My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation

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Topic: My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation

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- cosmicdancer
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #120 - October 27, 2014, 09:33 PM

Epilogue

In conclusion I remind the reader that the books of tafseer contain a great deal of meaningless waffle that is not worth the ink it was written with. The imaginative skills of the exegetes overflowed into these books and they plunged deep into the murky depths of speculation and fantasy that knows no limit. Every time they ventured in it, they were thrown to a distant shore. They did not leave any detail, big or small, but explained it, sometimes with ingenuity and sometimes with absurdity.

For hundreds of years they have applied their intellect and skills to making the Qur'an say what it doesn't say. They gave one word a thousand meanings and discovered it has a thousand wisdoms. They invented for it a thousand eloquent features and recounted a thousand persuasive explanations. In fact they invented a thousand new categories of eloquence and beauty that have never occurred to the creator of the universe. The result of all this is nonsense upon nonsense.

Yes, the books of tafseer are packed full of waffle, absurdity, folly, myths and the scent of incense. They have explanations for everything that cannot be explained. There is no textual criticism. No application of reason in an unfettered & objective manner. On the contrary, it is unceasing defence, total enslavement and idolisation. Blind prostration that reveals the extent of human incapacity and inability in front of the text.

The text either bequeaths man a state of feeble-mindedness, blindness, stupor and inertia, where he dissolves in it, and perishes in its branches so that it overtakes his whole person and becomes its hands and legs. Or it stirs within him feelings of questioning and challenge, self-respect and defiance. So he studies it and examines it and criticises it until there are ruins where once stood a citadel.

People in this respect are between the villainous and the noble and the many shades between them. Look at how Al-Ghazali diligently argues his case using reason and logic but then soon loses his senses and melts emotionally when he is talking about the Hoopoe bird of Sulayman or the camel of Salih or the people of Gog & Magog...

The Qur'anic commentators are masters of pontificating and padding. They do not know the true meaning of textual analysis and criticism. Whether they be the commentators of the classical period or the modern period they are the same. Their overriding concern is to defend & justify the text and they resort to obfuscation, equivocation and sophistry whenever needed. If they do demonstrate a willingness to criticise the text, it is a very specific and directed type of criticism who's results are known in advance, i.e. on the surface it is criticism but underneath it is to protect and insulate the text from every evil.

They think that by taking such a position they are doing good and don't realise that by doing this they are abusing the text which they surround with faith. Worse than that is that after they pour into the text all their fairytales and all that they posses of wild opinions and sophistry, they then hasten to apologise saying "God knows best." They don't want to acknowledge their ignorance. While at the same time they don't want to say about God, that which they don't know. God forbid - Most High is He. So they get out by using this curious and amusing compromise: "God knows best"!

***
- cosmicdancer
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #121 - October 28, 2014, 06:45 PM

Despite the fact that textual criticism has become a branch of scholarship in its own right, unfortunately we still mostly see the preaching, justificatory character in all our efforts in this respect. Scholars are still only interested in highlighting the eloquence of the text, the various types of rhetorical devices and underlying wisdoms hidden in it. But none of them mention the many vacuous, meaningless, ambiguous, contradictory and flawed passages that abound in the text!

Oh how numerous are the explorers of the Qur'an and how great are the efforts they expend investigating it inside out. Yet how trivial are the results that they arrive at after such long devoting & dedication. What a waste of life!! Oh how many students of nonsense! For if it wasn't for the students of nonsense and the whole field of exegesis with its profitless merchandise, then the vacuous and narrow-minded pedlars of hot air who live off the foolishness of the reader, would not be able to puff up and swagger about with pride!

The full heads of corn bow in humility - while the empty heads are proudly lifted high*

There is collusion between the writer and the reader. The former throws out nonsense and the latter swallows it up and one completes the other. Oh my grief over a life spent engaged in nonsense!!

***

Thus the commentators, theologians and linguists never failed to justify the flaws in the Qur'an nor to create escape routes by patching, fabricating, chicanery, sophism and forcing the words to say that which they do not. Sometimes they did that with sincerity and good-faith while at other times they did it with dexterity, ingenuity and to outwit their contemporaries. They firmly believed they were doing good to the Qur'an and they never for a second doubted the Qur'an was infallible. Whenever they found something that contradicted reason, science or logic, they denied reason, science and logic in order to confirm the Qur'an was right. They would question their understanding and ability to grasp the meaning fully, but never for a second would they dare question the Qur'an. They filled the void between reason and the Qur'an with speculations, and conjectures myths and subtle points of eloquence… so that the Qur'an in their hands became another Qur'an!

In this way they rescued the Qur'an from many of the pitfalls even though they never admitted they were pitfalls. They were only pitfalls according to their limited understanding and flawed reasoning, they are really fonts of wisdom. For that reason they searched for this supposed wisdom. Every diver came back with a new pearl. Like this they filled-in, repaired, corrected, hid, revealed and masked until every verse in the Qur'an had become a hidden gem that overflows with science and wisdom. They thank God for opening their eyes to these treasures and who generously bestowed upon them these inspirations: "That is the bounty of God, he gives it to whoever he wishes, and God is the possessor of great bounty." (57:21)

***

In these pages I have described and reported what I have found in the Qur'an and experienced myself. In my hand are just the tools to probe, weigh, measure, photograph and record. I am not here to rectify. I am only here to describe and report. It may be that my pen unintentionally erred sometimes and I did not use the right words.

What can we do when the winds have taken us to where we did not intend nor hope.** It is not possible to correct something without describing the problem first so that one can understand its true nature and essence in order to prepare the way to bring about the necessary change in it.

The first step is always the most difficult of steps. All the following steps rely on it so as not to become nervous, waver or slip. It is an extremely important thing, but it is important for the sake of your well-being, health and happiness, that you don't be apprehensive, lose focus or concentration. It is a matter that will bring you comfort, but comfort for the sake of your humanity, aspirations, ambitions and endeavour towards something better and more noble.

A persons mind is under his control as mentioned previously. So choose what is good for yourself. There is nothing more indicative of the absurdity of life and the comedy of existence than the fact that those who make their own choices and seize the moment are few and rare. They are generally the leaders, explorers, innovators - the great men who changed the destiny of man, while the rest of mankind are the herd that throng together. They choose the easiest, laziest and safest option. They live in fear of life, and so die having never lived.

Have you seen how the law of absurdity struts about so that it alone dominates everything? It seeks to invalidate the mind and undermine the law of reason? It wants to extinguish the light of reason. But reason will spread its light even if the ignorant hate it. It wishes to kill the young bud. But this bud refuses to die and will grow and become mighty - and this is a momentous thing!

The worst thing is that a man should not be feel apprehensive. For if so, then he is not a man. He is a piece of stone. A man who is not apprehensive is more like a beast. So be apprehensive but don't be afraid. You are on the straight path. So beware of straying or deviating from it.

Damn existence if it doesn't stir emotions of awe, wonder, astonishment when confronted by the universe in front of him. If it doesn't stir man to snatch the spark that spits from the raging furnace of the universe, so that the flame scorches him and he becomes branded with the fire of existence. Only then will he be able to approach that mysterious region of creativity where meanings swarm around and the waterfall of life flows over him. Only then will existence inspire him with its truths. Only by taking that risk, by allowing the music of the universe to shake his soul. For he who does not wish to feel life when he is alive is one in who's heart is a sickness and who has forgotten what life is. He is nothing more than a sheep - no he is worse than that, he is a stone pillar that does not feel nor move.

____________________

*From a poem by Ali Ibn Abu Talib.
**Reference to a line of poetry by al-Mutanabbi: "Sometimes the winds bring that which the ships don't want." (تاتي الرياخ بما لا تشتهي السفن)
- cosmicdancer
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #122 - October 29, 2014, 10:02 PM

Introduction

This book is an emphatic and unambiguous call for a re-reading of the Qur'an in order to understand it as it should be understood. It is a call to break the shackles & chains that have distorted our thinking and corrupted our understanding of life, the universe and our destiny in it. It has forced us to see the universe and life from a single narrow ideological perspective. Whereas in the early centuries the Qur'an was a source of progress and building, it has today become a source of backwardness and ruin. Dead weight that lays heavily upon our minds and souls.

This book is a earnest critical attempt to liberate and emancipate us from those immovable and unshakable presuppositions that have led us into the crisis we face today. It is an attempt to shine a light of hope on our current dark state. I have supported it with evidence from the Qur'anic text along with criticism and analysis of its verses in an attempt to lift the veils that obscure our vision, nay, that have blinded it. They have paralysed our ability to think freely, anaesthetised our faculties and killed the free spirit & innovator within us and turned it into a negative aspect that has no ambition nor concern apart from preserving the past, justifying and defending the 'holy' text, immersing ourselves in its "treasures," and its profound and hidden wisdoms.

I wrote this book with a sincere heart that yearns for change and seeks to motivate us to take up this challenge and work towards a profound shift that shakes our old ways to its core. As a consequence I want to present a view of the Qur'an which is different from the well-known picture that is passed around amongst the common people, and also different from those of the select and even the select of the select, because in fact the level of reverence, devotion and prostration to the text is no different in most cases whether it be a common man or a great scholar. For how many giants of Arabic literature grovel in front of the Qur'anic text to the extent that they appear like a dwarf trembling, terrified, like a mouse that's seen the the spectre of a cat. This is how it has left many a giant of Arabic literature who have been fooled by the lions roar that wards off all those who dare peek behind.

My sole intention in writing this book is to storm this lion's lair that guards the text of the Qur'an. We must first and foremost tear away the layer of sanctity and holiness that surrounds this text. Without doing that it will be impossible to properly study the text. We must disrobe the text, see it naked, question its sanctity. We must apply the methodology of reason to the text. Only doing this will new horizons open themselves to us. Horizons that those whose eyes are veiled with the holiness of the text, can never hope to reach. For they are idol worshippers. There is no difference between those who worship statues and those who worship the text.

We must re-consider the distinction we have created between the sacred and the profane. That which is profane is not necessarily impure. Reconsider the claim that there is a rivalry between them. For there is nothing sacred but humanity and the mind which distinguishes man from other creatures. For that reason the holiness & sanctity of the text must not distract us from bold and vigorous rational analysis. For rational analysis is about activity and stimulation, it's about using one's abilities and it's about being courageous and facing the facts regardless of fear, apprehension and unease. While the supremacy and dominance of religion over thought and culture confiscates reason and isolates it from reality and from the life of man. By virtue of this confiscation and the knowledge it produces, Arab culture appears as though it has nothing to do with life except in so far as this life concerns the next life and all it contains of bliss, Hell, houris, and fruit from that which they desire.

The time has come for us to climb over the walls built around us as a result of the confiscation of reason. There is no other way to do this other than by starting a revolution of understanding, a revolution in our perceptions and most basic assumptions - in everything to do with the sources - the texts and readings - a revolution that will come from seeing them in a new way and treating them as we would any object that is subject to analysis and reason and the open horizons that lay before reason. As a text open to rational study and re-evaluation. If we don't do this then the text will remain dominating us and immovable, "no-one can change his words."* The old perceptions will remain fixed, limiting us, holding us prisoner and holding us back.

_____________________

*See Qur'an, 18:27
- cosmicdancer
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #123 - October 30, 2014, 10:10 PM

Identity is not something that simply corresponds to a past glory, formed at one moment in history and then remaining like that forever. It is an ongoing process of constant re-invention. Man moulds his own identity and creates it. He forms his own ideas, concepts and systems by which to live life. Identity is about living life, while the 'holy' text is about stagnation & imitation. How can we allow life to be held hostage by any text? Identity gives birth to the future, while the text returns us to the past, a museum of the past. So how can the future be made to go back to the past? Identity is a promise on its way to achievement, while the text is like handcuffs that obstruct every achievement. How can achievement and non achievement be reconciled? Slavish devotion to the text undermines the dynamism of man, the dynamism of knowledge and the progress of history. So choose for yourself that which is good. The free and the one in the dark are not equal!

We must not remain imprisoned in this dark cramped room while the world around us marches on, growing and evolving without us. We must throw open the curtains and go out into the light. We must re-discover the spirit of dynamism & enterprise we had before retreating to this time capsule and locked the door. We must stop blindly following the dictates of the text and start using the light of reason we have been blessed with, so that we can start engaging the living reality and make a positive contribution to world events and in spreading light. Would that I knew, how long are we going to remain taking pleasure by being in this gloomy room, chained with the shackles of darkness, refusing to see the light?!

It seems to have escaped our notice that texts have a time-limit after which they become dated and obsolete. When its time comes it should give way to others. We should not try to twist the neck of time and place to extend its life, ignoring the calls demanding it move aside. We must learn how to perform the delicate operation of liberating us from the yoke of the texts after centuries and centuries of its rule and supremacy over us and its continuing emotional hold and feelings of nostalgia for the glorious past filled with texts and those who worship the texts.

Texts that have no meaning for us today, delighted and enriched our ancestors, yesterday. They discovered in them spiritual ecstasy that knew no bounds. It is hard for us to understand this today, but they eagerly engaged in competition to out do one another in the midst of shoving and jostling each other to discover the pearls of wisdoms that the book of God contained. That was a bygone age.

Our grandfathers devoted themselves to studying the Qur'an. A study full of invention, concoction and artefact. They ascribed to the Qur'an eloquence, clarity, and miraculousness that it it didn't merit. They wrested from it meanings, intentions and purposes that never occurred to its author. They spread around it processions of images, colours, imaginary beings and scenes that no other book has benefited from up to today.

This is what faith does to those who worship the text and delusions. But indeed the monuments, divination and idols all came tumbling down and so shall in their wake the texts. Humanity has changed with the changing of time. The period of the Caliphate is over. A time has passed and a new time has come.

The Arabic Qur'an has been given an unparalleled unique mythical character. They made it live outside history, while events around it bustle with history. I wonder when it will emerge from this dark tunnel to enter the courtyard of history? For the words of a bygone era do not build the future. Only that which is aware of our present challenges can help us.

The tyranny of the text has prevailed over every attempt at a renaissance and the dream of a renaissance so that all efforts come to nothing and all our hopes of achieving a plan for a renaissance are dashed. Instead what has happened is that the Salafis, fundamentalists, the bloodthirsty and the regressive have conspired to throttle the tentative breaths of any renaissance and disabled all initiatives that might lead to a renaissance.

It is a pity that the march of history never sleeps or stands still except in our countries.

