Muslim Statistics (Scripture)

Qur'an

In size, the Quran is a little shorter than the New Testament, at about 165,000 words (in English). The book was revealed over a period of about 23 years, beginning in 610 AD, and ending shortly before the prophet’s death in 632 AD.

Naskh is a fact since Allah Most High said "We do not erase (nansakh) any aya or cause it to be forgotten (nunsiha) but bring a better one or the like of it" (2:106).

Second, the mutual abrogability of the Qur'an and the Sunna (i) is rationally possible - since the Qur'an describes the Sunna as revealed as well: "Nor does he speak of his own desire" (53:3) - and (ii) occurs in the Law, as per the abrogation of the verse of bequest (2:180) by the mass-transmitted hadith "There is no bequest for anyone who stands to inherit."
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We should be aware that in recent times the tendency has been toward minimalism, much of it a reaction to Orientalist and other attempts to construe naskh [abrogation] as a literary rewrite invalidating Divine origin, some Muslim revisionists even forwarding the view that there is no abrogation in the Qur'an. However, of the 60-odd treatises written on abrogation there is no precedent for such an extreme view. The number of cases hovers around 200, peaking at 247 with Ibn al-Jawzi, 214 with Ibn Hazm and 213 with Hibat Allah ibn Salama while falling to 134 with al-Nahhas and only 66 with `Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi.

Each of the 164 Jihad verses in this list was selected based on how clearly and directly it spoke about Jihad, at least when considered in its immediate context. Most of the listed passages mention a military expedition, fighting, or distributing war spoils. Verses NOT generally listed are those that speak about aspects of Jihad other than the raiding, fighting and looting, such as:

• Muhammad's poor opinion of those who did not go on Jihad, even though they were able-bodied and able financially (for instance, some verses in K 009:081-096),
• The heavenly rewards for Jihadists, and
• The many generic mentions of "victory" found in the Koran.

Such omitted verses can readily be found in proximity to the Jihad verses listed below.

Abrogation is a reoccurring topic whenever verses of the Koran are discussed. As a rule, later verses counseling Holy War, such the Sword Verse (K 009:005), abrogate earlier verses counseling tolerance and peace, such as K 002:256. The Sword Verse is just one of the 164 Jihad verses listed below. It follows that not many, if any, of the Holy War verses in this list are abrogated.

The list gives the verses in the order they occur in the Koran, but this is not the chronological order the verses were written. To gain a deeper understanding of the verses, one can study these verses in chronological order, and also consult articles and commentaries for the historical context. A good place to start is Rev. Richard P. Bailey’s article, "Jihad: The Teaching of Islam From Its Primary Sources—The Quran and Hadith," www.Answering-Islam.org/Bailey/jihad.html.

The Koran’s 164 Jihad Verses: K 002:178-179, 190-191, 193-194, 216-218, 244; 003:121-126, 140-143, 146, 152-158, 165-167,169, 172-173, 195; 004:071-072, 074-077, 084, 089-091, 094-095,100-104; 005:033, 035, 082; 008:001, 005, 007, 009-010, 012, 015-017, 039-048,057-060, 065-075; 009:005, 012-014, 016, 019-020, 024-026, 029,036, 038-039, 041, 044, 052, 073, 081, 083,086, 088, 092, 111, 120, 122-123; 016:110; 022:039, 058, 078; 024:053, 055; 025:052; 029:006, 069; 033:015, 018, 020, 023, 025-027, 050; 042:039; 047:004, 020, 035; 048:015-024; 049:015; 059:002, 005-008, 014; 060:009; 061:004, 011, 013; 063:004; 064:014; 066:009; 073:020; 076:008

While there are 300 references in the Koran to Allah and fear, there are 49 references to love. Of these references, 39 are negative, such as the 14 negative references to love of money, power, other gods, and status.

Three verses command humanity to love Allah and two verses are about how Allah loves a believer. There are 25 verses about how Allah does not love Kafirs (non-Muslims).

This leaves five verses about love. Of these five, three are about loving kin or a Muslim brother. One verse commands a Muslim to give for the love of Allah. This leaves only one quasi-universal verse about love: Give what you love to charity. But even this is contaminated by dualism since Muslim charity (the zakat) only goes to other Muslims.

There is not one verse about either compassion or love of a Kafir, but there are twelve verses that teach that a Muslim is not a friend of the Kafir.

“The best-known chapter of the Quran is al-Fatihah ‘The Opening’. This sura is recited as part of all the mandatory daily prayers – the salat –and repeated within each prayer. A faithful Muslim who said all their prayers would recite this sura at least seventeen times a day, and over five thousand times a year.
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This is a prayer asking Allah’s help to lead the believer along the ‘straight path’. As such it is true to the heart of Islam’s message of guidance.

But who are those who are said to have earned Allah’s wrath, or gone astray from the straight path? Who are these people who deserve to be stigmatized in every Muslim’s prayers, each day, hundreds of thousands of times in many Muslims’ lifetimes?

