No matter where you live in the world today, religion is a reality for you . In the time of advanced technologies, many of the basic existential questions have not yet been answered. Whereas everyone is looking for freedom and peace, we are all bound to the constraints to fulfill our daily responsibilities. Religion is a tool for liberation or purification of the soul and experimentation of the unseen. And many have misused it indeed for power or financial purposes. We have come to an age where in the seek of domination , groups of influential people use all kind of means to subdue others. There are claims that Islam is motivating its followers to commit barbaric actions in the name of the religion. That it allows to behead, murder so-called disbelievers , rape women or enslave people . And this have brought many to the conclusion that Islam is evil and Muslims are evil worshipers. With no intention to divide individuals into believers and disbelievers, because faith is strengthened through application of the teachings of the prophets and not only through debates, I am just giving arguments to make it clear that a Muslim cannot be a devil worshiper
If etymologically Islam means submission to God, then to claim that Muslims are devil worshipers is to claim that someone who submits his will to God is worshiping the devil. However, the concept of God had never referred to evil in any culture. Religion and civilization consider that God is the supernatural entity that is at the origin of everything. Islam is the submission of ones will to this entity. The concept of God is universal and exists in every culture, from so-called primitive to the most advanced. It is not impossible that some people belonging to the Muslim community might be evil. But it will not lead to the conclusion that the Muslims are devil worshipers. Indeed religion is just a tool and mean for knowing God. And being evil a state of the personalty. As nobody can be perfect, everyone might fail to carry out his wordily or religious duties from time to time no matter which religion he is practicing. . But men of God and prophets are righteous people who taught revealed religions to mankind. The miracles they performed and the testimony of their character is sometimes part of their legacy. Stating that a particular group of believers are devil-worshipers is really a form of hatred. Comparative religions testify the common origin of all monotheistic religions from Abraham and in the quran God says: “
Ibrahim (Abraham) was not a Jew, nor a Christian. But he was upright, a Muslim, and was not one of those who associate partners with God. The closest of people to Ibrahim are those who followed him, and this prophet, and those who believe. And God is guardian of the believers. [quran 3:65-68]
The devil on the other hand, is defined commonly as the chief spirit of evil and the enemy of God.
Muslims can be everything but surely not devil-worshipers. How can a devil worshiper seek refuge in God against the devil before every prayer. Actually the formula to be recited before reading the Fatiha(first chapter of the glorious quran) is “ I seek Allah’s protection/refuge/shelter from Satan, the Accursed one”. How can a devil worshiper recite daily words that are cursing the devil? How can a devil worshiper ask God to shelter him against Satan before performing his prayer or reading the quran? And the whole religion of a Muslim is based on the quran and the sunna. In the quran God makes it clear that the sons of Adam should not worship Satan as Satan is a plain enemy to mankind:
“Did I not enjoin upon you, O children of Adam, that you not worship Satan – [for] indeed, he is to you a clear enemy”
[quran 36:60]
Those who said that Muslims are evil firstly claim that the quran divides humanity into believer’s caste (Muslims) and unbeliever’s caste (non-Muslims) considering disbelievers as inferior. (48.29). Indeed the qu’ran does enjoin good and forbids evil , and the Bible does too. The criteria for comparison of men in religion is righteousness. The more righteous you are the more you are close to God. Believers are considered righteous because they follow the commands of Gods (or the law of the shariah) which are basically the same as some of the ethical values dear to a democratic society(notwithstanding historical and cultural differences). Indeed believers are not the same as disbelievers as according to the qu’ran true believers are tested until it becomes clear that they are truthful.
Do people think they will be left alone after saying ‘We believe’ without being put to the test? We tested those who went before them: God will certainly mark out which ones are truthful and which are lying
[quran 29:2-3]
Secondly there is a claim that the quran is against Muslims befriending Christians and Jews. The quran refers to Jews and Christians as people of the book and confirms that they also received revelations from God before the Muslims. There are many verses in the glorious quran stating that righteous men from all other faiths will be rewarded by God. The only difference with the people of the book and the Muslims is that they have changed some of the revelations into forms of idolatry and this is why Muslims are warned about adhering to their doctrine. However the quran request to be just and fair to everyone. It is in the context of war(e.g during the revelation of the quran) that the Muslims were recommended not the take close friends from among those who were against their faith. And most of these were Christians and Jews.
O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm for Allah , witnesses in justice, and do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah ; indeed, Allah is Acquainted with what you do.[quran 5:8]
Thirdly there is a claim that the quran asks Muslims to kill disbelievers or those who forsake the religion. In the contemporary time there are people changing their faith freely without being condemned or judged. Indeed the revelation was in a context of war and it is the same in the Bible. In the context of war it is said that believer should fight those who are fighting them with all means, that which is logical. Consider the Book of 1 Samuel, when God instructs King Saul to attack the Amalekites: “And utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them,” God says through the prophet Samuel. “But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
There so many claims about Islam being evil and the prophet being a pedophile and the misogyny character of some utterances of the quran ad the sunnah . There is for instance a claim that the Prophet married a 6-year-old child when he was 51 and he started sleeping with her when she was 9 and he was 51. (Sahih-al-Bukhari 5133, 6130, 5217, 3894). The context of the quran is 1400. There are surely some customs that are linked to the society and the period of revelation but the morality of the revelations in the quran cannot be challenged. There are worse recitation in the Bible and no one uses it to disdain Christianity.: In ancient societies masters were sleeping with their slaves and servants. No one can take something that happened in that time in to thetext of the modern world. Read in the Bible from genesis 30-40 and you will find stories Rachel gave Bihah to her husband Jacob so that he could have a child with him. And Leah, the other wife of Jacob did the same with her servant Ziprah.
