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In the Name of God بسم الله

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  • Advanced Member
Posted

Salam everyone, 

 

I made a blog with the intention to "answer" the common criticisms of Islam by Islamophobes using evidence, rationality, and references. It has answers to the following questions so far:

 

I provided evidence for my answers using evidence from Quran and hadiths. If you have any further evidences (hadiths/Quran/statistics/science) that may be helpful in answering such questions, or other common questions that should be addressed, please tell me! Any feedback would be much appreciated!

 

I hope this blog is helpful to anyone defending Islam against common criticisms and accusations. Please feel free to use any content in it.

  • Veteran Member
Posted (edited)

May Allah reward you for your intentions and your efforts. I do have some reservations about what I have read though.

 

First of all, I think you need to be more consistent in your referencing. Often you will give a complete reference, but other times you just reference a whole book (which can be in several volumes).

 

Secondly, I think some of the claims you make are minority, or even fringe, views, which you don't make clear. I think it's fine to argue for a minority view, or to show that there are a range of views within Islam, but you need to at least acknowledge the majority view in order to be honest. Here are some examples of this:

 

In your article on apostasy, you state that there is no legal penalty for leaving Islam, but only for running a public campaign against Islam. While this is certainly a view, it's hardly the majority one. The tafsir you quote on verse 2:256 is also not the most frequently given reason for the revelation of that verse, which is usually about forcing people to become Muslims (see for example tafsir al-mizan).

 

In your article on women's rights:

 


Prophet Muhammad’s teachings are the opposite of misogynistic; he said: “Women have dominance.”[xvii] “God, Blessed and Most High, is more compassionate to women than to men, and any man who brings happiness to the heart of any of his female relatives, God will make him happy on Judgement Day.”[xviii] He also said: “Blessings have been placed among women.”[xix] Islam allows women to work outside the house and enjoy as much career opportunity as men; Prophet Muhammad said: “Seeking lawful income is a must for every Muslim man and woman.”[xx]

 

This is hardly a balanced picture. You don't mention the hadiths about women needing their huband's permission to leave the house, for example. So you are giving a misleading impression that going out to work is somehow an inalienable right given to women in Islam, which it is not. It's also rather strange to quote a saying that women have dominance.

 

Obviously the misconceptions about women's rights in Islam do need to be challenged, and you are right to point out that Islam gave women many rights that they didn't have in the West until recently, but I think it's important to present a balanced picture.

 

The reason it is important to be balanced is because anti-Islam sites are becoming more sophisticated, and will often quote hadiths and fatwas themselves, with full quotations and references. So by giving a one-sided picture, you may lose credibility in the eyes of those who have seen some of the opposing material. It would be better in my opinion to mention this other material, and put it in it's proper context, or in some cases even give a defence for it, rather than going down the apologetic route.

Edited by Haydar Husayn
Posted (edited)

(bismillah)

 

Wa`asalam,

 

It's nice to see that your compassionate about answering these common criticisms with sincere intentions, whilst your attempting to use 'proper' referencing and rational arguments, I believe there are a few issues that need to be addressed, which mirror what brother Haydar Husayn had said. From one of your short articles:

 

 

 

because one Islamic source says Prophet Muhammad married his wife Aisha when she was nine years old[v]. But other Islamic sources say she was ten[vi], twelve[vii], sixteen[viii], and even nineteen[ix] at the time of marriage. The accusation cannot be made because nobody knows her age at the time of marriage and some of the recorded ages falsify the accusation. After all, it is clear according to Islamic law that Aisha’s father arranged the marriage upon her consent and consummation occurred at a time after puberty. 

 

 

Firstly, although the rest of your argument in the article seems sound, your speculative assumption about ‘Āisha's age at marriage is flawed and deceptive. You've simply made a 'fallacy fallacy' argument, failing to acknowledge the numerous factual based evidences that records her age of marriage to be at nine. The 'Islamic sources' that say she was ten at the age marriage are explicitly stated and only found in Shīa sources. Whilst according to authentic Sunnī ḥadīth her age of marriage was at nine years of age. The sources that allude her age was at twelve, sixteen, and nineteen, are all ḍa‘īf (weak) according to Sunnī standards in ‘Ilm al-ḥadīth/rijāl. Moreover these sources (which you've quoted) are implicit, meaning her age is not explicitly given, and is usually derived from very dubious and tenuous assumptions about cultural norms during the prophet's (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) era. Her age at marriage is very well documented, and evident throughout Sunnī literature, which you probably haven't even went over. Simply put, you've gathered these derived assumptions and said 'But other Islamic sources say she was X, X, and X", without properly acknowledging their origin and weakness. Such accusations against the prophet (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم) didn't even appear until the 18th century, and before then Muslims didn't even have an issue with ‘Āisha's age. Besides, age of marriage in pre-modern times with most cultures, is known to have been early, where marriage would have been consummated at the onset of puberty. Modern general notions about 'What age is right for marriage', cannot be compared to pre-modern times anyway. 

 

Secondly, having references like these "Tarikh Al-Tabari by Muhammad ibn Jarir Al-Tabari" without proper numbering, and acknowledging the implicitly of your 'quotations', will make your articles lose credibility, which has already been addressed above me. The topics you've addressed require extensive clarification, and so short and simple 'answers' will not suffice.

 

 

Wa`asalam  

Edited by Jaafar Al-Shibli
  • 5 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

The 'Islamic sources' that say she was ten at the age marriage are explicitly stated and only found in Shīa sources.

 

Just one question, even though I have absolutely no problem with the Prophet marrying a ten year old because it is a completely legitimate Islamic marriage, but the "Shia" source - isn't even a hadith from the Imam, it's a report from Isma'il b. Ja'far, so how come this source carries more weight than other sources which say she was nine, twelve etc...? 

Edited by The Batman
Posted

Just one question, even though I have absolutely no problem with the Prophet marrying a ten year old because it is a completely legitimate Islamic marriage, but the "Shia" source - isn't even a hadith from the Imam, it's a report from Isma'il b. Ja'far, so how come this source carries more weight than other sources which say she was nine, twelve etc...? 

 

Notice that I did't state it was from the Imām [a.s]. Second, the hadīth is an Athar, which I am already aware of, yes. There are no Shīa sources that explicitly state she was twelve or nine. Third, I never said anything about the preference of these sources, reread my comment.

 

Wa`al-salam.

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