netWMD - Why We Can't Change Islam

Hey, kuffar: I don't have the time to write a proper column this week because there's a lot going on around the kafir kastle lately (nothing unpleasant, thankfully!). However, I'd like to offer some analysis and reading from the Islamic source material on the matter of Islam's steadfast resistance to reform.

Islam has remained, more or less, unchanged since Muhammad's time. Its orthodox doctrine warns the believer not to change God's religion in any way, and through means of dazzling military conquests and other advantageous endeavors, its literalistic character has been validated in the minds of the faithful. Why deviate from a successful plan of action?

Judaism and Christianity have shown a resilience and strength that has made them compatible with the modern precepts of human rights and liberty, while retaining their spirit sustaining wonder, guidance, and transcendence. Islam, on the other hand, has never changed, and is interpreted with the same literalism today that it was in seventh century Arabia when it began its 1,400 year-old jihad against the world. The chances for reform in Islam are scarcely a hair's bredth more than zero, and here is why:

Therefore, stand firm in your devotion to the true Faith, the upright Faith which God created for mankind to embrace. God's Creation cannot be changed. This is surely the right faith, although most men may not know it. —Qur'an 30:30
This day I have perfected your religion for you and completed My Favour to You. I have chosen Islām to be your faith. —Qur'an 5:3
We have revealed the Book which manifests the truth about all things...—Qur'an 16:89
We have left out nothing in the Book. —Qur'an 56:38
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "I have not left anything which Allah ordered you except that I have ordered you with it, nor anything that Allah forbade you except that I forbade you from it." —Sahih al-Baihaqi 7:76
Al-'Irbaad ibn Saariyah, radiallaahu'anhu, reports that the Prophet said, "...I have left you upon clear guidance. Its night is like its day. No one deviates from it after me except that he is destroyed."—Ahmad 4.126
"...and whoever obeys Muhammad, obeys Allah; and whoever disobeys Muhammad, disobeys Allah." —Sahih Bukhari 9.92.385
The Prophet said, "Leave me as I leave you, for the people who were before you were ruined because of their questions and their differences over their prophets. So, if I forbid you to do something, then keep away from it. And if I order you to do something, then do of it as much as you can."—Sahih Bukhari 9.92.392
The Prophet said, "He who turns away from my Sunnah is not from me." —Sahih Bukhari & Muslim
A man said: Apostle of Allah! It seems as if it were a farewell exhortation, so what injunction do you give us?
He then said: I enjoin you to fear Allah, and to hear and obey even if it be an Abyssinian slave, for those of you who live after me will see great disagreement. You must then follow my sunnah and that of the rightly-guided caliphs. Hold to it and stick fast to it. Avoid novelties, for every novelty is an innovation, and every innovation is an error. —Sunan Abu Dawud, 40.4590

"So he who does not follow my tradition in religion, is not from me." —Sahih Bukhari 7.62.2

No divergent intrepretations, no allegory, no reform. Furthermore, in the case of the Qur'an, we are speaking of what Muslims view to be the perfect, uncreated word of God.

The few courageous Muslims who do try to challenge the rigid inerrancy of mainstream Islam are decried by slick jihad front organizations as heretical (and they are heretical), or they are killed. This is why people like Ibn Warraq, Salman Rushdie, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali must live in hiding and/or under heavy guard at all times. And so long as we ignorantly defend orthodox Islam in its present fourteen century old state, we must accept complicity in thwarting the brave efforts of these individuals, and in the continued hardships of Islam's static medieval dystopia. Reform-minded Muslims desperately need our support and brotherhood, and in this day and age when freedom and rights are within the reach of all people, I think they deserve it.

Why We Can't Change Islam Patrick D. O'Brien, September 9, 2005	Home Search Forum Terms