CHAPTER 2
The Prophet Muhammad
Now, I may explain
this theme further with reference to Allah, the God of Muhammad, the Arabian
prophet:
Abu al-Qasim Muhammad Ibn Abd Allah Ibn Abd al Muttalib
Ibn Hashim, the founder of Islam and the Arab Empire, was born in Mecca c. 570
A.D. after the death of his father. First, he was under the care of his paternal
grandfather, and when he died, Abu Talib, his uncle, became his guardian. When
he was six, he lost his mother, Aminah. He was married to Khadijah of the clan
of Asad. This association which lasted for twenty-six years, was a happy one.
Muhammad belonged to the clan of Hashim which was a
part of the tribe of Quresh, and inhabited Mecca where Muhammad was born. Though
Mecca was a small town, it was a mercantile centre, and was respected for its
sanctuary known as the Kaaba. The Quresh were descendants of Ishmael, son of
Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, and claimed that it was Abraham, accompanied by
Ishmael, who built the temple of Kaaba, for worship of God but it became the
focus of idolatory, which lasted for many centuries. Muhammad died on June 8,
632.
Muhammad was accustomed to retiring to a desert cave
called Hira where he reflected on the mysteries of creation. During 610 A.D.
when he was meditating in the Hira, an angel of God, called Gabriel, appeared
before him and said:
Read: In the name of thy Lord who createth.
Createth man from a clot.
Read: And it is thy Lord the Most bountiful who
teacheth pen, Teacheth man that which he knew not.
This was a written message from Allah. When Gabriel told
Muhammad to read it, he said that he was illiterate and could not read it.
Thereupon the angel caught him by the throat and commanded him again to read.
Thrice Muhammad expressed his inability to read and thrice the angel choked him.
He was extremely frightened. It was his wife, Khadijah, who told him that the
"spirit" he saw was a good one, and not the devil. She assured him
that he had been chosen by God as His prophet. Even then he needed a lot of
persuation to accept the mission of prophethood.
Here is the old Semitic tradition of revelation at
work, which requires a prophet to accept the apostolic dignity under duress. In
the case of the Prophet Muhammad, it is even more amazing because the
All-knowing Allah wants the illiterate Muhammad to read His message!
Islam was the name that the Prophet Muhammad gave his
religion. Therefore, following the Semitic tradition, he had to find a deity
that inspired this faith. Though there is no Biblical authority for it, the
Prophet asserted Islam as the true religion of God who sent Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, Jesus, and many other prophets to promulgate and restate it. Thus, what
he advocated, he claimed, was the same old faith but it had been corrupted by
the Jews. So he had no qualm in adopting most of the Jewish principles and
practices with a view to renovating the old religion of God, which he called
"Islam" as opposed to Judaism, and Christianity. In fact, he made a
great effort to convert Jews. He adopted, not only a good deal of their creed,
but also repeatedly said that God had exalted the children of Israel over the
rest of mankind. As a process of this wooing, he wanted to find a name for his
God that should prove attractive to the Jews, and also to the Arabs, his real
people.
Scholars have remarked that the early Jews worshipped a
deity called El (Gen: 16: 23; 17: 1; 21: 33; 31: 13; 35: 7; ) . Jacob erected
the altar called "El-Elohe-Israel" which has been translated "El
the God of Israel." Similarly, El was the high god in the Syro-Palestinian
pantheon. Again, it is argued that some biblical passages such as Deuteronomy 3
2: 8 - 9 suggest that Yahwe was believed to be a member of the huge pantheon
once ruled over by El. The Arabic name for El is Allah. No name could be better
for the Islamic God than Allah who was once Yahwe's superior, and also an idol
of the Quresh known as the Lord of the Kaaba.
At this juncture, I should repeat that, according to
the Semitic doctrine of revelation, a prophet wants to be treated as God, but
without being called so; he is also a national hero because he wants to create a
band of devoted people to carry on his name.
The Prophet chose Allah as the Supreme God for national
reasons. At that time, the Jews held a considerable social status in the Arabian
peninsula owing to their glorious history, religious precedence, defiance of
persecution and material prosperity. He knew that his people could not be lifted
to a higher position unless the Jews accepted his religion and thus made to
behave as if they were Arabs. Failing that, they ought to be turned into second
class citizens or banished.
First, the Prophet tried to woo them by making
Jerusalem, the KIBLA, and treating them with a lavish praise. For example, the
Koran in the Cow 40, states:
"Children of Israel, remember my blessing
wherewith I blessed you,
and that I have preferred you above all beings.."
For converting the Jews to his faith, the Prophet adored
Abraham, the common ancestor of the Jews and the Arabs to identify them as one
nation. The Koran says: "The best religion has he who foilows the creed of
Abraham, a man of pure faith, and a Friend of God." (Woman: 120)
He went even further to address his Arab followers:
"(Islam is) the creed of your father Abraham: He named you Muslims."
(The Pilgrimage: 75)
When the Jews ignored this loving approach, they were
enveloped by the apostolic wrath. The Prophet demoted Jerusalem as the Kibla of
the Muslims and bestowed this honour on Kaaba, the Arab sanctuary. He went even
further tc lay a curse on the Jews:
"God has cursed them for their
unbelief." (Women: 45)
Over the last 1400 years the Muslim scholars have
interpreted this curse to mean that the Jews shall remain homeless for ever and
shall never have a national government of their own. The Muslims want to drown
all Israelites because the state of Israel contradicts this Koranic verse.
Since the Jews refused to be a part of the Arab nation,
their condemnation as an accursed race was not sufficient. Creation of a pure
nation, demanded that the Jews must be expelled from Arabia. So, the policy of
ethnic cleansing was adopted, and the Jews were banished. At this juncture, one
ought to remember that Islam is less a religion and more an Arab National
Movement.
As now, the Jews had always been proud of their racial
superiority because Yahwe, the Jewish God, had chosen them as His own people by
entering into covenants with the Jewish patriarchs such as Noah and Abraham. The
latter had two sons: Isaac and Ishmael. The Bible clearly declares in Genesis
17-18 that God made an everlasting covenant with Isaac, the Jewish patriarch,
but the Koran states quite differently:
"We (God) made covenant with Abraham and
Ishmael." (The Cow: 115)
There is no historical evidence whatever that the Jews
altered the Old Testament to this effect. They did not need to do so because
this statement had existed in their Scriptures many centuries before the Koran
was composed. This is how the Prophet transferred the Divine sanctity to his own
nation to make them feel exalted.
Glorification of Allah by the Prophet as the supreme
and the only God is a part of Arab nationalism. Firstly, as stated previously,
Allah was Yahwe's superior, thus the Arabs, the people of Allah have to be
better than the people of Yahwe, the Jews. Yahwe had been proclaimed as the God
of Israel, but to be better, Allah had to be the God of the universe. This is
exactly what the Prophet did: thus Allah is All- knowing, All-powerful and
omnipresent. The Old Testament does not claim such attributes for Yahwe.
Why was Allah proclaimed as the most glorious and the
only God? It is because He was an Arab god whose statue was worshipped in the
Kaaba itself for centuries. Of course, Allah was not the only god of the Kaaba,
which had developed into a pantheon owing to the influences of the foreign
cults. It was very much like a Hindu temple devoted to idolatory and organised
on the Hindu doctrine of Triad (Trimurti) which means three-in-one. Allah had
his three daughters in the Kaaba, worshipped along with him.
