“Think not that I have come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” [10:34]
Doesn’t that just sound violent? Isn’t that contradictory to what many Muslims say? They say ‘Islam means peace’. Though, what can they say about the above verse?
What they can say is that this verse is from the Bible (Matthew, 10:34). However, is this verse taken as something that makes all of Christianity violent? The answer is no. It would be completely ignorant for a person to use this verse (on its own) as an argument against Christianity. On the contrary, does this apply to Muslims?
If you take any random verse, and relate it, can you judge the character of a people based on that? I hope your answer is no.
The problem here is that with any religious group, you can’t judge the whole religion by studying only a part of it. Taking one verse of the Qur’an is taking 1 out of 6,000 verses. Can that judge it all?
There’s two options that the media, so-called “religious experts”, and even the bigots have.
What most end up taking is the TEXT. However, there’s a con to taking only the text. Why? Because you’re missing the ‘con’, they read TEXT without the CONTEXT (when it was revealed, what situation is applies to, what is supposed to supplement it, etc.).
Islam has two sources:
1. The Qur’an
2. The Sunnah (the teachings, practices, and advices of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him).
The reason there are 2 sources is this: they supplement each other. The Qur’an says to pray, however, it does not teach how to pray. The exact method of how to make Salah (prayer) is taught by Muhammad (peace be upon him). And the Qur’an was revealed to Muhammad as an answer to his specific situations. So, some verses are very specific. However, the lessons and themes behind all of this is where Islam is applied today.
Too many people take verses from the Qur’an without knowing when it was revealed and to what situation it applies to. So, things are greater than what meets the eye. Be aware of this.
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Check out here another article on what a Muslim is, from a linguistic perspective.
Any questions or thoughts are welcome in the comments.
