CHAPTER EIGHT
ISLAM
Hope value
Nobody has ever
exploited more successfully than the prophet Muhammad, the human mechanism of
fear and favour. He knew that death is man's worst dread and eternity is his
greatest desire. He presented these two opposite concepts with the mastery that
has remained unsurpassed until our time. Further, as a patient in pain feels
relieved to see a doctor irrespective of whether or not he can cure him, mankind
is hypnotised by the person who claims to possess a supernatural remedy for all
human ills. His promises of protection carry a hope value. The prophet provided
that hope through his own agency as the divine messenger.
For hope of everlasting life, man
will frantically catch any straw to save himself from drowning but when the
straw is presented as the oar of eternity under the dazzling hues of revelation,
he holds it with the tenacity of faith which defies reason and rules of normal
conduct. The stronger his faith the more exclusive his loyalty to the
revelationist - at the expense of humanity. The revelationist who seeks personal
glory through the imagination of his followers usually projects himself as a
prophet or an incarnation of God.
Significance of viceroyalty
Every prophet encounters a good
deal of opposition from the people whose liberties he tries to curb by imposing
new rules of conduct on them. He protests his innocence by declaring that he is
only a vicar and claims that the message he delivers is not his, but God's.
Therefore, he has no axe to grind in it. People find it hard to believe on
rational grounds because they know that the vicar or the messenger is not asking
them just to believe in God but is stressing emphatically that unless they
believe in him as well, their belief in God alone is of no avail to them because
it will not save them from the leaping flames of hell.
Cult of divinity
However, every community has a
certain number of individuals who possess high moral, intellectual and
administrative abilities but are credulous. The credulity of such persons is not
unlimited; it is usually confined to a particular bias or susceptibility and may
be the foundation stone of one's personality. This bias or susceptibility may be
the inclination towards a faith or fallibility to the particular charm of its
presenter. When such people are converted to the new faith, they rank as
Apostles or Companions of the revelationist and mobilise their intellectual,
political and administrative forces to drum up the divinity of their leader with
tales of supernatural performances and sparkling miracles for creating a divine
legend to enhance the emotional appeal that forms the crux of every religion. As
time marches on there emerge new followers who seek divinity for themselves but
lack the courage and inspiring skill of their founder to set up a new faith.
However, they follow the same course of action: as he (the founder) projected
himself the Vicar of God, they declare themselves to be his lieutenants. They
are more easily accepted by the people who already believe in what they preach
but with a greater fervour. Thus these new gurus invent more uncanny tales about
the miraculous powers and nominous accomplishments of their founders to
intensify the existing emotional appeal for the masses who become pawns in the
chess game of their faith.
Muhammad, the pivot of salvation
The Prophet Muhammad of Arabia,
declared at the age of forty that he was the Messenger of God; he was sent by
the Almighty as a warner to frighten people so that they should believe in Him
and do good works. However, belief in God alone and righteous deeds did not
possess sufficient power to save them from hell because for the belief to be
effective it must include Muhammad who had been appointed by God as His sole
source of guidance which can be achieved through revelation only, and human
deliberation and efforts play no part in it:
Say: "Bring a Book from God
that gives better guidance than these, and follow it, if you speak truly . . .
Surely God guides not the people of the evildoers . . ." (The Story 50).
Here the belief in Muhammad takes
precedence over Allah (God) because those who do not follow Muhammad are
evildoers and Allah does not guide them despite the fact that it is only the
evildoers who need guidance!
Reality of hell and heaven
Having instituted his paramountcy
as the foundation of the Moslem faith, it became easy for the Prophet to
establish the credibilty of hell. One must remember clearly that both hell and
heaven are an Islamic reality, and not metaphorical statements because their
descriptions are graphic and entry into these places as a reward or punishment
is a binding promise on Allah. Muhammad activate' human instincts of fear and
favour with a masterly description of heaven and hell:
". . . Therein they shall
have what they desire
dwelling for ever; it is a promise binding
upon Allah, and of Him to
be required" (Salvation: 15).
Description of Hell
What is Hell?
a. The roaring fire of God lit
over the hearts
in stretching columns (The Backbiter).
b. "Surely those who
disbelieve in Our signs - We will
roast them at a Fire; as soon
as their skins are completely burned, we shall
give them in exchange other skins, that they
may taste the torture. Surely God is
All-mighty, All-Wise" (Women: 55).
c. The dweller of hell:
"is given to drink of oozing pus,
the which he swallows, and can hardly follow
and death comes upon him from every side,
yet he cannot die; and still awaits him a
grim torture" (Abraham: 20).
d. ". . . As for the
unbelievers,
for them garments of fire shall be cut
and there shall be poured over their heads
boiling water
whereby whatsoever is in their abdomens
and their skins shall be melted; for them await
hooked iron rods;
as often as they desire in their anguish to come
forth from it, they shall be
restored into it, and: "Taste the torture
of the burning!" (The Pilgrimage: 20).
e. The dwellers of hell
shall eat of the Tree of Ez-Zakkoum
What is the Tree of Ez-Zakkoum,
"It is a tree that grows in
the root of hell;
its spathes are as the heads of Satans
and they eat of it, and it fill
their bellies,
then on top of it they have a brew
of bong water
then their return is unto hell". (The Rangers.
60-65)
The theme of the Ez-Zakkoum is further continued in
"Smoke: 45"
"Behold the Tree of Ez-Zakkoum
is the food of the wicked,
like molten copper, bubbling in the belly
like the bubbling water.
"Take him, and thrust him into the midst of
Hell,
then pour over his head the torture of
boiling water!'
f. "Faces on that day
humbled,
labouring, fatigued,
scorching as a boiling fountain,
no food for them but cactus thorn
unfastening, unsatisfying hunger". (The
Enveloper)
Retributive punishment
This description of hell hardly
needs any comment from me except that the civilised man has come to the
conclusion that punishment cannot be retributive; it must be reformative. Allah
is the least interested in reforming the unbelievers. He is obsessed with
revenge yet He calls Himself the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate,
All-pardoning, All-forgiving, All-gentle, All-Clement, and so on. These are His
frequently repeated attributes though He also calls Himself
"All-terrible".
What will you call the person whose
desire for vengeance surpasses the wildest flight of imagination? What will you
call a person who enjoys torture and is delighted by extreme severity? What will
you call a person who is glad when other people feel sad?
Divine unstability
It proves one thing beyond a shadow
of doubt: Allah is subject to the spasms of happiness and unhappiness; when He
is believed He is happy and when he is not believed He becomes extremely
unhappy. He, obviously has a very unstable personality and thus cannot form the
proper object of worship and adoration.
What is Islam?
Islam means "surrender",
that is, Allah wants man to submit to Him under all circumstances. To secure
man's total obedience, Allah is prepared to bribe when the threat of violence
proves abortive. This is the reason that He offers man the choice between hell
and heaven. Having studied the description of hell, we may now cast a glance at
heaven:
Description of Paradise
a. Paradise is offered to a
Moslem in exchange for total surrender:
"God has bought from the faithful theirselves
and their
belongings against the gift of paradise; they fight
in the
way of God; they kill, and are killed . . ."
(Repentance: 110).
b. Life in the paradise
shall be as physical as it is on the
earth, and carries a special fascination to the
Arabs living in
torrid and treeless surroundings:
"See, the inhabitants of
Paradise today are busy in their merriments along with their spouses,
reclining upon couches in the shade; therein they have fruits, and whatever
they desire." (Ya Sin: 55).
c. What will the believers
find in the Paradise?
". . for them is reserved a definite provision,
fruits and a great honour in the Gardens of Bliss
reclining upon couches arranged face to face,
a cup from a fountain being passed round to them,
white, a pleasure to the drinkers,
wherein no sickness is, neither intoxication
and with them wide-eyed maidens
flexing their glances
as if they were slightly concealed pearls" (The
Rangers: 40-45).
Wide-eyed beautiful women
This is a highly poetic description
of the female beauty whose intrinsic appeal is intensified by its ability to
coax and allure with delicate bodily gestures. In fact the wide-eyed, pearl-like
and ever-young houris (paradise women) versed in the art of flexing their
glances present a spectacle of charm which is often dreamt of, but seldom found
on earth.
