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Riyadh: A Saudi man found guilty of hitting his wife has been sentenced by a court to read the Quran and two Islamic books on relations between spouses. he will later sit for a test on what he learned from the books.

The man was told to memorise five of the 30 parts of the Quran, as well as 100 sayings by Prophet Mohammad, the Gulf News reported citing Saudi daily Al Madinah.

He was also ordered by a court in the Red Sea resort of Jeddah to give his wife 7,000 riyals (around $1,900) and to make sure to preserve women’s rights.

The man was also ordered by a court in the Red Sea resort of Jeddah to give his wife 7,000 riyals and to make sure to preserve women’s rights.

The wife had complained to the authorities after her husband hit her during an argument when she told him that he should go to hospital to visit his cousin while she sees her family.

The husband became angry over her wish to go out. he hit her and caused her bruises.

AFP Monday, May 07, 2012

NAJAF, Iraq – Hussein al-Kharsan kneels, bent over a giant sheet of paper, laboriously writing the words of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, in beautiful Arabic script with a traditional wood and feather pen.

The 25-year-old Iraqi aims to take an unusual path to fame: writing the longest copy of the Quran in the world.

Kharsan says the scroll is to be between 5,500 and 6,000 metres long.

His aim, he says, is to set a Guinness World Record.

Kharsan, who graduated from Baghdad University’s college of fine arts, works from inside a religious school in Najaf, despite pains in his neck and back from long hours of carefully writing out one verse after another.

“At the beginning, the agreement was to finish the work in six months, on the basis of writing three pages out of 503 pages of the Quran every day,” Kharsan said.

“I succeeded at the beginning and worked for 16 hours a day for more than two weeks until I started suffering pains,” he said.

“The doctor asked me to stop working for about a month but I refused and told him that I work with the blessings of the Quran. Now I take pain-killing pills and work for five hours a day, which means I need about a year to finish.”

Kharsan, who began participating in Arabic calligraphy competitions when he was just nine years old, writes on four pieces of white paper that are each 1,500 metres long.

In the above verse, there are important signs related to causality.Persons who study philosophy should know that discussions about causality necessitate a philosophical background.

Have you not seen how your Lord lengthens out the shadow? he could have kept it motionless had he liked. Then We made the sun a proof for it. (25:45)

At the time of the descent of the Quran, there was not a single treatise that dealt with philosophy or causality in the region in question. it is noteworthy that the Quran emphasizes an issue of extreme importance, causality, in a region where ignorance prevailed among the Bedouins. most philosophical commentaries considered important were improvements on philosophies inherited from the past. Whereas the statements of the Quran, not based on any heritage, are evidence of its authority.

God says that the shadow he created was not the necessary consequence of the sun, but was created because God willed it so. In the verse, the causality between the shadow and the sun is acknowledged, but the said causality is created on purpose. The pattern laid down by the Quran differs from the one offered by skeptics like Hume, who is skeptical about causality, and from the viewpoints that try to explain the universe based on the determinism of causal principles that have come into existence by pure coincidence.

Causality is one of the basic tenets of science. it is the relation between two events or states of affairs in which one brings about the other or produces it. That is, it connects everything existing in the universe. it stops our world from turning into chaos by establishing relationships between cause and effect. Had there been no relation between cause and effect, understanding our world would have become even more complex than a dream. Sciences like physics and chemistry take causality for granted. The manufacture of airplanes, satellites and televisions is the result of reliability of the cause and effect relationship. David Hume was skeptical about causality, but like all men, he could not help basing himself on the principles of causality. for nobody can go on living while denying causality. for instance, had Hume not taken into his head to write, he could not have produced the Treatise of Human Nature because writing was the cause to produce a book! Gazali’s inquiry into causality was not meant to deny it. His opposition resulted from the attempts at replacing it with God’s will. The famous example he gave about the burning of cotton purported to postulate causality as a created system, to which we refer as teleological causality.

These may seem absurd to those who are not familiar with the deliberations that the issue of causality has given rise to in philosophy. The reason why I am trying to give such explanations is the place occupied in the history of philosophy by extremists’ opinions that deny “causality.” Natural sciences have already gone beyond such contentions, while certain philosophers remain irresolute.

