Harald Motzki, John Burton and John Esposito have shown.

The British historian Bernard Lewis says:

But their careful scrutiny of the chains of transmission and their meticulous collection and preservation of variants in the transmitted narratives give to medieval Arabic historiography a professionalism and sophistication without precedent in antiquity and without parallel in the contemporary medieval West. By comparison, the historiography of Latin Christendom seems poor and meager, and even the more advanced and complex historiography of Greek Christendom still falls short of the historical literature of Islam in volume, variety and analytical depth.

The Unreliability of Shi’a Literature
Sh. Al-Azami talks extensively in his book on the history of the Quranic text, how meticulous and precise Islamic scholars were in transmitting and copying manuscripts, not just of the Qur´an but also other books of traditional Sunni literature.

We do not need to explain why textual reliability is essential.

The problem of the Shi’a hadith literature is that it is replete with textual corruption.

It is not just the case that Shi’a hadith books are full of transmitters who have been famous liars and forgers, but the manuscripts themselves have been changed.

Important Shi’a books in fact have been simply lost: Saduq’s 10-volume work of ahadith from the “imams”, Madinat al-´ilm, vanished and the Sunni hadith expert Shams ad-Din adh-Dhahabi (7th century Hijri) rejoiced that all books of the famous Shia scholar al-Mufid were lost as well; obviously, Dhahabi is happy that the Shi’as had no opportunity to spread the obnoxious heresies that al-Mufid propagated.

Sh. Ibn Taymiyya wrote a massive refutation of the Shi’as totaling well over 3,500 pages, where he quotes the Shi’a scholar al-Hilli and then deconstructs him word by word. But readers have surely noticed, when you go through it, that neither Ibn Taymiyya nor al-Hilli himself quote from the major Shi’a books we have today (al-Kafi, al-Istibsar, Tahdhib, etc). The reason is simply that all those books were lost for centuries at that time.

Today, we do have these books and we can see clearly that they have been distorted, the clearest signs being the anachronisms, which plague Shi’a books.

Thus, in Kafi, Basair ad Darajat, al-Imamah wa Tabsirah, Kashf wal Mahajjah and other works, we encounter ahadith which mention minutes and seconds. The problem is that minutes and seconds were unknown at that time, since minutes and seconds occurred some 700 years later, with the invention of the mechanical hour.

Even the rijali books were not spared. In Sunni hadith sciences, ilm ar-rijal is the biographical evaluation of an individual putting him in his temporal context in order to have the most precise picture of him and his ability to accurately transmit hadith.

Well, al-Najashi´s book of Rijal is one of the three major rijali-books for the Shi’as, although Najashi himself did not want to write a rijal-book but just a catalog of Shi’a authors, writers, and famous persons, as he himself states in the introduction of his book.

But the Shi’as took his book as a rijal-book, since there was a severe lack of it in Shi’a literature, making it impossible to evaluate the authenticity of the alleged ahadith of the “imams.”

To give one example of how unreliable this authoritative Shi’a work is, in Rijal al-Najashi we find the biography of the transmitter Muhammad ibn Hassan ibn Hamza, who died in the year 463 h.

The peculiar detail is that al-Najashi himself died in 450 h.

Obviously, years and decades later after his death, Shi’as distorted his book, to the extent that even the title was changed: since al-Najashi was not a rijal-scholar at all, he did not write a book on ilm ar-rijal or al-jarh wa’l-ta’dil, rather, his book was just a list of well-known Shi’a authors, as, again, he explains himself in his introduction, and thus the historic name of his book was Fihrist (meaning “list”).

It was later Shi’a scholars such Ibn Davud al-Hilli and Allamah al-Hilli who started referring to the book as Rijal al-Najashi.

So even if al-Najashi was that “giant muhaddith,” as later Shi’as tried to portray him, the book may not even be from him, as we have seen.

It was then natural that some Shi’as hence questioned whether al-Najashi “really” died in 450, although all classical Shi’a scholars and biographers agree upon this date.

The same problems affect all other Shi’a books.

Rijal al-Barqi is also just a list, without evaluating the reliability of the transmitters. The book itself has contradictory versions and it has been transmitted indirectly from other books.

