Tim Haile of the Parkway church of Christ has done extensive study on Islam and the teachings of the Quran, particularly in regards to carnal warfare in the name of Islam. He has recently recorded two audio lessons about the development of teachings about fighting in the Muslim holy book.
In the lessons, he explains how a consideration of the Quran’s chapters in chronological order, rather than the order in which they have been arranged, shows how Mohammed’s teachings progressed. The progression occurred in four stages: advocating peace, allowing defensive fighting, requiring defensive fighting, and finally, requiring offensive fighting.
Why is it important to understand this progression? The Quran teaches the doctrine of abrogation. This simply means that if there is a conflict between two passages, the earlier passage can be disregarded because Allah (allegedly) replaced it with the later passage. Those who interpret the Quran literally are bound to the final teaching regarding their relationship to unbelievers. They are expected to fight them, hence the reason we see so many Muslims committing acts of terrorism and war in the name of their religion.
If you would like to hear these lessons, here are the links to the audio files.
The Development of Fighting in the Quran – Part 1, Part 2
These files are hosted on the website of the Parkway church of Christ. You can click on a link to listen, or right-click to download the file to your computer. Each part is a little over 30 minutes long.
