The Irrationality of Religion

Again, acts of terrorism have occurred in Indonesia – the first time this has happened in Indonesia during the month of Ramadhan. It seems that the one who carried out this attack believed he would receive grace from his God. Ramadhan, according to the Al-Quran and hadith in many classical texts, was basically provided specifically as a medium of spiritual training and character building which Muslims can use to become a better person, with humanity and high morals. This is why in the month of Ramadhan, various kinds of rewards (pahala) are provided to those who perform the fast sincerely. But apparently, these criminal acts were intended for the purpose of worship, which is completely contradictory to the actual intent and purpose of Ramadan in Islamic shariah.

Explosions were heard at the Solo City Police Headquarters (Mapolresta), just twelve and a half hours after the Minister of Religious Affairs, H. Drs. Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, announced that 1 Shawwal 1437 H would fall on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. The next day, July 5, 2016, at 7:15 am local time, one day before Eid, an unsuspicious, skinny bearded man, 31 years old, head of RT 001 RW 012,[1] Sangkrah Village, Pasar Kliwon, Surakarta, [2] blew himself up in the Mapolresta Solo Police. One person was killed: the perpetrator himself. Meanwhile, an innocent person was slightly injured, a member of the Mapolresta Solo Provost. Who was this perpetrator? The National Police Chief, General Badroddin Haiti, offered a tentative conclusion that the people responsible were the ISIS network within Indonesia.

The orders used to always be delivered by Bahrun Naim. But now there are new orders from an ISIS spokesman who says that throughout Ramadan it is advisable to commit acts of terror,” reported the National Police Chief, General Badrodin Haiti, at Mapolresta Solo, Jalan Adi Sucipto, on Tuesday July 5, 2016.[3]

Personally, Nur Rahman had a good relationship with his neighbors, since he often helped those within his community. But ever since August 2015, these actions were never seen again.[4]

Two days before that , on 4 July 2016, Saudi Arabia was shaken by three nearly simultaneous terror attacks in three different cities: Jeddah, Madinah and Qatif. In Jeddah, an explosion occurred near the office of the United States Consulate.[5] The one responsible was identified as Abdullah Qaizar Khan, who was working as a private driver. Qaizar Khan, aged 35 years, had lived in Jeddah with his wife and hisas parents for 12 years.[6] One person was killed, the attacker himself, and two local security personnel were injured. The attack in Jeddah was confirmed by a spokesman of the Saudi Ministry of Home Affairs, General Mansour al-Turki, who said that the explosion was nearer to a masjid than it was to the U.S. Consulate.[7]

Following that attack, on the same day, another suicide bombing occured at the parking area of Masjid Nabawi, Medinah, a mere 300 meters from the grave of the Prophet Muhammad. This shocked thousands of Muslims who were praying at Nabawi Mosque during the last 10 days of Ramadan. This attack instantly killed four security personnel and injured several others. Another suicide bombing also occured at a mosque in Qatif; it is suspected that more than one person carried out this attack.

Previously, a terror attack had occurred at the Istanbul airport on 28 June 2016, the 23rd day of Ramadan 1437H. This attack killed 41 people and injured 239. Of the 41 who were killed, 13 were foreign citizens: five Saudi Arabians, two Iraqi, one Chinese, ne Iranian, one Ukrainian, one Tunisian, one Jordanian, and one Uzbek. Turkish citizens were the majority of the victims killed in this attack, with a death toll of 23.[8] The attackers were made up of three men dressed in black, armed with guns and bombs for suicide bombings. A Kurdish militant group claimed to be behind this bloody tragedy.

In Bangladesh, a group of ISIS militants armed with swords and hand grenades attacked a police checkpoint while many citizens were conducting their Eid prayers in Kishoreganj, around 140 kilometers from the capital city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, 7 July 2016, the second day of Eid.