The book Rijal Ibn Ghadairi suddenly appeared 200 years after its alleged author, whoever he was was, since Shi’a scholars themselves speculate about the real author (Husayn or his son Ahmad). Also, Shi’a scholars throughout history even mention contradictory titles of this same book (Du´afa, Fihrist, Tarikh, al-Mamduhim, etc.).

Hence, it is interesting to note that Ali Sistani, the most influential Ayatollah of Iraq today, still claims Rijal ibn Ghadairi to be the most authentic rijal book, which shows the contrast between the strict and even scientific Sunni methodology as compared to the Shi’a modes of textual transmission.

The manuscripts of the Rijal al-Kashshi are lost, too. A copy reached Sh. Tusi who shortened the book and renamed it, but this was also lost and only in parts transmitted by Sh. Radi ad-Din Ali Ibn Tawus in his book Faraj al-Mahmum.

Keep in mind all these unreliable books are supposed to be the most authoritative for Shi’as.

Conclusion
Since it is obvious that Shi’a scholars have not been able to even protect their own manuscripts from distortion, it should be clear why Shi’a theological claims cannot be trusted.

It is also ironic that the Shi’as, whose major scholars claimed tahreef or textual tampering of the Qur´an by Sunnis, are actually the ones who are making tahreef on their own works.

Also, as we began this essay by quoting major Western Orientalists who agreed with the Sunni view on the reliability of both the Qur’an and the Sunnah, let’s quote another Orientalist who talks about Shi’a literature in general, just to be fair.

Reinhart Dozy, a Dutch scholar writing in French in the second half of the 19th century CE, said:

Les auteurs chiites et ce sont certainement les plus grands falsificateurs de l’histoire qu’il y ait jamais eu.

Which could be translated into English as:

The Shiite authors, and they are certainly the greatest falsifiers of history that there has ever been.

Bron: https://muslimskeptic.com/2022/03/21/is-the-shia-hadith-literature-reliable/

Een oproep van de Oekraïense president Volodimir Zelenski aan vrijwilligers uit het buitenland om een internationaal legioen te vormen om Oekraïne te verdedigen, is niet in dovemansoren gevallen. Een team van Amerikaanse en Britse Special Forces-veteranen bereidt zich voor om deel te nemen aan de strijd.

Het Oekraïense leger vecht sinds donderdag tegen de Russische troepen die het land zijn binnengevallen. Een internationaal legioen met vrijwilligers moet het land mee helpen verdedigen. “Iedereen die zich wil aansluiten bij de verdediging van Oekraïne, Europa en de wereld, kan zij aan zij met de Oekraïners komen vechten tegen de Russische oorlogsmisdadigers”, zei de Oekraïense president. Zelenski sprak van “het belangrijkste bewijs van jullie steun voor ons land”. Hij verklaarde ook wapens te zullen geven aan vrijwilligers uit het buitenland.

Een groep van tien special forces-veteranen verzamelt momenteel al in Polen en bereidt zich voor om de grens met Oekraïne over te steken – om “zich bij de verdediging van Oekraïne, Europa en de wereld aan te sluiten”.

De groep, bestaande uit zes Amerikanen, drie Britten en een Duitser, is door de NAVO opgeleid en heeft tonnen ervaring met close combat en terrorismebestrijding. Ze willen als een van de eersten officieel toetreden tot het nieuwe internationale legioen.

Het nieuws wordt alvast enthousiast onthaald door leden van het Georgia National Legion, een Engelssprekende eenheid van vrijwilligers met westerse militaire ervaring die Oekraïense troepen opleiden en soms samen met hen naar de frontlinie gaan. “Hier hebben we op gewacht. Het is heel goed nieuws”, vertelde Levan Pipia, een legioensoldaat en Georgische legerveteraan van de oorlog met Rusland in 2008 aan ‘BuzzFeed’.

De Britse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Liz Truss reageerde snel op het nieuws en zei dat ze Britse staatsburgers steunt die naar Oekraïne zouden gaan om te vechten “voor democratie”, meldde de ‘BBC’. De minister zei dat de strijd er een was voor vrijheid, “niet alleen voor Oekraïne, maar voor heel Europa.”

Zondag nodigde de Oekraïense minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Dmytro Kuleba tijdens een persbriefing buitenlanders die geïnteresseerd zijn, uit om contact op te nemen met buitenlandse diplomatieke posten van Oekraïne in hun respectievelijke landen. “Hun toegang tot Oekraïne zal zo veel mogelijk worden vergemakkelijkt.”

