Does the Quran command Muslims to kill others?

Question

I have heard many different things. I have read verses from the Quran that clearly command followers to kill "non-believers" listing Christians and Jews as an example. However, I also know that the majority of Muslims do not agree with killing people, regardless of their faith. I would like specific verses from the Quran backing up your answers. If it does say to kill, do most Muslims just ignore that part of the Quran or how does it work? Are there newer writings that teach against violence and if so where? I am not trying to be judgemental, I truly want to know the answer.

Additional Details

With regards to the Christian Bible, the Old Testament preaches justice and there are some verses that can be interpreted as violent, but the underlying commandment is always "Thou shalt not kill." In the New Testament it states that Christians are to love everyone and teaches nothing but love and peace. That's kind of what I was looking for.
I have read Quran verses supporting killing non Muslims and other parts preaching only peace. Is there any part where one overrides the other?

Just for the record...
I oppose war unless absolutely necessary. The current war by Americans is in no way absolutely necessary by my definition. Idealy, nobody should kill. However, I can make a pretty good argument for why it would be stupid to expect the citizens of the countries the US is invading to sit and smile while their towns are blown up. I do not criticize them for that. I think all killing is wrong but it's also stupid to not defend your country when it is being invaded. The killing I am talking about is the 9/11 attack and that type of thing, killing innocent civilians without reason (or good reason I guess).

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

No -it clearly states its forbidden

A. From the Qur'an

1. "…We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul - unless for a soul[1] or for corruption [done] in the land[2] - it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And, whoever saves one, it is as if he had saved mankind entirely." [Qur'an, 5:32]

This verse establishes the sanctity of life.

2. "…And do not kill the soul[3] which Allah has forbidden except by right…" [Qur'an, 6:151]

3. "And do not kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except by right. And whoever is killed unjustly, We have given his heir authority[4] but let him not exceed limits in [the matter of] taking life. Indeed, he has been supported [by the law]. " [Qur'an, 17:33].

4. "And [the believers are] those who do not invoke any deity with Allah, nor kill the soul which Allah has forbidden except by right, nor commit zina[5]." [Qur'an, 25:68]

This verse conveys the heinousness of unjustifiably taking a human life, and indicates that wrongful murder is close in enormity to shirk[6] and zina.

5. "And fight, in the path of Allah, those who fight you…" [Qur'an, 2:190]

This verse indicates that only those involved in combat are to be fought, which excludes non-combatants such as women, children and civilians; a regulation detailed further by narrations from the Sunnah, as mentioned in the following section.

6. "Among mankind is he whose speech impresses you in worldly life, and he calls Allah to witness as to what is in his heart, yet he is the fiercest of opponents. And, when he goes away, he strives throughout the land to cause corruption therein, and to destroy crops[7] and lives[8]. And Allah does not love corruption." [Qur'an, 2:204-5]

These verses indicate that wanton destruction and indiscriminate killing are tantamount to working mischief /corruption upon earth.



B. From the Sunnah

Warning Against Causing Suffering Even To Animals

1. "A woman entered the Fire on account of a cat, which she tied up, neither feeding it, nor letting it eat [for itself] from the vermin of the earth, until it died, and as a result she entered the Fire [of Hell]."[9]

2. "Do not take something with a soul as a target."[10]

Another version says, "Ibn `Umar passed by some youths of Quraysh who had set up a bird and were shooting at it, giving any arrows which missed to the owner of the bird. Thereupon, Ibn `Umar said, "Allah curses the one who does this. Verily, the Messenger of Allah cursed the one who takes something with a soul as a target."[11]

Another version says, "The Messenger of Allah forbade taking something with a soul as a target."[12]

Another version says, "Allah curses the one who takes something with a soul as a target."[13]



Warning Against Wrongfully Taking Life.

3. "A Muslim remains in latitude concerning his religion as long as he does not take a life."[14]

4. "Avoid the seven ruinous [sins] … associating partners with Allah, sorcery, unrightfully taking life which Allah has prohibited, consuming riba, consuming the property of an orphan, fleeing on the day of marching [in battle], and accusing a chaste, oblivious believing woman of adultery."[15]



Specific Narrations Regulating Killing During War

5. Ribah ibn al-Rabi` al-Tamimi says, "We were with the Messenger of Allah in a battle. He saw people gathered, and then he saw a slain woman, whereupon he said, "This [woman] was not fighting!""[16]

Another version adds, "Thereupon, the Prophet objected to the killing of women and children."[17]

Another adds, "Catch up with Khalid and tell him: The Messenger of Allah commands you not to kill [women and] children, nor hired workers."[18]

6. Ibn `Abbas says: The Messenger of Allah, when dispatching his troops, would tell them, "….Do not behave treacherously, nor misappropriate war-booty, nor mutilate [those whom you kill], nor kill children, nor the people in cloisters."[19]

Another version contains, "…Do not kill a decrepit old man, nor a child, nor a youngster, nor a woman…"[20]

Another contains, "…Do not kill a woman, nor a child, nor an old, aged man…"[21]

Another contains, "Do not kill a child, nor a woman, nor an old man, nor obliterate a stream, nor cut a tree…"[22]

Source(s):

http://frodo.marshall.edu/~laher1/Terror…

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks.