Maidens with swelling breasts
The fascination of the paradise is
further augmented by the assurance given to the believers:
"Surely for the
God-fearing awaits a place of security,
gardens and vineyards
and maidens with swelling bosoms . . ." (The
Tiding: 30).
A view of paradise
Even more alluring details of the
beautiful houris with wide-eyes and springing breasts are to be found in
"The All-Merciful" (45-75). For the sake of brevity and better
understanding, I may paraphrase its contents: The Paradise is the sign of
Allah's mercy. It is a garden of delight which abounds in trees, shade and
gushing fountains where Lord's bounties consist of "reclining upon couches
lined with brocade", and where the fruits of the gardens are nigh to
gather. The good and comely houris who are as lovely as rubies and as beautiful
as coral, are virgins: they have not been touched by any man or jinn. They are
cloistered in pavilions where they recline on green cushions and attractive
carpets, and the pavilions themselves are surrounded by green, green pastures
profusely studded with fruit-bearing trees such as palms and pomegranates.
The splendour of the Paradise
becomes even more dazzling when wine is made a part of the paradisiac
habitation:
"Surely the pious shall
be in bliss,
upon couches gazing;
you find in their faces the shining bliss
as they are offered to drink of a wine sealed
whose seal is musk - so after that let the strivers
strive
and whose mixture is Tasnim
a fountain at which to drink those brought
nigh". (The Stinters: 20-25).
Vessels of silver and beautiful immortal boys
Attractions of the Paradise keep
multiplying themselves to assure the believers of the tremendous rewards which
await them:
". . . God has . . .
provided them radiancy
and delight
and recompensed them for their patience
with a Garden, and silk;
therein they shall see neither sun nor
bitter cold;
near them shall be its shades, and its clusters hung
meekly down,
and there shall be passed around them vessels of
silver, and large drinking cups of crystal,
crystal of silver measured
very exactly,
And therein they shall be given to drink a cup whose
ingredient is a ginger;
therein a spring whose name is Salsabil
Immortal youths shall go about them;
when thou seest them, thou supposes" them
dispersed pearls
when you see them then you see the divine happiness
and a great kingdom.
Upon them shall be green clothing of silk
and brocade, they are embellished with
bracelets of silver, and their Lord shall
give them to drink a pure draught.
Behold this is a reward for you, and
your toiling is thanked" (Man: 10-25).
Purpose of young boys
The presence of the immortal young
boys who are immune to the rigour of time, and the deliberate mention of their
beauty which matches the radiance of scattered pearls, and the fact that they
are dressed up like brides, makes one wonder about their real purpose.
The boys are again mentioned in the
"Mount" (20): "While they hand therein a cup one to another
wherein is no idle talk, no cause of sin, and there go round them youths, their
own, as if they were concealed pearls".
Abundance of houris and boys
The moselms believe that each of
them shall be given seventy two houris. Here, the words "their own"
show that in addition to the ever-young maidens, each faithful shall have his
own boys. We must note that there will be "no cause of sin". Does this
phrase convey the ordinary sense of the words or does it imply that nothing can
create sin in paradise? It is a confusing issue and is made even more baffling
by the fact that the boys have been repeatedly projected as a thing of physical
beauty. However, it is better if its interpretation is left to the believers.
Since the Koran is addressed not
only to the Arabs and Moslems but to the entire mankind, one is inclined to
raise a few points about hell and heaven:
1. God desperately wants to be
believed and worshipped by man. If it were not so, He would not offer the
alternative of hell and heaven: the former amounts to blackmail and the latter
constitutes a bribe which is a sin itself. A desperate God lacks stable nature
and is, therefore, not worthy of submission.
2. Paradise is a form of temptation
based on sex appeal. Its enormity is enhanced by the fact that the faithful will
have no duties whatever, and all their time shall be taken up by merriments. Is
sexual gratification the goal of existence?
3. The description of hell is
contrary to Allah's claim of being merciful and compassionate.
Interpretation of hell and
heaven
The educated Moslems evade this
issue by declaring that hell and heaven are metaphorical descriptions and refer
to psychological experiences. This cannot be true because Moslems believe that
every word of the Koran is literally true. Secondly, they believe in an
individual's physical resurrection on the Day of Judgement. Obviously, as in
this life we want food and sex, the resurrected bodies will have similar needs
which will be provided by the Paradise. If this were not true, the paradise
would have no purpose at all.
Again, a metaphor is brief e.g.
black as coal, white as milk, etc., whereas the Koranic description of the
paradise is detailed and graphic.
Provision of the paradise is a
promise binding on Allah and therefore it has got to be real and not
metaphorical. Otherwise, He is just fooling the faithful.
Moreover, all Moslems believe in
the physical existence of the paradise, and this is the main reason for their
belief in the Koran. Without anticipation of houris and youths, the numbers of
the Moslems shall dwindle dramatically.
Why will people deserve hell or
heaven in the life-after-death? The Moslem scholars argue that man has been
given free will, that is, the power to choose the right or wrong, and therefore,
he qualifies for a reward or punishment. To prove that Islam is based on reason,
they further argue that nobody will go to hell or heaven without a fair trial
which will be held on the Day of Judgement.
Rational though this statement
looks on paper, it loses its glow of reason when subjected to a logical
examination, and also disturbs the fundamental claim of the Koran as the Divine
Book:
"What, do they not delve
deeper into the Koran?
If it had been from other than God
certainly they would have found in it much
inconsistency" (Women: 80).
Mutazilites and Asharies
Before proceeding any further, let
me state for better comprehension of the issue that the Moslem scholars started
indulging in philosophic expression c.757. It became fashionable to discuss
whether the Koran is eternal or created. The school known as the "Mutazilites"
(the Seceders) denied the eternity of the Koran because it implied total
predestination. The caliph Al-Mamun championed this interpretation. However,
Abul-Hasan Al-Ashari (873-935) preached that Allah is the supreme sovereign and
He does what He wills. He has predetermined every act and event and is the
primary cause of everything that is or may happen.
Inconsistencies of Koran
The Mutazilites and the Asharies
stood on the opposite sides of the fence. If the Koran is the basis of the
argument, then the latter are right but their accuracy creates inconsistencies
in the Koran. Let us review this situation with reference to:
a. Determinism, and
b. The Day of Judgement
a. Determinism.
"Say, O God, Master of
the Kingdom
You give the Kingdom whom you will,
and seize the Kingdom from whom you will,
you raise whom you will, and you
abase whom you will . . . you
are all-powerful . . .
you provide whomsoever you like limitlessly"
(The House of Imran: 25).
"Whomsoever God will,
He leads astray,
and whomsoever He will, He sets him
on a right path" (Cattle: 35 and 125)
". . . If God had
willed, He would have
guided men all together" (Thunder: 30).
"It is not given to
any soul to die, except by the
leave of God, at an appointed time" (The House
of Imran: 135).
Allah and vice
It is quite clear that everything
is predestined by God. Why then the Day of Judgement? Obviously Allah has made
people what they are, and has deliberately withheld guidance from those who have
sinned.
Satan accuses Allah
When we examine the doctrine of
vice and virtue, Allah seems to be the sole and active cause of vice. In the
myth of creation as described in El-Hijr (25-40), Iblis (Satan) accuses Allah
openly for perverting him. He asks Allah for a respite until the Day of
Judgement so that he can lead people astray as a revenge. Strange as it may
seem, the most compassionate Allah grants this request to Satan so that he can
help Allah to fill Gehenna (Hell) with people!
Satan, the agent of Allah
Not only the perversion of Iblis
(Satan) is a deliberate act of Allah but Iblis also acts as His agent in
misleading mankind:
"Have you not seen how we
sent the
Satans against the unbelievers, to
prick them?" (Mary: 85).
