ISIS…. the production of religious speech

In the recent times, the Arab and international scene witnessed many bloody terrorist events that were practiced in the name of Islam. There are sectarian and Islamic conflicts between the Sunnis and the Shiites. Sometimes, these conflicts take place among the affiliates of the same doctrine. The Muslim weapon is no longer directed to the enemies, but became directed to the hearts of the Muslims themselves!

These horrific events highlighted the need to review the Islamic religious heritage. Moreover, these events reflect the need to explore the hidden causes that drive an outlaw group such as “ISIS” to practice all these acts of murder, terrorism, terrorization, terrorizing the safe people and killing the innocent women and children under the banner of Allah.

So, what is the motive that urges a terrorist to blow himself up on a bus full of civilians, or to slaughter helpless young children whose only guilt is that they belong to Christianity or to the Shiite sect!

These and other events have led many researchers to say that it is necessary to review the religious discourse, to change it, to renew it and to free it from the texts, tales and interpretations that justify all this amount of violence and terrorism, which has become the title of modern Islamic discourse.

In this context, we should notice the study of the researcher Ali Mohammed Al-Shurafa Al-Hammadi, in his book «Muslims between the religious speech and the divine speech», published by the «Al-Nokhba House for printing, publishing and distribution».

The difference between the divine speech and the religious speech

At the beginning, the researcher distinguishes between two types of speech: religious speech, meaning all texts added to the original sacred narrative, the Holy Quran, or, more simply, the religious discourse is the accumulated religious heritage after the death of the Prophet Muhammad – peace be upon him – .

This heritage is, in fact, a human heritage whose tale has been transformed into a myth and hence became sacred. What the researcher calls the divine speech is the founding text of the Islamic religion, the Holy Quran.

In this study, the researcher makes a great effort to defend this founding text and to absolve it of all the false accusations such as being anti-science, intolerance, violence, inactivity and hatred of the other,

In order to achieve this goal, the researcher provides an open and liberal reading of the traditional frameworks free of unilateralism. In each page of his book, the researcher asserts that the Qur’an has never been theological, nor established any theological tendency. In fact, the holy Qur’an is rather a message that aims to liberate man from injustice, ignorance and slavery. The holy Qur’an is a message that adopts tolerance, justice, rationality, acceptance of the other, spread of peace, and pursuit of knowledge, science, creativity, humanism and respect for man as Allah’s successor to the earth.

Muslims has only two paths, no more!

The researcher believes that the reference to the Qur’an text as the basic and the only Muslim reference is the solution to get out of the impasse in which we were put in by the references and interpretations developed by the Hadith and Islamic legislation scholars. These interpretations were the cause of blurring the bright fact of Islam and distorting its good image.

In this regard, the researcher believes that at present, Muslims have only two ways to achieve this goal:

We can believe in Allah Almighty and his book, the Holy Quran as a guide and leader to us .. Or we can follow the tales promoted by the so-called scholars of the Islamic religion, and scholars of the Hadith, and the elders of Islam. These scholars have controlled the minds and beliefs of Muslims through these tales. These tales were the real reason to divide Muslims into sects, groups and parties who consider each other as unbelievers and even kill each other.

The researcher quotes verses from the Holy Quran confirming his vision that the Qur’an text is the reference that Muslims should refer to in their lives and in their relationships with others. As in the verse, ” So, these are cosmic signs characteristic of the vast scale of the universe and its changes which We relate to you O Muhammad in truth by inspiration actuated by the Spirit Jibril (Gabriel). If they -the infidels- refuse to acknowledge the truth as is featured in these signs; what then will convince them if this Quran and these signs do not?” (Al-Hathiyah: 6)

Rather, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) complains against the Muslims to Allah because they abandoned the Qur’an and moved away from the right path. The Almighty says: ” And there shall the Messenger express to Allah, his Creator his discontent at his people; he says now as he said earlier in life below «O Allah my Creator, I presented to my people Your divine message but my people took a dislike to Your divine discourse -the Quran- and they rejected it as a groundless fiction, and what they formed in their minds they exhibited in action»..” (Al-Furqan: 30)

In his book, Mr Ali Mohammed Al-Shurafa Al-Hammadi concludes that the divine speech is the only sacred one. It is a discourse of life, not of the dead or of the past. This means that it is a renewed and interactive discourse with the changing reality of human life. At the end of his study, the researcher states:

“This is not a speech to the dead, nor is it to the former nations, but a speech to the living who read the book of Allah, and listen to it and interact with its texts. The aim is to secure a link between Allah and his slaves through a pathway that extends from the earth to heaven. This connection cannot be fortified unless through commitment to the teachings of the Holy Quran ».

The study presented by «Ali Muhammad Al-Shurafa Al-Hammadi» of the Holy Quran is a daring, innovative and worthy of studying. The importance of this study stems from the fact that it opens the door to more readings and interpretations that free the text from the dominance of unilateral interpretations that confiscated the text for its own account. This account helped the terrorist groups who consider the other groups as unbelievers to change and twist the direction of the holy text.