A careful study of the Quran raises the question: is it a violent text? This question is of crucial importance today, given recent events. This article attempts to explore the issue in great detail, without ever straying from Arberry's standard translation of the classic text of the Islamic religion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Quran divides humanity into believers and unbelievers. Believers believe in the divinity of his Revelation. Unbelievers don't. God commands the believers to say to the unbelievers: What you serve I do not serve, Nor do you serve what I serve, Neither do I serve what you served, Neither do you serve that that I serve. (CIX) As a reward for serving this true God, believers will be admitted “into gardens under which rivers flow.” For unbelievers, awaits “the fiery furnace” of Gehenna, where they will burn for all eternity, even if they “cry: Our Lord, bring us out, and we will do justice other than what we have done ". “To this supplication, God replied: “What, have We not given you a long life, enough to remember you for the one who remembers? The warning has come to you, so taste it now! (XXXV, 34-35). Believers therefore believe in a God who will have absolutely no mercy on unbelievers. In fact, their one and only God seems to take sadistic pleasure in facing damnation and fire, even going so far as to taunt unbelievers with their plight ("so taste yourself now!"). If believers were to apply this cruel aspect of God's character as a model for how they should treat unbelievers in this present life on earth, it is no exaggeration to say that the most horrible barbarity would ensue. A compassionate God shows no compassion for the souls of unbelievers; how should one expect one's believers to respect their lives? In a world which is “only a game and an entertainment (XLVII, 38)”, would not unbelievers necessarily become, in the eyes of believers, the consumable fuel of a sacred fire here on earth? the Quran seems to answer this question with a categorical no. God alone is the final judge. All that remains for believers is to worship him and be patient. They should “seek not to rush it for [unbelievers],” “this” being the Day of Resurrection (XLVI, 34), because “God will be sufficient for you” (II, 132). Believers are commanded to “let them eat and take their joy and wander in hope,” for “they will surely know soon!” ​​(XV, 2-3); “Leave them alone to dive and play until they meet the day promised to them” (LXX 41). Putting aside for the moment the obnoxious condescension of the attitude believers should have, and reading these and similar passages as strict precepts, the Qur'an appears to make a relatively clear distinction between what God will ultimately do to unbelievers and how believers should do so. Deal with them in the meantime. Indeed, if peace is possible, as a general rule, believers have an obligation to attempt it. “If they [the unbelievers] incline toward peace,” it is written in “The Spoils,” a surah that deals primarily with the subject of war, “incline toward it” (VIII, 63), for “God n I don't like peace. aggressors” (II, 187). “If they withdraw from you, do not fight you and do not offer you peace, then God gives you no means against them” (IV, 93). This language of peace, however, is weakening. God tends to command non-aggression with hesitation –rather by recommending it than by requiring it. God “does not love aggressors,” but He does not hate them as He hates unbelievers. And although He "appoints no means against them for you," at no point in the entire text of the Qur'an is aggression against unbelievers expressly forbidden; at best, it's not allowed. The very mention of real kindness toward unbelievers highlights how little God cares about believers who choose to act in the most wicked ways: "God does not forbid you from those who have not fought for the cause of religion, nor expelled you from your habitations, that you be good to them, and act justly towards them; certainly, God loves the righteous. » (LX, 9) God does not oblige his believers to “be kind to them and act justly towards them”, he is content to “not forbid you”. Not being forbidden to do something is far from being obliged to do it. Kindness and justice toward unbelievers become optional; the believer who chooses to forsake goodness and righteousness has done nothing wrong here. He simply exercised his implied second option. This second option must be qualified, by a simple process of elimination, as cruelty. On the other hand, the passage above serves to define specific conditions for retaliation, thereby establishing specific conditions for peace. War is here a determinable state of affairs and not an unqualified justification for massacre. Unbelievers must first choose to fight “for the cause of religion” or “expel you from your homes” for the rules of war to apply. Indeed, it is the passages dealing with war that most clearly teach readers how to stab and kill. Believers are commanded to fight only with those who “fight God and His Messenger.” As for them, they must be “massacred, or crucified, or else their hands and feet will be cut off alternately, or else they will be banished from the country. It is a degradation for them in this world” (V, 37). If a believer dies trying to massacre, crucify or disfigure an unbelieving aggressor, “to God you will be gathered” (III, 151); Heaven is the reward for those who fight in the way of God. If a believer “turns his back on them on that day... he is burdened with the burden of God's wrath” (VIII, 16); hell is the punishment for giving up the fight, once it has started. God greatly encourages fierce combat: “Fight against unbelievers completely as they fight against you completely” (IX, 36). And he rewards his soldiers with superhuman power, inspiring them to fight in the face of overwhelming odds: “If there are twenty of you, patient men, they will defeat two hundred” (VIII, 66). Once the unbelievers are defeated, the victor is forbidden to mourn them: “never pray for any of them when he is dead, and do not stand near his grave” (IX, 85). Yet, assuming that the distinction is true between peace and war, one could argue with some consistency that the Qur'an preaches a modicum of compassion for people who disagree with its precepts. But the Quran distinguishes between war and peace only in the vagueest political terms: ... Announce to the unbelievers a painful punishment; against you. With them, fulfill your alliance to its end; Indeed, God loves those who fear God. Then, when the sacred months are far away, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and shut them up, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. Peace here is clearly defined as that period of time during which a pact (or treaty, in modern terms) applies. War is everything else. In other words, unless believers.