What can I say? Even in many third world countries we see the march of progress and movement. Almost the whole world is moving forward like a surging river even if at times in choppy waters - all except our countries where there is a still lake stagnant and unmoving.

I have no other objective and motive in this book other than to throw a stone into this lake that perhaps it might make it stir and take it out of its calm and composure.

***
- cosmicdancer
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #124 - October 31, 2014, 09:46 PM

The scent of an intense revolution emanates from the depths of this book. A powerful desire for change. A fundamental challenge to the traditional approach to life that fears it and its course and twists and turns. It is an ardent aspiration that is reiterated on every page in it.

This book contains a lot of berating and slaps in the face, but even more tears and sorrow, for it is a screaming summons to take life earnestly and to work together to rectify our reality, our history and our humanity. If we are not truly determined to face the challenge and to confront the bitter reality we find so difficult to acknowledge and accept then we share in perpetuating our backwardness rather than trying to end it.

The book that is in front of you requires you suffer some pain and that you persevere in reflecting and introspection. It will strain your nerves, frighten and anger you. At the very least it will trigger instinctive defence mechanisms. The Qur'an has become a stumbling block, an impregnable barrier in the face of every attempt at a renaissance or progress. I am only saying the truth and I come to you with clear authority. So whoever wills, let him believe and whoever wills, let him disbelieve for I am not a guardian over you. I have delivered the message and fulfilled the trust, so bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses.* So what do you say?

We talk a great deal about that which is of no use to us and yet are silent about that which is. I want to articulate those things we are afraid to say. For I have not written this other than with a good intention, longing for us to be better. I am even prepared to die for the sake of the change we need.

The image I present in this book is different from the images passed around the "marketplace." I want to build a new mentality on the ruins of the prevailing mentalities. I want to plant the seed of free, independent secular thought that doesn't fear nor care about making sacrifices. I want to create a heated atmosphere of questioning around the tragedy of our state. Around the roots of the sickness and around the medicine we need.

I am not asking the reader to blindly accept what I say, even though I am quite certain of it and have calculated and placed every word in its right place. It is up to the reader to judge what I write and say, for himself.

This book is aimed firstly at my own people, the Arabs. I don't want to just hurl them into the stream of modernity, but into its raging furnace, for streams do not purify, in fact they may be polluted. But the raging furnace cleanses all impurities. Fire is the greatest cleanser. There are no impurities in fire.

While writing this book I began to think about the risk I was taking and began to wonder and question myself as I worked amid a growing sense of the dangers that should not be absent from the mind and spirit of the wise. For this book confronts myths people hold dear.

But is it to God I should complain? When God does not feed the hungry, nor help the needy, nor take pity on the oppressed, nor cure the sick!? So, I wonder, will he respond to the indolent whose senses are dulled, like us? Indeed the pious are more worthy of reply than us. Despite that he doesn't reply to them. So what do you think about the wicked? That is if God actually exists. If he doesn't then it is all the same.

If God really does exist there would be some evidence or trace of him in the world around us that appears to run by itself as if God doesn't exist. They say man is born with an innate faith in God. Faith is self-evident which man cannot doubt and they use as evidence this verse: "Is there any doubt about God, the creator of the heavens and the earth?" (14:10)

Yes there are doubts - many doubts about God. If the knowledge of God was intrinsic and intuitive with no doubt about it then it wouldn't require hundreds of thousands of books, philosophies, religions, prophets and miracles to prove his existence. If there was no doubt about God, then no-one would doubt it.

However this didn't lead me to the truth which I arrived at only by reading the Qur'an. Not the reading of a faithful worshipper which only increases blindness upon blindness, but an analytical reading that looks critically at the structure and composition. A reading that weighs and compares. A reading that doesn't work from the premise of certainty, but of doubt, criticism and appraisal. That assesses every verse in it and puts it under interrogation. Linking it to other verses. All that after cataloging, indexing and dividing into topics, and attaching every verse to the subject specific to it.

My only reference is the Qur'an. I did not refer to anything other than it. Of course I wasn't deceived by the sayings and views of the Qur'anic commentators regarding this or that verse which I am very familiar with and which I mostly reject. I didn't announce any of the results that I was able to arrive at, until I supported it with the required verse together with - as far as possible - other verses similar to it.

It was a truly enjoyable study, and one which led to some very strange results that I didn't expect even though I had a vague sense of them ever since I reached adolescence before reaching twenty when I was a student in the heyday of my youth and prime of my life. Whenever I asked my sheikhs about issues, they would just refuse such questions and warn me against going astray. If I ever did get some sort of answer from one of them I sensed an air of affectation and irritation in his words. Despite that I was Sufi orientated and of deep faith - oh the irony - and only would I much later decide to take on the matter myself.

I went through a severe and choking crisis from beginning of age seventy. It was the starting point for various conflicts that erupted in my soul and the critical turning point that turned my life upside down. After a great deal of hesitation and even greater anguish I finally reached a point where I felt I could express some of my feelings and thoughts in words. So I said to myself, 'come on, you must do what you need to do. You are on the truth and the truth is more worthy of being followed and better.' So I went to Cairo to carry out my plan for this book, without apprehension nor caution nor fear according to the insistence of the enlightened revolutionaries from companions and friends despite what it may bring upon me of adversities and storms and attacks of the wolves. For if you want to be a man then live in danger. That is the most decisive of speech!!

This book is a new proposal for the Qur'anic problem from the perspective of a revolutionary. But it is not the the final say nor the last word. Nor is it even a complete view. It is only an effort to stir dissension and controversy and should be added to other books that have stirred dissent and contention, to be hurled along with stones into the stagnant waters. I hope that it will open the door a little for more efforts to follow, better and more bold in their dissent. Supported with evidences and explanations, and comprehensive analysis. To be the basis for a critical rational awareness and program to work towards a brighter and better future for us.

And now the book has reached its time I hand it over to you, so that it may light up its way and meet its destiny alone in a world fraught with conflict and power struggles. If you find in this book anything that displeases you I ask you to please forgive me. I only want to do good and I hand my affair over to history which will sooner or later judge me.

Finally, here is the book, take care of it - farewell!!
_________________________

*The author frequently references the Qur'an and plays on words, something which is difficult to translate. I also generally refrain from highlighting them to avoid overburdening the translation with footnotes. However as an example, in these two sentences alone, there are five references to the Qur'an: "For I have come to you with clear authority." (44:19) "The truth is from your Lord, so whoever wills, let him believe and whoever wills, let him disbelieve." (18:29) and "I am not a guardian over you." (6:104) and "O Messenger! Deliver what has been revealed to you from your Lord…(5:67) and hadith of the last sermon: "By God have I delivered?" The people replied: "We bear witness that you have delivered and fulfilled (your duty)…" and "So bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses."(3:81)
- TheDashingRabbit
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #125 - October 31, 2014, 11:17 PM

I'm just copying and pasting Abu Ali's translation of Chapter Two from the early pages of the discussion thread because they don't appear to have been posted here.

Chapter 2

The Methodology of Examining the Qur'an.

There are two methods to understand the Qur'an. They are: The Methodology of Transmission, that gives precedence to revelation over reason, the unquestioning acceptance of the veracity of the text and the inability of reason to comprehend it's ultimate aims and objectives, and the Methodology of Reason that gives precedence to reason over revelation and it's ability to comprehend the truth without need for reference to the text. For text is the last concern of the mind that is in itself free, independent and believing.

For that reason I will employ, in this book, the Methodology of Reason, that Descartes established at the beginning of the modern age even though he did not always abide by it and in particular in understanding religious texts but manoeuvred, twsited and distorted the neck of Reason to stop the rot that fills Revelation and that which Revelation contains of garbage that diseases minds.

See how this great man compromises for the sake of (divine) text. Descartes wasn't the first to compromise, not at all, and he will not be the last apart from those who believe in Reason and act according to it and trust that which Reason obligates - and they are few indeed! For (divine) text has such influence and power, few can withstand.

The fundamental principle of the methodology of Reason is impartiality and objectivity and to approach the research with a mind free from prejudice and bias "Bias is Sickness" as they say. In this spirit we must resolutely proceed in studying the Qur'an and treat it as we would any other scientific research and subject it to examination and analysis and skepticism and rejection and contestation because that is what will make our examination fruitful and profitable and make it of universal benefit.

Applying the methodology of Reason to the Qur'an is in my view a dangerous and massive event that will shake the earth below the feet of blind faith (Taqleed) and inertia, and putrid decay. And it something that must be done the for the most extreme cure is cauterization.

The Qur'an has deep roots in our cultural composition and if these roots are shaken then composition changes to a different composition and destiny changes to a different destiny and people changes to a different people and as a consequence a new generation emerges that wasn't in the reckoning.

For that reason the first thing I will confront you with in this discourse is that I doubt the Qur'an and in the god of the Qur'an and in the teachings of the Qur'an and in the miraculous nature of the Qur'an and in the sublime language of the Qur'an.

I insist on doubt, I embrace it on principle. For doubts - as Al-Ghazali says - leads one to the truth. So one who does not doubt cannot look and one who does not look cannot see and one who cannot see will remain in blindness and error.

This is my method in doing the work and this is how I start examining, thinking, reading and reflect until the circumstances lead me to something resembling certainty. That is because what we call the miraculous nature of the Qur'an and infallibility of the Qur'an is really only like any human piece of work containing error as well as correctness.

I'm aware of the cosequencies which I have arrived at but that won't deter me from proving them and broadcasting them and expressing my opinion freely. I know in advance that it will lead to mortal dangers and grave confrontations that I perhaps don't need. But no! For truth deserves to be followed. I will take refuge in a mountain that will protect me from the water (Hassan: "This is a reference to Noah's son") as far as I am able and if not then martyrdom is better than I suffer incapacity and weakness to declare what I believe in and what many others besides me believe in, though they are waiting for the spark of light to set alight after that many sparks of light and sparks of light light up the dark tunnel that we are living in. So is there any other way to escape from a path?

As for the reasons that led me to doubt in the Qur'an, they are because of of it's contradictions, generalisations , popmous rhetoric, and fecetious phrases that have no meaning. The grammatical and stylistic errors that the classical scholars were at their wits end trying to find explanations. And others, both scientific and historical that I consider the Lord of the worlds above making. Just as the Qur'an is full of rhetorical explosive charges , verbal bombs, that create such an extreme uproar that ears almost become deaf but after deep analysis and despite what it contains of sweetness and charm and alluring beauty, it is pale, emaciated, little content, lacking substance, bubbles in the air, radiating beams of light like fireworks, except that they soon extinguish and fall to the ground spent, leaving behind it pitch dark.

It is as though it is a bolt of lightening glistening with fury - then fizzles out and it is as though it never shone
(a line from a poem by Ibn Sina)

Many of the prose of the masters of eloquence (classical literati) and even the doggrel of soothsayers is better - a thousand times - than many of the Qur'an verses that are of nonsensical language, stuffed full of fairy tales, that the Qur'anic commentators - and strangely, amongst them Mu'tazilites - became masters at dealing with and defending.

There remains another matter and it isn't the last. It is the matter of the indictment of the Qur'an upon the Qur'an. For the narrative of the Qur'an is confused - and how confused - for how abundant is the confusion of the Qur'an. "The Almighty" said: "And if this was from other than Allah you would have found a lot of contradiction."

The Qur'an has passed the guilty verdict upon itself! For that which it contains of contradictions goes beyond the limit of 'a lot'. Nay it is the centre of every disparity and contradiction. The amount of disparities and contradictions in any book in the world has never reached the level of the Qur'an. Yet despite this they want us to believe that there is no disparity nor contradiction in the Qur'an. We must ignore the evidence to believe that which does not agree with reason nor with the evidence in the manner of "Believe Allah and disbelieve the stomach of your brother" (Reference to a hadith where someone came to the prophet complaining of his brothers stomach/bowel problem, the prophet said 'give him honey' - but the guy returned saying it has got worse, so the prophet said 'give him honey' this happened twice more - finally the prophet said 'believe Allah and disbelieve the stomach of your brother'.) and if you don't (ignore evidence and reason) then you will see and hear that which will not please you.

I am not calling for the renunciation of religion, for that is a difficult objective, in fact it is a demand that cannot be sought. Because religion for it's adherents is sweet nectar and for so long I my self savoured this sweetness until I returned to my senses.

I say I am not calling for the renunciation of religion but am calling for the end to resorting to religion for decisions in all matters and sticking it's nose into every tiny matter in the affairs of life. And that (can be achieved) by applying Secularism as a principle both in thought and in life. Secularism is not disbelief, nor is it a call to disbelief as some of it's enemies portray it, but it is merely placing a limit to the interference between religion and the state.

Religion is not the execution of the captive, nor the stoning of the adulterer, nor the chopping of the hand of the thief. Religion, according to secularists, is that which lives in the heart and dwells in the conscience. Believe what you like, but beware of imposing your beliefs on others nor make make it into a system for government or life. Religion is for God while the nation is for everyone. That is the slogan of Secularism.

There is nothing inviolable, nothing sacred in Secularism. The only thing that is inviolable and sacred in it is Humanity and the value of Humanity and the freedom of Humanity and respect for the dignity of Humanity. The lack of exploitation of man by another. The unbeliever (Kafir) is not the one who disbelieves in religion. The only unbeliever is the one who disbelieves in Humanity and Human Rights.

For the value of life is Reason. The value of life is Freedom. The value of life is Progress and Development. The value of life is Innovative Vision and expressing it according to what suits the requirements of the the time and place. As for disbelief and belief, angel and devil, it (creates) conflict that impedes the development of innovations and the flow of progress in a world of powers and balances of powers and centers of powers

The thing that most frightens man is to be consigned to the debris of memory. Ruminating over myths and delusions. In a trance over the invisible, and text, and miraculousness and rhetoric and to follow the stories of the garden of Eden and the Houris, and the (verse of) Light and the servant boys (of paradise) and stories of Jinn and tales of Luqman and the like of these stories and tales that for so long fertilized the minds and imaginations, both in the near and distant past but then today lose the bet. (i.e. discover it was all BS)

In my opinion a life without curiosity is not a life worth living
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #126 - November 01, 2014, 08:40 PM

Chapter One.

My Journey from Faith to Doubt.

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Introduction.

First - The Belief Phase

Second - The Test Phase

Third - The Whirlwind Phase

Fourth - The Investigation Phase

Fifth - The Breaking-Off Phase

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Introduction.

