Here are a podcast and notes on The Hadith, Pt. 3 (43 minutes).

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V. WOMEN / FAMILY

  • Kindness to (household) servants—3.661
  • Marriage
    • Persons suckled together may not marry / must divorce—3.808
    • Muhammad (M) gave his wives the option to divorce, with substantial endowment—3.648
  • General
    • High infant mortality--2.340, 2.463
    • Women inherit—4.358
    • M disapproved of the killing of women and children—4.257-258
    • No burying daughters alive—3.591
  • Birth
    • All are born Muslims—2.440
    • Gender determined at 12 weeks—4.550. Or in intercourse, depending on whether the male or the female discharges first—4.546.
    • Coitus interruptus defended: “There is not a soul who is to be born for the day of Resurrection, but that it will be born.” HB3. Used to overcome objections to birth control.
  • Religion
    • Paradise may be a “band of brothers,” but women are still included in the faith.
    • Hajj—2.714. Hajj takes the place of jihad for women—3.84, 4.43…Though women indirectly participated in jihad by bringing water to warriors, as did two of M’s wives—4.131
  • Conspicuously:
    • Women must travel with a man, and no man may be alone with a woman.—4.250
    • Hijab—1.148. Even with the hijab, a Muslim woman can still violate the spirit of the law.
    • Perhaps westerners overreact. Yet our own treatment of women as objects is deplorable. Neither culture, Islamic or western, is balanced.
  • Respect for women?
    • He seems often to listen to his (favorite) wives, but I’m not convinced.
    • Half as intelligent as a man; and legal testimony worth ½ that of a man—1.301, 3.826
    • “A dignified woman, Jauniyaa (a princess) was brought to Muhammad to have sex with him but she was reluctant to give herself to him; Muhammad was angry and raised his hand to beat her…” 7.63.182. See Q4:34. Online video defending physical force (a “light beating”) on the analogy that governments must have the right to use force to prevent society from falling into evil.
    • Many men reach the level of perfection, but no women, except for ‘Aisha, Pharaoh’s wife, and Mary daughter of Imran—4.623
    • Majority in hellfire are women—1.28, 2.161, 2.541, 4.464
    • Normally, for ingratitude; also cursing (Did M feel his wives didn’t appreciate him?)
    • Each man gets two women in paradise—4.468. But how? The mathematics is wrong.
    • Islam teaches easy divorce. As long as the man says three times "I divorce you," it's legal. In 2001 a woman in Dubai, who was late in making her husband's tea, received the third and final message by text: "You're late. I divorce you." She challenged this in court -- and lost!
  • Summary
    • In Islam, the lot of women is a mixed bag.
    • Barbarism -> OT -> NT—but Muslim treatment of women seems retrograde. Should we be aiming to live by a 7th-century ethic?

VI. VIOLENCE

  • WAR
    • Fought in Arabia, expelling pagans from Arabian peninsula—4.288
    • Possible naval expedition against Constantinople—4.175. Great expansion 600s-700s AD
    • Expansion of Islam. Motives?
    • M portrayed as a man of war. M’s head wounded, helmet smashed, front tooth lost, blood… 4:152,159
    • Jihad is the 2nd best deed—1.25; 3rd best deed—4.41 (pray @ appt’d times, duty to parents, jihad)
      • “If you are called for fighting, go forth immediately”—4.42
      • One of 7 most destructive sins = running away from the enemy in war—4.28
    • Killing unbelievers
      • Fight infidels—1.387: “Allah’s apostle said, ‘I have been ordered to fight the people till they say, “None has the right to be worshiped but Allah.”’”
      • “Killing disbelievers is a small matter to us.”-- Tabari IX.69
      • Attacking infidel caravans—3.891
      • Attacking without warning—3.717 (O.T.—Deut 20:10; N.T.—nothing. Romans 12:14-21)
    • Golden rule applying only to fellow Muslims—1.12.  I wonder what M would say about the fighting between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims in our day.
  • MARTYRDOM
    • Mujahid -> paradise, 4.46. (See Q 3.)
    • Martyrdom in jihad better than the entire world—4.53,54
    • Mujahid receives honor from A (would live/die 10x!)—4.72,216
    • Jihadi ideal: “Paradise is for him who holds the reins of his horse to strive in A’s cause, with his hair unkempt and feet covered with dust.”—4.137
  • EXECUTION
    • Execution order—3.687. Once M was powerful, he would not allow himself to be mocked.
    • Death for apostates—4.260
  • MUTILATION
    • In one place, M forbids mutilation—3.654, but he doesn’t seem to have followed the rule himself, as he orders the hands to be cut off a woman for stealing—3.816. (See Q 5.)
    • Al-Khadir decapitates a boy as a mere object lesson—1.124.
  • RETALIATION
    • Lex Talionis (tooth for tooth)—3.596, though at least once M suspends lex talionis —4.61, 3.866.
    • Prayed for punishment of his enemies—2.116.
    • Prank of camel innards on M’s back—imprecation, and 7 corpses later found in well—1.241,1.499
    • When cursed, cursed in return – 4.186.
    • At death, last words were a curse against Jews and Christians—1.427. Earlier, a Jew is addressed, “O the enemy of Allah”—3.889
    • Men had been ill, M sent them to camels to be healed (by drinking urine/milk). Later they become apostates. Kill M’s chief shepherd and drove away his camels. Search, chop hands & feet, eyes blinded w/heated iron, no water -- 1.234, 2.577, 4.261
  • If M came after J.C., and this was supposedly an improvement, why did the level of morality dip below even the average O.T. level (which itself shows mixed levels of vengeance/compassion)? Regressive!

