No Compulsion In Religion- Threat Of Punishment
Dear brother, there is “la” right before ikrah. So what it seems to me is that the Qur’an is using the most definitive word instead of words like necessary or must and adding a negative and confirming that no one is forcing you to do anything without your will, i.e., no compulsion.
Dislike is Takrah.. not Ikrah.
Yes but the principle of language cannot be ignored
https://youtu.be/sUmSdvJddmU This video might help
This question is really interesting and can be discussed from different angles. I think the ‘no-compulsion’ stage is applicable before the judgment phase. Once judgment has been declared then it is only up to the discretion of the judge how he is going to deal with the criminal. Take an example of a psychopath serial killer. He knows very well that taking innocent lives is immoral. He still does it because he is driven by his impulse and complete lack of empathy towards his victims. He is doing the crimes purely for the sake of his own perverted gratification and doesn’t care less what ramifications such behavior would bring about if everyone else started acting such. He is well aware the harsh punishments that are there if he is caught. A close confidant of his, who knows him personally and his crimes, tries to convince him through moral arguments the unethical nature of his actions. He would argue back, “Why do I have to care about the moral standards of the society?, I am independent and just exercising my free will.” His friend would reply, “Yes of course you are free to act whatever you feel, but know that if you are caught, you will have to face punishment for your crimes.” Then a day comes when the psychopath is captured and after the due process he is convicted of the crimes he has committed and faces a death sentence. He himself admits the crimes, but is not remorseful towards his victims nor their families. He couldn’t care less about how his own life is going to end. At this stage the judge declares an additional clause that if he repents publicly showing remorse to the families of his victims and agreeing to improve his behavior, then he can avoid the death sentence but still has to serve a life sentence. The judge has a right to apply the death sentence even if he is repentant. He is just trying to use the threat of punishment to make him realize the absurdity of his hedonistic world view. It is as if the judge is trying to say, “If you don’t care about the lives of other people, then at least care about your own life.” The convict starts to think and philosophize internally: “What does it mean to be repentant? The only way I can be truly repentant is by letting go of my ego and admit the absurdity of my worldview. What if I show an outward form of repentance and save myself from the death sentence? But that would be hypocrisy. What’s wrong with hypocrisy?” All of these questions and moral dilemmas bring out one thing, we can’t escape morality. We are trapped by it by our own existence. And any moral system would dictate that there has to be consequences for moral actions, no moral system can sustain or stand on a firm foundation if it doesn’t recognize the consequence of moral actions. I think the question about the opening section of surah taubah is arising because we are not treating polytheism as a moral issue. If polytheism is a moral issue then it must have consequences. To put the above parable in a more general setting, in the larger society we are free to act as we wish. No one is going to force us to act morally. If I have the motivation and opportunity to kill, I will do it. As long as I am not caught by the law & order system, I can continue killing. As soon as I get caught and convicted, I loose my right of exercising free will in the absolute sense. I am now under the discretion of the judicial system. The judicial system can take my life as part of the retribution or allow me to live inside a correctional facility with the condition that I improve my behavior. I don’t have the right to argue with the system that they are forcing me to change my behavior with the threat of the death sentence. I have earned that sentence at the first place. You can now map the various elements of this parable to the case of the judgment that took place in 7th century Arabia.