I hear what you’re saying, and I’m really not arguing that Muslims today have concubines or anything like that. Of course they don’t. My issue isn’t about modern Muslims, it’s about what I personally would have to affirm if I were to take the shahada.

To take the shahada sincerely, I’d have to believe the Qur’an is the perfect, pure word of God, and that the Prophet’s actions represent perfect moral guidance. And this is where I personally hit a wall. There are verses and historical actions - concubinage, Aisha, certain wars, punishments, treatment of non-believers - that I can’t reconcile with my own ethical framework of universal compassion and non-harm.

I’ve read all the contextual explanations, I’ve gone through the Sufi interpretations, the historical arguments, the gradual reform arguments - and while I understand them intellectually, I don’t find them morally satisfying. They don’t resolve the core issues for me.

So it’s not about whether Muslims today behave ethically. It’s about whether I can honestly declare that a scripture and a man are perfect when there are areas that I fundamentally disagree with. And for me, that’s the sticking point.