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FADE TO BLACK

Triumph of the Irrational

Five Perplexing Pillars - Shahada

Islam has five immutable obligations known as the Five Pillars.

1. Declaring your allegiance to God.

2. Daily prayers.

3. Zakat (obligatory charity).

4. Month-long fasting.

5. Pilgrimage to Mecca.

Both the Five Pillars and the core beliefs of Islam, the Pillars of Faith, have little or nothing to do with what non-Muslims consider moral imperatives such as those found in the Ten Commandments, e.g., don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie... In fact, the Koran counsels the exact opposite, going as far as granting every believer a license to kill and the right to abscond with the property of the people they slaughtered at the Author’s behest. 

9:111 Allah has bought from the believers their lives and their wealth in return for Paradise; they fight in the Way of Allah, kill and get killed. That is a true promise from Him in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’an; and who fulfills his promise better than Allah? Rejoice then at the bargain you have made with Him; for that is the great triumph.

8:68 But for a prior ordinance of Allah, you would have been afflicted on account of what you have taken (an ordinance which made it lawful for Muslims to take spoils and captives) by a terrible punishment.

You can lie if it will further Allah’s Cause: a world governed by His book and the sayings and example of the illiterate who revealed its content.

4:71 O believers, be on your guard; so march in detachments or march altogether.

4:72 Indeed, among you is one who will stay behind, so that if a disaster befalls you, he will say: “Allah has favoured me, since I have not been a martyr with them.”

4:73 If, however, a bounty from God comes to you, he will say, as though there was no friendship between you and him: “Would that I had been with them; then I would have won a great victory.”

Except for the mandatory tax in the guise of a charitable donation, the Zakat, the Pillars are all about worshipping a god who insists on being worshipped in a very public and prescribed manner and on schedule. You would be hard-pressed to find fault with the Commandments. This is not the case for the Pillars, starting with the first pillar, the Shahada, the Declaration of Faith.

There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.

All mainstream religions have some form of declaration expressing a belief in one or more of the proverbial higher being. What sets Islam’s declaration apart is that a mortal, who started hearing voices after experiencing what appears to have been a sunstrokes, is part of that declaration .

The Ka’ba, the building that contained the stone from Paradise, had been extensively damaged by a fire and water. It was decided to build a new one. When it came time to move the revered relic to its new location, every leader of the ten clans vied for the honour, some willing to fight to the death for the right to move the most sacred rock in the universe.

A compromise was reached. The next person to enter the Sacred Mosque, the enclosure surrounding the Ka’ba, would decide who would move the stone. Guess who showed up?

Muhammad’s solution was to roll the rock onto a large sheet after which each clan chief would grab a hold of the sheet and move the rock to its new enclosure. The clan leaders were very impressed with the forty-something Muhammad and he was highly praised by all.

***

It is not inconceivable that the praise he received from all concerned planted the idea that he could rule his Arab brethren. The Koran acknowledges as much. Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh, headed the tribal council that ruled Mecca. When informed by their kin that he had been appointed a messenger of the one and only god, and to do what he revealed of this god’s intentions, they suspected a scheme to rule over them, Revelation 38:6, and would no longer have anything to do with him.

38:6 And the dignitaries among them went forth saying: “Go on and be steadfast regarding your gods. This is indeed a matter premeditated.

Moududi’s explanation of “a matter premeditated”:

Muhammad has some vested interests: He is extending this invitation to us in order to subjugate us and rule us as his subjects.

***

The enthralled future Prophet stripped down to the waist to carry what appears to be building materials for the new Ka’ba and promptly suffered what we might call a heat or sun stroke from which he nearly died. A hadith to that effect:

Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah:

When the Ka'ba was rebuilt, the Prophet and Abbas went to carry stones. Abbas said to the Prophet "(Take off and) put your waist sheet over your neck so that the stones may not hurt you."

(But as soon as he took off his waist sheet) he fell unconscious on the ground with both his eyes towards the sky. When he came to his senses, he said, "My waist sheet! My waist sheet!" Then he tied his waist sheet (round his waist).

Bukhari 58.170

It was shortly thereafter that he started experiencing visions. A hadith by Bukhari about the physical manifestation experience during some visions suggest a neurological origin with physical manifestations.

Narrated Aisha:

Al-Harith bin Hisham asked Allah's Apostle "O Allah's Apostle! How is the Divine Inspiration revealed to you?"

Allah's Apostle replied, "Sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell, this form of Inspiration is the hardest of all and then this state passes off after I have grasped what is inspired. Sometimes the Angel comes in the form of a man and talks to me and I grasp whatever he says."

