老子道德经第二十五章
有物混成先天地生。
yǒu wù hùn chéng xiān tiān dì shēng
寂兮寥兮独立不改，周行而不殆，可以为天下母。
jì xī liáo xī dú lì bù gǎi, zhōu xíng ér bù dài, kě yǐ wéi tiān xià mǔ
吾不知其名，强字之曰道。
wú bù zhī qí míng, qiáng zì zhī yuē dào
强为之名曰大。大曰逝，逝曰远，远曰反。
qiáng wèi zhī míng yuē dà. Dà yuē shì, shì yuē yuǎn, yuǎn yuē fǎn
。。。
而人居其一焉。人法地，地法天，天法道，道法自然。
ér rén jū qí yī yān. rén fǎ dì, dì fǎ tiān, tiān fǎ dào, dào fǎ zì rán
Laozi, Dao Te Ching, Ch. 25
There was Something undefined and yet complete in itself, born before Heaven-and-Earth.
Silent and boundless,
Standing alone without change,
Yet pervading all without fail,
It may be regarded as the Mother of the world.
I do not know its name;
I style it "Dao";
And, in the absence of a better word, call it
"The Great."
...
Man follows the ways of the Earth.
The Earth follows the ways of Heaven,
Heaven follows the way of Dao,
Dao follows its own ways.
"We are often encouraged to believe that all religions are the same: All teach the same ethical principles; all urge their followers to contemplate the same divine reality; all are equally wise, compassionate, and true within their sphere—or equally divisive and false, depending on one's view.
No serious adherence of any faith can believe these things, because most religions make claims about reality that are mutually incompatible.
...
Devout Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe that theirs is the one true and complete revelation—because that is what their holy books say of themselves. Only secularists and New Age dabblers can mistake the modern tactic of "interfaith dialogue" for an underlying unity in all religions.
I have long argued that confusion about the unity of religions is an artifact of language. Religion is a term like sports: Some sports are peaceful but spectacularly dangerous ("free solo" rock climbing); some are safer but synonymous with violence (mixed martial arts); and some entail little more risk of injury than standing in the shower (bowling).
To speak of sports is a generic activity makes it impossible to discuss what athletes actually do or the physical attributes required to do it. What do all sports have in common apart from breathing? Not much. The term religion is hardly more useful.
The same could be said of spirituality. The esoteric doctrines found within every religious tradition are not all derived from the same insights. Nor are they equally empirical, logical, parsimonious, or wise. They don't always point to the same underlying reality—and when they do, they don't do it equally well. Nor are all these teachings equally suited for export beyond the cultures that first conceive them."
ذَٰلِكَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبُ لَا رَيْبَ ۛ فِيهِ ۛ هُدًۭى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ.
Surat ul-Baqara 2
This is the Scripture in which there is no doubt, containing guidance for those who are mindful of God.
لَآ إِكْرَاهَ فِى ٱلدِّينِ ۖ قَد تَّبَيَّنَ ٱلرُّشْدُ مِنَ ٱلْغَىِّ
Surat ul-Baqara 256
Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood.
فَاِذَا انۡسَلَخَ الۡاَشۡہُرُ الۡحُرُمُ فَاقۡتُلُوا الۡمُشۡرِکِیۡنَ حَیۡثُ وَجَدۡتُّمُوۡہُمۡ وَخُذُوۡہُمۡ وَاحۡصُرُوۡہُمۡ وَاقۡعُدُوۡا لَہُمۡ کُلَّ مَرۡصَدٍ
ۚ فَاِنۡ تَابُوۡا وَاَقَامُوا الصَّلٰوۃَ وَاٰتَوُا الزَّکٰوۃَ فَخَلُّوۡا سَبِیۡلَہُمۡ ؕ اِنَّ اللّٰہَ غَفُوۡرٌ رَّحِیۡمٌ
Surat at-Tawbah 5
And when the forbidden months have passed, kill the idolaters wherever you find them and take them prisoners, and beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush.