Yet the All-Merciful declares in the
same Chapter that He would "drive the evildoers into Gehenna,
herding".
b. Day of Judgement:
Is there really any point in
resurrecting people for trying them? A trial unless fair, is just a farce and
the source of injustice. Is it right of me to blind someone and then accuse him
for not being able to see? If it is Allah who is the cause of human perversion
through Iblis or the creative design, then has He any reason to resurrect people
for punishing and rewarding them? One must also remember that in Al Araf (178)
Allah declares: "We have created most of the people and Jinn for Gehenna
(Hell) only . . .". The Day of Judgement is an unjust principle and
therefore below the dignity of God. The Prophet like the Christians, borrowed it
fom Zarathustara. Dynamics of this doctrine become obvious when we realise that
death is man's greatest fear, and the concept of resurrection gives him the hope
of eternity. Having laid it down as one of the fundamental principles of the
Islamic faith, the Prophet substituted himself for Jesus Christ and declared
that he would share the Throne of Justice with Allah on the Day of Judgement; he
would sit on the right hand side of God and exercise his intercessionary powers
to damn or deliver people. Flocking to the prophet, who claimed to possess the
divine stature, was quite natural for the ordinary mortals who had been
frightened by the description of the most torturous hell. Is it not natural to
shun the raging flames and run into the most luscious embraces of houris with
musky bodies, swelling breasts and large restraining eyes?
Scene of Resurrection
At this juncture, it seems
appropriate to describe the Islamic scene of the Day of Resurrection and
Judgement:
Koran repeatedly assures people
that they will be resurrected for the dispensation of justice according to the
evidence that has been collected and recorded from birth to burial:
The Recorders
"He sends recorders over
you till,
any one of you is visited
by death, our messengers take him
and they neglect not.
Then they are restored to God,
their protector, the true. Surely
His is the judgement; He is the
fastest of censors". (Cattle: 60)
Register of deeds
Surely it is We who bring the
dead to life
and write down what they have forwarded
and what they have left behind, everything
We have numbered in a clear register" (Ya Sin:
10).
"We have been registering all that you were
doing" (Hobbling: 519).
Book of evidence
"With us a book recording"
(Qaf: 1).
The Watchers
In Qaf, The Splitting and the Night
Star, the Koran repeatedly says that God has appointed Watchers, i.e. two angels
over every human; they record everything he does.
Significance of evidence in
Islam
On the Day of Judgement, everybody
shall be presented with his book of record and told: "Read thy book"
(The Night Journey: 10-15 and JO, also the Resurrection: 10).
The relevance of testimony is so
vital to the Day of Judgement that besides the presentation of individual
records, a person's own limbs such as tongue, hands, feet will give evidence
about him! (Light: 20 and Distinguished: 15).
Doubting Arabs
Arabs found the concept of
Resurrection hard to believe:
"What, when we are dust,
shall we indeed then be raised up again
in new creation" (Thunder: 5).
Resurrection as God's promise
The Koran declared that disbelief
in Resurrection shall be punished with hell, and positively asserted that
Resurrection "is a promise binding on Him (Allah)" (The Bee: 40).
Islamic view of justice
The concept of justice as depicted
by the Koran seems to be based on natural justice:
No intercession
"and warn them against
the Day of Judgement
when, stricken with extreme fear, the hearts are in
the throats
and the evildoers have not one loyal friend,
no intercessor to be heeded" (The Believers:
15).
No befriending
" . . before a day comes
wherein shall be neither haggling
nor befriending" (Abraham: 35).
Allah, the sole judge
". . judgement belongs
not to any
but God. In Him I have put my trust;
and in Him let all put their trust
who put their trust" (Joseph: 65).
The strange turn
So far the Koranic statements
conform to the principles of natural justice, but for lack of favour, do not
seem to carry an effective appeal to the audience for conversion to Islam. Then
the tone changes:
The Prophet assumes
intercessionary role
"Intercession will not
avail Him
except for him to whom He gives leave" (Sheba:
20 also The Star: 25).
Gradually, the Prophet's
intercessionary powers become the plenary powers:
"No! I swear . . .
truly this is the Word of a noble Messenger
having power, with the Lord of the Throne secure,
obeyed, moreover trusty" (The Darkening: 15).
Perversion of justice
According to the Moslem belief, the
Prophet will sit on the right hand side of God on the Throne of Justice and his
intercession will be final. The hymnal poetry of Islam zealously sung by the
believers make no apology about their belief that Allah cannot pardon anyone
whom He likes but Muhammad can. They hold that the first element that ensures
salvation is the belief in the Prophet.
Natural justice has always been
based on deeds and not beliefs. What kind of justice is associated with the Day
of Judgement? It makes fun of the concept of Justice because intercession is as
alien to it as heat is to snow or as flying is to a reptile.
Is physical resurrection
possible?
The idea of physical resurrection
also looks puerile. The modern scientists claim that man as a species has
evolved over a period of ten billion years but on the Day of Judgement when the
trumpet is blown, the dust and ashes of the dead will instantly resume their
original form and present themselves for an unusual brand of justice which
condemns most of them to an eternal hell without any regard to the righteousness
of their deeds.
Man is so frightened of death that
he will believe even in self-deception if it offers him a glimmer of hope to
evade death.
Muhammad and Resurrection
However, it may not be a bad idea
if the faithful remember that the Prophet himself was afraid of the Day of
Judgement (Cattle: 15) and being a mortal was equally subject to Resurrection:
"You are mortal; and they are mortal; then on the Day of Resurrection
before your Lord you shall dispute" (The Companies: 30).
This verse throws an entirely
different light on the role of Muhammad in relation to Resurrection! The Koran
contains a multitude of contradictions. Let me give a few examples.
Koranic contradictions
The Prophet claimed:
"This Koran could not
have been produced
apart from God . . ." (Jonah: 35) and stressed
that "if it had been from other
than God, surely they would have found in it much
inconsistency" (Women: 80).
We have just seen that Allah had
predestined everything yet he holds people responsible for their actions. He
wants to punish them with hell and reward them with heaven but both these
concepts are below the dignity of the Universal God. Again, to enforce his
judgement, He will resurrect the dead but His method and standard of judgement
are quite contrary to the principles of natural justice. Finally, the doctrine
of physical resurrection is far-fetched and irrational.
The Koran
In view of the above facts, one
feels inclined to look into:
- the purpose and
b. composition of the Koran.
The purpose of the Koran
a. The Koran has been revealed to
guide mankind but it does not guide the wicked:
" . . Who is further
astray than he who
follows his whim without guidance from
God? Surely God guides not the people
of the evildoers" (The Story: 50).
"God does not guide the
evildoers" (The Table: 55).
Since the righteous require no
correction, and it is only the evildoers who need guidance, the Koran,
obviously, has no purpose.
Composition of the Koran
Regarding the composition of the
Koran, we should remember:
". . . a Koran we have
divided
for you to recite it to mankind
at intervals, and we have sent it down
piecemeal" (The Night Journey: 105).
Arab objection
It means that the Koran was not
revealed all at once but successively. The contemporaries of the Prophet argued
that as his revelations were connected with certain occasions, they could not
form God's Book. If the Koran were a Divine Book, it must have descended upon
him as a whole. Its relationship with particular events, they held, proved that
the Koran was Muhammad's own authorship which he pretended to be from Allah:
"The unbelievers say,
'Why has the Koran
not been sent down upon him all at once?"
(Salvation: 30).
To stress the point Allah claims:
"Of course, We have sent
the Koran and
of course, we are its guardian" (El-Hijr: 8).
". . . it is a
glorious Koran,
in a guarded tablet" (The Constellation: 20).
"No man can change the
words of God; and
there has already come to you some news
of the envoys" (Cattle: 124).
Muhammad declared that Allah had sent a prophet to
every locality along with His Word. Especially, the Books of the Jews and
Christians were divine revelations but had been interpolated and tampered with!
Word of God is uncorruptible
One wonders if God's previous Books
were corruptible, why did God have to protect the words of the Koran? One cannot
say that God guards the Koran because it is His last Word: Jesus had a similar
claim about His Word, yet Muhammad emphasised that it had been falsified. Again,
if God must guard the Koran because it is His Word, He must have guarded the Old
and New Testaments as well because they also were the Word of God.
Composition of Koran
Man is man only when he is a
rational being and, thus, cannot be deprived of the rights that reason bestows
upon him. Therefore, one is entitled to review critically even the Word of God
for satisfying one's curiosity. The following points must be borne in mind when
considering the composition of the Koran:
1. Muhammad claimed to be the
Messenger of God; he declared that the Koran was the message of God who revealed
it piecemeal at certain occasions.