Kaaba, referred to as the Meccan temple by historians,
was under the hereditary management of the Quresh, the Prophet's tribe and thus
gave them some sanctity as the lords of the Kaaba. It is for this reason, they (Q'uresh)
were known as the People of Allah or the Protected Neighbours of Allah. Allah,
the idol, even then inspired considerable veneration into the Arabian hearts,
and it is quite evident from the fact that the tribes on pilgrimage to the Kaaba,
were called the Guests of Allah. Despite all this divine prest ge, Allah was
still a par~ of a pantheon i.e. he was one of many gods. Therefore, the Prophet
emphasised the singularity of Allah and condemnation of all other gods. It
should be borne in mind, that the Prophet believed the Quresh, his tribe, to be
the best of all people. This is the reason that he laid it down that only the
Quresh had the right to rule. I shall discuss this point in due course. At this
point, it is sufficient to say that the Arabs could be an exalted nation only if
they were to be blessed by the only and universal Allah who was as much Arab as
Yahwe was Jewish.
Since the doctrine of revelation affects the behaviour
of more than half of the population of the world, it is the major issue of
religion and metaphysics. Thus, we ought to look into the psychological make-up
of a revelationist i.e. a prophet, to assess whether or not he is a person of
dominant nature. This must serve as a deciding factor to establish the reality
of revelation itself.
For this purpose, and not any mischief or insolence, I
refer to the *Hadith, that is, record of the sayings and practices of the
prophet which rank as the Islamic tradition. After all, the Koran repeatedly
challenges the dissenters to produce an argument to support their point or view.
What I am about to say is a matter of fact to the Muslim believers owing to
their faith, but what will they say about someone else who made similar claims
about himself and his dynastic background? To a just person, this is the guiding
principle which he should bear in mind to decide the issue for himself.
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* When Moslem scholars cannot answer a question, they say that the quoted hadith
is a forgery. I have taken care to avoid apocryphal hadiths.
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THE PROPHET CLAIMED:
1. "God chose as the best the children af Ishmael,
the son of Abraham. From Ishmael's descendants, God chose the Quresh (the
tribe of Muhammad) as the best of people; from the Quresh, God chose the Banu
Hashim (Muhammad's clan) as the best of people, and from the Banu Hashim, God
chose Muhammad as the best of all men.." (Jame Tirmze, Vol: 2 )
I ought to mention that it contradicts the Jewish
claim as stated in Genesis 17: 19-21. Jews are the descendants of Isaac. They
believe that he was the only legitimate son of Abraham borne by his wife,
Sarah, whereas Ishmael was given birth by Hagar, an Egyptian maid-servant of
Sarah, made pregnant by Abraham. God made the covenant with Isaac and not
Ishmael. Giving children of Ishnnael (the Arabs) preference over the Jews,
appears to be an act of nationalism. Obviously, the purpose of Islam was to
make the Arabs a great nation by bestowing racial distinction on them.
2. Of the two tribes that God chose as the best were
the descendants of Ishmael and Isaac. God preferred the children of Ishmael
(Arabs) to the children of Isaac (the Jews). Then, God created Muhammad in the
chosen tribe of Quresh (the descendants of Ishmael ) and then He chose the
best family among the Quresh and created Muhammad as the best of all men. (
Jame Tirmze Vol: 2 )
3. Muhammad was asked when he was made prophet. He
replied that he was made prophet when the body and soul of Adam were still in
the making. (Jame Tirmze Vol: 2 )
According to the "Sahih Muslim" already
referred to, this dignity was thrust on Muhammad when he was forty years of
age. It is strange that, despite being a prophet, even before the creation of
Adam, he never claimed prophethood until he attained this age. Nor did he
discharge his apostolic duties for the first forty years of his life!
4. .....God has chosen Muhammad as the best of all
mankind. And it is not a boast but a fact. (Jame Tirmze Vol: 2)
5. .....On the Day of Judgement Muhammad would occupy
the right hand side of God's throne. Nobody else would be entitled or capable
of doing so except him. (Jame Tirmze Vol: 2)
6. On the Day of Judgement, ask for Muhammad as the
Waseela or Refuge, that is, the person who has the power of intercession to
forgive sins. Thus he would be the only person who could act as the medium to
paradise. (Jame Tirmze Vol: 2)
7. Muhammad would be the Chief of all mankind on the
Day of Judgement. (Jame Tirmze Vol:2)
8. Muhammad is the first person who would be
appointed as the intercessor. He would be the first person whose intercession
would be accepted. It is he who would unlock the gates of paradise and would
be the first to enter it, followed by his followers. He is superior to all men
who were before him, or would come after him. It is not a boast but a fact. (Jame
Tirmze Vol: 2)
9. "Send Darood on the Prophet," that is,
pray to Muhammad, supplicate him and praise him. He who sends darood on
Muhammad once, God blesses him ten times. (Jame Tirmze Vol: 2)
These hadiths (the Prophet's traditions) speak for
themselves and need hardly any comment from me. However, better understanding of
the subject requires that we should know Muhammad's relationship with Allah, the
Islamic God. Here are some examples.
1. Shahada is the basic doctrine of Islam. It is the
confession which makes a person Muslim, the follower of Allah. It means:
Nobody has the right to be adored (worshipped) but
Allah, and Muhammad is His messenger.
The meaning of Shahada is better understood when it
is divided as follows:
Allah's rights:
a. "Those who believe, love Allah more than
anything else." ( Baqra 12: 165 )
"Praise belongs to God,
the Lord of all Being." ( Cattle: 45 )
b. To assert His right to praise or worship, Allah
clearly states in the Koran (the Islamic Scripture):
"I have not created ..... mankind except to
serve me. (The Scatterers: 55 )
At several other occasions Allah reiterates that He has
created man for no purpose but worship and adore Him. It is amazing that Allah,
despite being "the Creator," "the All- knowing," and
"All-Powerful" cannot get man to adore Him the way He wants, and has
to send prophets and messiahs to persuade man with the threats of hell and
promises of paradise. Yet, the net result is the further division of mankind,
disbelief and sin.
Since "Shirk" i.e. worshipping others with
Allah, is the only unpardonable sin, it is clear that if God were really, the
Creator, the All-knowing and the All-powerful, with such a burning desire for
worship, He could have surely created the Obedient man. It is obviously not
Allah, who desires to be worshipped; it has got to be man who wants to be
treated as God and worshipped as such. This fact emerges when we look into part
- 2 of Shahada, that is,
2 . Prophet's rights:
a. Though the Prophet calls himself Allah's ABD or
slave, Allah allows him to be above His laws; for example, a Moslem is allowed
to have no more than four wives at the same time but the Prophet had nine
wives simultaneously.
b. Allah is willing for the Prophet to marry
anybody's widow or divorcee, but it is a monstrous act for anyone to marry the
Prophet's widow or divorcee. ( The Confederates: 50 )
c. It is a condition of polygamy that a Muslim has to
be equitable towards all his wives but the Prophet can lawfully suspend any of
his wives at will. (The Confederates: 50)
d. Allah is anxious to please the Prophet; He tells
the believers how to enter his house, how long to stay there, and not to
indulge in idle talk when they are in his house. (The Confederates: 50)
e. As I shall discuss later, Allah changed the Kibla,
the direction of praying just to please the Prophet. It was certainly a major
modification in a system which claims to be of divine origin. ( The Cow: 135 )
f. Aisha, the Prophet's wife, was somewhat displeased
when Khaula bint Halo, presented herself to the Prophet in marriage, but when
God revealed to him:
"You may suspend any of them (Your wives) that
you please" (33: 51 )
Aisha exclaimed: ".....Allah hurries in pleasing you." (Sahih Al
Bokhari Vol: 7)
g. In fact, Allah acts as Prophet's factotum because
He tells believers not to walk in front of him or raise voice above that of
his. (Apartments: 1)
The Prophet was surely capable of giving such instructions
himself. When one looks deeper into the relationship of the Prophet with Allah,
it transpires that though the Koran originally treats Muhammad as human,
gradually this relationship develops into duality and eventually, like Moses,
Muhammad appears as God's superior.