But if they repent and observe Prayer and pay the Zakat, then leave their way free. Surely, Allah is Most Forgiving, Merciful.
قَـٰتِلُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَلَا بِٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ وَلَا يُحَرِّمُونَ مَا حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُۥ وَلَا يَدِينُونَ دِينَ ٱلْحَقِّ مِنَ ٱلَّذِينَ أُوتُوا۟ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ حَتَّىٰ يُعْطُوا۟ ٱلْجِزْيَةَ عَن يَدٍۢ وَهُمْ صَـٰغِرُونَ
Surat at-Tawbah 29
Fight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful [e.g. wine] and who do not adopt the religion of truth [Islām] from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah [tax levied against non-Muslims] willingly and agree to submit.
Allah commanded His Messenger to fight the People of the Scriptures: the Jews and Christians, on the ninth year of Hijrah, and he prepared his army to fight the Romans and called the people to Jihad announcing his intent and destination.
...
Paying Jizyah is a sign of kufr [being an infidel] and disgrace.
Until they give the jizyah, [this is to say] if they do not choose to embrace Islam
willingly, [this is to say] in defeat and subservience
and agree to submit, [this is to say] disgraced, humiliated, and belittled.
...
Do not initiate the salam [peace] with the Jews and Christians, and if you meet any of them in a road, force them to its narrowest alley! This is why the Leader of the faithful, `Umar ibn Al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, demanded his well-known conditions be met by the Christians—these conditions that ensured their continued humiliation, degradation and disgrace.
Ibn Kathir - 12th c. mufassir (exegesisist). His Qur'anic commentary is among the most prevalent in the Islamic world, and considered the best and most comprehensive.
Question to consider: How do we defang religious psychoses, while honoring culture, and endowing mystic authority to the universality of spiritual experience?
- Ḥanafī school – recommends three days of imprisonment before the execution, although the delay before killing the apostates is not mandatory. Apostasy from Islam is not considered a hudud crime. Unlike in other schools, it is not obligatory to call on the apostate to repent. Apostate males are to be killed, while apostate females are to be held in solitary confinement and beaten every three days till they recant and return to Islam.
- Mālikī school – allows up to ten days for recantation, after which the apostates must be killed. Apostasy from Islam is considered a hudud crime. Both male and female apostates deserve the death penalty for leaving Islam, according to the traditional view of the Mālikī school. Unlike other schools, the apostates must have a history of being "good" (i.e., practicing) Muslims.
- Shāfiʿī school – waiting period of three days is required to allow the apostates time to repent and return to Islam. Failing repentance, death penalty is the recommended form of punishment for both male and female apostates for leaving Islam. Apostasy from Islam is not considered a hudud crime.
- Ḥanbalī school – waiting period not necessary, but may be granted. Apostasy from Islam is considered a hudud crime.
The death penalty is the traditional form of punishment for both male and female apostates for leaving Islam. - Jaʿfari or Imāmī school – Male apostates must be executed, while female apostates must be held in solitary confinement until they repents and return to Islam. Apostasy from Islam is considered a hudud crime. The "mere intention of unbelief" without expression qualifies as apostasy. Unlike the other schools, repentance will not save a defendant from execution, unless they are "national apostates" who were not born Muslims but converted to Islam before apostatizing, although it is disputed by some Muslim scholars. "Innate" apostates, who grew up Muslims and remained Muslim after puberty and until converting to another religion, should be executed.
The punishments in classical and contemporary Islamic jurisprudence, known as the huduud حدود, include acts such as whipping, crucifixion, amputation, and execution.
"In South Asia 77% [of Muslims polled] favor enshrining sharia as official law ... support for applying religious law to family and property disputes is coupled with strong backing for severe criminal punishments, such as cutting off the hands of thieves (median of 81%) and the death penalty for Muslims who renounce their faith (76%). In the Middle East-North Africa region, medians of more than half favor strict criminal penalties (57%) and the execution of those who convert from Islam to another faith (56%)."
