Let me be clear from the outset. I have nothing against Allah. I am as much or as little a creation of Allah as anything else in this universe. If Allah has anything against me, He can act directly without any self-appointed intermediaries.
It is these intermediaries that I have an issue with. They are called Jihadis, wagers of the holy war. In this war, they ignore even precepts from their own Sunnah, namely, when fighting to spare women, children and the aged.
As the blog banner says, (and this I learned on turcopolier.typepad.com), the Jihadis refer to India as the House of the Spider. The reference is to the Quran, specifically Sura 29, verse 41, for which the University of Southern California has kindly given us the following three leading English translations:
029.041
YUSUFALI: The parable of those who take protectors other than Allah is that of the spider, who builds (to itself) a house; but truly the flimsiest of houses is the spider's house;- if they but knew.
PICKTHAL: The likeness of those who choose other patrons than Allah is as the likeness of the spider when she taketh unto herself a house, and lo! the frailest of all houses is the spider's house, if they but knew.
SHAKIR: The parable of those who take guardians besides Allah is as the parable of the spider that makes for itself a house; and most surely the frailest of the houses is the spider's house did they but know.
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If thinking was their forte, they would realize that the spider too, is under Allah's protection. Little did they but know....
Anyway, this is one voice from the House of the Spider, and it is here to recount the amazing resilience of that house in the face of a Jihad that has gone on for a thousand two hundred years. Of how that Jihad has wreaked untold havoc and destruction yet never breached the innner joy and tranquility of its victims. And how the remnants rise again, unquenchable and shall ultimately prevail.
