Good morning Brother Habib, Thanks for taking time to explain these verses. It is highly appreciated. Momodou Camara On 11 Nov 2002 at 5:12, Habib Ghanim wrote: > Momodou > I thank you for shedding some light on what Asjorn mentioned in his piece a few > days ago. as regards verse 190 (bakara) it was meant for wars - explained as > follows War is only permissible in self defense ,and under well defined > limits.When undertaken ,it must be pushed with vigor ,but not relentlessly, but > to restore peace and freedom for the worship of God. In any case strict limits > must NOT be transgressed ; women,children,old and infirmed men must not be > molested,Nor trees and crops cut down nor peace withheld when the enemy comes to > terms as to 191 ( bakara) - and slay them whenever you catch them etc--- This > passage is illustrated by the events that happened at Hudaibiya in the 6 th year > of the hijra , though the muslims were by this time a strong and influential > community. Many of them were exiles from mecca,where the pagans had established > an intolerant autocracy,persecuting muslims,preventing them from visiting their > hmes and even keeping them out by force from performing the pilgrimage during > the universally recognized period of truce. The pagans had no scruples in > breaking faith etc. In general ,Islam is a religion of peace ,goodwill ,mutual > understanding and good faith. BUT it will not acquesce in wrong doing ,and it's > men will hold their lives cheap and in defense of honour ,justice and the > religion they hold sacred. They believe in courage ,obedience ,discipline,duty > and a constant striving-jihad-by all means in their power > ,physical,moral,intelectual and spiritual for the establishment of truth and > righteousness. They know that war is EVIL but they will not finch from it if > their honour demands it.The ideal is that a heroic virtue combined with > unselfish gentleness and tenderness such as exemplified in the life of the > prophet Muhamed (pbuh) Lastly if they want to forcbly to prevent you from > execising your sacred rites , then they have declaed war on your religion ,and > it would be cowardise to ignore the chalenge or fail in rooting out tyranny. > > I got these from the explainations as per the index on each verse and NOte not > even a mention of the Jews at all------ here It was definately taken out of > context as sister Jabou and I mentioned earlier . May Allah save us from the > ignorant ones who twist these words for their personal agendas Lest the subject > of Jihad should be misunderstood ,it is taken up again in the story of > Saul,Goliath and david,in contrast to the story of Jesus ( pbuh) section 32 > bakara from 243 to253 Habib ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~