My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation

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Reply #60 - July 24, 2014, 08:45 PM

11. Furthermore, what reason lies behind specifying seven heavens, other than because it was regarded as a sacred number in ancient mythology? Wherever you look in this universe, you will not find evidence of this number except in the minds of fortunetellers, sorcerers, mystics, oracles, gnostics and such-like who claim to have secret knowledge. How can this number be reconciled with the colossal numbers of planets, stars, star systems, galaxies, nebulae and cosmic dust?

Where is this number 7 in this avalanche? Where are the seven heavens and seven earths? And what is the meaning of the lowest heaven and the lamps that dangle from it? Are they the relatively modest number of stars that are observable with the naked eye? No, before all of that, can the lowest heaven – as the Qur’an calls it – even be regarded as a single, unified homogenous entity? Is it merely our galaxy - the Milky Way - which is made up of millions of stars sprinkled in the night sky? Or are there other galaxies beyond this galaxy, and galaxies beyond them counted in millions, each one containing millions of stars?

It is naïve to label this explosive and clashing mixture, these worlds which words cannot describe, nor eloquence define, nor numbers compute, it is naïve to label all this “The Lowest Sky” and limit it in the way these verses do:

“Blessed is he who made constellations in the skies/heavens, and placed therein a Lamp and a Moon giving light” (25:61)

And embroidered the sky with some stars which we can travel by:

“And He it is who made the stars for you, that you may be guided by them in the darkness of the land and the sea. We have detailed our revelations for a people who have knowledge.” (6:97)
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Reply #61 - July 26, 2014, 12:17 AM

12. (Qur’an 18:83-98) “They ask you about Thul-Qarnain. Say: I shall recite to you some of his story. Lo! We made him strong in the land and granted him means of access to every thing.”

“So he followed a road until when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a muddy spring. Near it he found a People: We said: "Thul-Qarnain! Either punish or show them kindness.””

“He said: "Whoever doth wrong, him shall we punish; then shall he be sent back to his Lord who will punish him with awful punishment!”

“But whoever believes, and works righteousness, good will be his reward, and we shall speak unto him a mild command.”

“Then followed he (another) road, until when he reached the land of the rising sun, he found it rising on a people to whom we had given no shelter from It. (He left them) as they were: We completely understood what was before him.”

“Then followed he (another) road, until, when he reached (a place) between the two mountains, he found, beneath them, a people who could hardly understand a word.”

“They said: " Thul-Qarnain! surely Gog and Magog make mischief in the land. Shall we then pay you a tribute in order that you should raise a barrier between us and them.”

“He said: That in which my Lord has established me is better (than your tribute). Do but help me with strength (of men), I will set between you and them a strong barrier.”

“Bring me blocks of iron; until when he had filled up the space between the two mountain sides, he said: Blow, until when he had made it (as) fire, he said, bring me molten brass which I may pour over it.”

“So they were not able to scale it nor could they make a hole in it. He said: "This is a mercy from my Lord: But when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, He will make it into dust; and the promise of my Lord is true.” (18:83-98)

We are still circulating within this ancient, narrow, mythological world-view in which it isn’t difficult for a traveller to reach the place where the sun sets in the west and the east. In the west it sets in a spring of muddy water – Hama’ means black moist mud. Then it disappears to where God knows, until it rises from the east on the other side of the earth. Indeed Thul-Qarnain reached the east and the west as though these are actual fixed points on the globe. On his return, Thul-Qarnain passed by an unknown region. Despite this the Qur’an uses the definite article “The” when talking about it. This region suffers a great deal from the mischief of Gog & Magog. For that reason its people implore him to make between them an impregnable barrier that would turn away their evil. So he does and Gog and Magog cannot climb over it, due to it’s great height – and not just that, but they can’t pierce through it, due to it’s density and thickness, and that will be the case until the Day of Judgment!

The Qur’an commentators are in great confusion about the matter of this barrier. They use all sorts of far-fetched myths to explain it, even though there is no place or region on planet earth that has not been discovered. For indeed the slogan; “God has spoken the truth, and your brothers belly lies” is still their standard and God will one day reveal where it is and destroy it as he promised, near the end of time. For Thul-Qarnain is real, and the muddy spring in the west is real, and Gog & Magog are real, and the barrier is real, all of it is real and true, so don’t dispute with the truth, for the truth deserves to be followed and who is the best deserving to follow the truth than the Ummah of Muhammad, who God blessed with the true religion?

These verses are more than just a legend that the Qur’an erroneously regards as an actual historical event, (Gog & Magog and Thul-Qarnain, even his name of ‘the two-horned one’ has a mythological tone to it) or places the Qur’an erroneously regards as geographical, (The barrier of God & Magog). Just as these verses are more than just acts that contradict known facts (reaching the point of the rising or setting sun), at a time that lacked good transport or communication, and not to mention that these characters, places and events are shrouded in vagueness typical of a time of legend, these verses are more than all that for legends in the Qur’an are to be regarded as true knowledge, as long as the Qur’an revealed it!!

What a narrow universe the Qur’an portrays! How small the sky would be if it were confined to the sky of the Qur’an! Not to mention if the sun, moon and stars were confined to the “Lowest Sky” lit up by lamps. As for the other 6 skies/heavens they are not lit up! But then again angels – who dwell amongst the highest assembly – have no need for light because they are made of light! Just as Allah himself is light – nay, he is the light of lights!

“Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth” (24:35)

And it appears that with this light he lit up the prophets when Muhammad met them during the ascension to the heavens, going from heaven to heaven in the company of Gabriel so that he could enjoy the blessing of meeting his Lord and receive his revelation (describing the Night Journey):

“Then he approached and came down, Till he was at a distance of two bow-lengths or (even) nearer; And He (Allah) revealed to His servant what He revealed. The heart did not lie in what it saw. Will you then dispute with him concerning what he saw?” (53:8-12)

Ignore the laws of nature, leap-frog how cosmos actually works, the answer to everything is ‘By the absolute will of God’ – this is the way of the Qur’an.

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Reply #62 - July 27, 2014, 04:28 PM

In conclusion:

Those tasked with giving religious rulings are in a bit of a fluster these days – for although the space age doesn’t concern them, since all the discoveries made by the unbelievers are simply pernicious works of the devil, and despite major reservations about their authenticity since they never mention Jinn who try to snatch information, nor shooting-flames that Allah sends to chase them away – news has reached them that the moon is a sphere similar to earth which astronauts are endeavoring to prepare for human habitation. If this is true, then those responsible for giving fatwas and applying shari’ah law will have their hands full trying to deal with the religious issues that arise when the lunar city becomes packed with residents, including some Muslims, upon whom will fall the obligation of performing their religious duties, such as prayer, fasting and Hajj.

The question that baffles our venerable scholars is: What is the correct way for these lunar Muslims to identify the beginning of the blessed month of Ramadan when they are on the surface of the moon, seeing that sighting the new moon is the basis for identifying its beginning?

But no sooner do these esteemed scholars find one solution – by saying that in this case the earth takes the place of the moon and should be sighted in the last lunar day of Sha’ban – than another problem crops up, namely the problem of pilgrimage to the Holy House for one who can manage it. Should they return to earth to perform this duty? Though Allah does not task a soul beyond that which it can bear?(64)

So should they then perform it on the moon? Never mind the problem related to sighting the new moon, how will they do Tawaf when there is no Ka’ba to go around? How will they perform the Sa’y between Safa and Marwa? Where will they throw the stones? Will they still be able to hit Shaytan from the moon? And have you forgotten the black stone and gaining blessings by touching & kissing it? And what about visiting al-Medina Al-Munawira?

And how should we solve the problem of the Qiblah when there is no Ka’bah on the moon for the lunar Muslims to face towards at prayer times? Some of them seek to solve this by using as evidence the words of God Most High: “He has chosen you and has not laid upon you an hardship in religion” (22:78) and also His saying: “To Allah belongs the East & the West, so wherever you turn, there is the face of God.” (2:115)

Another vexing problem is what to do with those Muslims who die on the moon and are buried there? The Qur’an talks about raising the dead from graves on earth, not graves on the moon. So what will become of these poor souls? Will they be deprived of the delights of paradise and the Houris and young boys of perpetual youth? Who will remember to take them back to earth when the Day of Judgment comes seeing as “Every man that day will be gripped by his own distress making him heedless (of others.” (80:37)

God curse those western astronomers. They have placed our venerable religious scholars in a very difficult position that we could have done without. For if life on the surface of the moon is of no benefit to those who don’t believe in resurrection or rising from the dead, it is certainly of no benefit at all to the Believers. For that reason the religious scholars don’t recommend going to the moon or living there. Nay some have even said it is haram to go there even just for tourism.

For who can guarantee they will return when fate is in the hand of God?! They may even die on the way there between earth and the moon and their bodies disintegrate and dissipate and mingle with the cosmic dust, in which case there will be nothing left. That is unless strict divine orders are issued to prepare a crack squad of angels tasked with seeking for Muslims lost in outer space. Oh how they could do without this ominous voyage!! Indeed they will lose themselves and lose “This life and the next, and that is the great loss” (22:11)

Thus the Qur’an commits many scientific errors that were considered facts at the time and which the Qur’an simply highjacks wholesale and inserts them into its Muhkam (clear/decisive) verses. Then came modern science and exposed their flaws. Had they discovered these flaws at the time they would not have held back in trying to explain them away by giving them meanings other than what the text actually says. But today these mistakes are so clear that even our “scholars” dare not contradict them.

There are other verses that our “scholars” are very attached to because they appear to indicate modern scientific discoveries, such as: “He wraps the night around the day and wraps the day around the night,” (39:5) which they claim it is an allusion to a spherical earth (because the verb كَوَّرَ means to wrap or wind around something i.e. a cloth around a turban. However one can wrap an object of any shape. Also there is no point when night or day is wrapped around the earth. At all times only half the earths surface experiences night while the other half day. However this image of wrapping night and day around the earth equates precisely with view of ancient cosmology where the sun, moon & stars rotate around a flat earth. From the point of view of someone on the surface of earth it seems that night and day are being wrapped around the earth. But in actual fact it is the earth that is rotating both on it’s axis and in an orbit around the sun, and this is what causes night and day.) Another one, which we mentioned previously, is: “And the sky/heaven we have built with might and it is we who make the vast extent,” (51:47) which they claim alludes to the theory of the “Expanding Universe” and which they make an enormous fanfare about even though all the evidence shows that they are either ignorant or dishonest.

Thus where the Qur’an lacks eloquence, they make it eloquent, where it is unclear they clarify it, where it is illogical they endow it with logic. Where reason rejects it they force it to accept, where they find contradictions, they remedy them, where they find errors they correct them, or defect, they smooth it away. Even to the point that where there is no meaning they give it a thousand meanings to rescue it. Thus it is indeed true that the Qur’an’s eloquence, miraculous nature, logic and reason is actually from them and not the Qur’an.

Our professor, the late Dr. Zaki Naguib Mahmoud, related a story about St. Thomas Aquinas - the first Christian philosopher in Europe during the middle ages – when he was a monk in the monastery with other monks. Now Thomas was an innocent and trusting man to the extent that some thought he was simple-minded. One day his colleagues stood next to the window and one of them called him while pretending to be astonished “Come here Thomas! Look at the sky and see these flying cows!” So Thomas rushed to look, and as he did his colleagues burst out laughing and mocking him. Then Thomas turned to them with a serious face and said: “Who are you mocking? For it is easier for me to believe cows can fly than believe Monks would lie!”(65)

Such is the case of the Qur’an commentators. It is easier for them to believe that the universe and all it contains of objects and events are in error, than to believe that the Qur’an is in error. One of the “intelligent” believers told me once: “The Qur’an is not a book of science, so why do you burden it with that which it cannot bear?” I replied: “That is true. But it is also true that it should not make mistakes in that which it has no knowledge. For either it should speak the truth about what it knows and what it doesn’t, or it should remain silent! Furthermore why then do you use the Qur’an as evidence of it’s veracity when it concurs with science? Yet when it contradicts science you say it is not a book of science? This is nothing but the height of sophistry!

64: See: 2:286, 6:152, 7:42, 23:62, 65:7

65: “On the Philosophy of Criticism” by Zaki Naguib Mahmoud. P. 135.
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Reply #63 - July 28, 2014, 09:31 PM

Chapter 4

Part 11

Everything in the Qur’an is from Allah

There is no law of nature in the Qur’an. The will of Allah is the law. There aren’t even any rules governing the universe, for they are all Allah’s rules not the universe’s. Allah in the Qur’an doesn’t recognize rules governing the universe and as a result of this, life & death, success & failure, health & sickness, victory & defeat… are not the result of man’s efforts but come from Allah who created man.

This means that good deeds and bad deeds, obedience and disobedience, good works or evil ones… they are the Qur’anic alternative for natural law. God only has to be pleased with someone or be angry with him to set the wheels of fate in motion, either for him or against him, never mind any natural laws.

So Allah is the one who cures, not the doctor, and Allah is the one who makes people sick, not germs. He is the one who raises and debases, who saves and destroys, gives life and takes it away, in his hand is good and evil and he has power over all things.

“Don’t they see how many a generation we destroyed before them, whom we had established in the earth as we have not established you, and we sent the clouds pouring rain on them in abundance, and we made the rivers to flow beneath them, then we destroyed them on account of their sins and raised up after them another generation.” (6:6)

Its not long journeys or wars that can cause a man to die:

“O you who believe! be not like those who disbelieve and say of their brethren when they travel in the earth or engage in fighting: Had they been with us, they would not have died and they would not have been slain; so Allah makes this to be an intense regret in their hearts; it is Allah who gives life and causes death and Allah sees what you do.” (3:156)

The thing that causes destruction and ruin is people doing bad things. Nothing else.

“Your Lord would not wrongfully destroy communities of people if its members were doing good.” (11:117)

Is that true? Can a sane person say such a thing? For there cannot be any place in the world that does not have both good and bad people. Will these people be destroyed on account of what those have done? Natural phenomena do not discriminate between good and bad people. Is Allah the same? In fact morality, values, obedience and disobedience has no effect on natural events, but the Qur’an seeks to force us to believe that they do.

“Do those who plot evil feel secure that Allah will not cause the earth to swallow them up, or that the punishment will not come upon them from whence they do not perceive?” (16:45)

What a lot of threats pour unrestrained from of every page of the Qur’an. They are intended to show that Allah – and not natures laws – is the one who administers all events in this world. He alone is the absolute agent in it: “He is the absolute ruling power (القهار ) above over His servants.”

And what better evidence of the lack of seriousness of these threats than the fact that what is threatened may happen or it may not, and in both cases this seems to be decided at random:

“And when we took a promise from you and lifted the mountain over you: Take hold of that which we have given you with firmness and bear in mind what is in it, so that you may guard (against evil). But you turned back thereafter: Had it not been for the Grace and Mercy of Allah to you, you would certainly have been among the losers.” (2:63-64)

God, makes a threat (to crush them under the mountain if they do not abide by their covenant) then he backtracks on it. Why didn’t he carry through the threat? Why this fake benevolence? God’s favour upon them? Have they deserved this benevolence when in fact God says he has cursed them and made them into Monkeys and pigs?

Show me an earthquake, disease, or epidemic that only afflicts the wrongdoers. In fact many times it seems to afflict the innocent before anyone. Especially in the third world which is teeming with poor people who are sick, maimed, or children who are like ghosts, their eyes sunken and ribs showing. I wonder if these wretched people are the ones the Qur’an is talking about when it says Allah afflicts the wrongdoers? Are they the one’s he is threatening with divine punishment to pile affliction upon affliction?!

