The supreme martyrdom is only conferred on those who slay or are slain in the way of God. As death is inevitable and can happen only once, partaking in jihad is profitable in this world and the next.
Five Tracts of Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949): A Selection from the Majmu'at Rasa'il al-Imam al-Shahid, 1978.
Allah, deal with the Jews, your enemies and the enemies of Islam. Deal with the crusaders, and America, and Europe behind them, O Lord of the worlds.
Ahmad Abu Halabiya, Palestinian cleric, member of the Palestinian Authority, and one-time rector of the Islamic University in Gaza. Sermon delivered in the Zayed bin Sultan al=Nahyan mosque and broadcast on Palestinian Authority television in October, 2000. Quoted from: Anti-American Terrorism and the Middle East: A Documentary Reader, 2002.
All those who came to power after [the death in 1989 of] my grandfather exploited his name and that of Islam to continue their unfair rule.
Hossein Khomeini, grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Quoted in: Telegraph, August 5, 2003.
[T]hose who study jihad will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. All the countries conquered by Islam or to be conquered in the future will be marked for everlasting salvation. For they shall live under [God's law].
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: Islam Is Not a Religion of Pacifists (1942)
Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them, put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]. ...Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to paradise, which can be opened only for holy warriors!
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: Islam Is Not a Religion of Pacifists (1942)
The great prophet of Islam in one hand carried the Koran and in the other a sword; the sword for crushing the traitors and the Koran for guidance. For those who could be guided, the Koran was their means of guidance, while as for those who could not be guided and were plotters, the sword descended on their heads. ...Islam is a religion of blood for the infidels but a religion of guidance for the other people.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: Speech delivered at the Feyziyeh Theological School (August 24, 1979).
To push the enemy - the greatest kufr - out of the country is a prime duty. No other duty after Belief is more important than [this] duty. Utmost effort should be made to preapre and instiage the umma [communitiy of Muslims] against the enemy, the American-Israeli alliance - occupying the country of the two Holy Places...
Declaration of War, published in al-Quds al-Arabi, and Iraqi newspaper published in London: August, 1996
Every Muslim, the minute he can start differentiating, carries hate towards Americans, Jews, and Christians; this is part of our ideology. Ever since I can recall I felt at war with the Americans and had feelings of animosity and hate toward them.
Interview broadcast on al-Jazira television. December, 1998.
Imagine that the Ku Klux Klan or some similar group obtains total control of the state of Texas, of its oil and therefore of its oil revenues, and having done so, uses this money to establish a network of well-endowed schools and colleges all over Christendom, peddling their peculiar brand of Christianity.
What Went Wrong, describing the influence of Wahhabism on Islam today. (2002)
Those who say that Islamic jihad was merely for the defense of the "homeland of Islam" diminish the greatness of the Islamic way of life. ...This is not the Islamic point of view, and ...it is the creation of the modern age and is completely alien to Islamic consciousness.
"Paving the Way," Milestones (1955)
It [The Islamist political movement, Islamic fundamentalism, or Islamism] is partly a reaction to the severe crises of modernity converging with the rise of charismatic prophetic leaders. It is both a religious reform movement and a political ideology that includes a social element of protest by have-nots against an oppressive order, as well as a counter-attack on secularism, which has reduced the power of religion in recent decades.
"The Islamist View of Life as a Perennial Battle," Middle East Review of International Affairs, 5, no. 4 (December 2001).
This site serves as an archive of quotations dealing with religion and philosophy. Specific topics covered include, but are not limited to: God, faith, reason, skepticism, atheism, agnosticism, fundamentalism, extremism. The quotes are chosen on the basis of my finding them interesting - regardless of whether I agree with them or not. This is by no means an exhaustive collection, although it does grow as I add quotes regularly.
Suggestions? Feel free to email me with quotations you think could be added. I can't guarantee that I will respond to each message and, please, be sure to include a full citation with each quote. There are a lot of sites out there that have many quotes without citations, thus preventing readers from being able to trace the authorship. I have very few of those and don't want any more, if I can help it.
Copyright © 2003 - 2004 by Austin Reed Cline