This is a delicate issue but fairness demands that the
reader should weigh the arguments which I intend to offer, before jumping to
hasty conclusions. The process of Muhammad converting his humanity into divinity
is a long and complex one but I intend to keep the narrative brief and simple.
Consider the following:
1. It is a condition of faith that a believer should
love Allah, but this stipulation becomes insufficient because a person does
not rank as believer until he loves the prophet "more than his father,
his children and all mankind. " (Sahih Al Bokh. vol: 1)
2. Muhammad is as great as Allah because the former
like the latter, has ninety-nine attributes.
a. As Allah is closer to man than his jugular vein
for being omnipresent ( QAF 15 ), "the Prophet is nearer to the believers
than their selves.." (The Confederates: 5)
3. Though the Prophet is projected as mortal and
Allah's servant in the beginning, but as he grows stronger, obedience to
Muhammad becomes as compulsory as to Allah:
a. "Obey Allah and the Messenger." (The
House of Imran 25, 125)
b. "..whoso obeys God and His Messenger, He will
admit him to gardens." ( Women: 15 )
c. Gradually, the Prophet shares authority with
Allah:
"It is not for any believer, man or woman, when
God and His Messenger have decreed a matter, to have a choice in the affair.
Whosoever disobeys God and His Messenger has gone astray into clear
error." (The Confederates: 35)
Having established himself as co-commandant with God, he
elevates his personal grace and significance beyond description because these
are the factors which have recommended him to sinners all over the world. They
are:
d. "We have not sent you, except as a mercy unto
all beings." ( The Prophets: 100 )
e. To make sure that everybody obeys and copies the
Prophet to the letter, the Quran declares him as the Model of Behaviour.
"You have a good example in God's Messenger for
whosoever hopes for God and the Last Day." (The Confederates: 20)
f. Originally, he had no intercessionary powers; he
professed that he could not even save his daughter, Fatima whom he loved
dearly. Then to enhance the appeal of his prophethood, he raised himself to
the status of God:
"Truly this is the word of a noble Messenger
having power, with the Lord of the Throne secure, obeyed, moreover
trusty." ( The Darkening: 15 - 20 )
For the last many centuries, this Quranic verse has been
understood to mean by both the scholars and the laity that on the Day of
Judgement, God will sit an His throne and Muhammad will occupy a seat on His
right hand side. Allah will give the entire intercessionary powers to Muhammad,
who will decide whether a person should go to heaven or hell. The criterion of
judgement shall not be the quality of deeds but who has loved the Prophet the
most. The Jews will head the queue to hell, followed by the Christians. The
Hindus, the Buddhists, the deists, the atheists and the rest will be equally
sorry, but all murderers, rapists, robbers, arsonists, cheats, thugs, twisters,
etc., who ever mentioned Muhammad's name affectionately even once in their
life-time and believed in his prophethood, would go to paradise, where each of
them would be given seventy most beautiful virgins and an array of pretty
youths; their virility would be increased hundred fold for appreciating Allah's
bounties.
This is the statement of fact as believed by the
Moslems. I have not exaggerated it. If anything, it is an understatement.
g. Slowly, the dignity of the Prophet excels that of
Allah:
"God and His angels pray peace to the Prophet. O
believers, you must also bless him, and pray him peace. (The Confederates: 55)
Praying peace and blessing in a meditative manner, as most
religionists do, is the essence of worshipping. The Moslems lead in this field.
They, in fact, worship Muhammad, yet they claim that "praise belongs to
Allah," and think of Shirk i.e. including anyone else in praising God, as
the only unforgiveable sin!
Here is something extraordinary! Instead of man
worshipping God, it is God, along with His angels, who worships man, the true
purpose of the device of revelation.
This narrative should expose the true nature of
revelation, that is, it serves as the tool of the dominance-seeker who wants to
be loved and worshipped by his fellow-men by projecting himself as God
indirectly. History testifies to this fact: whenever, the Prophet had a haircut,
his followers vied with one another in gathering his trimmed hair and nails as
divine souvenirs; they even collected his spittle and the water in which he had
washed his hands. It is because they believed in their miraculous virtues of
healing and salvation.
Again, to imprint his divinity on the subconscious mind
of every new-born baby, he prescribed the recitation of his name as "God's
Prophet" in its ears almost immediately at birth. The process of learning
known as imprinting is said to have been discovered in 1935 by Lorenz but the
Prophet knew it fourteen centuries earlier. Imprinting, in fact, is the most
effective device of brain-washing. If at birth, ducklings and goslings are led
to believe that man is their true father, they follow him as his offspring.
Revelation is the greatest medium of brainwashing because this is the agent of
faith, which shuts down all doors of reasoning.
The reader should know the type of God Allah is; He is
obsessed with self-praise:
"He is God;
there is no God but He.
He is the King, the All-holy,
the All -peaceable,
the All-faithful, the All-preserver,
the All-mighty, the All-compeller,
the All-sublime.
Glory be to God, above that they associate.
He is God,
the Creator, the Maker, the Shaper,
To Him belong the Names Most Beautiful.
All that is in the Heavens and the earth
magnifies Him:
He is the All-mighty, the All-wise."
( The Mustering: 20 )
The reader should bear in mind that it is Allah who is
praising Himself, and not man. This reveals the psychological make-up of the
dominance-seeker.
Now one can see that Allah is most desirous of praise;
when man worships Him, He is glad but when man neglects Him, He feels sad. How
unstable Allah is! To boost His ego with the sycophancy of devotees, He does
things which are beyond the realm of moral thinking: He allures man with the
bribe of paradise full of beautiful women and boys; He threatens dissenters with
the most sadistic punishment of flaming hell, and repeatedly asserts that He is
the Most Terrible Avenger and His Retributive punishment knows no bounds; He
even mocks and misleads the unbelievers; He curses them and swears at them. In
fact, He hates those who do not prostrate before Him and recommends their
slaughter until they are wiped out or submit to His will.
Is it really the character of a true God? He cannot be
the Creator. If He were, He would have created man to obey Him because praise,
worship and submission are His greatest desires, whose unfulfilment makes Him so
unhappy and ruffled. If He cannot make Himself happy, how can he have the
ability to make other people happy? Especially, when His happiness solely
depends upon the deeds of man, he cannot be God. It has got to be the
revelationist who puts on the cloak of an agent but wants to be treated as God.
After stating these facts, I may describe briefly what
has led to the popularity ot the Prophet Muhammad. There are three major causes
of this:
1. Firstly, he was a man of indomitable spirit. His will
to succeed was simply marvellous. He could feel the pulse of history, and knew
how to turn its course in his favour. On top of it, he was a man of some great
qualities which rarely unite in one person. Having been born in a nation which
was hardy, and capable of demonstrating great martial prowess, he had the
vision and wisdom to mould these virtues to make Arabs into an imperial race.
People forget that Muhammad was not only a prophet but also the builder of the
Arab empire; and this was an integral part of his prophethood.