I am in the confessional booth. He who sits in this booth must recount everything whether good or bad. I have abided by that quite literally in this book. I titled this chapter; "My Journey from Faith to Doubt," as a response to an amusing book written for the common man, whose author considered he had achieved the height of his aspirations by which he completely silenced every single doubter and all the great skeptics throughout history. I am referring to the book: "My Journey from Doubt to Faith."(1) So welcome to this journey by which matters are put into perspective and rights are returned to where they belong!

It is my duty since the beginning, and before everything else, to bring to the reader's attention to my upbringing and inner thoughts since reaching adolescence - and even before then - until I passed my thirties, so he can share in my confusion, struggles and the burning in my soul.

I grew up as a zealous young Muslim, spending my developing years in the bosom of Islamic learning. It was my ambition, nay my dream, to become a preacher of Islam in India. When I think about that now, I cannot fathom why I chose India over the rest, to bestow the gift of Islam!* I immersed myself in religion, head to toe. I would spend all my spare time in prayer and worship and attending "thikr" circles (religious gatherings where the names of God and other pious prayers and phrases are recited together as a group, led by the sheikh). I would only leave one Islamic lecture or sermon in a mosque in order to attend another one so that I could gather knowledge from all angles and religious knowledge from its correct places and so that I could be a good example and a role model for others.

After the death of my father I suffered the misfortune of having to study under a group of scholars in al-Madinah, so as to preserve the "sacred knowledge" (العلم الشريف) I had inherited from my father and a long line of Sheikhs, (Sufi orders generally have long "chains" of teachers who pass on knowledge from one to another,) which it was feared might be lost to my family which had been throughout the last 500 years at least, the guardians of. So I took on the whole of my duty in preaching, guiding, ordering good and forbidding evil. Especially at Friday prayers and all the religious festivals, and even on some non-religious occasions also.

With me ended the pious ancestors, for I was the last in the chain of servants of the "sacred knowledge" in my family. I was the last fruit of the tree which for so long provided Damanhur with scholars, fuqaha, preachers, judges, Imams and authors, in the many "wirds" (Sufi gatherings where portions of the Qur'an are read or chanting the names of God and various prayers & invocations) and "thikr" gatherings and many other gatherings where religious knowledge was shared. However it doesn't appear appear that anyone from my family is eager to repair that chain that ended with me. For indeed religion has become stale goods these days - and I seek refuge with God most High!

Then to cap it all I joined al-Azhar 'the most luminous' (الأنور) and received the 'sacred' knowledge in it. Oh how many times they pursued me there and insisted on the necessity of wearing the turban and the kaftan! God be praised. How long I suffered them both while adorning them with a thick beard and a scary face! I do have some fond memories of my sheikhs and old colleagues from the flowers of al-Azhar, may God be pleased with them and benefit us by their baraka. For they were the treasure of treasures. The heart & soul.

But the truth is I was mostly very disappointed with the studies at al-Azhar. For that reason I decided to leave in the third year. i.e. a year before my graduation. I wasn't sorry. Many advised me at the time to complete my drama-filled ill-fated studies in order to obtain my diploma in empty disputations and meaningless discourses and contentions. They said that with that diploma I could enter the third year in the faculty of literature at King Fuad I University (now known as Cairo University).

That was in the early 40s during the time of Sheikh Mustafa al-Maraghi. But I had had enough of their studies to the extent that I couldn't take any more. I had wasted three years of my life for nothing. So why not add a fourth year for no other reason than to obtain an elegantly printed colourful document that looks nice, but of worthless import, useless content, meagre substance that would constantly remind me of the wasted days and empty times, of frustrated hopes and extreme misery.

So it was a divorce of three pronouncements and we went our separate ways. Even though I was affiliated with the highest faculty of Azhar's faculties at the time and the closest to my soul. It was the faculty of Usul al-Din in Shubra… but al-Azhar is al-Azhar!

_______________________

1. By Mustafa Mahmoud.
*The term the author uses for Islam, here, is: الحنيفية البيضاء Al-Haneefiyya Al-Bayda' = The Pure-White Haneefism. Traditionally the Haneefs were believed to be those pre-Islamic Arabs who rejected polytheism and followed the "pure" faith of Abraham. The Qur'an refers to Abraham as a "Haneef" i.e. of pure faith. Thus the word Haneefiyya has come to mean Islam itself, i.e. the pure unadulterated monotheism of Abraham. However this term Al-Haneefa Al-Bayda' is also from a line of poetry by Salih ben Sharif al-Rundi, lamenting the fall of Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) usually translated as the white marble ablution fountains of which Al-Andalus is famous: "The tap of the white ablution fount weeps in despair, like a passionate lover weeping at the departure of the beloved." This reference is also no doubt intended, since Islamic Spain is frequently evoked to re-awaken Muslims and the spirit of Da'wah - spreading the message of Islam, and the dangers of failing in this duty.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #127 - November 02, 2014, 10:20 PM

Part 1 - The Belief Phase

On my face is the mark that one cannot miss.* It is the first of my features that stands out. It is that feature that the Noble Qur'an refers to when it says: "Their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration." It sums up a life-time of prayer, tahajjud, tears, reverence, worship, repentance, seeking forgiveness, striving and self-accounting.

I used to take great solace from prayer, it was my very lifeblood. In it I could open my heart, bare my soul and comfort my spirit. My heart was deeply attached to God, never inattentive of him and unable to bear parting from him, always poised to receive his light.

Indeed I loved the spirit of mysticism and devotional gatherings that embodies Sufism. I felt they carried me to the outermost heights of ecstasy where I could glimpse a vision of the heavenly kingdom. Blessed moments that I could snatch from the depths of time. When in this state I felt I was embraced by an overwhelming sensation that eloquence cannot convey, that ties the tongue and words stumble on lips.

I have vainly tried to pierce through this brilliant light that explodes all things or become one with it or just be an atom in this glistening silver as though it is a pearly white star.** Pure crystal lakes fill open horizons. Soft, from its apex a river cascaded, sparkling with light, mirrors that one cannot only see one's face but the universe and time. Processions of ages and epochs. In this radiant arena I stand dazed & bewildered, I am filled with feelings of overwhelming heartbreak and sorrow for I am not an artist nor poet that can record what I am experiencing of euphoria & joy. But who knows? Perhaps even if I was an inspired poet, the right words I had spent years mastering, would still have been hard to find and then slipped away in a moment.

No wonder, for perhaps it was the nature of that pure spiritual beauty, that timeless heavenly vision, to leave me tongue-tied, about which the most eminent doctors could do nothing. In fact this is what actually happened in reality. For there is that which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it occurred to the mind of man. Many of the things that occur to the mind of man defy description. So what about those things that cannot occur to the mind, nor his within his sphere of knowledge or understanding?

In short, those spiritual states (حالات) which manifested themselves to me in moments of ecstasy, are not things that occur to any mind, so he who seeks to express them is seeking the impossible!

All that (the ecstatic state) only lasted a few moments and then I soon recovered my senses. So I would wake up from my state as it was like passing out and my foot would slip as I got up from my place. The real world would appear as though it was a rusty mirror, as though it was full of wickedness. This divine beauty that I had witnessed had pierced my heart and returned me to the pure nature on which god created me and thrust me back to the pristine nature by way of horizons that are open to Sufism and the world of the soul. With all that entailed of humility, tears, seclusion and self-denial, immersing the heart in remembrance of God and emptying myself of worldly pursuits.

Thus began my Sufi journey...

______________________________

*This mark is believed by many to be a visible mark on the forehead that appears due to the friction from repeatedly prostrating in prayer. I personally found it hilarious that many Muslims fake this mark by rubbing their forehead many times to make it appear it had come about by frequent prostration.

**In this passage the author is describing his ecstatic experiences as a follower of a Sufi Tariqa. The phrase "Pearly white star" is from Qur'an 24:35 - the famous "Verse of Light", that describes God as enclosed within layer upon layer of light. It is much loved by Sufis and Muslim mystics. The faithful at thikr gatherings seek to lose themselves in the light of God and achieve - even for a moment - the ideal of Fana', which is "destroying/dissolving" the self and then ultimately Baqa', "remaining" i.e. being part of the Eternal One, other than which nothing exists.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #128 - November 03, 2014, 09:57 PM

Thus began my Sufi journey and I set out with wholehearted commitment and all my energy, upon the road of the 'difficult choice.' For he who desires the next life and strives for it as he should strive, then let him take the path of Tasawuf (Sufism). For the Sufis, as Al-Ghazali says;(2) are those who tread the path of God uniquely. My soul was intoxicated with the love of God dizzy with its fragrance. All I wanted was to achieve closeness to God and be blessed enough to meet him. There was no truth, nor goodness, nor beauty, nor beloved other than God. Everything apart from him - Glory be to him - is a trace of his traces, perfume from the scent of his bounty, an atom from the treasures of his power and a sparkle from the lights of his presence.

Intellect is lost in the oceans of his glory and the mind is bewildered in the glitter of his beauty. He is hidden from sight and yet apparent in the clarity of his effects. Manifested to perceptions and yet he is "The Hidden" (الباطن) in the mysteries of his wisdoms and the secrets of his perfection. There is nothing that does not sing his praises nor celebrate his remembrance. For God has inspired all his creatures to glorify him in the language of the ecstatic state (الحال) if they cannot do it in words. For he who is not moved by spring and its flowers, or captivated by the 'Oud and it's strings is one who is deaf, dumb and blind, his nature is corrupt and incurably sick.

I used to be infatuated with the love of God, longing to be with him. I felt the fire of yearning for him and the flames of adoration for his being. I saw him in everything. I heard his voice calling me in every place! I knocked at every door in my pursuit to be close to him and performed every act that would please him, which entailed utmost piety, sincerity in everything I do as befits him, Glory to Him.

I was always engaged in his remembrance, seeking him, beseeching him, thanking him for the blessings, both apparent and hidden. I would repent and ask for forgiveness and cry and regret any time I wasted not in his service. I would constantly re-assess myself and police my actions for him in everything I did, nay even my innermost thoughts, impulses and intimate notions. For he was watching me and knows that which I hide and that which I declare. Even though I could not see him, he could see me. "He knows that which deceives the eyes and what the breasts conceal."(3) I used to praise him in good times, bad times and at times of severe trial. I used practice patience & fortitude and when an affliction befell me I would say: "To God we belong and to him we shall return. Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the rightly guided."(4)

Night-time was my golden opportunity for making Du'a and lamenting, for remembrance and contemplation. For an intimate dialogue and for additional worship. Turning to God imploring him and in fear. I would reprimand the soul "that is prone to evil" (12:53) In fact my extreme piety and obsessiveness led to me not facing God in Du'a until after accounting myself very strictly and examining what I had sent before and after (from Du'a of the prophet.) For I used to feel ashamed to meet God with a sin on my account!

There is no question of exaggeration here, for indeed in those early days I was truly at the height of my religious zeal and the mark on my forehead is a testament to that - a reminder of a past that was pervaded by devotion and a heart enveloped by faith.

While others sufficed with praying the compulsory prayers, with a few adding to them by praying sunna prayers, my prayers often exceeded an hour because of the thikrs and wirds and du'as and nawafil.

I was especially fond of getting up in the night before Fajr for this was the time I felt most close to God. Most people were asleep and in the quiet cool darkness I could feel God's presence close. I would pray the night prayer and then make du'a, for this was the time when du'as are answered as narrated in the noble hadith: "Allah descends to the lowest heaven every night when two-thirds of the night is over and says: "Is there anyone asking who may be given? Is there anyone supplicating who may be answered?"

I tried to avoid asking anyone but God in accordance to the noble hadith: "Oh my son! If you ask, then ask God, and if you seek help, then seek help from God, and know that if the people were to gather against you to harm you, they will not be able to harm you with anything that is not destined for you and if they were to gather together to benefit you, they will not benefit you with anything that is not written for you. The pens have dried and the scrolls have been folded."

I used to praise God and thank him for giving me the blessing to perform my extra acts of worship and thikr, for I believed he had chosen me for these sweet long hours that I was able to grab in my daily life so that I could seclude myself to God, Glory be to him, and empty my heart to him of my concerns and sorrows and show my sincere love and devotion.

I would never eat, drink, move, visit the doctor, or friend nor enter a house nor exit from it, nor take on a task nor say a word or give an opinion… until I mentioned God's name and sought his guidance and relied upon him and requested from him success.

It was my habit that if I saw a sick person or someone with a disability I would pray for them to be cured and aided, and also thanked God for my health. I was quite certain that he who loves God and is sincere to him, then he is like the king of the universe. There were some moments that gripped me where I felt the presence of God in me and me in him. Like I was a part of him and he a part of me. So who is stronger than me or mightier than me in this world?! I thought about the noble hadith qudsi: "The servant does not cease to come near to me through extra acts of worship until I love him, and when I love him I become his hand with which he grips, his eyes with which he sees and his hearing by which he hears."

Whenever I succeeded in anything I would attribute it to the bounty of God, while if I failed at anything I would only blame myself and ask God Most High to give me success. In both cases I would praise God and thank him and seek refuge in him from the evil of my soul and evil of my actions. In such instances I remembered God's words, Most High: " But perhaps you hate a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not." (2:216) For He alone - Glory be to Him - knows the unseen. In this way I consoled my self by bringing God to mind in every situation. "Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest!" (13:28) By this I hoped to emulate the prophets, the pious and God's beloved Al-Mustafa chief of the messengers and seal of the prophets and best of all mankind.

___________
2. "The Saviour from Error and the Joiner to the Might the Magnificent ." By Al-Ghazali, Page 103.
3. Sura al-Ghafir 40:19.
4. Sura al-Baqara 2:157
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Reply #129 - November 05, 2014, 11:39 PM

Part 2 - The Test Phase

Now came the test. Test involves both honouring and debasing a person. That is the difficult test, in which the reality of the Lord and the promises & threats that the Lord has long showered on us, is revealed! Now was the moment of truth. Either I would persist in returning to God and reliance on him. Strengthening my resolve to be near to him and to distribute my time upon good occupations and worship. Keeping the company of the pious and never failing in prayers, fasting and all the other duties and acts of worship. Or I would cut the rope between me and him.

