Wow, this topic grew quickly! Although I didn’t wanted to carry on the discussion mostly because I agree with Shadow Wolf and TagliatelliMonster for most part, I’ll give my thoughts just out of sake of integrity and keeping my words.
Let me just start with giving my two cents about that WikiIslam link’s explanation of the Qur’anic verse:
I didn't get my intel from there. It's just the first that popped up when I looked it up to link it here. I'm not familiar with the site.
I just know that it's a quote that is frequently given, while being misrepresented.
It's not saying what it is pretended to be saying. There's context there, which makes it clear that it isn't saying what many people claim it is saying.
It is presented as if it is some absolute. But it's not. It's nuanced. And it also heavily relies on what is meant exactly by an "innocent" person.
In the eyes of a muslim, especially in the eyes of a fundamentalist who doesn't shy away from "righteous violence", a non-believer who insults the prophet, is anything but innocent. In fact, to many radicals, merely being a non-believer already disqualifies you as being innocent. Or even only being the "wrong kind" of muslim.
WikiIslam never proved the verse is out of context. All they did was talk about personal interpretation of certain individuals and what Muslims do, and they are extremely misleading and bias throughout the article. Let me give my personal critique. To quote them:
At the same time, a broader understanding of what constitutes 'mischief' in Islam is found even within the Qur'an, whether or not this was the intention in verses 5:32 and 33. See verse 3:63, for example, where those who merely dispute Islam are mischief makers:
The Truth (comes) from Allah alone; so be not of those who doubt. If any one disputes in this matter with thee, now after (full) knowledge Hath come to thee, say: "Come! let us gather together,- our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves: Then let us earnestly pray, and invoke the curse of Allah on those who lie!" This is the true account: There is no god except Allah; and Allah-He is indeed the Exalted in Power, the Wise. But if they turn back, Allah hath full knowledge of those who do mischief.
Another blatant lie from WikiIslam [right along with their lie about Allah being moon god]. See, the Qur’an never says that those who merely dispute Islam are mischief makers. It only says that Allah Knows who the mischievous ones are. That doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone who merely disputes Islam is a mischief maker, rather some individual who disputes are intending to cause “mischief” in the land. See, not all those who disputes regarding 2nd amendments are liberal, but God surely who of those who are liberals among those who dispute regarding 2nd amendment. Simple.
Some people intentionally lie and deceive in order to create dissension, turmoil amongst the Muslim nation and mislead them to their destruction. They are basically like real life Joker, who intentionally lie and deceive to cause chaos in Gotham. And the few verses backs me up on that, this is what 3:69 says:
Surah Ali 'Imran 3:69 Some of the People of the Book wish to mislead you ˹believers˺. They mislead none but themselves, yet they fail to perceive it.
Seriously, man, WikiIslam is a bias source with their own Islamophobic narrative heavily invested. We should check all thing critically. Here’s another:
The principle in verse 5:32 seems to refer to the killing and saving of not just believers, but any person ('nafsan', which means a soul) who is not excluded by the exceptions. Nevertheless, the highly respected Qur'anic exegesis of Ibn Kathir contains evidence that it wasn't universally interpreted in that way, with some hadith narrations that restrict the principle to the killing of a believer, while other narrations use a more general formulation like the Qur'anic verse.
Another blatant lie. Just because certain “hadith” [bunch of unverified hearsays passed on for CENTURY that are most likely false/distorted and there’s no way to confirm it] talks about only killing of Muslim is equivalent to killing humanity, that means that this doesn’t including innocent non-Muslim. It simply means Kathir was addressing specifically about the innocent Muslim in that specific stance. It’s a “either/or” fallacy. If I say to you, that harming innocent women is evil, does that necessarily mean that I am excluding children, old people, animal, men etc. etc. etc.? No. It simply means that in this specific stance, my attention is solely directed toward innocent women, and yes, harming innocent children, old people, animals, men etc is also evil.
Oh and btw, they later added the part where Ibn Kathir was including all people, AFTER making a misleading comment that the verse “wasn’t universally interpreted in that way.” Can’t you see the bias in their narrative?
There’s two logical error and/or outright lies, and personal bias and contradiction I showed in a single sitting, and I haven’t read most of the article you linked.
Anyway, further critic regarding the article. They are using Tafsir, i.e. personal opinion, personal interpretation, personal understanding of certain individual, who came centuries after the death of the prophet S.A.W., and is using “hadiths” to form his personal opinion about the verse.
The thing about hadith is that, it is unreliable. If the childhood game of telephone [or Chinese whispers] have taught us one thing, it is that the original message gets distorted as it gets passed on. What starts off as a mole, ends up become a molehill as it gets twisted and blown completely out of proportion as it gets passed on. Now, this so-called “hadiths” [sayings of the prophet S.A.W.] started CENTURIES after his death, so there’s no way to confirm if Prophet really said that and/or did that. Then on top of that, they are getting passed on for a very, VERY long time. Simple logic tells us that they are most likely distorted and unreliable. Would it make sense if I use that as “evidence”?
The entire article is about what about personal opinions and interpretation of Ibn Kathir and/or some other individual and how they view the verse as, and about what muslims and muslim community does. Again, this doesn’t prove the verse is out of context. In fact they did quite the opposite. They actually backed up that the verse is talking about all people when they talked about the instance where Uthman paraphrased the verse to convinces an ally not to fight the besiegers by citing verse 5:32.
As the saying goes --- Even the devil quotes scripture. WikiIslam constant displaying of personal opinions of certain people doesn’t prove the verse is out of context.
