The Doctrine of Deceit

From: Travis
Date: Sat, Aug 9, 2008
Subject: The Doctrine of Deceit





The Doctrine of Islamic Deceit
Before the doctrine of deceit can be understood, we must have a context of Islamic doctrine in general. What is needed is more than facts, but an entire line of reasoning.

The most important question is: what is Islam? This simple question is the crux of all discussion about Islam. Most say that Islam is whatever Muslims say it is. This leads to endless articles and discussions about what some expert Muslim says and that, in turn, leads to the discussion of whether that Muslim is a "moderate" Muslim or an "extremist" Muslim. Using Muslims to define Islam is Muslim-ology, a branch of sociology.

Using Muslims to define Islam confuses cause and effect. Islamic doctrine causes Muslims; Muslims do not cause Islam. This can easily be seen in the naming. Islam means submission (not peace) and Muslim means one who submits. This clearly establishes cause and effect. Muslims submit to Islam, not-Islam submits to Muslims. Islam submits to no one.

Muslim-ology is not a reliable method since it is a branch of sociology and has all of its limitations. How many Muslims do you have to ask? Which ones do you believe if there are contradictions? Besides, if what a Muslim says disagrees with the Koran and the Sunna (what Mohammed did and said) it is wrong. If it agrees with the Koran and the Sunna, then it is redundant. The only Muslim who counts is Mohammed. Therefore, the only reliable answer comes from the doctrine of the Koran and the Sunna. There is only one other basis for studying Islam--its doctrine.

Islam is founded upon the words of Allah (the Koran) and the Sunna (the words and actions of Mohammed found in the Sira and the Hadith). The words of Allah are only about 17% of the total doctrinal texts. The words and actions of Mohammed comprise 83% of the doctrine of Islam.

The Sunna is the perfect example of Mohammed's words and deeds. The necessity for the Sunna is found in over 40 verses in the Koran that say that those who do not follow the pattern of Mohammed will go to Hell and the more than 30 verses that command Muslims to follow the example of Mohammed.

The Sunna of Mohammed is found in the Sira (Mohammed's official biography) and the Hadith (the Traditions of Mohammed). The Sira is found in the texts by Ibn Ishaq, Al Tabari, and Ibn Sa'd. Ishaq's text is the most authoritative. The Hadith are collections of what Mohammed did and said upon specific events. There are six major collections that are used by Sunnis. Of these Bukhari is the most authoritative.

So in summary, the doctrine of Islam is found in its three foundational texts--Koran, Sira and Hadith--the Islamic Trilogy.

ISLAMIC POLITICAL DOCTRINE
Islam is a complete civilization--a religion, a culture, a political system, a philosophy and a legal system.

The Trilogy divides all of humanity into two categories: those who believe that Mohammed is the final prophet of Mohammed's god, Allah and those who do not. Those who believe are called Muslims and those who do not are called kafirs.

Kafir is translated as unbeliever, but this is an incorrect usage. An unbeliever is a neutral term and is a statement of logic. It merely denotes a lack of belief. The word kafir is defined by its usage in the Koran and is far from neutral.

We can now make a great simplification of the textual material of the Trilogy. None of the doctrine that only applies to Muslims is of any importance to kafirs and can therefore be ignored. For instance, exactly how does a Muslim pray? The religious and cultural dimensions of Islam are of no concern to kafirs. This paper only relates how kafirs are treated and how Islam interacts with kafirs, as in jihad.

How Islam treats the kafir is political Islam. A Muslim is strictly forbidden to have any religious interaction with a kafir, except attempts at conversion. Of course, Islam has an entire doctrine of internal politics, but that is of no concern here.

It is surprising how much of the doctrine is about the kafir, political Islam. About 61% of the Koran is devoted to the kafir, and all of it is negative. About 75% of the Sira (Mohammed's biography) is about the kafirs. Only the Hadith is primarily about Muslims with only 20% of Bukhari (the most authoritative) being about jihad (jihad is only practiced against kafirs).

This means that we can now discuss Islam without getting into religion and stay with politics. This frees us from some politically correct restrictions such as disparaging a religion.

DUALITY
There is one last element of the background needed to understand the concept of deceit in Islam. Islam is founded on two principles--submission and duality. The very name, Islam, means submission and the principle is that all humanity must submit to Islam.

Submission as a principle is well known. The principle of duality comes from the Islamic foundational doctrine and is the second key to understanding it.