For I suffered several severe crises and I was burdened with debts, worries and distress that had no way out. Every road was closed in my face and every road blocked. I tried every solution and attempted every answer. But; "The approaching day has approached. There is no one besides Allah that can remove it" (53:57-58). Then when I found my self incapable and at a complete loss I called to mind God's - Most High - words: "Is He [not best] who responds to the distressed/desperate one when he calls upon Him?" (27:62) So I said:

Oh God I seek recourse to you as one who is distressed and desperate who has no means to remove my afflictions. Please answer my prayer. Oh God please have mercy upon my weakness, and remove my suffering and lighten my affair. Oh God do not leave a sin but forgive it, nor affliction but remove it, nor a need but fulfil it, Oh He, Oh He, The possessor of bounty and goodness, Oh Lord of Majesty and Bounty. You are the helper of those who take refuge, the guarantor of the starving, the aider of those who seek aid, the one who takes in the destitute, the one who answers the du'a of the distressed and desperate! People have gone to their beds and are sleeping in their rooms so that just the lover and his beloved are alone together. You are my beloved Oh the most beloved of those who are loved. You are my hope and my utmost desire. Oh you who said - and your promise is true: "He who calls on me I will answer you." (40:60) Please answer my du'a, for I have come to you singing your praises and devoted to you, admitting my incapacity and unworthiness, confessing my sin. I stand at your door beseeching your help, imploring your mercy. Please have mercy upon me oh Most Merciful of those who show Mercy!

Thus it was that I opened my soul to God beseeching him and seeking his help and assistance, with honest intention, good works, and sincerity towards God alone. I was at that time constantly striving to be a faithful and obedient servant to God.

Oh God! Listen to the one who is of hungry heart, a needy heart, a heart deprived, a heart that suffers. I call on you with all your most blessed names. My debts have piled up and have become huge. Oh God, I have saved for this dark hour. How can I meet these debts? Should I sell my house when it is all that I have? Where shall I and my family live? Oh you who possesses the treasures of the heavens and the earth. "and to God belong the treasures of the heavens and the earth." (63:7) "And there is not a thing but with Us are the treasures of it." (15:21) Oh God bestow upon me just one grain from the bounty that you promised to those who spend their wealth in your path. "The parable of those who spend their property in the way of Allah is as the parable of a grain growing seven ears (with) a hundred grains in every ear; and Allah multiplies for whom He pleases; and Allah is Ample-giving, Knowing." (2:261)

I implored and beseeched God to the extent that it turned into weeping, and confiding, and continuous quiet whispering, and humble personal du'as for help and mercy and forgiveness. I was persistent in du'a and faithful in religion, seeking only his help, sustenance and aid. I did not cease beseeching. I began to apologise for my persistence and for the world that I carried on my back and that I was a burden for and it a burden for me. I collapsed with exhaustion with my tears flooding out. I was weak, ill and a pitiful sight!

I waited and waited though never ceased beseeching God. I kept hoping God would eventually help me and avert disaster. But disaster was not averted. Even then I kept praying and waiting. But I waited in vain. Little by little doubts started creeping in after having been sleeping and suppressed. Doubts grew and began to emerge to test me in my faith. Nor do I hide the fact that when these doubts began to trouble me I felt a prick of conscience, that I shouldn't be having these doubts. I felt I was going away from to God that I had for so long loved and pledged my life to.

Has God abandoned me in my darkest hour? I tried hard to suppress these doubts seeking God's good pleasure. But why is God humiliating me so? Despite the fact that I was losing hope I threw myself into God's hands and turned my face to him with this du'a that I was afraid was going to be my last:

Oh God save me! I cannot bear to be apart from you! Oh God I fear I may slip into that which does not please you nor please me. Oh God! I am on the edge of a cliff. Oh God! I am on the edge of the pit of Hell. Save me please! Please save me from it Oh the Mighty the Supreme.

How my tears just kept coming! And how my du'as and beseeching never stopped! But I noticed that after all these du'as and beseeching - to my horror - that God's answer was the opposite of what I begged him for. Perhaps he - Most Sublime - doesn't understand Arabic very well. So what language should I speak to him in? Is this reasonable? I don't know. Even though Adam's language was Arabic. The language of the people of paradise is Arabic also. Perhaps Adam's Arabic is different from our Arabic? Or perhaps he didn't hear me? Even though he, Glory to Him, hears the footsteps of the black ant on the solid rock, in the dark night. Or is he pretending not to hear me for some reason I am unaware of?

Who knows? Perhaps my du'as were just a grating noise that hurt his ears Mighty and Sublime is he. If not then how is it that each time I come close to him he moves away from me? Doesn't that show that he doesn't want to hear my voice? Or is it that he basically doesn't care, because I am no more than a mosquito in this universe.

But I dedicated myself to one who was greater than me?

The strange thing is that the parting between me and him did not intensify until after I said "I cannot bear to be apart from you"! Or perhaps the "No" of negation came off my tongue while I was choking with tears and so he didn't hear it? Is it possible that the word "bear" and "parting" have a different meaning with God? Or that he - Glory be to Him - does not like speech who's meaning is specific and defined?! That could help us explain at last the existence of verses in the Qur'an that are strange and curious and full of bombastic and contradictory passages and rhymed harmonious expressions that have no meaning to them and which the waffling Qur'anic commentators found a thousand meanings and a thousand wisdoms and a thousand points of eloquence and a thousand miraculous subtleties, as we shall see later!?
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Reply #130 - November 06, 2014, 10:24 PM

Part 3

The Whirlwind phase

It wasn't long until I was overwhelmed by confusion and gripped by turmoil. A whirlwind raged inside me. It required all my inner strength and resolve to steady myself in the face of this storm. I remained for some time suffering from a deep crisis of faith and intense anguish. Doubting those immutable religious and cultural constants of one's life is like having a volcano erupting inside. Your instincts and senses rebel against you taking the audacious step of doubting the foundation of your identity and world-view. But it is a necessary step in order to build a new identity and a new mentality. For doubts are the path to truth. "For he who does not doubt has not looked, and he who has not looked does not see and he who does not see remains blind and confused," as al-Ghazali says.(5)

Oh how my hopes were dashed! All the prayers and worship and devotion and piety for the sake of God and seeking his good pleasure… all that didn't succeed in getting - if such an expression has any meaning - a glance of acknowledgement or the slightest attention. For it seems that he - Glory be to him - has bigger things on his mind than the concerns of these human insects that crawl on the surface of earth. Greater than troubles of his faithful servants who Iblees excluded from his seduction and snares when he said while addressing God in his glory: "By your power, I will definitely seduce them astray all together, except Your sincere servants from among them".(6) They are the ones who God, Glory be to him, warned him from coming close to them and from inflicting any evil upon them: "As for my slaves, you will have no power over them."(7)

Even those devout servants, of which I was one, who God promised: "There shall be no fear upon them nor shall they grieve," in thirteen verses,( 8 ) it doesn't appear that he, Glory be to him, cares about them or place any value on them. That is if he even knows they exist. The waffling commentators say that this promise applies to the next life and not this life. Because this life in God's sight is not worth the wing of a mosquito! If that is true then does that mean that God ignores them in this life so that they die of hunger when he said: "There is no creature on earth except that its sustenance is upon God." (11:6)? Is the reward of good anything other than good? (55:60)

From that time, while spinning in the tornado of doubt and after having believed that all past successes in life was due to God's blessing that he had favoured me with and for which I must give gratitude and praise, I began to look at this success as being the result of my own efforts and struggles to achieve what I wanted and accomplish my aims, which God actually had nothing to do with.

The meaning of that was that I no longer saw any evidence for his - Most High - saying: "Say: My Lord would not care for you were it not for your prayer." (25:77) The apparent reality is that he, Glory be to him, does not care about the earth and those on it. Perhaps he hasn't heard of it amongst the billions and billions of planets in space - that has no beginning nor ending. He has other business and concerns that we can never hope of comprehending and which has nothing to do with our trivial pain and suffering. They are much more important than the troubles of Hajj Saeed Khamkham, and Abu Qasim Al-Tanbouri, or Umm Ghuntous and Sayyida Halima. What does he care about these frogs and insects that never stop croaking and fill earth with screams as though they are important creatures. He has other things that concern him.

Woe to my foolishness and stupidity! Oh my idiocy! How naive I was for allowing fairytales to eat up my life and the flower of my youth! Oh my grief at a life spent with a loved one who could care less for me, nor even for a minute knew I existed! Oh perish and curses! How did I not discover that and come to my senses except when I am at the door of old age! What came over me? What remains of my life to experience the joy of my existence?! Would that I didn't know that! Woe to he who knows the truth! Blessed are the ignorant for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens!!

_________________
5. The Balance of Action. p.409.
6. Sura Sad 38:82-83 & Sura al-Hijr 15:39-40
7. Sura al-Hijr 15:42 & Sura al-Isra' 17:65
8. See: 2:8 & 62 & 112 & 262 & 274 & 277, 3:170, 5:69, 6:45, 7:35 & 49, 10:62, 43:68, 46:13.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #131 - November 07, 2014, 09:58 PM

Worse than that, in my effort to save the special relationship between me - the deceived and last to know - and the beloved who I could not bear to part from, I came up with all sorts of excuses for his indifference and disregard towards me. Sometimes I would explain it as a type of toying and teasing because he wants to test me and see the extent of my love for him. When I looked at it this way I saw every misfortune and closed door as God's way of testing those he loves. So every time he blocked me my love for him increased to the extent that I began to feel intense ardour for each misfortune and passion for rejection! I just could't believe that he would just ignore me or worse still that there was actually no-one listening and I was just talking to myself. Thus it was that I fell for the myth of "its a test" that religions keep repeating and rely upon to blackmail their followers and train them to acquiesce and submit. What else could I do? Did I have any other choice?

In short - how foolish I was when ardently struggling to rationalise and philosophise the afflictions and misfortunes that befell me. Every day trying to discover a new wisdom and meaning behind them. This philosophising seduced me. I immersed my self in thikr and worship to try and cling on to my faith in my Lord. I renounced myself to hold onto my Lord. I was addicted to the liquor of my Lord. Ah! What was wrong with me and this need for my Lord! How much anguish I endured for the sake of my Lord. Oh woe is to a life spent with my Lord!!

Alas, for so long I tried to philosophise and justify adversity in the typical & intellectually lazy manner believers the world over do. I employed all my philosophical skills - and oh how philosophy is good at that, for its history of searching for truth and indulging in explaining the truth, is full of defence of the absurd, the ridiculous, the nonsensical and sophistry - just as I also employed all that I possess of expertise, sophisms, and mental gymnastics to rationalise the calamities that befell me and to extract the maximum possible amount of wisdoms, warnings, and lessons from them. Whenever I suffered an adversity or was wronged or struck by grief and depression I used to rely on prostration, supplication, seeking refuge with God and calling on him to the extent that it has left a mark on my forehead that time has not erased.

I used to always take comfort in the stories of the prophets, messengers and pious. I would say to myself that; 'disaster returns man to God,' for the believer is tested with affliction and I would recall his saying, Most High: "Do the people think that they will be left to say, "We believe" and they will not be tested with affliction?" (29:2) and his saying Mighty & Glorious is he: "Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere. Who say, when afflicted with calamity: "To God We belong, and to Him is our return." They are those on whom are blessings from God, and Mercy, and they are the ones that are rightly guided." (2:155-157)

I got to the point where I was welcoming afflictions and was thanking God for them in the Sufi way I was accustomed to, for I followed their way and I would say according to Sufi belief, that a disaster or affliction is just the punishment for a sin, which has been brought forward in this life as a mercy so that our slate will be clear in the next life when we face God!! However I had forgotten, or perhaps I pretended to forget for I had an interest in neglecting to remember as we shall see in a little while - that while disaster and affliction can sometimes bring man closer to God, it can at other times take him further away also. Affliction is a path to God but also a path to Shaytan!

I always used to praise God for my good outcome and my protection from harm & illnesses. I used to say to myself: 'Although God has not given me wealth he has given me that which is much better, good health and well-being, for good health is very valuable! How could I forget that value? For a rich person from our town had to travel to Europe and America for medical treatment while I don't have the financial means to travel to either, never mind the doctors fees, nor the cost of the medicines and hospital charges?

Praise God my son, praise God! Yes my son, that person is rich but of what use will his riches and all that he has amassed when Judgment Day comes? All his wealth has gone into the accounts of doctors, hospitals, chemists and banks. The benefits that accrue upon them is enough on its own to cover the expenses of whole families who live in the slum areas of one of the shanty towns sprinkled around the edges of the major capitals in the countries of the third world.

Remember my son also, that rich person who lives near you in the same district is afflicted with diabetes, and he wishes he could have a plate of Hummus & Foul Medames. He is filled with rage every time he sees one of his workers going to eat this dish with great pleasure. So did all his money benefit him at all against God? Praise God and be of the grateful. Thus it was that I wasn't able to do anything other that praise and thank God.

I forgot in the euphoria of my ascetic faith - and I don't know if I chose to forget - the innumerable number of people that God bestowed excellent health and well-being along with great wealth, prestige and comfort! Just as I also forgot that while God had saved me from some illnesses, he afflicted me with others. Suffice to say that I had to have four operations on my eyes the most serious of which was retinal detachment, just as I had to have five operations on my leg before reaching puberty. After the death of my father I took on the responsibility of that myself and the last of these operations was in Leopold Blanc Hospital in Paris in 1951. These repeated delicate operations have left me with two feet that cannot bear any shock as a result, never mind all these operations were not able to correct the the disability. For that reason I still until now find it difficult to walk very far, even though I have adapted to the situation by virtue of getting used to it and habit.

So if my state is thus, then what am I praising and thanking God for exactly? We are all in the same boat as far as illness is concerned.

As for our rich neighbour who God had deprived of health but given him wealth, well there are other innumerable sick people who not only have been deprived of health but of wealth also. On top of that they not only suffer from diabetes or cancer or high blood pressure, or all of them together, or from other debilitating diseases, but on top of that they are so poor they can't pay for a examination by a doctor, never mind pay for medicine so they struggle on themselves and sit by the side of the road or at the doors of mosques or knock on the doors of houses if they can face the shame of doing that and if not they send out on their behalf their wife or children to hold out their hand to people begging them for help and charity!
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #132 - November 08, 2014, 09:19 PM

Part 4

The Investigation Phase

I remember I felt during that time a slight inclination towards Christianity. In fact I even thought about embracing because it seemed spiritual and ethereal, but I knew I could never believe in concepts such as the Trinity, Crucifixion, Atonement, Incarnation, Sacrifice and the whole drama of Jesus' humiliation, blows, slaps and spitting without showing any resistance. His sufficing with threats from his father who didn't do anything for him. Where is the dignity of God which is degraded through his only son who he is supposed to love?