“Samen hebben we Hitler verslagen, en we zullen ook Poetin verslaan”, besloot Kuleba.

Bron: https://www.hln.be/buitenland/amerikaanse-en-britse-special-forces-veteranen-sluiten-zich-aan-bij-internationaal-legioen-om-oekraine-te-verdedigen~ad421dae/

Anders dan de Nederlanders die zich destijds bij Islamitische Staat aansloten, stuiten de vrijwilligers die in Oekraïne willen meevechten niet op bezwaren uit Den Haag. Het is „in beginsel niet verboden” om dienst te nemen in een vreemde krijgsmacht, aldus een woordvoerder van het ministerie van Defensie.

Bron: https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2022/02/28/vrijwilligers-doen-volop-mee-in-de-strijd-tegen-russen-a4095160

De Oekraïense president Zelenski liet zondag weten dat hij een vreemdelingenlegioen gaat oprichten.

„We staan versteld van het aantal aanmeldingen”, zegt de Oekraïense ambassadeur Maksym Kononenko tegen De Telegraaf. Het precieze aantal aangemelde Nederlanders wil hij niet noemen, vanwege ’privacyregels’. „We hebben een aanzienlijk aantal verzoeken ontvangen van Nederlandse burgers die zich bij de Oekraïense strijdkrachten willen voegen. We kregen die aanmeldingen al vóórdat president Zelenski gisteren zijn aankondiging deed.”

Bron: https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/943134004/aanzienlijk-aantal-nederlanders-heeft-zich-gemeld-om-mee-te-vechten-in-oekraine

Afghanistan Shows White Privilege in Action on the Geopolitical Stage.

Western exceptionalism and privilege have long been entrenched in geopolitics – and war.

The rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan and the consequent yet predictable torrent of responses from Western media and politicians demonstrated just how entrenched the Western worldview in projecting its “right” to be the leaders of the world.

August 30 saw the end of the longest war in U.S. history. For most Afghans, it will be remembered as the date when foreign armies departed. But in exiting Afghanistan, the United States and its NATO allies have spared no effort to occupy the moral high ground, portraying the Taliban as the evil Muslim tide sweeping away the brief democratic haven created by the West. This is despite widely reported statements by the Taliban that they seek good relations with the U.S. and the West. Giving peace a chance does not seem to be on the agenda of the retreating Western powers and its media.

In Afghanistan, a 20-year occupation has been dressed up with populist myths about furthering democracy, fighting terrorist havens, and protecting the rights of women, as if only the West cares dearly about these issues. The United States and its NATO allies seek to create this bipolar narrative because it legitimizes their economic and militaristic intentions in three main ways.

First, it hides the colossal loss of life caused by the invasion. The numbers are staggering with over 75,000 Afghan military and police officers killed, as well as over 71,000 dead Afghan civilians. Compare this to 2,443 American soldiers who are reported to have lost their lives – a figure far more frequently cited in the media.

Second, the narrative also conceals the truth about the workings of the U.S. military industrial complex. The United States has been at war for much of its history. Conflict has historically been extremely profitable for U.S. military business, and the 20-year invasion of Afghanistan is no different: Of the $946 billion spent, less than 2 percent of it reached the Afghan people in terms of basic infrastructure and poverty-reducing services. But 86 percent went to outlays on troops.

Lastly, the narrative diverts attention from the fact that the intervention failed to set up an effective government. Kabul fell in 48 hours – not because of the militaristic genius of the Taliban, but because the U.S.-built institutions of the Afghan state were weak, predicated on corruption, and failed to resonate with the wider population, who are mostly pious Muslims – a fact Washington never fully accepted. In fact, the runaway U.S.-backed president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, co-authored a book in 2009 describing how the U.S. nation-building strategy had promoted corruption – which Ghani emulated once in power.

The West’s bipolar narrative on Afghanistan hints at a much deeper global issue: the hegemony of white Western privilege in global geopolitical systems. If the lessons of Afghanistan teach us one thing, it is that this privilege must be exposed and challenged if it is to be dismantled for the greater good of world peace.

There are three areas to unmask: first, the so-called “rules-based” international system and second, Western dominance of the multilateral institutions that influence geopolitics – both of which are rooted in a belief in white supremacy. And finally, there is the heavy-handed use of sanctions – all of which have come into play in the past weeks as an aggrieved West seeks revenge without acknowledging its failure.

