Michael Copeland has compiled an eclectic set of references concerning the ninth surah of the Koran, whose violent commands abrogate all of the earlier peaceful verses.

Koran: Read Chapter Nine

by Michael Copeland

Read chapter nine of the Koran. This is important. The text is easily available online. The website corpus.quran.com shows parallel translations and has a “word by word” breakdown and other features.

Why is chapter nine important? It is because this is the final and latest “revelation” allegedly given to Mohammed, which overrides everything elsewhere.

Some background explanation is needed. The Koran is not arranged chronologically. The chapters are placed with the longest first and the shortest last. Accordingly, the subject matter jumps all over the place, and makes the book very confusing. About one fifth of it does not make sense and has to be “interpreted”. The language is archaic: even Arabic speakers find it difficult. Most Muslims, though, are not Arabic speakers. They are, however, instructed how to read the script, and are required only to memorise it and recite it, an action that is highly esteemed. Not required to understand what they recite, they depend on their imams to explain what it says. Imams are thus in a considerable position of control, and have for years made use of various lies, for instance the “perfect preservation” of the text (as proclaimed by Yaser Qadhi), when Islam’s own trusted sources record many historic changes.

An important aspect of the Koran is that all of it forms part of Islamic law. This is no light matter: Islam is not Pick-Your-Own. Koran 33:36 explains:

“It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a matter that they should have any option in their decision.”

Citing this verse, Dr. Salah as Sawy, who is Secretary General for the Assembly of Muslim Jurists in America (the Association of Lawyers for Sharia in America), gave this ruling:

“For things which have been stipulated in the texts of Islam, the Muslim community possesses no power except to acknowledge and obey…”

“Acknowledge and obey”: that is the instruction. Muslims have to submit. Islam means Submission. Submission, of course, is one end of a relationship. The real importance is in the other end — Control.

“No one can regard any field of his affairs as personal and private”, wrote the revered scholar Maududi in his 1960 book The Islamic Law & Constitution. Islam is a system of control, “all-encompassing”, as Tariq Ramadan expressed it. “Islam Is The Perfect System For All Mankind”, announces a placard held by an unidentifiable niqab-clad Muslim woman.

Denying any verse of the Koran brings the death penalty. This may be carried out vigilante-style by anyone without legal repercussion, “since it is killing someone who deserves to die” (Manual of Islamic Law, Reliance of the Traveller, o8.4). In Islam your brother doubles as your executioner.

Abrogation

The text of the Koran contains statements which contradict each other. The way that Islamic teaching copes with this is by the doctrine of Abrogation. Under this doctrine the later revelation “abrogates” the earlier. For this it is necessary to know which chapters are later than which others. With chapter nine there is no problem. It is the latest complete chapter, and “abrogates” all previous texts that disagree with it. Esteemed scholar Sheikh Al-Shawkani (1759-1834) says:

“[The verses] about forgiving them [the unbelievers] are abrogated unanimously by the obligation of fighting in any case.”

The significance of chapter nine, the “Sura at Tawba”, is that it sets out Islam’s instruction of permanent hostility to non-Muslims, kafirs, involving their subjugation, extortion, or else killing. It also contains the justification for suicide bombing.

Permanent Hostility

Mohammed commanded “undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind”, wrote John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, in 1829.

Karl Marx, too, noted Islam’s “state of permanent hostility”. Verse 5 sets out the clear mandate for violence, and the conditions needed for ceasing it:

“But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular Prayers and practise regular Charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful” 9:5

The clause “if they repent… etc.” means if they convert to Islam. That this mandate is alive and well is confirmed by Ali Gomaa, Grand Mufti of Egypt, the highest authority in Sunni Islam.

Likewise, in Shia Islam, the hostility is the same. Ayatollah Khomeini made this quite clear in more than one of his thunderous declamations:

“Jihad stands for killing all kafirs around the world. Push your sword into their bodies, cut them into pieces… Sword is the key to Allah’s paradise.”

Jihadi education in Bangladesh is direct and unambiguous:

“Killing and extermination of the kafirs is the clear instruction of Allah.”

The command to “fight” (and kill) the kafirs is reaffirmed in verse 29:

“Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of truth, from among the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

The “People of the Book” are Jews and Christians. They are permitted, under Islam’s rules, to continue with their own observances (though not in public), but only as second-class citizens with limited rights, “dhimmis”, if they pay a tax, the Jizya, “with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued”. This tax, historically, has been set at burdensome levels. Adherents of other religions, such as Yazidis, Hindus, and polytheists, are not offered that alternative. Their choice is only to convert to Islam or be killed.

Notice that the instruction is not “Fight those who attack you”, but “fight those who believe not in Allah” etc., in other words non-Muslims. This is the basis of Islam’s permanent hostility to all non-Muslims. The Arabic word for “fight” has the connotation “slaughter”. Abu Hamza helpfully expounds: “And when you fight you kill.”

Osama bin Laden told the West years ago, but was not taken seriously:

“Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority…? Yes! … The matter is summed up for every person alive: Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die.”

