A careful study of the Quran raises the question: is it a violent text? This question is of fundamental importance in our time, given recent events. This article attempts to explore the issue in great detail, without ever straying from Arberry's standard translation of the classic text of the Islamic religion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Quran divides humanity into believers and non-believers. Believers believe in the divinity of his Revelation. Non-believers do not. God commands believers to say to unbelievers: I do not serve what you serve, and you do not serve what I serve, nor do I serve what you have served, nor do you serve what I serve. (CIX) As a reward for serving this true God, believers will be admitted “into the gardens under which the rivers flow.” For unbelievers, “the fiery furnace” of Gehenna awaits, where they will burn for all eternity, even as they “cry, Our Lord, take us out, and we will do good other than that which we have done.” " To this supplication, God responds: "How, we have not given you a long life, enough to remember for the one who would remember, so the warner has come for you!" (XXXV, 34-35). Believers, therefore, they believe in a God who will have no mercy on unbelievers, their one and only God seems to take sadistic pleasure in encountering damnation and fire, even taunting unbelievers with their hopeless situation ( "so taste it now!"). If believers were to apply this cruel aspect of God's character as a model for how they should treat unbelievers in this present life on earth, it is no exaggeration to say that the most terrible barbarity would ensue. Compassionate God shows no compassion for the souls of unbelievers; how should His believers be expected to respect their lives? In a world that is "nothing but a sport and a diversion (XLVII, 38)", unbelievers would not necessarily become, in the eyes of believers, the expendable fuel of a sacred fire here on earth? In some passages, the Quran seems to answer this question with a categorical no. Only God is the final judge. Believers just have to worship him and be patient. They should "try not to rush it [for non-believers]", "that" being the Day of Resurrection (XLVI, 34), since "God will suffice them for you" (II, 132). Believers are commanded to "let them eat, and take their joy, and be confounded with hope," for "they will surely know soon!" (XV, 2-3); «Leave them free to dive and play until they meet that day that was promised to them» (LXX 41). Setting aside for the moment the obnoxious condescension of the attitude that believers are supposed to have, and reading these and similar passages as stern dictates, the Qur'an seems to make a relatively clear distinction between what God will ultimately do to unbelievers and how believers must take care of them in the meantime. Indeed, if peace is possible, as a general rule believers have an obligation to attempt it. «If they [unbelievers] incline towards peace», it is written in The Spoils, a sura which mainly deals with the theme of war, «you will incline towards it» (VIII, 63), since «God does not love aggressors» ( II, 187). «If they turn away from you, do not fight you and offer you peace, God does not assign you any way against them» (IV, 93). This language of peace, however, is weakening. God tends to temporarily impose non-aggression, rather recommending it than requiring it. God "does not love aggressors", but does not hate them like unbelievers. And although He “does not assign you any way against them,” nowhere in the entire text of the Quranaggression against unbelievers is expressly prohibited; at best it is not permitted. The one mention of actual kindness towards non-believers highlights how little God cares about believers who choose to act in the most unkind manner: "God forbid you not, concerning those who have not fought you in the cause of religion, nor have you expelled from your homes, that you be kind to them, and act justly towards them, surely God loves the righteous." (LX, 9) God does not oblige his believers to "be kind to them and act justly towards them", he simply "does not forbid you". Not being forbidden to do something is far from being obliged to do it. Kindness and justice towards unbelievers become optional; the believer who chooses to give up kindness and justice has done nothing wrong here. He simply exercised his implicit second option. This second option must be defined, through a simple process of elimination, as cruelty. On the other hand, the above passage serves to define specific conditions for retaliation, thus establishing specific conditions for peace. Here war is a determinable state of affairs, not an unconditional justification of massacre. Non-believers must first choose a battle "for the cause of religion" or "expel you from your homes" for the rules of war to apply. It is, in fact, those passages dealing with war that most clearly instruct readers to stab and kill. Believers are commanded to fight only with those who "fight against God and His Messenger." As for them, they will have to be "slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet will be cut off alternately, or they will be banished from the country. This is a degradation for them in this world" (V, 37). If a believer dies while attempting to massacre, crucify or disfigure an unbelieving attacker, "it is before God that you will be gathered" (III, 151); paradise is the reward for having fought in the way of God. If a believer "turns his back on them on that day... he is burdened with the weight of God's wrath" (VIII, 16); Hell is the punishment for abandoning the fight once it has begun. God greatly encourages incessant battle: "Fight the unbelievers totally, just as they fight you totally" (IX, 36). And he rewards his soldiers with superhuman power, providing them with an incentive to fight despite overwhelming odds: "If there are twenty of you, patient men, they will overcome two hundred" (VIII, 66). Once the unbelievers have been defeated, the victor is forbidden to mourn him: "Never pray for any of them when he is dead, nor stand at his grave" (IX, 85). and war, one could argue with some consistency that the Quran preaches a modicum of compassion for people who disagree with its precepts. But the Qur'an distinguishes between war and peace only in vague political terms:...He announces to the disbelievers a painful punishment; except those of the idolaters with whom you have made alliance, they have not disappointed you in anything, nor have they lent support to anyone. against you. With them fulfill your covenant until their expiration; surely God loves those who fear God. Then, when the sacred months are removed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and seize them, confine them, and lay them in wait in every ambush place. Peace here is clearly defined as that period of time during which a covenant (or treaty, in modern terms) applies. War is all other times. In other words, unless believers have sat down at the negotiating table and signed a peace treaty with non-believers, believers must act as if they were actually at war. War is the norm, peace the exception (“the sacred months”), and fighting is the commandment of the Lord."..