Disasters and afflictions have natural causes and laws, but the Qur’an, as always, ignores this and instead substitutes them with the laws of disbelief and faith and makes them the cause. Furthermore these laws seemed to be applied according to whim and inconsistently and this is where these divine threats lose their seriousness and meaning and become empty.
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Reply #64 - July 30, 2014, 12:37 AM

It is often said that the Qur'an is not a science book, on the contrary it is a religious book of guidance aimed at awakening zeal and stirring the emotions - a book of exhortations and parables imparting moral lessons of the past. This is true, as long as the Qur'anic commentators and scholars of Kalam stick to this principle each time they come across an obstacle of this nature. One of the conditions of parables & moral lessons is that they must have some basis in observable reality so as to make them valid. If not then they are nonsense that have no value. Are the parables & moral lessons in the Qur'an really free from such contradictions with observable reality? For indeed that which is based on falsehood is false - even if it was written in a thousand and one Qur'ans.

"And Allah sets forth a parable: (Consider) a town safe and secure to which its means of subsistence come in abundance from every quarter; but it became ungrateful to Allah's favors, therefore Allah made it to taste the utmost degree of hunger and fear because of what they wrought." (16:112)

Here we see faith and disbelief given as the reasons for which humanity either prospers or suffers, and not because of abundance or lack of natural resources, climatic conditions and so on. Does this moral lesson really tie in with observable reality?

"The reckoning draws near for mankind, while they turn away in heedlessness… None of those communities that we destroyed before, believed, so will now these people believe?… Then We made Our promise good to them, so We delivered them and those whom we pleased, and we destroyed the wrongdoers." (21:1-9)

Sink holes are a result of the evil that humans commit and not geological reasons. God in the Qur'an will not allow even the mention of natural causes. Look what befell the powerful, rich man Qarun because he dared to say his wealth was amassed due to his own efforts and knowledge of how to make a profit:

"Qarun was of the people of Moses but he acted insolently towards them even though we had given him such great treasures that even its keys would be too heavy for a company of strong men. His people said to him: "Exult not, for Allah does not love those who exult (in riches)… and do good (to others) as Allah has done good to you, and do not seek to make mischief in the land… He said: "I have been given this only on account of the knowledge I have"(66)… So We caused the earth to swallow him up and his house. Then he had no one to help him against Allah, nor could he help himself." (26:76-78)

Here Allah causes the earth to swallow up just one man and his house as it appears that he was the only one deserving of punishment. Especially after saying: "I have been given this because of my knowledge." for this is a blatant insolence to Allah that he cannot accept, even though there are many people today who are richer than Qarun, and more insolent, arrogant and obstinate, yet the earth doesn't swallow them up.

In what follows Allah will make the earth quake and destroy a whole nation of people because they denied their prophet, without any consideration for natural factors to do with the geology of the land. So after destroying the people of Lot by sending a shower of stones as hard as baked clay, because of their debauchery, he sent Shu'ayb to Madyan:

"And To Madyan (We sent) their brother Shu'aib. He said: "O my people! serve Allah, and fear the Last Day: nor commit evil on the earth, with intent to do mischief. But they rejected him, so a dreadful quake overtook them, and by morning they were bodies lying in their dwellings." (29:36-37)

Dams are protected through piety to God. Nothing holds them other than the Most Merciful One. But when the promise of our Lord comes he will make them dust, without any consideration for the factors to do with structure, engineering or topography of the land where these dams are sited. This is an important lesson for all those residents who live near dams. If they aren't pious and god-fearing then they will have no one to blame but themselves when the dam bursts, for he who has been warned has no excuse. And one of these dams is the Marib Dam* in Yemen:

"Certainly there was a sign for Saba in their abode; two gardens on the right and the left; eat of the sustenance of your Lord and give thanks to Him: a good land and a Forgiving Lord! But they turned away (from Allah), and We sent against them the Flood (released) from the dams, and in place of their two gardens We gave to them two gardens yielding bitter fruit and (growing) tamarisk and a few lote-trees. This We requited them with because they disbelieved; and We only punish the ungrateful rejecters." (34:15-17)

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66: This means: I gathered this wealth due to my own effort and hard work and my knowledge of how to make a profit.

*The Marib Dam was breached and repaired more than once between the time is was first built around 1750 BC to the final time it was breached and left unrepaired in 570 or 575 AD
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Reply #65 - July 30, 2014, 08:19 PM

Intimidation and threats in the Qur'an never cease, they are like a flood that's burst its banks. This next threat is aimed at the whole of mankind, not just one group or nation:

"O men! you are the ones who are in need of Allah, while Allah needs nothing, the Praised One. If He so pleased, He could get rid of you and bring a new creation. That is not difficult for Allah." (35:15-17)

This contempt and denigration of humanity is a feature of the Qur'an. However if it is really true that man needs Allah, then why did he choose him alone, to be his deputy (Khalifah) on earth and entrust him with such important duties that no-one else can do? Why is he constantly finding fault with him and with his disobedience and rebellious nature, when rebelling and disobedience are among the characteristics of one who is not in need?

"And certainly We have explained for men in this Quran every kind of similitude, but most men just arrogantly refuse everything except ungrateful denial." (17:89)

and among the characteristics of man is his argumentative, contentious nature:

"Does man not man see that We created him from a small drop? Yet lo! he is an open disputant." (36:77)

And it is man's nature to turn away proudly from the good and blessings bestowed upon him:

"Yet when We bestow Our favours on man, he turns away and behaves proudly." (17:83)

So we see that rebellion, contention, turning away, refusal, disbelief, being put in charge and managing affairs - all these are the characteristics of one who is 'not in need' rather than one who 'is in need'. Even though we see the believers declaring their need for God and confirming it every morning and night in their prayers, but this actually proves nothing other than man's attachment to religious delusions and how they effect the mind of men. How can it not be a delusion when what we observe is success & failure, comfort & disaster do not discriminate between believer or disbeliever. And how can it not be a delusion when we see humanity's achievements built with it's own blood, sweat and tears, while the heavens do not lift a finger. By my life this is nothing but a massive delusion - nay, it is the greatest of all delusions!!

Furthermore if man is truly in need of God, then why does he - Most High - desert him when disasters strike? Abandon him to his fate, suffering untold anguish and misery? Dying from starvation like rats, dogs and pigs? Where is the evidence of his saying:

"(Allah) Who answers the distressed when he calls on Him, and Who relieves his suffering." (27:62)

What "answer" is he talking about here? Who's suffering did he relieve? When? Did he answer the prayer of the mother who's child writhed & cried with hunger pains before he died in her arms? Did he answer the prayers of the countless innocents that suffer and die daily all round the world - especially in Muslim countries? Or did he not hear their prayers?

Where is his saying? - Glory be to Him:

"And there is no creature on the earth but on Allah is the sustenance of it." (11:6)

When we see it is a dog eat dog world where the strong take with violence and the weak starve while the "Giver of Sustenance" does not stir from his throne.
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Reply #66 - July 31, 2014, 05:02 PM

Promises, threats, rhetoric, intimidation, legends and myths that don't stand up to criticism… this is the Qur'an. "If He so pleased, He could get rid of you and bring a new creation." Just like that - simple! But only "if" he so pleased and he doesn't so please, and won't - ever! What a lot times "if" is used in the Qur'an. Enough of the Qur'an's intimidation.

The student of the Qur'an who reads it, not in a devotional, parroting way, but with a critical eye, examining it carefully, will soon see that this Qur'an is a unique oratory phenomena that has no likeness except in the speeches the greatest demagogues of history, though that is not to deny it contains excellent passages and beautiful nuances.

The one who studies it in this way, and focusses on the verses we described previously as the "masterpieces" - will not fail to notice the enormous effort that the Qur'an expends in choosing its words and embellishing them using all manner of devices of beauty, grandeur, splendour and rhythm. He will be mesmerised by the melodic purity which tugs at the heart strings, and this captivating eloquence which is a joy to behold, even in the verses that mean nothing.

But this same student will also feel a strong clash like thunder in front of some of the other verses which fall below this high standard, and will be astonished at their inconsistency, disjointedness, and fragmentation. As well as redundant dressing and affectation similar to "adherence where it's not required"* as Abu Ala' Al-Ma'arri puts it.

And he will also feint astounded if he is a person who combines both linguistic appreciation with truly scientific approach, undistorted by faith and which doesn't differentiate between mistakes in "holy" books and mistakes found in any other source. And I say truly scientific approach, because there are innumerable "men of science" from amongst Muslims, Christians, Jews and others who measure things using two standards.

The first measure is that of the believer who closes his eyes and accepts every poor expression, overblown adjective, nonsensical sentence, and blatant scientific mistake, in these books. In such cases they defer the matter to Allah and trust that he has a wisdom and explanation that is beyond their human ability to comprehend. Or they employ all sorts of far-fetched interpretations to cover it up and hide it's defects.

Then there is the measure of the purely objective man of science who does not compromise or make concessions and weighs matters impartially and fairly and does not hide from the truth even if it is something he does not want to face. He weighs the mistake according the same criteria regardless of its source.

This is the essential difference between the man of science who selectively applies it, and the man of science who refuses to settle for anything other than the truth and abiding by it even against himself. Are they the same?**

In summary the disjointed and weak parts in the Qur'an which clash with the healthy & sound ear because they fall far short of even the most basic requirements of consistency and harmony and flow, fall silently and peacefully upon the ears of the faithful whose linguistic sense has been dulled. He can't distinguish the bad from the good, nor the eloquent from the gibberish. He can only regain his ability to distinguish between them, if he makes an enormous effort and struggle to do so.

It is not true then, that the Quran is on one level of excellence, perfection and elegance. It contains the 'wheat and the chaff' and what lies between the two. It contains flaws and imperfections that will surprise the one who examines it carefully and is not afraid to say the truth. Just as it also contains exquisite beauty and glittering pearls that no one can deny apart from the most stubborn. Thus the scene in the Qur'an is confused and without clarity.

Despite this they want us to believe that the Qur'an "Had it come from anyone other than Allah, they would have found many discrepancies." (4:86) As if that verse itself is not enough to prove that it is of human origin. That it is not free from errors and flaws nor blights & defects. It is just like any human endeavour, it is a mix of good and bad, excellent and flawed and as a result it is possible to make something worse than it and better than it as we have seen in previous sections.

And this does not contradict the Qur'an when it said no-one can bring the like of it, because that is true and precise and has nothing to do with whether someone can do something better than it. For masterpieces have their own woven texture, and unique identity that it is not possible to make an exact likeness of. Even though it is possible to make something better than them. Thus is the case with the verses that are "masterpieces" in the Qur'an. How far! How far! is that which you are promised!***

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* Abu Ala' al-Ma'arri the famous Syrian Arab poet wrote about what he called "لزوم ما لا يلزم" "adherence where it's not required" which is when a poet takes it upon himself to use letters and vowels in the rhyme which are unnecessary, but is done to enhance the musicality of the rhythm and display his linguistic skills.

** "Are they equal?" هل يستويان The author is parodying the Qur'anic refrain that appears in two places in the Qur'an: 11:24 & 39:29

*** Reference to Qur'an 23:36. The author is alluding to the fact that the challenge in the Quran is an impossible one and therefore meaningless.
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Reply #67 - August 02, 2014, 09:41 PM

Chapter 4

Part 12

Verses that Have No Meaning.

In the Qur'an there are a significant number of verses that have no meaning, even though as usual the mufassirun are able to bring about wonders with their waffling and prattling and defence of the meaningless and producing one eloquent meaning after another! They are motivated by the ideology of justifying anything and everything in the Qur'an to the extent that the crooked verses become pearls of wisdom, fonts of knowledge, the source of eloquence and the template for good style which man cannot attain!

1.

(37:1) "By those ranged in ranks."

(37:2) "Then those who drive away with reproof."

(37:3) "And those who recite a reminder."

(37:4) "Lo! Your Lord is surely One."

What do the first three verses mean? Nay, these three riddles! And what do they have to do with the oneness of God? Did you understand anything? I challenge man and Jinn to understand these verses - bearing in mind Jinn know Arabic as we saw in the previous section, and by reading Surah Al-Jinn it is clear that amongst the Jinn are masters of eloquence and good style not to mention their knowledge of the secrets of the unseen which they are more proficient in than us!

What shall I say? Even the mufassirun themselves couldn't understand anything. But these poor souls are obliged by the nature of their profession to understand everything. Yes, these verses must have some meaning. At the very least the meaning attached to them in language, just like any words that people speak. But the meaning is trivial and not worthy of being used as an oath by God to his servants. Of course the mufassirun will not accept that God would swear by things that have no value, so they assume that behind these verses are profound wisdoms, and deep meanings that befit him, Most High is he. So they with their soaring imagination, nay with their myth-making imagination, and armed with strong, unshakable faith that these verses - these riddles - have sublime meanings, great significance & lofty ends that our limited understanding cannot comprehend, nor our human intellect fathom… and how can it when it is revelation from the All-Wise, the All-Knowing. So they ponder, evaluate, scrutinise and examine these verses closely. But despite this they cannot arrive at a solution. So in this case they must resort to the religious traditions, legends, exegetical techniques and sayings of the pious!

Thus, "those ranged in ranks." are angels who arrange themselves into rows for worship, or their wings in the air, waiting to be commanded with a task. Likewise; "Those who drive away" are also angels who drive along the clouds. As for; "Those who recite" they are either the angels again, or it means people who recite the Qur'an and the use of the feminine ( التاليات ) is for an elided word such as "group" ( جماعة ) or perhaps there is a subtle wisdom, or a Quranic miracle that we haven't yet discovered!

I don't deny that repeating refrains, the use of poetic rhyme, alliteration, Saj' (rhymed prose) and such like, are techniques that greatly aid memorisation as it make it easier to recite accurately without mistakes. All of this is true on condition that this speech has a meaning, but if it has no meaning then it is just the doggerel of soothsayers who themselves also were just as eager, as the Quran, to fix their orations into the memories of their audience, whether it had meaning or not.

Meaningful literature - oral or written - contributes to raising cultural, educational, historical & social awareness, whether in a significant or a minor way. But if it has no meaning, then this is the "biggest calamity"* and the disaster of disasters. So what awareness have these verses - these riddles - contributed to raising?

Furthermore these verses begin with "Waw" (و), which is the Jurative "Waw" (i.e. for swearing an oath) so even if these verses had a meaning that is beyond our weak and feeble minds, then how can Allah swear by something that is unknown? The use of the Jurative "Waw" is where one swears by something that is known to its audience in order to confirm something else. In what way do these three verses, whose meaning is unknown, confirm the "Oneness" of Allah (as stated in the 4th verse)? Or do they actually detract from God's oneness? Is it's meaning weakened by their omission?

*Reference to the vocabulary used in the Qur'an 39:34
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Reply #68 - August 03, 2014, 09:35 PM

I added this to the above post - as that is where it belongs.
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Reply #69 - August 04, 2014, 10:06 PM

2. Qur'an; 52:1-7

1. By the mountian
2. And a book inscribed
3. In parchment spread open
4. And the frequented house
5. And the raised roof
6. And the swollen sea
7. Most surely the punishment of your Lord will come to pass.

