Conversion by force is null and void in Islam

‘Oh! Allah do not make us a source of temptation for those who do not believe and forgive us, for you are the Mighty and owner of wisdom” (Q60: 5).

Give the above verse of the Qur’an any interpretation that catches your fancy. Endeavour to seek its, in Abdul-Qahir al-Jurjani’s phrasing, ‘meaning of meaning’ from the exegetical posture of Al-Tabari or the hermeneutical postulations of Ibn Kathir.

Whatever may be your approach, it is indubitable that the verse is hinged on the divine recognition and affirmation of the possible existence of an uncanny hiatus in-between what Islam stands for and purport to call humanity to and the Muslims’ exemplification and application of same.

Thus, in the characteristic style of the Qur’an, the last testament, divine admonition is framed and enframed in supplication. In other words, in the above verse of the Quran (Q60: 5), the perceptive Muslim reader is drawn into a spiritual-experiential labyrinth where supplication merges into admonition; he appropriates an uncanny scriptural style which combines pedagogy with spirituality.

In effect, the recognition of the existence of a threat means the invocation of the divine protection against it, the affirmation of the existence of human error implies the request for spiritual correction.

Brethren, in the above verse, the Almighty calls our attention to the ways of those who came before us. The latter, and you must constantly keep this in mind, featured men of inimitable spiritual conviction and vocation; men such as Prophets Ibrahim, Nuh, Musa, Isa and Muhammad (a. s). These men, despite the catholicism of their character and carriage, despite the near perfection in their candour and conduct, were constantly aware of their humanity and by implication their frailty and inadequacies. Thus, they constantly supplicated thus: ‘Oh! Allah do not make us a source of temptation for those who do not believe”.

Brethren, each time I perused the Qur’an, each time I arrive at this shore in my daily interactional dialogue with the last testament, I always wonder how a Muslim could be a source of temptation for the unbelievers and, indeed the believers. How could I become like the violent crocodile in the only stream in the “village” which prevents the weak and the strong, the young and the old, from accessing water? Or how could a Muslim who, in line with the normative precepts of the Qur’an, should be the salt of the world, become a virus, a poison?

Face to face with these daunting questions, face to face with the violent Muslim who, like Nimrud, appropriates the right of the Almighty to give and take life- Muslims who operate with the notion that their understanding of Islam is the ONLY valid one available; face-to-face with the Muslim who steals from public treasury and engage in corruption, the perceptive non-Muslim by-stander begins to wonder whether the necessity is actually there for him to consider the possibility of accepting Islam.

He begins to evolve a link, though facetious and erroneous, between the grim existential reality of Muslim life and the scriptural foundations upon which the religion of Islam is predicated. Such a non-Muslim compatriot of mine consequently becomes the subject whose destiny is Quranized above. He begins to detest the Muslim’s action as a preface to his detestation of Islam; he begins to abhor and anathemize the apparently evil actions of the Muslim as a prelude to his unwarranted anathemization and the construction of Islam as a voyage of oddities, a culture of inanities and a theology of hara-kiri.

But it is not only the non-Muslim who suffers these temptations; it is not only the non-Muslim who constantly runs the risk of conflating the sun with the sunlight, the smoke with the fire and the Muslim with Islam. Muslims equally do.

In other words, face to face with Muslims who refuse to acknowledge that Islam at peace has historically been more productive and attractive than Islam at war, face to face with “Muslims” who kill Muslims and set mosques ablaze; in a season of anomie where children are orphanated at dawn and one in which women become widows at dusk, the other Muslim begins to wonder whether his own understanding of Islam is right after all. He begins to ask himself: is this what my religion actually teaches? Is this wanton destruction of lives and properties not a complete negation of Islam and the Prophetic enterprise?

Brethren, when a Muslim begins to raise questions such as the above, when a Muslim begins to seek to deny the actions of his fellow Muslim brother because the latter apparently have no justification in the Qur’an, then the above verse of the Quran equally finds exemplification.

But in order to be certain that my reading of the text against current contexts is correct, I sought explanation of the above verse from those who were closer to the fountain of Islamic heritage. I pleaded my ignorance of the true import of the verse quoted above in the ‘presence’ of my forebears. I ‘asked’ Ibn Qayyim about exactly what the above verse means.

Lo and behold! He is of the opinion that when the action of a Muslim runs counter to the injunction of the Almighty, he becomes a source of temptation for the unbelievers. Such a Muslim then becomes a source of fitnah for everybody, Muslims and others. He becomes the honey in chronic lack of sweetness; the salt which has become sour to taste; the crocodile in the only stream in the village.

Brethren, never in the history of our religion was forceful conversion to the Din an acceptable method of proselytization (Q. 109). It is not in line with the dictates of Islam that a Muslim should tell a lie in order to promote his faith. It is not in line with Islam that people should be herded like animals into a bus and driven to the wilderness only for them to be given an option of Islam or life in hell (Quran 2:255).

It should be reiterated that no sin is graver than fabricating lies in His name: “And who can be more unjust than he who forges a lie against Allah, or says: “I have received inspiration,” whereas he is not inspired in anyway… (Q6: 93).

In closing, Ibn Qayyim was once asked about the signs of a diseased heart. He said: ‘a diseased heart does not feel any hurt or pain when he commits evil deeds and sins; he finds both pleasure in committing sins and tranquility after doing them…; such individuals among men are not affected by any kind of admonition’.

Thus, dear brother, each time he says: ‘The Almighty told me to kill’, bear it in mind you are listening to a man who is possessed not by divine ministrations but a token in the fiendish encampment of pseudo-religious hellions.