Ibn Kathir’s commentary explains the meaning of this verse as follows:

These two paths are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer should beware of so that he avoids them. … the Jews abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians. … We should also mention that both the Christians and the Jews have earned the anger and are led astray, but the anger is one of the attributes more particular of the Jews. Allah said about the Jews, ‘Those (Jews) who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath’ (Sura 5:60). The attribute that the Christians deserve most is that of being led astray, just as Allah said about them, ‘Who went astray before and who misled many, and strayed (themselves) from the right path’ (Sura 5:77).

Ibn Kathir goes on to cite a hadith in which Muhammad clarified the meaning of this sura: Imam Ahmad recorded that ‘Adi bin Hatim said, … he [Muhammad] said: ‘Those who have earned the anger are the Jews and those who are led astray are the Christians.’

The verse from Sura 5 which Ibn Kathir refers to concerning Jews is:

Shall I tell you of a recompense with Allah, worse than that? Whomsoever Allah has cursed, and with whom He is wroth, and made some of them apes and swine, and worshippers of idols – they are worse situated, and have gone further astray from the right way. (Sura 5:60)

And the verse concerning Christians:

People of the Book, go not beyond the bounds in your religion, other than the truth, and follow not the caprices of a people who went astray before, and led astray many, and now again have gone astray from the right way. (Sura 5:77)

It is remarkable that the daily prayers of every Muslim, part of the core of Islam, include a rejection of Christians and Jews as misguided and objects of Allah’s wrath.”

To be genuine and effective, reconciliation between Muslims and those they refer to as 'People of the Book' (Jews and Christians), requires that Al-Fatihah and its meaning be discussed openly. That devout Muslims are daily declaring before Allah that Christians have gone astray and Jews are objects of divine wrath, must be considered a matter of central importance for interfaith relations. This is all the more so because the interpretation of verse 7 which relates it to Christians and Jews is soundly based upon the words of Muhammad himself. As Al-Fatihah is the daily worship of Muslims, and represents the very essence of Islam itself, the meaning of these words cannot be ignored or glossed over.

106/201 (52.7%) is hatred aimed at infidels, defined as:
• Threats towards infidels either in the afterlife or this life.
• Degrading infidels by calling them evil, stupid, blind, deaf, liars, thankless, etc.
• Calls to fight against them.
• Verses that say "except the believers" when wishing death on nonbelievers were counted as hatred since avoiding death is not a positive to believers.
• The threat or insult can be aimed at infidels in general or any specific infidel.
50/201 (24.9%) deals with believers, defined as:
• Mentioning them.
• Saying they are righteous.
• Saying they will get good things.
• Any mentions of one of the prophets was put into this category too.
23/201 (11.4%) deal with Allah:
• Who he is.
• That he is almighty.
• Any of his creations.
10/201 (5%) deal with the Day of Doom or the Day of Judgment:
• The Day of Doom is when destruction is sent on the earth.
• The Day of Judgment is when all are judged before Allah.
• Any message pertaining to how God records what men do was assigned this category.
4/201 (2%) are anti-woman:
• That it’s OK to beat a woman.
• Women and slaves get married off but have no choice in the matter and is very self-serving to Muhammad or men in general.
4/201 (2%) deal with giving to the poor in some way
2/201 (1%) deal with some kind of Muslim custom or etiquette, for instance:
• How to divorce your wife.
1/201 (0.5%) Disapproves of a man who murdered someone, for it was for the wrong reason to kill someone.
1/201 (0.5%) says it is OK for people to have their religion while Muslims have theirs.

Which is more violent, the Bible or the Quran? Is there a way to objectively answer such a question?

Well, it wouldn't be easy. But it is possible to compare the amount of cruelty and violence in the two books.

Here is a summary of the highlighted verses in the SAB and SAQ.

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Number of Cruel or Violent Passages

Bible 1214
Quran 527

So the Bible has more than twice as many cruel or violent passages as does the Quran. But the Bible is a much bigger book. How do they compare when size is taken into account?

Bible

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Violence and Cruelty 1214
Total verses 31173
Percent 3.89

Quran

Violence and Cruelty 527
Total verses 6236
Percent 8.45

When expressed as a percentage of cruel or violent verses (at least as marked in the SAB/Q), the Quran has more than twice that of the Bible. (8.45 vs. 3.89%)

There is no place in the Quran where Muhammad commands Muslims to love people of other religions. By contrast there are at least three dozen verses that tell Muslims to fight against non-Muslims and about 500 that speak of their place in Hell. They are from each period in Muhammad's life, scattered across 87 of the Quran's 114 chapters.

To put this in perspective, nearly one out of twelve verses in the Quran says that Allah hates non-Muslims to the extent that he will torment them for eternity in horrible ways. The Suras that make reference to this comprise about 95% of the Quran's total volume. If Allah creates infidels merely to fuel the fires of Hell, then there is little reason for Muslims to believe that such lives are of any worth in this world either.

The religious texts of Islam call upon its followers to commit acts of terror and violence to a much higher degree than any other religion, concludes Tina Magaard, who graduated from the Sorbonne in Paris as a PhD in Textual Analysis and Intercultural Communication, after a three-year research project that compared the basic texts from 10 religions.

