CHAPTER 3
The Islamic Culture
What I have stated
in the previous chapters, lays down the foundation of the Islamic Culture. What
is Islamic Culture?
Islamic culture is fundamentalistic for being based on
the hatred of non-Muslims. In an Islamic state, discrimination is to be
maintained legally against an infidel by subjecting him to Jazya (Poll tax).
In fact, Islamic culture is an extension of the Arab
imperialism which has weakened the sense of national identity of the non-Arab
Muslims to such an extent that they prefer to call themselves Muslims, the
people associated with the Arab traditions instead of being Indians, Pakistanis,
Iranians or Afghanis. Thus they are easily excited in the name of Islam to do
what they will not do ordinarily. Again, as it is the faith of every Muslim to
rule the non-Muslims, it makes this culture extremely aggressive.
It is an Islamic law that a Muslim must not befriend a
non- Muslim even that be his mother, father, brother, sister or son. Nor must he
participate in their rites of birth and burial. This is a disturbing aspect of
Islam because it forbids a Muslim nation to be a member of an International
Organisation such as the U.N.O. or to respect the concepts of human rights and
civil liberties. It is dangerous to peace.
Being a despotic culture, it is inimical to democracy,
the system of social equality and people's sovereignty. It is because in Islam,
the government belongs to Allah; man must obey the laws made by God and the
Prophet without questioning them, irrespective of how irrelevant and outdated
they may be. Absolutism has always been the source of aggression.
A peculiarity of Islam is that it glorifies violence
and sanctifies murder and pillage of the non-Muslims and abduction of their
women for spreading the name af Allah who claims to be All-Powerful, yet
dependent on man for proclaiming His glory! He also calls Himself the Most
Merciful, yet He sanctions the basest form of cruelty to those humans, who are
not inclined to acknowledge Him as the Divine. Murder, rape, pillage, abduction,
etc., are the worst forms of moral vices, yel Allah adores them as virtues for
the Crusaders (Mujahedeens) who subjugate the non-Muslims to the yoke of Islam.
One is baffled by such a morality which has been invented to initiate
aggression. A Muslim calls it "Jehad," the Holy War irrespective of
the unholiness of the ways and means of waging it. Since it is impossible to be
a great nation without practising greater morality, the Muslim morality as
practised in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh has suffered for lack of national
conscience.
The economic weakness of the Muslim world has
contributed towards the misfortune of the adherents of Islam socially as well as
religiously. The leadership in these countries keeps brainwashing people with
the ever-increasing miraculous powers of the Prophet who will find a place in
the paradise for his followers irrespective of their moral failings. For
subjecting masses to social injustice and economic exploitation, these leaders
fool them in the name of the Prophet. As a result, social justice is becoming a
joke in these countries, correspondingly raising their hopes of Deferred
FulFilment, that is, the Prophet will compensate them in the next world by
getting them into the paradise. This is what is making the Muslims more
fundamentalistic and aggressive every day, protecting them as a threat to the
survival of humanity.
The discussion that have initiated is not only novel
but may also appear nasty, nauseating and negative to those who think of
Muhammad as the greatest of all prophets, and even greater than Allah Himself.
Revelation, the pivot of prophethood, does not stand up to rational examination.
Having discussed it in detail in my books "Eternity" and "The
Universal Mystery, " I need not analyse it here but ought to mention two
points for making the narrative more effective and informative:
Islam propounds the concept of a creator God who is
All- Powerful, Absolute and totally Independent. The doctrine of revelation
negates it completely for two reasons: Firstly, the Koran depicts Allah as
desperate for being loved and worshipped. He not only swears at the unbelievers
and threatens them with the most sadistic punishment of hell but also bribes
them with paradise full of beautiful virgins and pretty boys. Such a God cannot
be independent whose happiness and unhappiness depends on whether man
acknowledges Him his Lord or not. Not only that, the doctrine of revelation
makes God dependent on the will of a man, who claims himself to be a
revelationist i.e. the prophet. Such a God cannot be Independent, Absolute or
the Creator.
Some believers, to overcome this difficulty, think of a
prophet as God-incarnate. For example, the Christians hold Christ as God, the
Son, or simply God. Similarly, most Muslims, think of Muhammad as God's Beloved,
the Cause of the creation or just God. Unless faith is a form of sheer
make-believe, a prophet must have some physical qualities to distinguish him as
divine but as we know a prophet is subject to birth and burial, he eats and
drinks and answers the call of nature, he has sexual desires, fathers children,
feels sad and glad, becomes ill and needs medicines, grows old and eventually
dies. These all are human traits. How can one call a prophet Divine?
One ought to realise that man is an exalted being only
because he is endowed with rational qualities such as thinking, reasoning,
analytical powers. Therefore, what gags human reasoning is antihuman. Thus
faith, which makes man acknowledge the ridiculous as the right, is a form of
make- believe. Since revelation, the source of prophethood, utterly fails the
test of reasoning, faith in a prophet is just an act of make-believe inspired by
fear, tradition or propaganda.
It is not Muhammad's prophethood which is under
discussion here. I am interested in his human stature, which was magnificent. In
fact, he was the greatest national leader that mankind has known. This aspect of
his personality is overshadowed by his claim of prophethood. Therefore, I should
refer to his secular eminence, and emphasise that Muhammad was the Builder of
the Arab Empire. His brilliant success in this field made a generous
contribution towards his spiritual stature.
Of course, Muhammad was an orphan, and thus had certain
disadvantages, which were made good by a loving grandfather and an uncle.
However, the dynastic merits that he had, surpassed his disabilites. He belonged
to the tribe of Quresh who had gained a position of superiority for being the
lords of the Meccan temple, the Kaaba, and thus came to be known as the people
of Allah. Marital union with Khadija, was yet another blessing which Muhammad
enjoyed for 26 years until her death. She was a loyal spouse whose wealth and
support helped her husband considerably. It was she who confirmed his mission by
becoming the first convert. Ali, his first cousin, whom he had adopted, was the
second person and Zaid, his former slave, was the third. Abu Bakr, who deserves
a good deal of credit for the success of Muhammad's mission, was one of his old
wealthy friends and an early convert. Thus Muhammad had a small core of devotees
coupled with the means to achieve a determined ambition.
After receiving command from God to preach His name,
the Prophet did not spread the gospel publically for three years though he did
acquaint his family-members with the new doctrine. However, what is perplexing,
is the fact that if he was a prophet before Adam was created, why did he not
spread the message until he was forty? Did he not neglect his duty for four
decades? It is more likely that he was not aware of his prophethood.
Revelation is the device which makes a man, (the
revelationist) divine but reduces the stature of God who becomes dependent upon
the revelationist i.e. the prophet, to execute His will. Getting adored and
worshipped by man, is God's greatest desire. Since it is man who serves as the
medium of granting this burning wish to God, man ranks as God's superior. Thus
the device of revelation is derogatory to the dignity of God. Again, as nobody
can see or contact God directly, it is the prophet, who speaks to people,
becomes as God-incarnate. This fact is quite evident in the world of Islam
because the Muslims love Muhammad more than God, and believe that the Prophet
can bestow salvation on any one he likes but God cannot do so without the
Prophet's consent!
However, revelation is a very clever principle because
it makes the prophet a go-between-God-and-people. If things go well, the prophet
gets the credit bul if they do not, he remains clear of the blame because it is
God who is the cause of everything and whose will must be respected under all
circumstances. The major benefit of revelation is that it projects God as
All-Knowing, All-Powerful and Omnipresent. Therefore, it is much easier to lead
and motivate believers in the name of God. Yet another superlative advantage of
revelation is the prestige of the prophet whose person becomes sancrosanct and
whose word is considered as the Word of God.
History has noted that a prophet is not a recessive but
a dominant person. Leading people by dictating their preferences and aversions,
he establishes himself as their leader and expects the maximum adoration for his
person. Though he may claim himself to be the lieutenant or servant of God, in
practice he acts, and is considered as God himself. God is a fall-guy who slays
in the background and cannot be contacted by the seekers; all His devotees must
seek Him through the medium of the prophet!