This is also similar to the saj' of the soothsayers, even though it is not completely free from meaning, but then who said the saj' of the soothsayers has no meaning? In any case these opening verses are simply cryptic jibber-jabber & inscrutable babble. If you were to remove them, it wouldn't affect the following verses at all. On the contrary it might improve their effectiveness & clarity. However the words "the frequented house" stirred the imagination of the Mufassirun with their love of myths & legends and they explain that it is a heavenly house in the sixth or seventh heaven (some say there is one in each heaven) and is in line with the Ka'ba(67) on earth, and is a heavenly place of pilgrimage visited by 70,000 angels every day who make Tawaf (circumambulation) and pray and never return, (due to the great number of angels continually coming.)(68)

67. Notice the very precise scientific description.

68. Tafseer Jilalayn p.523.
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Reply #70 - August 05, 2014, 05:05 PM

3. Qur'an; 77:1-7

1. By the wind sent forth in gusts.
2. By the raging storms,
3. And that which scatters around,
4. Then separate them one from another,
5. Then cast a message,
6. To excuse or to warn,
7. Surely that which you are threatened, will come to pass.

Here is another dose of the dramatic utterances of the soothsayers which if it was omitted would not change a thing. It's the sort of vacuous dressing and word-play that one would have thought would be below the creator of the universe to indulge in. Also, it is well known that the thing one makes an oath by should be of enormous significance so as to make the oath meaningful. So how can Allah swear an oath by something that is mundane? However it seems that Allah has saved this is the sort of prattle - due to a wisdom known only to himself - for a select group of the short Suras that appear at the end of the Qur'an.
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Reply #71 - August 06, 2014, 10:12 PM

4. Qur'an; 79:1-7

1. By those who tear out, drowningly

2. By those who activate, actively

3. And by those who swim along, swimmingly

4. Then those who race ahead, racingly,

5. Then those who regulate the affair,

6. The day when the quaking will quake,

7. Following it another,

This is one of the most amazing pieces of soothsayers Saj' in the Qur'an, because it is just a stream of euphonious words purely for the sake of it. They neither add benefit nor dispel harm. They do not increase awareness nor remove corruption. Just jibber-jabber! A collection bombastic prattle that it would have been much better if it had been left out. Of course, all the hadith about these verses revolve around angels. Allah swears by them because of their importance in his sight. So "those who tear out violently" are the angels tearing out the souls of the unbelievers. As for the very odd use of the word "Gharqan" (غرقا = drowning) which I am unable to see how it fits here, it apparently means "violently"!! Who knows, perhaps it has a miraculous, rhetorical purpose that is beyond my limited mind to appreciate - and everyone else's - no?

Just as "those who tear out violently" are a specific type of angel (ones who tear out the souls of unbelievers) the "Nashitaat" (ناشطات which literally means active, lively, energised) are another type of angel, who's job it is to reinvigorate (تنشيط) the souls of the believers, because staying up for tahajjud, and fasting and praying and worship has exhausted them, so God sent them special angels from his seventh heaven to reinvigorate them and dispel fatigue so that sluggishness doesn't overwhelm them. Perhaps the meaning also includes - as the tafseer of al-Jalayn says - drawing out the souls of the believers gently so that they don't suffer the pain of death and can quickly join The Highest Companion.

The third type of angel are "those who swim along swimmingly" and they are called "the swimmers" because they swim through the heavens carrying out God's commands - Most High is He. As for the "racers", they are racing to Paradise and for that task there is also a specific type of angel. But it is not just a random/haphazard race like those on earth, no! Everything there (in the heavens) is run in a systematic and disciplined way. So since the believers are not all on the same level of faith, some are more deserving of entering paradise before others, and so that their right is not lost in the severe congestion, so that no one infringes on anyone else and seeing that those with the strongest faith will also have the greatest shyness (as shyness is part of faith) and so they would allow those with little faith to push their way in front of them,because they don't want to cause problems of bottlenecks at the door to Paradise. So because of all that - and because "Allah is not shy of the truth" (33:53), for "Truth is most deserving of being followed", especially on the "Day of Judgment", the day that money nor sons will avail anyone. So for all these and similar reasons Allah created; " Those who race ahead, racingly," and they are the angels who will race ahead with the souls of the believers taking them to Paradise quickly so as to avoid being stuck in long queues.

As for the Mudabiraat, they are the angels who manage the affairs of earth, meaning they descend with the orders of how earthly affairs will be managed and dealt with.
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Reply #72 - August 07, 2014, 07:52 PM

5. Qur'an; 86:1-4

1. By the Sky and the night-visitor,

2. And what will make you know what the night-visitor is?

3. The piercing star,

4. There is no soul but has a protector over it

In this next piece of Qur'anic Saj', the Mufassirun haven't attempted to insert the heavenly angels into it, though not due to any favour or restrained on their or the angels part, for indeed they always resort and hasten to them whenever they need saving in times of adversity, but because the verses don't suit it. So the "Night visitor" here is not an angel, but a star. But which star? The "Piercing star." Fine. But all the stars are piercing, because they all pierce through the dark of night with their light. So the opinion of most of them is that it is the cluster known as Pleiades which is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. But the problem is that Pleiades is not one single star, it is a group of stars, others have said it is any star of piercing brightness. So what is the result of all this? Nothing!

These verses are meaningless mumbo-jumbo that you or I could have written. But to say it comes from an All-Mighty God - that is what I cannot grasp. This, despite the prophet saying; "Whoever believes in Allah and the last day, then let him say something good or remain silent." As for whether this puerile word play is a miracle that "man nor Jinn can bring the like of and they won't ever bring the like of", that is just an insult to intelligence and an affront to human achievement at a time when mankind is knocking at the doors of the heavens themselves! But what can be done with the Quran full of verses that declare that no human has ever - nay, will ever - reach it's level of excellence.

"There is no soul but has a protector over it" - this is the concluding clause of the opening invocations. The protectors are the angels. Yes! We return to the subject of angels - and oh how sweet is the return to the symphony of angels, for he who waited patiently for the angels, here they are raising their heads again. Indeed the faces of the mufassirun light up with joy. Good news for you today!

At least the oaths in the previous verses - whether long or short - are accompanied by a concluding clause, because many times in the Qur'an there are verses which have no concluding clause to their oaths. For example the verse in the next section, though of course the concluding clause is present in the imagination of the Mufassirun - the guardians of the ideology of justification and patching-up, and waffle. The ideology of filling the gaps and plastering over the flaws.
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Reply #73 - August 11, 2014, 12:19 AM

6. Qur'an; 38:1-2

1. Saad: By the Qur'an, possessing honour/remembrance.
2. Nay but the unbelievers are in pride and schism.

The problem with this verse is not confined to the fact that these oaths have no concluding clause, but here we have one of those chapters that being with meaningless letters of the alphabet. Al-Suyuti says: "God knows best what he means by this". No doubt he does, but we don't. So we must simply say: "Its knowledge is with my Lord. My Lord does not go astray nor forget." (20:51) and move on.

7. Qur'an; 50:1-2

1. Qaf: By the Glorious Qur'an
2. Nay, but they marvel that there has come to them a warner from among themselves. So the Unbelievers say: "This is a strange thing!"

Here is another of these meaningless letters, though in this case the Mufassirum have suggested some meanings. Some have said that Qaaf is a special name of Allah. In some circles of Thikr (remembrance of Allah) the faithful call on him using this secret name of "Qaaf," in the hope that their prayers will be given special access to the All-Hearing who is sometimes hard-of-hearing. Others say that Qaaf is a mountain that surrounds the earth. Others that it means: "Matters have been decided!" Alas, would that matters were decided! I think we should follow Al-Suyuti's advice and place it in the box marked; "Only God Himself knows what he means."

These verses also lack a concluding clause to the oath, though of course the Mufassirun are full of ideas as to what it could be and suggested several verses that, although they lack the correct grammatical structure for the concluding clause of an oath, one must assume the intention of a concluding clause is there. So for example Al-Qurtubi says it could be; "We know that which the earth takes…" (50:4), Or it could be: "Indeed, therein is a reminder!" (50:37) Or it could be: "Not a word does he utter…" (50:18) Or it could be: "Nay, but they marvel…" (50:2) While Al-Akhfash (a famous grammarian) said: "The concluding clause has been elided/omitted and should be understood as: "I swear by the glorious Qur'an, you will be raised up from the dead!" Take your pick from these - it makes no difference.

8. Qur'an (89:1)

1. By the break of dawn
2. And ten nights,
3. And the even and the odd,
4. And the night when it departs.
4. Is there (not) in that, an oath for those who possess understanding?

What is the meaning of Allah swearing by even and odd? What are the 10 nights? Well, they are the first 10 nights of Thul-Hijjah - the month of the pilgrimage where the day of Arafah is on the 9th day and the 10th day is Eid-ul-Adha - the Eid of the sacrifice. But do the first 10 nights of Thul-Hijjah really have such a great importance that Allah should swear by them and send Qur'anic revelation about them? Yes! They have such great importance - and more! At least they do in the domed, sealed universe of the Qur'an. In this geocentric universe, God's only concern is with prayer, fasting, the rituals of Hajj, worship, Ghusl, Periods, Istibra' and such like.

But where is the concluding clause to these oaths. Yet again Allah has left it out for a wisdom known only to him. Is Allah incapable of composing concluding clauses? What is one to think? Is leaving it out a special form of eloquence? Did it achieve something that putting it in would not have achieved? What is that? I feel truly sorry for those Qur'anic scholars who had to spend their lives defending the Qur'an and extracting profound wisdoms from this linguistic hodgepodge. For it contains glittering gems that no-one can see apart from these masters of waffle.

Look again at the very parochial, sealed, and limited character of these verses. "The ten nights" - the cosmic wedding nights! For the 10th of Thil-Hijja is a global nay, celestial occasion and not a local matter and likewise the "break of dawn" is the break of dawn all across the universe and not just confined to different areas of the earth at different times as the earth rotates and orbits the sun. Eid ul-Adha is a cosmic celebration. The angels celebrate it in the presence of the prophets spread throughout the heavens. In the same way odd and even appears to limit numbers to integers. This small domed universe of the Qur'an where it is all shrouded by the dark of the night with nothing but the moon & stars until they set on one side and the dawn sun slowly rises on the other side, lighting up the whole universe, is simply the image presented by the geocentric ancient cosmology current in that area of the world at the time.

There is no daybreak but the daybreak that takes place on earth at the centre of the universe, and Hajj to Allah's holy house and the universal Eid that is celebrated, not just down here, but up there in the highest assembly and not to forget about what we said previously in Sura Al-Tur, that the holy Ka'bah enjoys an important strategic position in the scheme of the universe since it falls directly below the Bayt alMa'mur (The Oft-Frequented House) which the scholars differ slightly about where it is, some say in the third heaven, some say in the sixth, while others say; nay! It is in the seventh heaven. Although the Mufassirun - God's pleasure be upon them - differ about which heaven it is in, they don't differ about it being precisely above the Ka'bah. Thank God this is not a matter of dispute and this is His blessing to us, Most High is He.

Finally, it is very strange that the Qur'an then asks this rhetorical question: "Is there (not) in that, an oath for those who possess understanding?" As though everything in these verses is as clear as day!!
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Reply #74 - August 12, 2014, 12:09 AM

9. Qur'an; (90:1-4)

1. Nay! I swear by this city.
2. And you are a freeman of this city
3. And the begetter and whom he begot.
4. Verily We have created man into toil and struggle.

Here in front of us it is written: "I don't swear by this city", but apparently it means: "I do swear by this city." What a strange thing is this oath? The scholars say the negative particle (لا) here is redundant, but they don't explain why it is redundant or what eloquent wisdom lies behind placing a redundant particle of negation in a sentence where the meaning is the opposite of negation. Could it be that this is a scribal error and that it should not have been written as لا but as لَ which is the "Laam of emphasis" (لام التأكيد)? Of course not. The Qur'an is free from error. It is infallible. No, this is just a redundant particle that we have yet to identify the wisdom behind it.

Next, there is no need for this oath? Because the thing it's confirming doesn't need confirming! No one is unaware that human life on this planet is full of struggle, hardship & toil. It's obvious that the priority is to preserve the rhyme, regardless of the lack of meaning. The only thing that each final word requires is the presence of a letter "d" (د) at the end so that the flow of the soothsayers saj' is not interfered with. In this Sura and in every oath in the previous verses, rhyme takes precedence over meaning. The meaning after that can be as it may - weak or strong - the important thing is the saj' and the rhyme and that's all!

"And you are a freeman of this city", the Mufassirun say this is a parentheses inserted between the oaths, meaning Muhammad can do as he please in the usually forbidden sanctuary of Mecca and so can fight the unbelievers. If that is the meaning then it is a little odd as this is a Meccan Sura and Muhammad wasn't at in any position to fight the unbelievers at that time. Others say it means Muhammad is an inhabitant of this city. But is someone who lives in a city in need of divine revelation to tell him so? Next Allah swears by a begetter. What begetter? Some say it means all begetters. Others say it means Adam. In the next line is it: "He who can't beget" or "whom he begot" with the ما meaning من? More importantly, is this miraculous speech?

10. Qur'an 92:1-4

1. By the night as it shrouds
2. By the day as it shines
3. And the creating of male and female
4. Indeed your striving is diverse.

This is a momentous revelation that the Qur'an has divulged in these four verses. It must be, otherwise they wouldn't have been deserving of Allah making an oath. Do you know what is this momentous revelation, that was hidden from all mankind until he informed us of it in the Qur'an? "Indeed your striving is diverse." What a stunning revelation! What astounding information? Great news everyone! The secret of secrets has been disclosed. I wonder, is this anything other than just the saj' of soothsayers? If not, then what is it?

11. Qur'an 100:1-6

1. By the runners breathing pantingly,
2. Then strike sparks of fire,
3.Then those that make raids in the morning,
4. Then thereby raise dust,
5. Then rush thereby upon an assembly:
6. Most surely man is ungrateful to his Lord.

Perhaps the level of inane oration has not reached the level that it has here in these six verses. They are the best example of the hollow and empty soothsayers saj' in the Qur'an. Even horses running on a raiding expedition do not escape an oath. If this indicates anything then it indicates the trite and trivial nature of the oaths as well as an insult to man to whom the oath is addressed. The oaths have been so over-used and trivialised to the extent that they have no value at all. I cannot believe in God if all this babble is his speech. Better that he didn't speak! Speech betrays its author. Either it kindles his fire or it increases his dimness. So if the speech is meaningless waffle, then what does that say about its author?
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Reply #75 - August 13, 2014, 10:33 PM

Part 13

The Rhymed Prose of the Qurʾān & the Soothsayers

The Qur'an is truly a unique book with it's own individual composition. It is prose, but it's not like regular prose. It is poetry but not in the style of the pre-Islamic poets. It has meter but doesn't conform to standard meters. It is rhymed but not like the structured rhymes of Qasidas. It is itself. It is the Qur'an and that's all!

The Qur'an is in love with rhyme and besotted by Saj' to the extent that it sometimes resembles the Saj' of the soothsayers. But not all the rhymes and saj' that one finds in its "clear - and not-so-clear - verses" are the same. There are some that tug at the heart strings, some where the heart is unmoved and some that the heart dislikes. This is dependant on the position & role the rhyme plays in the particular verse and whether it is well structured and elegant? Whether each word is befits its position in relation to the words next to it as well as the meaning? Or do the words jar phonetically or with the tone of the piece? Do they clash with each other? Are they out-of-place? Is there disharmony as a result of a musicality or voice that doesn't suit the words, nor the words suit it?