2. Secondly, the Prophet built Islam around the
sanctity and significance of his own person. He achieved this position through
the following means:
a. He projected himself as mercy to all beings (The
Prophets: 100). Thus, he created a special attraction for his person to all
and sundry.
b. He expressed obedience to himself as obedience
to Allah, thus giving himself a divine stature which appeared simply
stunning when his followers realised that even Allah and His angels prayed
peace to him.
c. He declared himself to possess intercessionary
powers and expressed his ability to find a place for all his followers in
the paradise where they would enjoy eternity with total delight and peace.
This being every human's greatest desire, proved very appealing, indeed.
d. He was possibly, the greatest national leader
born anywhere on earth. The way he imposed the hegemony of the Arabs on the
Ajams (the non-Arabs) through a device of cultural subtlety is not only
stunning but also highly praiseworthy and the proof of his vision and
wisdom.
Islam is essentially an Arab national movement. As far as
I am aware, nobody has touched upon this apostolic aspect of the Prophet before.
Therefore, I ought to discuss it in reasonable details to convey the message to
the reader. The main vehicle of national fervour was his assertion that God had
sent him as the Model of Behaviour (Uswa-e-Hasna) for the believers. (
Confederates: 20 )
Copying the Prophet in all details as the Model of
Behaviour, was laid down as the basic doctrine for the personal conduct of every
Muslim. The Prophet used it with the utmost skill to serve the cause of Arab
nationalism at the expense of the other Muslim nations.
Here, the reader is entitled to ask me: "Is there
real evidence to show that the Prophet was an Arab national leader, and he aimed
at establishing a system of Arab imperialism?" Of course, there is. Here is
the proof:
One should remember that a nationalist is not only
conscientious of his origin but is usually proud of it. This test equally
applies to Muhammad:
1. According to Abu Huraira, when God revealed the
verse: "Warn your nearest kinsmen," the Prophet said in a loud voice:
"O people of Quresh."
When we look further into this act of self-
identification, then we can clearly see the Prophet's pride in his lineage. Let
me requote the hadith to make this point:
God chose as the best, the children of Ishmael, the son
of Abraham. From Ishmael's descendants, God chose the Quresh (the tribe of
Muhammad) as the best of people; from the Quresh, God chose the Banu Hashim
(Muhammad's clan) the best of people, and from the Banu Hashim, God chose
Muhammad as the best of all men ..... ( Jame Tirmze. Vol: 2 )
The Jews have been called a keen racial group for their
faith in national superiority. One can see for oneself the meaning of this
hadith that I have paraphrased. Yet in another hadith, the Prophet says:
"God created Muhammad in the chosen tribe of Quresh."
As stated earlier, a prophet being desirous of
dominance, needs a strong national group to perpetuate his name and teachings.
This is why Moses created the Jewish nation in the name of Yahwe. The Prophet
Muhammad did exactly the same thing in the name of Allah. Of course, he thought
of the Banu Hashim, his own family, as the best of all families but their
numbers were too small to be relied on as a racial band to continue the
prophetic campaign. So Muhammad placed greater emphasis on his tribe (the Quresh)
which was sufficiently powerful in numbers and secular influence.
2 . Having cal led the Quresh as the exalted people as
Moses had declared the Jews as the chosen people, the Prophet put his personal
stamp on the excellence of the Quresh:
a. "May Allah destroy those who intend to humiliate
the Quresh." (Jame Tirmze. Vol: 2 )
b. "O Lord, you gave the Quresh, the taste of
torture (when they resisted Muhammad) but now give them the merits and
blessings of this world and the world- to - come. " ( Jame Tirmze . Vol:
2 )
c. On the authority of the Prophet, Uthman told his
scribes to write The Koran "in the language of the Quresh." ( Sahih
Bokh. Vol: IV )
It shows that the Koran is in the Arabic spoken by
the Quresh and not other tribes.
d. The Prophet shows an extraordinary zeal in the
following hadith whose accuracy cannot be denied: .....The prerogative to rule
shall remain vested in the Quresh, and whoever is hostile to them, Allah shall
destroy him as long as they obey the laws of the religion." (Sahih
Bokhari. Vol: 4)
e. "The Quresh are the rulers of men in vice and
virtue until the Day of Judgement." (Sahih Tirmze. Vol: 1)
This hadith has also been narrated in volume 9 of
Sahih Albukhari.
f. The right to rule (caliphate) shall belong to the
Quresh even if two men existed. (Sahih Tirmze. Vol: 9)
The truth of these hadiths is revealed by two events:
1. In the eight hundred year long Islamic history of
Spain, even one suzerain was not non-Quresh. It was simply because only the
kinsmen of the Prophet i.e. The Quresh, were considered as the legitimate
rulers of Islam.
2. There is a clearly stated episode in volume 8 of
the Sahih Alburkhri, which historically establishes the Quresh right to rule
and excludes everybody else from this honour. Even the most virtuous and
capable non- Arab Muslims cannot legitimately rule. It exposes the racial
nature of Islam and sounds the death-knell of the much-vaunted Islamic
principles of equality and democracy. Again, it is amazing how Muslims of
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and African origin deny nationality of their own,
and claim to be Muslims only. This is the result of the psychological
dominance of the Arab culture through Islam. It is for this reason that they
have no national histories of their own. As a result, they cling to the Arab
history, which they call the "Islamic history" for having some kind
of identity, no matter how inferior.
The event* to which I have referred to, has been narrated
by Omar the great, and has been universally accepted as true:
At the death of the Prophet, the problem ot succession
became very acute. The Ansar of Medina, who had given the Prophet refuge, but
were not Quresh, claimed that they were as good Arabs as any other tribe. They
insisted that there
-----------------
*Sahih Albokh, Vol: 8 Ch. 17. Hadieth 817
-----------------
should be two rulers one from them (the Ansar) and one
from the Quresh. Abu Bakr was quite blunt in stating the doctrine of government
as laid down by the Prophet. He said, "O Ansar! you have all the great
qualities that you have attributed to yourself but the government belongs only
to the Quresh because they are the best of all the Arabs as regards descent and
family."
When things got heated up, Omar thought of a stratagem.
He said, "O Abu Bakr, hold out your hand." As he did so, Omar pledged
his allegiance to Abu Bakr hurriedly, and the other emigrants (the Arabs who had
left Mecca along with the Prophet to reside in Medina) followed suit rapidly. As
the Ansar noticed it, being devout Muslims, they could not withhold their
allegiance for fear of division in Islam, and surrendered to the Quresh hegemony
accepting Abu Bakr as their first Caliph.
Here, one can see that the Prophet's tribe reserves the
right to rule. It certainly proves that the Prophet was first a Quresh and then
an Arab. Thus the kind of nationalism he represented was narrower than that of
the Jews who are known to have non-Jewish rulers by consent. The
"pagans" of Byzantium or the Eastern Romans were far more
international in their outlook; anybody from the colonies, irrespective of his
colour and creed could become their emperor, who formed the fountain of all
political power.