The Quran acknowledges causality. Causal relationships, referred to in many a verse by the attribute of “sunnettulah” (God’s system), are valid throughout the universe. as we shall be seeing in the coming chapters, the Quran points to the mathematical order reigning in the universe. This means the functioning of the cause and effect relationship in a mathematical order. The statements of scientists who translate the principles of causality by having recourse to physical and chemical formulas in the universe and those of the Quran are in perfect conformity.

Although the Quran acknowledges causality, it defines its purpose as a teleological argument. although, in causal relationships, the cause precedes the effect, the latter’s design precedes the cause. The causality chain, as expounded in the Quran, functions within God’s knowledge and means, and cannot be creative. While it acknowledges causality, the Quran is against the idealization of causality. The existence of shadow is not a necessary consequence of the sun. The Creator of the sun has foreseen the shadow’s existence as a consequence of the creation of the sun. what the Quran propounds is the universal model based on “created causality.”

PROTEIN’S PROBABILITY AND TELEOLOGICAL CAUSALITY

Probability calculations provide us with objective data of a mathematical nature that let us see whether the alternative of intelligent design or the one of coincidence is more credible. In particular, the fact that Hume’s criticism of the analogical version of the “argument from design” was generally accepted in philosophy circles has been one of the reasons for the rise to prominence of the probabilistic version of the “argument from design.” The structure of proteins makes the application of probability calculations possible. Every living cell is made up of proteins. Both as far as the enzymes and as far as their other functions are concerned, proteins are the basic units that run the activities of cells. In the comparison between cells and a factory, the proteins correspond to the factory’s machinery. Proteins are made up of a succession of amino acids. In a living organism, a protein is made up of 20 amino acids. The fact that these 20 amino acids should be placed in a certain order, and that the proteins should have a threedimensional shape, are absolute requisites for a protein. there is a very great difference between the proteinoids, which are formed by a coincidental succession of amino acids, and the proteins, which have a special function within a cell. Amino acids come in two kinds, left-handed amino acids and right-handed amino acids. While proteinoids, which are a result of a coincidental union of amino acids, are made up of both kinds of amino acids, proteins include only left-handed amino acids. what is more important, proteins have to be set up in a certain order if they are to be able to carry out specific duties. The probability that amino acids will turn into proteins just because they have been subjected to energy is the same as the probability that a stack of bricks, which have been blown up in the air with dynamite, will fall back down and form a house. In living organisms, alongside relatively short proteins like ferrodexin (found in clostridium pasteurianum), which is made up of a succession of 55 amino acids, there are also long proteins like twitchin (found in caenorhabditin elegans), which is made up of a succession of 6049 amino acids. as an example for our probability calculations, let us consider the medium sized serum albumin protein, which can be found in the human body and which is made up of 584 amino acids. The probability that the amino acids in this protein would be made up only of the left-handed kind, can be calculated in the following way:

The probability that an amino acid should be of the left-handed kind: 1/2 The probability that two amino acids should be of the left-handed kind: 1/2 x 1/2 The probability that three amino acids should be of the left-handed kind: 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 The probability that 584 amino acids should be of the left-handed kind: (1/2)20584

In addition to this, all amino acids have to form a peptide bond, which is necessary for tying up with the other amino acids in the protein chain. there are also many other kinds of chemical bonds that can be formed in a natural environment, among amino acids; the probability of a peptide bond forming is roughly equal to the probability of other kinds of bonds forming. Within the serum albumin, made up of 584 amino acids, 583 peptide bonds are required. The probability of these forming is as follows:

The probability that two amino acids should bond with a peptide bond: 1/2 The probability that three amino acids should bond with peptide bonds: 1/2 x 1/2 The probability that four amino acids should bond with peptide bonds: 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 The probability that 584 amino acids should bond with peptide bonds:(1/2)583 The probability that the amino acids of a single protein should be all left-handed and that they should be connected with peptide bonds is:

