{"id":1378,"date":"2017-05-24T16:25:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-24T21:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=1378"},"modified":"2017-05-24T16:26:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-24T21:26:00","slug":"manchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/manchester\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester: How The Terrorist Got It All Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i>In the Name of God: The Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring&nbsp;<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/257\/2017\/05\/aa0206f4-87ed-48a7-90cf-27653c4556a0-17347-00001cf5ac820d97.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/257\/2017\/05\/aa0206f4-87ed-48a7-90cf-27653c4556a0-17347-00001cf5ac820d97.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1076\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1386\"><\/a><br \/>\nKids. He killed kids. And their parents. And what&#8217;s worse, the 22-year-old savage took his own life in the process. What sort of barbarism is this?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now, it is true that, as a Westerner, whenever the terror of savages hits a Western city, I have more of an emotional reaction. I can&#8217;t help this. At the same time, we must remember that the sort of savagery that we witnessed in Manchester happens almost on a daily basis in Iraq and Syria. The savages (as well as governments) kill kids there as well, and with savage impunity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>From where does this barbarism stem? Wait, I can almost hear you scream out: &#8220;The Qur&#8217;an, of course!&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Untrue. The Qur&#8217;an does not endorse terror &#8211; any terror &#8211; and it certainly does not endorse the kind of murder we saw in Manchester.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>First of all, murder is absolutely prohibited in the Qur&#8217;an:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<b>and do not kill a soul that God has made sacrosanct, save lawfully<\/b>&#8221; (6:151)<\/p>\n<p><b>&#8220;&#8230;whoso kills a soul, unless it be for murder or for wreaking corruption in the land, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and he who saves a life, it shall be as if he had given life to all mankind.&#8221;<\/b> (5:53)<\/p>\n<p>The same goes with suicide:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<b>And do not kill yourselves. Surely God is most merciful to you.<\/b>&#8221; (4:29)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<b>And do not throw yourselves into destruction.<\/b>&#8221; (2:195)<\/p>\n<p>Yet, there is more than this. These savages think that, through suicide terrorism, they can bypass this world and go straight to Paradise. How wrong they are.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This life is about hard work, about patient struggle in God&#8217;s path, and only after one lives an entire lifetime of righteousness does he get the chance to be shown Divine Mercy and enter Paradise.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is understood when reading these verses in the Qur&#8217;an:<\/p>\n<p><b>&#8220;gardens of perpetual bliss, which they shall enter together with the righteous from among their parents, their spouses, and their offspring; and the angels will come unto them from every gate [and will say]: &#8216;Peace be upon you, because you have persevered!&#8217; How excellent, then, this fulfilment in the hereafter!&#8221;<\/b> (13:23-24)<\/p>\n<p><b>&#8220;Upon those [blest] will be garments of green silk and brocade; and they will be adorned with bracelets of silver. And their Sustainer will them to drink of a drink most pure. [And they will be told:] &#8216;Verily, all this is your reward since Your endeavour [in life] has met [God&#8217;s] goodly acceptance!'&#8221; <\/b>(76:21-22)<\/p>\n<p><i>Because you have persevered. Since your endeavor in life&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n<p>We are meant to toil on this earth. Yes, in the past, and sometimes now in the present, we may be called on to defend our homes and lives in a just war. But blowing oneself at the end of a Ariana Grande concert &#8211; where there are thousands of kids and their parents &#8211; is never, and will never, be a just war. It is unjust murder.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These savages, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/quran-violence\/\">with their sick and depraved souls<\/a>, have twisted the word of God. The question must be how could such a young soul, 22-years-old, be duped into ending his life in such an inglorious manner and murdering kids along with him? What was it about his life? Who convinced him to do such a terrible deed? I pray they are answered.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yet, one thing is clear: the Qur&#8217;an does not teach us to end our lives through suicide terrorism. Rather, it teaches us to toil, to strive, to struggle, i.e., do <i>jihad<\/i>, on this earth by living as righteous a life as possible. And then God will judge us in the end on how good a job we have done. The terrorists have got it all wrong.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Qur&#8217;an teaches us to struggle on this earth in a life of righteousness, not to end it through a savage suicide attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[475,841,536,6,316],"class_list":["post-1378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-common-word","tag-attack","tag-manchester","tag-murder","tag-quran","tag-suicide"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Manchester: How The Terrorist Got It All Wrong - Common Word, Common Lord<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manchester: How The Terrorist Got It All Wrong - Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Qur&#039;an teaches us to struggle on this earth in a life of righteousness, not to end it through a savage suicide attack.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/manchester\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-24T21:25:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-24T21:26:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/files\/2017\/05\/aa0206f4-87ed-48a7-90cf-27653c4556a0-17347-00001cf5ac820d97.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hesham A. 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Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. In 2007, his blog \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" was nominated for a Brass Crescent Award for a blog that is \u201cthe most stimulating, insightful, and philosophical, providing the best rebuttals to extremist ideology and making an impact whenever they post.\u201d \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" has also received an award for being one of the \"Top Muslim Blogs for 2010\" by Awarding The Web. In addition to writing, Dr. Hassaballa helped found the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and currently serves on their board of directors. He also co-founded the Bayan H. 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