The Meccan Suras are mostly rhymed unlike the Medinan ones which are mostly prose with the exception of short ones. This is because when Muhammad first began uttering verses of the Qur'an in Mecca, they were usually in a terse rhymed saj' full of evocative & enigmatic language aimed at attracting attention by creating a sense of mystery and marvel, just as soothsayers have done down the ages. Then, later when he moved to Medina the style changed to one of a more steady prose, better suited to conveying rules, codes, moral principles and stories of past nations. Muslim scholars relate that Saj' was mainly used by soothsayers, oracles, and clairvoyants. But the true and correct picture of of Saj' and the abbreviated letters and it's various stylistic techniques, is that it's just as evident in the Qur'an as elsewhere. This is why the polytheists accused Muhammad - amongst many other things - of being a "Soothsayer," because what he was reciting - particularly in these earlier verses - were in the Saj' style, such as Sura Al-Qamar and Al-Rahman and Al-Insan which are amongst the best examples of Quranic Saj'.

So for this reason Muslim scholars were divided about how to deal with the use of Saj' in the Qur'an. Some of them denied there was any Saj' in the Qur'an at all. The main proponents of this view were Al-Rummani*, al-Baqillani and his teacher Imam Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and the rest of the Ash'aris, as well others. They laid down rules, definitions, and conditions about what constitutes saj' so as to protect the Qur'an from being accused of containing saj'.

It is startling to see the degree of rigidity, bias, outright denial and play with words that they go to in order to absolve the Qur'an of the "accusation" of containing saj, out of fear that it would be equated with the speech of soothsayers rather than the infallible and miraculous speech of a god. And don't think that these scholars who deny this are just ordinary men. No, they are men of great scholarship & knowledge. They head schools of thought in religious discourse and views. But even they are not able to overcome their confirmation bias. Their servitude to the text has bowed the heads of the mighty! In this case the great & good are no different from the common man. The wise no different from the foolish. They are slavishly devoted to the belief that this is divine speech and so must be defended against all reason, nay, reason & good judgment is abandoned, in order to protect the text. "God has spoken the truth, but your brother's stomach lies."

*Abu al-Hasan Ali Ibn Isa al-Rummani, (908-994) a grammarian & mu'tazilite scholar. Abu Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Baqillani, (950-1013) a Maliki lawyer & Ashari scholar. Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Isma'il al-Ash'ari (874–936) a Shafi'i scholar and founder of the school that bears his name.
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Reply #76 - August 17, 2014, 08:31 PM

But they are not all of the same view. There is a group who's belief in the Qur'an is just as strong as the others, but they are more flexible, less-conservative and less-literal. For example (Diya' al-Din) Ibn Al-Atheer, in his book "The Common Ideal/Proverb" (الثل السائر) rejects the view of those who disparage saj' (arguing that saj' can be an excellent literary form), and criticises the view of those who refuse to call those passages of the Qur'an where the letters have harmonic unity - saj'. He said regarding this:

"Some of our colleagues from amongst the masters of literature criticise it (saj'), but I see no reason for this other than their inability to produce the like of it. For indeed if it (saj)', as it appears in the Qur'an, was stylistically weak, then it would have been produced in large quantities, (by the unbelievers in response to the Qur'an's challenge to produce something like it,) to the extent that they would have produced Surahs completely in saj' just like Surah Al-Rahman and Surah Al-Qamar and others. In fact, on the whole there is not a Surah that is free from it (saj')" (69)

So as we see, he considers saj' an excellent literary form and he accuses those who don't approve of it, as lacking the ability to master it. His evidence for it being an excellent literary form is its use in the Qur'an as we have seen. So simply by virtue of it being used by the Qur'an, is sufficient evidence that it is above suspicion (of being a weak stylistic form.) This is the criterion by which we must measure whether literature is strong or weak in his opinion. If we were to treat his statement in the way it would be treated under Islamic Law, it would fall under the category of "clear implication", no doubt about it.

As for the Qur'an monopolising the rules of Arabic grammar (i.e. that all the rules of grammar are derived from the Qur'an), this I can see no reason for. But it is the belief that too often leads the one who holds it, to shortsightedness. My view is that saj' is not always a beautiful style even if it's in the Qur'an - or in a thousand Qur'ans - as we shall see. Just as the view that speech cannot be eloquent if it is in saj', is not correct. Every style has its place.

In short, those who confirm that the Qur'an contains saj', use as evidence, those passages of the Qur'an where the articulation of the letters have harmonic unity, while insisting that the saj' of the Qur'an is superior to human saj'.

They define two types of Saj'. Weak and strong. The weak saj' is that which appears forced, artificial, counterintuitive and trite in both words and meaning, especially that which is protracted and long-winded. As for the strong saj', it is that which is spontaneous, unforced, elegant, faultless and free flowing. This strong saj' appears often in the excellent literature of the Arabs. This is not the saj' of the soothsayers, it's just that their (soothsayers) saj' is the most common type. In fact some of the most eloquent masters of literature from amongst the Arabs have used eloquent saj'. Regarding this, it is related about Abu Talib, the uncle of the prophet, that he said to Saif ibn Thi Yazin:

"Allah has made grow for you one who's lineage is pure, who's stock is mighty, who's origin is proven, who's stature is lofty, and who's seed is planted in the most noble land and most excellent mine." (70)

Abu Zahra denies that there is any forced or contrived saj' in the Qur'an for no reason other than it is in the Qur'an. As a consequence its saj' is all of the "strong" type and there is none that is "weak":

"We cannot suppose the possibility of forced or contrived saj' in the Qur'an at all, because it is from God Most High." (71)

This is the measure of excellence. Whatever is from God cannot be forced or contrived. On this there can be no discussion.

__________________________

(69) As quoted by Muhammad Abu Zahra, in "The Greatest Miracle" p.321.

(70) As quoted by Muhammad Abu Zahra, in "The Greatest Miracle" p.322.

(71) Muhammad Abu Zahra, in "The Greatest Miracle" p.320.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #77 - August 19, 2014, 05:27 PM

Now I would like to present you with some clear examples of the Saj' of the soothsayers so that you can judge for yourself how they compare with similar Suras in the Qur'an - especially those examples we gave in the previous chapter, that begin with oaths on trivial matters, oaths that do not stir the imagination, nor challenge the senses, nor provoke reflection, nor bring about results, nor increase knowledge, nor foster good taste, nor widen horizons. The most they accomplish is simply rebuking, scolding, warning and reproach. Punctuated by meaningless references or anecdotes hackneyed by repetition making them banal & trite - so is this anything other than the Saj' of the soothsayers?

This reading of the Qur'an is one of conscious thought and reflection that opens the mind and frees one's critical abilities, challenging the mind. It is not the reading of the pious worshipper deep in devotional prayer in the mosque. This devotional reading does not foster anything other than blindness, dull senses and a paralysed mind. As for the reading of real contemplation it fosters clear vision and insight. It unfogs judgment and aesthetic instinct and guides one to the correct way. That's how I want you to read the Qur'an and to compare it to the Saj' of the soothsayers. Use your mind and don't view the Qur'an as a star-struck lover blinded by love and so cannot see anything that's going on around him of what is and what was! Look: Is it better than the saj' of the soothsayers or are they both on the same level? Are they, at the very least, similar? But leave those excellent verses of the Qur'an to one side for now, for they outside this comparison!

The news of the prophet's death had only just broken in Madina when some tribes renounced their allegiance to Muhammad and so the wars of apostasy (Riddah) started during the reign of Abu Bakr. Some took this opportunity to attack the new religion and make their own claim to prophethood in the hope of gaining the power and prestige that the Quraysh had achieved through the appearance of Islam. From this came the Fitnah (civil strife) of those who claimed prophethood, the most famous of whom was Musaylimah al-Hanafi from al-Yamamah. It's possible he may have been a Christian since Christianity was the majority religion in the desert regions of al-Yamamah.

These "prophets" imitated the prophets actions of going into seclusion, covering and cloaking themselves when they claimed they were receiving revelation just as they also composed their 'revelations' in saj' in imitation of the Qur'an and in the style of the soothsayers during the time of the prophet and before Islam. Most of what has come down to us of these verses of saj' are those of Musaylimah who decided to make an area in al-Yamamah a Holy Sanctuary (حرما آمنا) where fighting was prohibited just like the sanctuary of Makkah. He also gave himself a grand name to indicate his high status and lofty position. It was "The Merciful One of al-Yamamah." (رحمان اليمامة) as a way of emphasising the gravity and prestige of his prophethood and he called the walled area (in al-Yamamah) "The Garden of The Merciful One."

Here is some of the saj' that has been related from him (72):

1.

وَاللَّيْلِ الدَّارِسِ
وَالذِّئْبِ الْهَامِسِ
وَمَا قَطَعَتْ أُسَيْدٌ مِنْ رَطْبٍ وَلَا يَابِسِ

By the night that obliterates (the day).
By the wolf that silently prowls,
The (Banu) Usayid did not cut neither fresh nor dry!

2.

إِنَّ بَنِيْ تَمِيْمٍ قَوْمٌ طُهْرُ لَقَاحٍ
لَا مَكْرُوهَ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا إِتَاوَة
نُجَاوِرُهُمْ مَا حَيِيْنَا بِإِحْسَان
نَمْنَعُهُمْ مِنْ كُلِّ إِنْسَان
فَإِذَا مُتْنَا فَأَمْرُهُمْ إِلىٰ الرَّحْمٰن

Indeed the Banu Tamim are a people of pure lineage,
No harm should befall them nor should they be taxed,
We will dwell side by side in kindness, as long as we live,
And we shall defend them from every person,
But when we die then their affair will be in the hand of The Merciful.

3.

يَا ضِفْدَعُ ابنة ضفدع
نِقِّي مَا تَنِقِّينَ
أَعْلَاكِ فِي المَاءِ وَأَسْفَلُكِ فِي الطِّينِ
لَا الشَّارِبَ تَمْنَعِينَ
وَلَا الْمَاءَ تُكَدِّرِينَ

Oh frog, daughter of a frog
Croak as you wish to croak
Your upper part is in the water
While your lower part is in the mud
You cannot prevent the drinker from drinking,
Nor turn the water murky

4.

والمُبذرات زرعًا
والحاصدات حصدًا
والذاريات قمحًا
والخابزات خبزًا
، والثاردات ثردًا
، واللاقمات لقمًا
لقد فضلتم على أهل الوبر
وما سبقكم أهل المدر
ريفكم فامنعوه
والمعتر فآووه
والباغي فناوئوه

By those who scatter seed for planting
By those who reap at harvest
By those who winnow wheat
By those who bake the bread
By those who crumble the bread into the broth
By those who take in mouthfuls
You have indeed been favoured above those who dwell in hair (tents)
Nor shall the people of Mudar take precedence over you
So stand forth in defence of your land
And give refuge to the wretched
And resist every unjust oppressor (73)

72. Muhammad 'Izzat Darwaza, "A History of the Arab People," 7/38-40.
73. Muhammad 'Izzat Darwaza, "A History of the Arab People," 7/40.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #78 - August 28, 2014, 09:21 PM

Khalid Ibn Walid offered Tulayha Al-Assadi - who claimed prophethood - the opportunity to enter Islam and obedience (to the Khalifah Abu Bakr). But he refused, saying that an angel was visiting him just as he used to visit Muhammad. An intense battle raged that almost broke the back of the Muslims. The leader of the Banu Fazara (who had accepted Tulayha's prophethood and so were defending him against the Muslims), Uyayna started to come to Tulayha time and again, while he (Tulayha) was wrapped in his cloak in his tent claiming he was waiting for revelation, to ask if anything had been revealed from heaven to him yet, hoping that he would give him the good news of victory over the Muslims. On the third occasion Tulayha said; 'Revelation had come down to me,' and said:

إِنَّ لَكَ رَحًى كَرَحَاهُ ، وَحَدِيثًا لا تَنْسَاهُ ، وَإِنَّ لَكَ يَوْمًا سَتَلْقَاهُ ، لَيْسَ لَكَ أَوَّلُهُ ، وَلكِنْ لَكَ أُخْرَاهُ

"Indeed you will have a millstone* like his, and you shall have fame that you'll not forget. Indeed you shall have a day (battle) that you will meet him, the first part of which will not be in your favour, but you shall have the last of it." (74)

Another one of those to whom soothsaying, and claiming prophethood has been attributed, was Al-Mukhtar ibn Abu 'Ubayd al-Thaqafi. He was the first of those to espouse the Kaysanites Shia doctrine of the Imamate of Muhammad Ibn al-Hanafiyya. During that time he performed some wondrous acts and al-Baghdadi narrated some of his Saj' which came in a Khutbah he gave to the people at Karbala and claimed that it had been revealed to him from heaven:

الحَمْدُ لِله الَذِي وَعَدَ وَلِيَّهُ النَّصْرَ , وَعَدُوَّهُ الْخُسْرَ , وَجَعَلَهُمَا إِلَى آخِرِ الدَّهْرِ قَضَاءً مَقْضِيّاً , وَوَعْدًا مَأْتِيّاً

"Praise be to God who has promised victory to his ally/friend, and defeat to his enemy, and made them both matters that are permanently ordained until the end of time, and a pledge that shall always be fulfilled."

After he had completed the conquest of Kufa, Al-Jazeera and the whole of Mesopotamia up to the borders of Armenia, he began to compose verses of saj' like that of soothsayers, including some where he claimed revelation had descended upon him:

أما والذي أنزلَ القرآن ، وبيَّنَ الفرقان ، وشرَع الأديان ، وكره العصيان ، لأقتُلَنَّ البغاةَ مِن أزْد عمان ، ومذحج وهمذان ، ونهدٍ وخولان ، وبكرٍ وهزّان ، وثُعلٍ ونبهان ، وعبْسٍ وذبيان ، وقيسٍ وعَيْلان

1. "By he who revealed the Qur'an, and clarified the Furqan and legislated the religions and despises disobedience, I swear I shall indeed kill the unjust aggressors from Azd 'Oman, and Mathhaj and Hamdan, and Nahd and Khawlan, and Bakr and Hazzan, and Thu'l and Nabhan, and 'Abs and Thibyan, and Qais and 'Aylan."(76)

وحقّ السميع العليم، العليِّ العظيم، العزيز الحكيم، الرحمنِ الرحيم، لأعركَنَّ عرك الأديم، أشرافَ بني تميم

2. And he said: "By the truth of the All-Hearing the All-Knowing, the Sublime the Mighty, The Powerful the Wise, The Beneficent the Merciful, I will surely bring down the full fury of warfare upon the chiefs of Bani Tamim"(77)

Al-Baghdadi relates that al-Mukhtar was misled by extremist Saba'iyya** from amongst the Shi'a. They told him: "You are the proof/authority (Hujjah) of this time," and they encouraged him to make the declaration of prophethood, so he did so amongst those most close to him and claimed that revelation had descended upon him and composed saj' after that, saying:

أمّا ومنشئِ السحاب، الشديدِ العقاب، السريعِ الحساب، العزيزِ الوهّاب، القديرِ الغلاّب، لأَنبشنَّ قبرَ ابنِ شهاب، المفتري الكذّاب، المجرمِ المرتاب. ثمّ وربِّ العالمين، وربِّ البَلَد الأمين، لأقتُلَنَّ الشاعرَ المهين، وراجزَ المارقين، وأولياءَ الكافرين، وأعوانَ الظالمين، وإخوانَ الشياطين، الذين اجتمعوا على الأباطيل، وتقوّلوا عليَّ الأقاويل. وليس خطابي إلاّ لذوي الأخلاقِ الحميدة، والأفعالِ السديدة، والآراءِ العتيدة، والنفوسِ السعيدة.