(1/2)584 x (1/2)583 = (1/2)1167 = (1/10)351

We realise that this probability is a practical impossibility from a mathematical point of view, by means of the following reasoning. if we add the 1080 protons and neutrons (total of all protons and neutrons in the universe) to the all photons and electrons in the universe, we obtain a number smaller than 1090. The life span of the universe, 15 billion years x 365 days x 24 hours x 60 minutes x 60 seconds = 473.040.000.000.000.000, expresses the time that has elapsed since the creation of the universe. We could say approximately that this number is equal to 1018. if we multiply the two numbers, the number we get is 1090 x 1018 = 10108. This number expresses the number of attempts made, if all the protons, neutrons, electrons and photons in the universe had each made an attempt, every single second of the existence of the universe. if we assume that attempts made in a second by each of these are with the highest chemical speed 1012 (one trillion), it makes 10108 x 1012= 10120; but even the probability of two simple events like the formation of a protein with 584 amino acids with only left-handed amino acids and the formation of its peptide bonds is 1 in 10351. This shows us that even if all the protons, neutrons, electrons and photons in the universe had turned into one of 20 amino acids in living creatures and that even if they had made 1012 attempts in each second since the creation of the universe, it would not have been enough even to ensure that the amino acids of a single protein like the serum albumin should be left-handed and that they should be connected with peptide bonds.

This conclusion is indeed very interesting. Following the discoveries of Copernicus, the earth lost its central position in the universe; however, even mobilising the entire matter in the universe could not ensure the coincidental creation of a single protein, which exist in thousands in living organisms that we can see only by means of a microscope.

It is vitally important that the succession of the amino acids in proteins be in the correct order. We can show the probability calculation for the serum albumin protein in the following way:

The probability that an amino acid should be in the correct position: 1/20 The probability that two amino acids should be in the correct position: 1/20 x 1/20 The probability that three amino acids should be in the correct position: 1/20 x 1/20 x 1/20 The probability that 584 amino acids should be in the correct position: (1/20)584 = (1/10)759

If we multiply this number with the 1 in 10351, which we have already calculated, we get the probability that a given protein should be made up only of left-handed amino acids and that it should form peptide bonds and that the succession of amino acids should be in the correct order. This corresponds to a probability of 1 in 10351×10759=101110, which practically means that it is impossible (Generally in mathematics all probabilities less than 1 in 1050 are considered impossible). it could be said that only a certain part of the succession of amino acids in proteins is active and that changes in the amino acids outside this part could be tolerated. This would mean that the actual probability was higher than we calculated; but, on the other hand, if we include the probabilities also of things like the necessity that the protein should happen to be in the correct position within the cell and also that it should exist in the required quantity, then the probabilities decrease.

Those who deny that the causes were created target-oriented have succumbed to mathematics. This calculation of probability was made on the assumption that amino acids are the ones that are used in the living organism, that the three-dimensional folding of the protein has been realized and that after the formation of the protein the functions have been frozen. Supposing that all these stages had been added to the probability- what was impossible would be even more impossible. however, the figure mentioned indicates this impossibility for those who are versed in mathematics. This serum albumin protein whose formation cannot be coincidental is being produced in the millions by our body.

According to the “blind coincidentalist” materialist view, serum albumin is a fortuitous formation. According to the believer, this protein is a target-oriented creation. This example about the formation of the protein can be stretched to cover many things, from the functions in our body to those in other animals and plants, from the phenomena occurring in our world to space. In all these domains the principles of causality function within a teleological framework.

WHAT CAN BE THE CAUSE OF THIS CAUSALITY?

The absence of causality would rule out all mental functions. Whether a universe would be possible without causality is a different matter, but the fact is, we could not understand the world. our getting hungry is a cause. our opening the door of the refrigerator with a view to getting the food in it is a cause; so is our reaching for food. The fact that the meal we have before us is subject to gravity and the fact that what we swallow goes down to our stomach are causes and all these causes are simultaneously the effects of prior causes. The principles of causality govern us in understanding all that is created in the world. our study of the universe, that contributes to our understanding of God’s magnificent artistry and the omniscience of God, is also based on causality. We understand the principles of causality thanks to our mental capacity, God’s gift. We reason based on causality. our ratiocination is based on causality. Had the causal relationships been simpler, many of us might not have given the creation its due. Had the creation been more complex than it actually is, and had we been unable to solve the mysteries of causality, we could not be in a position to understand the universe. In the existence of the universe, the cause and effect relationship is a consequence of God’s perfect design.