There is no leeway in this instruction. Al-Shawkani made it clear:

“Islam is unanimous about fighting the unbelievers and forcing them to Islam or submitting and paying Jiziah (special tax paid only by Christians or Jews) or being killed.”

The late Abu Qaqa of Boko Haram knew his Koran. He justified killing nearly a hundred Christians, including children, in their church services one Sunday with chapter 9 verse 29:

“Allah has tasked all Muslims in Quran 9:29 to continue to attack Jews and Christians who refuse to believe in him and his messenger, Prophet Mohammed.”

Force is a theme of Islam. The medieval scholar Ibn Khaldun wrote that Islam has to be spread “by persuasion or by force.”. Lee Rigby’s killer explained, “We are forced by the Koran, in Sura at Tawba [chapter nine]”. Islam divides the world into two categories, Dar al Islam, the Realm of Islam where Islamic law applies, and the rest of the world, Dar al Harb, the Realm of War. “Between us and you”, says 60:4, “enmity and hatred forever”. Al Azhar in Cairo defines jihad as “a permanent war institution.”

Islam is hostile. It is about murderous force, intolerance, apartheid and supremacism. There is no Live And Let Live, no Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself, no Do As You Would Be Done By, and no equality before the law. A rigid apartheid is imposed, complete with compulsory hatred. Muslims are “merciful to each other and ruthless to the kafir” (48:29). Muslims are “the best of peoples raised up for mankind” (3:110), while kafirs are “the vilest of beasts” (8:22), “unclean (9:28), “the most despicable” (98:6). The kafir “is a clear enemy to you” (4:101). “Do not take them as allies” (4:89). “Let them find harshness in you” (9:123). If anyone wants other than Islam “never will it be accepted of him” (3:85). Many a placard has proclaimed “Islam will dominate”. Islam has to be supreme.

Yasir Qadhi in Tennessee expresses it succinctly:

“Jews and Christians are filthy. Their lives and property can be taken by the Muslims in jihad.”

A commenter, Jack Diamond, accurately summarises Islam:

“The teachings … are not nice, they actually mandate hatred of you and yours, and your subjugation or demise.” July 3, 2023 at 7:00 pm

Subjugation and extortion

Islam commands Muslims to subjugate the rest of the world under Islamic rule. The end aim is a global Caliphate. “The Muslim nation is one nation to the exclusion of all others” reads the placard in a London march (Sharia march and interview Oxford St March 25 at 0.31). As explained above, Jews and Christians may be permitted to continue in their faiths in private as “dhimmis”, paying the Jizya “in willing submission”. These faiths, though, are not recognised as valid. They are just “remnant cults now bearing the names of formerly valid religions”, and are not “acceptable to Allah” (Manual of Islamic Law, Reliance of the Traveller, w4). The usefulness of the dhimmis is that they provide income to the Muslims — by force, as would be expected, and in humiliation, as required.

They kill and are killed

The phenomenon of the suicide bomber is puzzling to the Westerner. Robert Spencer has ably expounded its Islamic justification. The Koran explains (21:47) that a tally is kept of every Muslim’s good deeds and bad deeds. If the good deeds outweigh the bad deeds the Muslim goes to paradise, with its full-breasted dark-eyed virgins, boys like pearls, luscious fruits, river of wine, and silken garments. If the bad deeds outweigh the good the Muslim goes to hell with its endless hideous torments, garments of fire, hooked iron rods, boiling liquids poured on their heads, and so on (22:19-22). How is he to know where he stands? It is a question that eats into the mind of the worried individual. There is, though, a way out of this dilemma.

The finest action that Muslims can perform is jihad, warfare against the kafir-who-has-to-be-hated. Killing kafirs counts strongly as “good deeds”. Witness the Reading park killer, Khairi Saadallah, who said,

“I’m going to paradise for the Jihad what I did to them…”

If, in the course of this jihad warfare, Muslims “kill and are killed”, thereby becoming what Islam terms “martyrs”, they go straight to paradise, no questions asked, guaranteed by Allah: “it is a true promise, binding upon him”. Chapter nine provides the authority, at verse 111:

“Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah , so they kill and are killed. [It is] a true promise [binding] upon Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Qur’an…”

The Manchester Arena bomber, the Muslim jihadi Salman Abedi, who killed and maimed children and adults at the Ariana Grande concert, was himself killed in that attack. He killed and was killed, so he qualifies for Allah’s guarantee of Paradise.

Tawfik Hamid, who underwent hard-line Islamic training, bears witness:

“The idea of dying as a martyr provided a perfect escape from the frightening anguish of eternal punishment.”

This is the motive and justification for operations in which jihadis “kill and are killed”. It is from chapter nine.

A reading of chapter nine, the Surah-at-Tawba, will enlighten an outsider. It is not easy going, but it is important and informative.

It is the final word.

Read chapter nine.

Reference: corpus.quran.com

For previous essays by Michael Copeland, see the Michael Copeland Archives.