Just as I also didn't understand Jesus' complete silence in front of the rulers and Roman authorities and yet his unrestricted verboseness with his disciples, pouring upon them promises, not just for this world but for the Kingdom of Heaven too. What was he afraid of since he is God? Or rather the son of God as they say? I don't know which of the two - and nor do they.

An impotent demigod unable to defend himself, sufficing with threats from his father. Nay! Having to call on others to spread his message for him, then fleeing to his father who earlier in this theatrical charade had abandoned him!* In what way did Jesus actually benefit humanity after coming to earth, mixing with people, curing the deaf, dumb and blind and bringing the dead to life and other such tall-tales of folklore and legend? Did any of that actually ease the suffering of the poor and the wretched in any way? Did it alleviate the hunger of the starving, the oppression of the downtrodden or remove the tyranny of the tyrants? All that Jesus did was to preach weakness and crying. He cried with those who cry. With him they increased by one more crying person without him actually bringing anything to stop the crying of humanity and wipe away our tears.

Nor was Jesus a man to put up a fight, to struggle or resist. Instead he thrust his disciples into battles and wars, then quickly rushed off to sit by the right hand of his father in heaven as though this father would runaway!! Is this a good example for the struggles and ordeals mankind faces?

He never spoke one word in front of the rulers yet advised his disciples not only to verbally confront them, which he himself dodged by remaining completely silent, but to physically confront and fight to raise the word of truth.

He shoved them into the furnace while he ran away to paradise. He informed them about the misfortunes & suffering they will face on earth then saved himself from it! How is this self-sacrifice? Where is his struggle and suffering in comparison for example to his disciple Paul?

However, despite the fact that in my opinion Christianity is a religion that begins with myth and ends with myth, and its whole narrative moves within the sphere of myth - and perhaps this is why it spread widely - I had decided in all sincerity to submit myself to Jesus in the desperate hope I might find shelter & refuge with him.

Who knows! Perhaps all that is attributed to him in the official Gospels is not true. Jesus must be different from that, because the Jesus of these Gospels is a man surrounded by myths on every side. To the extent that it is not possible to discern his real character. In fact many scholars have begun to doubt his historical existence entirely. Though personally I don't go that far. Because many historical events can't be understood or explained except by inferring his existence. But if there is another historical Jesus, how did he disappear and how did this mythical Jesus take his place?

Regardless of whether the Jesus of the Gospels is the real Jesus or a mythical character, I turned to him with all my heart - and this is amongst my inconsistencies - but it is a human weakness! I asked him to relieve my affliction, raise me from my fall, lift me out of my despair after having related to him my story and told him about my affairs and I cited the the verse from the Gospel:

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."(9)

So I asked until my voice was hoarse and I sought until my throat was dry and I knocked until my knuckles bled. I repeated that time and time again. I cried and beseeched. I called and I pleaded for help. But all in vain. For both gods - the god of the Qur'an and the god of the Gospels - are as bankrupt as the other. I returned empty handed just as millions of Christians before me have left empty-handed, but who of them is willing to admit to that? The difference between me and them is that I used my mind while they are happy to leave it on the shelf. The truth is Jesus let me down. As for them they are not prepared to admit that he has let them down in any way. They will blame themselves so that they don't have to blame Jesus.

I wonder how people can believe all the nonsense in the holy books about answering prayers when it is clearly shown to be false every minute of every day? How can Christians bear witness every day that God helped them achieve this or that, without seeing that their success and failure is no different from anyone else and that it has nothing to do with prayer, or Jesus, or God. Yet nothing seems to affect its vigour, spread and arrival of new converts every day!

Yes, how can people believe such nonsense? How could he lie to people? Did he really even say any of it? The truth is that he - or rather those who invented his words - are very clever and know very well that most people are foolish enough to believe anything. If not then they wouldn't have spent two thousand years asking, seeking and knocking on Jesus' door without anyone ever answering them.

Stranger than that is that they all come up with different reasons and justifications as to why Jesus didn't reply to them on this occasion and why Jesus didn't grant them that request. Yet they don't cease insisting that he answers their prayers while he doesn't cease ignoring them. Their disappointment is turned into a profound wisdom. God bless the ignorant! They live in bliss! It seems that religions cannot survive without stupidity, lies, and captivating promises.

I repeat I wonder how people believe such things, defending it with unmatched zeal and vigour despite it clearly being in vain and for nothing. If the matter is to do with promises of the next life then of course that cannot be disproven as it is like all eschatological events that cannot be verified and so faith is enough and reason moves aside for it. But as for matters of this life it is very easy to verify whether the promises are true or not, yet despite this the believer doesn't apply reason to it. Instead he looks at it with the eye of faith and the eye of faith sees wisdoms & excuses. This is amongst the wonders of faith. It can do what reason cannot. The heavens have cut off the words of every spokesman.**

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9. Matthew 7:7.

*I have never understood why Christians seem to think the "sacrifice" made by Jesus was so significant: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." Yet Jesus knew his death was temporary (3 days). He knew he would rise again and spend eternity in heaven. Human beings make greater sacrifices than this every day. From soldiers, firemen, policemen, rescue services to many other countless ordinary people who risk their lives for others. These people know that when they die, they really die. Their sacrifice is immeasurably greater than someone who knows his death is only very temporary.

**From an Arab proverb: "Jahizah has cut off the words of every spokesman." (قطعت جَهِيزَةُ قولَ كلِّ خطيب) Elders of two tribes met to resolve a murder. They were discussing whether blood money should be paid when a woman called Jahizah interrupted saying; "The killer had been caught and killed!" This left the speakers in the meeting with nothing to discuss.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #133 - November 09, 2014, 10:21 PM

Part 5

The Breaking Off Phase

Now events moved quickly between me and my Lord. I had been disappointed by him as I had also been disappointed by Jesus. Each one was as impoverished as the other. My Lord laid upon me obligations but then threw me out, he promised me but then failed to deliver, he raised my hope but then dashed them. Oh what a waste of life spent in sincere devotion to him due to my stupidity and thinking good of him.

I was still being tugged back and forth between faith & doubt when the final break occurred between him and me. I stopped praying, fasting and lost faith in the things I used to believe. I regretted all that I had wasted in this respect. It was like a divorce and a parting of ways. I could not believe how foolish I had been. Who can remove the mark of prostration that disfigures my forehead for it does not befit the wise in their advanced years!

From now on I shall go it alone, without a god robbing me of my being. I know in advance that going it alone and standing on your own two feet is arduous and bleak - no it is not bleak - at least not in my view, nor to every person who believes in himself and believes in the spirit that rages inside us, our ambitions and hopes. I will live with belief in my dreams, my self-confidence and my ability recognise lies and nonsense and my belief in action and striving to achieve the best I can. Woe to one who knows the truth but is not deserving of it, who is unable to handle it. For if he is not up to it, then my advice to him is don't come near this book!

Doubts are nothing new in my life. They have beset me before a long time ago. But I would quickly bury them straightaway and hide their signs. I used to constantly doubt things when I was a youngster, to the same extent that I was also very devout. I was regularly beset by a wave of doubts and then a wave of pious devotion as though lightening flashed inside of me and then subsided and became still again. I never used to hide my doubts when I was a student, to the extent that I was denied the scholarships and financial support that the wealthy citizens of my town would bestow upon my colleagues so that they could study abroad. In fact some of my colleagues went about distorting and exaggerating these doubts to deprive me of a scholarship to study abroad, so they could take my place.

I don't deny that these doubts had a certain expediency, for they differed in times of hardship from times of ease. Can the friend (i.e. God) truly be known except in times of hardship? But that certainly didn't mean that expediency was behind these doubts. The matter was far more complicated than that, just as my devotion was. The battle between my doubts and my faith swayed back and forth between them. Glory be to the one who turns hearts. This is what the masses say. For the hearts of men are between two fingers of the fingers of the Merciful, he turns them as he wishes, as related in the noble hadith and which they support with his saying, Most High is He: "And know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that to Him you will be gathered." (8:24)

So my relationship with God was severed. I no-longer asked him for anything nor relied on him for anything. In fact I challenge him to prevent me from doing that which I can do or make me do that which I can't do. I have no need of him if it is really true that he has any influence in the things we do. That is if it is actually true that he even cares about people's needs or hears their du'as or - more likely - knows they even exist! Despite that everything in my life is going just fine of its own accord. Its ups and downs, highs and lows, good times and bad times, good luck & bad luck, coming and going. Life has remained the way life always is. With its complications, compositions, responsibilities, varieties and swings & roundabouts.

My life has become mine after having been the shared property of the one I used to call "My Lord" who shared my life and who snatched from me the most productive times of my life. I used to spend them with him and for him, putting myself in his hands. Now I had become free and liberated after having been a slave and a serf. Oh my grief over the toil and sweat of my life that His Sublimeness has stolen from me. Deprived me of my youth and would have taken what remains of my latter years if I hadn't come to my senses. I appointed him as trustee and mandator over me, of my own free will and free choice, so he bequeathed me nothing but foolishness, nonsense and idiocy until I almost lost my reason and good sense to the blade of folly. If it hadn't been that I managed to gather my determination and firm my resolution and stand up to the test and come through it.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #134 - November 11, 2014, 12:03 AM

Thus it was that for the first time I had made up my mind to leave captivity and experience freedom. Dissolve the contract of trusteeship, the contract of ignominy that I had signed up to with my Lord. I was born free but I had allowed myself to become a slave. But after today I shall not allow anyone to enslave me again. Daylight has risen. I shall not ask God of anything from today. That is if there really is a God and if it isn't just merely talking to yourself and asking yourself, and praying to yourself. In this case, prayer is simply an inner conversation and chit-chat with one's ego. Oh how long I spent prattling to myself thinking it kindled the light of transcendental truth when all it did was anaesthetise my mind and dull my wit. It weakened my ambition and blinded my insight. It made me like a child and robbed me of my lifeblood and the flowering of my life. It loaded me with far-fetched expectations and aroused foolish aspirations. It undermined my self belief and self-reliance and seduced me into relying on the Lord of the Universe. Those days have gone. The gloom has been lifted and cleared. My consciousness has returned to me. I have come out of my coma!

My task in this book is to tear away the curtains and reveal the secrets, and expose that which was guarded in order to arrive at the hidden pearl. It is a sincere call to put an end to one stage and start a new stage. To end the stage of sleep and oblivion and begin the stage of awakening, realisation and understanding. After that everything will be easier.

I am keenly aware that in this book I am playing with fire. So be it! For if the fire doesn't burn the impurities then we would never get pure gold. It's true that cauterisation should be the last resort, but what can I do? Even though I realise that I myself will be the first to be burnt by it. But if you want to be a man then confront danger. That shall be my slogan for life. For if it wasn't for the burning candle shedding light for others, then by God, there would be no light. That is what it can do - nay, that is its mission. It is my privilege to be that candle.

People's souls are almost brimming over. Hearts are full to tipping point. Horizons are being suppressed and pens silenced. Fresh breaths are trapped and stuttering. Slips of the tongue are to be found in every place. The mouths have water in them.* Can that which has water in its mouth speak? If you want to alleviate the misery & grief and remove the calamity and anguish, then come join me in climbing over the walls that keep us locked in and keep away from the guards.

Read what is not written in the writings of Ta Ha Hussein. Read the suppressed or what is written between the lines in his book "Pre-Islamic Poetry" for example. You will be surprised! Likewise read Zaki Naguib Mahmoud and Ismai'l Mazhar in their early writings, i.e. before they returned to the cattle enclosure when they approached old age fearing what might await them after death. Likewise read Abdel Rahman Badawi in his first books also. You will find that which will surprise you even more. Even this giant of Arabic literature began to lose his powers in the latter period. We are all the same when it comes to fear. It is a human weakness.

People's energy is tensed for the starting pistol, minds are craned and all set to go. Everyone is fully ready for action. But they are waiting for a spark. They are all frightened of lighting that spark because of the torrent it will unleash upon them. Perhaps fate has chosen that this book will be that spark. What will be, will be. I say clearly, without any pride, that you will not find in Arabic, throughout its history - including the Abbasid period which witnessed some bold rejection of religion - a book like this book in respect of it's explicit, clear, unambiguous, earnest telling it as it is without equivocation, twisting, hypocrisy nor lies.

You will also not find any personal slander, libel or any reference to the private lives of the people who I refer to. Nor will I stoop to the level of some critics of Islam who throw about abuse, slander and attack Muslims personally. For slander and personal attacks are not the characteristics of sincere scholars. Going into the private lives of people in order to hunt around for mud to sling at them and as a way of dismissing them while avoiding what they say, is a major abuse to them and a violation of that which should not be violated. For ideas are only defeated with better ones. "As for the foam, it vanishes, cast off; but as for that which benefits the people, it remains on the earth. Thus does Allah present examples." (13:17)

I know full well that this may cost me my life. But I have tasted life, both its sweet and its bitter. Nay, its bitter more than its sweet and I am prepared to face my fate. I want to say what I have to say before I go. What will be after that, then let it be. That will be my fate. He whose fate is laid out, must walk that path. I am not the first person who has been betrayed by ignorance and reactionaryism, by no means, and I also won't be the last.

After the publication of this book there will be an angry storm of knee-jerk reactions, intolerance, slander, and accusations with a limit and without limit. A volcano will erupt as none before, but at the same time there will be some who will defend the book and who will challenge the ignorant attacks, injustice, dishonesty. They will call for an objective analysis and a sober scholarly approach. Between these will be those groups with vested interests, middlemen, and those who have a stake in the satus-quo. They will incite the tyrants and the religious clerics and all those who fish in troubled waters.

Thus the door will open to every one who knocks. The authorities will of course side with the angry masses and fundamentalists. The freethinkers will be rounded up and made an example of. Those with vested interests will support efforts to eradicate and assassinate by instigating and inciting the khateebs of mosques, the simple-minded and those of good-intention - not to mention those with bad intentions - in the name of defending the religion and faith.

I am certain that more than 50% of the rioters will be illiterate and won't have read the book. If they have read it they have not understood it. That is if they are able to come across a copy of it. Because the government will ban it straightaway unless one of the bookshops manages to hide a few copies to sell secretly on the black market. But the masses will not be satisfied with simply banning it, no, they will demand it be burnt publicly and to spill the blood of its author and that is if he isn't thrown into prison or if he is still alive.

The Western media will not stand idly by but will condemn the intolerance and repression of freedoms and human rights violations. Many will slander Arabs and Muslims and denounce the forces of backwardness and ignorance. The wicked and simple-minded will grab this opportunity to accuse the author of being a Zionist agent.

