CLAIM: "Islam is NOT a religion of peace"
In his devilish desperation to slander Islam, I once read an article in which a Christian missionary put forward the claim that since the Arabic word sullam means "ladder" or "stairs", and it comes from the same S-L-M root as the word Islam, then this latter word doesn't mean, or isn't related to, "peace". Of all the faulty claims about the word Islam (often grossly pronounced "iz-lum", rather than "is-laaam", by many obviously language-challenged 'mericans) that I've heard in recent years, this one probably represents the most depraved and illogical. Without letting the fact (which any Arabic dictionary will tell you) that salam is indeed the word for "peace" in the Arabic language, this false da'wah desperado issued a claim that just a little honest research would have done away with. This is because the Arabic verb salima/sulima, meaning "be safe" or "be secure", is also based on the same S-L-M root. Thus it shouldn't take much to realize that the essential meaning of sullam is a "way to safety" or "implementation of security" (which is the function that ladders and stairs often perform). Please make some sincere du'a that we have more time to deal with these types of distortions and slanders, since there sure are a lot more where this one came from. As I often say: If Islam is just made up of a bunch of baseless claims and farfetched beliefs, then why do they have to lie about it so much?
Anyway, what got me started on this topic is the fact that my friend Shibli Zaman recently wrote an excellent response to some incorrect claims regarding the Arabic word Islam. Unfortunately, even some Muslims are misinformed about some of the deeper etymological meanings of this word, which Brother Shibli readily demonstrates with some excellent examples from one of the most authoritative classical references on the Arabic language. Insha'llah, we look forward to more quality responses from Sidi Shibli Zaman as soon as he gets his NESSIA website back up and running. In case you missed the first link, his entire article can be found here [in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format].
posted by @ 12:37 AM
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Thank you for that explanation of the S-L-M missunderstanding. That makes sense. I wonder if the person that made this erronious comment about the true meaning of the word Islam was lying (meaning, he knew better) or was just ignorant? I would be interested to know who this missionary was that you site.
Although many of the incorrect statements that are made about Islam are seemingly based on ignorance, in the case which I mentioned the person making the statement was well informed enough that there's no excuse for him making such incorrect statements. At a minimum, he's guilty of gross negligence for not checking in more detail the very same sources that he claimed support his flimsy case. Since it's rather difficult, if not impossible, to prove that these false statements were made intentionally (since we can't see inside his heart), my only goal was to show that they were incorrect. When it comes to Christian missionaries, even though there probably is some intentional lying going on in regards to Islam, I tend to blame it on a combination of desperation and being blinded by misguided zeal. However, this zeal no doubt leads them to use very deceptive and dishonest methods of spreading their message.
As far as the Christian that I chose to cite (not site), I've tried to find the original source for it but I've been unable to. Unfortunately, I can't recall if it was from an article on the web or a newsgroup posting. I checked a website that used to carry articles by the author I thought wrote the article, but unfortunately all of his articles have been removed (at least they're no longer indexed). However, during my searches I happened to come across another article by a Christian apologist that says essentially the same things that I mentioned in this post--and even more. Not only is the same shoddy reasoning employed to support the claim that the word "Islam" is not in any way related to "peace", but at least one statement is made that can objectively be proven to be factually incorrect. Based on my years of dealing with these anti-Muslim mudslingers, I have to say that's about par for the course. A new and expanded posting on the subject of the Arabic word "Islam" will be forthcoming, insha'llah.
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