Corrections and Additions

Bismillah ir-rahman ir-rahim

Assalaam alaikum

So, I just have a couple things to add to my recent post "Pushing Christianity onto Islam."

Firstly, a certain A. Nonymous (who, I heard through the grapevines, is actually my husband) tells me that word on the street is that Prophet Mohammad (SAW) didn't drink alcohol even before it was forbidden simply because he did not care for it. He never ate bread made from fine flour either... just for interest's sake.

Second, I have been told that it may be more accurate to say that Catholics pray to saints to pray to God for them, I assume because it is Catholic belief that there needs to be a go-between from humans to God. Again, I could be wrong. I am not Catholic.

And most importantly, I have something to add to my post: the misrepresentation of Shari'a.

Even such credible news sources as BBC tend to completely misrepresent what Shari'a law is. My husband suggestion that what people tend to do is assume that Shari'a is like the laws of Deuteronomy but for Muslims (meaning that the laws prescribed in the book of Deuteronomy are extremely harsh).

For example, in a recent BBC story there is a segment that describes the cutting off of a hand and a foot of a thief to be "a strict form of Shari'a" or something similar.

No. Strictly following laws simply means following them exactly. What the article should have said is that that is a perverted form of Shari'a. Shari'a law would dictate the hand of a thief to be cut off only if the thief seems unable to stop stealing, clearly indicating that more than one offense must be committed.

There is also talk in this article about stoning to death of an adulterer. I really wonder why people do this. The Qur'an says that the punishment for an adulterous slave is to be half of that of a free person (man or woman). How can one be half stoned to death? I mean, I realize that there is an expression "half to death," but in reality one is either alive or dead. The proper punishment is flogging, not stoning. However, the adulterer (and rapist) in this story also killed his victim, so according to Shari'a he would be put to death.

Some people think that Shari'a is archaic and too harsh. But look at Saudi Arabia: they impliment Shari'a and they have one of the absolute lowest crime rates in the world.

These are not the rules of Deuteronomy. There is no cutting off the hand of a woman who tries to intervene in a fight between her husband and another man and she accidentally touches her husband's opponent's privates (yes, that is an actual biblical law, but I don't know for certain if it is in Deuteronomy). If executed properly, Shari'a would be a very good system of law. Unfortunately, it is often abused. Alhamdulillah, those who misuse the words of Allah for their own gain will be answerable to Him on the Day of Judgment.