What if the person feels a strong desire to rape? or torture? or killing?
That is what I think, the flaw is in this logic.
All those three sins are at the expense of another human being. As I said, Allah can forgive all sins, except for the violation of an individual's rights. In that case, Allah will forgive only after that individual either forgives or is compensated equally for the rape, torture or killing.
See that's the problem, the way I see it. Elevating a book of commands and stories to the status of a science. And the conviction that unless you have a PhD in Quran, you are not qualified to talk about it.
Not status of a science, never. I think it's stupid to drag down the Quran to that level.
Quran has a lot of context, most of the context not in the Quran itself. It's never meant to be used as a guide in its entirety, it's the core of the guide. That's the point I emphasized, the Sunnah/Ahadis that accompany it is a must. Else the Prophet ﷺ in his last sermon would've said that I'm leaving the Quran for your guidance, hold on to it. He made a point about Quran AND Sunnah. The Quran itself says that Muhammad is the ideal model presented to you by Allah for guidance. There's room for ijtehad, to accommodate for the changes and advances in times and technology. The Quran narrates some historic stories of prophets and events of older times. Who can tell us why a particular story is being narrated? What was the time when those verses were relayed to Prophet ﷺ under what context? Stories were examples, for lessons in scenarios. Knowledge to understand the Quran is important to understand how predicates are established and conclusions drawn, what is the Sunnah way of doing it? That's knowledge of the context. It simply can't be gained by merely reading the text of the Quran. Of course there are some remarkable facts written in it which are only recently discovered by Science like the invisible boundary in seas, the whole pregnancy stages and trimesters and the formation of pearl but Quran is not a book of science. It still refers to so many things we don't understand, like what are the seven skies? What is meant by the two sunrises and two sunsets?
We don't consider a person's views misinformed when he talks about Mein Kampf without holding a degree in the study of it. Why does a book of faith enjoy so much immunity from its criticism and discussion, specially from people who actually are familiar with it?
Mein Kampf is a recent history book, and doesn't state on how it must be read to be understood. There are many books out there which aren't supposed to be read cover to cover for they won't make any sense. These books explain how they should be read to make sense.
No Muslim would criticise the Quran or doubt it as it'll void his faith. But who said it's free from criticism? It's the intent of criticism which is problematic. If you really do want to criticize the Quran, you must do so in the best possible avenue consulting an expert of Quran who willingly volunteers to handle your question. For example, if you're doing so on Pakgamers, then given your decent IQ, you must be aware that it will be nothing more than an offense on the emotions of the believers. I can't defend the Quran because I don't feel I'm qualified to. I will try my best, of course. But it may not be good enough. What I can do is provide some commentary on your past experiences where you've tried to criticize Quran with aalims who failed you and you've given up and perhaps my commentary will encourage you to seek out better aalims?
You talk about hunting for Alims until you find one that "satisfies" you. That's not a sincere way of questioning your religion at all. A Muslim who sees Islam in his own light will be only be satisfied by an Alim who happens to concur with his views. A Muslim of sect B will do the same until he finds the Alim who can be satisfactory to HIM. And so on.
An Aalim wouldn't simply concur to you. If he does, if you make him your ameer with a clear intent of following Islam then that's all that's needed. One is answerable only to Allah and the best thing is that Allah is aware of the intent. If that persons finds reasons to doubt his Ameer, he cross questions him more on the matters and differences with other aalims, that man is free to choose his Ameer. It's not just the actions, it's the intent.
What if a rare kind of Muslim, honestly and rigorously thinking about his faith, finds Alims who can confirm his suspicions. If that Muslim, then, feels compelled to abandon his faith, what would be your thoughts about the matter? "If only he had gone to the right Alim!", I presume.
No, I don't give that much power to an Aalim, Allah can intend anything to be a conduit for a person's guide and belief system. Seeking an ameer is merely the sunnah way for making an effort to find that guide. If that Muslim can be compelled to abandon his faith, it's his loss. May be another aalim would've prevented it, may be it was his destiny or may be that person will regain his faith in a more concrete manner later.
Whenever confused or unsure, why does it never occur to a Muslim that perhaps, it is Islam that is imperfect? I'm not saying that he should immediately jump to that conclusion. But he could start a line of inquiry and see whether his faith can withstand the tests of reason and evidence Why is the core assumption of Islam's infallibility so utterly beyond question? Why must we always, when faced with an aspect of Islam that makes us uncomfortable, retreat to the safe haven position of selecting alternative interpretations that best fit our worldview? We are willing to go that far. Why not one step further? To step outside the box for once and see your religion from the eyes of an alien who is only first time encountering a mysterious book purported to be the infallible word of the one true divine being, curious to find the truth?
