Islam must reform

Submitted by Abdul Rahman Reijerink (Australia), May 28, 2006 at 09:17

true Islam must reform.

We must stop treating the interpretations of the Qur'an as the Qur'an. Interpretation has imposed itself on the Holy Scriptures, and to blindly follow the opinions of people living in historically different conditions as if they are the word of Allah is inherently idolatrous. The seam between tafsir (interpretation/exegesis) has blurred so much that the word of Allah is lost and twisted beyond all recognition, serving to justify the domination of women and other insanity. Would Allah who hates the tyrant more than almost any other type of criminal do Zulm (oppression) on half of humanity through the revelation? Of course not. Look at the latest Saudi Qur'an where it talks about the "verses of the veil", they interpolate the translation (an act of interpretation), with insertions from tafsir (an act of interpretation) from a particular scholar who upholds their ideas and to the uninitiated it looks as if Allah is ordering all women to cover their whole bodies except for one eye, as if the purpose of the verse was to prevent men from being sexualy enticed or looking at someone elses property... this is blasphemy. Women were libertaed by Allah from being property, not reinforced in this role. Each individual bears responsibility for its own actions, hijab was ordained for protection not control, if it does not serve to protect, then it is not needed.

We need to liberate sacred texts and the legal rulings we derive from them from the historical situations of past people.

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