Aisha added: "Verily I saw the Prophet being inspired Divinely on a very cold day and noticed the sweat dropping from his forehead (as the Inspiration was over)."

Bukhari 1.2

It was after this life-threatening trauma that the man who would achieve immortal fame as the Prophet Muhammad received his first visit from the angel Gabriel in a cave overlooking Mecca where he had gone to spend the night to pray and meditate.

The celebrated angel informed him that he had been chosen as God’s ultimate messenger to mankind to deliver His final warning as to how He must be worshipped and how everyone must behave lest His Anger destroy them all. It was all in a book God had authored which He called the Koran, the most accepted meaning being “to recite.”

God expected Muhammad to memorize, recite and inform his kin of what Gabriel conveyed to him about the contents of the Koran, a book Allah kept near Him at all times in Paradise.

43:3 We have made it an Arabic Qur’an that perchance you may understand.

43:4 And, indeed, it is in the Mother of the Book, with Us, lofty and wise.

The following case for Gabriel to be acknowledged as the Messenger of God in the Shahada, as a way of demonstrating the Angel and Muhammad’s relationship, is done with tongue firmly in cheek.

If anyone should be acknowledged as Allah’s Messenger in the Shahada it should be the angel Gabriel. Not only did he have to reveal the content of a surreal book that never leaves the Author’s side in all kinds of venues, including that cave where he first appeared to a shocked Muhammad, but to do so to an illiterate.

A portion of a hadith quoted in its entirety in a previous chapter where Muhammad tells Gabriel "I do not know how to read."

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 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)…

Bukhari 1.3

Aisha would reiterate, in another hadith, that her husband had been receiving communications from Paradise in the form of dreams before that momentous first meeting with Gabriel.

Narrated Aisha:

The commencement (of the Divine Inspiration) to Allah's Apostle was in the form of true dreams in his sleep, for he never had a dream but it turned out to be true and clear as the bright daylight. Then he began to like seclusions, so he used to go in seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship Allah continuously for many nights before going back to his family to take the necessary provision (of food) for the stay.

Bukhari 60.478

Nowhere in His Book does Allah mention revealing what He revealed of His Koran in dreams, yet this is how Muhammad’s companions remember him receiving many of God’s communications.

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

Communications from Paradise sent while Muhammad slept would explain the horrific descriptions of Judgement Day and Hell, that mere words could not have conveyed. Rather than wake his good friend, Gabriel would meet Muhammad in his dreams, such as the time he introduced him to the angel Michael.

Narrated Samura:

The Prophet said, "Last night I saw (in a dream) two men coming to me. One of them said, ‘The person who kindles the fire is Malik, the gate-keeper of the (Hell) Fire, and I am Gabriel, and this is Michael.’"

 Bukhari 54.459

Gabriel did yeoman’s work flying down from Paradise flapping his 600 wings, often in the spur of a moment, with bits and pieces of the Koran for Muhammad to memorise.

Narrated Abu Ishaq-Ash-Shaibani:

I asked Zir bin Hubaish regarding the Statement of Allah: "And was at a distance of but two bow-lengths or (even) nearer; So did (Allah) convey The Inspiration to His slave (Gabriel) and then he (Gabriel) Conveyed (that to Muhammad)." (53:9-10)

On that, Zir said, "Ibn Mas'ud informed us that the Prophet had seen Gabriel having 600 wings."

Bukhari 54.455

The revelations referenced in the above hadith and the context:

53:4 It (the Qur’an) is only a Revelation being revealed,

53:5 Taught him by a mighty one (the angel Gabriel),

53:6 Possessed of steadfastness. And so he arose,

53:7 While he was on the highest horizon;

53:8 Then, he came closer and hovered around;

53:9 Coming thus within two bows’ length or closer.

53:10 Then (Allah) revealed to His servant what He revealed.

He even anticipated questions that Muhammad might be asked and arrived just in time to secretly provide him with the answers.

Abdullah bin Salam was a rabbi and respected member of the Jewish community before he converted to Islam. He became a Muslim after a short meeting with Muhammad during which he answered three fatuous questions to the rabbi's satisfaction. It was fortuitous that the angel Gabriel, whom bin Salam then considered an enemy of the Jews, had just had a conversation with Muhammad about what was on bin Salam's mind.

Narrated Anas:

Abdullah bin Salam heard the news of the arrival of Allah's Apostle (at Medina) while he was on a farm collecting its fruits. So he came to the Prophet and said, "I will ask you about three things which nobody knows unless he be a prophet. Firstly, what is the first portent of the Hour? What is the first meal of the people of Paradise? And what makes a baby look like its father or mother?"

