Through Force or Faith? — Page 4
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 4 with this reference on his own. ) He further says that the Kaiser came to the fundamental question of his interlocutor in startling brusqueness, and then said, ‘What does faith have to do with coercion?’ He then proceeded to say, ‘Show me what is new that Muhammad s as brought. You have received only evil and inhu- mane teachings. After that, he taught that the message he brought should be spread with sword’. إنا هلل [ Inn a lill a h ] 1. After stating this he says that the Kaiser explains in detail why it is against reason to spread religion with force. This teaching is in conflict with the Divine Being and the nature of Spirit. He says that God does not like bloodshed, and that logic and deeds are in conflict with the Divine Being. Faith is the fruit of the spirit, not of the body. He further says that for the Kaiser, who was shaped by Greek philos- ophy, the aforementioned was a self-evident truth; whereas God, according to Islamic teachings, is Absolutely Transcendent. His Will is not bound up with any earthly categories, not even that of Rationality. After this, by referring to a French Islamist, a statement of Ibn H azm is quoted that, ‘Nothing would oblige Him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God’s Will, He would even have us practice idolatry’. (It is not known whether Ibn H azm even penned these words as no reference is given. ) The Pope goes on to say, ‘Is the conviction that acting unrea- sonably contradicts God’s nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the 1. Part of an Arabic phrase from the Holy Quran that is recited by Muslims to express their deepest pain. The full phrase translates as: ‘Surely, to Allah we belong and to Him shall we return’. [Publisher]