It is for this reason that the Koran treats Muhammad
and Allah as one; they both decide important matters together and nobody has the
power to question their decisions. The Koran clearly states that Muhammad shall
sit on the right hand side of Allah on the Day of Judgement. Very clearly, it
shows the inadequacy of God, and this point is further driven home by the fact
that nobody can become a Muslim just by believing in Allah; one must believe in
both Allah and Muhammad.
However, nobody can become a prophet unless there is a
God. Revelation is a Semitic device. This is the reason that all Semitic tribes
had their own Gods and every local ruler used to issue a legal code in the name
of his God whose servant and representative he claimed to be. Though he
commanded people as he pleased, he expressed his commandments as revelations
from God. It had two great advantages, firstly, it made their rule look
impersonal and as a duty laid upon them by God, and secondly, it gave their
government a supernatural force which created a considerable national and social
cohesion between people for having the same God who was anxious to steer their
ship of life through stormy and serene conditions. As today, motherland or
fatherland is the pivot of nationhood, in the Semitic culture, the tribal or
national God has been the fulcrum of a group's nationality. The concept of Yahwe
has rendered this service to the Jews in diaspora. Without it, they could not
have retained their consciousness of national unity despite being scattered in
so many lands.
The Prophet Muhammad was a wise person. He knew that
the greatness of a leader depends on the greatness of his followers. Therefore,
he wanted to create a great nation, and needed a backbone for restructuring an
Arab nation, which at that time was bitterly divided into clans and tribes,
having no national unity, and perpetually at one another's throat. This was the
reason that the Kaaba had become a pantheon, the abode of many gods, created by
the foreign influences such as Greek, Roman, Iranian and Indian. Thus, different
Arab tribes had a varying degree of devotion to different gods. It was divisive,
and injurious to the national unity.
This is what necessitated the creation of a national
God. Muhammad knew of a precedent i.e. Moses, who founded in the 13th century
B.C. the community known as Israel. He was a great prophet and teacher. There is
hardly any doubt that Muhammad was aware of the contents of the Torah, also
called the Pentateuch, the five books of the Bible whose authorship is ascribed
to Moses. This is borne out by the fact that Warqa Ibn Naufal, the cousin of
Muhammad's wife, Khadija, was a learned Jew who interpreted Muhammad's
experience in his place of retreat at Hira.
By noting the salient features of Moses' life, we come
to realise that he was the model that Muhammad followed in mission and details.
Moses was brought up in the Egyptian court as a prince but his people, the
Hebrews, had been subjected to a most despicable bondage. His people were just a
rabble having no social organisation or sense of nationhood. To restrict their
numbers, the Egyptian Pharaoh had ordered the extermination of each Jewish male
birth. Moses found the courage and determination to secure the release of his
people from Egypt.
Moses was a warrior and a general. Though these virtues
had a great value for building a nation, they were not sufficient on their own.
As Pharaoh commanded the Egyptians in his capacity as God, Moses must acquire
some kind of divine status to impress upon people with a supernatural support.
Moses had married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, and
accepted responsibility for his flocks. One day, when he roamed the wilderness,
looking for pasture, he reached the base of a mountain where he was suddenly
absorbed by an unusual spectacle. He saw a bush which was burning but it did not
suffer consumption. As he stood dazed, a voice rang in his ears telling him not
to come any closer. It was the voice of God, who claimed to be the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; He was calling him to deliver the Hebrews from Egypt.
Thus Moses projected himself to be the champion of his people. His act of
deliverance displayed the might of Yahwe, the Jewish God, who showed his highly
miraculous powers to subdue the Pharaoh. It was necessary to demonstrate God's
powers for convincing the Hebrews (the Jews) that their God was All-Powerful,
and therefore, nobody should underestimate Him. Not only that, Yahwe, being the
causative form of the verb "to be" is the Creator God. It means that
the Jewish God is the sovereign Lord over nature and the nations of the world.
Idolatory was the accepted form of worship in the
ancient world. The devotees had to imagine the form of their deity to be able to
worship Him/Her. However, Moses introduced a novel element into worship. By
declaring Yahwe unimageable, he declared that God could not be represented
through stones or any other materials, and thus abolished idolatroy. The Hebrews
had learnt to worship various gods in Egypt. By projecting Yahwe the jealous
God, who was also very retributive, Moses persuaded his people to believe and
worship one God, who must serve as the cause of national unity by becoming the
common denominator of their faith. To convince his people of the splendour of
Yahwe, His appearance in chapters 19 and 20 of Exodus is associated with a
terrific storm at Mount Sinai. This was a revelatory experience to be remembered
by all including Moses.
The master stroke of the Mosaic approach was his
Covenant with God at Sinai. He modelled it on the Hittite lines i.e. in such
stipulations the Hittite suzerain granted the treaty to his vassal as an act of
kindness in return for acknowledging the favours that the former had bestowed on
the latter, and were to continue as long as the vassal obeyed the law laid down
by the sovereign. The vassal was not allowed to follow any other law. This
served as the fountain of monotheism i.e. the worship of one God. Thus,
Pentateuch i.e. The Torah was God's law binding on all Jews.
According to this covenant, Moses was the prophet of
Yahwe, the God, as before him, Abraham, Noah, Jacob, etc., had been His
prophets, who were entrusted with the duty of making their people obedient to
God.
By declaring Islam as the religion of Abraham, Muhammad
was able to borrow most of the Jewish canons and methods. Though he originally
sought the amalgam of the Jews with his own people to capitalise on the Jewish
experience, and thus heaped a lavish praise on their excellence and made
Jerusalem the Kibla for Islam, but when he realised that the Jews were extremely
reluctant to lose their national identity, he condemned them outrightly to raise
a nation which was purely Arab. For this purpose, following the Jewish model:
1. He wanted to establish the existence of a God easily
identifiable with the Arabs, who must worship Him exlusively to experience a
common factor of national unity.
2. He wanted to declare himself as a prophet i.e. the
sole medium or God's instructions.
3. He wanted to create a Holy Arabic Book as the Jews
had Torah in their own Ianguage.
4. For creating a separate Arab nation, he wanted to
assure his people that God had made a covenant with Abraham and Ishmael and
not Abraham and Isaac as the Jews claimed. (Ishmael was the ancestor of the
Arabs whereas Isaac was the progenitor of the Jews). Here one can clearly see
the national approach.
5. Above all, the Arab cultural institutions must be
incorporated in Islam to make it easily acceptable to the Arabs and to give
them distinction over the non- Arab Moslems.
6. The Prophet's wisdom and the spirit of national
beneficence is confirmed by the element of universality he introduced into
Islam by making it congenial to the Arab nationalism.
7. Like Moses, the Prophet Muhammad also made warfare
the main tool of enhancing his national prestige. For making his people
willing fighters, Muhammad made killing and plunder the acts of holiness
leading to paradise where in luxurious settings the most beautiful virgins and
youths await the coming of the Muslim martyrs to delight them with their
charms and services. The Prophet called the plunder and murder of other
nations in the name of God as the Jehad which brought secular dominance in
this world and the pleasures of paradise in the next.
What I have said above is the truth and nothing but the
whole truth, and it was all in the national cause. As stated earlier, the
Prophet built the structure of Islam around the sanctity of his own person by
declaring himself to be the Model of action, the Blessing for mankind and the
only Intercessor. Of course, he wanted to be at the head of his nation but he
knew that the greatness of a leader depends on the greatness of his nation.
Therefore. he classified humanity in the following order;
a. Muhammad is the best of all mankind.
b. His family Banu Hashim is the best of all families.
c. His tribe, the Quresh are the best of all tribes.
I have already quoted the appropriate hadiths to this
effect and need not repeat them. However, I may add that if the Quresh were best
of all the Arabs, the Arabs themsleves must be above all nations. This point
emerges clearly from the fact that only the Quresh were eligible to rule. As
they were Arabs, it follows that the destiny of all non-Arabs, whether Muslim or
not, was to be ruled by the Arabs, as the will of Allah.
