Sometime in early 1970s I watched the Shakespeare play
Richard III in a theatre in his home town of
Stratford upon Avon. At the very opening, a character walked
on the stage and facing the audience said, "I have chosen to be the
villain." I was shocked. It was beyond my comprehension that someone would
voluntarily choose to be a villain. Now I know better.
Urdu translations of the Holy Quran I read in my childhood
had marginal notes telling about the
circumstances in which verses were revealed or the incidents
to which they referred. It created Awareness of Circumstantial implications of
the Quranic injunctions. It was understood that you cannot pick a line from the
Quran in isolation and assume it to be a universal statement. If you quote the
Quran you should quote the whole passage with the background and explanations.
The verse "kill in the path of Allah" has been used by
opponents of Islam to propagate that Islam preaches violence and even some
misguided Muslims believe that killing the opponents of Islam leads to the path
of divine glory. That is a totally wrong impression and a sure way to lose the
path of Allah.
The verse was revealed in a situation when Muslims, led by
Prophet Muhammad, were travelling towards Makkah to perform a pilgrimage and were
stopped by the infidels. It should be noted that the companions of the Prophet
were restrained from violence and bloodshed unless allowed by him after
receiving a divine revelation. As it happened on that occasion, nobody got
killed as a peace formula was found. In
fact, even today all Muslims are restrained from violence and bloodshed unless
faced with a situation similar to one for which the exception was made by the
Prophet under divine guidance.
Unfortunately many translations of the Holy Quran, especially
those in English now in circulation give the literal meaning of the verses
without the necessary explanation leaving the reader to draw his own
conclusions. Even worse is the case of Islamic madrassas and other organizations
established mainly for financial considerations teach their students Arabic
language so that they can understand what the Quran says literally without
knowing the background and the historical significance of the texts. Not surprisingly,
a lot of people are being led astray.