The Prophet said, "Just now Gabriel has informed me about that."

Abdullah said, "Gabriel?"

The Prophet said, "Yes."

Abdullah said, "He, among the angels is the enemy of the Jews."

On that the Prophet recited this Holy Verse: "Whoever is an enemy to Gabriel (let him die in his fury!) for he has brought it (i.e. Qur'an) down to your heart by Allah's permission." (2:97)

Then he added, "As for the first portent of the Hour, it will be a fire that will collect the people from the East to West.

And as for the first meal of the people of Paradise, it will be the caudite (i.e. extra) lobe of the fish liver.

And if a man's discharge proceeded that of the woman, then the child resembles the father, and if the woman's discharge proceeded that of the man, then the child resembles the mother."

On hearing that, Abdullah said, "I testify that None has the right to be worshipped but Allah, and that you are the Apostle of Allah, O, Allah's Apostle; the Jews are liars, and if they should come to know that I have embraced Islam, they would accuse me of being a liar."

In the meantime some Jews came (to the Prophet) and he asked them, "What is Abdullah's status amongst you?"

They replied, "He is the best amongst us, and he is our chief and the son of our chief."

The Prophet said, "What would you think if Abdullah bin Salam embraced Islam?"

They replied, "May Allah protect him from this!"

Then Abdullah came out and said, "I testify that None has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Apostle of Allah."

The Jews then said, "Abdullah is the worst of us and the son of the worst of us," and disparaged him.

On that Abdullah said, "O Allah's Apostle! This is what I was afraid of!"

Bukhari 60.7

Most of the time Gabriel appeared to Muhammad in the form of a man.

Narrated Masruq:

I asked Aisha "What about His Statement: 'Then he (Gabriel) approached and came closer, and was at a distance of but two bow-lengths or (even) nearer?'" (53:8-9)

She replied, "It was Gabriel who used to come to the Prophet in the figure of a man, but on that occasion, he came in his actual and real figure and (he was so huge) that he covered the whole horizon."

 Bukhari 54.458

Only Muhammad could see Allah's super angel in whatever form he took. That did not stop him from observing common courtesies, introducing Gabriel to anyone who might be in the same room, such as his child bride Aisha.

Narrated Abu Salama:

Aisha said that the Prophet said to her "O Aisha! This is Gabriel and he sends his (greetings) salutations to you."

Aisha said, "Salutations (Greetings) to him, and Allah's Mercy and Blessings be on him," and addressing the Prophet she said, "You see what I don't see."

Bukhari 54.440

Narrated Aisha:

Allah's Apostle said, "O Aisha! This is Gabriel sending his greetings to you."

I said, "Peace, and Allah's Mercy be on him."

Aisha added: "The Prophet used to see things which we used not to see."

Bukhari 73.220

A woman claimed to have seen Gabriel in conversation with Muhammad, though she did not realize it at the time.

Narrated Abu Uthman:

I got the news that Gabriel came to the Prophet while Um Salama was present. Gabriel started talking (to the Prophet and then left. The Prophet said to Um Salama, "(Do you know) who it was?" (or a similar question).

She said, "It was Dihya (a handsome person amongst the companions of the Prophet)."

Later on Um Salama said, "By Allah! I thought he was none but Dihya, till I heard the Prophet talking about Gabriel in his sermon."

Bukhari 56.827

Aisha did catch Muhammad in a one-sided conversation with Gabriel after which her husband punched her for eavesdropping and then explained why she had not seen or heard the angel.

Muhammad b. Qais said (to the people):

Should I not narrate to you (a hadith of the Holy Prophet) on my authority and on the authority of my mother?

We thought that he meant the mother who had given him birth. He (Muhammad b. Qais) then reported that it was Aisha who had narrated this: Should I not narrate to you about myself and about the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him)?

We said: Yes.

From Aisha we learn that it all started when she joined her husband for an intimate moment, after which, thinking she is asleep, Muhammad leaves her side.

She said: When it was my turn for Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) to spend the night with me, he turned his side, put on his mantle and took off his shoes and placed them near his feet, and spread the corner of his shawl on his bed and then lay down till he thought that I had gone to sleep. He took hold of his mantle slowly and put on the shoes slowly, and opened the door and went out and then closed it lightly.

Aisha is not asleep and decides to follow him outside where she observes her husband doing hand gestures, after which they both return to the house, Aisha rushing ahead and hopping into bed, hoping he is none the wiser.