Answer 2

Allah does not forbid you respecting those who have not made war against you on account of your religion, and have not driven you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness and deal with them justly; surely Allah loves the doers of justice." (Qur'an 60:8)

"It may be that Allah will bring about friendship between you and those whom you hold to be your enemies among them; and Allah is Powerful; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."
(Qur'an 60:7)

Answer 3

At the end of the day, its their holy book, so they will follow its dictates as the literal word of God. They would not feel obliged to tell Christians that, however.

Source(s):

The worst of it, is that you Craaaazy Americans are just about to put one of them in the white house. If so, you will be conquered from within.

Answer 4

Hello,

If you don't read Arabic you can't understand the Qu'ran.
For example the word "Christian" is never mentioned.
There are many mistranslations.

Read the sura 49 verse 13 and you can see that for the muslims all humanity are brothers and sisters.

Read the sura 2 verse 190 and you can see that God hates attackers.

There is a lot of lies about Islam for political and ideological reasons.

The only council that I can give you is to get information and seek the knowledge.

But if you want to know more about the Zionism click on this link :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N27-oKimf58

P.S. : Sorry for my eventual faults but English is not my mother tongue.

Answer 5

my history teacher said that its a very small group of muslims that believe in some other thing that was written after the koran. they're a small group that doesn't represent what most muslims believe.

Answer 6

History contains the answer to your question,
http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/11/t… which is Yes, the Quran and Muhammed spread Islam by the sword!

Answer 7

www.islamicity.com upper left hand corner. What you want is in there but you have to read it for yourself . Do not let others inform you. Just read it and make your own decision.

Answer 8

well Muslims are following their religion ,if they are killing ,it means there must be written some where. this type of topic must be discuss between them.any way they are Muslims.we have nothing to say about no body.thanks.

Answer 9

Yes it does. However, so does the bible and most other holy texts from that time. It's just a great way to eliminate the "non-believers".

Answer 10

ive heard a preaching out of a book (not sure if its quran) by some muslim preist saying they have to kill the jews brutally and conquer the hindus

Answer 11

WoW! Thanks for asking this Q! And thanks to the Muslims who have given such really clear answers! Many of the Q's and answers here are 7th grade mud slinging. But this goes a long way toward restoring my belief in this site!

Answer 12

ok watever religon u r THIS IS ALWAYS GANNA BE THE RIGHT ANSWER NOT MATTER WHAT U BELEIVE IN
no one has the right to kill anyone no matter what ..IT DOESNT WWAT RACE OR WHAT RELIGION

Answer 13

No. it is a white lie of Christian priests and their followers.

Athiest of Mecca persecuted Mohammad and his followers for 13 years in Mecca. They forced them to leave their birth city, occupied their houses and possession. Athiests waged three wars against Muslims and met defeat each time. Then they signed a peace treaty with Muslims, but didn't allow them to perform Haj that year. Then they violated the peace treaty by killing a Muslim in Mecca.
Muslims had patience with Athiests for 20+ years, Finally Allah commanded Muslims in Surah 9 to kill ONLY Athiest of Mecca wherever you find them in Arabia. This command was not for killing Christians and Jews and any other people any where It was for that time only and not to be used in future. God gave them 4 months time to either accept Islam, or leave Arabian peninsula from the Holy lands or get killed after four months of this announcement expires. By this time majority of their fighters and leaders were already killed, majority of Arabs had converted as Muslims, their backs were borken, they had no courage to fight Muslims because Mohammad had become very powerful for tens of thousands converted Muslims ready to give their lives on command of Allah or His Messenger.