Two policemen and a female citizen were killed in the attack. One of the culprits was shot dead, and four other suspects were held after a hand grenade was thrown at the police post right outside of the praying area. Since the beginning of the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of people have used the field of Sholakia Eidgah to conduct their Eid prayers. Islam is the majority religion in Bangladesh, a country with 160 million citizens. This attack occured less than a week after the massacre of hostages at a cafe in Dhaka, in which 20 hostages and two policemen were killed. Most of the victims were stabbed with swords. [9] The total death toll during the hostage incident was 28 people, 6 of whom were the perpetrators, two policemen, while the rest were the hostages, who were mostly foreign nationals.[10]

In Thailand, a number of terror acts also occurred. Four bomb blasts occurred during Ramadhan. On July 5, 2016, an explosion occurred in Pattani, a Muslim-majority province in southern Thailand. The blast killed one policeman and wounded three others. The explosive was hidden in a pickup truck loaded with gasoline. The blast also spread to a nearby police station located at the Ko Mo Kaeng train station, in the town of Nong Chick, on Tuesday morning. Two other explosions occurred at different times in Monday, July 4, 2016. These explosions came from two M79 grenades which exploded at different times. The first blast occurred in front of the mosque in the center of Moo 2 village, Bannang Sata. Four residents were injured and one person died on arrival at Yala Hospital. A short time later, a second grenade exploded on the roof of a house not far from the mosque. The house, owned by a 60 year old man named Mayaki Benmuslim, was also damaged. However, there were no deaths or injuries. The day before, Sunday, July 3, 2016, a bomb attack near Pattani central mosque killed a policeman and three residents were injured. [11]

Exactly one day before Eid, on 5 of July 2016 , a few hours after the Mapolresta suicide bombing in Solo , ISIS uploaded a video containing a declaration of war addressed to the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia. The video contained these statements:

” We declare that we are no longer citizens of your country (Malaysia and Indonesia) , and we have been freed , ” the man said while showing a bearded man holding a Malaysian passport . “With His permission of His presence, we will come to you with a military force that cannot be overcome. This is God’s promise to us. .” [12]

A number of bomb blasts also occurred in Iraq and Syria, where the American/ Russian coalition is battering ISIS. A total of 800 deaths were caused by ISIS attacks around the world during Ramadhan, including the 49 killed in a the attack on gay night club in Florida.[13]

It is such a contradiction: Ramadan, Islam, Allahhu Akbar, God’s Promise, is all religious terminology which they have twisted and used as a reason to kill. They seem to think that in Ramadan all actions are considered as worship, even killing. Yet this is completely contradictory to their true meaning, and it also violates the most fundamental religious teachings. Anger, hatred, jealousy, envy, even merely bad intentions are forbidden during fasting month of Ramadan – let alone killing. One must take a deep breath before reading another article covering the actions of ISIS. The religious terminology that they understand is not only contradictory to the context of Islamic teachings, but also completely irrational. And this irrationality of religion arises from the irrational teachings of radicalism.

One of the main causes of radicalism is rooted from a mistaken understanding of a hadith of the Prophet in the book Arba’in Nawawi, also contained in the book al-Saheeh Bukhari number 25 and in book Saheeh Muslim number 22, narrated by Ibn Umar, Abu Hurayrah, Anas ibn Malik, Ibn Mas’ud, Abdullah ibn Umar ibn ‘Ash, which reads:
> ”Umirtu an uqâtila an-nâsa hatta yasyhadu an Lâ ilâha illallah wa anna muhammada al-rasûlullah, wa yuqîmu al-shalâta wa yu’tu al-zakâta”, which means “I was ordered to kill people until they testify that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah , until they establish regular prayers and practice regular charity .”

They take this to mean the unbelievers non-Muslims) shall be fought until they convert to Islam and live by its beliefs and practices. They believe that infidels should be forced to convert to Islam, or if not then they should be fought and killed. This completely mistaken understanding of this hadith has caused extraordinarily cruel murders as practiced by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and in various locations around the world. We recall the murder of 20 hostages in Bangladesh because ISIS separatists believed that they could not read the Qur’an,[14] as well as the thousands of victims of the Yazidi sect who are being used as sex slaves, on the grounds that this is permitted as they are non-believers.

