Intolerant, Hateful Bigot! How Dare You Criticize Muslims?

What is a Muslim? What beliefs & actions attach to that status? Is ascribing those mandatory tenets & actions to Muslims an act of bigotry?

In Al-Taubah 71 we find certain characteristics ascribed to believers:

• support one another
• enjoin Islamic monotheism
• forbid disbelief
• forbid all that Islam has forbidden
• pray at scheduled times
• give Zakat
• obey Allah and his Messenger.

In Al-Baqarah 245, we find this list of attributes:

• obey Allah with full submission
• fear his punishment
• believe in his promise
• and in his warnings

What do believers do ? In Surah An-Nisa' 74 we find a convenient list of actions:

• sell this life for the hereafter
• fight in the cause of Allah

What did Allah command the believers to do? Fight disbelievers!!!

1. 2:216
2. 8:39
3. 9:29

• How does Allah test the believers? Surah Al-Imran 139...143
• So do not become weak (against your enemy), nor be sad, and you will be superior (in victory) if you are indeed (true) believers.
• If a wound (and killing) has touched you, be sure a similar wound (and killing) has touched the others. And so are the days (good and not so good), We give to men by turns, that Allâh may test those who believe, and that He may take martyrs from among you.
• And that Allâh may test (or purify) the believers (from sins) and destroy the disbelievers.
  
• Do you think that you will enter Paradise before Allâh tests those of you who fought
• You did indeed wish for death (Ash­Shahâdah - martyrdom) before you met it. Now you have seen it openly with your own eyes.

What follows was received in an email from a Gold Star Mother, who has good reason to be passionate about our enemy. I have added links so that you can read the source documents and explore them further.
Unfortunately, Allah--who does not wish to play anymore, since we have discovered his play book--decides what a Muslim is. Thus, his decision is what I and most now informed go by in grasping what a Muslim in.

The charge of stereotyping is inane. Read a dog book, the dog is called a dog because that is what he is.

Is that stereotyping? No, that is calling a dog a dog.

Read Islamic History and those spoken of in those books who have uttered the shahada, accepted the duty to defend Muhammad and his religion; in the Islamic Sacred text, those individuals are called Muslims.

Throughout those same text, the people who have embraced Islam and uttered "la ilaha illallah wa anna Muhammadan rasulullah" (there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah's Messenger), then proceed on, as all Muslims are obligated to, in doing the killing, the raiding, the conquering, and the praying, the supporting and defending of the ummah, they are called Muslims.

Why? Because that is what they are.

That is why, when I refer to those who call themselves Muslims, I call them Muslims--that is what they are, keepers of the tenets of Islam. Followers of the way, the tradition, the example, the sunnah of Muhammad.

Here's a few of those basic traditions:

To make the Heart Tender (Ar-Riqaq)

Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 76 :: Hadith 509

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "Allah said, 'I will declare war against him who shows hostility to a pious worshipper of Mine.

Jihad (Kitab Al-Jihad)

Dawud :: Book 14 : Hadith 2526

Narrated Anas ibn Malik:

The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Three things are the roots of faith: to refrain from (killing) a person who utters, "There is no god but Allah" and not to declare him unbeliever whatever sin he commits, and not to excommunicate him from Islam for his any action; and jihad will be performed continuously since the day Allah sent me as a prophet until the day the last member of my community will fight with the Dajjal (Antichrist).

Funerals (Al-Janaa'iz)

Bukhari :: Book 2 :: Volume 23 :: Hadith 483

Narrated Abu Huraira:

When Allah's Apostle died and Abu Bakr became the caliph some Arabs renegade (reverted to disbelief) (Abu Bakr decided to declare war against them), 'Umar, said to Abu Bakr, "How can you fight with these people although Allah's Apostle said, 'I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight the people till they say: "None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and whoever said it then he will save his life and property from me except on trespassing the law (rights and conditions for which he will be punished justly), and his accounts will be with Allah.'

" Abu Bakr said, "By Allah! I will fight those who differentiate between the prayer and the Zakat as Zakat is the compulsory right to be taken from the property (according to Allah's orders) By Allah!

If they refuse to pay me even a she-kid which they used to pay at the time of Allah's Apostle . I would fight with them for withholding it" Then 'Umar said, "By Allah, it was nothing, but Allah opened Abu Bakr's chest towards the decision (to fight) and I came to know that his decision was right."

Laws of Inheritance (Al-Faraa'id)

Bukhari :: Book 8 :: Volume 80 :: Hadith 747

Narrated 'Ali:

We have no Book to recite except the Book of Allah (Qur'an) and this paper. Then 'Ali took out the paper, and behold ! There was written in it, legal verdicts about the retaliation for wounds, the ages of the camels (to be paid as Zakat or as blood money). In it was also written: 'Medina is a sanctuary from Air (mountain) to Thaur (mountain). So whoever innovates in it an heresy (something new in religion) or commits a crime in it or gives shelter to such an innovator, will incur the curse of Allah, the angels and all the people, and none of his compulsory or optional good deeds will be accepted on the Day of Resurrection. . . . . And the asylum granted by any Muslim is to be secured by all the Muslims, even if it is granted by one of the lowest social status among them; and whoever betrays a Muslim, in this respect will incur the curse of Allah, the angels, and all the people, and none of his Compulsory or optional good deeds will be accepted on the Day of Resurrection."

Jihad (Kitab Al-Jihad)

Dawud :: Book 14 : Hadith 2497

Narrated AbuUmamah:

The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: He who does not join the warlike expedition (jihad), or equip, or looks well after a warrior's family when he is away, will be smitten by Allah with a sudden calamity. Yazid ibn Abdu Rabbihi said in his tradition: 'before the Day of Resurrection".

Hence, we know, when Allah, via Muhammad, added this into the Qur'an, we know, the two were serious: "Oh you who believe! Fear Allah. . . . If you do not, take notice of war from Allah and his Messenger." Al-Baqarah: 278-9)

All Muslims are ordered to imitate Muhammad and his rightly guided companions. That is basic Islam. Embracing Islam is the only thing that makes one a Muslim, as being born a canine, makes one just that.

To state calling a Muslims a Muslim is oversimplifying is equal to stating it is oversimplifying to call a Poodle a Poodle--something, obviously, only the simple minded do.

dl