AB Sulaiman's response in Morality laws and three questions amply illustrates the need for discourse on Islam to be undertaken only by the ulama and by those who are knowledgeable about Islam. If one cannot comprehend the Islamic worldview one can go on debating till Kingdom comes and arrive at nowhere; and such time can be well spent doing dhikir.
As for those who worship the intellect above anything else it would be best for them to pay heed to the caution given by Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, where he says:
"Because in our culture we overvalue the intellect, we would imagine that to become enlightened demands extraordinary intelligence. In fact many kinds of cleverness are just further obscurations. There is a Tibetan saying that goes, 'If you are too clever, you could miss the point entirely'. Patrul Rinpoche said: 'The logical mind seems interesting, but it is the seed of delusion'. People can become obsessed with their own theories and miss the point of everything'."
It would do us well who are obsessed with 'first class' minds to reflect on this and perhaps be obsessed with creating ethical citizens. Sulaiman had ended is piece with three posers for me, and I would deal with them bearing in mind that Sulaiman's interpretations are simplistic and obvious distortions.
- Modern warfare cannot in any way be considered Islamic. To have an understanding on what is Islam's view of war, the interpretation of the verse and to understand Islam's contribution to international law, those with sincere interest can read CG Weeramantry's Islamic Jurisprudence An International Perspective . Surah 8.41 establishes the rule of just distribution of war spoils and that the practice of invaders handing out contracts to cronies is against Islamic tenets.