"By he who sends rain clouds and is severe in punishment quick to account, the mighty the bestower, the all-powerful the conqueror. Verily I shall indeed exhume the grave of Ibn Shihab***, the fabricator the liar, the criminal the doubter, then by the Lord of the worlds and the Lord of the Secure Land (Mecca), I shall surely kill the contemptible poet, bard of the rogues, friends of the unbelievers, champions of the oppressors, brothers of the Devils, who conspire against the heroes and who put words in my mouth. My speech is not for anyone but those of blessed character, and righteous deeds, and venerable opinions and happy souls."(78)

He then gave a speech after that, in which he said:

الحمدُ للّه الذي جعلني بصيراً، ونوّر قلبي تنويراً. واللّهِ لأحرقَنّ بالمصر دُوراً، ولأنبشَنَّ بها قبوراً، ولأَشفِيَنَّ منها صدوراً. وكفى باللّه هادياً ونصيراً

"Praise be to God who has endowed me with insight/knowledge, and has shone light into my heart so that it is lit up. By God Indeed I shall surely burn down the houses in Egypt, and I shall disinter the graves there, and by that I shall indeed cure the chests/hearts of their rage (for revenge), and sufficient is God as a guide and a helper"(79)

Then he made an oath and said:

بربِّ الحرَمِ، والبيتِ المحرَّمِ، والركنِ المكرَّمِ، والمسجدِ المعظَّمِ، وحقِّ ذي القلم، ليُرفعنّ لي علم، من هنا إلى أضَم، ثمّ إلى أكناف ذي سلم

"By the Lord of the Sanctuary, and the Forbidden House, and and the blessed corner and the glorified mosque and by the right of the scholar, I swear that surely a flag will be raised for me, from here to Mecca and then to the heart of the valley of Thu Salam."(80)

Then he said threateningly:

أمّا وربِّ السماء، لتنزلنّ نارٌ من السماء، فلتحرِقنّ دارَ أسماء

"By the Lord of the heaven, there will verily descend from the sky a fire, which will burn up the house of Asma' "(81)

The one called Asma' in this piece is Abu Hassaan ibn Kharijah al-Fazari al-Kufi, who was one of the nobles of the people of al-Madinah and amongst the notable followers, who died about 65 AH. So when he heard this utterance he became frightened for his life and fled from his house saying: "Abu Ishaq has composed Saj' about me! Indeed my house will be burnt down," and he went out of his house instantly. So Mukhtar sent someone to his house to burn it down secretly at night. The next day it appeared that a fire had come down from the sky and burnt it down.(82)

Then the people of Kufa went out against al-Mukhtar because of his soothsaying, and especially because he had promised to share amongst them the wealth of their chiefs. So al-Mukhtar fought them and defeated them and killed some of them and took some captive. Amongst the captives was a clever poet by the name of "Suraqah ibn Mirdas al-Bariqi." He was afraid that al-Mukhtar would kill him so he said to his captors: "It was not you that captured us, nor was it you, with your hordes, that defeated us. What defeated us were the angels that I saw riding piebald stallions above your army's flanks." He then took an oath (in front of the people) that he saw angels fighting with Mukhtar, just as they had fought with the prophet during the battle of Badr and the battle of Hunayn as the Qur'an relates. Then Suraqah curried favour with al-Mukhtar by reciting some verses of poetry, including:

نُصرتَ على عدوِّكَ كلَّ يومٍ      بكلِّ كتيـبةٍ تَنعي حُسَـينا
كنصرِ محمّدٍ في يـومِ بـدْرٍ       ويومِ الشعبِ إذ لاقَى حُنينا

You are victorious over your enemy in every battle * With every battalion that laments over Husayn
Like the victory of Muhammad in the battle of Badr * & the battle of tribes when they met at Hunayn

Al-Mukhtar was impressed by him and so forgave him and let him go. But when Suraqah had got a safe distance away his companions asked him about what he had seen, and he replied. I was never more false in an oath than I was when I said I saw angels. Then he joined the army of Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr, the enemy of al-Mukhtar, in Basra, and sent these verses mocking him:

ألا أَبلِـغْ أبـا إسـحقَ أنّي      رأيتُ البُـلقَ دهْمـاً مُعتِمـاتِ
وكفرتُ بوحيِكُم وجعلتُ نذراً      عليَّ قتـالَكم حتّى الممــاتِ
أُري عينيَّ ما لـم تُبصـراهُ      كلانـا عـالِمٌ بالتـرَّهَــاتِ
إذا قالـوا أقـولُ لهم كذبْتُم      وإنْ خرجوا لبستُ لهم أداتي

Why don't you announce, Abu Ishaq (Al-Mukhtar), that I saw dark piebald stallions descending suddenly?
While I disbelieve in your revelations and I have made a vow to fight you until death,
My eyes feigned to see that which they didn't see, for we both know how to hoax,
When they speak, I tell them that you lied and if they come out (to fight) I will clothe them with my sword.(83)

***

Now after this brief survey of the Saj' of soothsayers and the Saj' of the Qur'an which I restricted myself to excerpts from the opening verses of a few suras near the end, with the examples of oaths that had no final clause - and in the knowledge that the other longer suras of the Qur'an also contain short pieces of Saj' that lack meaning or sense - I say after this brief survey that I hope the reader who has an open, critical mind that is able to judge objectively and impartially, can see with clear vision the similarities between these two examples of Saj', the Saj' of the soothsayers and the Saj' of the Qur'an.

________________________

* Millstone is a common metaphor for war/battle in Arabic poetry.
** Saba'iyya السبئية A sect that is said to have been formed by the Jew; Abdullah Ibn Saba'. It is said they believe that Ali didn't die and that he will return before the Day of Judgment and fill the earth with justice.
*** Kathir Ibn Shihab al-Harithi a supporter of the Umayyad dynasty and opposed to the supporters of Ali.
(74) Ibdem, 7/51
(75) Al-Baghdadi, "The Differences Between the Sects," p.45
(76) Ibidem, p. 46-47. The original said: "Qais 'Aylan," but the correct is: "Qais & 'Aylan."
(77) Ibidem, p. 47.
(78) Ibidem, p. 47-48
(79) Ibidem, p. 48.
(80) Ibidem, p. 48.
(81) Ibidem, p. 48.
(82) Ibidem, p. 48.
(83) Muhammad 'Izzat Darwaza, "A History of the Arab People," 8/397.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #79 - August 30, 2014, 11:55 AM

Chapter 4
Part 14

The Qurʾān & the Belief in the Unseen

We must use our mind rather than traditions. Knowledge and intellect rather than magic and hidden secrets. On humanity rather than an invisible creator. But most of all, before anything else, we must abandon the world of the unseen and start living in the real world. We must strive to achieve our utmost using reason and logic rather than surrendering to apathy(84) that places faith in the unseen hoping that after we die we will have a happy and bountiful life full of the delights of paradise such as the Houris, palaces, soft couches, gardens, and rivers.

Without doubt the most pernicious disease that has become deeply rooted in our cultural mentality is belief in the unseen. It is this that has seduced our minds and emotions since the dawn of Islam. Since Allah made it a condition of faith by saying: "Aif Lam Meem, that book in which there is no doubt, a guidance for the pious who believe in the unseen and establish prayer and spend from that which we provide for them." (2:1-3)

Nothing can be more indicative of the importance of the unseen in Islam than the fact that the word appears 48 times in the Qur'an. This wretched word has - and continues - to dominate us. It has bedevilled our history and collective consciousness, it has held our willpower hostage, and shackled our mind in chains that cannot be broken. It is has provided support for every good-for-nothing, incompetent, deadbeat, idle-loafer and such like from custodians of the temple and those who basque in other people's fire.

In as much as the Qur'an was a factor behind the rise of the Arabs and their appearance on the world stage and participation in science and civilisation, it has become, since the beginning of the age of decline, a source of backwardness. It's role in advancing the Arabs has finished. It has spent and exhausted it's usefulness in helping us progress, and has now turned back in on itself and takes us backwards and propels us into the arms of the past and the world of the unseen.

Religion, by definition, directs your attention towards the unseen; God, angels and the next life. That is it's primary function. When a religion is new it can be a force for change. It can be dynamic and innovative. But in later years it becomes the opposite. It becomes a force of stagnation, looking backwards to the past, reactionary and regressive. The religious person cannot ever forget the past - whether Muslim, Christian, or Jew. The Qur'an, however, more than any other religion makes faith in the unseen a firmly established principle. It placed it before all other acts of worship. That is how it is placed within the heart of the previously mentioned verse. It specifies the "Muttaqeen" (pious) as being "those who believe in the unseen" first! Then after that, "those who establish prayer."

(84) An example of where this sort of apathy takes place is during the month of Ramadan, where work often takes second place to prayers, fasting and staying up making Du'a.
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Reply #80 - August 30, 2014, 07:35 PM

Verses about the unseen are repeated frequently in the Qur'an. The faith of a believer is incomplete without belief in the unseen and if he dies in such a state he would have died without true faith - may Allah Most High, preserve us!

At first, belief in the unseen was merely one of the articles of faith and was fairly innocuous, but since the dawn of our decline it has become a symptom of disease. A source of stagnation and surrendering our responsibilities. It became the key to the secrets of the next world and mystic religious prattle typified by the Sufis with their efforts to annihilate the self and subsume their being, through repetitive chanting and rhythmic swaying. We too have become like these whirling dervishes, comatose as we go through life in circles like the dervishes during their 'halaqat.' Losing our minds and critical abilities in exchange for the sedative drug of the unseen world. Engrossed in ruku' & sujud - qiyam & qu'ud. We give lessons on Tawakkul - total reliance on God and on his plan for us, drawn from verses such as:

وَيَرْزُقْهُ مِنْ حَيْثُ لاَ يَحْتَسِبُ وَمَن يَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ فَهُوَ حَسْبُهُ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بَالِغُ أَمْرِهِ

‘And He will provide him from where he could never imagine. And whoever puts their trust in Allah, then He will suffice him. Verily, Allah will accomplish His purpose" (65:3)

We even detail the different levels of Tawakkul that the believer should attain. The highest being to completely hand over all matters and management of our affairs to God. Of course many will temper this by adding we should also "tie your camel first" and attend to the affairs of the world, yet despite this, the pious value given to total reliance on God is greater. The affairs of this world are belittled and only have value in that they help us achieve the next world. The stories of the pious are littered with tales of how they forsook this lowly world and thought of nothing but the life to come, spending what they had earned that day on their immediate needs - and giving away the rest - before night would fall as the prophet had done.

We beseech Allah morning and night to help the Muslims, to make them united and strong and to destroy our enemies. We beseech him to cure the sick and comfort the poor. We beseech him to solve our problems and right the wrongs. Our throats have become hoarse from imploring God. Our fingers arthritic from making tasbeeh, but we shall never tire of making du'a nor desist from tasbeeh. We shall continue beseeching Allah and chanting thikr and twirling around without our mind, nor thought, nor taking control of matters ourselves.

We place great importance on arguing about when Ramadan begins, where to place the hands while in Qiyam, or whether pronouncing divorce 3 times is valid or not, but we all agree to submit like sheep to our tyrants and dictators. We agree to shut our eyes to the corruption and we agree to say nothing when the few voices that are raised in dissent are ruthlessly silenced.

For over one thousand years (since the decline of Arab civilisation) we and our Imams in the mosques have been beseeching Allah to alleviate the suffering of the Muslims and give us success and victory - and we will continue to beseech him until the Day of Judgment.

The time has come to realise that Allah (if this word has any meaning) doesn't care about you and your problems in the real world. He is too busy in the unseen world. This world with all it's complex problems and issues - that you divorced three times - is of no concern to him.

The Qur'an once moved people to achieve great things when it first appeared. As we discussed previously the Qur'an contains some masterpieces, some good passages, some indifferent and some poor. But to the Arabs at the time it was on the whole, an amazing and inspiring work. The good, the bad, the nonsense, the eloquent, the threats, the promises, the true and the false - all combined to move the Arabs, inspire and unite them. But like any human work it is tied to time and place it was composed in. The Qur'an has long since lost the positive effect it first had. Despite the Qur'an's strong presence today in our societies' politics, economies and public and private lives, it has become a stagnant, musical backdrop that does not bring about any effective action nor results apart from negative ones that turn us inward and leaves us as mere spectators to the course of human progress.

***

Every page of the Quran is dominated and permeated with a deeply entrenched doctrine of Predestination (Al-Qadaa' wa al-Qadar = "The Divine Verdict & Decree"), that one cannot miss, although the hadith literature supporting this doctrine was not apparent or did not yet exist in early times when the Islamic empire was being built. If they had been it is doubtful that there would have been an Islamic Caliphate at all! For when man is faced with extremely challenging and dangerous situations he will ignore any idea of predestination, regardless of what his belief is about it. I say although the hadith literature supporting this doctrine was not apparent or did not exist at the time of the rise of the Islamic empire, it was very apparent and widespread during the periods of our decline. In fact it hastened this decline and brought it forward before its time. Thus did its poison and venom spread to infect the dynamism of the later Muslims, paralysing every field of activity.

Predestination does not create enlightened people - it creates slaves. It does not build vibrant nations - it creates petty statelets and backward dictatorships. Predestination does not unite - it disperses and divides. It does not drive forward science - it pushes us back into ignorance. It does not create great civilisations or flourishing cities, on the contrary it destroys and dismantles civilisations. If you see a people who are advanced, progressive, with a flourishing, vibrant culture and civilisation, you can be sure that predestination played no part in it.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #81 - August 31, 2014, 09:04 PM

Chapter 4

Part 15

Inhumanity of the Qur'an

The enemy that the Qur'an hates most of all is someone who has confidence in himself and believes in himself. That crime will never be forgiven.

"They say; 'If it had been up to us, not so many would have been killed here.' Say; 'Even if you had been inside your houses, those decreed to be killed would have gone out (of their houses,) to the place they were slain.'" (3:154)

(This verse is about a group of Muslims during the battle of Uhud who were unhappy with the way the battle was planned & implemented. They thought they could have done a better job. Allah rebukes them saying it was fate and no-one can change fate.)

In the battle of Badr it wasn't the Muslim fighters who killed the polytheists. It was Allah alone who killed them. It wasn't even the archers who shot the arrows, it was Allah!

"You did not slay them, it was Allah Who slew them, and you did not shoot when you shot (the enemy), but it was Allah Who shot." (8:17)

We do not even have control over our own thoughts and ideas. "And know that Allah intervenes between man and his heart." (8:24)

1. The polytheist in the Qur'an is not a human being. He is below that by a long way. The Qur'an regards the polytheist as a primitive barbarian, an uncivilised being lacking any dignity:

"O you who believe! the idolaters are nothing but filth, so do not let them come near the Sacred Mosque after this year." (9:28)

How often I would wince at the Qur'an's use of the word "Filth" (نَجَس) to describe another human being. It is such an ugly word that I felt did not befit the speech of The Compassionate, the Merciful. I myself feel shy to use such language towards a fellow human being - no matter how much of an enemy he may be to me. But to apply that to a human being who's crime is nothing other than exercising his freedom to think for himself and make up his own mind what he wants to worship - no matter how much that may differ from my views. As for God himself uttering such a word and sending it down from heaven to be recited and used in pious worship in our prayers and religious rites - that is something I cannot ever understand!

