Boreal

FADE TO BLACK

Triumph of the Irrational

K1 - A Book of Incongruities

How do we know our holy books are free from error? Because the books themselves say so. Epistemological black holes of this sort are fast draining the light from our world.

The End of Faith - Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason, W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 35

39:28 We made it an Arabic Qur’an without any defect that perchance they might be God-fearing.

Classical Arabic is assumed:

Classical Arabic (CA), also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary text from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendant [of Classical Arabic]...

While the lexis and stylistics of Modern Standard Arabic are different from Classical Arabic, the morphology and syntax have remain basically unchanged (though MSA uses a subset of the syntactic structure available in CA). The vernacular dialects, however, have changed more dramatically...

Tradition has it that the caliph Ali, after reading the Qur'an with errors in it, asked Abu al-Aswad al Du'ali to write a work codifying Arabic grammar. Khalil ibn Ahmad would later write Kitab al-Ayn, the first dictionary of Arabic...

From Modern Arabic poetry 1800-1970: the development of its forms and themes by Shmuel Moreh

Abrogations

Of all the incongruities that devotees of a religion steeped in absurdities have to accept, the concept of abrogation has to be the most outlandish. Abrogation is common in the real world as better information replaces information that is out of date. In the world of revealed truths, i.e. immutable facts made known to a mortal by a god—in this instance, an alleged illiterate merchant by the name of Muhammad—retractions should not even be the exception. It defies logic, and is just plain weird if not absurd.

Scholars and clerics from the Middle Ages (eight to eleventh century) initially identified more than two hundred abrogated revelations, apparently oblivious to the uncomfortable conclusion that can be derived from their endeavour. For example, earlier in Muhammad’s Call, Allah showed a measure of respect for other religions.

2:62 The believers (Muslims), the Jews, the Christians and the Sabians – whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does what is good, shall receive their reward from their Lord. They shall have nothing to fear and they shall not grieve.

As Islam became a force to be reckoned with, God’s position toward other religions hardened and He sent down another immutable fact that invalidated what He had said earlier about Jews, Christians, and Sabians—an obscure religious sect whose presence in  the Koran remains a mystery—have nothing to fear.

3:85 Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.

The inherent absurdity of an omniscient deity not getting it right the first, or even the second and third time around, may explain attempts by contemporary religious scholars to refute the very concept of abrogation. One such academic, Muhammad Asad (1900-92), argued that verse 10:64 was evidence of the immutability of Allah's Words.

10:64 Theirs is the good news in the present life and the Hereafter. And there will be no alteration of the Words of Allah. That is the great triumph.

Not so, according to Ahmad von Denffer (1949-present). For this eminent erudite, understanding abrogation is central to the correct application of God's laws. Denffer quotes four revelations to Asad's one, where Allah admits to occasionally changing His mind.

2:106 Whichever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring instead a better or similar one. Do you not know that Allah has the power over all things?

13:39 Allah blots out and confirms what He pleases; and with Him is the Mother of the Book.

16:101 And if We replace a verse by another – and Allah knows best what He reveals – they say: “You [Muhammad] are only a forger.” Surely, most of them do not know.

17:86 If We please, We certainly can blot out that which We have revealed to you (O Muhammad); then you would find no guardian to assist you against Us.

There is no disputing that an omnipotent god can do whatever he wants, including changing his mind. The question remains: why would an all-powerful, god who also claims to be omniscient, need to? The absurdity is self-evident if lost on a mind corrupted by the irrational.

For the complete list of abrogated verses and their abrogator(s) please read Let Me Rephrase That, Boreal Books.

Nonsense Below, Above and Beyond

45:20 This (Qur’an) is an illumination for mankind, a guidance and mercy unto a people who believe with certainty.

Of all the absurdities that Muslims must believe with certainly is that the Earth is like a raft floating on a sea of mud and Paradise just above the clouds held up by invisible pillars anchored to this floating platform. Allah revealed that Alexander the Great (Dhul-Qarnayn, in the Koran) walked to one end of this raft-like structure and witnessed the sun set in this sea of mud.

18:83 And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnayn. Say: “I will give this account of him.”

18:84 We established him firmly in the land and We gave him access to everything.

18:85 And so he followed a course;

18:86 Then, when he reached the setting-place of the sun, he found that it sets in a spring of black mud and found, by it, a people. We said: “O Dhul-Qarnayn, either you punish them or show them kindness.”

18:87 He said: “As to the wrongdoer, we shall torture him; then he will be returned over to his Lord, Who will punish him a terrible punishment (sic).

18:88 “But he who believes and does good deeds, he will have the fairest reward (Paradise), and we will command him to do what is easy for him.”

Alexander then walked to the other end of the Earth to witness the sun rise.

18:89 Then he followed [another] course.

18:90 But when he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people whom We have not provided with any screen against it.

18:91 So it was. We had full knowledge of what he had.

***

During his travels, Alexander would encounter the warrior tribes of Gog and Magog. The wall he built of iron and brass is what keeps them at bay to this day.