The great blunder of atheists is their attribution of the effect merely to the cause, since they are convinced that the causes in the principles of causality owe their existence to coincidences. The irrelevance of coincidences is shown in the simple instance of a protein. if one concludes that in the cause and effect relationship, the cause is not a fortuitous act, one can derive from this that all effects are but God’s doing. The materialist atheism that considers causality not to be a created process, but the cause’s own making, idolizes matter and the causality principles immanent in it. once the idea of coincidence is ruled out, all the creatures in the universe automatically become the consequence of an Infinite Knowledge and Infinite Power. Assumptions of coincidental formations in the concept of time in which the stages of creation take place have prevented atheists from conceiving of the Creator. once the concept of coincidence is dealt with, all knowledge is promoted to the Eternal Existence. those who assert that an object or knowledge is the product of coincidences establish a connection to a process in time. once coincidences are ruled out, the existent becomes the outcome of the wisdom of the Eternal being. This leads to the understanding of the universe as the result of a process, the product (within the principles of causality) of a process, the work of the Eternal being.

   He still walks unaided, works at his farm daily, reads the Quran without  his spectacles and has no health issues.

  the only thing that has started to deteriorate with age is his hearing and those who want to ask him about his life experience have to speak up.

 although the age in his identity card reads 93, Abdul Rahman said he was already 12-years-old when he applied for his birth certificate in 1905.

  He attributes his good health to a healthy lifestyle and a strict diet of simple kampung food.

  the father of five said he likes to eat ulam (raw vegetables and herbs) with rice.

  “The raw greens are also easy to find as they grow wild around the village.”

  He steers away from  food  which contain coconut milk.

  “I also stay away from ice drinks and sweet food.”  

  other than his  diet, Abdul Rahman,  affectionately known as Pok Man, does not smoke.

   He lives with his eighth wife, Saadiah Hamat, 71, in Kampung Dengir here and spends his days working in his farm.

   although he can take it easy  as his five children, 25 grandchildren, 20 great-great grandchildren and nine great-great-great grandchildren can afford to take care of him, Pok Man refuses to stop working, saying it is part of his lifestyle.

  He is used to hard work, having been a guard at the Gong Kedak Japanese arms depot during World War 2 and being a builder after the war ended.

  Yesterday, Pok Man’s diligence in taking care of his health was highlighted at the 1Malaysia Health Carnival at the Besut hospital here.

  He received the Healthy Senior Citizen award from the state  Health, Unity and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman Dr Abdul Rahman Mokhtar.

  Pok Man’s daughter Arini Abdul Rahman, 46, said her father’s healthy lifestyle has rubbed off on his children.

  “We watch what we eat and exercise regularly.”     “My 63-year-old elder brother has no major illnesses and he attribute it to  my father.”

After more than 30 hearings and four rescheduled trial start dates, District Attorney Jan Scully announced a negotiated settlement Thursday in the prosecution of former Sacramento State student Quran Jones, who was accused of murdering Scott Hawkins.

Jones held a “dual plea” – not guilty by reason of insanity for the murder of Hawkins and guilty for several charges of assault on police officers. Included in the agreement is a sentence of confinement to a state mental hospital on murder charges, and a term of 18 years, along with an additional four months for the remaining charges.

Jones was on trial for the murder of Hawkins, his former roommate, with a baseball bat at their American River Courtyard suite at Sac State on Oct. 21, 2009.

When University Police responded to the scene, an officer reported Jones was wielding a knife. When Jones reportedly advanced toward the officers, they responded by firing – leaving him paralyzed below the waist.

An investigation revealed Jones had been acting strangely in the days leading up to the incident: Playing five different songs simultaneously at a high volume, watching several YouTube videos at the same time and staying up all hours of the night, according to a report released by the office of the district attorney.

Two court-appointed doctors conducted psychiatric evaluations concluding Jones was suffering from schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder at the time of the homicide. The evaluations were supported by an expert retained by the defense, meaning he would likely be considered legally insane by the court.

A blood test found Jones was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol during the time of the incident.