2. Koran is not created and has
always existed; it is only its revelation which was made in terms of time.
3. Koran is the final expression of
God's will and He will not send any further guidance or messengers.
4. The Koran promulgates the Law of
God; it is complete, immortal, immutable and capable of guiding through all the
situations, eternally.
5. There is no certainty that the
whole text of the Koran was ever committed to writing during the lifetime of the
Prophet. Nobody can make such a claim either. The Prophet was said to be
illiterate. The fact that in the beginning, there were many hypocrites among his
followers, it is likely that his messages had not been recorded exactly the way
he might have dictated them. Being illiterate, he could not have known it. There
is no proof that his famous amanuensis Zaid Ibn Thabit had acted for him right
from the start of his apostolic ministry.
6. It is generally agreed that the
first revelation (Sure XCVI) dates back to A.D. 610 and the last one was
received shortly before the death of the Prophet on 8th June 632. Thus it took
twenty two years to complete the revelation of the Koran. Again, the Koran was
not compiled during the lifetime of the Prophet. As revelations gathered
momentum they were written upon scraps of parchment and leather, flat pieces of
stone, camel's ribs and shoulder-blades, and palm leaves. The fragments were
never numbered and dated and were deposited in various receptacles without
regard to any particular system.
These scattered fragments were
compiled long after the death of the Prophet and the first authorised text
appeared during the caliphate of Uthman C.660. It means that from the
commencement of revelations in 610 to 660, it took fifty years to collect
various bits and pieces of the Koran from different people and containers. One
ought to remember that revelations were recorded not only by the appointed
recorders but also by the members of the Prophet's company, i.e. the followers
who assembled around him most of the time. Again, there were some followers who
memorised the Koranic verses, and their memories also served as the record for
the compilation of the Koran.
7. The 114 Suras or Chapters which
constitute the Koran, lack chronological and rational sequence and thus most
verses do not form a cohesive narrative to facilitate an easy understanding,
especially to the layman to whom the Koran is addressed.
8. If Allah has accepted the
responsibilty of guarding the Koran, then it extends not only to words but its
meanings as well.
9. Comprehensiveness is claimed to
be the integral part of the composition of the Koran: the Moslems believe that
there is nothing which has not been mentioned in the Koran, and this claim
extends to astronomy, the physical laws of nature, scientific formulas and
discoveries, medical and biological innovations, history and knowledge of the
future events and anything else one can think of.
10. The Koran confirms the divine
origin of the Old and New Testaments and exalts Moses and Jesus to the rank of a
prophet.
In view of what I have said above,
one comes to the following conclusions:
1a. Since the Koran was the message
from Allah, and this is what made Muhammad the Messenger, his foremost duty was
to compile it himself in the most orderly fashion. He, obviously, neglected this
task which deserved the highest priority.
2a. If the Koran is not created and
has always existed as it is, then all the events that it refers to, had been
predestined. Therefore, it is futile to send a Messenger to argue for or against
them. Thus, the Koran has no purpose and is quite unnecessary.
3a. If the purpose of revelation is
to guide people, then it has to be a continuous and everlasting process because
they need leadership all the time. Again, time is progressive and human culture
keeps changing constantly. If revelation ceased after Muhammad, then it implies
that the generations that follow him after 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 years must
live at the same level as did Muhammad. This makes the Koran an unnatural book.
Christ and Mani also claimed that
the revelation had ended with them, and did not want anyone else to be believed
in as a Messiah or Messenger. It is like the power-hungry mundane rulers who
want to rule every territory to the total exclusion of other monarchs. This is
what makes revelation, the device of dominance.
4a. The Koran contains some eighty
verses which can be construed to contain the Islamic Law. They are confined to a
very limited area and cannot extend to the vast reaches of life. This is the
reason that the Shariah or the Islamic Law could not be introduced in its pure
form in any part of the Moslem empire and they had to borrow from the Roman,
Byzantinian and Persian legal systems.
The very nature of law makes it
(the law) mortal, that is, laws become obsolete and irrelevant over a period of
time and have to be replaced by new laws. Therefore, the Koranic Law which was
revealed nearly 1,400 years ago cannot be immortal, comprehensive and
everlasting. Its proof is found in the Koran itself:
"And for whatever verse We
abrogate or cast into oblivion, We bring a better or the like of it . . ."
(The Law: 100).
Further evidence of this is to be
found in The Spoils: 65, The Bee: 100 and The Most High: 6.
If several verses had to be
rescinded and replaced by others within the twenty years of the Prophet's
ministry, then how come, the rest of the Koran can stay intact over a period of
centuries and millenia?
5a. The Prophet's illiteracy and
the fact that the whole of the Koran was never written down in his lifetime, are
likely causes of ommisions from, and additions to, the Koran.
6a. The facts that had been
preserved haphazardly, when compiled after half a century must be liable to
error by way of omission, addition, exaggeration or understatement. This state
of affairs is confirmed by the fact that the abrogated verses, which should not
form part of the Koran, are still there. Again, this is especially true because
many of the Prophet's followers were hypocrites who intentionally wanted to harm
Islam.
7a. The Koran lacks chronological
order completely. The Prophet received his first revelations when he was in
Mecca and the last ones came down to him during his residence in Medina. The
compilers omitted the chronological sequence completely and arranged Suras in
their order of length. The Koran is arranged back to front and the Western
Scholars have called it "history in reverse order". This is the reason
that an ordinary believer cannot comprehend it readily despite the Koranic claim
that Allah has made it "of easy understanding". If Allah has not
thought it fit to guard the sequence of the Koran, which is vital to its true
preservation and understanding, He cannot be expected to guard its words. I am
referring to the pre-Uthman era which covers a period of fifty years. There is
no doubt that since Uthman's authorization, the words of the Koran have suffered
no change, whatever.
8a. Of course, words have their
significance but of much greater importance are their meanings. If word
"orange" comes to mean apple or banana, then the preservation of its
letters, spellings and pronunciation ceases to have any significance at all.
This is exactly what has happened to the Koran. The words are the same but
different scholars stand miles apart in interpreting them. If it were not so,
Moslems would not be divided into so numerous irreconcilable sects. Has Allah
really guarded the Koran?
9a. If everything, as the Moslems
claim, has been described in the Koran, they would have been the most advanced
nation of the world because all they would have to do would be to look into the
Koran to find out the remedy for cancer and the formulas for the atom bomb and
space control. This has obviously not happened. It is a pity that they declare
the existence of such knowledge in the Koran only when non-Moslem scientists
have made them public! It is a tragedy of Islam that the Moslems look for things
in the Koran which are not supposed to be there.
10a. If Prophets like Moses and
Jesus were needed before Muhammad, they should be needed after him as well
because life goes on varying all the time. If the earlier divine books could be
tampered with, the Koran being a similar book cannot escape falsification. And
falsification does not have to be wilful it can happen quite naturally by way of
inadvertent addition or deletion.
As mentioned under 4a and supported
by the quotations from The Cow, The Spoils, The Bee and the Most High, the
Prophet was liable to forget certain verses which could not have been recorded.
This amounts to omission; replacing them with new and better verses constitutes
revision which is against the Koranic claim that it is immortal and immutable.
Finally, as a footnote to the above
observations, I may add that there are several narratives in the Koran which are
not attested by the facts of history. Let me give you two examples:
1. In the cave (80-95) the Koran
has portrayed Alexander, The Great (Dhool Karnain) as a prophet and a
monotheist. He was nothing of the kind. Knowing full well that Philip of
Macedonia was his father, he claimed to be the son of the chief Egyptian god
Amon.
After conquering the Persian
Empire, he demanded deification and was acknowledged and worshipped as a god in
many countries. Again, the Koran is not aware of the story of Alexander's
retreat from India. Nor has history recorded that he built any wall of iron and
brass to keep the imaginary Gog and Magog at bay. These facts are more relevant
to the Chinese Wall but Alexander had not put his foot on the Chinese soil.
2. In Chapter XXXI, headed as
Lokman, the Koran depicts Lokman as if he were a true Moslem who practiced
Monotheism and condemned shirk, that is worshipping someone else in association
with God.
