The Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement Blog

Issue 44

Issue 44 [43:26]: Walid Shoebat, Former member, PLO Fatah Brigade – “In the Muslim thinking, in the Muslim Sharia, the way the world is depicted is in two house. It is called Dar-ul-Islam or Dar-ul-Harb, the house of Islam or the house of war. So the whole world is under these two houses. If you are not a Muslim you are under the house of war. In the West Islamic apologists will say no it is not accurate. It is the house of peace and the house of Islam. In fact that is not accurate. If you look at the Hadith and what comes from the highest Jurisprudence in the Middle East that is what being taught.”

Rebuttal 44: This issue is broken down as follows:

Issue 44a: “In the Muslim thinking, in the Muslim Sharia, the way the world is depicted is in two house. It is called Dar-ul-Islam or Dar-ul-Harb, the house of Islam or the house of war. So the whole world is under these two houses. If you are not a Muslim you are under the house of war…”

Rebuttal 44a: Muhammad Ali in his book Religion of Islam [p. 426, pub. 1951] clarifies, rebuts and expunges the notions of Dar-ul-Islam and Dar-ul-Harb as follows:

Dar al-Harb and Dar al-Islam

With the new notion introduced into the word jihad, the jurists artificially divided the whole word into dar al-harb and dar al-Islam. Dar al-harb literally means the abode or seat of war, and dar al-Islam, the abode of Islam. These words are not used in the Holy Qur’an, nor are they traceable in any Hadith. Bukhari uses the word dar al-harb in the heading of one of his chapters: “When a people embrace Islam in dar al-harb” (Bu. 56:180). Two Hadith are mentioned under this heading, in neither of which do the words dar al-harb occur. The first speaks of Makkah, and its subject matter is that when, after the conquest of Makkah, the unbelieving Quraish accepted Islam; they were recognized as owners of property of which they had become masters, though it originally belonged to those Muslims who had fled to Madinah. The second speaks of Rabdhah, a place at a distance of about three day’s journey from Madinah, the lands near which were turned into pasture by ‘Umar and, on the owners’ protest, made over to them. Both Makkah and Rabdhah were at one time at war with the Muslims and on this account Bukhari speaks of them as dar al-harb. Dar al-Islam is evidently a place where the laws of Islam prevail and which is under a Muslim ruler. The use of dar al-harb in the sense of a place actually at war with the Muslims, is unobjectionable. But the jurists apply the word to all states and countries which are not dar al-Islam or under the Muslim rule, though they may not be at war with the Muslims, and thus look upon a Muslim state as being always in a state of war with the whole of the non-Muslim world. This position is not only inconsistent with the very basic principles of Islam but actually it has never been accepted by any Muslim state that has ever existed in the world. The difficulty has been met by some jurists by bringing a third class, called dar al-sulh or dar al-‘ahd, or a country which has an agreement with the Muslims. But even this does not exhaust the whole world. Many of the laws relating to war are based on this fictitious division of the world, for which there is not the least authority either in the Holy Qur’an or in Hadith.

Issue 44b: “…In the West Islamic apologists will say no it is not accurate. It is the house of peace and the house of Islam. In fact that is not accurate. If you look at the Hadith and what comes from the highest Jurisprudence in the Middle East that is what being taught.”

Issue 44b: Mr. Shoebat, this is one more instance of your being wrong. You equate “ highest Jurisprudence in the Middle East” as being what Islam is. Whether it is Far East, Middle East or Near East, Islam comes out of none of these Easts, but out of Quran. Following is what Quran has to say about the issue that you raised:

Firstly, for all intents and purposes the word “Islam” means peace, both in letter and in spirit, within the person and within the society:

10:25 And Allah invites to the abode of peace, and guides whom He pleases to the right path… [This is another description of the Muslim paradise, which is called dar al-salam, or the abode of peace. The word salam in dar al-salam is from the same root as Islam. Islam, in fact, makes even this world an abode of peace for a true Muslim; he makes his peace with his Lord, and he lives at peace with his fellow beings. The peace of the next life is, in fact, a continuation of the peace of mind which a Muslim finds in this very life.]

Secondly, in this abode of peace, there is freedom of faiths for all:

2:256 There is no compulsion in religion…[To all the allegations that the Holy Prophet preached Islam by the sword, this verse is a sufficient answer. Being assured of success, Muslims are told that when they hold power in their hands their guiding principle should be that there should be no compulsion in the matter of religion. The claim that this passage was directed only to the early converts and that it was abrogated later on is utterly baseless.]

Thirdly, this freedom of religion has to be preserved for all:

22:40. …if Allah did not repel some people by others, surely cloisters and churches and synagogues, and mosques in which Allah’s name is much remembered, would have been pulled down. And surely Allah will help him who helps Him. Surely Allah is Strong, Mighty. [The religious freedom established by Islam has not yet been surpassed by the most civilized and tolerant of nations. It deserves to be noted that the lives of Muslims are to be sacrificed not only to stop their own persecution by their opponents and to save their own mosques, but to save churches, synagogues and cloisters as well — in fact, to establish perfect religious freedom. Mosques, though they are the places where the name of Allah is remembered most of all, are mentioned after churches and synagogues. Early Muslims closely followed these directions, and every commander of an army had express orders to respect all houses of worship, and even the cloisters of monks, along with their inmates.]

Of note is that one of His cause is, protection of cloisters and churches and synagogues besides mosques. While living among a multi-faith community, Muslims are deemed to follow the norms of fairness, which the spirit of the Quran:

5:3. … And do not let hatred of a people — because they hindered you from the Sacred Mosque — incite you to transgress [The principle laid down here requires from Muslims equal treatment for all nations, for those whom we hate as well as for those whom we love. Only this principle of Islam can serve as the basis for an international code for the modern world and an international law.]. And help one another in righteousness and piety, and do not help one another in sin and aggression, and keep your duty to Allah [Editor’s note: Muslims ought only to cooperate with one another in matters of goodness, and are forbidden to help each other in wrongdoing against others. This injunction prohibits the evils of blind patriotism and unconditional support for one’s own people even when they commit injustices against others.]. Surely Allah is Severe in retribution.

Note: [comments in square brackets above are the footnotes from the Translation and Commentary of Holy Quran – Muhammad Ali, edited by Dr. Zahid Aziz]

References:

Religion of Islam – Muhammad Ali
The Holy Quran – Muhammad Ali, edited by Dr. Zahid Aziz