The settlement comes as a result of the difficulties the prosecution faced in arguing against the insanity findings in both of the psychiatric evaluations and the absence of evidence Jones had some motive or criminal intent when he murdered Hawkins, according to the district attorney’s report.

The sentence for Jones’ crime is a minimum of 180 days in a state mental hospital. After that, he may apply to be released from the program. if he is found to have recovered his sanity, he will be transferred to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation where he will serve the remainder of his 18 year, four month sentence.

The official sentencing will take place on may 15 at the Sacramento County Courthouse.

Spencer Dirrim, former roommate of Jones and Hawkins, said the trial has been on hold for two and a half years and he has spent six months waiting to be called as a witness.

“You never forget your roommate murdering your other roommate, but it’s not going to be a part of my life any more,” Dirrim said.

Dirrim said he feels terrible for what happened to the Hawkins family.

“The only justice would be if we could have our son back and he hadn’t had to suffer all the things he had suffered,” Gerald Hawkins said to The Sacramento Bee. “But as far as what the criminal justice system can do, I think the outcome was reasonable and fair.”

Kim Nava, spokeswoman for Sac State, said the settlement brings some closure, but the sadness remains.

“This closes the chapter on a really tragic event,” Nava said. “The family of Scott Hawkins is in our thoughts.”

Brett Johnson can be reached at .

Rev. Terry Jones warned today he will burn copies of the Quran if Iran doesn’t release an imprisoned pastor sentenced to death sentence after converting from Islam to Christianity.

Jones said in a radio interview that Iran has until April 28 to release Youcef Nadarkhani, currently facing death for preaching Christianity in Iran.

Declared Jones: “We have tried to contact Iran. We have tried to contact many of the religious leaders there. We have put out an ultimatum that if they have not released Pastor Yousef by April 28th we are calling for a worldwide burning of the Quran and also images of Mohammad as a protest.”

Jones is infamous for setting off deadly protests when he threatened to burn Qurans in June 2010 in protest of the 9-11 attacks.

Jones was speaking on “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” on new York’s WABC Radio.

Jones also announced his Quran burning intentions in a press release and during a protest yesterday outside the largest mosque in Michigan.

Muslims rioted when Jones last threatened to burn the Quran. in Afghanistan, protesters attacked a United Nations mission, killing at least 30 people, including seven U.N. workers, and injuring at least 150 people.  Jones went through with the burnings in March 2011.

During today’s radio interview, Klein asked Jones whether he realizes his Quran burning threat could again result in deadly riots.

“Yes, we do realize that,” he replied.  “something has to be done. We have few alternatives that we can do. That is something that does get the Muslim community’s attention. … 1,400 years of history has told us that backing down doesn’t work.”

Klein retorted: “But if you know for certain that the Muslim community will 100 percent react, as you know, I know, we all know they will, with deadly riots, with this kind of announcement, I have to ask the question again: why would you go ahead with something like this?”

Jones responded: “well because we feel that the situation has become so desperate, the situation has become so violent. as you may be aware of, I believe every five minutes a Christian missionary is killed in a Muslim country. We see what happens in Egypt, they have no problems with burning down churches, killing of Christians.

“I believe in Afghanistan there’s not even one Christian church left. they have no problem here in America defaming our constitution. We feel that something has to be done and we feel that this type of warning, this type of activity is warranted.”

Pakistan police clear educator of ‘blasphemy’ Mar 28, 2012 by COMPASS DIRECT NEWS compassdirect.org

LAHORE, Pakistan (BP)—Police resisted intense pressure from Islamist protestors in Pakistan and released in February without charges a Christian educator falsely accused of desecrating the Quran.

Muslim teachers at the Lahore-area City Foundation School accused school principal Saira Khokhar of desecrating a quranic scripture booklet on Feb. 22.

Sources told Compass Direct News that police refused to bow to pressure from Islamists clamoring outside the school for registration of a case against Khokhar under Section 295-B of Pakistan’s widely condemned “blasphemy” laws. In other accusations against Christians in Pakistan, sources said, police often file charges without proper investigation to quell pressure from accusers.

When Khokhar joined the school in 2009 as the only Christian amid a 14-member faculty, she told Compass sources that one teacher resigned in protest, further predisposing other teachers against her. The only other Christian employee of the school is a security guard.