Alcmaeon was a student of
Pythagoras who established a school of natural philosophy at Crotone in southern
Italy. Known to the east as Lokman Hakeem or Lokman the Wise or Lokman the
Physician, he earned this reputation for investigating the animal structure; he
distinguished arteries from veins, established brain as the centre of intellect,
discovered optic nerve, and because of his insight into the development of
embryo, came to be acknowledged as the founder of embryology.
But Lokman the Wise was not a
monotheist; he was a polytheist and an idolater!
Nature of Koranic Law
Having briefly considered the
purpose and composition of the Koran, one is inclined to look into the nature of
the Koranic Law.
The Koran clearly lays down its
fundamental principle of law: "(O Prophet) you shall find no change in the
law of God" (The Confederates: 61).
I must point out that the "Law
of God" has also been interpreted as the "Way of God" and the
"Custom of God". As Moslems believe that the Koran is the Law and it
is unchangeable, it makes no difference whatever, whether we translate
the~original verse as the Law of God, the Way of God or the Custom of God.
Equality at Law
The second priciple of the Koranic
Law declares that nobody is above the law and it equally applies to the Prophet
himself:
"Follow you what has been
revealed to you
from your lord;" (Cattle: 105).
Allah commands the Prophet:
"and this (Koran) is My
Path, straight; so do you
follow it, and follow not other paths
lest they mislead you from His path" (Cattle:
150).
One cannot underestimate the warning
given in this verse yet we find it difficult to reconcile some of the prophet's
deeds with the Koranic Law. Let me give you just two examples:
". . . marry such women
as seem good to you, two,
three, four; but if you fear you will not be
equitable,
then only one, or what your right hand owns;
so it is likelier you will not be one-sided"
(Woman: 2).
This verse allows polygamy on two
conditions:
a. A Moslem can have up to four
wives provided;
b. He is equitable, and does not
show partiality to any of them.
Essence of law
It is the essence of jurisprudence
that unity of the law is preserved under all circumstances i.e. there cannot be
two laws, one for the mighty and one for the meek, and secondly, a law-giver is
required to observe his own laws while he allows them to stand. This is
especially true in the case of the Prophet because every word of the Koran is
addressed to him for direct compliance.
History has recorded that the
Prophet did not pay any attention to either of these rules because:
When he died he left eight widows
and one Christian concubine, and He was partial to Aisha. His deep inclination
towards Aisha, the youngest wife, caused a good deal of discord amongst his
other wives. The following verses testify to this fact:
"It is possible that, if
he divorces you
Allah will give him in exchange wives
better than you, women who have surrendered,
believing, obedient, penitent, devout,
giving to fasting, who have been married
and virgins too" (The Forbidding: 5).
The furore that the Prophet's
partiality caused, is well portrayed by this verse: the attitude of his wives
bordered on rebellion and he threatened to divorce them and replace them with
better wives. When this threat did not prove effective, Allah sent down a
special law which applied to the Prophet's wives exclusively:
"Wives of the Prophet,
whoever among you
commits a gross indecency, for her
the punishment shall be doubled; that is
easy for God.
But whomsoever of you surrenders to God and His
Messenger, and does righteousness, We shall pay
her wage twice over; We have prepared for her
a generous reward.
Wives of the Prophet, you are not as other
women. If you are God-fearing, be not
vile in your speech, so that he in whose
heart is sickness may be lustful; but speak
honourable words" (The Confederates: 30)
This law reveals not only the
matrimonial background including "vile speech" of Prophet's wives but
also lays down that if the Prophet's wives obey him, they will be entitled to
twice the reward of an ordinary wife and if they disobey him they will attract
double the punishment! Why? Draw your own conclusions.
There cannot be duality in a true
law because equal application is its essence. Without this virtue, it cannot
guarantee justice, its main purpose. Yet the Koranic law provides duality to
justify the Prophet's deeds:
"You can suspend any of
your wives as you will
and receive any one of them as you will; and
whomsoever
you desire of those whom you have set aside,
it is no sin for you; now it is likelier they will
be
comforted and not grieve, and everyone of them
will be well pleased with what you give her"
(The Confederates: 50).
As already stated, the basic condition
of polygamy is that the husband is equitable to all his wives and does not
practice partiality. But here Allah has given special dispensation to the
Prophet who can suspend any of his wives as he pleases but his followers can't!
One must remember that the Koran
projects Muhammad as the model for all the faithful. If the Prophet can't
practice his own laws, how can they be binding on the believers?
Allah obeys the Prophet
The Prophet declared that he is a
servant to God but it is evident that it is God who follows the Prophet's
inclinations:
Here are some examples:
"O believers, enter not
the houses of
the Prophet, except permission is given you
for a meal, without watching for its time.
But when you are invited, then enter; and
when you have had the meal, leave,
neither lingering for idle talk;
That is annoying to the Prophet, and he
is ashamed before you; but God is not
ashamed before the truth. And when you
ask his wives for any thing, ask them
from behind a curtain; this is cleaner
for your hearts and theirs. It is not
for you to hurt God's Messenger, neither
to marry his wives after him, ever;
surely that would be, in God's sight
a monstrous thing" (The Confederates: 50).
These verses clearly pertain to
Muhammad's personal life. He was quite capable of saying all these things to his
followers directly, yet he chose to put these words in God's mouth!
Change of Kibla
"We have seen you turning
your face about
towards the heaven; now We will surely turn you.
Turn your face towards the Holy Mosque; and
wherever you are, turn faces towards it" (The
Cow: 135).
What this verse records is known as the change of
Kibla i.e. the direction which Moslems face to say prayers. It is quite clear
that when the Prophet started looking towards the sky, God took the hint and
with a view to satisfying His Messenger He changed the Kibla i.e. the direction
of prayers from Jerusalem (Bait Ul Maqaddas) to Kaaba (The Holy Mosque).
Obviously, Allah has no will of His own!
Jerusalem, the original Kibla
Originally, the Prophet had
appointed Jerusalem as the Kibla to convince the Jews that Islam was a
continuation of what had been revealed to Moses, Abraham and Noah. To win them
over, the Koran repeatedly stated that the Children of Israel were an exalted
race and God had raised them above the rest of mankind. When praise failed to
secure conversion of the Jews, the Prophet decided to deprive them of this
honour.
Moslem interpretation of Kibla
However, the Moslems insist that
Jerusalem as the Kibla was meant to be a temporary affair; they faced it simply
because the Kaaba was full of idols and the Moslems being the followers of
Allah, could not adopt it as the Kibla until such time that all the idols had
been removed from there. History does not support this claim: this 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, and it was not until 630 when the
Prophet entered Mecca as a victor and removed statues from the Kaaba.
Another reason for the change of
Kibla
In fact the change of Kibla from
Jerusalem to Mecca was adopted by Muhammad to increase his influence amongst the
Arabs. The Kaaba had been the holiest shrine of the Arabs for centuries. In 622,
Muhammad migrated to Medina, the home of the Jewish tribes such as the
Banu-Nadhir, the Banu-Kuraiza, the Banu-Kainuka. This occasion of flight (July
16, 622, the Hijra) was designated by the Caliph Omar as the official beginning
of the Moslem era. The Prophet planned to visit the Kaaba as a pilgrimage. His
Meccan followers who had left Mecca ten years earlier to be with the Prophet,
and felt homesick, were delighted by this suggestion. This pilgrimage to the
Holy Place also wrought a considerable change on the minds of the Meccans who
were jolly pleased to realise that their shrine was to be designated as the most
sacred centre of Islam. Jerusalem as the Kibla, did not gratify the Jews, the
stiffnecks, who would rather break than surrender, but it had a great effect on
the Arabs who despite being tough, proved to be tender. Owing to its stupendous
influence on the progress and history of Islam, it was surely the master stroke
that proves the wisdom and farsightedness of Muhammad as a man.
Allah, the factotum of Muhammad
In fact, Allah does everything not
only to please Muhammad but He also acts as his factotum:
"O believer, advance not
before God
and His Messenger; and fear God. God is
All-hearing, All-knowing".
"O believers, raise
not your voice above
the Prophet's voice, and be not loud
in your speech to him, as you are loud
one to another, in case your works fail
while you are not aware.