Of course, there are many components of nationalism but
race and homeland are the two major factors. Having described the racial factor,
now I may narrate the Prophet's views about Arabia, his homeland. The Prophet's
sayings about Arabia, and especially Mecca, his birthplace, explain this truth:
1. "He who aggresses against Arabia, shall not win
my love, nor will I intercede for him." ( Jame Tirmze Vol . 2 )
2. The Prophet told Suleiman Farsi (the Persian), a
freed slave, who gained distinction by fighting for Islam: "....If you
bear grudge against Arabia, you bear grudge against me." (Jame Tirmze
Vol. 2)
3 . The Prophet said about Mecca, his birthplace: O
Mecca, by Allah you are better than any part of the earth, and dearer to me
than the rest of the world." ( Jame Tirmze Vol: 2 )
4. "Mecca is the best place and dearer than any
other place. Had my nation not driven me out, I would not have lived
elsewhere." (Jame Tirmze Vol: 2 )
Far more significant than these hadiths (the Prophet's
sayings) are the deeds of the Prophet which sought to exalt Mecca, and along
with it the entire Arabia, over the rest of the world. He knew that Jerusalem
had become the most revered place for the Jews and the Christians owing to the
religious esteem attached to it by the Jewish innovations. Whether it was a
European or an Eastern Christian, he preferred Jerusalem to his own homeland and
paid it an especial tribute of respect. A similar reverential status attached to
Mecca must make it a holy city and enhance the prestige of entire Arabia. It was
David's ingenuity which made Jerusalem the Home of Yahwe (the Jewish God) and
when Solomon built a temple there, it became the holiest place to the Jews, and
the birth of Jesus extended its boundaries of reverence far and wide.
Despite their internal jealousies, the Jews have always
been a highly organised group owing to their sense of national superiority and
commercial leanings by dint of their faith in the virtues of wealth. Thus
wherever they have lived, they have enjoyed social distinction. Their position
in the Arabian peninsula was no different. Since both the Jews and the Arabs
have a common ancestor called Abraham, they have a good deal in common even
without going back to their earlier Semitic origin. During the early period of
his prophetic ministry, the Prophet did everything to woo them to his faith; he
appointed Jerusalem as the Kibla, which the Muslims should face to say their
prayers. It was, indeed, a great honour to the Jews. Then the Koran repeatedly
said that Allah had exalted the Jews over all races. However, all these
conciliatory steps had the opposite effect on the Jews, who made the mistake of
joining the Quresh in opposing the Prophet. When he became victorious, he
treated the Jews with contempt but forgave the Quresh, his kith and kin.
There is plenty of evidence which shows that the
Prophet wanted to raise an Arab nation in contradistinction to the Jews, the
Byzantinians, the Iranians and the Turks. His message has all the appearance of
universality but in reality, it is nationalistic. I did not realise this fact
when I was writing about the nature of the Islamic mission in my book: Eternity.
Here is the evidence to show that the Prophet wanted to
raise an imperial Arab nation:
1. The Prophet said that the first contingent of my
followers that would invade the Caesar's city (Constantinople) would be
forgiven their sins ....they would be granted paradise. (Al Bokhari Volume IV)
By "followers" is meant the Arabs because
at that time, the only followers that the Prophet had, were the Arabs.
2. The Prophet said that the hour would be
established only when the Arabs fought the Turks, the people with small eyes,
red faces, flat noses .... and who wore shoes made of hair. (Al Bokhari Vol:
IV)
3. The Prophet said that Khusru, the Persian Emperor
would be destroyed and his line would be extirpated: Caesar would also be
ruined and there would be no Caesar to follow him, and "you," the
Arabs, would spend their treasures in the cause of Allah.
He emphasised: "War is a deceit." (Al
Bokhari Vol: IV)
4. The Prophet wanted his followers even to look
culturally different from the Jews and the Christians:
The Prophet said: "the Jews and the Christians
do not dye their (grey) hair so you should do the opposite what they do."
(Sahih Albokhari Vol: 7)
The dying of heads and beards among the Muslims is a
compliance to this prophetic command.
5. The Prophet did not want the Arabs to follow non-
Arabs in their fashions and garments:
When the Prophet saw Abdullah b. Amr b. al-As wearing
clothes dyed in Saffron, he forbade him to wear them on the ground that such
clothes were worn by the non-believers. (Sahih Muslim Vol: 3)
One should note here the influence of the Indian
culture. The yellow or saffron colour has been a distinction of the Hindu and
Buddhist saints. Buddhism is known to have penetrated Iran and Arabia.
6. However, the Prophet's national tendencies are
more fully visible in the treatment of the Jews:
a. To neutralise the influence of Hebrew which was
the language of the Jewish Scripture, the Koran stated that the Muslims should
neither believe nor disbelieve the people of the Book i.e. Jews and Christians
but must believe in the Quran only (which was in Arabic). (3: 84)
b. "By the Clear Book,
behold, we have made it an Arabic Koran
haply you will understard;" (Ornaments: 1)
This verse means two things:
1. The Koran is for the Arabs; it is revealed in the
Arabic language so that they should understand it. Since it is rot in any
other language, it matters not whether the non-Arabs comprehend it or not.
2. As the Koran is in Arabic, this must be the
preferred language of the Arabs.
It was customary for the Jews to read the Old Testament in
Hebrew and explain it in Arabic. By raising Arabic to the Scriptural status, the
Prophet wanted the Arabs to attach no importance to Hebrew and treat Arabic as
their national language.
c. As the Jews failed to respond to the Prophet, he
adopted a really tough attitude towards them:
He changed the direction of Kibla from Jerusalem to
Kaaba, a small shrine located near the centre of the Great Mosque in Mecca,
Muhammad's birthplace. Allah, obviously, af fected this change to please
Muhammad, as is quite clear from the following verse:
"We have seen you turning your face about
towards the heavens; now we will surely turn you. Turn your face towards the
Holy Mosque; and wherever you are, turn your faces towards it." ( The
Cow: 135 )
The real purpose of this change was to found the Arab
nationalism on a doctrine of self-reverence in such a way that the Arabs should
believe in themselves as chosen by God-to be the exalted, the preferred and the
best, and all non-Arab Muslims must yield to the basic superiority of Arab
nationalism as the Divine command. The reader can see this truth for himself by
realising that Muslims all over the world face Mecca (Kaaba) five times a day to
bow and prostrate in prayers; they bury their dead facing Mecca; every Muslim is
obliged by God's command to visit the Holy shrine at least once in his life time
provided that he has the means to do so. All national shrines of the muslim
nations are inferior to the holiness of Kaaba.
No place on earth has ever exacted such a tribute of
reverence from mankind as the Kaaba. Respect to the Kaaba means, respect to
Mecca, respect to Mecca means respect to Arabia, and respect to Arabia, means
respect to Arabs, the dwellers of Arabia.
The Moslems say that the Prophet had appointed Bait Ul
Maqaddas (Jerusalem) as Kibla because at that time Kaaba, like a temple, was
full of idols, which Allah hates. This explanation is contradicted by history:
the change of Kibla took place in 624 A.D. when the Kaaba was still the Holy
Shrine of the Quresh where they worshipped their idols, including that of Allah,
and it was not until 630 when the Prophet entered Mecca as a victor and removed
statues from the Kaaba.
According to the Koran, Allah hates idolatory, the only
unpardonable sin, yet Allah the All-powerful, allowed idol- worship in Kaaba and
could do nothing to evict them for nearly a thousand years, and He had to wait
until the advent of Muhammad to be rid of this extreme abomiration. It is
obvious that Allah is not a reality but a mental medium to strengthen the cause
of Arabia. It is not surprising that Allah speaks Arabic and sends the Koran in
Arabic to the Arabic- speaking people.
d. The Arabs have always known that Abraham was the
comnnon ancestor of themselves and the Jews but the Bible has portrayed them as
superior to the Arabs because according to the Bible, they are from the seed of
Isaac, who was borne by Sarah, Abraham's lawful wife, whereas Ishmael, though
fathered by Abraham, was borne by Hagar, the Egyptian maid-servant of Sara,
Abraham's wife.