The announcement of Surah 9 was read by the son-inLaw of Prophet Mohammad in Mecca during Haj and none of the
Athiests had courage to stop him or kill him. He was there with one hundred or so unarmed Muslims arrived for Haj.
Muslims didn't need to kill any one. Within these four months entire Arabs of Arabia accepted Islam when Prophet went to Mecca with 10,000 armed soldiers. He destroyed all idols placed inside Kaaba which was built by first man Adam as first house of Allah for worshipping God as Monotheistic religion as Allah commanded.
Mohammad SAW entered in Mecca as victorious but his head was down in humbleness (not high as arrogant victorious leaders always do) and announced general amnesty with forgiveness of their past crimes against Muslims to all people of Mecca.

Christians often use commands of Allah in this Surah out of context for false propaganda against Islam without any shame of lying at all.

Quran is Gods words. No one can change, delete or alter even a word in it. These were given to the Last Prophet of God. No any Prophet will come until the end of this world.
No new writing can be added in it.

Scholars of Islam do write new books on current affairs.
Islam does not teach violance. Islam allows to fight to defend their country and their religion. That is not violence. And no any war can be fought without violence. If you expecy Muslims do nothing on American occupation, then it is your wrong thinking. Every country will fight back against the occupiers and so are doing the Muslims today.

No one can say not to fight and occpy their country their country also. It doesn't work that way any where in this world.

I have explained the purpose of commands of Surah # 9 many times before. How long we continue explaining this.

This time I have saved this in my hard drive. In future I will just copy and paste as my answer. I know you people will never stop raising the same question.

Answer 14

Islam DOES NOT command muslims to kill others, u say that you have read verses from the quran that clearly command followers to kill non-believers, it is true, but there is a huge misunderstanding, it is not your fault as you may have read the exact part of the "kill the non-believers" regardless to the rest of the concept, what i mean is, Islam commanded muslims to kill the non-believers under a CERTAIN CONDITION, when the non-believers fight muslims and threaten their peace, what you see nowadays from some Islam pretenders who have what you call islamic appearance;the way of dress, beard...etc. islam is against those people who kill innocents, and they will be punished by god in islam, i've read all the quran and i challenge anyone to show me in any part of it that islam simply commanded muslims to kill non-believers without any explanation or certain condition "which was mentioned above", actually in contrast, many verses in quran commanded muslims to treat non-muslims with respect and if they lived in islamic countries they shall gain protection and peace, if you have a quran around you, you can make sure yourself, in they state of war, islam has forbidden muslims to cut a tree, or to kill a child or a woman or an old man, or anyone who is in his house and not involved in the war, open the quran (surah no.2 verse no.190) which clearly commands muslim to fight ONLY those who attacked or killed the muslims, and it clearly forbids muslims from making mess and killing innocents or cutting trees or destroying the homes of innocents...etc. and says that god hates who does that...you can read it in the quran...i challenge anyone to find any verse in the quran whose meaning is contradictory to this verse..and you can read the quran from the beginning to the end..if u found that..i will convert to christianity TODAY

Source(s):

quran (surah no.2 verse no.190)
quran (surah no.59 verse no.5)

Answer 15

Good Muslims Kill:
"Muhammad has bereaved us and killed our best men. So help us defend ourselves against him and perhaps we will obtain vengeance for those he has slain."

Unable to give Muslims a reason to live, Muhammad gave them a reason to die. Bukhari:V4B52N72 "The Prophet said, 'Nobody who enters Paradise likes to go back to the world even if he got everything on the earth, except a Mujahid [Islamic fighter] who wishes to return so that he may be martyred ten times because of the dignity he receives.' Our Prophet told us about the message of Allah: 'Whoever among us is killed will go to Paradise.' Umar asked the Prophet, 'Is it not true that our men who are killed will go to Paradise and those of the Pagan's will go to Hell?' The Prophet said, 'Yes.'" Bukhari:V4B52N73 "Allah's Apostle said, 'Know that Paradise is under the shade of swords.'"

Too many to list here.
more:

So for Islam the ethical statements are:

Do not kill another Muslim.

Do not steal from another Muslim.

Do not deceive another Muslim.

Islam divides the entire world into Islam and nonbelievers and has two sets of ethics, one for Islam and another for the rest. The Golden Rule has the equality of all humanity as its basis. It is not: Do unto some people, as you would have them do unto you, but do unto all people as you would have them do unto you.

Islam denies the universality of the Golden Rule because Islam starts with the division of the entire world, all humanity, into two different groups—Islamic and non-Islamic. Every aspect of Islamic ethics is based upon this separation. Having two distinct groups leads to two different ethical codes. Said another way, Islam has dualistic ethics.

Deceit, violence and force are optional actions against the unbelievers. Believers are to be treated as brothers and sisters. Islam’s ethics are based upon:

Good is whatever advances Islam.

Evil is whatever resists Islam.
http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage…

Source(s):

http://prophetofdoom.net/