31% of Muslims live in South Asia, the largest population of Muslims in the world.
The 2022 Arab Opinion Index is based on findings from face-to-face interviews conducted between June and December 2022 with 33,300 individual respondents in 14 Arab countries: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Tunisia.
As with the construction of Muhammad as sage, examples of the portrayal of Islam as a Dao abound.
...
In 1691 Ding Peng, a Chinese Muslim poet and official (jinshi of 1655; born in Hangzhou), wrote a preface to a Chinese Islamic text, the Jiaokuan weilun 教款微論 (A short discussion of the articles of the teaching, by Mi Wanji 米萬濟 dated ca. 1691).
Ding began with a reference to the Zhongyong 中庸 (The Doctrine of the Mean): “The first verse of the Zhongyong says that cultivating the Way [Dao] is called teaching; a teaching that is not cultivated is not clear; a Way that is not taught is not manifested [i.e., is not made known]” 中庸首言修 道之謂教教非修不明道非教不著.
He then presented Islam, the “Pure and True Correct Teaching” 清真正教, as a philosophical system.
Islam, wrote Ding, “is a Dao whose original soil is in the west, that was refined, clarified, and cultivated by the sage [Muhammad]. . . . It arrived in China, where scholars have erected mosques in which they can study and cultivate its Dao.”
The Doctrine of the Mean is one of the four ancient traditional texts of Chinese philosophy.
Some Hui believed that Islam was the true religion through which Confucianism could be practiced
...
Muslim general Ma Bufang allowed polytheists to openly worship and Christian missionaries to station themselves in Qinghai. Ma and other high-ranking Muslim generals attended the Kokonuur Lake ceremony where the God of the Lake was worshipped, and during the ritual, the Chinese national anthem was sung, participants bowed to a portrait of Kuomintang party founder Sun Yat-sen, and to the God of the Lake. Offerings were given to Sun by the participants, including Muslims.
If I argue that the solution to Islamism and Muslim fundamentalism lies in encouraging pluralism, which leads to secularism, which leads to liberalism, then how do we di-stigmatize secularism when it has been so abused by Arab Ba'athist dictators? The stigma is so bad that there is not even an accurate word for secularism in Urdu. The word used is la-deeniyat, which is derived from the Arabic, meaning "no-religionism."
...
To achieve this, a combination of political, intellectual, and cultural approaches are necessary. The international community cannot afford to let the chance for secular democracy in the Middle East slip into oblivion for another fifty years.
Nawaz is a former member of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. Represented by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, he was sentenced to five years in Tora Prison, in Egypt. Today, he is an advocate for secular Islam and founder of Quilliam, a counter-extremism thinktank.
Question to consider: Is secularism the product of cultural enlightenment or superb religious legal theory?
א"ר ישמעאל מנין שאם אמרו לו לאדם עבוד עבודת כוכבים ואל תהרג מנין שיעבוד ואל יהרג ת"ל (ויקרא יח, ה) וחי בהם ולא שימות בהם יכול אפילו בפרהסיא תלמוד לומר (ויקרא כב, לב) ולא תחללו את־שם קדשי ונקְדשתי בתוך בני ישראל אני " מקדשכם׃
Sanhedrin 74a
Rabbi Yishmael said: From where [do we know] that if they tell a person to worship ("star worship" [an idiom for idolatry]) and you will not be killed, from where [do we know] that he should [star] worship and not be killed?
It is taught "and you shall live by them" and not die by them.
Could it be even if [asked to practice idolatry] in public?
It is taught, "and do not desecrate My holy name [i.e. G-d's reputation among humanity], and I will be sanctified within the Children of Israel."
Question to consider: Is it actually clear here that idolaters do not merit the death penalty? Is Judaism a self-enlightening system by design? What factors have steered Judaism away from profuse radicalism?