>>40926
Heres some ways to navigate these problems
>Strengthen your Iman (faith) first
There is going to be stuff in Islam that is not going to be compatible with modern western liberalism, as Muslims we should know that what Islam tells us is right and true, not modern western liberals, we should not look at it with a western lens.
Mohammed Hijab and Hamza Tzortzis are two who I think argue these topics really well, since they are more learned on philosophy and history than a lot of scholars, so a lot of their own arguments come from philosophical logic and rationality, idk what this boards opinion of them is though, and not to knock other scholars, its just that the way traditional scholars make arguments, most non religious people would just see as 'religious jargon', and dismiss them.
So both these guys lay good foundations by trying to determine where morality lies in ideologies first, what determines morality, and is it objective. When we look at western liberalism we see its based on the principle that 'everyone should have the freedom to do what they want so long as they're not hurting anybody', Im not well read on it myself but Hijab says that this thought comes from Thomas Hobbes who's often cited as the father of modern liberalism. Ultimately this principle is flawed and limited in view, just because we can't see any direct effect of an action, doesn't mean its foolproof, many times we cannot see the greater impact on society especially through time, and what if theres harm to oneself, how much autonomy is given there? But most importantly there is no objective morality there, how do we know according to liberalism that this is right, we can't, and we see that in history too, things that once were accepted are eventually not accepted anymore, slavery in the US was once widely accepted, women couldn't vote, no gay rights, even just a decade ago transgenderism was still seen as a mental disorder, according to liberalism at some point these laws were good and right (im not saying they are or not according to Islam, just pointing out the hypocrisy with liberalism). So essentially morality is decided by public opinion or democracy, which is flawed because democracy itself is flawed, even classical Greek philosophers (where democracy started) preached about the flaws of democracy, Socrates was executed for doing so, one of the main issues that you’re giving the decision to the population where the majority of them are not specialized or skilled in interpreting whatever situation is being voted on. So essentially there is no objective morality.
With Islams rulings, you’re putting trust in your belief, that an all-knowing all-seeing creator, has sent down His immutable incorruptible word. This establishes objective morality, and that Islams rulings is timeless. Once you’ve achieved this realization, you’ll understand that there may be some things in Islam that you don’t understand the reasoning behind, but it doesn’t matter because it is true, yet this does not mean you shouldn’t question things in Islam, Islam still encourages questioning and discourse, the companions of our prophet (SAW) often asked him questions.
>Find the context
Verses from the Quran and Hadith are often taken out of context by anti-Islamic groups to make it seem like they have an argument. For example the first verse mentioned in your pic related, “slay the unbelievers wherever you find them”, is often quoted without the context, where the context is referring to an event during the prophets (SAW) time, where the non-Muslims broke a peace treaty they had with the muslims, provoking a war, and does not generally apply to Muslims now, this is not disputed by scholars and is the widely accepted interpretation. Though radical Islamic terrorist groups often do cite verses like these to justify their actions, ironically it is anti-Islamic groups and militant radical Islamic groups that usually agree on interpretations. In fact another verse of the Quran (5:32) says “whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely.”
>Understand you can only guess the reasons, Allah knows best
With reasonings in Islam, theres first, things that Allah has told us the reasons for, and second, things Allah hasn’t told us the reasons for, we can only guess, but we’ll never know for sure why. And so this is where it becomes problematic when some Muslims try to guess reasonings behind rules and justify Islamic rulings by conforming it to western ideals, because the western ideals might be wrong themselves. The fact is that there absolutely are cruel things in Islam, such as cutting off the hands of thieves, but just because something is cruel, does not negate its truth.