The Western Rules Based System
The “international rules-based system” is often credited for the peace, prosperity, and interconnectedness we see today. It is predicated on the idea of sovereign equality – that every state is equal and should be allowed to conduct its domestic affairs without interference.

The creation of the United Nations in 1944 was supposed to make this a global norm. Yet in modern-day statecraft, there exists an unwritten rule that only Westerners can enact diplomacy; the rest of the world is apparently unqualified to play any role in such crises. Yet when it comes to understanding the root causes of many geopolitical tensions, diplomats from countries that face similar development challenges or have been colonized are surely better equipped to find solutions than former colonial powers and those who serve the interests of an ideology of White supremacy.

Military interventions have become part of the Western discourse around the “responsibility to protect”: the idea that sovereignty is conditional upon state governments not crossing human rights lines as defined by the West. If a state fails in this regard, its sovereignty becomes forfeit, and war is allowed.

Despite Western powers claiming the role of global police officers, they are prepared to ignore equally terrible actions committed by governments that support their strategic interests. It is common knowledge that the West has turned a blind eye to corruption, authoritarianism, oppression, and other human rights abuses when conducted by an ostensible ally. And these are not policies of the past; they are a feature of today’s geopolitics with examples of the West supporting interventions and unrest ranging from the war in Yemen to events in Venezuela and Hong Kong.

Western Dominance of Multilaterals
Given that key international institutions such as the U.N., World Bank, WTO, and IMF are set up according to Western values, one should not be surprised to find their actions, advice, and prescriptions follow Western framings. One should also not be surprised that the people involved who are decreed most qualified and elected to leadership positions are White Westerners, establishing a permanent “ruling class” when it comes to global and elite institutions. The World Bank is run by an American and the IMF is run by a European. Predictably, they fell in line last week and decided at the instruction of the United States to withhold funds from Afghanistan.

In fact, these two international bodies best exemplify this institutional-level discrimination. They have pursued economic development strategies that promote free markets and deregulation, often at the expense of living conditions on the ground

Developing countries faced with an economic crisis have been forced to enact sweeping and drastic policy reforms at the insistence of the IMF. These must be market-driven, with reduced public sectors and limited assistance (termed “interference”). These reforms were often hugely damaging, destroying standards of living and demolishing trust in political and economic institutions. Indonesia, for example, suffered devastatingly as a result of the domino-effect of the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 because of over-liberalization, while Malaysia – which resisted the prescriptions of the IMF – weathered the crisis markedly better.

Beyond the World Bank and the IMF, many examples of White Western alliances exist to perpetuate supremacy. For example, the G-7 and the OECD are dominated by Western countries, with only a few non-Western members. Another is the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance, comprised of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Five Eyes showcases something unique with regard to White privilege in geopolitics. The coalition is made up solely of the Anglosphere, of which four are White settler communities that created their nations through large-scale violence against non-White Indigenous populations.

Another example of a Western-controlled multilateral is the U.N. Security Council, which remains the pinnacle of the international security apparatus. It decides if punitive action should be taken any nation. It passed a resolution on August 30 demanding that the new Afghan government ensures safe passage to all Afghans who want to leave the country, with China and Russia abstaining. No sovereign state would agree to this.

The UNSC’s five permanent members are the victors of World War II: the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, and China. Three out of the five are clearly Western nations; four out of the five are White-majority nations. China remains the only non-Western, non-majority-White country on the council. These five member countries have veto rights and thus control the debate at the United Nations.

Attempts have been made to expand the permanent members of the Council to include countries like India, Brazil, and South Africa, yet none have succeeded.

The Western Use of Sanctions
When military intervention is deemed inappropriate, Western governments led by the U.S. are able to ignore that decision, as in the Middle East. In addition, they are still capable of applying the extremely detrimental force of unilateral sanctions. Sanctions are seen as a less violent mechanism of enforcing international rules and asserting Western power.

We are now seeing a flexing of this privilege with Afghanistan. The United States has cut off the Taliban’s access to Afghanistan’s assets, including $7 billion in the U.S. Federal Reserve. The U.K. is bordering on withholding its bilateral aid. And the IMF has redacted the $370 million set to be sent over in late August. This comes just as up to 10 million people in the country face food insecurity.

