Divine Revelation Quotes
This sura is used by moderate Muslims showing that The Prophet was somewhat tolerant of those who even mock the word of Allah. Nonetheless, most fundamentalist Muslims believe that anyone who mocks the word of Allah or His Prophet should be killed. Muhammad said not to sit with them—his modern followers too often call it heresy and want to kill them.
The anti-intellectualism of many Protestant sects has its roots in this view of Martin Luther’s. The notion of reason as practiced by scientists as a hindrance to religion is not a new notion. Religious leaders have been trying to silence and discredit philosophers and scientists as long as there has been religion. Socrates was killed long before Christianity.
This is actually a very widespread belief amongst many Muslims. Even sophisticated national leaders do not appreciate that other religions have adherents who feel just as passionately about their own religion. See {588668} for another example where Muslim leaders believe that if Jewish Kings David and Solomon came back to life they would worship Islam.
Al-Maarri’s quotations are not only meaningful in their own right, but they illustrate the openness and free thinking that was allowed in the early days of Islam before about 1100. If anyone wrote such things today in most Islamic countries he would at least be jailed if not executed for blasphemy. And if any Christian in Europe made the same statement, he would have been excommunicated at least if not tortured and murdered.
This verse has been one of the bases of Muslim theocratic states like Iran’s claim to legitimacy.