18:92 Then he followed another course.

18:93 But when he reached the point separating the two barriers, he found beside them a people who could barely understand what is said.

 18:94 They said: “O Dhul-Qarnayn (Alexander the Great), surely Gog and Magog are making mischief in the land. Shall we pay you a tribute so that you may build a barrier between us and them?”

18:95 He said: “What my Lord has empowered me to do is better. So help me forcefully and I will build a barrier between you and them.

 18:96 “Bring me large pieces of iron.” So that when he had levelled up [the gap] between the two sides, he said: “Blow.” And having turned it (the iron) into fire, he said: “Bring me molten brass to poor on it.”

 18:97 Then, they (Gog and Magog) could neither scale it or make a hole through it.

God expects the wall to serve as a barrier until the End Times, when He will destroy it, thereby allowing the warring factions to fight one another until the trumpet is blown signalling the onset of Judgement Day.

18:98 He said: “This is a mercy from my Lord; but when my Lord’s Promise comes to pass, He will turn it into rubble, and the Promise of my Lord is ever true.”

18:99 And on that day we shall make them surge upon one another, and the trumpet shall be blown, and we shall gather them together.

 18:100 On that Day We shall boldly set Hell before the unbelievers.

 18:101 Those whose eyes were closed to My Reminder (the Qur’an) and they could not hear [it].

***

Earth is as flat as a couch.

2:21 O people (of Mecca), worship your Lord who has created you as well as those who came before you so that you may guard against evil;

2:22 Who has made the earth a couch for you, and the heavens a canopy, and Who sent down water from the sky, bringing forth by it a variety of fruits as a provision for you. Therefore do not knowingly set up equals to Allah.

Earth’s roof is actually the bottom of the first level of Paradise.

79:27 Are you, then, stronger in constitution than the heaven He has erected?

79:28 He raised its vault then levelled it off.

79:29 He dimmed its night and lighted its day.

79:30 Then, the earth, He flattened.

This blue bottom layer is free of any cracks of the type that tend to become visible, over time, in manmade constructions.

50:6 Have they not beheld the heaven above them, how We erected it and adorned it, and it has no cracks.

67:3 He Who has created seven stratified heavens. You do not see any discrepancy in the creation of the Compassionate. So fix your gaze, do you see any cracks?

Who stops the sky, i.e., Paradise, from crashing into the ground?

22:65 Do you not see that Allah has subjected to you what is on earth and the ships which sail in the sea at His Command? And He keeps the sky from falling to the ground, save by His Leave. Allah is Gracious and Merciful to mankind.

Paradise is located just above the clouds supported by invisible pillars anchored into the Earth.

13:2 Allah is He Who raised the heavens without pillars that you can see; there He sat upright on the Throne and made the sun and the moon subservient, each running for an appointed term. He manages the [whole] affair and makes clear the Revelations so that you may be certain of meeting your Lord.

-----

31:10 He created the heavens without pillars that you can see and laid down in the earth immovable mountains, lest it shake with you, and scattered throughout it every variety of beast. And We have sent down water from heaven, thereby causing it to grow in it every noble [kind of plant].

Heaven and Earth are made of the same materials. That would explain the need for pillars to stop it all from crashing to the ground.

21:30 Have the unbelievers not beheld that the heavens and the earth were a solid mass, then We separated them; and of water We produced every living thing. Will they not believe, then?

Paradise was remodeled into seven levels after Allah created the Earth and everything on it.

2:29 It is He Who created for you everything on earth, then ascended to the heavens fashioning them into seven, and He has knowledge of all things.

Paradise could be compared to a skyscraper anchored to a raft that is not going anywhere.

40:64 It is Allah Who made the earth a fixed station for you and the sky a high edifice. He fashioned you in a shapely manner and provided you with the good things. That for you is Allah, your Lord; so blessed be Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.

The Dark Ages is generally accepted to be the period in our history between 400 and 1000 A.D. Islam is a product of that period, when more than 500 years of Greek astronomical discoveries were temporally lost, including observations by Pythagoras, Aristotle (Aristotle, after an eclipse, observed that only an orb could throw a circular shadow on the moon)  and Hipparchus that the earth was a sphere, to be replaced by absurdities such as those found in the Koran that endure to this day.

The Greeks had also identified five planets: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Their path across the sky recorded in the Almagest by Ptolemy of Alexandria [90-169 A.D.). In the Koran, the planets are ornaments and obstacles to guard against the jinn.

Who are the jinn? Of all the inhabitants of the Koran, jinns (Allah refers to them collectively as the jinn) are the most fascinating. The caricature of the genie is undoubtedly based on this creature of the Koran (more about them in the Chapter, The Jinn).

Soothsayers in Muhammad’s time had jinns in their employ. They would fly up to the lowest level of Paradise to listen to Allah discussing His plans for the future with his angels, provided they could get close enough, and report back. The planets were the first obstacle they had to overcome. If the “d” in devil is lowercase, as in Revelation 37:7, it usually means the jinn.

