Understanding Islam honestly or filtering its absurdities? (3)

Question:
This is actually required of a human being. Basically the filtered version of Islam is better than the one mainstream Muslims are following. BUT what to do with the ignorance and intolerance attached with mainstream Islam followed by many people? What to do with confusing verses of Qur'an giving rise to multiple interpretations? What about weak / violent ahadith unbecoming for a pious man, which are not weak for some people who follow it diligently.

I don't want to give you any examples but am compelled to give the Swat lashes as an example. Why did it happen? Why has it not been implemented across the country? BECAUSE we the so-called civilized people will not accept it but still keep a mum about the basic structure of Qur'anic punishments!

Sir, honestly speaking, we all know that it is impossible for us to accept the absurdity of following various things in religion. Therefore we become selective. Why because the human mind is real genius. NO ONE CAN MAKE OUR MIND FOOL since it has the capacity to sift genuine from trash. The only reason for possible future of organized religions would be that people would actually reconstruct their own way of life taking only good things from religions and would label its origin from any particular religion. All right if it is the way, no problem for anyone.

I like my father who has conveniently taken only those parts of Islam which are benign and good, for example, charity, prayers, fasting, no back biting, helping people without exposing their identity etc. OK, this is good if you also preach the same.

Response:
While people like you believe -- because they get confused on knowing some aspects of religion they cannot digest -- that God never spoke to humans and that He left it at their discretion to decide how to think and operate in this life, we believe that He did speak to humans to guide them both intellectually and practically. When we try to understand God's word, we interpret it. In doing so, it is important that we be honest. Honesty requires that we don't understand from the text what it is not saying and that we don't insert into it meanings which are simply not there. So when you say that we are 'filtering' the teachings of Islam and bringing out only 'what is good', we would not take it as a complement. We want to honestly understand the entire Islam. That is exactly what we think we are doing. If we were being selective in accepting Islamic teachings even though the intent of the text was that it should be accepted in totality then we are being hypocrites, behaving dishonestly by deceiving others. Nothing good should be seen in us in that case.

When humans understand the divine text, multiple interpretations emerge, not because of any flaw in the text, but because humans are capable of thinking and understanding differently. This reality is not just true for the divine text: It is true for all texts. However, the intent and purpose of the divine text is one and not many. That reality causes the task of interpretation to be a trial in itself. It is a trial because it is possible as well as tempting to twist the message in a way that one's own whims, ideas, or prejudices are served. We therefore keep trying to ensure that we review our opinions on a regular basis lest we should be insisting on a meaning of the text which isn't genuinely the purpose of it.

What happened in Swat recently and what keeps happening in the unfortunate territory in the north of our country is the manifestation of the religious understanding of some people. We believe it to be seriously flawed in some respects. We therefore keep attempting to clarify to Muslims that what the Taliban and others are doing in the name of Islam is not the true Islam. In claiming their brand of religious understanding as true Islam, they are not only inflicting miseries on others, but are putting off many Muslims and non-Muslims from the religion of God.

When you say that human mind is intelligent and therefore capable of understanding from the divine text what is not really there, you are mentioning one possibility of explaining the reality about the Qur'an. Another possibility could be to assume that the divine text is actually suggesting what we are claiming. While you have every right to stick to your point of view so long as it makes sense to you, you do not have a right to assume that we are 'making it up' when it comes to interpreting the text. I honestly believe that you are not denying the truth about Islam dishonestly. I want you to likewise think positively about me. It is only through exchanging views in this spirit that we can proceed to understand each others' views more genuinely. And it is only in interacting in this manner that our exchange of ideas can become a worthwhile exercise.

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