We know that being the most knowledgeable doesn't automatically mean you will accept Islam and Allah as your God. "Imaan bil Ghaib" is the key. It is the belief in Allah that must be unconditional. The concept of Imaan is that you keep believing in Allah, his Prophet and the Quran irrespective of evidences and logic. If it's logically verifiable, well and good. If not, perhaps our understanding of comparison is inadequate. See what I mean? It's a 'Belief System' and once you submit to it, you submit to it completely. If someone bombards you with logical questions, you try to answer what you can but you shouldn't be emotional or feel despair if you can't satisfy the other person because that's not your place. Allah tells us that it is He who chooses when someone gains Faith. He can make you a conduit, that's good for you, but you shouldn't really despair. The real test is your own Imaan and how those questions and apparent logical fallacies can inversely affect your own belief. If the logical questions and irregularities drive you off your faith, you're losing. If not, you're winning.
We don't believe in Islam just because we verified it ourselves to be Perfect or Imperfect. The only Perfection is Allah himself, that's our faith. He said that he completed (read: PERFECTED) Islam for us and gave is the PERFECT role model. That is why we believe in it, because we just do. There's no logical reason as to why.
You will never learn anything about any idea if you question that idea with the very assumptions that the acceptance of that idea already requires in the first place.
You probably won't. But that's not the intention. I'm already a part of the belief system so it might be harder for me to guide someone on how to enter that system. What to use as an evidence when the physical manifestation (Quran) is being doubted itself. I think a good start would be subject matter experts who you can approach with your queries and criticisms. I'm just not that person. I might take your queries to the nearest one I have in Australia if you want and eventually share your contact details with him directly but I think it's best that you identify a person like that through your own research.
The methods of inquiry that you are proposing only render your faith unfalsifiable.
That's a good thing, right? No really. What if you bounce from Aaalim to Aaalim and all keep telling you the same thing? Trust me on this, but the way they tell you the same thing can vary differently. I mean I met one mufti sahab, I respect him for his Faith and I acknowledge his rigidness but I can't even choose him as my Ameer. A simple question about legitimacy of music ensured that I'll end up in hell with molten stuff in my ears. Damn. What he's saying is that listening to music is not allowed in Islam and what he's trying to do is guide me away from music by trying to induce fear in me the way it's induced in him. He is using his belief system, driven by fear, to guide me. Then I met another fellow, a younger mufti of my own generation. He said, can you avoid listening to music? I said no. He then told me Allah doesn't like it, or at least the wordly manifestation of music. There will be more beautiful music in heaven, you just have to think about that and long for it. So would you like to do something that Allah doesn't like? It's just temporary limitation and test in this life but you'll get much better in the afterlife. It was sweet, driven by an Optimism belief system. That didn't work for me either. What did work for me is that I know music is not allowed, whenever I listen I think I'll stop listening and do tawbah as much as I can. But you can still spot me shaking my head to "Try Everything" on the roads
It becomes a problem about choosing between different apparent version of Islam. The question whether a correct version exists at all never even remotely crosses over our heads.
The entry to the belief system is straight forward. First you gotta become a Muslim, which is straight forward. The Kalma, which states Allah as the one and only God and Muhammad ﷺ is His prophet. Simple, easy. Last sermon of the Prophet ﷺ? Quran and Sunnah. You get the Quran.
The differentiation occurs when it comes to Sunnah. Sunnah = words and actions of the Prophet ﷺ. There are authentic sets of Ahadith books which is quoted across all the sects and some sects consider these books (as only the words of the Prophet ﷺ) as the only source of preserved Sunnah. Some have driven lines of sire (or silsila, don't exactly know the English word for it) linking Prophet ﷺ to his companions to their companions and subsequently to chains of aalims and their students and then their students as established practiced preservation of Sunnah. The different Imams are in lines of these Silsila and you can follow one or any school of practice of Islam which you researched and validated yourself, or referred to you by someone you trust.
The baseline teachings are pretty simple and easy to follow. The complications and debated issues, avoid them. If you can't, read the arguments and make up your own mind and do what you deem is best and asking Allah's forgiveness in case it's wrong. I mean it's all practice. Gets easier and more concrete with time, as long as you keep the core believe of one Allah, his prophet ﷺ in place.
Do you honestly believe it is impossible to come up with better reasons to decide the rightness or wrongness of our actions than the acceptance of the authority of a book? Is it perhaps possible, that the rulings of such a book could actually end up denying inalienable rights that every human being deserves to enjoy?
Since I'm a Muslim and my core belief is that Allah is the all knowing God, I think my best bet for choosing rightness or wrongness is pretty straight forward. Since Allah is all powerful and all knowing, yes, I honestly believe that it is impossible to come up with better reasons to choose right and wrong.
There are a lot of natural things in Human Beings that are urged to be suppressed, right from the onset. It means Allah acknowledges them but wants control to be exercised. Why? Only He knows. Perhaps it's good for us as a society. May be we'll learn in a hundred years from now.
I have no doubts Allah is just. Allah is aware of sexual orientations and if someone has to struggle extra hard to be a Muslim because of that, his rewards will be scaled appropriately (at the least). Allah rewards exponentially. It's easy for someone to avoid alcoholic drinks in a controlled environment with monitoring and stuff compared to someone who's presented it in a crystal glass in front of ALL non-muslims who wouldn't even bat an eye if you gulp it whole much less take a sip and rejecting it can inversely affect your career and make you look rude.