In its actual context, this hadith of the Prophet was addressed to the time when the non-Muslim Quraish tribe of Mecca were threatening the security of the Muslim minority in the peninsula. The word “umirtu” was used. This shows clearly the form of the verb fi’il madhi, a verb in the past tense mabni majhul. In Matan Alfiyah of Ibnu Malik, verse 242, it is explained that Maf’ul bih replaces Fa’il in all its consequences. As an example: “Nîla khairu Nâ-ili; the best gift has been obtained.” [15]

The verb form “umirtu” comes from mabni maf’ul with dhamir: “انا “, ana, or I, comes from the verb form “Amarani” meaning “has commanded me”, becomes, “Umirtu”, I was told, what was initially an active verb is turned into a passive verb. The word ‘I’ or I, or in this case the dhamir “انا” implied in the verb that indicates the first person, in this case, the Prophet Muhammad himself said it, referring to himself. By law, the order fell specifically on the Prophet Muhammad himself, and if is made specific to the time of the incident, the word “umirtu” legally fell only to the Prophet, and only in the time of the Prophet. The one who gave the order is Allah. Thus, the order was not addressed to the people of the Prophet Muhammad, either directly or indirectly. However, bizarrely, most hardliners interpret the word “umirtu” as “we were told.” This is a huge mistake, and violates the rules of Arabic literature.

The word “uqâtil” means, I killed. The verb form using the form fâ’ala – yufâ’ilu – Mufâ’alatan, according to the book Alfiyah Ibn ‘Aqil, one of the most respected classical texts in the schools of Arabic literature, a verb with this form means “mutual conduct,” meaning there are two parties doing the same thing. The word “uqâtilu” here means I killed in the field of battle. This means there are special situations and special areas, in situations of war when people are trying to defeat each other and kill each other to achieve a victory that guarantees the safety of themselves and their members. This is not a one-sided situation, in which one side is passive. So the word “uqâtil” is used in a combat situation, where there are two sides attempting to kill each other. In contrast, the word “aqtul” means “I killed”; it is used in times of peace, in which the victim acts passively. So because it uses a “mufâ’alah” form, the meaning of “uqâtil” is used in context of the war that occurred in the time of Prophet Muhammad. It cannot be dragged into another meaning that is not in line with the norms of Arabic literature. Hardliners interpret the word “aqtul” to mean “I will kill; I will continue to kill long as the infidels have not converted to Islam”, because the meaning they use uses fi’il mudhari which is muta’addi, which means “hal” (Current) “Mustaqbal” (will) and aims dawâmah (constantly), which has a subject and object, or a substitute for the subject (passive form). This is a fatal error in the use of Arabic grammar.

Therefore, it is completely inappropriate to use this hadith to legalize murder and terrorist perpetrated against innocent people acts in an entirely peaceful situation, especially since the hadith certainly does not contain a legal message addressed to the community. This hadith is a sentence that told the people the news in those days, in the days of the Prophet, that the Prophet was given the command by Allah to fight against the Quraish infidels of Mecca, because at that time the lives of the Muslims were in danger. Obviously, advocacy was not an option for Prophet Muhammad at the time. Keep in mind here that the Prophet Muhammad never started the war in the first place. All the wars of the Prophet Muhammad were always defensive; the defense of human existence from external threats, not to pose a threat and create destabilization, let alone to perform conquest for the purpose of disseminating the message of Islam, as is understood by those who worship the caliphate.

This hadith it is very popular among Muslims worldwide. If teachers misinterpret its meaning, this is clearly very dangerous: there would be severe consequences, destabilization of security, and acts of terror against humanity, although Islam actually exists to ensure the universal values ​​of humanity. They are changing the very rational face of the religion into something very irrational. Allah SWT has said,
“Do not the Believers know that, had Allah (so) willed, He could have guided all mankind (to the right)?” (Q.S. Al-Ra’d, verse 31).