1. Why did the Prophet choose Allah as the God of
Islam?
Allah was a statue in the pantheon of the Kaaba i.e. it
was one of the many idols, but it was distinguished for having a special
association with the Quresh, who were called as "the people of Allah."
It is well-known that in the other Arabian kingdoms such as Saba (South Arabia),
the earlier form of government was in the hands of Mukarribs, the high
priest-princes, who wielded religious and temporal powers in the state. The
state of the Himayari which sprang up between 115 and 109 B.C. was also
organised on the priest-prince principle. In fact, it had been customary in all
states of the Arabian peninsula that the head of the state should also be the
religious leader for acting as the vicar or caliph of the local deity. It is
this investiture of divine authority which entitled him to rule people. This
theory was also prevalent in the Western Arabia i.e. Mecca; it was Allah's grace
which gave Quresh, the priestly and dynastic exultation. Thus, Allah was the
tribal god for the Quresh to which Muhammad belonged. Wisdom required of
Muhammad to declare the oneness of Allah to deny the existence of all other gods
which had sprung up from the foreign influences and chiefly belonged to the
other Arabian tribes. The glorification of Allah, besides national
consideration, also had psychological connotations: it was to please the Quresh
whose preferred social position must influence the other tribes. Again, as Allah
was the god of Quresh, it was easier for other Arab clans to accept the
political and spiritual hegemony of the Quresh when it was to become the command
of Allah.
The oneness of Allah required not only the destruction
of other idols but also the statue of Allah himself, who had such an immense
stature, that being transcendent, He was not imageable i.e. He could not be
represented through copper, bronze or any kind of material. The Prophet was a
man of great wisdom. By making Allah supreme and an abstruse deity, he was able
to share His divinity with Him because he was the only one with whom Allah
conversed. The Koran clearly states this fact.
"It is not for any believer, man or woman, when God
and His Messenger have decreed a matter, to have the choice in the affair.
Whosoever disobeys God and His Messenger has gone astray into clear error.''
(The confederates: 20)
It is quite evident that Allah and Muhammad are one and
the same person because whatever is decided, is done by them jointly, and
disobedience to the one is an act of rebellion against the other.
Like the Jews, the Arabs must have one God to give them
the feeling of oneness. It was more appropriate to the Arabs because they had
become warring factions on tribal grounds and could not be welded into one
nation without having one supreme God.
Muhammad's wisdom and his love for Arabism is vouched
for by his concept of universality,. The Jewish Deity, Yahwe, is the God of
Israel but the Prophet declared Allah as the God of the universe. The reader, at
this juncture is entitled to ask me, "How on earth, does this support
Muhammad's theory of nationalism?"
The answer lies in the fact that to give his nation a
higher social status, he attached very high sanctity to the cultural
institutions of Arabia. Therefore, those who believed in Islam, were also
obliged to acknowledge the spiritual hegemony of the Arabian soil as well as its
cultural values. One of such institutions was the Kaaba.
To illustrate the significance of this point, I ought
to refer to Zion. This was the Jebusite city captured in the 10th century B.C.
by David, who adopted the Jebusite rituals. It was a pre-Israelite Canaanite
name of the mount upon which Jerusalem was built. The word "Zion"
appears in the Old Testament 152 times. Thus Zion has come to mean the city of
Jerusalem rather than the hill itself. Both the heathen and faithful know the
sanctity attached to the word: "Jerusalem" yet it is usually the name:
"Zion" which carries the emotional and religious overtones. It is
because Mount Zion is considered the seat of Yahwe, the God of Israel; this is
where He dwells (Isa. 24: 23) and where He installed His king, David (Ps. 2: 6).
Though Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. the loving memory
of Zion became inscribed in the hearts of the Israelites (Ps. 137). After the
Jews had been expelled from Jerusalem, the prophecy of their return held Zion as
the scene of Yahwe's messianic salvation; they were to return to Zion where they
would find Yahwe (Jer. 31). Though the Temple itself is in the city of
Jerusalem, the reverence shown to Zion, raised it to the dignity of the Jewish
homeland. It is symbolic of Judaism, and has come to mean the centre of the
Jewish national aspirations. The movement known as Zionism which meant
establishing a Jewish home in Palestine is a continuation of the reverence to
Zion or Jerusalem. By acting as the centre of the Jewish faith and aspiration,
Zion or Jerusalem has kept alive the national spirit of Jewish oneness though
they have been scattered all over the world for many centuries. It is for this
reason that they would not set up a common homeland in the Gentile lands though
they had many chances to do so, if they wished.
One further point to note in this respect is, that most
of the Jews are racially Jews, and the Jews converted from the other races are a
few, indeed. But even these converted Jews, who strictly speaking, are
foreigners, think of Jerusalem as their home owing to the divine sanctity
attached to it, and give it preference over their own homelands.
After this narrative, it becomes easy to understand the
national spirit of the Prophet Muhammad. The Kabba, a little temple in Mecca had
similar sanctity for the Arabs of Jahiliya (the pre-lslamic Arabs) as Zion or
Jerusalem has for the Jews. The Quresh, through their religious prestige, had
been able to declare their well watered stony valley of Mecca as sacrosanct. As
a result. the Kaaba ranked the holiest place in Arabia and people from all parts
of the country made pilgrimage to it. This is what made the Quresh of Mecca the
guardians of the Kaaba. Allah, the idol of the Quresh tribe, came to be known as
the Lord of the Kaaba for this reason. The Prophet included pilgrimage to the
Kaaba along with its customary sanctity and rituals, in the basic tenets of
Islam. First he called Mecca as "the Mother of Cities" though it was
only a small town, and then gave Kaaba the highest degree of reverence. See for
yourself:
"It was Abraham and his son Ishmael who raised the
foundations of the House (Kaaba)." ( The Cow: 120)
Since Abraham is the highly praised Jewish patriarch
in the Old Testament, and was made "perfect " by God, the raising of
Kaaba by him, and Ishmael, the ancestor of the Prophet, lends this place a
divine aura and national honour. (The Cow: 145)
The Koran designates Kaaba as the Holy Mosque and commands
Muslims of all countries to face Kaaba when they pray to Allah. They usually do
so five-times-a-day. Imagine 1,000,000,000 Muslims from all continents
prostrating towards Kaaba simultaneously several times a day!
The Koran further states:
The first House established for the people was that at
Becca (Mecca), a place holy and a guidance for all beings ..... It is the duty
of all men towards God to come to the House as pilgrim, if he is able to make
his way there." (The House of Imran: 90)
Every Muslim who is healthy and can afford to undertake a
pilgrimage to Mecca, must do so. If he does not, then he is a person of dubious
faith and is likely to rot in hell, but the one who has done a pilgrimage to
Mecca is sure to enter paradise and taste the pleasure that the most beautiful
virgins offer; it matters not that they have been rapists, murderers, thugs,
thieves, traitors or vice-mongers.
It is this guarantee of salvation associated with the
Kaaba that makes the non-Arab Muslims prefer Arabia to their own motherlands and
they like being called Muslims instead of Indians, Pakistanis or Bangladeshi.
They do not realise that the grandeur of the Arab nationalism has paralysed
their own sense of national honour to such an extent that they dislike being
known what they really are. This is the height of brain-washing.