37:6 We have adorned the lower sky with the ornament of the planets,

37:7 To guard against every rebellious devil.

Imbedded in this Maginot Line in the sky are removable lamps. What we know today as stars that become shooting stars when the angels launch them at jinns who venture too close.

67:5 We have adorned the lower heaven with lamps, and We turned them into missiles launched against the devils; and We have prepared for them the punishment of the Fire.

A much larger heaven is part of Allah’s plans.

51:47 And heaven, We have built it mightily, and We shall surely expand it.

To believe in Allah’s description of his creation of the Earth and what is above and beyond is to believe in the long discredited theories of a well-travelled 6th century Christian monk by the name of Cosmas. He wrote what is recognized today as one of the first, if not the first, scientific treatise on geography. In his Christian Topography Cosmas argued that the Earth is flat and stationary, with heaven above and Hell below which is pretty much in keeping with how Allah described His creation in the Koran.

Cosmas’ theory would have been familiar to Bahira the monk with whom Muhammad spent time during travels to and from Damascus. Before he found his true calling at the age of forty or thereabouts, the future Prophet accompanied, or led trading caravans as far north as Damascus. He was twelve when he began to accompany his uncle Abbas on a trips to Syria. On the way, they would encamp near a Christian monastery near present-day Basra and visit with Bahira.  

The first person to climb Mount Olympus and return with the news that no gods could be found was the death knell for the Greek gods of antiquity. It should have been the same for the god who claimed that the Earth was a raft floating on a sea of mud and Paradise just above the clouds when Gagarin first orbited the Earth. If not then, than definitely after that fateful 1968 Christmas orbit of the Moon by Apollo 8.

For some to accept the nonsense about our planet and what is above and beyond, they must be provided with at least the semblance of a rational explanation, no matter how outlandish, such as that provided by cleric Mohammed Yusuf. The deceased leader of Boko Haram, Africa's largest gathering of holy warriors whose designation literally means “non-Islamic education is a sin,” explained in a 2009 BBC interview that a spherical planet, and space as we know it, is simply an illusion created by Allah to test our faith in what He revealed in His Koran.

Allah is quite the illusionist; His greatest recorded deception has to be Crucifixion.

4:157 And their saying: “We have killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary and the Messenger of Allah.” They neither killed nor crucified him; but it was made to appear so unto them. Indeed, those who differ about him are in doubt about it. Their knowledge does not go beyond conjecture, and they did not kill him for certain;

4:158 Rather Allah raised him unto Him. Allah is Mighty and Wise.

Confounding History

Much of what you read here and in the next section, Repetitions, is from Shared Prophets: Biblical Figures in the Koran - What they said and did, Boreal Books.

Some Bible stories in the Koran tend to become Mecca centric with biblical heroes such as Abraham making near impossible treks across the length of the Arabian Peninsula to pay homage to God at Mecca and to visit with his wife’s former servant Hagar and their son Isma`il.

Of course, none of these visits are mentioned in the Bible and there is no historical or archaeological evidence of major biblical figures crossing the deserts of Arabia to spend time in Mecca which, at the time of Abraham, if it existed at all, would have been nothing more than a nomadic settlement. In the first century, the Romans maintained a garrison at the port of Jeddah, about 50 miles from Mecca, and catalogued much of the area without mentioning the place that should have been inhabited since Hagar’s arrival, and a significant pilgrimage destination from the time Abraham raised the Ka’ba during a visit with the mother of the progenitor of the Arabs. 

2:125 And [remember] when We made the House (the Ka’ba) a place of residence for mankind and a haven [saying]: “Make of Abraham’s maqam [stand] a place for prayer.” We enjoined Abraham and Isma`il [saying]: “Purify My House for those who circle it, for those who retreat there for meditation, and for those who kneel and prostrate themselves (perform the prayers).”

2:126 And when Abraham said: “My Lord make this a secure city and feed with fruits those of its inhabitants who believe in Allah and the Last Day.” Allah (having accepted Abraham’s prayer) said: “As for those who disbelieve, I shall provide for them for a while (in this life), and then subject them to the scourge of the Fire, and what an abominable fate!”

2:127 And while Abraham and Isma`il raised the foundations of the House, [they prayed]: “Our Lord, accept [this] from us. Surely you are the All-Hearing, the Omniscient.”

It is while labouring at laying (or rebuilding) the foundations of the Ka`ba that Abraham asked God to send the Koran to the Arabs, whom, at the time, consisted of his son Isma`il.

2:128 “Our Lord, cause us to submit to You, and make of our posterity a nation that submits to You. Show us our sacred rites, and pardon us. You are, indeed, the Pardoner, the Merciful.”

2:129 “Our Lord, send them a Messenger from among themselves who will recite to them Your Revelations, to teach them the Book (the Koran) and the wisdom, and to purify them. You are truly the Mighty, the Wise.”

