Through Force or Faith? — Page 272
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 272 Therefore: اَمَّنِا ُرْمَخْلا َو ُرِسْيَمْلا َو ُباَصْنَاْلا َو ُماَلْزَاْلا ٌسْجِر ْنِّم ِلَمَع ِنٰطْيَّشلا ُهْوُبِنَتْجاَف ْمُكَّلَعَل َنْوُحِلْفُت Intoxicants and games of chance and idols and divining arrows are only an abomination of Satan’s handiwork. So shun each one of them that you may prosper ( S u rah al-M a ’idah, 5:91). That is, do not drink, be it in small or large quantity. In real world experience, excellence of Islamic teachings is self-evident. In Christian countries, where drinking is permitted, many people are unable to restrict themselves to a few drinks and become alcohol- ics. Thus not only they become a financial burden on society, they also cause many other ills. There are innumerable alcoholics who are involved in child and spouse abuse while drunk. Every year there are countless accidents and deaths caused by alcoholism. We have already discussed racial discrimination based on social teachings, as the Bible has given preference to the Jews over others, and Jesus and his disciples perpetuated that differential treatment. But more painful is the fact that the Bible has also discriminated against disabled persons from becoming priests, so that ‘no man who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his God. For any man who has a defect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has marred face or any limb too long, a man who has a broken foot or any limb, or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has defect in his eye, or eczema or scab, or is eunuch’ (Leviticus 21:16–24). In Islam, however, there is no restriction on any disabled person to perform any religious ceremony unless the disability becomes a hindrance in the performance of the ritual.