"The texts in Islam are clearly distinct from the other religious texts, as they to a much higher degree call for violence and aggression against followers of other faiths. There are also direct incitements to terror. This has long been a taboo in Islam research, but it is a fact we have to acknowledge," says Tina Magaard.

Furthermore, the Qur'an contains hundreds of calls to fight against followers of other faiths.

"If it is true that many Muslims view the Qur'an as God's own words that can not be interpreted or rephrased, we have a problem."

Qur'an, Hadith and Sira

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One of the most frequently used arguments heard in the defense of Islam is that the Bible is just as violent as the Koran. The logic goes like this. If the Koran is no more violent than the Bible, then why should we worry about Islam? This argument is that Islam is the same as Christianity and Judaism. This is false, but this analogy is very popular, since it allows someone who knows nothing about the actual doctrine of Islam to talk about it. “See, Islam is like Christianity, Christians are just as violent as Muslims.” If this is true, then you don’t have to learn anything about the actual Islamic doctrine.

However, this is not a theological argument. It is a political one. This argument is not about what goes on in a house of worship, but what goes on the in the marketplace of ideas.

Now, is the doctrine of Islam more violent than the Bible? There is only one way to prove or disprove the comparison and that is to measure the differences in violence in the Koran and the Bible.

The first item is to define violence. The only violence that matters to someone outside of either Islam or Christianity or Judaism is what they do to the “other”, political violence. Cain killing Abel is not political violence. Political violence is not killing a lamb for a meal or making an animal sacrifice. Note, however, a vegan or a PETA member considers both of these actions to be violent, but it is not violence against them.

The next item is to compare the doctrines both quantitatively and qualitatively. The political violence of the Koran is called “fighting in Allah’s cause”, or jihad.

We must do more than measure the jihad in the Koran. Islam has three sacred texts: Koran, Sira and Hadith, the Islamic Trilogy. The Sira is Mohammed’s biography. The Hadith are his traditions—what he did and said. Sira and Hadith form the Sunna, the perfect pattern of all Islamic behavior.

The Koran is the smallest of the three books, the Trilogy. It is only 16% of the Trilogy text . This means that the Sunna is 84% of the word content of Islam’s sacred texts. This statistic alone has large implications. Most of the Islamic doctrine is about Mohammed, not Allah. The Koran says 91 different times that Mohammed is the perfect pattern of life. It is much more important to know Mohammed than the Koran. This is very good news. It is easy to understand a biography about a man. To know Islam, know Mohammed.

It turns out that jihad occurs in large proportion in all three texts. Here is a chart about the results:

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It is very significant that the Sira devotes 67% of its text to jihad. Mohammed averaged an event of violence every 6 weeks for the last 9 years of his life. Jihad was what made Mohammed successful. Here is a chart of the growth of Islam.

Basically, when Mohammed was a preacher of religion, Islam grew at the rate of 10 new Muslims per year. But when he turned to jihad, Islam grew at an average rate of 10,000 per year. All of the details of how to wage jihad are recorded in great detail. The Koran gives the great vision of jihad—world conquest by the political process. The Sira is a strategic manual and the Hadith is a tactical manual of jihad.

Now let’s go to the Hebrew Bible. When we count all of the political violence, we find that 5.6% of the text is devoted to it. There is no admonition towards political violence in the New Testament.

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When we count the magnitude of words devoted to political violence, we have 327,547 words in the Trilogy and 34,039 words in the Hebrew Bible . The Trilogy has 9.6 times as much wordage devoted to political violence as the Hebrew Bible.

The real problem goes far beyond the quantitative measurement of ten times as much violent material; there is the qualitative measurement. The political violence of the Koran is eternal and universal. The political violence of the Bible was for that particular historical time and place. This is the vast difference between Islam and other ideologies. The violence remains a constant threat to all non-Islamic cultures, now and into the future. Islam is not analogous to Christianity and Judaism in any practical way. Beyond the one-god doctrine, Islam is unique unto itself.

Another measurement of the difference between the violence found in the Judeo/Christian texts as opposed to that of Islam is found in the use of fear of violence against artists, critics and intellectuals. What artist, critic or intellectual ever feels a twinge of fear if condemning anything Christian or Jewish? However, look at the examples of the violent political threats and murders of Salman Rushdie, Theo van Gogh, Pim Fortuyn, Kurt Westergaard of the Danish Mohammed cartoons, and many others. What artist, critic or intellectual has not had a twinge of fear about Islam when it comes to free expression? The political difference in the response to the two different doctrines is enormous. The political fruit from the two trees is as different as night and day.

It is time for so-called intellectuals to get down to the basics of judging Islam by its actual doctrine, not making lame analogies that are sophomoric assertions. Fact-based reasoning should replace fantasies that are based upon political correctness and multiculturalism.

Fiqh

In fact the four schools (madhhab) of Sunni jurisprudence as well as the Shia tradition only refer to the lesser [outer] jihad. This means that for many Muslims the concept of the greater jihad is unorthodox and heretical.

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