Duality emerges as a natural principle from the Koran. An analysis of the Koran shows that it has two distinct divisions--the early Koran written in Mecca and the later Koran written in Medina. What is important is that the Medinan Koran contradicts the Meccan Koran. This contradiction is resolved by the Koran's stated principle of "abrogation". Abrogation means the later verse is stronger than the earlier verse. But since both verses come from Allah, both verses are still true since Allah is perfect.

An example:
2:256 There should be no coercion in religion. The truth stands out clearly from error.

9:5 When the sacred months [by ancient Arab custom there were four months during which there was to be no violence] are passed, kill the kafirs wherever you find them. Take them as captives, besiege them, and lie in wait for them with every kind of ambush. If they submit to Islam, observe prayer, and pay the poor tax, then let them go their way [if they convert to Islam].

Verse 2:256 is tolerant, but verse 9:5 says to kill the kafirs unless they convert. These two verses contradict each other. The violent verse comes later in time after the tolerant verse and therefore abrogates it. The tolerant verse came when Mohammed was in a weak position, the violent verse came when he was strong.

But the two contradictory verses are both true since they both come from the Koran. The later verse is used when Islam is strong and the earlier verse is used when it is weak.

This leads to a dualistic logic. Two contradictory statements can both be true. This dualism confuses the Western mind. Our logic is based upon the principle that if two statements contradict, then at least one of them has to be false. This is a unitary logic.

DUALISTIC SYSTEMS
Here is an example of how duality works using the example of jihad. Jihad is struggle and can be practiced with the sword, the mouth, the pen and by money. The sword version is sometimes called "holy war". One popular explanation is that inner struggle is the greater jihad and that the jihad of the sword is the lesser jihad.

It is the nature of dualistic systems that there is never a single answer to a question, since there are two bases for any answer. So a statistical measure is the only answer.

Example:
The Hadith of Bukhari can be used to define jihad. The discussion of jihad takes up 20% of Bukhari's total text. Of the hadiths devoted to jihad, 3% are about the inner struggle, the greater jihad. But 97% of the jihad hadiths are devoted to jihad as a way to annihilate kafirs and their culture, the lesser jihad.

So, on a textual basis--jihad is 3% inner struggle, the greater jihad, and 97% violence against the kafir, the lesser jihad.
Notice that these statistics tell us nothing about what choice an individual Muslim may make. One Muslim may choose jihad as an inner struggle, the greater jihad, to quit smoking cigarettes, while another Muslim may choose jihad as using violence against kafirs, the lesser jihad. What is important is that both choices are morally acceptable inside Islam.

What is the right answer to the question: which jihad is the "real" Islam? The proper answer is that both are the real Islam. Dualism gives two "right" answers even if the answers contradict each other. This is very confusing to non-Muslims. We are used to unitary logic and unitary ethics, where only one side of a contradiction can be true. So we insist that one side of the duality must be the real one and the other, contradictory statement must be false. But in dualistic logic, two contrary answers can both be true and used when needed.

There is a good analogy about dualism found in quantum physics. An electron may have several states and probabilities for each state. An electron in orbit may have a 50% chance of being "spin up" or a 50% chance of being "spin down". But a measurement of an individual electron will show that it is either spin up or spin down at the time of the measurement.

Which is the "real" state of the electron? That is a poorly posed question and as such has no answer. The right question to ask about a multi-state system is: what are the states and what are the probabilities of each state?

Endless ink has been wasted over similarly poorly posed questions such as, what is the real Islam? Instead, the properly posed question is: what contradictory choices are available? How much text is devoted to each side of the contradiction? Then, which choice has a Muslim made?
DECEPTION AND DECEIT
Islamic ethics is based upon dualism. There is one set of rules for the Muslim and another set of rules for the kafir. Islamic ethical dualism extends to truth and deceit.