It would have been very easy to use a better and less vulgar word, that would suit the unattainable eloquence and miraculous style that is attributed to the Qur'an. That sublime miraculousness that no human can attain, no matter how gifted or skilled he may be.

And is this the sort of dirty language that the Qur'an wants us to use towards those who differ from us? Is this how we must perceive them and base our relationship with them on? Is this how we must deal with those who have different beliefs and views? For no other reason than they have a different religion or belief? There is a saying that "bigotry is a disease," and that is very true - even Allah is not safe from it.
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Reply #82 - September 01, 2014, 09:40 PM

2. Another example is the depreciation of women. The Qur'an likens women to agricultural land that is ploughed and seeded. Fertile soil for planting that you can enter whenever and however you like.

"Your wives are a tilth for you, so go into your tilth when/however you like." (2:223)

3. Cutting the hand of the male or female thief:

"As for the man who steals and the woman who steals, cut off their hands as a punishment for what they have earned." (5:38)

4. Killing prisoners of war*:

"It is not for any prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land." (8:67)

5. Flogging the male & female fornicator. Nay! Stoning them, and in front of witnesses. You're not even allowed to feel the normal human emotions of pity and compassion.

"The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, when it comes to the religion of God, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment." (24:2)

6. When a man** wishes to divorce his wife he simply has to say Talaq (divorce) 3 times. "Divorce, divorce, divorce!"

"Divorce may be pronounced twice, then either keep them on good terms or let them go with kindness… but if he divorces her (a third time), then she is not lawful to him until she has married another husband."(2:229-230)(85)

***

The early Muslims accepted all of that - in fact more than that - and never opposed it nor rebelled against it. As long as they believed it came from heaven then they had to simply prostrate in humble obedience. But how can we today, as we enter the new millennium, continue to still carry with us such primitive baggage? Such inhumanity that we inherited from our ancestors? That heaven & earth colluded in to initiate us at birth into? How can we build our future and that of our children with such a backward mentality that is frozen in time. The clock stopped at a past age of glory. The time when the Arabs led the world. But then we fell and time fell with us. Oh how we lament the a bygone era! Grief stricken and stuck in the past. When will we realise that the past belongs where it is. Time has moved on. We must open the shutters and clear the dust away. It is time for us to move on also.

_________________________________

*There is a slight difference of opinion regarding this verse. Some commentators cite hadith that the prophet consulted Abu Bakr and Umar about what to do with the captives from the battle of Badr. Umar said execute them, while Abu Bakr said ransom them. The prophet took Abu Bakr's advice. Then the hadiths relate that this verse was revealed rebuking the Muslims for ransoming them when they should have been killed. Other's say it means that no captives should have been taken and that the pagan army should have been chased down and slaughtered. This interpretation seems somewhat academic. Killing those who are running away or surrendering is hardly any different to killing them once captured.

**When a woman want's divorce (in her case it's called Khula الخلع) it is far more complex. Whereas a husband does not need a wife's consent to divorce, she must seek his consent and he can refuse her a divorce if he wants to. In this case she will have to petition an Islamic judge to get a divorce and this can prove to be extremely difficult. In most cases she can only petition for Khula if she can prove that her husband hasn't had sex with her for two months, or if her husband doesn't provide for her. She will also usually be expected to pay the dowry back and in most cases lose the custody of any children the couple have.

85. Why should a divorced couple who have reconciled and wish to remarry, be prevented from doing so - unless the woman marries another man and has sexual intercourse with him and then divorce him?
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Reply #83 - September 03, 2014, 11:32 PM

Chapter 5

God in the Qur'an.

Introduction

The Existence & the non-Existence of God is the Same Thing!

Man cannot live without meaning. Without some-sort of framework or narrative that gives his life purpose. The problem is that there is no in-built meaning to life. Life is the meaning you give to it. Most of us received our meaning from our parents when we were children. Our parents received it from their parents. These meanings were created by our distant ancestors in an earlier time and although humanity has moved on in other ways, we still cling to these ancient superstitions & myths. The greatest of of these by far is the belief in God or Gods. Despite the fact that no-one has seen God and reason is unable to confirm his existence, the vast majority of mankind accept completely and blindly that God exists. Nor do we simply say we believe it, but we claim it is a certainty, something natural & instinctive that we just 'know' with absolute conviction and it requires no proof.

Belief in gods and supernatural powers goes back to the dawn of history. But this doesn't mean belief in God is instinctive. It's interesting to note the "One True God" of the Abrahamic faiths is conspicuous by its absence in early religious beliefs which were largely based around worship of animals or animal spirits, such as the bear and the bull, or fertility goddesses, or worship of the sun and celestial bodies, which are all things early man would have either been in awe of, feared or needed to survive. If the history of religious beliefs tells us anything, then they tell us only that man has always sought a crutch to hold onto in an often harsh and cruel world where he feels helpless and alone. He has sought to allay his fears of death and cling on to hope that his efforts are not in vain. Wearing an amulet to make the hunt successful, offering a sacrifice to a fertility goddess so crops won't fail, performing some ritual before a sea journey or muttering incantations before a battle in the vain hope that it will make a difference. It is hard for man to accept the truth of his condition as it is without the comfort of angels, paradise, and a God who watches over him night & day.

Of course believers down the ages have tried to offer rational arguments for the existence of God. Among the most popular is the argument that; everything has a cause, so the universe must have a cause and that cause must be must be an all-powerful being that transcends the laws of causality. Firstly this says nothing about which God this is? Secondly if this God has no cause then the premise is wrong - not everything has a cause! Thirdly, the problem with invoking the supernatural is that reason and logic no longer apply and literally anything can be claimed. The truth is that it is impossible to prove for certain whether some sort of supernatural being exists or not. Reason is of no use here. This question will remain unanswered until the end of time.

No, it is not reason or logic that is behind faith in God. It is emotion. Like a little child who needs his parents and is afraid of parting from them. He is scared if they go away and screams and cries if they leave him with someone else. Or if he wakes up in the night to find they are not there then he is beside himself with anguish. This underlying need for security and fear of being alone and helpless is one of the reasons why we remain so attached to the myth of God.

However the believer will claim that his belief is perfectly rational and will come up with all sorts of proofs and evidences to prove God exists. He cannot see the flaws in his arguments. If you point them out he will either fly off the handle or end the discussion and walk away while mocking your stupidity. You have exposed the things he hides from himself. But despite that he will remain clinging to his faith and will avoid discussion with you again, since you have threatened his whole identity - his very existence. It is better you stop there and don't pursue the subject.

He is not alone, for scholars and philosophers throughout history have devoted themselves to defending these ancient myths. So much ink has been spilled by great minds down the ages to prove the existence of a God who refuses to prove it himself.

We believe in God first then invent evidence and proofs to support our belief, in order to fool ourselves that our faith has a rational basis. To fulfil our childish need for comfort & support. To satisfy a metaphysical curiosity that asks why we are here? What is it for? Our inquisitive nature constantly wonders, speculates and enquires about the mystery of existence. We crave reassurance, meaning & purpose to make our existence more bearable and accept our situation as it is. For we live in the midst of a confusing world full of drama, difficulties and tragedy.

But whether God exists or not the universe will go on according to the laws of nature. Everything working by itself without a creator, without a caretaker, without a point nor an end and without outside interference. Likewise mankind. For if the whole universe gets along just fine without any interference, then man is no different. Not to mention the abundance of evidence in our daily lives that are a testament to the lack of divine intervention. We are in no need of a selfish tyrant who conceals himself from us, then demands we recognise and worship him. And this is according to the sayings, testimonies, and stories of a few individuals - the prophets - who claim that God has spoken to them and that they speak for God.(1)

Until now I cannot understand any meaning to belief in God when he doesn't stir a finger nor leave a trace. The only meaning I can think of is a psychological meaning. That we created God to fill a psychological need.

To those who say; this sun and moon, these stars and planets, this whole amazing natural law that makes everything work beautifully - doesn't that indicate anything? Is all of that just by chance? Can things happen without someone making them happen? Or be created without a creator? I say I don't know and I doubt I'll ever know. All I can say is that everything follows natural laws and processes and evolution. It has been like that for as long as I know and I have no reason to think it won't continue like that. I don't see a God in these things.

Let me ask a question. Has God ever put out a fire? Saved the drowning? Cured the sick? Fed the starving? Halted disease? Averted disaster? Direct me to one instance where God has done anything? Any example where God was involved? If not, then all that is in heaven and earth, and the stars and planets, its perfection, order & beauty do not amount to one tear trickling down the cheek of a mother holding her dying child.

(1) The strange thing is that man's fate and salvation, after this life, depends on the veracity of claims that do not stand up to close scrutiny. They are nothing but baseless promises that man finds an indescribable pleasure in believing because they remove the nightmare of death and don't place a limit on his existence. His life will be eternal and death is a mere process of moving from one world to another.
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Reply #84 - September 04, 2014, 08:49 PM

***

If faith in God is lost then the whole edifice comes crashing down. Gone is hope, dreams, angels, prophets & paradise and instead the stark reality of our condition and mortality becomes painfully clear and this is something man doesn't want to face. So the believer has a strong incentive to cling on to faith in God. He doesn't want to die, so he creates the idea that death is simply a door to a new life - the real life. That although this life is temporary, the next life is everlasting. This life is full of pain, struggle and suffering, but the next life is full of pleasure, joy and happiness. It is a concept that has become deeply embedded in the human psyche.

So he will use every means possible to preserve that which guarantees him immortality. Performing mental gymnastics to "prove" whatever is necessary to ensure his everlasting happiness. Blame himself and his own shortcomings if something doesn't make sense, rather than question his beliefs.

I have to admit that I do pity him and I am hesitant to take away that comfort blanket from his tight grip, when it makes him happy. But at the same time I fear the damage it does in dulling and paralysing his faculties.

Perhaps we should leave people in their delusions. Perhaps it is impossible to completely free them from myths. They serve a purpose. Since God is the greatest of these delusions then it is from faith in him that people derive the greatest pleasure. The believers fight with the "Sword of God" and no matter how many times they are defeated, humiliated and crushed they will not stop believing that God will bring them victory. If not in this world, then in the next.

Some people seem to think that those of us who doubt God's existence, do so simply on the basis that we can't see him. They point out that there are innumerable things one can't see but we know they exist, such as radio waves, sound waves, ultraviolet light, micro organisms, etc… Men of religion mock when someone says he disbelieves in God because sees no evidence for him, and reply sarcastically: "Then you don't believe in Hong Kong because you can't see it."

But disbelief in God has nothing to do with such a ridiculously simplistic level of understanding. We doubt God's existence because no-one can verify that he exists. We don't need to see Hong Kong or radio waves or micro-organisms to know they exist because others have seen them and studied them and tested them and verified them from multiple sources. If I am ever in doubt about their existence I can conduct my own scientific experiments to verify them myself. I can visit Hong Kong if I suspect global conspiracy to hide the fact that Hong Kong doesn't exist. However when it comes to God you cannot find one witness in the whole world who has seen or spoken to God. You cannot find one single scientist who has scientifically established God's existence. Nor can you verify these claims yourself, either by travelling to a place to meet God, or by conducting your own experiments to establish his existence. Furthermore you see in the world around you a world that runs by itself with no interference or intervention.

***

"Can there be doubt about God, the creator of the heavens and the earth?" (14:10)

Yes there can! And not just one doubt but many doubts. How great are the doubts about him - Most High is He!

They claim that there is no "doubt" about the existence of God. That belief in the "One True God" is a natural instinct; "Fitrah", humanity's natural disposition which God has created us with. But if that were true then why have religious scholars down the ages toiled and laboured to produce libraries full of arguments trying to establish that God exists? Why have they not written volumes about the existence of the sun? Mankind has never declared war against or persecuted or committed atrocities upon those who deny the existence of the sun. If God's existence was "without doubt" as they claim, then why the need for arguments, proofs and evidences? That which is "without doubt" has no need for these things. One only needs to present arguments and proofs where there is doubt. That which has no doubt is not in need of proof.

Yes, man has a tendancy and need for a crutch. These feelings increase in times of crisis and insecurity. The desire for a crutch reveals an inner psychological need. It reflects an underlying existential crisis that human beings have at one time or another experienced ever since they became self-aware beings and began to think beyond the mechanics of survival. When they started to think in the abstract and pose questions about their existence.

All this is not evidence of a God, nor is it evidence of the need for a God. It is merely the reality of our evolution. God is a reduntant addition invented by man during his evolution as he developed the capacity for introspection and abstract thinking - in a world that was dangerous and frightening - where he sought help to survive in anyway he can. Appealing to the forces or spirits in nature. To gods that were more powerful than the gods of a hostile tribe. To a God who was bigger & stronger than them all! It is a concept we have become deeply emotionally attached to and find impossible to let go of. It is a refuge for the poor, weak, destitute and deprived who are powerless and so seek a powerful gaurdian full of love, care and affection, who will right the wrongs, bring justice, security & peace. But when they find he doesn't bring anything except more suffering, they do not leave him, no, they blame themselves and increase their devotion and give each other the "good news" of the reward to to come that shall be all the greater for their suffering.

It never occurs to them that there is no-one listening to their prayers. That this God they are asking for help is their own invention. Born out of their despair and loss of hope in the bitter reality that they find themselves in. They live in a waking dream. The dream of Paradise which contains that which no eye has seen nor ear has heard nor has occured to the mind of man. The Houris will come running to meet them and welcome them in to their palace in heaven where servants will fulfil every command. A beautiful illusion and when an illusion embeds itself into the mind it can be so sweet, so powerful, that it replaces reality.

***
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Reply #85 - September 06, 2014, 04:07 PM

I have no problem with anyone who says they believe in God - so long as they don't try to claim it is more than just a belief. So long as they don't claim it is a certainty.

"And on the earth are signs for those who are certain." (51:20)

If you were to say to me that the existence of the universe leads you to believe there is a creator - I will not argue with you. That is your right. I have no problem with that. In fact I will go as far as to say it is a possibility. Who knows! But if you tell me it is certain and say that doubting it is a crime, then that is something no intelligent person should ever accept. As Voltaire said: "Doubt is an uncomfortable position, but certainty is an absurd one.” Never mind that the heart (emotion) and mind (reason) both participate when it comes to matters like this. Making it impossible to be certain what part the heart plays and what part the mind plays. For the heart has it's demands and biases that are hidden from the mind. While the mind has a rigidity & dryness that the heart flees from. So the mind adopts the methods of the heart and the heart leads the mind meekly to where it wants to go. They both want to maintain comfort and security they experience from this belief, so they join forces according to an unwritten agreement and secret collusion. They weave around it a spiders web, even though "The flimsiest of houses is the house of the spider!" (29:41)

Underlying everything man does is a survival instinct. It helped his species endure against all odds in cruel and brutal environments. A survival instinct does not have the ability to weigh up long term pros and cons of a particular course of action, it must act immediately and snatch whatever tools are at hand, to ensure survival. This survival instinct found belief in God a useful psychological coping tool. What are heaven and Houris other than just comforting consolations for this wretched, tragic creature called man?