All that doesn't bother me. The only important thing in my opinion is that I am true to myself and I say what I must say even if I am on the edge of the abyss. I hope I can push the door open a little. For if it is opened it won't be shut again. It is only natural that the agitators agitate, the revolutionaries revolt and the hunters increase and proclaim doom and destruction and cataclysmic events. For the shock is huge in a country that is sleeping and impassive in it's error and wandering astray. It is not used to shocks. Most people are not able to look at the light of truth. But this light and the succession of shocks are the only way to re-invent ourselves and re-new ourselves and enter the age of enlightenment. If we don't then we will remain in darkness.

_________________

*From an Arab proverb which means that people have something to say, but they are unable to say it. This passage is referring to the suppression of freethinkers in the Arab world - in fact in the Muslim world as a whole!
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #135 - November 12, 2014, 10:56 PM

Chapter Three

The Qur'an according to the Belief of Muslims.

First - The Qurʾān is the Speech of God

Second - The Qurʾān is the Centre for all Schools of Thought & Opinion in Islam

Third - The Linguistic Beauty was the Qurʾān’s Key to the Hearts of the Pre-Islamic Arabs

Fourth - The Work of the Exegetes of the Qurʾān

Fifth - An Inevitable Revolution

Part One

The Qurʾān is the Speech of God

It was a barren, desolate desert, that Muhammad emerged from to proclaim his words. His words appeared as an Arabic recitation which he considered to be without error. Muhammad shook himself down*, quite certain that he had received a command from the unseen and been appointed by heaven to warn a people who had gone astray. "Oh you wrapped up (in a cloak)! Get up & warn (people)!" (74:1-2)

A transcendental experience that the Arabs and Muslims from East to West believe Muhammad was chosen for in order to lead the Arabs and take them out of darkness to light. The "prophet" who is caught between the constraints of reality and the requirements of the historical context that he finds himself, did not regard his role to be anything other than a courier of a message. A conveyer of a book revealed to him by God.

Indeed, in all the stages of the "revelation" - or so its called - we sense it is as though the language is struggling to articulate itself in the face of a world of possible phrasings. To let its meanings flow as a sweet, clear spring. So along came the man who is up to the task, safeguarding its source and unleashing its creative forces and possibilities. At last this language can realise its dreams. With the Qur'an it reached the furthest extent of its aspirations, aims, expectations and goals.

The Arabic language then continued its course after the departure of the man who raised its voice and championed it, until its limit was transcended, its extent spread, its horizons widened and it pierced borders and boundaries. It then produced ripe fruit, a good harvest, & sweet-tasting food - delicious to eat and drink. It produced the great and unique writers and poets in every field of literature and art. It absorbed everything and never despaired of being able to express any idea or concept and as though in a blink of an eye or quicker than that, it changed from the language of the sword & camel to the language of science, art, philosophy and civilisation.

_________________

*Reference to waking up from the states Muhammad would go into when receiving revelation which included becoming hot, flushed, sweaty, hearing noises like a bell, clenching teeth and shaking.
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #136 - November 13, 2014, 09:35 PM

It is indeed Muhammad's remarkable miracle. It strengthened Muhammad's mission and reinforced his message in the face of other amazing miracles (attributed to past prophets). It added new dimensions that brought the promise of progress, prosperity, bounty, not to mention power, vigour and the ability to shine in glory for centuries.

This miracle and clear signs were enough for Muhammad. He didn't need any other miracles to come to him from the world of the unseen that the creator of the heavens and earth could have opened up for him yet begrudged him even one single miracle of the like he bestowed on the earlier prophets!

***

Linguistically, Qur'an (قُرْآن) is the verbal noun from the verb; 'to Read' (قرأ). This verbal noun means 'recitation' and orientalist scholars have suggested that it is derived from the Syriac; qeryānā (which means: recitation of scripture in a liturgical context, lectionary). However, in common usage it means the holy text that God revealed to his prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah, the one foretold of in previous revelations, who transmitted it in an unbroken chain of authority, and which is used for worship by reciting it and adhering to its teachings.

The Qur'an has many names, amongst which are: The Book (الكتاب), The Criterion (الفرقان), The Reminder (الذكر), The Revelation (التنزيل), The Speech of God (كلام الله), and it is described in Arabic as; Noble (الكريم), Glorious (المجيد), Mighty (العزيز), Wise (الحكيم) the Momentous (العظيم), the Clear/Making Clear (المبين), on a preserved tablet, without crookedness, no falsehood comes to it in front nor behind it. It guides to that which is more upright. It is a cure for man and mercy for the believers. Had God revealed it to a mountain you would have seen it humbled and crumbling apart from fear of Allah. If men and Jinn were to gather together to bring the like of it they will not be able to, even if they help each other. If it was from other than God you would find in it much discrepancy.*

Contrary to the Old & New Testaments, the Qur'an is not described using the word Muqaddas* (Holy مُقَدَّسٌ) although a derivative of that word also meaning Holy (Qudsi قُدْسِيٌّ), is used as a description the hadiths where the prophet mentions something that God has said. This is then referred to as "Hadith Qudsi" in other words it is God's word but not in the literal sense of the Qur'an.

The Qur'an is speech that assumes an addresser and addressee. As for the addressee that is well known, for the speech in the Qur'an is always addressed to Muhammad in the first instance and directly and then to the Muslims after that and to all human beings in all times and all places. The Qur'an addresses the prophet many times advising and consoling him. Sometimes scolding and reprimanding him and sometimes replying to him and responding to thoughts he had of his own, explaining his mistake and correcting him in some of his judgments and turning him away from them to a better alternative.

Sometimes the Qur'an not only uses the pronoun of the second person, but also the pronoun of the third person in reference to Muhammad. Such as the first two verses of Sura Abasa: "He frowned and turned back, that the blind man came to him." (80:1-2) i.e. You frowned Oh Muhammad and turned your face away from the blind man when he came to you seeking guidance, you left him for the notables of the Quraysh and groups of the polytheists who have shown they don't care about you and are not interested in what you have to say.

But then the narrative suddenly starts addressing Muhammad directly: "And how do you know, perhaps he could become purified? Or might have received the message so the reminder would profit him? As for he who regards himself self-sufficient, to him you attend? Even though there is no blame on you if he fails to be purified. But as for the one who came to you striving hard and with fear, from him you were otherwise preoccupied." (80:3-10)

In some cases the Qur'an is deals with Muhammad's personal affairs rather than addressing the believers in general. For example when it was forbidden that his wives be married again after him. However, as a general rule, it is permissible - in fact encouraged - for a widow to get married again to another man according to the principals of Shari'ah.

In other cases Muhammad was instructed by God but not as Qur'anic "revelation" (الوحي) even though it concerned him only. Instead it was revealed to Muhammad in a way he did not clarify. So for example Muhammad and his family were forbidden from receiving Sadaqa (charity), but that didn't come as Qur'anic revelation. Likewise it was forbidden for Muhammad to inherit and to bequeath inheritance. This was also not mentioned in the Qur'an.

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*This and other parts of this chapter are full of Qur'anic references. I am not going to list them all as there are so many but it would also be redundant since most Muslims are familiar with them.

**In English, the Qur'an is often referred to as "The Holy Qur'an", however in Arabic the word which translates as Holy i.e. Muqaddas is not used for the Qur'an.
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Reply #137 - November 14, 2014, 08:55 PM

So we know the addressee - the one who the speech is being directed to, but who is the addressor? Who is the one who is speaking? Whose speech is it? This is purely a matter of faith that cannot be touched upon except within the framework of the belief of those who believe in it. No matter how widespread and far-reaching this framework is, it remains a framework that is limited to a time and place. In other words restricted to a specific patch of land in specific period of time, inextricably bound to it, to the exclusion of all others.

If we direct this question to the one who transmitted this speech to us, namely Muhammad ibn Abdullah, he would respond unequivocally and candidly that the Qur'an is the speech of the eternal God who said to him in no uncertain terms that: "God - there is no god but Him, the Ever-Living, the Eternal. He has sent down upon you, the Book in truth, confirming what was before it." (3:2-3) He also says: "And if any one of the polytheists seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he may hear the words of God." (9:6) Likewise he says: "And We revealed to you the message that you may make clear to the people what was sent down to them." (16:44) and when addressing Muhammad he issued this categorical statement: "The Trustworthy Spirit (Gabriel) brought it down upon your heart so that you would be of the warners, in a clear Arabic tongue." (26:193-195)

Then it says, highlighting the evidence that the Qur'an is not the speech of Muhammad and to emphasise his truthfulness and testify to his trustworthiness, exonerating him of any dishonesty in delivering the message: "If he were to falsely attribute any words to Us, we would surely have seized him by his right hand, then We would have cut from him the aorta and none of you could defend him!" (69:46)

All Muslims from East to West believe that the one who is speaking is God, Most High and that the Qur'an is the speech of God revealed to his prophet sent as a giver of glad tidings and as a warner. "No falsehood comes to it either in front or behind it." So that it would be a sign for people until the day of Judgment - a miracle proving the truth of the revelation to Muhammad.

Thus began the myth of the miraculousness of the Qur'an of which we will discuss later. The Quranic narrative does not attributed any miracle to the prophet other than the miracle of the Qur'an. It is proof of his truthfulness. As a result he is known as the truthful prophet who delivered from his Lord that which he was commanded to deliver without adding or taking away anything and without any distortion coming upon it.

God in the Qur'an expresses himself using his glorious name with no pronoun at times: "So remember God like you remember your ancestors." (2:200) And in the first person at other times: "Remember me I shall remember you." (2:152) And in the third person at other times: "Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke and said to it and to the earth, "Come [into being], willingly or by compulsion." They said, "We have come willingly." (41:11) and in the first person plural at other times: "Indeed we have revealed it as an Arabic Qur'an." (12:2)(1) and sometimes it mixes in one verse more than one of these forms: "God says I will send it down to you." (5:115) as we see in this verse the third person is mixed with the first. The "it" in that verse refers to the table spread that the disciples asked Jesus ibn Maryam to ask God to send down to them from the heaven!

It goes without saying that the Qur'an, according to Muslims, is a sublime portion of the divine will that has existed since eternity. It is the very speech of God itself. Both its construction and meaning. It was dictated to the prophet word for word. Letter for letter. The one who dictated it is God through Gabriel the angel of revelation and the Trustworthy Spirit. This is a belief that is deeply entrenched in the minds of Muslims. He who denies it or says the Qur'an is the work of Muhammad he is a Kafir, a rejector of the pure religion. As a consequence he deserves eternal punishment in the fire of Hell, forever in it - and what a terrible end!!

The Qur'an is unique in the way it provides the intellectual basis and complete framework for Muslims. It provides a network of concepts and a system of symbols by which it directs the actions of Muslims and gives them meaning to their existence. It directs them to make everything they do in life, their achievements and their thinking process in according to the highest ideal that it ordains for them.

The Qur'an according to the view of Muslims is the the comprehensive religious authority. It completed the universal process of divine revelation that came from God in order to guide people. It stresses the existence of a continuous and consistent message of divine source that took its final form in the Qur'an itself. It is the source of all authorities in Islam. It is a compendium that expresses the intellectual and legislative, scientific and cultural components of Islam.

The revelation is the word of God and an expression of the will of God, it is the divine presence and power that appeared in different forms in a long chain of prophets and messengers. The forms changed and developed as time and context developed, but the underlying content remains the same and cannot change or be modified. It is the word of God, eternal and everlasting that does not submit to relativism and changing standards of time and place.

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1. The first person plural appears many times in the Qur'an. It is attributed to a bright spark from amongst the Christian evangelicals that he said this form is proof of the doctrine of the Trinity in the Qur'an. With that, he admitted, without realising it, that Christianity believes in many Gods.
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Reply #138 - November 15, 2014, 10:10 PM

Chapter Three

Part Two

The Qurʾān is the Centre for all Schools of Thought & Opinion in Islam.

According to the view of Muslims, the Qur'an is the beacon of all fields of knowledge, wisdom, philosophy, legislation, culture and literature. It is a book of religious doctrine, but also a literary masterpiece that in the opinion of the scholars has reached the highest standard of eloquence and linguistic excellence.

The Qur'an doesn't contain a clear specific theory about the nature of God, the universe, life and destiny, in the way that we find in the books of philosophy and nature and theology, but it includes at the same time a range of ideas and opinions related to God, the universe, life and destiny. But although it is not a scientific, theological and philosophical work in the strict sense of these words, it does give philosophical, scientific and theological thought a unique direction that would not have been pursued if it were not for the Qur'an.

The Qur'an's influence and impact on shaping the minds of Muslims and its control over their feelings and emotions, is so great that every thinker, scholar & philosopher has to take account of the Qur'an in everything they say, write and do and in all the concepts and views that proceed from them. This is why the Qur'an became the centre for a variety of fields.

So grammarians took their cue from the Qur'an to derive their rules of grammar and its application. Linguists produced books and classifications about the unique words of the Qur'an while the jurists concerned themselves with the verses dealing with rulings on which they based their field of knowledge, just as the scholars of the principles of jurisprudence did in the laying down legal theory. While the theologians had a variety of established schools regarding justice, tawhid, the attributes of God and the deeds of the servants, where of course they relied on what reached them of the sound knowledge from the disciplines of philosophy.

Perhaps the one who articulated this best was Al-Raghib al-Isfahani in the first part of his book "The Characteristics": "The words of the Qur'an are the heart of the speech of the Arabs, its cream, its jewel, its most precious parts. On it rely the legal jurists, the judges and rulers in their rulings and wisdoms. The masters of poetry and eloquence resort to in their compositions and poetry. All else is but peel and pips compared to the most delicious parts of the fruit, like the chaff and straw compared to the heads of wheat." (2)

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2. "The Characteristics", p.79.
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Reply #139 - November 16, 2014, 09:46 PM

Thus, the Qur'an has been the backbone of the Arabs and Muslims in all countries on the face of the earth, and the source of inspiration from which flows schools of thought, religion, and human society in Islam. From it issues tafsir, jurisprudence, principals, theology, morality, language, mysticism, nay, even the dark sciences of magic & sorcery. Muslims whole attention is consumed by it, memorising it, understanding it, learning it, teaching it, preaching it, guiding by it, reflecting on it, taking lesson from it, drawing culture and literature from it.