Physically, the Kaaba is a small shrine near the centre
of the Great Mosque in Mecca. This cube-shaped structure is constructed of grey
stone and marble. It is oriented in a way that its corners nearly correspond to
the points of the compass. Almost throughout the year, the Kaaba is covered with
a huge cloth of black brocade. A pilgrim is required to walk around the Kaaba
seven times and kiss the Black Stone. It is said that this stone was given to
Adam by God when he was expelled from paradise. This tiny Arabian stone commands
the greatest respect anywhere on earth by the blessing of the Prophet, yet it is
well known to history that during the earlier years of his prophetic ministry,
he hardly paid any attention to the Kaaba, but when the Jews refused to accept
Islam, he withdrew the status of Kibla from Jerusalem and bestowed it on the
Kaaba. It should also be remembered that kissing the Black Stone is one of the
pre-Islamic rituals but it has been retained in Islam as a part of the old Arab
culture. Even today the pilgrims attire themselves as they did in the
pre-Islamic days for this purpose. Kissing the Black Stone and pilgrimage to the
Kaaba are the relics of the period of Jahilaya, and must not form part of Islam;
their retention expressly vouches for the national spirit of the Prophet and
signifies the true purpose of Islam.
As long as a Muslim lives, he acknowledges Kaaba as
Kibla, that is, the direction of his prostration, and when he dies, he is buried
facing Kaaba, thus a Muslim is tied to the spiritual hegemony of Kaaba from
birth to burial. What an honour the Prophet bestowed upon his country, by
subjugating the faith of the 1,000,000,000 non-Arab Muslims to his birth-place
Mecca where the Kaaba is.
This is the significance of Kaaba, the Kibla.
Originally, Jerusalem was the Kibla of the Moslems. Who appointed Kaaba as the
Kibla? The Koran says:
"We (Allah) have seen thee (Muhammad)
turning thy face about
in the heaven, now we will surely turn thee
to a direction that shall satisfy thee.
Turn thy face towards the Holy Mosque; and
wherever, you are, turn your face towards it....'
( The Cow: 135)
"Surely God is powerful over everything.
From whatsoever place Thou issuest,
turn thy face towards the Holy Mosque;
it is the truth from thy Lord.."
( The Cow: 140)
According to these verses, changing the direction of
worship from Jerusalem to the Holy Mosque i.e. the Kaaba took place as a favour
from Allah to Muhammad, who kept looking upward into the sky, hoping to be heard
by Allah. It means that Allah has no will of His own; He is a factotum of
Muhammad and does what is required of Him. Appointing or changing the Kibla is a
fundamental issue, and is solely a matter for Allah. A prophet who is a human,
must not have any say in it. And if he does, then that man is either Allah
Himself, or what is being projected as Allah, is not Allah at all.
From the historical review of Allah that I have
conducted on the previous pages, it is clear that Allah was just a statue in the
Kaaka; it was a lifeless object; it was animated as the Supreme Being by
Muhammad. In plain English, it is not Allah who created Muhammad, it is Muhammad
who created Allah. Therefore, He is obliged to follow the whim of Muhammad.
Making Kaaba as the Kibla imposes the Arabian spiritual
hegemony on the world of Islam the same way as the sanctity bestowed on
Jerusalem by Yahwe makes Israel the exalted land on this planet. Everybody knows
that it is a part of the racial superiority that the Jews claim. How can it be
different in the case of the Arabs? Muhammad was as much a national leader as
was Moses; he was even more so because he bestowed racial superiority on his
people without declaring so. This vouches for the wisdom and patriotism of
Muhammad.
The Prophet knew that one of the reasons that made the
Jews a staunch nation was their Book i.e. the Old Testament (commonly known as
the Bible). The Bible or more accurately the Pentateuch or Torah though an
authorship of Moses, has been projected as the Divine Revelation. Thus Torah,
God's book is an integral part of the Jewish nationhood. Not only does it lend
them heavenly grace, but it also binds them together as members of one nation.
Why should not Arabs have the celestial honour of
having a book of their own? They needed it even more urgently because they were
divided into warring factions - one clan cutting the throat of another with
tribal pride. If anybody deserved to have a book, it was the Arabs who had a
well developed language and were proud of their poetry. Even more surprising is
the fact that though they preterred their own tribe to others, when it came to
the appreciation of Arabic, they oved it, and found it the most enjoyable. A
revealed book in Arabic was bound to unite them into a nation and exert a strong
naticnal influence on them throughout history.
The Koran was such a book. Muhammad claimed that it
contained nothing new but was the continuation of the message which Allah had
given to Adam, who passed it on to his progeny systematically. Or in the words
of the Koran:
" God chose Adam, and Noah. " ( The House of
Imran: 30 )
"And Noah we guided before, and of his Seed
David and Solomon, Job and Joseph, Moses and Aaron.." ( Cattle: 80 )
From the above verses, it is clear that it is the
tradition of Allah to guide every generation through his prophets such as Adam,
Noah, Joseph, Moses, etc. This guidance is provided through revelation in the
form of a divine book; hence The Old Testament and The New Testament. However,
the Prophet Muhammad declared that God had broken with this tradition and made
him the last prophet (The Confederates: 40). It stands to reason that if God was
interested in guiding mankind in the past, he should do so until the end of
time. Man is as wicked now as he was in the past. If he can guide himself now,
he could surely look after himself in the past, and thus revelation was
irrelevant at that time, as it is now.
When presenting the Koran to his people, the Prophet
said that the other divine books such as the Torah and the Bible could not guide
the mankind any longer because their contents had been grossly tampered with by
the Jews and the Christians. He stressed that the Koran was different because
God Himself had guaranteed its integrity against any alteration or
interpolation. Is it not amazing that God did not think it fit to protect His
other Books but He chose to be the guardian of the Koran? Why?
There is only one explanation for it; that is, Muhammad
wanted to make the Koran a part of the Arab national conscience. He, therefore,
stressed its Arabic significance:
"The All-Merciful has taught the Koran
He created man
and He has taught him the Explanation." (The All Merciful: 1)
It means that it is out of mercy that God taught Muhammad
the Koran in depth so that he could convey to his people the Koranic message
which is glorious (QAF: 1)
By emphasising that it is an Arabic Koran, the Prophet
emphasised its national relationship with the Arabs:
"We have sent it down as an Arabic Koran;
haply you will understand." (Joseph: 1 )
To conceal their inferiority complex, the non-Arab Muslim
scholars claim that the Koran is the divine message which is for everybody and
means well to the meek and the mighty; the truth is that it is primarily
addressed to the Arabs and it is in Arabic so that the Arab should understand
it. Therefore, the Koran is a part of the Arab nationalism, and it is especially
so because its contents manifestly represent the Arab culture.
What I have said is the truth and not a
misinterpretation. See for yourself:
"A sending down from the Merciful, the
Compassionate,
A Book whose signs have been distinguished as
Arabic Koran for a people having knowledge.." (Distinguished: 1)
That it is an Arabic Koran, is further stressed:
"By the Clear Book,
behold, We have made it an Arabic Koran;
haply you will understand;
and behold, it is the Essence of the Book, with
US;
sublime indeed, wise.
Shall We turn away the Rememberance from you,
for you are the prodigal people?" (Ornaments 1)
Here it is abundantly clear that it is the essence of the
Koran that it has been addressed to the Arabs for their understanding even
though they are prodigal people. I must add that "people" means the
Arab people, and this is what is meant by it wherever the word:
"people" (An-naas) occurs though the mullahs go to a great length to
project it as "mankind, " as for example in The Night Journey: 105.
I may quote once again from the Koran to elucidate the
point that I am making:
"And so we have revealed to thee an
Arabic Koran, that thou mayest warn
the Mother of Cities and those who
dwell about it.." ( Counsel: 5)
Since "the Mother of Cities" is Mecca, and the
people who dwell about it are Arabs, these verses finally determine that the
Koran is an Arabic Book primarily meant for the Arabs. Its universality simply
means that all those non-Arabs who believe in the sanctity of the Koran, must
also acknowledge the greatness of its recipients i.e. the Arabs.
To impress the Arabs with the national significance of
the Koran, it says:
"If man and Jinn banded together
to produce the like of this Koran,
they would never produce its like,
not though they backed one another..."
These verses need hardly any comment from me except that
the Koran is the only book which repeatedly claims that there is another race of
beings, living on this planet besides humans, and they are, at least on a par
with humans in matters of intelligence, understanding and performance, if not
greater. Nobody has ever seen Jinns. However, it has been stated by certain
mullahs (the Muslim scholars) that when the Koran mentions "Jinns," it
means the microbes! They in fact, insult the Koran, which requires intelligent
beings for its composition, and not the most insignificant insects.
