Re: The concept of being Stoned to Death
USResident, when there are no easy-to-understand rules to follow on such important issues such as this concept of stoning, it makes it almost irrelevant that one of the doctrines you follow is the unaltered word of God. If people are still stoning adulterers at this point in our history, there is an interpretation issue that wouldn't exist if the word of God was enough for us to follow. At least with the Christianity, if they want to follow the fundamentalist view of their religion they don't have to cross reference several books. If we are to claim some authenticity superiority over Christianity because our book is perfect, then we lose that distinction when we start mixing in other books by other people.
If we can't understand God's word minimal direction from others, we are making it too hard. The challenges he presents us are enough to contend without having to cross reference what 5 different people said about something that someone else said that someone else said. That leaves way too much to interpretation. Posts such as these illustrate my point
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Besides what is the scholars take on it? They are best equipped to deal with questions like this, to my understanding rajm is declared islamic hudd under all muslim doctrines, including four imams. So i dont deem myself educated enough to contradict with them without any solid reason just because there not an ayat stating about rajm. As i said to someone earlier
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How educated does someone have to be to know if stoning is God's prescribed punishment for adultery? If 1400 years have passed and this basic question still cannot be answered definitively, then evidently even educated Muslims are unable to answer this question. Why would God make his last message so hard to understand and implement?
IMHO if you are close to God and try to be a spiritual person, you know the answer to this issue and if the Quran "covers the very fundamentals needed to be a muslim in the eyes of Allah SWT", then surely we all do.