As mentioned earlier, there is no empirical evidence to substantiate the Koran’s, or the Bible’s account for that matter, of the life of Abraham. Not so for the Koranic story of the bad Samaritan. In the Koran, the good Samaritan of the New Testament is transformed into a bad Samaritan who convinces the Hebrews, while Moses is busy somewhere else, to worship that infamous golden calf.

The Samaritans emerged as “an ethnic and religious community distinct from other Levant peoples… after the Assyrian conquest of the Israelite Kingdom of Israel in approximately 721 BCE”^Wiki at least two thousand years after Moses. The idea that a Samaritan would be part of the Hebrew exodus out of Egypt is not realistic to say the least. Allah, in sharing stories of prophets from the Bible, whom He invites to strut their stuff on His latest stage that is the Koran, plays fast and loose with the narrative with the story of the bad Samarian being His most outlandish adaptation.

The story of the bad Samaritan begins with Allah asking Moses what he is doing rushing headlong ahead of his people.

20:83 “What has led you to go ahead of your people, O Moses?”

20:84 He said: “Those people are on my tracks, so I have hasten towards You, O Lord, that you may be well-pleased.

20:85 He said: “We have tried your people after you left and the Samaritan has led them astray.”

Hearing this, Moses decided to go back and give his people a piece of his mind.

20:86 So, Moses went back to his people furious and sorrowful. He said: “O my people, has not your Lord made a fair promise to you? Has the promise, then, been protracted for you? Or did you want your Lord’s anger to overtake you, and so you broke your promise to me?”

It was all the Samaritan’s fault.

20:87 They said: “We have not broken the promise to you by our choice, but we have been forced to carry loads of the people’s finery and so we threw them away, as the Samaritan also did.”

That finery was obviously not thrown away but used by the Samaritan to make that infuriating calf of gold.

20:88 Then he produced for them a calf – a mere body which lowed; and so they said: “This is your god and the god of Moses, but he has forgotten.”

20:89 Do they not see that it does not return any reply to them and does not have the power to harm or profit them?

20:90 Aaron had said to them before: “O my people, you have been tried by it and your Lord is truly the Compassionate. Follow me, then and obey my order.”

20:91 They said: “We will not stop worshipping it, till Moses comes back to us.”

Moses then seized his brother by the beard.

20:92 He said: “O Aaron, what prevented you, when you saw them going astray,

20:93 “From following me. Have you, then, disobeyed my order?”

 20:94 He said: “Son of my mother, do no seize me by the beard or the head, I feared that you would say: ‘You have caused division among the Children of Israel and did not observe my words.’”

Moses then turned his attention to the Samaritan.

20:95 He said: “What is the matter with you, O Samaritan?”

20:96 He said: “I perceived what you did not perceive, and so I grasped a handful of dust from the messenger’s (Gabriel ) trail and threw it down. That is what my soul prompted me to do.”

***

In Islamic traditions, God did not mean for the home of the Arabs to be mostly a vast desert of sand. It was the Devil’s doing. After Allah created the heavens and the earth He noticed that something was missing, that something was sand. So He sent His do-it-all angel with a bag of sand to spread evenly over his creation.

As Gabriel was flying over present day Arabia spreading his sand the Devil came up behind him and ripped open his bag causing most of the sand to drop on the Peninsula. Therefore, what the Samaritan probably threw down was a handful of sand. After that admission, Moses curses and banishes the Samaritan. The curse “do not touch” in Revelation 20:97 according to Moududi may have been that he was inflicted with leprosy as a scourge from Allah.

20:97 He said: “Begone; it shall be given you in your lifetime to say: ‘Do not touch’ and you shall be given a promise which you shall not break. Look then at your god, whom you continued to worship. We shall burn him; then We shall scatter his ashes in the sea.”

***

Assuming that an omniscient god does not make mistakes, could the reason for the juxtaposition of the Samaritan in time and place be that Muhammad confused what was allegedly revealed to him by the Jews about the Exodus, and what was probably revealed to him by the monk Bahira and/or a Christian relative by the name of Waraqa about the good Samaritan of the New Testament?  

25:4 The unbelievers say: “This (the Qur’an) is nothing but deceit, which he (Muhammad) has invented and was assisted therein by other people (the Jews).” They have simply come up with wrongdoing and falsehood.

25:5 And they say: “Legends of the ancients which he solicited their writing down. Hence they are dictated to him morning and evening.”

Narrated Aisha:

The commencement of the Divine Inspiration to Allah's Apostle was in the form of good dreams which came true like bright day light, and then the love of seclusion was bestowed upon him. He used to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah alone) continuously for many days before his desire to see his family.

He used to take with him [for] the journey food for the stay and then come back to (his wife) Khadija to take his food like-wise again till suddenly the Truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him and asked him to read.

The Prophet replied, "I do not know how to read."

The Prophet added, "The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, 'I do not know how to read.'

Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, 'I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?'

Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said, 'Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists) has created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous.' (96:1, 96:2, 96:3)

Then Allah's Apostle returned with the Inspiration and with his heart beating severely. Then he went to Khadija bint Khuwailid and said, 'Cover me! Cover me!'"