To make itself a part of the national fabric of the
Arabs, the Koran states:
"Therefore, recite of the Koran
as much as is possible." ( Enwrapped: 15)
To refresh the memory of the reader, I may restate the
salient points wlhich determine that Islam is basically an Arab national
movement:
1. The Prophet declared that he was the best individual
of all humans; the Koresh, his tribe were the best of all Arabian tribes and
Arabs were the best of all nations .
2. For this purpose, he used the oldest Semitic
device of revelation to declare himself a prophet, who is supposed to have no
axe of his own to grind but does what he is told by God.
3. As the Jews had a national God called "Yahwe,"
the Prophet chose Allah, the Lord of Kaaba, an idol of his own tribe, and
raised it to the dignity of the one supreme God.
4. The Prophet made Kaaba, the sacred shrine of the
Arabs as the holiest place of Islam so that whoever believes in Islam must
also acknowledge the greatness of Arabia and its people.
5. He made Hajj, i.e. pilgrimage to the Kaaba, an old
pre-lslamic Arab rite, a basic tenet of his religion to impress upon foreign
Muslims the sanctity of Arabia, and create an everlasting source of income for
the Arabs.
6. He insisted that God's covenant was not with
Abraham and Isaac but with Abraham and Ishmael. It is universally known that
Ishmael was the direct ancestor of the Arabs. Thus, one can clearly see that
the purpose of Islam is glorification of the Arab nationalism.
7. The Kadba serves a much greater national purpose
of the Arabs than Zion or lerusalem renders to the Jews. It is guardian of the
Arab nationalism at the expense of the national conscience of the non-Arab
Muslims who believe that they have no individual nationality of their own, and
prefer to be called Muslims. Thus The Arabs have achieved the status of a
nucleus whereas the non-Arab Muslims have gladly become their satellites in
the hope of gaining paradise. It ought to be remembered that the Prophet shall
not open the gates of paradise to those Moslems who are not friendly with the
Arabs:
The Prophet said:
a. "May Allah humiliate those who seek to
humiliate the Quresh (his tribe)." Sahih Tirmzi Vol. 2 p.335)
b. The Prophet said to Sulaiman Farsee (the Persian
Convert), "If you bear odium against the Arabs, you bear odium against
me." (Sahih Tirmzi Vol.2. p.840)
c. The Prophet said: "I will not intercede for
those or love them who are not fair with the Arabs." (Sahih Tirmzi Vol .
2 p.840 )
Of course, there is a difference of opinion about the
degree of accuracy about these Hadiths i.e. the Prophet's sayings, yet they are
there. If they were inappropriate they would have been expunged. They are
correct because they correspond with the Arabic ethos of Islam.
7. The Prophet built the structure of Islam around the
sanctity of his own person by declaring himself:
a. the Intercessor,
b. tlhe blessing for the mankind, and
c. the model of actions for all faithful.
8. Since Muhammad preferred Arabs to other nations, love
of the Arabs becomes a prerequisite of Islam.
9. Since faith means belief in both Allah and
Muhammad, the Islamic God represents duality as the Christian doctrine of
Trinity represents Three- in-one. Not only Muhammad was an Arab, Allah, the
Lord of the Kaaba, was also an Arab statue. Thus Islam is there to serve the
Arab cause.
10. The Koran is an Arabic document. It is primarily
a book for the understanding and guidance of the Arabs. Calling it a universal
message is just an innovation for subjugating the non-Arab Muslims to the
national hegemony of the Arabs.
The above are the ingredients of the Arab nationalism;
some are supernatural and some are racial. Having laid the conceptual foundation
of the Arab nationalism, the Prophet's next concern was to train the Arabs and
weld them into a fighting force to create an empire which should vouch for the
Arabian greatness. The Prophet was not only a wiseman but he was also endowed
with the qualities of indomitable courage and determination. He naturally used
Jehad as the vehicle for this purpose. What is Jehad?
Jehad is Allah's command to the Muslims to destroy the
non- Muslims. It is not at all necessary that the non-Muslims have wronged the
Muslims. The true crime is that they do not believe in Islam:
"I have been commanded by Allah to fight the
unbelievers until they believe in Allah and His prophet and follow the laws of
Islam. It is only then that the safety of their lives and property may be
guaranteed. " (Sahih Tirmzi, Vol. 2: 192)
And why should they persecute and annihilate the
non-Muslims? The Koran explains the point:
"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.... And who
fulfills his covenant truer than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have made
with Him that is the mighty triumph..." (Repentance: 192)
Jehad, as can be seen, is a covenant between Allah and the
Muslims; the former offers paradise to the latter for killing and plundering the
non-Muslims without having any moral qualm in return for Paradise. Obviously,
the massacre of the fellow-beings and the plunder of their possession is an act
of great righteousness because it attracts the highest reward - that is,
paradise. The Koran justifies booty, the plunder of the infidels:
"It is not for any prophet to have prisoners
until he make wide slaughter in land.....
Eat of what you have taken as booty, it is
lawful and good." (The Spoils: 65)
Here is the essence of Jehad: invade the non-Muslims in
the name of Allah for the sheer crime of not believing in Him; first carry out
an extensive carnage of the people then all their property including women and
children become legally and morally the possessions of the Muslims, who are at
liberty to use them as they think fit.
One wonders how one can call righteous such an attitude
towards one's fellow-beings. This is why I have classified the Islamic Culture
as the Aggressive Culture. It is amazing how the Muslims claim human rights in
the non-Muslim lands without recognising humanity of the non-Muslims in their
own countries. *It is a myth to say that the people of the Book i.e. Christians
and Jews are on a par with the Muslims and cannot be looked upon as infidels.
Why is Allah, the Arabian God, so utterly opposed to
the human rights of the non-Muslims? The reason is quite obvious. The Prophet
wanted to build an Arab Empire to raise the dignity of his own people whose
stature had been considerably dwarfed by the magnificence of the Byzantines and
Iranians, the imperial nations of that time. These were warring nations which
believed in fighting for their national prestige. The Arabs were equally
conscious of Arabism at that time as they are now, but they were more prone to
the tribal sympathies than to the concept of nationhood which required a common
and more exciting factor. The Prophet presented Allah as the focal point of
national unity, who wanted the Arabs to fight the non-Arabs mercilessly for
taking over their possessions, lands, wives and children to feel a sense of
elation. Why do I say "Arabs versus non- Arabs," and not Muslims
versus non-Muslims? It is because at that time the Prophet had hardly any
non-Arab Muslims. Therefore, Arabs and Muslims meant one and the same thing, and
it was more effective to mobilize them in the name of Islam owing to its
supernatural appeal, which carried the promise of Paradise.
Allah hates the infidels because they do not
acknowledge Him as their God or worship Him. According to the Koran, Allah
-------------
*A hadith clearly states that any Jew or Christian who heard of
Muhammad but did not believe in him, would become a denizen of Fire.
-------------
is the Creator of this universe; He is
All-powerful, All- knowirg, Absolute, Independent and above every desire. These
divine attributes seem fictitious because the Koran depicts Allah as someone who
is crazy for being acknowledged, loved and worshipped. The plain truth is that
Allah is happy when He is worshipped by man and is extremely unhappy when He is
neglected by man. This is the reason that He swears at the unbelievers and
threatens them with hell. When this device does not work He coaxes man with the
sweetner of heaven. What kind of God is Allah whose own happiness depends on the
attitude of man towards Him? He cannot be Independent or Absolute for having
such a burning desire to be worshipped. If God really wanted to be worshipped,
He would have created man as submissive and obedient. It simply means that
either Gcd is not the Creator or He does not want to be adored.
