Cansu asked 4 years ago
Asselamu Aleikum,
I began to feel weakness in my iman recently. There are lots of things I don’t understand, and they keep me away from Allah. So I’d appreciate if you could answer my doubts.
I’ve never understood the killing of apostates, but now I’ve learned that whoever does not pray must also be killed. Why? Aren’t we doing this for Allah? I thought Allah accepted only the faith that is truly from the heart…Then why do we say, “Pray, or we’ll kill you.”? Doesn’t that make you a munafiq? Because if you threat to kill someone for not praying, that person will pray only for to stay alive, not for the sake of Allah. Then what is the purpose of this prayer? The same goes for apostates. I feel like our religion always force people to do something, kill them if they don’t agree. As a Muslim, I must admit that I no longer believe that Islam is a ‘religion of peace’. But maybe there is a wisdom behind this rulling.
So, please help me with this issue, because I am starting to think that Sharia is entirely made up of fear and violence. And I don’t want to lose my iman but this confuses me so much.
Thank you.
Fadhel Al-Sahlani Staff answered 4 years ago
Salamun Alaikum! Hope you are doing well. We are sorry for replying you late.
We can categorize our actions into two; one is related to Allah, like offering five times daily prayers or fasting in Ramadan. The other kind of actions is related to the people or society like stealing. So there are two kinds of disobeying the Islamic teachings. In first case if someone disobeys the Islamic teachings then that is between that person and Allah. Not praying intentionally is a great sin but Allah Himself will judge it as He is the best Judge and Merciful Lord. No one else has right to judge or punish on the bases of someone’s personal judgement. Five time prayer is fundamentally important but Islamic Sharia does not allow killing a person who does not offer the prayer.
In the 2nd case if someone disobeys Islamic teachings by committing a crime against anyone like killing a person or starting challenging Islamic teachings with apostasy or disrespecting them publicly that is a different case. In such case if we have an Islamic Government under an Imam Masoom then the case will be prosecuted under free and fair trial in the Islamic court.
Whatever the extremist groups are committing crimes and continuing violence around the world in the name of Islam, is against the Islamic Sharia. They don’t represent Islamic faith.
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