This God that man believes in has not given him anything during all the times he has suffered. He has never answered a request. Never fulfilled a need. Never satisfied a hunger. Never cured the afflicted. No, he has left man twisting in misery & pain without lifting a finger. Yet man makes excuses for him for the promises sooth him, the happy visions and sublime dreams anaesthetise pain. He will excuse this God. For these delights are not for this evil world that is not even worth the "wing of a gnat."* No, this is for the perfect world to come, where there is no place for hunger, tears, grief & sorrow. Oh how man values this next life when he will return to his Lord and experience nothing but happiness, pleasure, bliss and songs. A place full of joyful celebrations and luxurious gratification with "Firm breasted maidens" (78:33) "pearls well-guarded." (52:24) Who take pleasure in coquettish flirtation, cuddles and titillation.

Do you see the mechanisms of survival that help man cope and get by! Even though the reality of life crushes him, there remains a small corner of hope within him that never fails, a light that never diminishes, and a spring that flows eternal. The incentive to go on remains strong. How patiently does he bear the 'slings and arrows.' How inventive is he in clinging on to existence and in justifying the vicissitudes of existence and hanging on in quiet desperation!!

Would that I knew what life was all about. Would that I knew what existence is? Does existence even have a meaning? But this question cannot be answered. It is a mystery and will remain a mystery. The playground is known, but the player is unknown. The game is a competition between the known and unknown. Puppets that move, marionettes that dance. We can't see behind the curtain nor even catch sight of the strings. Even though we are the leading actors, complicit in it's drama.

This question has perplexed the greatest thinkers. Faces turn away in confusion and minds are confounded and bemused. Man the master of the universe or an insignificant extra? We know so much and yet so little.

How strange is the condition of man!

* Sahl bin Sa’d narrated that the Messenger of Allah said: “If the world to Allah were equal to a mosquito’s wing, then He would not allow the disbeliever to have a sip of water from it.” [Chapters on Zuhd: Jami At-Tirmidhi]. It means that the world is worth nothing at all, to God, so he allows the disbelievers to have of it as much as they like.
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Reply #86 - September 07, 2014, 02:44 PM

Chapter 5

Part 1

Attributes of God in the Qur'an.

The existence of God in the Qur'an is one of the basic assumptions that the believer just has to accept. "Can there be any doubt about God, the creator of the heavens and the earth?" (14:10) For that reason the Qur'an does not concern itself with proving his existence as much as it devotes itself to establishing the "Oneness" of God and negating that he has any partner. But it does bring attention to the variety of his signs in creation, even though these signs, despite their number, don't mean much upon relection. None of them reach the level of what one could call evidence in the scientific sense, though to the common man they are beyond the level of evidence and are in fact irrefutable proofs. This 'evidence' simply points out familiar phenonmena in nature and in the lives of people at the time that were of benefit or important. They are phrased in a way that one can read into it whatever one wants to, and discover in it whatever one desires, according to his psychological needs, and his spiritual leanings and his philosophy of life.

God in the Qur'an is described with all the attributes of perfection and free from all attributes of deficiency:

The single, the pure, the lord, the one, the unique. He has no companion nor son. The knower of the unseen and the seen. He has power over everything. He is the first and the last. The apparent and the hidden. The originator of the heavens and earth. The strong, the wise. "He is Allah, besides Whom there is no god; the King, the Holy, the Giver of peace, the Granter of security, Guardian over all, the Mighty… He is Allah the Creator, the Maker, the Fashioner; His are the most beautifu names" (59:23-24)

These are a few of the 'beautiful' names or attributes of God in the Qur'an. According to hadith*, there are 99 names of God though in fact there are many more than that. There are some that the Qur'an mentions such as The Lord (الرب) The Protector (المولى), The Near (القريب) and The Mighty Creator, (الخلاق) but these are not found in the list of 99 while names such as The Sublime (الجليل) The Finder (الواجد) and The Noble (الماجد) are not mentioned in the Quran, but are included in the list of 99.

As you can see these are positive attributes. But the problem is that they do not suffice, on their own, to explain everything that happens in this world. For if it is true that God is good and omnipotent then these positive attributes don't cover the bad things that happen - and this is the philosophical problem of evil that has existed since time immemorial. For this reason it is necessary to add to these attributes, others that are opposite to them to balance out the reality of this world both good and evil, beauty and ugliness, complete and impaired. This is if we want to free God from any notion of having a partner or assistant(2), or female companion or son(3). Otherwise we would find the floor open to the Devil to do whatever he wants. In which case one would have to wonder what is the relationship between God and the Devil? For if he is not a partner with God, then what exactly is he?

So the Qur'an ascribes other attributes to God, some of which have made it to the list of 99 and some which haven't. Amongst those that have are; "The Harmer" (الضار) The Arrogant (المتكبر) The Debaser (المذل) The Bringer of Death (المميت) The Humiliator (الخافض) The Withholder (المانع) The Straightener (القابض) The Opressor (الجبار) The Abasing Conqueror (القهار) The One Who Takes Revenge (المنتقم). (One of those not mentioned in the list of 99, but which without doubt should be near the top is: "The Torturer" (المعذب) due to the number of times the Qur'an ascribes this attribute to God.)

Muslim scholars & Qur'anic commentators stood before these less than beautiful attributes, with their hands tied. Unable to do anything other than try to ameliorate their impact in their usual way of patching up and waffling to try and disassociate God from any base or lowly charachteristics, or from any hint of faults or imperfections in his nature. "Glory be to Him and Most High is He above that which they ascribe to Him." (6:100)

But they are caught between a rock and a hard place. Is God all-good or not? If he is, then how can one explain these attributes. If not, then is a God who is less than good worthy of worship? Should the evil in the world be attributed to the Devil? Does that make the Devil a partner in crime or a fall guy to take the blame? "Say praise be to God who has not taken a son and has no partner in the dominion and has no protector from disgrace. So magnify him with all magnificence." (17:111)

There is no option other than to accept that these negative attributes are intrinsic attributes of God in the Qur'an despite the fact that the Mufassirun vainly attempt to explain them away. Changing the clear meaning to another meaning entirely so as to suit their naive and forced efforts to rescue the Qur'an from what it actually says. When discussing the good attributes, they are happy to take them at face value and according to their obvious meaning, but if they are they are 'bad' attributes then we must not take them at face value, we must instead twist and turn upside down and find another meaning. This is the methodolgy of the Qur'anic commentators.

* Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger as saying: "There are ninety-nine names of Allah; he who commits them to memory would get into Paradise." (Muslim)
(2) Sura Al-Kahf 18:51 "Nor do I take misleaders as assistants."
(3) Sura al-Jinn 72:3 "He has taken niether female companion nor son."
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Reply #87 - September 08, 2014, 09:56 PM

Chapter 5

Part 2

God & Satan: Two Sides of the Same Coin.

Translators note:

"We said to the angels: Prostrate to Adam. So they did prostrate except Iblis; he was not of those who prostrated... (Qur'an 7:11-25)

One of the most absurd and childish myths found in both Islam & Christianity is that of Satan who misleads, tempts and encourages man to sin. This creature who God created and made amongst the most honoured creatures in the holy company. He was present during the theatrical moment when God asked everyone to bow down to man. Satan refused and so God cursed him and sent him away. Though clearly not far enough, because he sneaked back into heaven to tell Adam and Eve to go and eat from the tree that God forbade them from approaching. God then reproaches Adam and Eve and sends them both down to earth, where Satan has promised to lie in wait for them and their children and mislead, tempt and seduce them.

Now if God knew Satan would turn evil - which he must have - why did he create him? The only answer can be that God intended all this to happen. Nothing can happen unless Allah wills it, nor can it happen if it is not in God's plan. So God wanted him to turn evil and wanted him to sneak around misguiding humans. Satan for his part seems to think he can prove something to God. Which is very odd to say the least, since Satan knows he's dealing with an Omnipotent and Omniscient Being, so therefore he knows he stands absolutely no chance. It is said he wants to take as many of mankind down to Hell with him. But how that would give him satisfaction when he is being eternally tortured is beyond me. It's hard to understand what a supposedly intelligent being who had first hand experience of this omnipotent God was thinking? A bad move indeed. But one that God clearly intended him to make, so he could fulfil his grand plan. Now an impartial observer might say that it is God who is the wicked one here, while Satan is simply a pawn in his game. But far be it for me to suggest such a thing!

So what is this grand plan? To test man so that believers can be separated from unbelievers. The former to paradise, the latter to Hell. Though this was of course not for God's benefit, because he already knew. It was for our benefit so we can't complain we weren't given a chance. Though if he didn't create the bad people in the first place there would be no need for anyone to complain, so I don't see the purpose of this whole charade? Also if it's true that, Shaytan could still rebel against God even though he was in heaven then couldn't this same problem arise amongst those who go to heaven? Or will God take away their free-will? Or perhaps those in heaven - having been tested here on earth - will be of such a good nature that they will never rebel? If so, couldn't God have spared us this pantomime by creating them that way right from the start? No need for shayaateen, sin, tempting, burning fire, roasted skins, hooked rods of iron, or vats of boiling oil. Or is God incapable of doing that?
_____________________________

When one reads the Qur'an it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Satan is a very necessary character. The villain to God. Someone who can be blamed for evil. It does seem at times if Satan and God are just two sides of the same coin. In fact the Qur'an often applies the same attributes to both God and Satan. For example, misguidance:

God
"And God misguides the wrongdoers, and God does whatever he wants." (27:14)
"God guides who he wants and misleads who he wants." (35:8 )
"And he who God misguides, he will have no-one to guide him." (13:33)
"Do you want to guide he who God has misguided." (4:88)

Iblees
"Do not follow desires for he (shaytan) will misguide you from the path of God." (38:26)
"It is written that whomsoever takes him (shaytan) as a friend/helper, then indeed he will misguide him." (22:4)
"Shaytan wants but to misguide them a far misguidance." (4:60)
"Indeed he (shaytan) has misguided from amongst you a great multitude can you not use your mind?" (36:62)

Making bad actions seem good:

God
"Those who don't believe in the next life, We have made seem good to them their actions." (27:4)
"Likewise we made seem good to every nation their deeds." (6:108)

Iblees
"And Shaytan has made seem good to them what they used to do." (27:24)
"He (Iblees) said: 'My Lord, since you have seduced me astray, I will surely make (disobedience) attractive to them on earth, and I will seduce them all astray." (15:39)

I'm confused? Who is the one who misguides people? Who is the one who makes evil deeds seem good?

There are other bad attributes that God shares with the Devil. For example in that last verse (15:39) we see that both seduce people astray. Also Fitnah (temptation): "We have certainly tempted those before them." (29:3) - "Oh children of Adam, do not let Shaytan tempt you." (7:26)

Thus misguidance, making bad seem good, seduction and temptation are all evil attributes shared by God and Iblees, according to the text of the Qur'an. So what is the difference between them? Are they not just two sides of the same coin? God being the good side, while Satan is the bad side.

If you are in any doubt about that, then take a look at this long verse, and see if you can distinguish between God, Satan, Angels and shayaateen.

"They followed what the shayaateen recited in the reign of Solomon. Solomon did not disbelieve, but the shayaateen disbelieved, teaching man magic and that which was revealed to the two angels of Babylon, Harut & Marut. They (two) did not teach it to anyone till they had said: We are only a temptation, therefore do not disbelieve. And from these two (angles) people learned that by which they cause division between man and wife; but they can't harm anyone with it, save by Allah's permission. They learn that which harms them and does not profit them. And surely they do know that he who trafficketh therein will have no portion in the Hereafter; and surely evil is the price for which they sell their souls, if they but knew." (2:102)

Now tell me in truth - Did the shayaateen do anything worse than these two angels? Now as we know the evil shayaateen follow the orders of Satan, while the angels follow the orders of God - they don't have free will. So to put it another way, has Satan done anything worse than God? God who sent down from heaven these two angels on a special urgent mission with the specific task of teaching people magic. Why? So that they could learn how to split up a man from his wife and learn that which harms them and does not benefit them? If you say it is to test man, then what is the difference between God's testing and Satan's misleading? What makes one bad and the other good?

Who is the criminal here? The one who practiced magic or the one who incited and induced them to do so, when otherwise they wouldn't have - nay, couldn't have!

And what is the point of the angels saying: "We are only a temptation, so don't disbelieve." Does it mean they are not in any way responsible for what the people have done? Isn't that just like: "The likeness of Satan when he says to man; 'Disbelieve!' but when man disbelieves, he (Satan) says; 'I am innocent of what you!'" (59:16) What is the ruling on those who spread mischief in the Qur'an? "And do not spread mischief in the land after it has been made good." (7:56)

Why would the angels teach people magic that can be used to split up a husband from his wife? What was the magic supposed to be used for? Getting the household chores done a bit quicker, like the 'Sorcerers Apprentice.' Couldn't God see it would only end badly? Of course God is omniscient so he knew people would use the magic to split apart couples that he has ordered to be joined, even though that is precisely what he really hates: "Those who… split apart that which God has ordered to be joined, and who spread mischief in the earth, they will be the losers." (2:27) In fact he curses them and will send them to Hell. "Those who… split apart that which God has ordered to be joined, and who spread mischief in the earth, they are the ones who upon them be a curse and for them will be the evil abode." (13:25)

I am utterly baffled by these verses and don't know how they sneaked into the text of the Qur'an. Even though of course the Mufassirun are able to find limitless meanings to it.

As for Satan, man created him to help him solve the problem of evil. The problem of a perfectly good God and a world that contains evil. The devil in this case becomes very much the other side of the coin of God. But it doesn't solve the problem. Just as adding imperfections to God's perfections, doesn't solve the problem. They only raise more problems. As for Satan, it is time we consigned him to antiquity where he belongs with other myths and legends that man invented.
- cosmicdancer
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #88 - September 11, 2014, 09:03 PM

Chapter 5

Part 3

God the Compassionate the Merciful

As we have seen, God is described with all the attributes of perfection and amongst these is the attribute of Mercy. Indeed God's very essence in the Qur'an is described as mercy. He is the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate. In fact he is more than that, he is the "Most Merciful of those who show mercy!" But believe me when I say to you that until now I cannot understand what is meant by mercy as it is used in the Qur'an.*

Yes I understand the linguistic meaning of the word, but I cannot see how that meaning applies in any way at all to God. The word Mercy (رحمة) (in Arabic) is derived from the word womb (رحم) and so comes from the relationship of the baby to the womb, which is the most gentle, caring, tender and loving relationship possible. As a result it means loving care, tenderness, mercy, compassion, benevolence and clemency. So is God truly "Raheem" in this sense? No! And a thousand times no! Never mind being the "Most Merciful of those who show Mercy" as the Qur'an says in its typically over-blown style - in other words more merciful than you & me. Or as the Hadith says; "More merciful than a mother to her child."

The truth is that the meanest human - in fact most animals and insects - are more merciful than God, who is anything but merciful. If not, then what is the evidence that he is merciful? I want real evidence, not on paper. I already know that all the highest attributes, virtues, values, and characteristics that can occur to the mind are attributed to God on paper, but does that change reality in the slightest way? The strange thing is that we keep repeating the phrase 'God is more loving to our children than we are,' while our children suffer and die daily due to hunger, disaster and disease. We do not stop for a moment and think about what we are saying.