In the February incident, police sustained injuries from irate Islamists in rescuing Khokhar from the mob. Police superintendent Imtiaz Sarwar subsequently told Compass that after a thorough investigation he concluded that school staff members had falsely accused her.

“The minute I interviewed the staff members, I knew that the charge against Saira was completely fabricated,” Sarwar said.

Sarwar commended his officers for putting their lives at risk while rescuing the school principal from the mob that was demanding she be handed over to them for “swift justice.”

“such an attitude cannot be allowed under any circumstances,” Sarwar said. “No one should dare take the law into their hands. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty.” 

The police superintendent acknowledged that in most blasphemy cases not all suspects were as fortunate as Khokhar.

“such cases are extremely sensitive,” Sarwar said. “The police had to face the severe reaction by the majority and at the same time secure the suspect. It’s regretful that in most cases officials have not been able to face the pressure.”

A school cleaner alleged that Khokhar had deliberately thrown a “Surrah-e-Yaseen” booklet into a dustbin while clearing the cupboards of her office. upon hearing this accusation, some Muslim teachers rushed up to the principal and demanded an apology.

“I told my teachers that I didn’t even know that the booklet was there, as the maid was helping me clean the cupboards,” Khokhar told sources at the police station. “she should have brought the booklet to my notice right then, but she deliberately took the dustbin to the staff room and instigated the teachers.” 

The Muslim teachers went home after she told them that she was unaware of the booklet’s presence amid the trash and was sorry for the inadvertent incident. 

“The next day , as soon as I reached the school and sat in my office, a teacher named Asma rushed into the village and started shouting that I, ‘a Christian,’ had desecrated the Quran yesterday,” Khokhar told Compass sources. “within minutes, a large mob gathered outside the school and started shouting slogans against me.”

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I was saddened by Nizam Yagoub’s anti-American rant.

The US soldier who murdered 16 Afghans, including nine children, was no more representative of US soldiers or Americans generally than Mohammed Merah, who went to a Jewish school in Toulouse, specifically to murder children, is representative of Muslims.

Or Bashar Al Assad, whose troops have raped women and murdered children amongst the thousands they have killed.

Nizam complains about Americans burning copies of the Quran, but omits the Taliban destroying the Buddhas of Bamiyan which had stood since the 6th century.

About these statues, Mullah Omar said: “Muslims should be proud of smashing idols. it has given praise to God that we destroyed them.” The Taliban are not known for their sensitivity to other religions, any more than their civilised approach to women’s education. The fact is there are misguided souls on all sides and it would offer more hope to recognise that the vast majority of every nationality and religion would prefer peaceful co-existence and co-operation.

Whipping up sentiment against Americans and “their Jewish accomplices” is unhelpful.

And if the Arab world is that worried about Palestinans’ rights, what is it doing to provide them with housing, food and education?

The United States and Afghanistan have completed their joint fact-finding investigation into the incident of desecration of the Quran by US soldiers last month, the Pentagon [ Images ] has said.

However, no decision has been made yet on making it public, the Pentagon spokesman, Navy Capt John Kirby, told reporters during an off camera news conference on Wednesday.

The joint investigation, however, found the holy text books were disposed in an improper manner, he said. it also found that there were written notes inside the books, Kirbi said, adding that the report has recommended potential disciplinary action against those responsible for desecration of Quran.

“Joint investigation is complete,” Kirby said, adding there has been no decision by both side to make that investigation public. We did talk in general about some of the major findings,” he said.

“Major findings were that disposal processes of these religious texts were improperly begun. But it wasn’t the malicious act with intent to show disrespect for the people of Afghanistan or Islam,” Kirby said.

“They did find there were some US personnel who did improperly treat these religious texts including some of the supervisory work personnel,” he added.

“It recommended that they be reviewed for potential disciplinary action,” Kirby said in response to a question.

The joint investigation, he said: “did find that there were written notes in some of these religious texts.” Kirby said there is still an US Army investigation going on right now, which has not been completed yet.

Violent anti-US protests over the Quran burning had killed 40 people in Afghanistan, taking relations between North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and its Afghan allies to an all-time low and forcing US President Barack Obama [ Images ] to apologise.

