By Peter Burrows 9/24/17 elburropete@gmail.com  - www.silvercityburro.com  

Non-Muslims have no idea how dictatorial Islam is. Islam means "submission," in this case submission to God, and the God of Islam, Allah, is a fire and brimstone dictator who tolerates no rivals and no dissent. Allah demands His followers obey Him and His Prophet, Muhammad, and He commands His followers to punish anyone who disobeys or offends Him or His Prophet. Draw a picture of Muhammad? Die!

The Allah of Islam does not turn the other cheek, He does not husband vengeance unto Himself, and He does not show mercy to those who do not worship Him. All this is found in the Koran, Islam's foundational sacred text, which Muslims believe to be the forever word of Allah. The Koran commands Muslims to obey its revelations and to obey Muhammad, through whom the revelations were revealed.

The goal of Islam is to create a world-wide theocracy. In theory, that's not such a bad idea, is it? After all, the Heaven of Jews and Christians is a theocracy ruled by God. And there's the rub. Any heaven on Earth must be ruled by human beings, and the founder of Islam was all too human.

While the Koran says that Muhammad is Allah's prophet or messenger, there are many verses in the Koran that lead anyone with an ounce of skepticism to the conclusion that Muhammad and Allah are one and the same, a conclusion devout Muslims cannot or will not see. It's also a conclusion many NON-MUSLIMS refuse to recognize.

The reality is that the religion of Islam is the creation of a very successful Seventh Century Arab warlord. (He was successful or Islam wouldn't exist!) As his power increased, so did his despotism and his egomania. At his death, Muhammad-Allah had used the Koran to put his behavior above criticism (V33:21) and his every command as absolute (V4:80).

The problem is that this Seventh Century creation, Islam, teaches that the Koran and Muhammad are Allah's guides to be followed by all mankind FOREVER. The Koran is full of all sorts of eternal laws, which are supplemented by more eternal laws derived from the accepted sayings and doings of Muhammad, which are found in separate sacred writings. All of this, and much more, becomes Islamic law, Sharia, when the consensus of recognized Islamic scholars so decree.

Sharia is "Sacred Law," which cannot be overruled by laws passed by mere mortals. Willingly obeying man-made laws that are contrary to the rulings of Muhammad-Allah is considered a major unbelief, a kufr, as per the following, from Islam Q and A, a website started in 1997 "for the purpose of valid interpretation of the Koran and Hadith":

"Promulgating man-made laws that are contrary to the rulings of Allah and His Messenger concerning matters of blood, honor and wealth, is an act of major kufr which puts one beyond the pale of Islam. There is no doubt whatsoever concerning that, and there is no difference of opinion concerning it among the Muslim scholars. Promulgating such laws is competing with Allah ...."

The Koranic justification for that scholarly consensus is in in Verse 42:21: "Or Have they partners with Allah (false Gods) who have instituted for them a religion which Allah has not ordained?" Islamic scholars have interpreted "a religion Allah has not ordained" to include laws passed by mere mortals.

This means, for example, that anybody who believes in the First Amendment's freedom of religion clause is behaving as though the U.S. Constitution was God's law, and for that, "there is a painful torment."

(As an aside, do you think husbands should be allowed to beat their wives, any of the four wives Islam allows? If you think there should be laws against that, and maybe even laws against having more than one wife, than you are guilty of kufr, you miserable infidel. See V4:34 for Allah's COMMAND that wives be beaten when all else fails.)

There are numerous verses in the Koran that leave no doubt that the word of Muhammad-Allah is the final word, whatever the topic. Verse 33:36 says believers have no option but to obey Muhammad-Allah. Verse 4:65 says to be a Muslim you must accept Muhammad's decisions "with full submission," and verse 4:115 specifies Muhammad is to be obeyed to avoid burning in Hell. In both those latter verses "Allah" is conspicuous by His absence. Verse 4:80 says to obey Muhammad is to obey Allah. No ifs, ands or buts.

Added authority for not questioning the Koran is found in the Koran itself. The Koran is: The Book of Truth, (V4:105), that explains all things (V16:89), omits nothing (V 6:38), and declares the religion of Islam to be perfect (V 5:3). Can't improve on that, can you? Don't even try!

Not surprisingly, it is a grave sin for the Muslim layman to question Islamic law. If Muhammad-Allah has ruled, there is no need for personal reasoning, a.k.a. THINKING, which is called ijtihad. Similarly, to pass laws that deviate from sharia is considered innovation, or bid'a. Muhammad warned that "every innovation is misguidance," which Islamic scholars have interpreted as those innovations which "contravene Sacred Law." (R of T pg. 915)

The codification of all of this, and much, much, more is found in the Sunni book of Sacred Law, The Reliance of the Traveller (R of T). In Part Two, we'll look at some sharia laws in the R of T that rule Muslims today ...and forever.