Sanctions produce devastating consequences and often result in crimes against humanity. The same will now be applied to Afghanistan.

If inflicted against a White, Western population, sanctions would be demonized and unthinkable. White privilege allows the West to remain collectively silent on these crimes against humanity and not to be held accountable to the global community. This privilege allowed the former U.S. secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, to infamously say “we think the price is worth it” when publicly answering the question of whether sanctioning Iraq was worth the half a million children who died as a result.

How Do We Change the Rules of the Game?
Given that White, Western nations hold primacy of place in global geopolitical systems and institutions, what can be done to democratize the current power imbalance? First, Western-led international institutions should be humbler and more empathetic in their prescriptions. The track record of these global organizations is decidedly mixed, whether in terms of peacekeeping, global economic management, or fostering development. Where they have achieved success, it is often through bottom-up approaches that work within regional contexts for local needs, rather than top-down dictates. To achieve this, these international bodies need to elevate non-Western voices and examine whether their suggestions would work in non-Western contexts.

Another approach would be for Western multilaterals and governments to recognize the successes of other regions in preserving peace and prosperity. The West is not the only region to have had decades of peace between its members: East Asia, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and regions of Africa have also seen decades of interstate peace. They have important lessons that must be listened to as the governments charts a new course for geopolitics in the post-Western world.

A first step in this regard could take place in the context of Afghanistan. The West’s diplomatic and militaristic might have failed; it is now time to admit that Afghanistan’s sovereignty is no longer forfeit, and that more tactile forms of diplomacy – such as conversations between China, Turkey, Iran, Russia, and the Taliban – might actually be the best thing for the nation and its war-torn people.

Lastly, demands for geopolitical equality must be backed with proactive multinational efforts on the behalf of non-Western countries.

A prime example is the longevity of peace fostered by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN has an astounding track record of international cooperation in one of the most multicultural and multiethnic regions in the world.

The non-Western world needs to push through the status quo objections of Western institutions and create its own international platforms if it is to balance out geopolitical power differences with the West.

Until changes are made by Western-led geopolitical institutions and until non-Western geopolitical platforms gain more traction, every non-Western country needs to carefully navigate how it will operate in a Western- and White-led world while maintaining its independence and rights to self-determination. This will be the source of great geopolitical tensions as the post-Western world takes shape and the dismantling of White privilege in geopolitics gives rise to a safer world.

Bron: https://thediplomat.com/2021/09/afghanistan-shows-white-privilege-in-action-on-the-geopolitical-stage/

It is because of this identification with “Christian history” that Europe was so slow to act against the Bosniak genocide, as one analyst puts it:

So, when we look at this sort of evidence and we take a look back we can almost see that with their inaction and with their attitudes, they were very much ready for the Bosnian Muslims to be massacred. They let it happen. As I said in their words, ‘Bosnia did not belong. A Muslim majority country in Europe was just foreign’ and they didn’t want to really have it happen in a Christian Europe.

Michael Sells, an American Orientalist, wrote a book, The Bridge Betrayed, where he theorized the idea of “Christoslavism,” or how, during the Bosniak genocide, both the Serb-Orthodox and the Croat-Catholic clergymen used Christianity to annihilate the Bosniak-Muslims.

But let us consider the “assimilated” Bosniaks.

Bosniaks have long been praised by non-Muslim Europeans as some sort of model Muslims, as they’re apparently “moderate,” which is to say to a large extent liberal and secular… but did this save them?

Did the Christoslavists distinguish between the practicing and the assimilated Bosniaks?

After explaining how Bosniaks don’t differ ethnically from their neighbors, Sells writes the following about how it is religion which shaped the fate of the Bosniak victims, even those who were not particularly religious:

Muslim religious identity was determined by strictly extrinsic criteria. A Bosnian Muslim in a Serb or Croat camp was there not because of any particular act, expression, or thought. Some in the targeted population defined themselves as Muslims according to the Islamic testimony of belief in one deity and in Muhammad as the messenger of the one deity. Some were observant, for example, keeping the required fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan or the prohibition against pork and alcohol. Some were unobservant. Many Bosnian Muslims were atheists. Many were observant of some of the Islamic practices such as the Ramadan fast but considered themselves religious skeptics and their observances cultural. Some supported the political leaders of the Bosnian government; some did not. Some were indifferent to politics.