They covered him till his fear was over and after that he told her everything that had happened and said, "I fear that something may happen to me."

Khadija replied, "Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your kith and kin, help the poor and the destitute, serve your guests generously and assist the deserving calamity-afflicted ones."

Khadija then accompanied him to her cousin Waraqa bin Naufal bin Asad bin Abdul Uzza, who, during the pre-Islamic period became a Christian and used to write the writing with Hebrew letters. He would write from the Gospel in Hebrew as much as Allah wished him to write. He was an old man and had lost his eyesight. Khadija said to Waraqa, "Listen to the story of your nephew, O my cousin!"

Waraqa asked, "O my nephew! What have you seen?"

Allah's Apostle described whatever he had seen. Waraqa said, "This is the same one who keeps the secrets (angel Gabriel) whom Allah had sent to Moses. I wish I were young and could live up to the time when your people would turn you out."

Allah's Apostle asked, "Will they drive me out?"

Waraqa replied in the affirmative and said, "Anyone (man) who came with something similar to what you have brought was treated with hostility; and if I should remain alive till the day when you will be turned out then I would support you strongly." But after a few days Waraqa died and the Divine Inspiration was also paused for a while.

Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah

Al-Ansari while talking about the period of pause in revelation reporting the speech of the Prophet "While I was walking, all of a sudden I heard a voice from the sky. I looked up and saw the same angel who had visited me at the cave of Hira' sitting on a chair between the sky and the earth. I got afraid of him and came back home and said, 'Wrap me (in blankets).' And then Allah revealed the following Holy Verses (of Quran): 'O you (i.e. Muhammad)! wrapped up in garments!' Arise and warn (the people against Allah's Punishment), ...up to 'and desert the idols.' (74.1-5) After this the revelation started coming strongly, frequently and regularly."

Bukhari 1.3

In another authenticated hadith of Bukhari, Waraqa read the Gospels in Arabic.

Narrated Aisha:

The Prophet returned to Khadija while his heart was beating rapidly. She took him to Waraqa bin Naufal who was a Christian convert and used to read the Gospels in Arabic.

Bukhari 55.605

The contents of the Koran were delivered by the angel Gabriel to Muhammad via a voice in his head, in private meetings where the winged messenger appeared to him in the form of a man, and in dreams (what shape Gabriel took in these is not mentioned).

Narrated Aisha:

Al Harith bin Hisham asked the Prophet, "How does the divine inspiration come to you?"

He replied, "In all these ways: The Angel sometimes comes to me with a voice which resembles the sound of a ringing bell, and when this state abandons me, I remember what the Angel has said, and this type of Divine Inspiration is the hardest on me; and sometimes the Angel comes to me in the shape of a man and talks to me, and I understand and remember what he says."

Bukhari 54.438

Narrated Safwan bin Ya'la bin Umaiya from his father who said:

"A man came to the Prophet while he was at Ji'rana. The man was wearing a cloak which had traces of Khaluq or Sufra (a kind of perfume). The man asked (the Prophet), 'What do you order me to perform in my Umra (the lesser pilgrimage)?'

So, Allah inspired the Prophet divinely and he was screened by a place of cloth.

I wished to see the Prophet being divinely inspired.

Umar said to me, 'Come! Will you be pleased to look at the Prophet while Allah is inspiring him?'

I replied in the affirmative.

Umar lifted one corner of the cloth and I looked at the Prophet who was snoring. (The sub-narrator thought that he said: The snoring was like that of a camel).

When that state was over, the Prophet asked, "Where is the questioner who asked about Umra? Put off your cloak and wash away the traces of Khaluq from your body and clean the Sufra (yellow color) and perform in your Umra what you perform in your Hajj (i.e. the Tawaf round the Ka'ba and the Sa'i between Safa and Marwa)."

 Bukhari 27.17

Traditions maintain that Muhammad was an illiterate. Being an illiterate he not only had to depend on his memory alone to correctly remember what Gabriel communicated in varied ways, and whatever his Jewish neighbours and Christian acquaintances revealed to him about the Torah and the Gospels respectively, but also not to mix up who said what. If God, by definition is infallible, for the rational mind the errors in locating people in time and space are not His, obviously, therefore whose are they? It is easy to say Muhammad’s, but there is more to it than that.

Repetitions

The King James Bible is about 791,328 words, more than 10 times the number of words in the Koran. It covers a period of more than a thousand years and contains a cast of thousands. For such a monumental work it is surprisingly well ordered. The Koran, on the other hand, is the inspiration of just one man based on revelations ostensibly sent from God communicated over a period of just twenty-three years, between 610 and 632 AD almost exclusively.

Despite its brevity, the Koran is somewhat disorganized. There is no timeline and the only allowance given to any kind of order is the sequencing of most of the 114 chapters from longest to shortest. Because little attention appears to have been given to arranging the chapters and verses in chronological order, readers often receive answers to questions that have yet to be asked. For example, in Chapter 9, Verse 114 we are told that Allah refused Abraham’s plea to forgive his father for not believing.

