Twenty-five years ago today, nineteen men killed 2,977 people. They were driven by belief, and to understand it, we have to read the texts they read.
The bargain
Quran 9:111 says God has purchased the lives and wealth of believers in exchange for Paradise: "they kill and are killed." Those killed in God's cause are not dead but alive with their Lord (3:169). Paradise includes virgin maidens (55:56, 56:35–37), and a hadith, Tirmidhi 1663, promises the martyr seventy-two of them.
The attacks came on 9/11; the verse is 9:111. Lead hijacker Mohamed Atta chose the date himself, and his reasons were never fully explained. A deliberate link is possible, though Atta's own coded message wrote the date day-first, as 11-9.
The enemy
In the Quran, fighting is not limited to self-defense. Verse 9:29 commands fighting unbelievers among the People of the Book until they pay the jizya, humbled. The reason given is their unbelief, not an attack. Verse 8:39 says to fight until all religion is for God, and 8:60 commands striking terror into God's enemies.
Chapter 9 was one of the last chapters revealed; a hadith in Bukhari calls it the last. The Quran says God replaces earlier verses with better ones (2:106), and many classical commentators held that 9:5, the "verse of the sword," replaced the earlier peaceful verses, including 2:256, "no compulsion in religion." The Quran also presents itself as God's word for all mankind (34:28) and Muhammad as the example for all believers (33:21), so these commands can't simply be confined to the seventh century but every Muslim is supposed to follow it today.
Osama bin Laden quoted these verses when he declared killing Americans a religious duty. Saying 9/11 had nothing to do with religion ignores what the attackers themselves read.
The other side
Most Muslims today read the same book differently. Many scholars reject the broad abrogation view; al-Suyuti accepted only about twenty abrogated verses. They cite 2:190 ("do not transgress"), 5:32 (killing one innocent is like killing all humanity), and Muhammad's ban on killing women and children. Muslim authorities worldwide condemned the attacks, and dozens of Muslims died in the towers.
Never forget
Nineteen men turned scripture into a license for murder. Remembering the victims means understanding how they did it.
Where do we go from here?
If you'd like to learn how to have those conversations with both conviction and kindness, this book is an excellent place to start - "Thou Shalt Read the Bible":
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Read them, pray for your Muslim neighbours, and be ready to share the hope you have. God loves them and wants to them in Heaven.