According to the Bible, as previously mentioned, God's
covenant is with Isaac and not Ishmael, but the Prophet reversed the situation
because the Koran claims that:
1. It was Abraham, who along with Ishmael, raised up the
foundations of the Kaaba, the House of the Lord;
2. This is where Abraham and Ishmael prayed to the
Lord that He should make from their seed a nation which should be submissive
to Him (the Lord), and
3. The Lord should send among them a Messenger (
Muhammad ) to recite his signs, teach them the Book ( Koran ) . .. . (The Cow:
120).
Here is a clear attempt to transfer the splendour of
Divine distinction from the Jews to the Arabs. If this is not nationalism, then
what is it?
Honesty demands that I narrate the whole truth; there
is no historical evidence that Abraham ever visited Mecca. According to the
Biblical records and archaeological evidence, Abraham was a native of Ur Kasdim,
a Sumerian city, the modern Tall al Muqayyar (or Mughair) about two hundred
miles south east of Baghdad in Lower Mesopotamia. After migration from Ur,
Abraham first stopped at Harran, then at Bethel, a holy city, where prevailed
the cult of El, the Canaanite god. This is where according to Genesis, Abraham
built an altar and also took over the Canaanite sanctuary which he consecrated
to Yahwe. When he moved to Mamre in Hebron, he received the revelation about the
perpetuation of his race. This was the end of his journey. Thus his journey
terminated on the Canaanite soil, and not at Mecca.
Again, the scholars have claimed that Abraham was not a
monotheist, the believer of one God; he practised monolatry, that is, worship of
one among many gods. It has been remarked that he swore by "the Lord God
Most High" i.e., both Yahwe and El Elyon. It is this El who was to be known
as Allah in Mecca and whose statue was worshipped in Kaaba for centuries.
Here one can see the struggle for national supremacy
between the two Semitic wings; it has been going on for many centuries and is
getting worse instead of showing any signs of abatement.
To raise the prestige of Arabia, the Prophet showered
some stunning sanctity on Mecca, his birth place:
1. For example, the Koran says: "O Prophet! say to
them I have been commanded to worship only the Lord of this town, Mecca."
(2': 91)
It is an attempt to establish the special
relationship of Allah with Mecca. He is, first of all the Lord of Mecca, and
then of the rest of the world. It is Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad where
Allah lives.
2. Abraham in 14: 35-37 is shown asking Allah to make
Mecca a place of peace and security. He calls Kaaba, God's Sacred House.
3. In 5: 97, Allah declares Kaaba as the Sacred
House, an asylum of security and pilgrimage for mankind.
The Koran goes even further and declares that Abraham
was neither a Jew nor a Christian but he was a Muslim (House of Imran: 60).
Yet in another verse, Koran states that Islam is the creed of Abraham who
"Named you Muslim." (The Pilgrim: 75)
For making Arabia the focus of reverence to all believers,
the Koran ( House of Imran: 90 ) has made it obligatory to visit Mecca at least
once in one's life-time if the believer has the means to do so. It is called
Hajj and is one of the fundamental principles of the Islamic faith and carries
the key to paradise. Those who contravene it, are not true Muslims in the eyes
of Allah, who may refuse them the bounties reserved for a genuine believer.
Mecca at that time was just a large village, yet the
"Arabic Koran" declared it the Mother of the Cities to raise its
status above all the cities of the world. ( Counci l: 5 )
No national leader has ever devised such a patriotic
scheme. Its beneficence to Arabia can be judged by a single factor: in modern
times Mecca attracts at least two million pilgrims from all over the world every
year. Assuming each pilgrim spends three thousand pounds sterling, Arabia draws
an income of £6,000,000,000 per annum. The population of Saudi Arabia is said
to be 6,000,000. It works out an annual income of £1 ,000 per person including
women and children or £5,000 per family which is still greater for a comparable
family on Social Security in Great Britain and many other European countries.
Since the Hajj - income counted as the mainstay of the Arabs before they
discovered their oil wealth, one can guage the patriotic magnitude of the
Prophet. With it goes, the international reverence and the belief in the
holiness of Arabia. Fancy several hundred million people throughout the world
bowing and bending towards Mecca praying and begging for Heavenly mercy. And
this happens not once a year or a month but five times a day!
In it lies the national magnitude of Muhammad, his
vision, his wisdom and greatness of character. What a patriot the Prophet was!
There is none who can be compared with him in patriotism.
The Prophet declared his nation and country as sacred
by the force of revelation; he knew that his people could not rule the world
until they were welded into an effective fighting force. So he formulated the
doctrine of Jehad i.e. fighting against the unbelievers for taking over their
country, personal possessions and women, and subjugating them to the Arabian
hegemony.
This is how the doctrine of Jehad worked:
1. He told the Jews: "If you become Muslims, you
will be protected, otherwise, you should know that the earth belongs to Allah
and His Messenger (Muhammad), and I want to expel you from this land." (Sahih
Albukhari Vol:4)
2. Since the ambition to possess the entire earth or
the best part of it required military enlerprise, the Prophet declared:
"The paradise lies under the shades of the swords." (Sahih Albukhari
Vol: 4)
3. To give his followers the status of divine
warriors, the Koran declares:
"God has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions
against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of God; they kill and are
killed; that is a promise binding on God.." ( Repentance: 1 10 )
Paradise is the place of plentitude replete with beautiful
women and boys. If a Muslim soldier wins, his life becomes a paradise on this
earth because of the booty he receives by way of wealth and women. If he is
killed in the battle, he goes straight to the paradise. Therefore, he cannot be
the loser. What a philosophical temptation to murder, pillage and imperialism it
is!
4. Since Jehad is against the unbelievers, the Prophet
created unlimited opportunities for holy wars by declaring all other religions
false and ungodly:
"And whoever desires a religion other than
Islam, it will never be accepted..... (The House of Imran :85)
5. The Prophet abrogated all other religions because
he called himself to be the apostle of all humanity. "Any Jew or
Christian who heard of me but did not believe in me, would go to hell." (Sahih
Muslim Ch. LXX1)
6. The Prophet declared that he was commanded to
fight against people ceaselessly until they confessed that there was no god
but Allah and Muhammad was His Messenger (prophet). The lives and riches of
the people could be guaranteed protection on his behalf on the fulfilment of
this condition only. (Sahih Muslim Ch. IX)
In fact, these holy wars were the wars of national
ambition and contained all those elements of savagery as did the wars of the
infidels. The Prophet himself declared: "war is a deceit," which it
is. Therefore, its consequences could not be congenial to the Prophet's claim of
"being mercy to all beings." Al Bukhari Vol. 8 has recorded some
examples to this effect. Let me quote three:
1. The Prophet cut off the hands and feet of the men who
belonged to the tribe of Uraina and let them die bleeding.
2. When men from Ukl committed crimes, the Prophet
had them arrested. Their hands and legs were cut off, their eyes were branded
with red-hot irons and they were thrown at Al-Harra. When they begged for
drinking water, it was refused and they died thirsty.
3. Those who fought against him, he amputated their
limbs and they died of bleeding.