9:114 Abraham asked forgiveness for his father, only because of a promise he had made to him; but when it became clear to him that he was an enemy of Allah, he disowned him. Indeed Abraham was compassionate, forbearing.

The actual request made by Abraham, and the promise made, is revealed ten chapters later:

19:47 [Abraham] said: “Peace be upon you. I will seek forgiveness for you from my Lord. He has, indeed, been gracious to me.”

An English translation of the Koran will run to about 77,700 words, the approximate size of a standard 300-page book. This is a book, Allah reveals, in which you can study “whatever you choose.”

68:35 Shall We consider those who submit like those who are criminals?

68:36 What is the matter with you; how do you judge?

68:37 Or do you have a Book in which you study?

68:38 Wherein there is whatever you choose.

It is a bold statement for a relatively small book where boundless repetitions occupy space that could, perhaps, have been put to better use such as Allah’s varied recollections of Moses’s first meeting with Pharaoh. In three of these recollections, Pharaoh’s magicians are sentenced to a slow, painful and humiliating death for switching their allegiance to Allah after seeing Moses’ staff morph into a snake. The type of death the Sharia expects to be meted out to Muslims who would abandon Islam and that will become the norm once Islam is triumphant and there are none left to be horrified.

The first time around:

7:124 “I will surely cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides; then I will crucify you altogether.”

7:125 They said: “Unto our Lord we surely shall return.”

7:126 "You only resent from us that we have believed in the Signs of our Lord when they came to us. Lord, grant us patience and let us die as men who submit to You."

The second time around, God is more specific as to the type and condition of the crucifixion apparatus.

20:71 He (Pharaoh) said: “Do you believe in him before I give you leave? It must be your chief who has taught you magic. I shall then cut your hands and feet on alternate sides, and I will crucify you upon the trunks of palm trees, and you will certainly know whose punishment is sterner and more lasting.”

20:72 They said: “We cannot prefer you to what came to us of clear proofs and to Him Who created us. So, decide what you will decide regarding this present life.

20:73 “We have believed in our Lord, that He may forgive us our sins and what you forced us to practice of magic. Allah is best and most abiding.”

The third time around:

26:49 He (Pharaoh) said: “You have believed before I gave you leave. He (Moses) is indeed your chief, who taught you sorcery, and so you will learn. I shall cut off your hands and feet alternately and will crucify you all.”

The fourth time around Pharaoh won’t crucify his magicians, and his dignitaries appear to have switched sides as well. This time, he simply wants his administrator, Haman, to build him a tower; the Tower of Babel perhaps?

28:38 Pharaoh then said: “O my dignitaries, I did not know that you had any god but me. So kindle for me, O Haman, a fire upon the clay and build me a tower that I might behold the God of Moses. I really think he is a liar.”

The fifth time around, there is no mention of anyone being crucified, but Pharaoh still wants his tower.

40:36 And Pharaoh said: “O Haman, build me a tower that I may perchance reach the pathways,

40:37 “The pathways of heaven; and then look upon the God of Moses. For I think he is a liar.” That is how embellished for Pharaoh was his evil deed and how he was barred from the Path. Pharaoh’s guile was only destined to fail.

Paradise in the Koran, where Allah sits on His Throne, as mentioned earlier, is just above the clouds, so, what Pharaoh is asking is not unrealistic if he wants to prove Moses a liar.

The iterations of Moses’ first meeting with Pharaoh is not only illustrative of Allah’s penchant for repeating Himself, but also of a cruelty that is not confined to what He will do to sinners once they cross over into His domain(recommended The Islamic Hereafter – Hell, Boreal Books.)

The penultimate example of seemingly endless iterations of the same story is that of Iblis (also referred to as Satan in the Koran) who refused to bow down to Adam. Allah was not just watching these proceedings from on High, as in the meeting between Moses and Pharaoh, but was part of them; and still He can’t get His story strait. The variations are minor for the most part, but all are significant this being God.

Refusal 1:

2:34 And when We said to the angels: “Prostrate yourselves before Adam”, they all prostrated themselves except Iblis (Satan) who refused, out of pride and was one of the disbelievers.

Refusal 2:

7:11 And we created you, then fashioned you, and then said to the angels: “Prostrate yourselves to Adam”; so they prostrated themselves, except for Satan who was not one of those who prostrated themselves.

7:12 He (Allah) said: “What prevented you from prostrating yourself when I commanded you?” He (Satan) said: “I am better than he; You created me from fire , and You created him from clay.”

7:13 He said: "Get down from it (Paradise), then (sic). It is not given you to be arrogant therein. Get out; you are indeed one of the lowly.”

In this retelling, Satan is allowed to remain until Judgement Day when he will bear witness to the wickedness of those Allah will send to Hell (recommended The Islamic Hereafter – Judgement Day, Boreal Books).

7:14 Satan said: “Give me respite, until the Day when they shall be resurrected.”