The word "Mercy" in its various forms appear 933 times in the Qur'an. If we add synonyms of mercy, such as clemency (الرأفة), pity (الحنان), love (المحبة) and affection (الود) the number would reach well over a thousand. In other words, hardly a page of the Qur'an is free from one or more mention of Gods mercy towards man. However, does this great number actually mean anything at all? God says in the Qur'an: "He has ordained on himself mercy!" (6:6) So if God didn't ordained on himself mercy, does that mean the cruelty, oppression, disease, and disasters that we see in the world, would be worse?

What, then, is the meaning of mercy? I don't know. Perhaps it means the opposite of mercy, i.e cruelty & oppression. For indeed the Qur'an does contain words that have the opposite meaning to what they usually mean, such as "Thanna" (ظن) which means 'doubt,' but also 'certainty,' and “Ghabara” (غبر) which means to 'go/pass,' but also to 'remain' and “Qurʿ” (قرء) which means 'menstruating' as well as 'not menstruating!!'**

It is often said that what is meant by mercy in the Qur'an is mercy in the next life, not in this life - that isn't worth the "wing of a gnat." It is said this world is temporary, while the next is the one that will last. He Most High said: "And the next life is better and more lasting." (87:17) So this life is the life of testing and suffering: "Does man think that he will be left to say 'We believe' when they haven't yet been tested?" (29:2) In other words does man think it's enough to just declare that he believes and not be tested with hardship and suffering so that the truth of whether he truly believes or not can be exposed and made clear? For this world is the abode of testing man with affliction and hardship which no-one will be successful apart from the ones who bear it all patiently: "And We will certainly reward those who patiently persevere, according to the best of their actions." (16:96) Indeed He will not allow the reward of those who are patient to be lost. Be patient and your patience will be rewarded for God is with the patient. They; "Shall have fruit and whatever they want." (36:57)

Fine! But children are starving now!? How do we feed them? What sort of test is this? Is the measure of virtue merely one's capacity for pain, suffering & death? Is that a reasonable test? So it is said; Be quiet! No complaining about the commandments of God. This is so due to a wisdom of God that no-one knows but He, the sublime, who knows best the matters of his creation. God knows and you don't know.

So we must be patient if we want a drop of water. For a drop of water in paradise is equal to the whole world and all it contains. Nor will the righteous drink just any old water as in this temporary life, they will drink water mixed with camphor: "As to the Righteous, they shall drink of a cup mixed with camphor. A fountain from which the servants of God shall drink, which they make flow abundantly." (76:5-6) Of course the camphor of paradise is not the camphor of this life which is used to wash the dead and keep moths away. Nor is there only camphor flavoured water, oh no! There is also ginger flavoured water: "And they shall be given to drink from a cup mixed with ginger, from a spring in it called Salsabil." (76:17-18)

Though - and God knows best - there will not be any Erksoos (Egyptian Liquorice drink), Tamarind, Sugar Cane, or Carob-bean drink which are among my favourites, but which are of course less delicious than camphor or ginger flavoured water. 'For that which is with God is better for the righteous.'

There are also rivers that never cease flowing, that you can find everywhere in paradise. Their abundance and and great number is indicated by the fact that the Qur'an mentions them in 35 verses. And these rivers don't just flow under paradise, they also flow under the rooms of buildings in the palaces of paradise and above them: "But those who fear their lord, they shall have rooms above which are more rooms built, under which rivers flow. A promise of God, and God does not fail in his promises." (39:20)

As for how these rivers run under rooms, that is something that God is keeping to himself, Glory be to Him, Most High is He. For he can do whatever he wills. So don't persist with questioning and don't be amongst the ignorant. In any case it seems these rivers don't spill out into the rooms since there aren't any verses that indicate that, for if they did then these rooms would turn into swimming pools - and God knows best.

Also the rivers of paradise are not just rivers of water: "Rivers of pure clean water," there are also: "Rivers of milk that don't change in taste, rivers of wine, delicious to those who drink, and rivers of pure honey." (47:15)

So what is a matter with you, wanting water, when the water of this life is temporary? Contaminated by harmful things. Especially these days. Even if it is clean water it is nothing compared to the water of the eternal garden, the dominion that never fades. So if you are thirsty in this life, be patient, for you will never be thirsty in the next life. This life is just a passing phase, while the next one is permanent. A few years and this life will pass, even if they are long years. So be content, be content! Your thirst will be quenched with all types of wonderful liquids, from camphor and ginger flavoured water to milk, wine and pure honey.

But the poor child is thirsty now and all the rivers of paradise will not quench one who is thirsty now. In fact all this talk of drinks in paradise has made him even more thirsty. Despite all these reassurances of drinks in the next life and because of his short-sightedness he insists on crying and becoming weak with hunger and thirst. But do not fear, you will not die of hunger! For God says:

"And there is no creature, except that it is upon God to provide sustenance for it." (11:6)

But haven't you heard about our brothers at the other end of the Nile. Those poor people in southern Sudan who are dying of hunger at a rate of 115 to 120 per day according to the UN?

No, that can't be. Man could die of any other cause but not hunger. That is what the Qur'an tells us. It is a promise from God that no creature will die of hunger. And man is merely a creature on earth, so do not shy away from the plain truth! Don't make things up. And even if one were to die of hunger, then they would die a martyr and would be brought on the day of judgment with the martyrs, pious and prophets under the shade of the throne on the day of judgment. On the day that there will be no shade but his shade. What a blessed company are they!

How foolish is man and how quickly he forgets. When was God merciful? When has he ever been: "The Most Merciful of those who show Mercy?" Except on paper or in the minds of deluded believers. Did he have mercy upon the children of Iraq*** who die every day of starvation? Did he have mercy on the poor people of Darfur whose skin is stuck to their bones, their eyes sunken, so that they look like ghastly walking dead? Did he have mercy upon the children of Burma who's parents are unable to feed them so they wander the streets searching garbage cans to find a scrap to put in their mouths. Every day men, women & children die of famine, disease, drought, and all forms of disaster without anyone there to shed a tear.

We don't even have to go far from home - did God have mercy upon the children the Qur'an itself says were buried alive because their parents couldn't afford to take care of them? God promised he would bear the responsibility of feeding them? For he said: "Don't kill your children for fear of poverty: We will give them sustenance and yourselves." (17:31) When did he do that? After they died? He didn't provide their sustenance nor their parents sustenance. Was this promise withdrawn for the children of the Arabs? Or is it a law that is for all times and all places? "And there is no creature, except that it is upon God to provide sustenance for it."??

I challenge you to look at the history of man since earliest times and up until today and show me, amongst all the suffering and misery, where exactly is this mercy of God? The only thing you will notice is that the scale of suffering and pain has increased and it will go on without God ever lifting a finger. If God was truly one who answers du'a, and responds to the supplicator and aids those who beseech him, then we wouldn't see any oppression on the face of this earth. If justice was the inviolable law of the universe. Then God would truly be merciful, loving and compassionate and would have fulfilled his promise; "And there is no creature, except that it is upon God to provide sustenance for it."

The Qur'an says the Jews said: "The hand of God is tied." (5:64) - and who can argue with that? For if it is not tied then what is it? Also have you noticed that poor street beggars don't like it when you say to them; "It's upon God" or "In sha' Allah" - that is because they have experienced the truth of the matter, if you don't give them anything, then God is surely not going to come up with the goods!!

God created man, then threw him into the jaws of ferocious animals, stinging scorpions, and poisonous snakes. He has abandoned him on stormy seas and violent hurricanes. But it is as though all that is not enough for he has followed it with bacteria and viruses that show no mercy. He gave animals and insects, nay, even some plants, weapons that protect it from attack. But to man he he gave only a mind which too easily succumbs to superstition and ignorance. Since we were barely distinguishable from our ape cousins man's existence has been a daily battle to just see the next day. To kill before he was killed. Where is this fictitious mercy?

The pure unadulterated truth is that God doesn't care in the slightest about the pain & suffering of this world. But in order to absolve God from these tragedies that befall man, the believers lay the blame solely on man, and man's oppression of his fellow and on corrupt regimes that do not protect us, but allow people to take advantage of others. More than that they make up all sorts of justifications and excuses to free God from anything to do with the tragic condition of man.

Fine! So what does God do then? Is he just a silent observer? Why did he create mankind as his deputy on this earth? "When your Lord said to the angels I am going to create a deputy on earth." (2:30) if he knew that he would be an absent manager? That he would not - or could not - provide man's needs to fulfil the role? And instead left the situation open for conflict and discord between one man and another. Why leave the evil people to corrupt his plans and purpose? Does that not indicate his plan is fundamentally flawed? That it hasn't been thought through enough? If it was a sound plan then no one could derail it.

Weren't the angels right? Weren't they more foresighted than God? When they made clear their reservations about this plan and asked him with all due respect: "Are you going to make in it one who will spread corruption and shed blood?" (2:30) and so he shut them up in the manner that we in the East are very familiar with - one that cannot accept any opposition at all, so he said mockingly and belittling them; "I know that which you don't know!!" (2:30) But despite "knowing what they don't know" everything the angels said came true!!

Poor man. He is the top of the pyramid in God's plan while at the same time at the bottom. Isn't he the most wretched of all creation?! God made everything beautifully, but when he came to man it seems he had become tired and he didn't have enough energy left to complete the job properly in the way that would suit the pinnacle of creation and so he can't help but fall far below the high standard expected of him. For God created him in a hurry and this is the result of haste. He said to him "Be" and he was. But it would be better if he had waited until he had completed him properly. The Qur'an says: "Man is created of haste." (21:37) Then God tosses him into this world despite being half-baked, and says - if it can be believed - that he has subjugated to him everything in the heavens and earth: "And he has subjugated for you all that is in the heavens and the earth, together." (45:13)

I have counted how many times the word "subjugated" appears in the Qur'an in this meaning and it is repeated twenty one times at least. Now this subjugation was done in the honour of man and his great position in the sight of God. But I can't help wondering, what would the state of man be had he not subjugated the world for him? The world is fairly hostile in places as it is. Could it really be much worse without making it extremely difficult for man to survive at all? I can see how the world could be much better subjugated for man, but I can't see how it could be much worse? And what would be the purpose of making the environment so hostile that we couldn't survive? Should we be grateful God didn't place us on the surface of Mercury or Pluto, but instead on a planet where we are able to meet the requirements to survive? What is the point of repeating so many times that he has "subjugated" the world for man? Wouldn't once have been enough?

When we look at parts of the world where there is a very hostile environment, extreme heat or cold, or we look at how the earth's plates collide and cause massive death and destruction through earthquakes and Tsunamis. When we consider hurricanes and tornados, droughts, floods and the many natural elements that cause all kinds of disasters - in what sense could we say the earth has been "subjugated" for us?

As for the heavens being subjugated for us, the reality is that most of the universe is far beyond the control of man. And is it true that God has subjugated the sun and the moon for us? "And He hath made subject to you the sun and the moon, both diligently pursuing their courses." (14:33) There are nine planets in our solar system and all of them receive light from the sun. Some of these planets also have more than one moon. Jupiter for example is a gas giant that cannot sustain life. It has four large moons, but many more smaller ones. Like all the planets it receives light from the sun.

I wish I knew for who then, have the sun and the many moons of Jupiter, been subjugated for? The light of the sun that falls on the surface of earth is a tiny fraction of the sun's total light that falls on other planets in our solar system or just goes off into empty space. So what does 'the sun has been subjugated for us' mean, when the sun's light is not exclusively for earth?

All this talk in the Qur'an about subjugating heaven and earth for man simply reveals the view of ancient cosmology which mixed myth with the astronomy of Ptolomy, who considered the earth to be the centre of the universe, while the sun and planets all orbit round it. The stars are are small sprinkled lights like chandeliers on the roof of this universe, without realising they are in fact massive suns, many much bigger than ours. No, this universe only has one sun, one moon and one earth and that is quite enough for this primitive, limited and small universe, where everything is devoted to and focussed on earth. Now in this view I can see that "subjugate for you" has a meaning. But in the real, vast, limitless universe that modern astronomy has revealed, with its countless galaxies and black holes, and what has been discovered of stars that cannot be seen without the most powerful telescopes, some near and some far, and radiation, cosmic dust, nebulae - I say as for this real massive, complex, diverse, intricate universe where we and our own solar system are nothing but a grain of sand - or less - I say, as for this infinite universe, I cannot see that "subjugated for us" has any real meaning at all!!

*This is clearly illustrated by the fact the Qur'an describes God as both Merciful and as torturing unbelievers in Hell. To apply the description of Mercy - never mind "Most Merciful of those who show Mercy" - to one who tortures is ridiculous beyond words. Mercy & Torture completely contradict each other - and this is without going into the fact that this torture is without end, nor that it is simply because they failed to believe in the right religion.

**These examples, along with others, were discussed in chapter 4, part 6; "Ambiguity in the Qur'an."

***To this list we could add the ongoing death and destruction in Gaza, Syria - and every other place where innocents have, and continue to, suffer and die.
- cosmicdancer
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #89 - September 12, 2014, 10:02 PM

Chapter 5

Part 4

God is Near & Answers.

The Qur'an describes God as being the one who "answers" in several verses such as: "Indeed my Lord is near and answers" (11:61). "If my servants ask you about me, then (tell them) indeed I am near and answer the prayer of the supplicant when he calls on me." (2:186) But just as I don't understand what "mercy" means in the Qur'an, likewise I cannot understand the word "answers" unless it is one of those words in the Qur'an that seem to mean the opposite of what they usually mean, in which case it would mean "doesn't answer," "is deaf to," "ignores," and "lets down." This is what the word "answers" means most of the time the Qur'an. As for the remaining times one might interpret it as pure coincidence or due to the hard work, effort and perseverance of the person seeking God's answer. But whether it is the result of coincidence or effort, the supplicator thinks that what has happened is due to God making it happen and answering his prayer. So he praises God and thanks him, even though God had nothing to do with it. I myself used to think this way - oh how many times I praised and thanked God for what I told myself was the result of something God had done.

Despite the fact God in the Qur'an warns us of those evil people who love to be praised for what they didn't do: "Do not think those who rejoice in what they have done and love that they should be praised for what they have not done… will be safe from the punishment (of Hell)." (3:188) there is no one in the entire universe who comes anywhere near the torrents of praise heaped upon God for 'doing what he has not done!' Every day and every night, all around the world religious believers praise and thank God for answering their particular prayers and responding to their individual requests. For this is what the Qur'an tells us. God is near to us and answers the prayer of one who asks. Even if it sometimes takes a bit of imagination to see it, or if it perhaps wasn't in the way we expected - no matter! For God knows best. This was better for us anyway! God knows that which we know not.

In fact we Muslims have invented a new type of praise that shows how devout we are, and that is to praise - not just be patient - but praise God for the disasters and afflictions that befall us!! So when one of us is afflicted, injured or loses a loved one, we say: "Praise be to God who no one other than He is praised for affliction"!!

How many times I praised God when something bad happened and encouraged my students to do the same in times of sickness and affliction and until now they are still praising him and immersed in remembrance of God.

God urges us many times in the Qur'an to make Du'a: "Call upon me and I will answer you!" (40:6) He promises us he will answer: 'If my servants ask about me, (say) Indeed I am near and answer the prayer of the one who calls on me when he asks me. So let them seek from and believe in me so that they may be guided aright." (2:186) Especially when in great need, suffering adversity hardship or misfortune: "Is he not the one who answers the distressed one when he calls upon Him and removes the suffering." (27:62) And Du'a must be directed at God alone: "Would you call upon other than God?… Nay, but to Him you call, and He will remove (the distress) which made you call upon Him, if He wills." (6:40-41)

***
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