Surely those who lower their voices in
the presence of God's Messenger, those
are they whose hearts God has tested for
godfearing; they shall have forgiveness
and a stupendous wage" (Apartments: 1).
The Prophet was human
Of course, it is only fair that the
led should respect their leaders by controlling their manners and tone of voice.
But is it for God to tell such ordinary and commonsense things to intelligent
people? It is a myth that the pre-Islam Arabs were barbarians: their literature
and traditions of honour openly defy this view. No, it is Muhammad who speaks as
God in the disguise of revelation.
Slavery
Muhammad was human and was
influenced by the culture, and social traditions of his time exactly the same
way as all greater and lesser mortals have been throughout history. Take
slavery, for instance. He took it for a natural institution. Despite all the
torture, disgrace and humiliation associated with it, he did nothing to abolish
it. Of course, it is true that he was kind to slaves, and thought of freeing
slaves as a virtue, but Christianity had expressed a similar attitude towards
slavery long before him. The Code of Justinian (528) had abolished the old class
distinction and the freed men were given all the privileges of free men. It went
even so far as to put the chastity of a slave woman on par with that of a free
woman by treating the rape of the former punishable by death whereas Islam
authorised the master to have sexual intercourse with his slave girls.
Slavery and God
If revelation carries a grain of
truth, then the foremost duty of any divine Messenger is to condemn and abolish
slavery. Why? Because liberty is the greatest Virtue for being the stepping
stone to humanity from the lower form of existence. If you don't believe me,
think of yourself as a slave and imagine yourself being chained, starved and
whipped; visualise your wives and daughters being raped and your children being
sold away to strangers. Is there anything more atrocious and horrible than this
state of affairs, called ``slavery"? The value of liberty emerges when we
realise that this is the only cure for the venom of servitude. I am not prepared
to adore the God who is all out to humiliate mankind Relationship between God
and man is moral and not that of a master and slave How would God feel if He
were subjected to similar pain and humiliation as man is? A true God cannot be
callous, unjust and uncaring. Therefore, the major purpose of His prophets will
be to eliminate slavery outrightly.
Islam and Womanhood
Another example is the plight of
women. They have always been held as an object of sexual pleasure, a toy for
man, the source of mischief, impurity and hypocrisy. Treating them with
inferiority has become the mark of male superiority. Of course, the Prophet did
say that paradise lay at the feet of one's mother but it proved to be only of
theoretical reverence because in addition to being mother, a woman is also a
person, a daughter, a sister and a wife. Apart from motherhood, women suffered
more under Islam than any other major faith or doctrine. The Prophet imported
the Persian custom of veiling or purdah into the Moslem society (Light: 30), and
by confining their role to the household behind curtains under the watchful eyes
of the male members, turned them into virtual house-prisoners. To gauge the
condition of women one has only to look at the Koranic laws:
1. "Your women are a tillage
for you; so come unto your tillage as you wish" (The Cow: 220).
2. Men
are superior to women (The Cow: 225).
3. Man can divorce woman at will
but she can't (The Cow: 225, The Confederates: 45, Divorce: 1).
4. A man can have four wives and an
unlimited number of concubines but a woman must have only one husband.
5. One
man is equal to two women as a witness (The Cow: 280).
6. Likewise, a brother is entitled
to twice the inheritance of his sister (Woman:l0).
7. Man is free to administer a dose
of violence to his wives when he thinks they are not obedient: ". . .
chastise; banish them to their couches and beat them. If they then obey you,
look not for any way against them" (Women: 35).
Islam, and sex outside marriage
There is evidence in the Koran
winch forbids sex outside marriage:
"Marry the spouseless
among you, and your
slaves and handmaidens that are righteous;
. . . and let those who find not the means to
marry be abstinent till God enriches them
of His bounty. Those your right hand owns
but seek emancipation, contract with
them accordingly . . . And force not
your slavegirls to prostitution, if they
desire to live in chastity" (Light: 30).
However, this law has been
contradicted by other verses:
" . . Marry such women
as seem to you, two, three, four;
but if you fear you will not be equitable,
then only one, or what your right hand owns"
(Women: 1).
"O Prophet, we have
made lawful for you
your wives whom you have given their wages
and what your right hand owns . . ." (The
Confederates: 45).
"What right hand owns" has
been understood as a slave. In the context of sex, it has been invariably
interpreted and practiced as a slave woman. Extending sexual relationship to
women who are not one's wives, flaunts the sanctity of marriage. Yet Allah
prescribes the sentence of death for adultery but not for those who can afford
to own slave girls. The Moslem Caliphs, Sultans and Kings set up vast harems
containing not scores but hundreds of pretty and delicate women. The Emperor
Jehangir of India is reported to have had six thousand women in his seraglio.
The royal bedchambers were administered by specially castrated men known as
"eunuchs" who mastered the arts of lechery, grooming and stimulating
and accelerating the appetites and pleasures of their masters, immune to the
grip of Allah for having the riches and power to keep concubines. No matter what
they did to these helpless girls, could not count as a sin. These harems were
obviously a reflection of the Paradise on earth.
Concubinage
However, it was not the Prophet who
invented the institution of concubinage. Abraham had a concubine, and so did
Jacob. May be it had originated in Persia where the stern monarchs needed soft
and saccharine sexual dolls to reduce the rigours of the ruling rituals which
they usually performed well.
Duality of Muhammad and Allah
Nobody can blame the Prophet for
the institution of concubinage which he accepted as a going tradition. It
demonstrates that he was a mortal and thus subject to the cultural influences of
his time. Though it clearly shows that he was human, the matter is not quite as
straightforward as it looks because the Koran depicts him both as a man and God.
The Moslems claim that they believe in one God; in fact, they believe in the
Duality of Muhammad and Allah as the Christians believe in the Trinity of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. However, this duality is totally different
from what Zoroasterism, Manicheism and Neoplatonism preached. It holds that
Muhammad as Messenger, and God are one, and Muhammad being the dominant
component of duality, is the ultimate object of worship. This belief is less an
article of theory and more of practice.
The Prophet as a man
I am sure that Moslems all over the
world will accuse me of misrepresenting slam Honesty demands that before getting
excited, they must deliberate on the following quotations sincerely. Let me
quote the Prophet's human side first:
The Prophet is God's Servant:
"And if you are in doubt
regarding that we have
sent down on Our servant . . ." (The Cow: 20).
The Prophet neither knows the Unseen
nor is he an angel:
"I do not say to you, 'I
possess the treasures of God'
I know not the Unseen. I say not to you, 'I am an
angel',
I only follow what is revealed to me" (Cattle:
50).
3. The Prophet's function is only to
warn people; he is not even given the responsibility to guide them:
"You are only a warner;
and God is a Guardian
over everything" (Hood: 15).
"You are not
responsible for guiding them;
but God guides whomsoever He will" (The Cow:
270).
4. The Prophet has no power to perform
miracles; he is just a man:
"The unbelievers say,
'Why has a sign not been
sent down upon him from his Lord? You are only
a warner . . ." (Thunder: 5).
Despite people's fervent demand, the
Prophet failed to show a miracle and declared:
". . . say 'Glory be to
my Lord! Am I aught but a mortal,
a messenger?"' (The Night Journey: 95).
5. The
Prophet obeys God's commandments and nobody has a share in the Divinity:
"Say, I have only been
commanded
to serve God, and not to associate
aught with Him. To Him I call, and
to Him I turn" (Thunder: 35).
"Therefore call you, and go
straight as you have been commanded . . ." (Counsel: 10).
6. God's commandments to obey, and
pray to Him are equally binding on the Prophet as on any other believer:
"Proclaim your Lord's
praise,
and be of those that bow,
and serve your Lord, until
the certain comes to you" (El-Hijr: 95).
7. The Prophet is equally subject to
Allah's reward and punishment:
a. "If He will, He will
have mercy on you
or, if He will, He will chastise you" (The
Night Journey: 55).
b. "Set not up with
God
another God, or you
wilt be cast into
Gehenna (Hell), reproached
and condemned" (The Night Journey: 40)
8. The Prophet is a mortal and subject
to Resurrection:
"You art mortal; and they
are mortal;
then on the Day of Resurrection before your Lord
you shall dispute" (The Companies: 475).