The prophetic attitude is justified on the authority of
the Koran:
The only reward of those who fight against Allah and
the Messenger is execution or crucifixion or the cutting of hands and feet from
opposite sides, or banishment from the land. (The Table: 33)
Thus, one can see that Islam is not a message of mercy
but a secular code like all other contemporary codes. To perpetuate
opportunities for war to keep the Mujahedeen (warriors of Allah) on war footing,
Islam is based on the hatred of non-Muslims. Consider the following:
1. Do not pray for your dead mother, father, relatives
or friends, nor go near their graves, if they were unbelievers. (Repentance:
189)
2. The believers must not take unbelievers for
friends. (The Woman tested: 10)
3. Muslims must wage a struggle against the non-
Muslims and be harsh with them. ( The Forbidding: 5 )
4. Slay the idolators wherever you find them. (
Repentance: S )
5. Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them; take
not to yourself any one of them as friend or helper. ( Women 90 )
6. God urges the Prophet to be tough with the
unbelievers and assures him that they will not be able to resist him much
longer. ( The Confederates: 60 )
7. God has cursed the unbelievers and prepared a
blaze for them. ( The Confederates: 65 )
It is quite obvious that as Karl Marx, centuries later,
dreamt of creating a world order based on social abraison in which victory of
the proletariats was assured, the Prophet wanted to found a world order on
Divine friction which sought to assure ascendancy to his foliowers led by the
Arabs.
Of course, there are certain verses in the Quran which
suggest internationalism but their meaning is misunderstood. The faithful do not
seem to realise that during the life-time of Muhammad, Islam was confined to
Arabia. Therefore, whenever, the Koran addresses the audience as
"people" "believers" or "faithful," it addresses
the Arabs who formed the audience. The fact that the Koran which emphatically
calls itself as the Arabic Koran so that the Arabs must appreciate the nature of
the message, clearly states the national spirit of Islam.
Nationhood is a natural social unit which also serves
as a measure of morality. From the union of a man and woman emerge children who
multiply into grandchildren, great- grandchildren, clans, tribes and nations,
who come to occupy a certain land. Thus they have not only a blood-tie but also
a common language and share customs and traditions common to their ancestors.
Again, their land or country plays a major role in their destiny not only as
their birthplace but also because their honour depends upon its freedom from the
foreign predators. This racial unity of the people associated with the
motherland (fatherland) gives birth to a common interest which is shared in
varying degrees by all its people, and serves as the uniting force. Of course,
religion or social dogma such as socialism also plays a role in the history of a
nation but this is of secondary nature. Religion supplies a blind force which is
weakened as the people become more intelligent and rational. Again the national
interest always rides the religious interest unless a country is run by a group
of traitors or religious fanatics. Even the Arabs are divided into many nations
each looking after its own interest. The recent Gulf war has spelt this truth
out quite clearly.
In fact the concept of national honour and the ambition
to be a great nation form the pillar of morality. The greater nations have
greater customs and traditions and higher standards of morality but the nations
such as people of the Indian subcontinent who do not believe in nationalism
practise convenient moralily which is the bane of their social and political
integrity. The creation of Pakistan shows that nationhood is a reality and not a
sentimental mumbo- jumbo. This country was created in 1947 on a religious basis
but in 1979 the eastern half ended the union on racial grounds after a lot of
bloodshed. The remaining four provinces are constantly bickering for similar
reason. As there is no national sense of honour the moral integrity of its
people is about to collapse any time.
However, Fascism and Natzism are the perverted forms of
nationalism. They represent an acute condition of mental illness because a
nation is an integral part of the human race and is thus accountable to the
wider interests of mankind. No nation is intrinsically superior to other nations
because they all have the same origin. A nation's superiority is to be judged
not by its political or economic dominance but by its services to humanity. Thus
every powerful nation has a duty of care to the weaker nations.
A truly civilised nation abhors racism which is an
expression of man's lower instincts. This is the reason that the cultural
decency is a part of nationalism. It means that a civilised nation opens its
doors to the needy members of foreign nations to become its part on humanitarian
grounds and treats them as if they were racially one of them. Great Britain, the
United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and France are some examples of
adoptive nationalism. It shows the human link of nations which overrides other
conditions but it cannot be practised on a "free for all" basis owing
to the local considerations.
The Prophet's nationalism was imbued by the religious
overtones. A Moslem had some privileges like the Arabs but he was still an Arab
subject because the government belonged to the Arabs, especially the Quresh.
The Prophet made the sanctity of his own person as the
cornerstone of the Islamic edifice. For example, without believing in him, the
belief in God is absolutely useless. The projection of himself as the
Behavioural Model ( USWA-e- HASNA) for the believers, no matter where they may
be, has served as the fountain of Arab national superiority for centuries.
It should be clearly understood that the prophet was an
Arab who had inherited the Arab culture. Therefore, he lived like the fellow
Arabs. In the beginning, religion was the only difference between him and the
fellow Arabs. Once they had accepted his faith, there were no other cultural
differences to be resolved. They all spoke Arabic, wore similar clothes, ate the
same food, followed similar customs and traditions, experienced similar winters
and summers, shared the same national anniversaries, history and temperament.
Since nobody can enter paradise without the Prophet's
consent, and the Prophet will intercede for his followers only, it is thought
absolutely necessary by the believers to follow the Prophet as the Behavioural
Model in every detail with utmost sincerity. The faith has come to mean, not
only to pray, fast and perform Hajj, the way the Prophet used to do, but also
look like him, that is, to cut hair like him, wear clothes like him, walk like
him, talk like him, sleep like him, eat like him, adopt his manners and customs.
Above all, love and hate what he loved and hated. This tendency has had a
devastating effect on the national character of foreign nations which came to
accept Islam, possibly with the exception of the Turks. As the Prophet loved
Arabia and its cultural traditions, the foreign Muslim nations started loving
Arabia and its traditions at the expense of their own countries and cultures. It
should be noted that the Prophet hated infidels. As the ancestors of these
foreign nations were invariably unbelievers, they started hating their own
forefathers to love the Arab heroes. The Prophet's assertion that the Muslims
are one nation, and infidels are another, accelerated the process of the foreign
Muslims' unity with the Arabs, but as the Behavioural Model was Arabian, the
relationship between the Arabs and the foreign Muslims became that of a leader
and the led or the master and the slave. This influence which was originally of
individual nature, eventually penetrated the foreign institutions. For example,
most of the Muslim shrines are in Arabia i.e. in Mecca and Medina, but all other
shrines in the foreign lands are subordinated to the Arabian shrines. This
cultural following of the foreigners has assumed slavish mentality because
whatever they think or do must conform to the patterns of thinking and doing set
by the Arabian soil and culture. As a result, the foreign Muslims have little or
no loyalty to their own motherlands for being devoid of national honour. This is
nothing but the miracle of the Prophet who imposed the everlasting hegemony of
his own people on Muslims of foreign nations. I salute him and applaud his
ingenuity because he has created similar relationship between Arabia and the
foreign Muslim countries as it exists between a burning lamp and moths; these
insects are impatient to cremate themselves on its flame without any coercion on
the part of the lamp! This divine imperialism has no parallel in history. About
two dozen countires which the Arabs conquered, are still in their possession as
"Arab countries." One wonders what happened to the original
papulations. They are obviously ashamed of their real identities and want to be
known as Arabs.
This concept of one Muslim nationhood or the Arabian
over- lordship equally applies to the nations which were once the pillars of
civilisation. What happened to the Egyptians, the great followers of the exalted
pharaohs, whose splendour covered 3000 years of history? They all have become
Arabs. What happened to the mighty Iranians who had not only a glorious history
of 1200 years but produced their own prophets of gigantic stature? The grandeur
of the Iranians was so great that the traditions of their imperial court were
closely imitated by Alexander the Great, the Roman emperors and the European
monarchs. They influenced the Raman law, checked the foreign advance in Asia and
humiliated the Romans again and again. Their prophets such as Zaratushtra and
Mani influenced religion and world thinking. But since they have become
spiritual satellites or Arabia, their national stars have been on the wane.