They have studied it word for word. Single-mindedly & devoutly and with unmatched piety. In fact they have put up with it, endured it, feigned and pretended for it. To the extent that they make it say that which it doesn't say and support it with contradictory statements and untenable doctrines all the while they think they are doing good. They have gone to utmost lengths in that and arrived at conclusions that "never occurred to our Lord." If such a statement has any meaning!
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Reply #140 - November 19, 2014, 09:39 PM

Chapter 3

Part 3

Linguistic Appreciation was the Key to the Hearts of the Pre-Islamic Arabs.

The Quranic text has its own unique logic. Its own literary & rhetorical styles that the great & good regarded as the epitome of the Arabic language. Linguistic appreciation was an intrinsic part of the lives of pre-Islamic Arabs. They loved eloquence more than they loved their idols. In fact some despised the idols and rejected them, but none of them took this attitude towards the gods of eloquence. On the contrary they were addicted to achieving eloquence and choosing the right word. They would strive to find the most suitable expression, and refine their poems so obsessively to an extent that hadn't been done before. For neither Al-Lat, nor Al-‘Uzzá nor even Manāt, could compensate one for not being gifted with an eloquent tongue.

We don't hear about the Arabs sending their sons to places of religious seclusion, yet it was a well-established tradition to send their sons - even amongst the poor - to pure-blooded arab wet nurses in the desert, so they would accustom them to the pure Arab tongue, authentic eloquence and captivating, expressive wording. They would come at times of festivals and feasts to take their portion of newborns to breast-feed with their own children. They would grow-up in the bedouin way and acquire the eloquence of the bedouins and then return having benefited and profited as well as brimming with the health and vigour gained from the bedouin life, not to mention sharpness and alertness and the quality of their language that the nomadic bedouin life has bequeathed them.

The Qur'an used this linguistic appreciation to construct a new religious appreciation. To remedy the old ways and revive a profound spiritual vision.

It was a successful strategy even though the road wasn't smooth & easy. So the allure, artistry and magic of language was an essential part of the Qur'an's strategy when interacting with this raw material (the pre-Islamic Arabs) that fate wanted made ready for momentous historical tasks and charged with huge responsibilities and amazing achievements that no-one would have imagined. It was an outstanding venture of which its most important result was the doctrine of the miraculous nature of the Qur'an.
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Reply #141 - November 21, 2014, 10:06 PM

Sometimes language can enchant one to the point of distraction from what's being said. Form can dazzle & divert from content. So that once the initial effect has passed and the person is more conscious, he has already taken in the words and assimilated them. This is well known by great orators. The care & attention the Qur'an gives to its words and phrases is the care & attention of an inspired artist, engrossed in his art rather than the care & attention of an academic engrossed in his quest for truth. The Qur'an used words like alluring sirens, then set them loose to raid & conquer hearts & minds.

The sounds of the letters take attention away from their meanings. Harmonious sounds almost turn the words into musical rhythms yet the words in the final analysis don't mean much. The practice of turning words into music is not the frivolous practice that people indulge in for amusement, but is to turn words into an end in itself - this is (real) frivolity. Here everything is geared to serve the musical progression and enchanting melody.

The Arabs were amazed - at least according to what has been related - by the speech they heard recited by a man from amongst them. Speech that they found to be like a type of their speech and yet they were unable to produce the like of it. Most of them were astonished and dumbfounded and taken by the style and arrangement of the Qur'an and its expounding of the tales of past nations and prophets and the unseen, and details of legislation and wondrous references to the secrets of the universe.
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Reply #142 - November 23, 2014, 08:53 PM

On this basis the Qur'an demanded the Arabs acknowledge and accept that it is from God, and if not, it challenged them to bring the like of it. All they said in this respect was: "We have heard (the Qur'an). If we wanted, we could say something like this. This is just fairytales of the ancients" (8:31) In fact they responded with their own challenge to the Qur'an and the Lord of the Qur'an. For they were not convinced that the Qur'an was from God and they really wanted to get to the plain truth. They asked for a clear sign or an indication that would prove the Qur'an was from God, even if that sign was sending down punishment upon them, for they said: "Oh God! If this really is the truth from you, then rain down stones on us or bring on us some painful doom!" (8:32)

This was a rather embarrassing challenge for Muhammad which put his credibility on the line. But God - as usual - didn't stir. So despite their readiness to suffer punishment for the sake of truth and honest feelings of its importance and need for it, the Qur'an replied with this comical evasion from the embarrassing situation which they had put the prophet in: "God would not punish them while you, (Oh Muhammad), are among them." (8:33)(3)

One has to admire the integrity and dignity of the people who challenged Muhammad and their keenness to get to the truth of his claims even if it was at the expense of their own lives. They had heard the Qur'an and the many threats it made to the past nations, threatening to bring down a severe punishment upon them when they denied their prophets and the presence of these prophets amongst their people wasn't a barrier to God sending down punishment upon them. According to the Qur'an God always saves his prophets and their faithful followers one way or another… So what is preventing him here, Most Glorious is he, from carrying out his threat while saving his beloved Muhammad, the chosen one, just like he saved previous prophets!!??

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3. It appears that God didn't always carry out his threats in the past and he cleverly got out of this one in the same way as he did in this verse: "And [recall] when We took your covenant, [O Children of Israel, to abide by the Torah] and We raised over you the mount, [saying], "Take what We have given you, firmly and remember what is in it that perhaps you may become righteous." (2:63) but then despite them breaking their covenant God favoured them with forgiveness them as a bounty from himself: "Then you turned away after that and had it not been for the favour of God upon you and His mercy, you would have been among the losers." (2:64) On this occasion I have to ask; how could God accept this oath that wasn't freely made due of conviction but forcibly made under duress and compulsion: "We raised over you the mount, [saying], "Take what We have given you firmly!" ?
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Reply #143 - November 25, 2014, 11:23 PM

Muslims consider the fact that the Jahiliyya Arabs did not challenge the Qur'an by producing the like of it, to be proof of the Qur'an's superiority over pre-Islamic poetry and speech. As a consequence they regard it as proof of the miraculous nature of the Qur'an and the veracity of its prophet. This is the belief of the Muslims in the miraculousness of the Qur'an.

They began to compare pre-Islamic poetry with the Qur'an and made it an object of criticism, disparagement and depreciation in order to 'make the word of those who disbelieved the lowest and the word of Allah the highest.' In other words they were unable to make the greatness of the Qur'an clear except by detracting from the value of pre-Islamic poetry. However this is a fallacious method of appraising the worth of something as well as an injustice, for it means the Qur'an's greatness can only be measured by discrediting & marginalising pre-Islamic poetry.

Despite this, pre-Islamic poetry is pre-Islamic poetry. No matter how much noise and commotion its detractors make, it surpasses many verses of the Qur'an. It is considered by the eloquent speakers and masters of language to be of the highest standard of the cultured Arabic tongue and is used as the basis on which to measure Arabic usage and a witness to grammar, regardless of whether it is apocryphal or not, for real pearls don't lose their value no matter where they are found.

There are verses in the Qur'an that immediately impose themselves upon the high artistic senses and one cannot avoid being enchanted by words that swim around a world full of delights, pleasures desires and temptations and that that tug at the heart strings. They do that simply by their own internal strength and captivating creative power without the need for faith or divine devotion. In this respect there are a number of verses, for example: 2:255, 11:44, 13:32-33, 33:41-48, 34:11-12, 41:11, 43:84, 57:12, 66:8, 76:12-13.

Amongst the most outstanding verses of the Qur'an in my view, are when it expresses the future in the form of the past, and what is meant by the future here is the Day of Judgment, and this is to evoke a sense of it actually happening as the Mufassirun say:

وَٱلَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَعَمِلُواْ ٱلصَّالِحَاتِ… أُوْلَـٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ ٱلْجَنَّةِ… وَنَزَعْنَا مَا فِي صُدُورِهِم مِّنْ غِلٍّ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهِمُ ٱلأَنْهَٰرُ وَقَالُواْ ٱلْحَمْدُ للَّهِ ٱلَّذِي هَدَانَا لِهَـٰذَا… وَنُودُوۤاْ أَن تِلْكُمُ ٱلْجَنَّةُ أُورِثْتُمُوهَا بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ. وَنَادَىۤ أَصْحَابُ ٱلْجَنَّةِ أَصْحَابَ ٱلنَّارِ أَن قَدْ وَجَدْنَا مَا وَعَدَنَا رَبُّنَا حَقّاً… وَعَلَى ٱلأَعْرَافِ رِجَالٌ يَعْرِفُونَ كُلاًّ بِسِيمَاهُمْ وَنَادَوْاْ أَصْحَابَ ٱلْجَنَّةِ أَن سَلاَمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ… وَإِذَا صُرِفَتْ أَبْصَارُهُمْ تِلْقَآءَ أَصْحَابِ ٱلنَّارِ قَالُواْ رَبَّنَا لاَ تَجْعَلْنَا مَعَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّالِمِينَ. وَنَادَىٰ أَصْحَابُ ٱلأَعْرَافِ رِجَالاً يَعْرِفُونَهُمْ بِسِيمَاهُمْ قَالُواْ مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنكُمْ جَمْعُكُمْ… وَنَادَىٰ أَصْحَابُ ٱلنَّارِ أَصْحَابَ ٱلْجَنَّةِ أَنْ أَفِيضُواْ عَلَيْنَا مِنَ ٱلْمَآءِ أَوْ مِمَّا رَزَقَكُمُ ٱللَّهُ قَالُوۤاْ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ حَرَّمَهُمَا عَلَى ٱلْكَافِرِينَ( ٧: ٤٢-٥٠)

"And (as for) those who believe and do good… they are the dwellers of the garden; in it they shall abide… And We will remove whatever of ill-feeling is in their breasts; the rivers shall flow beneath them and they shall say: All praise is due to Allah Who guided us to this… and it shall be cried out to them that this is the garden of which you are made heirs for what you did. And the dwellers of the garden will call out to the inmates of the fire: Surely we have found what our Lord promised us to be true… and on the most elevated places there shall be men who know all by their marks, and they shall call out to the dwellers of the garden: Peace be on you… And when their eyes shall be turned towards the inmates of the fire, they shall say: Our Lord! place us not with the unjust. And the dwellers of the most elevated places shall call out to men whom they will recognise by their marks saying: Of no avail were to you your hordes… And the inmates of the fire shall call out to the dwellers of the garden, saying: Pour on us some water or of that which Allah has given you. They shall say: Surely Allah has prohibited them both to the unbelievers." (7:42-50)
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Reply #144 - November 26, 2014, 06:40 PM

(Sorry, I forgot this last sentence:)

On a similar level are these sections also: 18:53, 42:44-45, 57:13-14…

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Reply #145 - November 26, 2014, 11:07 PM

But are all the verses of the Qur'an on a single level of excellence, mastery and eloquence?? By no means! By no means! The Qur'an is not on one level of eloquence and power of expression, no matter what the long-bearded sanctimonious ones say nor those who made a career from fishing in stagnant waters, never mind the simple-minded and weak-minded believers. For indeed I say it loud and clear in front of witnesses, while the Qur'an contains verses of the highest quality and beauty, it also contains others that are extremely poor, substandard and of an embarrassingly low quality!!!

The veil of faith made the Qur'anic commentators and simple-minded, blind to these weak passages. But the wise recognised their weakness and were confused as what to do. In the end they resorted to distortion, patching up and skills of the commentators trade to paper over these passages. Each of them was up to the task of plugging the holes and veiling the flaws, and repairing the damage. They did this quite sincerely albeit without realising it. For they wanted to rescue their faith in anyway their could. Then once the Qur'an had become so familiar their literary appreciation and sense became dull. The Qur'an was polished by the tongue and perpetual recitation which made the Qur'an become deeply rooted in our consciousness.

Give me a madman and from his ramblings I will extract wisdom of the ages for you. Especially if he has a position of authority and is surrounded by those with vested interests and who benefit in some way. Have you not heard of the hypocrisy of the court hangers-on, sycophants, advisers and retinue?! Each one more given to being economical with the truth than the other. For they have come upon an invaluable catch; a deluded ruler that minds can get lost in the oceans of his teachings. That thoughts fail to encompass the intentions of the words. So they make it say that which it didn't say and pour upon it objectives that never occurred to anyone and they vie with one another to outdo the others. The one who comes up with the most waffle is the one who achieves the most.

This is what happens when the matter concerns the "holy" texts in which minds and understandings get lost within them. Here all sorts of aims and intentions are fabricated and attributed to the creator of the universes. Here, as a consequence, logic and reason are slaughtered as a holy sacrifice to the biggest of all idols, (holy texts)!!

They say that when Al-Walid ibn Mughira - one of the Meccan polytheists and one of the fiercest opponents of Muhammad - heard the Qur'an, he was very taken by its mastery, beauty and enchanting eloquence. I find that more than likely, as no-one recognises eloquence more than those who are themselves eloquent. But then they attribute to him that he said, while he was a stubborn opponent: "By God indeed it has a sweetness, and an elegance. It's topmost is fruitful while it's lowest part is abundant." And they don't stop there. No. They ascribe this dangerous comment to him: "It is not the speech of a human being!"

I repeat, I do not find it at all strange that the Qur'an should be described as beautiful by a stubborn enemy of the Qur'an. For it is fitting that the masters of eloquence attest to excellence when confronted by it and to put aside dispute with the one who uttered the eloquence. But I do find the last statement unlikely. For if he did say that then what stopped him from believing in the lord of the Qur'an, since he just accepted that the Qur'an had this divine status. For if the Qur'an was not "the speech of a human" then it is the speech of who? I suspect that this last comment is the addition of the narrator - and how liberal they are with such additions - especially since al-Walid's words have been narrated in many different forms and various wordings.

If it is true that al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said what has been narrated - and I have no reason to doubt it with the exception of the last comment - then that only applies to some of the verses of the Qur'an and not all of it. It mostly applies to the Meccan parts for the majority of it are short verses, with an expressive simplicity, with no affectation nor artificiality. On the contrary they have a fluidity and rhythm inspired by instinct, context, and the time. These are the verses that tugged at the heart of al-Walid. Had he heard what came later of the Medinan verses with it's confusion, disarray, weakness, flaws and even vulgarity and contradiction, he would have gone back on his previous judgment and we would have seen his complete rejection and disavowal of it.

He was very objective in his previous judgment of the Qur'an, (i.e. he gave an honest response despite being an opponent of Muhammad). This objectivity would give him an insight and clear vision which was denied the believers who were astonished by the Qur'an which took control of their emotions to the extent that they lost their critical ability and became unable to see the Qur'an as it was. Nor make an accurate assessment of it, nor distinguish between the fat and the lean in it.