9. The Prophet is neither aware of the
Unseen nor does he know what will become of him:
". . . and I know not
what
shall be done with me or with you.
I only follow what is revealed to me;
I am only a clear warner" (The Sand-Dunes: 5).
10. God confirms Muhammad's humanity
loud and clear:
"Know you therefore that
there is no god but God,
and ask forgiveness for your sins, and
for the believers, men and women" (Muhammad:
20).
Purpose of Revelation
After this description of
Muhammad's humanity, it seems impossible that a man can claim to be God, and
even surpass Him in the exercise of Divinity. This is the magic, and purpose of
revelation which enables an ordinary mortal to declare himself as God's
Messenger or Messiah and issue all the commands in His name. Since nobody can
see God or approach Him without the agency of the Messenger (or Messiah), it is
the Messenger himself who begins to rank as God and is treated as such by his
followers. Look at the following quotations from the Koran and see the truth for
yourself:
Basic Islamic belief
1. The basic Islamic belief is
Shahadah:
"There is no God but Allah and
Muhammad is His Messenger".
It is surely the quality of the
message, and not the messenger that counts. Therefore' it makes no difference
whether one believes in the messenger or not if the message itself is sound,
sincere and salubrious. But this does not apply to Muhammed as a Messenger:
"Upon the day the
unbelivers,
those who disobeyed the Messenger,
will wish that the earth might be levelled with
them" (Women: 45).
Muhammad and Godhead
Obedience to Muhammad is a must if
you do not want to suffer the perils of the Day of Judgement. Just belief in God
alone will not save you. Muhammad obviously has a share in Divinity. Otherwise
disbelief in Muhammad could not be fatal.
2. Obedience to Muhammad is as
compulsory as it is to God.
a. "Say, Obey God, and the
Messenger" (The House of Imran: 25).
b. "Obey God and the
Messenger; haply so
you will find mercy" (The House of Imran: 125).
". . . Whoso obeys God
and His Messenger, He will admit him
to gardens . . ." (Women: 15).
"O believers, betray
not God and the
Messenger . . ." (The Spoils: 25).
Muhammad and God are
coextensive
3. Having asserted that Allah is
nearer to man than his jugular vein, the Koran declares:
"The Prophet is nearer to
the believers than their
selves . . ." (The Confederates: 5).
Now, God and Muhammed have become
coextensive!
Muhammad as mercy for mankind
c. As the Bible called Jesus the
Grace for Mankind to give him divine status
the Koran pronounced Muhammed as
the Mercy or Blessing for all beings:
"We have not sent you, except
as a mercy
unto all beings" (The
Prophets: 100).
Muhammad and God as
co-sovereigns
5. Now Allah and Muhammad become
co-sovereigns and command together:
"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: 35).
Muhammad as model
6. God tells believers that
Muhammad is the model of action for them and they must follow him in all
details:
"You have a good example
in God's Messenger
for whosoever hopes for God and the Last Day . .
." (The Confederates: 20).
Muhammad and the unseen
7. Now we find God sharing the
knowledge of the Unseen with Muhammad though previously it was exclusive to
Himself:
"Knower He of the Unseen,
and
He discloses not His Unseen to anyone,
except only to such a messenger as
He is well-pleased with" (The Jinn: 25).
Muhammad and Divine Authority
8. After elevating himself as the
model of conduct and having gained parity with God in the right to command, and
to be obeyed, now he exercises the divine authority in conjunction with Allah:
"A release, from God and
His Messenger,
unto the idolaters with whom you made covenant.
A declaration from God and His Messenger,
Unto mankind on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage:
God is quit, and His Messenger, of the
idolaters" (Repentance: 1).
Muhammad and intercession
9. To begin with, the Prophet had
no intercessory powers whatever:
"Ask pardon for them, or
ask not pardon for them;
if you ask pardon for them seventy times, God will
not pardon them" (Repentance: 80).
"Do you know what is
the Day of Judgement?
That is the day when no one shall be able to
benefit anyone else; the command shall belong unto
God" (The Splitting: 15).
Now the situation changes; the
Prophet's claim to divinity rises as his political power grows:
"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).
The basic Moslem belief in the
intercessory powers of the Prophet is founded on these verses. They believe
that, on the Day of Judgement, Muhammad will share the Throne of Justice with
God. He will sit on the right hand side of Allah and the Prophet's
recommendations will be binding on Him!
God and Angels worship Muhammad
10. The gradually changing
situation is now reversed:
"God and His angels pray
peace to the Prophet.
O believers, do you also bless him, and
pray him peace" (The Confederates: 55).
Moslems worship Muhammad
Praying peace (salaam) and reciting
darood (repetitive recitation of Muhammad's name) are forms of salutation and
devotion reserved for Muhammad. They are an integral part of the Islamic form of
worship known as Namaz or Salaat. Thus not only Allah and angels but also
Muslims directly or indirectly worship the Prophet. The Moslems of India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh hold special sessions to praise Muhammad and recite
hymnal songs to adore him. If this is not Prophet-worship, then what is it? This
is the Duality that I have referred to. How can Moslems call themselves
monotheists?
In fact, Muhammad encouraged
Prophet-worship during his life-time. He declared that Abraham, Jacob, Joseph,
Moses and Jesus, all had the powers to work miracles but when his contemporaries
asked him to show them a miracle so that they could believe him without
hesitation, he could not do so. The Koran testifies to this fact repeatedly. Yet
he claimed to be the last and the most superior prophet and encouraged his
followers to believe in his supernatural powers. History has recorded that
whenever he had a haircut, his disciples swarmed over one another, to gather his
cut 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 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 ago! Imprinting, in a way, is a form
of brainwashing. If at birth duckling and goslings are led to believe that man
is their father, they follow him as his offsprings! Since faith is like a castle
that one builds around one's self for severing connection with the inclemencies
of the real world, the stronger its foundation, the securer one feels. The
fortress of faith draws its strength from the tales of miracles that a Messiah
or Messenger is reputed to have performed; the more incredible miracles a
prophet is said to have shown, the greater his divinity and the higher the
chances of salvation for believers!
The Hadith, the Jews and the
political opportunists
Originally, Islam was a simple,
practical faith, free from theoretical complexities. Its purity was adulterated
by the Jewish hypocrites who fabricated countless sayings and ascribed them to
the Prophet. They did it to avenge the humiliation of defeat. Their
"contributions" helped to build up the body of the Hadith or
traditions associated with the Prophet. This began to count as the Oral Law of
Islam, and has the same relationship with the Koran as the Mishna and Gemara
have with the Old Testament. The political opportunists of the Umayyad and
Abbasid parties concocted further additions to attain their secular goals.
History has recorded that Ibn Abi Al-Awja, who confessed to fabricating 4,000
traditions was executed at Kufa in 772 for this blasphemy. Of course, it is hard
to challenge the piety of Al-Bukhari who first compiled the Muhammadan
traditions in 870 but he did so 238 years after the death of the Prophet. Hadith
means the spoken words of the Prophet. Despite the greatest care in the world,
the spoken words are likely to lose their originality, purpose and meanings over
such a long time.
Revelation is the most effective
tool of dominance-urge because it raises an ordinary mortal to the status of God
and secures for him the rights of total Obedience and worship. Since God cannot
be seen or contacted, the revelationist becomes the Divine Manifestation and God
Himself recedes into oblivion. It is not surprising that the Moslems believe
that Muhammad like Allah has ninety nine sacred names and ninety nine numinous
attributes; Allah and angels pray peace to Muhammad whose intercessionary powers
control Allah's sense of justice. This is the reason that Islam has come to be
founded on the love of Muhammad, and not surrender to Allah who ranks as a
euphemism for the Prophet. Was Muhammad God? The Moslems who know something
about the Koran do not think so. In fact, to them, it is Shirk, the greatest
sin. But they are a small minority. The misunderstanding lies at the folk-level
which constitutes 95°10 of the Moslems.
Muhammad was human, and there is a
lot of evidence for it:
1. First of all, the Koran portrays
him as human. He was born like any other human; he lived and died like other
humans:
a. He ate and drank, he walked,
talked and slept; he fell ill and needed medication, and answered the call of
nature like other humans.
b. He possessed sexual urge which
is the characteristic of all humans. The fact that he had over twelve wives,
shows his natural passion for women.