7:15 He (Allah) said: “You are one of those who are granted respite.”

Refusal 3:

15:28 When your Lord said to the angels: “Behold, I have created a man from potter’s clay, out of moulded slime.

15:29 “When I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, fall down prostrating yourselves to him.”

15:30 The angels prostrated themselves, all together;

15:31 Except Satan who refused to be one of those who prostrated themselves.

15:32 He said: “O Satan, what keeps you from being one of those who prostrate themselves?”

15:33 He said: “I refuse to prostrate myself before a mortal you created from potter’s clay out of moulded slime.”

15:34 He said: “Get out of here, then, for you are surely accursed.

 15:35 “And the curse shall be upon you till the Day of Judgement.”

Satan again asks and is again granted the opportunity to lead mankind astray.

15:36 He said: “My Lord, reprieve me till the Day of Resurrection.”

 15:37 He said: “You are indeed one of those reprieved,

15:38 “Till the Appointed Day.”

Refusal 4: In this recollection Satan is not allowed to remain in Paradise and is in possession of an army composed of cavalry and infantry that he will use to do terrible thing to Adam’s progeny.

17:61 And when We said to the angels: “Prostrate yourselves before Adam”, they all prostrated themselves, except Satan, who said: “Shall I prostrate myself before one You have created from clay?”

17:62 He (Satan) said: “Do you see this one whom you honoured more than me?” If you would reprieve me until the Day of Resurrection, I will certainly destroy his progeny except for a few.”

17:63 He (Allah) said: “Begone! Whoever of them follows you, Hell is surely your reward, an ample reward.

17:64 “Stir up those of them you can with your voice, rally against them your horsemen and your infantry, share with them their wealth and children and promise them.” But Satan makes them only deceitful promises.

17:65 “Surely, over My servants you have no authority. Your Lord suffices as a Guardian”.

Refusal 5:

20:115 And We commanded Adam before, but he forgot, and We found in him no firm resolve.

20:116 And when We said to the angels: “Prostrate yourselves to Adam”, they prostrated themselves, except for Satan who refused.

20:117 So We said: “O Adam, this is surely an enemy to you and to your wife; so do not let him drive you out of Paradise; for then, you will be miserable.

In the Koran, Allah has no difficulties remembering men’s name. Women’s name is another matter. The only female mentioned by name in the entire Koran, and not referred as the wife of somebody is Mary mother of Jesus, and for good reason. She is there to set the stage for her son’s visceral denial that he is Allah’ son.

JESUS’ FIRST WORDS

(Excerpt from Shared Prophets: Biblical Figures in the Koran - What they said and did, Boreal Books.)

The infant Jesus, only a few hours after his birth, at the request of his mother who is being accused of having a being unchaste, will loudly proclaim that he is not the Son of God but a prophet sent by Allah, who praises Allah and does as Allah commands.

19:27 Then she brought him (the child) to her people, carrying him. They said: “O Mary, you have surely committed a strange thing.

19:28 “Sister of Aaron, your father was not an evil man and your mother was not unchaste.”

19:29 Whereupon she pointed to him. They said: “How will we talk to one who is still an infant in the cradle?”

Jesus:

19:30 He [Jesus] said “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah, Who gave me the Book and made me a Prophet.

19:31 “And He made me blessed wherever I am and has commanded me to pray and to give the alms, so long as I live;

19:32 And be devoted to my mother; and He did not make me arrogant and mischievous.

19:33 “Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die and the day I rise from the dead.”

***

In the Revelations about the crucifixion being an illusion, Jesus did not die on the cross. In a hadith, he returns to rule the world after Allah’s enemies have been defeated. The consensus among scholars seems to be for forty years, after which he will die on the eve of Judgement Day and be buried then quickly resurrected to be a witness against those who thought him more than “an Apostle of Allah.”

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, surely (Jesus,) the son of Mary will soon descend amongst you and will judge mankind justly (as a Just Ruler); he will break the Cross and kill the pigs and there will be no Jizya (i.e. taxation taken from non-Muslims). Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it, and a single prostration to Allah (in prayer) will be better than the whole world and whatever is in it."

Abu Huraira added "If you wish, you can recite (this verse of the Holy Book): 'And there is none Of the people of the Scriptures (Jews and Christians) But must believe in him (i.e. Jesus as an Apostle of Allah and a human being) Before his death. And on the Day of Judgment He will be a witness Against them.' (4:159)"

Bukhari 55.657

***

Allah echoing the baby Jesus’ claim:

19:34 Such was Jesus, son of Mary; it is the truth which they (the Christians) dispute.

19:35 It is not fitting for Allah to have a son. Glory be to Him; when He decrees a thing, He simply says: “Be”, and it comes to be.

19:36 Allah is truly your Lord and my Lord; so worship him. That is a straight path.

How wrong the wrongdoers, i.e., Christians are and how they will be held to account.

 19:37 Yet, the sects among them differed. Woe to those who have disbelieved from the spectacle of a great Day!