HOW to understand the Quran is an important question. Generally we pick and choose a verse to prove our point. Thus, many Muslims have different positions in understanding the verses of the Quran.

There is nothing wrong with different understandings but this should not lead to anarchy. There has to be a methodology so that the Quran, despite different ways of understanding it, should be understood under certain guidelines. There should be uniformity in the principles of understanding.

I would like to throw light on how under a certain well-defined methodology one can try to understand the Quran so as to avoid arbitrariness. Taking one verse when there are so many other verses on the subject cannot yield a proper result, but this is precisely what is done by many theologians.

Let us take, for example, the question of polygamy. Our ulema generally quote verse 4:3 to justify polygamy unconditionally. But there is another verse on this subject, i.e. 4:129; if both the verses are read together it would yield a different result. the second mentioned verse is so emphatic on the question of justice that taking more wives than one becomes secondary; justice becomes more important and yet our jurists and theologians hardly refer to 4:129.

They keep citing verse 4:3 only. Though 4:3 also puts emphasis on justice, it also says that if you fear you cannot do justice then marry only one woman at a time. if both the verses are read together it becomes the duty of the qazi to make a rigorous inquiry as to why a person is taking another wife and whether the man really needs another wife.

Also, in view of such a strong emphasis on justice definite rules will have to be laid down to define what would amount to doing justice by the wife. This has never been done by our conventional theologians.

Another important question is of wife-beating, referring to verse 4:34, which is cited as Quranic permission to beat one’s wife. But all other verses about women’s rights and women’s treatment contradict this. What is needed in this case too is to read all the verses on the treatment of women, and to read all verses using the word daraba (for beating) in the Quran; and the result would be very different.

This would show that the Quran could never allow a wife to be beaten by her husband. first of all it should be noted that all the verses on women in the Quran emphasise their rights vis-à-vis their husbands, and all verses relating to men emphasise their duties vis-à-vis their wives. if it is so then how can the Quran permit the beating of one’s wife? All verses on treatment of wife, or even after divorce, say that wives should be treated with ihsan and maruf (i.e. good and morally approved behaviour).

Then, the Quran also says that Allah has created love and compassion (mawaddat and rahmah) between husband and wife. if then husband is allowed to beat his wife, love and compassion have no meaning left between the two whatsoever.

One can argue that beating is allowed in case of nushuz (rebellion, uprising) but then if nushuz is rebellion how serious is that rebellion to warrant a beating? the fact is that the Quran does not use any word with nushuz to show its seriousness in the matter. One of the theologians I had a discussion with said it amounted to extramarital relations on the part of the wife. But if it is so, it warrants perhaps a more serious punishment and that punishment cannot be meted out by the husband but by a court of law or a qazi.

There are several other verses in the Quran which use the word daraba in several other meanings. Imam Raghib, a 12th-century lexicographer of the Quran, points out that in pre-Quranic Arabic daraba ala meant a male camel going to a female camel to mate.

If we take this meaning the verse would suggest that if she desists from her ‘rebellion’, the husband could go near her and this seems to be more appropriate, as the previous line of the verse advises the man to isolate his errant wife before resorting to any extreme action. It would mean that after reconciliation between the husband and the wife after she had been isolated, the husband should go near her.

Thus, the verse would yield a very different meaning if we adopt a proper methodology of understanding the Quran. It makes all the difference. so far the theologians, using the pick-and-choose method, have concluded that the Quran permits wife-beating. This is in total contrast to another verse in Quran, 33:35.

This verse equates man and woman in every respect and says both will be rewarded equally for their good deeds; hence the question of one exercising a blanket authority over the other does not arise. Also, one has to keep in mind that the Quran avoids using the words ‘husband’ and ‘wife’; it uses the word zawj (spouse) for both, indicating that both are treated absolutely equally by God.

These are illustrative examples and not exhaustive. if we use this kind of methodology to understand the Quran, many of our problems can be easily resolved; it would be easier to arrive at more comprehensive meanings of the Quranic verses, and many objections hurled at the Quran by non-Muslims can be easily dismissed.

The writer is a scholar of Islam, and also heads the Centre for Study of Secularism & Society, Mumbai

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