Is worship really a noblest desire? In fact, it is the
lowest wish a being can have because it is the worst form of flattery. Someone
who wants to be praised all the time is a maniac who has Iost all sense of
decency. He is a danger to his own dignity as well as to the self-respect of
those who are required to creep, crawl and cry before him.
Desire for praise is a human weakness, and urge of
dominance happens to be its fountain. I have discussed this concept in my books,
"Taxation And Liberty," as well as "Eternity." In a
nutshell, it implies a person's desire to impose his superiority on others so
that they should obey him from a sense of inferiority. This fact can be observed
in the pecking order of the fowl. In the olden days, when a plaintiff had to
prostrate before the suzerain as a part of his supplication, this constituted as
compliance with the ruler's urge of dominance. Praise is simply an act of self-
humiliation in relation to a superior. Of course, a superior can also praise an
inferior but such adoration is not even remotely connected with worship.
As mentioned earlier, Allah is the creation of
Muhammad; He is just an abstract concept and not a concrete entity. It is the
revelatory device which enables a prophet to act as God in the name of God, who
is not really there, but is projected as such, so that the prophet can claim
that he has no axe to grind in the matter, though the truth is entirely the
opposite. It is the vicar or the prophet who is running the whole show in the
name of God.
It is Muhammad who is the real mover: Allah is just a
decorative figure. The British system of government has an analogy with this set
up. The Queen is the figure-head who is told by the Prime Minister what to do.
It is Muhammad who wants to be loved and worshipped by people, and this is the
reason that he cannot tolerate the existence of those who do not believe in him.
This fact is well-explained by the Koran itself:
"God and His angels bless the Prophet.
O believers, do you also bless
him, and pray him peace." (Confederates: 55)
"Blessing and praying peace" are the major forms
of worshipping. In all other religions, it is man who worships God but in Islam
even God and His angels worship the Prophet, yet he claimed to be a man and
servant of God! In fact, Muhammad is the real Mover of Islam and Allah is just
the Sacred Supposition.
Had Muhammad said that he would give paradise to those
who kill or get killed in his name or for the glory of the Arab nationalism,
nobody would have listened to him but by making this declaration in the name of
Allah, he created a supernatural appeal to fight the non-Arabs for building a
national empire under his guidance and hegemony. Their immediate reward was
booty by way of wealth and women plus the chance to rule the foreigners. And
those who got killed in an attempt to kill the infidels, fared even better: they
were to go straight into paradise.
Before I explain the Islamic concept of Paradise, I
should delve further into the point under discussion to establish whether Allah
is a reality and the Koran is His Book, or they both were Muhammad's creations.
I have no doubt that they both are an integral part of
the Prophet's national plan which is an extension of the Old Semitic doctrine of
revelation. There are several reasons for it but I shall quote only a few to
make the point:
First of all, one should remember that the laws of God
are universal and apply with complete neutrality. There is no duality or
partiality in the laws of nature. This is the reason that quantities are fixed,
motions are measured and processes are determined. For example, if you want to
make water, there is only one way to do it: compose two parts of hydrogen and
one part of oxygen in a certain manner. You cannot vary the ratio or the method
of composition.
The Prophet projected the Koran as the Word or Law of
God, and made similar claim about the unchangeability of law as I have discussed
above:
"No man can change the words of God;" (
Cattle: 30 )
However, this claim is not backed by facts. In practice,
the Prophet is above the Laws of God. See for yourself:
1. I have already quoted the example of Kibla. If Allah
is at the helm of affairs, then the Prophet should have no say in such
fundamental matters. He can make such suggestions or decisions only if he is
the inventor of Islam.
2. The Koran does not allow sexual intercourse
outside marriage but we find that the Muslims did have concubines with whom
they had carnal relationship at will. It is known to history that the Prophet
himself had at least one concubine, though some put the number at two.
3. The Koran allows only four wives at a time but the
Prophet had nine wives simultaneously. Obviously, the Prophet was above the
law of Allah or Allah Himself was the Prophet's creation.
4. The permission for polygamy is subject to the
strict proviso of equity, that is, the husband must treat all his wives with
complete equality:
"Marry such women
as seem to you, two, three, four,
but if you fear you will not be equitable,
then only one.." ( Women: 1)
When the Prophet's wives expressed their
dissatisfaction and started rowing and using abusive speech, Allah gave him
dispensation from this vital condition of polygamy:
"You can suspend any of your wives at will and
receive any of them at will; and whomsoever you desire of those whom you have
set aside, it is no sin for you.." (The Confederates: 50)
God's law is obviously not binding on Muhammad
because He makes it or changes it to suit the convenience of the Prophet.
5. The Koran has laid down that all righteous and
believing women are eligible for marriage, and the believing men should marry
them; the beliefs of a believing woman's father form no part of the marital
consideration. However, this law of Allah suffered a setback when Ali, the
husband of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, made a proposal of marriage to
the daughter of Abu Jahl. The Prophet refused permission for this match
despite the fact that Allah allowed polygamy and the lady in question was a
believer. Bearing in mind that Ali was known for his piety and Islamic zeal,
she must have been a righteous woman. The fact that her father had been an
infidel and enemy of Islam, had no bearing on the subject. What was the
reason, then?
The Prophet declared from the pulpit: "Ali
should divorce my daughter, for my daughter is part of me. He who disturbs her
in fact disturbs me and he who offends her offends me." (Sahih Muslim
Hadith: 5999)
One cannot help wondering about the Koranic claim
that
"No man can change the words of God."
6. Mecca has been a sanctuary since the pre- Islamic
days; even the pagans observed this custom. The Koran named Mecca as the
"Mother of Cities" as a respect to her spiritual status, but the
Prophet invaded her with 10,000 men!
Hadith No. 59 of the chapter 9, Sahih Albokhari,
quotes the Prophet's saying:
"Allah has made Mecca, a sanctuary, so it was a
sanctuary before me and will continue to be a sanctuary after me. It was made
legal for me for a few hours of a day."
The sanctity of Mecca is so great that one is not
allowed even to uproot its shrubs, cut trees or chase or disturb game or pick
up its Luqata (fallen things).
History has recorded that the Meccans avoided bloodshed by
surrendering to the Prophet. Had they resisted, Allah would have sanctioned as
long a period of invasion as it would have taken the Prophet to conquer it. How
amazing it is that Allah changes or dispenses His universal laws to please
Muhammad. He seems to be a slave of the Prophet and keeps awaiting the moments
to please him!
In chapter 30 of Sahih Albukhari, the hadith no. 48
states that when Khaula Bint Hakim, one of the ladies, who presented themselves
to the Prophet for marriage, Aisha, the Prophet's youngest wife said:
"Doesn't a lady feel ashamed for presenting herself to a man."
But when a revelation came soon after, saying:
" ( Muhammad ) you may postpone ( the turn of )
any of them (your wives) that you please.." (33: 51), Aisha said: "O
Allah's Messenger! I do not see but that your Lord hurries in pleasing
you."
What an observation it was! The only function of Allah
seems to be to secure the pleasure of Muhammad yet He claims to be the Creator
and All-powerful. He cannot be. The God who dispenses or bends His laws to
please a man or legalise his actions, cannot be God. Allah is Muhammad's
creation and His duty is to give supernatural sanctity to Muhammad's words and
deeds.
This is what made people believe that the reward of
Jehad i.e. killing and robbing the non-Muslims in the name of Allah is paradise,
the dream of every man. Without the expectation of such a reward, the Arabs
would not have fought with half the zeal that they displayed in eradicating the
non-Arabs. The paradise, though not a new concept, was a part of the Prophet's
national plan and was presented with a poetic skill, not yet surpassed by any
one after fourteen hundred years.
What is paradise?
To start with, it is a place which suits Arabs the best
because they were the people used to suffer the torture of the torrid desert
having hardly any trees or traces of water. The heat, hunger and hazardous
conditions played havoc, making them desirous of shady places, having wells,
springs and gushers. This is how Koran depicts the paradise:
"Give thou good tidings to those who believe
and do deeds of righteousness, that for them
await gardens underneath which rivers flow;
whensoever they are provided with fruits
therefrom .... " ( The Cow: 4 )
This shows the Arabian need for Islam.
