At a glance
- Era
- The Contemporary Era
- Region
- Egypt & Nile
Contested: This record includes matters on which scholars differ. The speaker's views are labelled as his, and other views are marked where no cited source yet exists.
In time
Islam and atheism or secular thoughtPolitics, governance and authorityModern conflicts
In the Modern Islam Browser
Summary
Al-Islam fi Khandaq ("Islam in a Trench") is a book by the Egyptian writer Mostafa Mahmoud, issued in the monthly Kitab al-Yawm series of Dar Akhbar al-Yawm in Cairo, deposit number 1994/2155 4 5. Its back cover says Islam is in a trench: "terrorism besieges it on the left, secularism strikes it from the right, the ambitions of the colonial West threaten it from the front", with Arab states' weakness and division behind, and asks: "What is the outcome? What is the way out?" 3. What follows are the author's views, attributed to him.
The chapters
By the contents: The Old Love; The Name al-Latif and Its Miracle; Talk of the Hereafter; The New Religion They Call To; And the New Invaders; Muslims in a Trench; And Islam Suspended; One Hand Offers Peace, the Other on the Trigger; Decay, Cocaine and the Like; Logic Walks Upside Down; The Absent Islam; Tomorrow the Drunkenness Goes and the Thought Comes; Easier for God That His Kaaba Be Destroyed Than That One Believer Be Killed Unjustly; The Hour of Deliverance 5.
Religion as "the old love"
The author opens by saying that people take religion to be commands, prohibitions and the bounds of the lawful and unlawful, whereas religion in truth is "the old love we brought into the world and the constant longing" for our first home; the rulings and acts of worship are "details, results and consequences of this love" 1. Without that love, he says, worship "will not make a religion", and the terrorists who set off bombs have no share of religion even if they pray and fast 6. He regrets that religiosity today "has left the spirit of religiosity" as most preachers turned to "husks, details and disputed points", and calls for a return to love, mercy and broad-mindedness with opponents 7.
The hudud in a time of "widespread affliction"
The author holds that the laws exist "to order worldly affairs" and that their wisdom is to secure people's interests 8. He attributes to the jurist al-Izz ibn Abd al-Salam the view that when applying the law in a time of widespread affliction would increase wrongdoing, it is better left, and says the Prophet ﷺ did not cut off a thief's hand in war, nor Umar in the year of famine 8. On this ground he criticises those who call for amputation, stoning and flogging as a cure for present corruption: great embezzlers would escape the legal conditions for amputation while a pickpocket would lose his hand, and the legal conditions for stoning cannot be met 8 9.
The hour of deliverance
In the last chapter the author describes what he sees as a general trial of Muslims in Bosnia, India, Kashmir, Palestine and elsewhere, and calls "the Security Council and the United Nations empty shells" 10 11. He then reads al-Tawba, verse 33 and al-Isra', verse 7 as promising a full victory for the Muslims in our time, their entry into Jerusalem and the end of what Israel has built, and calls this "a historical reading of our Book that I hope is right" 11 2.
For young visitors
Mostafa Mahmoud says religion at its root is love: love of God and of what He made, earth and sky, plants, animals and people 6.
Notes for researchers
- Citations use PDF page numbers; printed page = PDF page − 2.
- The chapters read like newspaper articles in origin; where they first appeared has not yet been established.
Connections
- Authored by
- Mostafa Mahmoud
People and things also explored
al-Qur'an Ka'in Hayy· al-Ruh wa-l-Jasad· Allah wa-l-Insan· Hiwar ma'a Sadiqi al-Mulhid· Lughz al-Hayat· Lughz al-Mawt· Muhammad: Muhawala li-Fahm al-Sira al-Nabawiyya· Ra'aytu Allah
Sources
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 9
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 153
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 164
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 3
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 161
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 10
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 11
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 12
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 13
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 150
- Mostafa Mahmoud, al-Islam fi Khandaq (Kitab al-Yawm, Dar Akhbar al-Yawm, Cairo, 1994) , p. 152
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “al-Islam fi Khandaq”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/al-islam-fi-khandaq/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-06.
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