Conclusion: Is violence consistent with the teaching of the founder?

  • The “sword” of Matthew 10:34 compared to “The Prophet said, ‘Hear me. By Him who holds Muhammad’s life in his hand, I will bring you slaughter.’” (Ishaq: 130; Tabari: VI.101)
  • “Isn’t he truly Allah’s prophet?... Then why should we be humble in our religion?” [insult]—3.891
  • Obsessed with control
    • “…He who obeys me obeys Allah, and he who disobeys me, disobeys Allah…”—4.204
    • Why people go to hell: As one commentator analyzed it, 4%: moral transgression; 96%: disagreeing with Muhammad
    • Before M the various religions of Arabia coexisted; religious tolerance would be lost.
  • 1 Peter 2:20b-23—not fighting back, even when we are in the right.

VII. JESUS CHRIST

  • M used to hear the gospels read (in Arabic)—4.605. Met a monk around aged 12 (Arian? Nestorian? Gnostic?)
  • Christianity: accepts some aspects, but not others.
    • M borrows from Christianity
    • Already mentioned some miracles that faintly approximate Jesus’ own
    • Variation on Parable of Workers in the Vineyard – 3.468-471
  • Arabia in 7th century a blend of several religions, but esp. polytheism and (compromised) Christianity.
  • Muslim charge: B was corrupted—3.850. (Though Q tells Christians to follow the Injil.)
  • M reacting to 7th-century Christianity
  • Catholicism and (apparently) some form of sectarian Christianity.
  • M cursed Jews and Christians for praying at graves—2.414.  Insight into 7th C. religion
  • Jesus & Mary
    • From birth Satan could not touch him—4.506
    • Jesus spoke in the cradle. 4.645
    • Jesus red-faced, like someone emerging from the toilet. – M had seen representations
    • M saw images in church in Ethiopia—1.419. And during the mi’raj M saw Jesus with fair skin and lank hair—4.462.
    • Saw Mariya—4.26
    • Ascension—4.568
    • Second coming—3.656; Jesus soon to return—3.425. Seems M may have thought world would end in 100 years—1.575.
    • Note:
    • Note: Mary (Maryam) is the only woman mentioned in the Qur'an, some 34 times—far more than she is mentioned in the N.T.! Islam upholds the Annunciation, Virgin Birth, and Immaculate Conception (of both Jesus and Mary). In parts of the Islamic world Mary is highly popular; there are numerous shrines to her, e.g. in Algeria, Pakistan, Syria, and Turkey.
    • Helpful book: Michael Licona, Paul Meets Muhammad: A Christian-Muslim Debate on the Resurrection.

CONCLUSION

  • There are many other interesting things in the Hadith
    • Letter to emperor inviting (Heraclius) to convert
    • M’s generation = the best generation, followed by the one after it. In time, “soon.” Fatness will appear—3.819
    • M cursed men who act like women, and women who act like men – HB4.
    • Mosque built in Mecca 40 years before Al-Aqsa Mosque—4.585,636 (2500 years too late?)
    • Angels & demons
      • Gabriel has 600 wings—4.445
      • Satan – more about the devil in the Muslim writers than in the N.T.
      • Just as blood circulates in the body, so “Satan circulates in the mind”--4.333
    • Yawning is from Satan.  4.509
    • Consumption of a whale—3.663
    • M sacrificed animals (why?)—3.864.  M slaughters a kid in sacrifice—3.497
  • Let’s close our study by examining a couple of the claims of Islam.
    • Don’t be extremists in religion—1.38. It’s all relative to what you consider to be “extreme.”
    • Last and best prophet? M sent to all the world, whereas all other prophets sent only to their own nations—1.331. This is false.
    • Sin to ask too many questions about disputed matters? Sure, one can go too far. But we should beware the authoritarian attitude that values stability over truth.
  • Contrasts: not only Islam v. Christianity, but (esp.) Muhammad v. Jesus Christ.
  • Want to learn about Islam? Spend some time in the Hadith.