Quranic
Insights into World Events
An American Imam addresses non-Muslim Americans, especially those rising in
protest against police state tactics and the war against Iraq.
By Tammam Adi Ph.D., Director of the
Islamic Cultural Center of Eugene, Oregon.
March 9, 2003
The Quran is the scripture
of the Muslims. It repeats in Arabic the principles of the Gospel and the
Torah and all previous scriptures. Since 9/11, I have been consulting the
Quran to understand world events. I have learned a lot and I have changed my
mind about a few things. Here are some recent insights inspired by verses
from the Quran. These are not quotable translations of the original
verses.
God installs
dictators as collective punishment.
It is God's scheme that if the people have been
doing harm to others, then God will install unjust rulers over them as a
collective punishment. (commentary about Quran 6:129)
Dictators dominate
by dividing and by terrorism.
Pharaoh, a dictator, seeks to dominate on Earth by
dividing its people into parties --polarized around diverging social,
political or religious issues-- in order to take advantage of some of these
groups by killing their sons in massacres and wars and by exploiting their
women and by spreading terrorism and lawlessness. (about 28:4)
Terrorism has
nothing to do with religion.
Some of those who reject God’s laws will create
terrorism under false religious flag. They will attack the weak and create
lawlessness and instigate religious clashes. They will swear that they have
the best of intentions. But God bears witness that they are liars. (about
9:107)
Dictatorship of
the rich precedes doom. When God wants to punish a
community for what they have been doing, then He would install the rich and
spoiled as dictators over them and they would spread violence and lawlessness.
Then the community is doomed by the eternal decree of God and it will be torn
down in utter destruction. (about 17:16)
To prevent doom,
stand up for good principles. Will you consider
this universal scheme of God: A good principle is like a good tree, its root
is firm and its branches reach into heaven: They are blessed, looked up to
and propagated. The good tree produces fruit when the time comes with the
permission of its lord: God alone controls consequences and timing . . . and a
bad principle is like a bad tree that has been uprooted and will never stand
still: Bad arguments are baseless, inefficient and keep changing. God
stabilizes those who trust Him with good principles, in this life and
in the hereafter. And God confuses and misleads the unjust. And God does
what He wants: events follow His will alone. (about 14:24 ff)
Then God will
empower the oppressed to restore just government. God's
plan is to bless the oppressed and make them leaders and make them successors
in power. God will give them power on Earth and He will make Pharaoh, the
dictator, and Haman, his counsel, watch the oppressed accomplish exactly what
the powerful were trying to prevent. (about 28:5-6)
Tammam Adi Ph.D is the Director of the
Islamic Cultural Center of Eugene, Oregon, USA. Originally from Syria, he is a
computational linguist specializing in Arabic.
taadi@earthlink.net
Read other articles by Tammam Adi here.