Their senses had become dull, for it (faith) had bequeathed them a deafness in their ears and a veil over their sight. They had become soldiers for the Qur'an, reciting it, defending it and subservient to it. Herded by faith like the shepherd herds his flock.

Truth is what the Qur'an says. Falsehood is everything else. So the voices were launched supporting the Qur'an, heaping praise and extolling the excellence of the Qur'an. There was no talk except about the Qur'an and its miraculous nature. Sadly all this has had a devastating and crippling impact on the interpretation and understanding of the Qur'an.
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Reply #146 - November 29, 2014, 10:39 PM

Chapter 3

Part 4

The Work of the Qur'anic Commentators.

The exegetical endeavour that the Qur'an generated is an endeavour of scholarship of the highest order, if only it wasn't marred by flaws that have become a focus for absurdity and idiocy. For every commentator starts from a specific viewpoint and according to the principals of a specific school. Rarely do they come to the Qur'an from a neutral point of view. So the Salafi sees in the Qur'an that which the Mu'tazilite does not. The Sunni sees something different from the Shi'i or Khariji. Likewise the Sufi and anagogic see in it that which the philosopher or the scientist does not.

The books of tafseer (Qur'anic commentary) contain a great deal of vacuous speculation and extraneous material that is not worth the ink it is written with. The immense skills and talents of our commentators was poured over every detail in the Qur'an, whether big or small. How often they would strain their minds and intellects to find ingenious ways of making the Qur'an say that which it does not say - nay - that never occurred to it to say. They gave one meaning a thousand meanings and discovered it has a thousand wisdoms and invented for it a thousand subtle points of eloquence - in fact they discovered brand new categories of eloquence which have nothing to do with eloquence at all and that neither God nor his prophet intended them nor did it cross their mind.

Likewise they drown out the errors, slip-ups, fragmentation, confusion, contradiction and weak construction, in a sea of contrived interpretations,* conjectures and fabrications, which faith then endows with a lustre of excellence, magnificence and reverence that it doesn't deserve. It is the nature of faith to shut the windows of the mind and increase blindness upon blindness. Then those parts of the Qur'an which they found difficult or impossible to understand, they deliver into God's hands. God knows best what it means, and "Over every knowledgeable person is one more knowing."**

Nor did they stop there but heaped upon themselves blame, accusations of ignorance and reproach in order to exonerate God from every flaw and attribute to him every perfection.

I have absolutely no doubt in their sincerity, for they are simply unable to envisage that the word of God is anything other than the height of perfection. So if they found it fell short of the embodiment of perfection by a little way or a long way, they raised it up high powerfully thinking that this shortcoming must be because of their limited vision and limited reasoning. It is simply impossible that the fault could lie with the speech of God. Glory be to God most high above that by a long way. Thus it is the habit of the believer to blame his own ignorance in order to glorify his Lord. Not one of them had the courage to criticise even one single verse of the Qur'an. Their only concern was to waft the smell of incense over it and repair that which was broken, plug the holes and attach meaning to that which had none!!!

The consequence of all that was layer upon layer of tautology & stultiloquence.

Indeed the books of tafseer are stuffed full of puerile pontification, absurdity and rambling. The unbiased researcher must rely on a much more honest and rigorous strategy when explaining the Qur'anic text. One that is built upon an objective critique and a dispassionate appraisal so that one is able to distinguish the bad from the good,*** the comely from the crass. What is clear and what is encrypted, leaving one more than baffled. This is what the Qur'anic commentators did not achieve and did not want to achieve, nay, they were unable to achieve. So there is no true critique of the Qur'anic text, no challenging of any verses, no exercising of reason to them in an open analytical spirit, free and unfettered by presuppositions. On the contrary, there is only unending defence, absolute servitude, throwing themselves blindly prostrate on the ground, revealing only the extent of man's shortcomings and weakness in the face of the holy text. Any holy text. Whether it be the Torah, the Gospels or the Qur'an.

The text. Wrapping ourselves in the text. Cleaving to the text. Worshipping the text. Wading in the seas of the text to arrive at the hidden secrets of the text. Diving into the depths of the text to pull out pearls and precious stones that are embedded within the text. All this and more are the 'treasures' of the text that bequeaths its owner nothing but feeble-mindedness and shallowness. He becomes fossilised and comatose, losing his ability to see and discriminate, losing that spark of inquisitiveness & questioning that has inspired us throughout history to probe, poke and peek behind the curtains. Instead he has dissolved himself in the text and disintegrated into nothingness.

_________________________________

*Ta'wilat - تأويلات plural of: Ta'wil - تأويل . In Islamic theology this usually refers to interpretations of the Qur'an that seek to find deeper, hidden meanings, often allegorical and esoteric.

**"Over every knowledgeable person is one more knowing - وفوق كلّ ذي علم عليم This is a quote from: 12:76, which has become a common Arabic saying. Hassan al-Basri said: "There is no scholar but above him is one who knows more, until you end with Allah, Mighty & Glorious is He."

***Literally: "To distinguish the impure from the pure" (ليميز الخبيث من الطيب) which is a reference to Qur'an, 8:37, "So that Allah may distinguish the impure from the pure." (ليميز الله الخبيث من الطيب).
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #147 - November 30, 2014, 09:42 PM

It has destroyed the capacity to think critically and independently as well as all ability to differentiate and make a sound judgment upon the 'holy' text that would contradict the inviolability of the text. On the contrary you see them invent hands, legs and wings for the text to help it soar in the sky and escape from its flaws. So that it can stand up, when it falls. Even though these "gifted commentator" still retain their rationality and presence of mind in other fields that have nothing to do with the holy text.

Look at al-Ghazali how vigorously he applies reason, but then soon loses his critical ability when talking about the hoopoe bird of Sulayman, the camel of Salih, the people of Gog and Magog and the beast that God will bring out of the earth in the end times, for a task of great importance, concerning the unbelievers, so that this beast can inform them - in the Arabic language of course: "that people did not believe in Our verses." (27:82)*

Look at St. Augustine, this great skeptic who was a giant amongst scholars in every field before embracing Christianity. Then look at how his strength was sapped when talking about the miracles of the saints, or when he dives into the 'secrets' of the trinity, crucifixion and atonement, and what it contains of profound wisdoms and deep meanings!

When it comes to God we are all the same. The text first. Reason last. Man can be so strong and yet so weak. The state of man is truly a marvel. The mouse and the lion both live inside this creature!!

***

God is perfect. I am deficient. God is great. I am worthless. God is pure. I am sinful. God is noble. I am ignoble. God knows. I am ignorant. God is always right. I am always wrong. Thus it is that God is constantly the antithesis of man. Why does man do this to himself? Because he is unable to accept his condition as it is with all the contradictions and conflicts. A world with so much evil and tragedies that seem to have no meaning or reason. He feels the need to discover the "wisdom" that lies behind it. It is the invisible but wise hand of God "and God is in full control over His affairs; but most among mankind know it not." (12:21) God has a plan, a wisdom and all this confusion, conflict, tragedy and suffering is for a wise and wonderful reason so do not dare to oppose God's wisdom. Do not dare to rebel against God's absolute authority. So the solution to the conflicts, flaws and contradictions we see is that man must take the responsibility for them. He either caused them by his own hand or is too shortsighted to understand the wisdom and majesty behind it, while God must be placed in a safe high place away from any responsibility for the evil, suffering and contradictions of the world.

For that reason you will see man sacrifice himself to rescue his Lord. Or to put it more precisely, to rescue the image he created of his Lord. He pays with himself to buy his Lord out of trouble. He blames himself to free his Lord from blame. He starves himself so his Lord will be satisfied, he is self-depreciating in order to make his Lord perfect, he lowers himself so his Lord rises high, he wounds himself to heal his Lord. He alone is the sinner. He alone is the criminal. God self-sufficient not in need of the world. If a disaster befalls man then he must blame no-one but himself. For your Lord does not wrong a soul. Thus does man philosophise away affliction and suffering and gives them a meaning that doesn't belong to them. So man's hope is renewed. His Lord created everything while he is created. God is infallible while he is flawed. So the slave must be devoted to the Lord and if he does then the Lord will become clear to the slave. So both over flow with meaning and one derives meaning and existence from the other.

The Qur'anic commentators, collectively, are but garrulous sophists and I shall say for the hundredth time, they do not know the meaning of true textual criticism. Their greatest concern is to affect a pedantic erudition to justify the text and defend it at any cost. If they make a false show of actual criticism it is only carefully directed criticism, i.e. superficially it looks like criticism but it is only affected in order to highlight a point they intended to make from the outset and so is in fact also just disguised justification and defence. Their only concern is to find exits for that which has no exit! They think that by this they are doing good. But they don't realise that by doing that they are just harming the case for faith. As though God has nothing to offer but such sophistry and mendacity. They are corrupting while thinking they are repairing, misguiding while thinking they are guiding. They are an example of the complete lack of any sort of methodical critical appreciation and objective scholarly deliberation.

Worse than that is when they have finished unloading all their gibberish and all they possess of stories and tales, and spicing and patching and their vacuous metaphysical, theological, and "scientific" merchandise, they start to apologise and excuse themselves by saying "God knows best.' They don't want to confirm their ignorance, while at the same time they don't want to admit that they are simply making up their own speculations about the Qur'an. For in that - if you only knew - is a terrible sin. And with God most High I seek refuge! So they get out by using this amusing phrase: "And God knows best what he means, Glory to him Most High above that which they ascribe."!

____________________________

*"We will bring forth for them a beast from the earth speaking to them, that people did not believe in Our verses." (27:82) Al-Suyuti says in his tafseer: "When it (the beast) emerges (from the earth) it will speak to those present in Arabic and say to them that people did not believe in the Qur'an."
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #148 - December 01, 2014, 08:48 PM

Chapter 3

Part 5

An Inevitable Revolution.

We need to move from the stage of commenting on the text to the stage of a much deeper critical analysis of the text and subtext. This will help us a great deal to truly understand it. Perhaps one of the good things about the age we live in is that it has witnessed the birth of genuine textual criticism. It is our hope that this trend will embrace all "holy" texts, the Islamic ones as well as the Christian ones, for we have been left behind in this respect as the Europeans have outstripped us by far in this field and since early times too.(4)

We are still a long way off from achieving this qualitative leap of courage that would open up for us wide horizons. The naive stage of religious certainty is a primitive approach that belongs to the past. The time has come for us to cross over and go beyond to what lies ahead. Or at the very least reduce its effect as far as we are able to do. It is a romantic fairy-tale approach that tells us more about the mind of the person writing the tafseer than it does about the text he's commenting on.

Believers of whatever sort - whether Muslims, Christians or others - cannot ever accept that the divine books can be subject to rigorous scholarly criticism. The Torah, Gospels, and Qur'an are too sacred to be contaminated by temporal sciences and human endeavours that the soldiers of Iblees have invented to detract from the word of God. So rather than exposing the text to rational scrutiny the commentators sought to shield it and cover it in a veil of contrived interpretations. Pouring flattering explanations upon it to hide its defects and conceal its contradictions.

Although the Arabs didn't experience something on the level of the Spanish Inquisition, they nevertheless remained entangled within a vicious and fruitless circle, albeit with a little more freedom. A circle of verbosity, padding and dressing. Of over-working the text and saddling it with burdens and loads above that which it can bear. While still those who research the Qur'an have no other aim but to highlight the eloquence of the text and the hidden wisdom behind it. How great is the effort they expend to delve and get to the bottom of the text, yet how trivial and insignificant are the results they reach after having spent so long bent over and agonising over the text.

***

__________________________

4. That was in the 17th Century when Spinoza wrote his famous essay: "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus," which was translated into most European languages. It has also been translated into Arabic by Hassan Hanafi under the title Risala al-Lahut wa al-Siyasa (رسالة اللاهوت والسياسة) which spawned some work in this area. (Hassan Hanafi is currently a professor at Cairo University and chair of the philosophy department. His liberal views on Islam, most notably expressed in his book: "An Invitation for Dialogue" caused great controversy in Egypt and accusations of apostasy.)
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My Ordeal With The Quran - Actual Translation
Reply #149 - December 02, 2014, 05:16 PM

The Qur'anic discourse, during the first generation of Muslims, was a call for a complete change. It was in its day a revolution against rigid, archaic traditions and inherited beliefs that were widespread throughout the length and breadth of the Arabian peninsular. In many verses, the Qur'an launched blistering attacks upon the way people cling to the old ways and customs of their predecessors, stubbornly adhering to them no matter how they contradicted truth. It admonished them for their shortsightedness and rigid minds. For they were a people who lived in the past, seeking in it an excuse, a crutch and an absolute source of reference just as we do today. Nothing delights the emotions of the reactionary more than talk of how great the past was and the glories of the past and life in the splendour of the past.

It is the revolutionary mentality alone that is capable of bringing about change and of creating a climate responsive to change. This is what the Qur'an understood well and worked towards, exemplified in the person of Muhammad the spokesperson of the Qur'an and the driving force in achieving its aims and objectives. Indeed he launched a total assault on the old mentality, wiping it from the minds of his believers, and inculcating them with a new vision. This is why Islam was so successful at the time and made astonishingly fast progress, exceeding all expectations.

***

Revolution is the product of its time and place. Its environment and context. It only comes after difficult labour pains. But every age has a time when it must come to an end. There cannot be a revolution except when the time is right. After that are stages of growth, vigour, solidification, imitation, repetition, stagnation and finally collapse. The Qur'an during the first century of the Hijra was a revolution. But now it is a dead weight on the revolution. It is reactionary and counter-revolutionary. It has become the very thing it rebelled against, it has become customs, traditions and the ways of our forefathers that are blindly and stubbornly adhered to even though they have long become obsolete. It has deeply entrenched within us habits and patterns of behaviour and ways of thinking that have become a stumbling block to all efforts for progress in our countries.

Who will bring us a new Qur'an to overturn the old Qur'an and pull it up by its roots and distance ourselves from the worn-out traditions and mentality of our predecessors. A new Qur'an that would angrily scold us for stubbornly clinging to old traditions and inherited customs, like a sick person clings to his blankets. A new Qur'an that would take on the task of completely cleansing us of blindly following the idols of our forefathers just like the first revolution cleansed its generation. That would heal us of the centuries of accumulated dead-weight and legacies from the periods of decline and stagnation. and wake us up from this nightmare of delusions and putrid decay that slams the door of the present in our faces. That would help us take the first step on the road of a thousand miles to the future of a bright new dawn and a better life.
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