Baal,
You do not know the Koran better, actually I do not know which of us does but:
Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their Home: an evil fate.
1)You don't take a few words of the quran and justify yourself....read again...... it's saying to you "Prophet,.....". It's telling the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. It DID NOT say "Oh you who believe make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites......." Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was a perfect being. It's not telling you or any other believer to make war. We are imperfect human beings, therefore we are not in the position to say bad things to her.
In absence of Muhammad people nominate themselves or their organisation to become his viceroy on earth. Muhammad was laid the path of Jihad and he followed it with with the ummah following the path set by Muhammad - in which case to narrow down verses with such qualities to specific for Muhammad makes the Qur'an probably the shortest book ever written and 1400 worth of fiqh an exercise in academic wankery
Your excuses are the same excuses I see Muslim apologists throw up by claiming that jihad can only be declared by a caliph whilst ignoring all the work that has been done which legitimises the right of the state to take on such a role in lieu of an Islamic caliphate; there is also the issue of a contradiction where a caliphate has to exist to launch jihad and yet at the same time you had to launch a jihad to establish the caliphate in the first place - you're stuck in a chicken and egg scenario.
2)Quranic Arabic is VERY different spoken Arabic....one word has too many meanings. Many people are not aware of that. If you went to Syria and studied the differences you'd understand better. This is also one of the reasons why we are expected to memorize the quran in Arabic, learn the Arabic language, and only read in arabic in salah and not in some other language interpretation. When you attempt translate Arabic to English or to another language you IMMEDIATELY lose a lot of the language.
I've studied under several influential scholars ....and the first thing I was taught was that we don't just take words/lines of the Koran, we take the whole chapter and understand.
Which quite frankly is a load of horse crap - it is another example of a small click dominating the interpretation of the texts; it is the same crap that the Catholic church did 400 years ago claiming that the contents were far too grand for mere mortals and should be left up to the church fathers to decipher.
I keep getting told 'you lose a lot of the language' - and no example is provided, why? because if one is going to learn arabic when reading you are already on the fly translating between arabic and your native language - you don't just simply digest in the information without translating into your native language so that you can understand. I'd love to know what is lost - what material difference is there if you translate - because all the examples given so far have been because of crap translations and nothing to do with translating per-say.
Take Surah 5:51 for example which is used an example of why the Qur'an can't be translated:
005.051
YUSUFALI: O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust.
PICKTHAL: O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.
SHAKIR: O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.
And compare that to Muhammad Asad which is probably one of the best translations which shows it can be done if the author gives a toss about doing a decent damn job in the translation:
ASAD: O You who have attained to faith! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for your allies: they are but allies of one another - and whoever of you allies himself with them becomes, verily, one of them; behold, God does not guide such evildoers.
Instead of rallying against translations, how about rallying against shit translations instead of holding onto this arab supremacist doctrine that has been ingrained into 1.6billion Muslims.
Topic: Ex-KimDonesia