Thus, the historical experience in liberal Europe of Bosniaks, who are natives and not immigrants, who were considered moderates and not radicals, should definitely be a lesson for those Muslims seeking assimilation today.

Bron: https://muslimskeptic.com/2022/01/23/how-bosniaks-reveal-the-liberal-wests-hypocrisy/

Het had een ‘contactloze’ hulpverleningsmissie moeten worden. Schepen van onder andere Australië, Nieuw-Zeeland, China en Japan brachten hulpgoederen naar Tonga, nadat delen van de eilandengroep op 15 januari waren getroffen door een vulkaanuitbarsting. Tonga had tot dan toe corona buiten de deur weten te houden en dus deed het land er alles aan om te voorkomen dat corona samen met de hulpgoederen op de eilanden zou arriveren.

Gisteren bleek bij een routinecontrole dat twee havenarbeiders besmet zijn. Ook drie familieleden hebben het virus opgelopen.

Lange tijd hoorde Tonga samen met andere eilandstaten zoals Kiribati en de Solomoneilanden tot de laatste coronavrije landen. Sinds het voorjaar van 2020 waren de grenzen dicht. Bewoners van de eilanden mochten terugkeren, maar pas na 21 dagen quarantaine en toestemming van de overheid. Verder werd niemand toegelaten.

Lang ging dat goed, al was het afgelopen oktober spannend toen een reiziger positief testte. Die zat al in quarantaine en voorkomen werd dat het virus zich verspreidde.

Vanwege de nieuwe uitbraak is Tonga 48 uur in lockdown. Op straat is het vanochtend uitgestorven. Het verkeer tussen de eilanden is stilgelegd, scholen en supermarkten zijn gesloten en iedereen is gevraagd thuis te blijven.

Een supermarktmanager vertelt aan ABC News Australia dat na de bekendmaking werd gehamsterd. “Wij hebben tot nu nooit last van het coronavirus gehad, mensen zijn in paniek.”

Bron: https://nos.nl/artikel/2415563-tonga-in-lockdown-contactloze-noodhulp-heeft-corona-niet-tegengehouden

“If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it, but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place” (Sahih Bukhari and Muslim)

Bron: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/coronavirus-outbreak/coronavirus-president-quotes-hadith-on-why-pakistan-is-not-evacuating-citizens-from-china

Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, reportedly considered converting to Islam to marry her Muslim beau, a former photographer to the royal family Anwar Hussain has claimed.

In an interview with People magazine, Anwar said that Princess Diana had asked the photographer, who is Muslim, about interfaith marriage, in particular between a Muslim man and a Christian Protestant woman.

“She was interested because of what she was going through with [her then-boyfriend] Dr. Hasnat Khan. She didn’t mention him, but she assumed I knew it. I think she was wondering how the family would react to him and things like that,” Anwar said, adding that he himself is married to an English woman.

Following her divorce from Prince Charles, Diana infamously dated Pakistani heart surgeon Dr. Hasnat Khan for two years. She visited Dr. Khan’s family in Lahore in May of 1997 and had reportedly considered moving to Pakistan.

On her relationship with Dr. Hasnat Khan, royal biographer Judy Wade has said, “She had wanted to marry him. She had this vision that together they could bridge east and west, crossing creeds and continents. They could save lives and make it a better world.”

The pair’s relationship will be commemorated in the upcoming season of Netflix’s ‘The Crown.’ Pakistani actor Humayun Saeed will star as Dr. Hasnat Khan.

Diana died just months after she parted ways with Dr. Hasnat Khan, when she started dating Dodi Al Fayed, who was also Muslim. Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris in August of 1997, less than six months after her visit to Lahore.

Bron: https://www.thefridaytimes.com/lady-diana-considered-converting-to-islam-reveals-royal-photographer/

A karate expert herself, Ali suggested that the legendary martial arts champion and actor Bruce Lee might have become Muslim if he had not met with an untimely death at the age of 32 in 1973 at the height of his career.

“Bruce Lee was a very important guy. He was a wonderful man and he is so missed. If he had not passed away so soon… he was very interested in Islam at the time. He loved what I said about Islam,” Ali said.

Bron: https://theprint.in/sport/muslim-women-should-follow-islam-not-hislam-says-former-wife-of-boxing-legend-muhammad-ali/811275/

The Noble Qur’an states:
3/102 O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him].