TRUTH
In Islam something that is not true is not always a lie.
Bukhari 3,49,857 Mohammed: "A man who brings peace to the people by making up good words or by saying nice things, though untrue, does not lie."
An oath by a Muslim is flexible.
Bukhari 8,78,618 Abu Bakr faithfully kept his oaths until Allah revealed to Mohammed the atonement for breaking them. Afterwards he said, "If I make a pledge and later discover a more worthy pledge, then I will take the better action and make amends for my earlier promise."
When deception advances Islam, the deception is not a sin.
Bukhari 5,59,369 Mohammed asked, "Who will kill Ka'b, the enemy of Allah and Moham-med?"
Bin Maslama rose and responded, "O Mohammed! Would it please you if I killed him?"
Mohammed answered, "Yes."
Bin Maslama then said, "Give me permission to deceive him with lies so that my plot will succeed."
Mohammed replied, "You may speak falsely to him."
Ali was raised by Mohammed from the age of ten and became the fourth caliph. Ali pronounced the following on lies and deception.
Bukhari 9,84,64 When I relate to you the words of Mohammed, by Allah, I would rather die than bear false witness to his teachings. However, if I should say something unrelated to the prophet, then it might very well be a lie so that I might deceive my enemy. Without question, I heard Mohammed say, "In the final days before Redemption there will emerge groups of foolish youths who will say all the right things but their faith will go no further than their mouths and will flee from their religion like an arrow. So, kill the apostates wherever you find them, because whoever does so will be rewarded on Judgment Day."
Deceit is part of Islamic war against the kafirs.
Bukhari 4,52,267 Mohammed: "The king of Persia will be destroyed, and no one shall assume his throne. Caesar will certainly be destroyed and no Caesar will follow him; his coffers will be spent in Allah's cause [jihad]." Mohammed cried out, "Jihad is deceit."
Deceit in war, the community and marriage:
Muslim 032,6303 According to Mohammed, someone who strives to promote harmony amongst the faithful and says or conveys good things is not a liar. Ibn Shihab said that he had heard only three exceptions to the rules governing false statements: lies are permissible in war, to reconcile differences between the faithful, and to reconcile a husband and wife through the manipulation or twisting of words.

TAQIYYA
The name for deception that advances Islam is taqiyya (safeguard, concealment, piety). But a Muslim must never lie to another Muslim. A lie should never be told unless there is no other way to accomplish the task. Kitman is a form of deceit that consists of not telling the whole truth.

Here are two examples of sacred deceit, taqiyya. They are taken from Ishaq (the Sira, Mohammed's biography):
Ishaq 224 A member of the Abyssinian royalty, called the Negus, became convinced of the truth of Islam. He was accused by the Christians of leaving his religion. The Negus wrote on a piece of paper, "There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet. Jesus was a Muslim, born of Mary, conceived without a father." He then pinned the statement under his shirt over his heart. When the other Abyssinians accused the Negus of leaving Christianity and they said, "Jesus was the Son of God." The Negus placed his hand over his heart (and the paper with the statement) and told the Christians, "I testify that Jesus was no more than this." The Christians took him at his word and left him. When Mohammed heard this, he prayed for the Negus when he died.
Ishaq 771 After the conquest of the Jews at Khaybar, al Hajjaj asked Mohammed if he could go to Mecca and get money owed to him by merchants there. He told Mohammed that he would have to tell lies in order to get his money. Mohammed told him to tell the lies.
There is a special case of deception mentioned in the Koran. It is acceptable to be deceptive about Islam as long as there is belief in the heart.
16:106 Those who disbelieve in Allah after having believed [became apostates], who open their hearts to disbelief, will feel the wrath of Allah and will have a terrible punishment--except there is no punishment for anyone who is compelled by force to deny Allah in words, but whose heart is faithful .

This material is not all of the doctrine on deceit, but it is enough to make the case that deceit is part of Islamic ethics.

THE GOLDEN RULE
Most kafir ethical systems are based upon some version of "treat others as you wish to be treated". Fundamental to this concept is that humanity is seen as equal. The Declaration of Independence and democracy are all based upon the Golden Rule. Slavery was ended on the principle of the equality of humanity before the law.

We don't always live up to the Golden Rule, but the it furnishes the basis for judging what is unfair and then correcting it. Those who treat others badly can be condemned and corrected by the Golden Rule. We may not always follow the Golden Rule, but we agree that it is our central ethical principle.

The underlying basis of the Golden Rule is the concept of "others". "Others" means each and every human being is included in its application. The Golden Rule is universal and is a unitary ethic. There is one rule for everybody. Islam explicitly denies the truth of the Golden Rule by the concept of the kafir. This makes it a dualistic system.

SUMMARY
A Muslim has the option of lying to a kafir. Mohammed repeatedly told Muslims to use deception when it would advance Islam.
Bill Warner
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