19:38 How well they will hear and how well they will see, on the Day they will come onto Us; but the wrongdoers today are in manifest error.

19:39 And warn them of the Day of sorrow, when the issue is decided, while they are heedless and do not believe.

---- end of except ----

Refusal 6:

38:71 When your Lord said to the angels: “I am going to create a mortal out of clay.

38:72 “When I have fashioned him and breathed into him of my Spirit, fall prostrate before him.”

38:73 Then all the angels prostrated themselves entirely;

38:74 Except for Iblis; he waxed proud and was one of the unbelievers.

38:75 He said: “O Iblis, what prevented you from prostrating yourself before what I created with My Own Hands? Have you waxed proud or were you one of the exalted?”

38:76 He said: “I am better than he; You created me from fire and You created him from clay.”

38:77 [Allah] said: “Get out of here (Paradise); you are truly accursed.

38:78 “And My curse shall pursue you till the Day of Judgement.”

The irony here is that Iblis is cursed, labelled an unbeliever in Revelation 38:74 with Allah standing, sitting or hovering over him, when in fact he is obeying God’s Law to the letter, that only He be worshipped.

Having given Moses' encounter with Pharaoh and Satan/Iblis’ refusal to bow down before Adam as an example of repetitiveness in the Koran, it is the story of Lot that takes the top prize for iteration, being recalled by Allah in eight surahs, i.e. chapters: 7, 11, 15, 26, 27, 29, 37 and 51.

Rather than add an excessive number of pages to Fade to Black by giving you all the iteration of the story of Lot, I would invite you to read Shared Prophets, Boreal Books for Allah’s various recollections of what happened to the “people of Lot”, and iterations of stories from the Bible that made it into the Koran, such as the surreal variations on the life and times of Abraham and that of Noah.

Post-Mortem Revelations

Two revelations may not have been revealed during Muhammad’s lifetime. The first was on the occasion of his death. With people running around in terror thinking that Judgement Day was at hand, Abu Bakr, who would succeed Muhammad as leader of the believers, quoted a verse that none had heard before about Muhammad destined to die like everyone else.

3:144 Muhammad is merely a Messenger, before whom many Messengers have come and gone. If then he dies or gets killed, you will turn on your heels? Should any man turn on his heels, he will not cause Allah any harm; and Allah will reward the thankful.

The other is a verse that declared Zoroastrians a people of the Book.

THE RELIGION OF PEACE IN PERSIA 

(Excerpt from Jihad in the Koran, Boreal Books)

Our aim is not to fight you. Accept Islam the peaceful way, and you will be safe. If not then clear our way to the people so that we may explain this beautiful way of life to them…

If you do not accept any of these conditions then the only alternative is the use of the sword.

Before deciding on the third alternative you should keep in mind that I am bringing against you a people who love death more than you love life.

From a letter by Khalid Ibn Al-Walid, the leader of the Muslim armies invading Persia, to impose "the beautiful way of life" by force, to the Persian General Hormuz before the battle of Kadima.

It was a typically bloody conquest with the believers offering no quarter, beheading thousands of surrendered and captured Persian soldiers and fulfilling Khalid's pledge to God that if He gave them victory, "no enemy warrior will be left alive, until their rivers run red with blood."

The Muslims may have won the war, but getting the Persian people to accept "the beautiful way of life" may have proven problematic for Umar, the Caliph at the time of the conquest—to discover another lost verse where God includes the Zoroastrians as a people of the Book who could refuse "the beautiful way of life" and not be put to death if they agreed to pay the jizya. The Magians in the following is the only reference to Zoroastrians in the Koran:

22:17 Indeed, the believers, the Jews, the Sabians, the Christians, the Magians and the idolaters – Allah shall decide between them on the Day of Resurrection.

Robert Wright in The Evolution of God speculates that Verse 22:17 may have been added after the Muslim conquest of Persia to make Islam more palatable to Zoroastrians by including them as a people whom Allah, who “does whatever He pleases,” may admit into Paradise.

By and large the Koran offers no evidence that Muhammad had contact with the Zoroastrians —except for this one verse where they appear out of nowhere and are suddenly eligible for Paradise. It’s enough to make you wonder whether this verse wasn’t added, or at least amended after Muhammad’s death, when the conquest of Persian lands brought many Zoroastrians under Islamic governance.

The Zoroastrians were a people of a book, not the Book, but a book, the Avesta. But, what about the Sabians?

There is another reason to suspect that this verse is a product of the post-Muhammad era. It grants salvation not only to Zoroastrians but to “Sabians.” To judge by the beliefs of their modern day heirs (sometimes called Mandeans), the Sabians, like the Zoroastrians, would have been hard to fit into the Abrahamic fold; they revered John the Baptist but considered Jesus, Abraham and Moses false prophets. And again (judging by their modern heirs) they would have had another thing in common with Zoroastrians; their residential epicenter was to the east of Muhammad’s turf, in modern-day Iraq and Iran, land conquered not by Muhammad but by his successors.

Robert Wright, The Evolution of God, p. 394