Again, his wives did not think of
him as God. In fact, some of them treated him harshly, the Koran itself mentions
the "vile speech" of his wives towards him, and history has
particularly noted the impolite attitude of Hafsa, the daughter of Omar the
Great.
3. Using marriage as a weapon of
political power, is an old way of the secular princes. The Prophet was no
exception to it. Abu Bakr and Omar were his fathersin-law and Uthman and Ali
were his sons-in-law. It is these four men who firmly established Islam which
had lost ground after the death of the Prophet. Among his wives, we even find a
daughter of Abu Sufyan, the arch enemy of Islam.
4. The Prophet made taxation, which
is a form of plunder, as the tool of dominance. Its ultimate purpose was to
reduce all non-Moslems to the status of tributaries. To achieve this end he
propounded the doctrine of Jehad or Holy War and declared Booty i.e. the loot,
as God's Blessing for motivating his followers to kill. Robbing the peaceful
commercial caravans of the Quresh of Mecca, which led to battles establishing
Muhammad's political hegemony, is the natural sequence of this doctrine. Is it
really Godly to kill for the joy of robbing and turning people into widows,
orphans and cripples? Is it divine to call loot and murder "holy"?
What kind of God can sanction carnage just because people don't believe in Him?
If belief in God was so vital, He would have created mankind differently. Does
God really need wars to establish His suzerainty? It cannot be the act of God
who is Almighty in His own right. (For further details see the chapter:
Taxation).
5. The prophet was not only born as
human but he also lived and died as human During his life-time, he was subject
to the human mechanism of fear and favour:
a. His uncle Abu Talib had acted as
his protector until he died in 619. Sense of insecurity persuaded him in 620 to
leave Mecca for Taif, a small town some sixty miles to the east. As people of
Taif turned hostile, he returned to Mecca out of fear. For about a year, he was
afraid for his life when in 622 some seventy three citizens of Medina came to
see Muhammad and invited him to make Medina his home. He felt relieved, and
asked them if they would protect him against his enemies with the same zeal as
they would defend their own families. They vowed to do so and asked what reward
they would receive if they got killed in shielding the Prophet.
"Paradise", he answered.
Fear of death, obviously, haunted
him as painfully as it enervates other human beings. It is strange that even the
reward of paradise, which he offered to his followers, did not tempt him to part
with life happily. Nor did Allah care to protect him against the infidels of
Mecca. As hostility increased, he fled to Medina in September, 622.
b. His death also points to his
humanity. A few years prior to his death, he thought that the people of Khaiber
had served him poisonous meat. He started having unusual fevers and spells.
Aisha, his youngest wife is reported to have said that the Prophet would get out
of home quietly at midnight to visit a graveyard; there he would "ask
forgiveness of the dead, pray aloud for them, and congratulate them on being
dead". His long agony came to an end on June 7, 632 when he passed away at
the age of sixty-three.
Since the Prophet could not tell
that the meat he was being served contained poison, he obviously, had no
knowledge of the Unseen, contrary to the popular Moslem belief. He suffered the
normal course of misery as a victim of poison and Allah did nothing to alleviate
his pain. This negates the tall tales of the special love bond which is supposed
to exist between Allah and Muhammad. Nobody can ever willingly see his truly
loved ones in a prolonged agony. How could Allah?
The truth is that Muhammad was a
human. But what kind of man was he? This is the real issue. So far, I have
discussed him in relation to revelation, now I may assess him as a man, and the
reader ought to be prepared to accept some contradictions which stem from the
difference between divinity and humanity:
Assessment of Muhammad
Unfortunately, in the West, as a
result of the prolonged crusades and ecclesiastical propaganda, Muhammad's name
has been corrupted to Mahound, meaning devil, and the Koran has been described
as the word of Satan.
Muhammad's virtues
This is a shameful and odious
attitude towards the Prophet. He was sincere, upright and honest. In terms of
humanity, he was an aggregate of virtues to be found rarely in one person: he
was at once a thinker and trader, a general and jurist, a preacher and
philanthropist, a sage and soldier, an administrator and advisor, a loving
friend and father. Having been born posthumously, he had boundless compassion
for orphans and widows and his laws demonstrate this fact beyond a shadow of
doubt. His socialist tendencies of common care were fairly balanced with
people's unlimited right to legitimate ownership. Though merciful, his judgement
reflected natural justice and made no discrimination between friends and foes.
The radiant smile that he possessed, never failed to win him friends. Despite
being practically the ruler of Arabia, he lived at subsistence level; his food
was simple, his dress was modest and though all his wives had separate huts, he
didn't even have a hut of his own.
He was a truly great friend in
peace and a forgiving foe in war. During all those battles, he fought with
courage, tenacity and determination; even his enemies cannot trace any
atrocities towards him. The Prophet set a model of forgiveness which was
observed by his followers: the Meccans, who had persecuted him, were forgiven
almost to the last man when he returned as a victor, and Abu Bakr, the first
Caliph, bade his soldiers not to molest women, children, the old and the sick
belonging to the enemy.
Universality of message
His humanitarian spirit lay in the
fact that his message was directed at the whole of mankind and not just the
Arabs. Whereas Yahwe is the God of Israel, Allah is the God of the world and has
no preference for the Arabs. Not only all those who believed in the Prophet
formed Umma or one nation, each having equal rights and obligations, but he also
advocated a subtle commonwealth with "the people of the book", that
is, Jews and Christians. A proof of this fact is to be found in the society that
Muhammad created in Medina.
He offered to the Jews, who still
practiced their own faith and traded with the Quresh of Mecca, a concordat which
guaranteed them equal rights with his followers if they were willing to attach
themselves with the Islamic commonwealth. There was no threat of conversion or
second rate citizenship lurking behind this offer.
Prophet's real strength
Though the Moslems keep harping on
the divine powers of the Prophet, his real strength lay in his practical
abilities: his velour and tenacity won him all the important battles; his
resolve was immortal, his courage defied all perils, his will to honour
agreements was well-respected and his word was considered his bond even by his
enemies. The Prophet's true and most significant achievement however, lay in
tansferring his values of honour and integrity not only to his descendants but
also his followers. Take his grandson Hussain, for instance.
Hussain Ibn All
He stood up for what he thought to
be his legitimate rights. Having lost almost his entire family to the enemy at
Karbala, he still did not beg for mercy or sought to escape He acted in the true
tradition of his grandfather; he raised his javelin, galloped his white stallion
(Duldul) and charged into the enemy line reciting the Koran with the dignity and
honour of a true Mujahid (Crusader). Fancy one man standing up to a host of
several thousand. Yet his courage and determination did not fail him. Neither he
cursed his foes nor he shrieked with pain. He kept praising Allah as he received
stab-wounds from back and front and left and right. This man, Hussain Ibn All,
showed no sign of helplessness until the last drop of blood gushed out of his
perforated body. No wonder, the Iranian used to admiring velour, became Shi'ite
to acknowledge the vitrue of Hussain. In fact, one does not have to be a Shi'ite
to adore Hussain; there are plenty who admire him as a great human specimen.
These virtues of action that the
Prophet inspired, were not restricted to the members of his own family; they
touched the hearts of his followers with an equal zeal; veracity of Abu Bakr,
greatness of Omar, generosity of Uthman and piety of All, need no introduction.
Greatness of character was the real legacy of the Prophet which enabled his
followers to defeat the Byzantine and Persian empires within twenty years of his
death and dominate the earth for about 1,000 years. Thus, the Prophet laid the
foundation of a new culture, which in many ways, was more advanced than the
existing civilisation, for being founded on piety, honour and fairness. Yet it
was the personal triumph of Muhammad, and Allah had no part in it.
The Prophet was a reformer. I have
no doubt that he used the device of revelation to achieve a righteous goal, but
this device is more suitable for promoting a human as God rather than serving as
the fountain of righteousness. This is the reason that Moslems all over the
world adore the Prophet but pay lip-reverence to his teachings despite the fact
that he laid a great emphasis on the piety of deeds and presented his followers
with a code of practice.
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