The same theme is repeated in Thunder: 35 and The
Spider: 55. As we proceed further, the bounties of paradise begin to multiply:
"There awaits a known provision,
fruits - and they high-honoured
in the Gardens of Bliss,
upon couches, set face to race,
a cup from a spring being passed round to them,
while a delight to the drinkers,
wherein no sickness is, neither intoxication;
and with them wide-eyed maidens
restraining their glances,
as if they were hidden pearls." ( The Rangers: 40-45 )
The All-Merciful: 55 illustrates the maidens i.e.
houris, further:
"therein maidens restraining their glances,
untouched before them by any man or Jinn....
lovely as rubies, beautiful as coral."
In the "All -Merciful" is given a detailed
picture of paradise: it is a place studded with pomegranates and palm-trees,
where there are good, comely maidens (houris) cloistered in cool pavilions; they
recline upon green cushions and lovely druggets. This is all set in green
meadows with fountains of running water.
The Smoke: 50 declares that the Muslims shall be
espoused to these wide-eyed houris. The magnificence of paradise soars even
higher in "Muhammad: 15"
"In paradise are rivers of water unstaling,
rivers of milk unchanging in flavour,
and rivers of wine - a delight
to the drinkers,
rivers, too, of honey purified,
and therein for them is every fruit...."
Here I should mention the mastery of the Prophet's
descriptive power. To highlight the effect of paradisiac delight, he narrates
the doleful plight of hell in contradistinction. For example, in the same sura,
it is stated that the dwellers of hell i.e., the non-Muslims shall be
"given to drink boiling water, that tears their bowels asunder."
In "Mount: 20," a further attraction appears
for the dwellers of paradise; they shall be given "youths like hidden
pearls" to serve them. One of the functions of these immortal pretty boys
is to serve drinks to the believers as well as fruits and flesh of fowls as
desired by them. They are joined by houris as beautiful as "hidden
pearls." This "is a recompense for that they (believers) laboured."
Having described the tastes of paradise, then Allah
narrates the torture of hell to heighten the effect,
"Then you erring ones, you that cried lies,
you shall eat of a tree called *Zakkoum,
and you shall fill therewith your bellies
and drink on top of that boiling water
lapping it down like thirsty camels
This shall be their hospitality on
Day of Doom." (The Terror: 50)
A further addition is made to the narrative of paradise in
"Man: 15:" There is a fountain called "Salsabil" which
gushes ginger wine. Immortal youths like "scattered pearls" go about
serving in vessels of silver and goblets of crystal; they are a bliss to look
at; they are clad in green garments of silk and brocade and wear bracelets of
silver. They are a pleasure to look at for having the majesty of a great
kingdom.
The description of houris, the most beautiful virgins
continues to the end. These nymphs of paradise have "swelling breasts"
who serve the faithful with overflowing cups.
--------------
* Zakkoum is a tree whose every bit is highly thorny.
--------------
Now I may add to this description of houris from tne
Hadith, especially, Jame Tirmzi, Volume 2, Chapter: "Women of Paradise,'' P
135 to 140; it is illustrated:
1. Houris' bodies are so transparent that the marrow of
their bones is visible.
2. They are called houris because whiteness and
clarity of their colour is so stunning that eyes become dazzled when one sees
them. Their eyes are large and intensely black like the eyes of an antler.
3. They have downward looking restraining eyes.
4. The body of a houri is like red wine in a clear
glass.
5. Houris are sweet-spoken and have their companions.
6. They are virgins and do not feel pain.
7. The breasts of the houris are round and
horizontal: they do not hang down.
8. They live in palaces.
9. The Prophet said: "Every believing man shall
be given virility equal to the potency of one hundred men!"
10. The Muslims believe that every faithful shall be
given seventy houris in paradise plus a large number of pretty youths.
I need not comment on the nature of paradise because these
facts portray its true picture. To qualify for paradise, one must be prerared to
fight a holy war:
"Prescribed for you is fighling, though it be
hateful to you.
Yet it may happen that you will hate a thing which is better for you, and may
happen that you will love a thing which is worse for you; God knows and you
know not." (The Cow: 210)
"O Prophet, urge on the believers to fight, if
there be twenty of you, patient men, they will overcome two hundred..." (
The Spoils: 65 )
"God has bought from the believers their selves
and their possessions against the gift of paradise; they fight in tlhe way of
God; they kill and are killed; that is a promise binding upon God...."
(Repentance: 110)
Jehad is a duty laid on the believers to destroy the
unbelievers in return for paradise. It is the greatest worship in Islam and the
person who does not have a desire to participate in Jehad, is not a Muslim.
The Muslim scholars claim that lehad is a defensive
war. This is a misinterpretation of a fundamental Islamic doctrine. Of course,
there are a couple of verses which may be given this meaning but they are not
compatible with the history of Islam. The Islamic wars against Iran, Egypt and
India were imperialistic. Of course, the Meccans did persecute the Prophet, when
he was in no position to fight back. These so-called defensive verses simply
persuade the early Muslims to practise tolerance and be defensive out of
necessity - only far the time being.
Jehad is an aggressive war hecause Muslims are required
to dominate Ihe non-Muslims by murdering, pillaging and abducting their women.
Islam advocates a perpetual war against the infidels:
"I have been commanded to fight against people,
till they testify to the fact that there is no God but Allah, and believe in
me (that) I am the messenger (from the Lord) and in all that I have brought
(the Koran). And when they do it, their blood and riches are guaranteed
protection on my behalf except where it is justified by law.." (Sahih
Muslim: hadith 31)
If Allah means the universal God, then the Jews, the
Christians, the Hindus, etc, have always believed in Him. Therefore, the quarrel
is not about believing in God but Muhammad, who wanted to be the head of an
imperial Arab race and aspired to be worshipped as God. The doctrine of
revelation is essentially a means of projecting a man i.e., the prophet as a
God, indireclly. Since it is Allah and angels who pray peace to Muhammad, his
desire to be loved and adored was beyond all reckoning.
Having given his people Allah as the national God with
universal flair, a holy book and a prophet (that is, himself), he wanted to turn
his people into a race of invincible fighters. His doctrine of Jehad which
guarantees paradise, is a master stroke of his wisdom. The Arab crusaders, when
they won against their opponents, enjoyed the delights of paradise on this earth
by taking over their wealth and women, and if they got killed, they were sure to
be embraced by the houris. They could not lose either way.
As the prophet emigrated to Medina in September, 622,
his main preoccupation was with building a fighting force through plunder. It
was his military prestige which gave him the ruling position in Arabia, making
his message credible.
During the first thirteen years of his apostolic
endeavours, he attracted some seventy people to his faith. Not to mention the
other hostile tribes, his own people the Quresh, persecuted him to the hilt, and
joined other protestors in a plan to murder him. Muhammad was a wise and valiant
person, having the ability to act at the right time. When he was at Mecca, he
was numerically too weak to preach Jehad but when he reached Medina, the numbers
of his followers started rising though not dramatically. Seventy converts in
thirteen years did not spell a success story. To a man like Muhammad endowed
with a copious will and the burning desire to create a nation which could hold
the Byzantinians and the Iranians to ransom, this rate of progress was hurtful.
Nations in those days, as now, could be awed by might only and not meekness. He
was a born crusader and a commander. As the Jews had subdued the Canaanites with
sword and fire, the Prophet decided to assert his martial ability with a novel
zeal. Jehad, the struggle to plunder people in the name of Allah was declared as
the highest act of piety; success made life paradisic in this world by enabling
the Mujahid (the Crusader) to live off the loot, and enjoy the panache,
pampering and pleasure of the harems made of abducted women. And if the
crusaders died in the action, they were even luckier: they went straight into
paradise, the majestic manifestation of Allah's merriment, munificence and
mercy.
