On fire

[ by Charles Cameron — there’s rather more going on in the burning of the Jordanian pilot than I can handle — here are some of today’s relevant highlights ]

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I’ll start and close with JM Berger, who has two of the wisest contextual comments of the day to offer us:

ISIS is so eager to turn back the clock that they sped past khawarij to jahiliyya.

— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) February 4, 2015

That’s the context as I see it, though you’ll note that Tim Furnish differs, later in this post.

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Two tweets give us Qur’anic justification for and against the use of fire in punishment:

The justification for burning Moaath is taken from Surat An-Nahl according to Minbr al-Taheed wl Jihad users. pic.twitter.com/pgvWGm9PLg

— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) February 3, 2015

and:

The Qur'an curses those who burned Christians alive (85:1-7). Can't imagine its author would be jazzed about doing same to Muslims.

— Will McCants (@will_mccants) February 3, 2015

The Quranic verse Zaid Benjamin quotes is given in English in his tweet. The first seven verses of Sura 85, quoted by Will McCants, read in the Arberry translation:

By heaven of the constellations, by the promised day, by the witness and the witnessed, slain were the Men of the Pit, the fire abounding in fuel, when they were seated over it and were themselves witnesses of what they did with the believers.

I would really like to see a detailed scholarly post commenting on McCants’ reading of Qur’an 85.1-7, with or without notes on related ahadith and tafsir.

**

Two tweets offer ahadith related to the case:

@ground_glass Here… @will_mccants pic.twitter.com/3eyRhQfa4E

— Hameed (@SheikhThingsUp) February 3, 2015

and:

@SheikhThingsUp and yet this hadith exists as well. are they not contradictory? @will_mccants pic.twitter.com/hvFi2iB0On

— Christopher Dawson (@ground_glass) February 3, 2015

**

Two from Tim Furnish:

#ISIS cites ISLAMIC doctrine of shifa' al-sudur ("retribution") & #IbnTaymiyya on bodily desecration–so once again Islamic norms followed.

— Timothy Furnish, PhD (@Occidentaljihad) February 4, 2015

and:

"#ISIS & #Islamic #Immolation:" my analysis of the brutal burning of the Jordanian pilot; http://t.co/qCGXc00Jwe

— Timothy Furnish, PhD (@Occidentaljihad) February 4, 2015

Here is Tim Furnish’s commentary, from MahdiWatch:

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