India is yet another example of this saga. This land has exerted more influence
on the world civilisation than any other country in the world. Its inventiveness
through steel, cotton and water technology made a tremendous contribution to the
international culture, and its philosophical and religious movements have
orientated the human mind in the East and the West. But now she is at the lower
rung of the Third World. The Hindus, though did not lack the nerve to defend
their country, never respected the idea of nationhood owing to the Caste System.
Before the entry of Islam, India was not only a free country but also the
richest and technically the most advanced in the world. It was her misfortune
that neither it became an Arabian land like Egypt, owing to its strong local
influences nor could it retain its quasi national character like the Iranian for
lacking the proud imperial traditions. As a result, the Muslims of India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh, whose numbers touch the 400 million mark, totally lack
the concept of nationhood. They are refugees in their own countries for having
no real love and respect for their motherlands. Since national consciousness has
the same relationship with a people as backbone has with the body, it is natural
for these people to keep drifting until they realise that their homelands are,
where they were born, and not in Arabia. This situation has been worsened by the
fact that these "nations" are poor and victims of social tyranny,
which pays lip service to justice and human rights, while doing exactly the
opposite. It is usual that a person who lacks pleasure, habitually dreams more
af it. Therefore, the Moslems of these lands miss delights of paradise violently
and look forward to the fulfilment of their frustrated ambitions in the next
world. As it is the Prophet who holds the key to paradise, these people have
become even more fanatic followers of the Prophet, and are prepared to do
anything in the name of Muhammad to qualify for admission into paradise. It is
the national struggle for survival, honour and supremacy which makes a people
great. By destroying the national spirit of the non-Arab Muslims, Islam has
demolished the Asian centres of civilisation such as Egypt, Iran and India. This
fact is amply vouched for by the economic and political splendour of the Far
Eastern countries which have not been gripped by the Islamic concepts, and are
guided by the law of reason, and national considerations. Japan, China, Korea,
Taiwan, etc., are fairly free fram hunger, disease and tyranny. These nations
are living in a paradise on this earth whereas the believers are dreaming of an
imaginary heaven, and through sheer frustration, are becoming more and more
fanatic. This is the reason for the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and not that
they want to practise Islam, which is impracticable in the modern world. They
are crying for an Islamic government under the force of propaganda without
knowing anything about its nature. Therefore I may briefly touch upon this
subject to show that revelation is neither for ever nor is it capable of solving
human problems, which people have to tackle themselves. The Muslims claim that
Islam is a complete code of life. It is nothing of the sort. This is the reason
that no Islamic government has ever been introduced in the long history of
Islam. It is just a political slogan of those who want to fool people to satisfy
their own ends by exploiting people's religious susceptibilities. Some fifty
years ago, India was partitioned to create Pakistan for the introduction of an
Islamic government. After half a century of cogitation, nobody knows what
Islamic government is, nor is there any likelihood of its enforcement during the
next century and thereafter. It was just a cry of the power-hungry men who
exploited the word: "Islam" to gain power and wealth. If these leaders
were honest in their assertions, they should have given the exact details of the
Islamic government to the people before embarking on their mission.
Since Muslims are becoming more fundamentalistic every
day, I may examine the major precepts of Islam to expose their irrelevance in
the modern world:
1. The first Islamic assertion is that government
belongs to God. No, government belongs to the people. What makes man a man is
his free will i.e., the freedom to choose and refuse. He can do so only if the
government belongs to man.
2. Muslems claim that:
a. Islam offers a particular system of government, b.
and this system is democracy.
Neither of these assertions holds good: Firstly, when the
Prophet died, succession became a very acute problem, indeed. He left no
instructions how to appoint his successor though the Shiites claim that the
Prophet had nominated Ali to take over the government. An indecision about such
a vital point shows that there is no such thing as Islamic system of government.
Labelling a few laws as Islamic government, especially
when most of them were borrowed from Iran, do not create the structure for an
independent government.
Secondly, Islamic government is not democratic. As
stated earlier, ils head has to be a Qureshi. At the most, it can be quasi
oligarchic.
Its first four rulers were appointed differently: Abu
Bakr was chosen through a stratagem. Omar was appointed by Abu Bakr. Having
failed to persuade Abd-Ur-Rahman to accept nomination, Omar appointed a
committee of six men to choose his successor. They chose Uthman. Selection by
six men is surely not democracy. When Uthmam was assassinated, Ali was raised to
the status of the Caliph by his own clan, the Hashamite. I need not mention the
Battle of Karbla and the heroic deeds of Hussain. The fact is, thereafter the
Islamic Caliphate became a dynastic rule or kingship.
Thirdly, the Khilafat-e-Rashida i.e. the rule of the
first four Caliphs is considered as the Golden Period of Islam as well as the
model Islamic government, and thus emphasis is laid on following its example.
Unfortunately, the believers do not know the whole truth about this period. To
start with, 90% of all Arabs after the Prophet's death refused to pay Zakat and
thus turned renegades (Murtad). They actually marched on Medina. It was the
courage and timely action of Abu Bakr which repulsed them. Had they succeeded,
it would have sounded the death knell of Islam. Only Abu Bakr died naturally
after a rule of eighteen months whereas Omar, Uthman and Ali were assassinated.
How golden was this period, can be further assessed by
the fact that the Arabs made a profession of robbing and murdering the
non-Moslems in the name of Allah, but they called it Jehad. Egypt and Iran were
the early casualties. It was the pillaged wealth and the abducted daughters and
sisters of the foreign nations which lent the golden touch to this Arab era.
3. They claim that Islam is a Socialistic system. It is
totally untrue. Of course, Islam is an advocate of charity and advises the
faithful to give away what is over and above his needs, but this is completely
a moral precept, and has nothing to do with the Islamic law, which is
essentially feudalistic. Islam openly declares that God makes king whom he
likes, and gives wealth to a person without reckoning: wealth includes all
types of possessions, i.e., money, land, buildings, etc. It means that both
democracy and Socialism are un-lslamic.
4. Islam has no economic doctrine. For example, it
forbids receiving and giving interest whereas interest is an essential
economic factor, and it is impossible to run an economy without it. All those
Muslim leaders, both political and religious, who raise slogans for the
abolition of Riba (interest) receive interest from banks, building societies,
insurance companies and national bonds. Even the Islamic governments lend
their petro-dollars on maximum interest. The advantages of interest as long as
it is not extortionate, far outweigh its disadvantages.
5. Islamic laws are bound to be impracticable because
they were devised or adapted 1400 years ago. Take purdah or hijab, for
instance. It is a stern Koranic command, yet it has been ignored nearly by all
the Muslim countries. This is equally true with regard to polygamy and the
laws of inheritance, divorce, Khula, etc. To hide these deficiencies, the
zealots have made misinterpretation as their greatest hobby. No matter how
un-Islamic a practice, they quite artificially put the stamp of the Koran or
the Hadith on it.
6. Islamic hatred for non-Muslims makes Islam the
opponent of human rights. This is the reason that one cannot find many
non-Muslims in the Muslim countries. The Prophet ordered his followers to
expel all pagans from Arabia and he himself banished the Jews. In fact, a
hadith says: a Muslim in anger can slap a Jew without fear of compensation.
Similarly, a Muslim cannot be executed for murdering a non-Muslim. Further,
the aggressive nature of an Islamic regime can be judged by the fact that the
Muslims have their mosques in Benares (India), the spiritual centre of
Hinduism, but nobody can build a temple, church or synagogue in Mecca. Again,
as association of a Muslim with a non-Muslim is forbidden by the Koran,
membership of the United Nations by all Muslim nations is un-lslamic. What a
model of international brotherhood it is!
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