Only a few of the emigrants took up trading in the
local market, the others adopted Razzias (Ghazawaat) as the way of life in
Medina. Razzia or Ghazwa means a pillaging incursion, which was the Bedouin way
of life in Arabia. During his ten years in Medina, the Prophet devised sixty-
five such campaigns and raids and led personally no fewer than twenty-seven. In
January 624, a small band of men was sent to Nakhlah near Mecca to attack a
caravan from Yemen. They were successful in this raid but the pagans were
stunned by the audacity of the Muslims, who were believed to have violated the
customary sanctity of Mecca! Again, in March 624, at the head of 315 men, the
Prophet raided a wealthy Meccan caravan led by Abu Sufyan, the chief of the
Umayyah clan. Abu Sufyan evaded him skilfully but Abu Jahl, leading an auxilary
force of 800 men, decided to teach Muhammad a lesson. The battle that ensued at
Badr on March 15, 624, ended in a decisive victory for Muhammad, giving him
military prestige and enhancing his credibility as a prophet. Muhammad had an
armour of his own and took part in the battles. Most of these events he won
through personal valour and resoluteness. Only at Uhud, he suffered a setback
and that was not due to his defective military planning or lack of courage. It
was the result of a misunderstandmg or disobedience on the part of some of his
followers.
Planning 65 raids, and leading 27 during a period of
ten years in Medina, shows the Prophet's concern for turning his people into a
race of warriors. This is confirmed by the fact that by the end of 630, he had
30,000 men under his command when he pioneered a Razzia in Syria. It was during
this invasion that he set models of a treaty and agreement for his followers to
follow. His political and military skills raised him to the status of the
Arabian Emperor. It is from this commanding height, he reshaped the Arab nation
which was worthy of achieving the goal that the Prophet set for it. He bestowed
on his people a character and determination that only a superb national reformer
and a great patriot can do. It is vindication of his greatness that he raised a
nation which humiliated the tremendous powers of history such as Byzantine and
Iran. And it all happened within 20 years of his death!
The national greatness of Muhammad remains unchallenged
even today, and will probably remain so in future. It is because the grandeur he
bestowed on the Arabs, despite their decreasing political significance, has been
increasing culturally over the centuries. The secret lies in his declaring Kaaba
as the most sacred sanctuary, making the sanctity of Mecca inviolable, rendering
pilgrimage to Mecca as the economic backbone of Arabia, even if there were no
oil, raising the Arabic Koran to the status of God's Word and thus declaring
Arabic the Divine language, making Allah, an idol of Kaaba, the universal God of
Islam, treating his own person the medium of salvation and asserting that an
enemy of Arabia is an enemy of his. Thus a Muslim's life is completely dominated
by the spiritual hegemony of Arabia at the expense of his own national honour.
It is the result of the psycholagical inferiority engendered by these factors
that the non-Arab Muslim nations, with the exception of Turks, are averse to the
concept of national identity, and prefer to be called Muslims. For this lack of
national character, the Muslims in both Asia and Africa have hardly any national
histories of their own, and nearly lack such events which may be associated with
national pride, prestige and pomposity. Most of them have a history of political
subservience and all the degredation that goes with it.
There is a parallel in history; as love of Jerusalem
held the Jews back from loving their lands of settlement because they believed
Jerusalem or Israel was their true home, and thus they suffered the most
terrible consequences of homelessness. There is some truth in the Jewish
attitude; Israel is their original homeland; they have always yearned for
returning to Israel, and eventually have gone back, and thus retrieved their
honour.
On the contrary, Arabia is not the homeland of the
non-Arab Muslims but they treat it as such though it is a make-believe arising
out of religious convictions which cannot be given the mantle of reality because
neither the Arabs will accept them as the citizens of Arabia nor does it have
the means to accommodate and support 1,000,000,000 Muslims.
One should realise that by making himself the pillar of
faith and the sole medium of salvation, the Prophet has created the same
relationship between himself and the non-Arab which exists between a burning
lamp and moths. These tiny insects have developed an urge to cremate themselves
on flames without any external pressures. Take for example, the Muslims of
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Until a thousand years ago, the people of India were
rich, brave and inventive. Their immense wealth attracted many foreign
predators. The fact that the advance of the Arab invaders was checked in Sindh
and they could not march into the Punjab or any other part of India for 300
years nullifies the myth of the Indian cowardice. Eventually, as the influence
of Islam increased with the Turkish conquests, the Muslim converts of India
reneged on their Indian nationality. Under the force of faith they began to
pretend that India, the land of their ancestors, was a "Dar-ul-Harab,"
a kind of battlefield which is just a sojourn. They thought of Arabia as their
home and sang songs of the Meccan superiority. This love of Arabia became so
intense that they hated everything that was Indian or smelt of the Indian glory.
Even the Muslim shrines of India were considered far inferior to the Arabian
shrines by the Muslims themselves. Their hatred of the Indian culture grew so
fierce that everything that the non-Muslims and their own forefathers did was
held superfluous, supercilious and sordid. They wanted to destroy the temples
and churches of the non-Muslims, preached Jehad against them to rob, murder and
convert them into Muslims. This total disregard bordering on the utter
detestation of their own culture, persuaded them to partition India, their
homeland, so that they could practise Arabism, known as Islamic values.
This breaking up of their homeland for the love of
Mecca, voluntary acceptance of inferiority and hatred of one's own culture
emanate from the national superiority that the Prophet bestowed upon Arabia. The
mental slavery of the non- Arab Muslim nations is becoming more intense every
day. At the root lies the poverty and social injustice; quality of life has
deteriorated miserably but the supposed certainty of salvalion through the
intercessory powers of the Prophet gives them the hope of Deferred Fulfilment
which means that what they have missed in this life shall be made good by the
grace of the Prophet when he will open the gates of paradise for them and houris
will shower their merriments on them.
Though poetic in essence it is the foundation of their
faith which has become the cornerstone of their lives. Without it they will
perish for lack of social justice and the economic means of satisfaclion. This
tragedy is enhanced by the priest politician and the self-appointed pioneers who
exaggerate the powers of the Prophet and keep increasing the public reliance on
him for the sole purpose of brainwashing them so that nobody should judge their
deeds rationally. The worse aspect of this tragedy is that most of these
priests, politicians and pioneers are hypocrites and even do not believe in the
Prophet or his teachings: some of them are plain atheists! To them Islam is the
best commodity to barter for anything that they desire.
This attitude of the mind is not restricted to their
"homelands" but can also be seen in the foreign countries wherever
these Muslims have settled. Take for example England. They have set up here The
Muslim Parliament which in fact is an altempt to create a state within a state
and thus an act of treason. Since there is no room for a parliamentary way of
life in Islam it is hard to believe that they know the real meaning of
Parliament or the history of its development. It is expressive of the priestly
and political behaviour which seeks to use the Muslim failh for its own ends.
What happened to the Muslims in Spain and recently in Bosnia will repeat itself
in Britain too because the anti-British views and practices propagated by the
Muslim Parliament are a check on the children of the Muslim immigrants to
appreciate and adopt the liberal values associated with Britain. Worse still
most of these children are growing up withoul any love of his country or respect
for the British nationality. If Britain is such a decadent country as they
project it, why come here ? If the lands where they emigrated from were really
that pure they would not have deserted them. It is high time that these
faith-mongers stop to think what they are doing to the future of their coming
generations simply to nurture their own interests and prejudices.
The person of the Prophet is a model for any national
leader. Instead of following it they are flouling it and yet they call
themselves Muslims.
These misguided Muslim priests and politicians from the
Indian sub-continent ought to realise that the European countries have a live
national conscience which will not be subdued by the Arabian magic. It is high
time that they retrieve their national identity and the glory which goes with
it.
Nothing is more foolish than dreaming of a paradise
full of virgins and pretty boys as a compensation for the national insult,
injury and injustice. They have brought upon themselves by following the foreign
dogma which seeks to glorify its own people through a scheme of subtlety,
stratagem and sophistication.
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