I covered my head, put on my veil and tightened my waist wrapper, and then went out following his steps till he reached Baqi'. He stood there and he stood for a long time. He then lifted his hands three times, and then returned and I also returned. He hastened his steps and I also hastened my steps. He ran and I too ran. He came (to the house) and I also came (to the house). I, however, preceded him and I entered (the house), and as I lay down in the bed, he (the Holy Prophet) entered the (house), and said:

Muhammad is no fool; he notices she is out of breath and asks the obvious question, and she better tell him the truth because if she does not, Allah will tell on her.

Why is it, O Aisha, that you are out of breath?

I said: There is nothing.

He said: Tell me or the Subtle and the Aware would inform me.

Aisha tells whatever she tells her husband, swearing it is the truth, and this is when he strikes her.

I said: Messenger of Allah, may my father and mother be ransom for you, and then I told him (the whole story).

He said: Was it the darkness (of your shadow) that I saw in front of me?

I said: Yes.

He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?

She said: Whatsoever the people conceal, Allah will know it.

At this point, her husband feels compelled to explain to an obviously skeptical teenager why she did not observe him and the angel Gabriel in animated conversation, one of the reasons being that she was not appropriately dressed.

He said: Gabriel came to me when you saw me. He called me and he concealed it from you. I responded to his call, but I too concealed it from you (for he did not come to you), as you were not fully dressed. I thought that you had gone to sleep, and I did not like to awaken you, fearing that you may be frightened.

The hadith ends with Muhammad, on Gabriel's order, instructing his wife to go to a graveyard, where he would join her later, and pray for the dead as penance for having spied on him.

He (Gabriel) said: Your Lord has commanded you to go to the inhabitants of Baqi (to those lying in the graves) and beg pardon for them.

I said: Messenger of Allah, how should I pray for them (How should I beg forgiveness for them)?

He said: Say, Peace be upon the inhabitants of this city (graveyard) from among the Believers and the Muslims, and may Allah have mercy on those who have gone ahead of us, and those who come later on, and we shall, God willing, join you.

Sahih Muslim 4.2127

Gabriel only missed one scheduled home visit with Muhammad, and that was because of a puppy.

Aisha reported that Gabriel (peace be upon him) made a promise with Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) to come at a definite hour; that hour came but he did not visit him. And there was in his hand (in the hand of Allah's Apostle) a staff. He threw it from his hand and said: Never has Allah or His messengers (angels) ever broken their promise.

Then he cast a glance (and by chance) found a puppy under his cot and said: Aisha, when did this dog enter here?

She said: By Allah, I don't know.

He then commanded and it was turned out.

Then Gabriel came and Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) said to him: You promised me and I waited for you, but you did not come, whereupon he said: It was the dog in your house which prevented me (to come), for we (angels) do not enter a house in which there is a dog or a picture.

Sahih Muslim 24.5246

Probably the main reason that Gabriel should be acknowledged as the Messenger in the Shahada is that Muhammad’s role may have been added to put an end to the many civil wars that followed his passing.

From Remembering Uzza – Birth of a Cult:

Uzza: Al-Malik was the son of Marwan, the fifth Umayyad caliph. He would put an end to al-Zubayr's aspirations and redefine what it meant to be a believer by borrowing an idea from the man he defeated: a second Shahada.

Bob: What is a Shahada?

Uzza: A declaration of faith, what you profess to believe in. What the early believers professed to believe in was that there was only one god.

Bob: That is what Jews and Christians also believe, isn't it?

Uzza: Yes. That is why, like the Jews of Medina, they did not perceive the believers as much of a threat and vice versa and why, for the most part, they were well treated by the believers as demonstrated by Muhammad at Tabuk.

Gerry: What about the part of the Shahada where Muhammad is the Messenger of God?

Uzza: That was added later. It may have been al-Zubayr's idea. At least he was the first to make it official by issuing a coin during the Second Fitna on which was stamped what has been called the Second Shahada, a declaration that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Al-Malik adopted both the coinage and the saying, perhaps as a way of telling the believers in the South that the believers in the North believed the same thing. Al-Malik was a practical man; he may have also added the second Shahada so that Jews and Christians could not avoid paying the Jizya by repeating the Shahada about there being only one god when asked to so.

Bob: By pretending to be Muslims.

Uzza: But they were not pretending; they all believed in the same God, the one and only.

Gerry: The addition of the second Shahada is how we got the cult of the Prophet Muhammad?

Uzza: It laid the foundation. The full-blown cult of Muhammad would be born out of necessity. Allah said that the Koran contained an answer to everything. For a small book, by Holy Book standards, made smaller by constant repetitions, it was quite the boast. When it came to governing an empire, it would prove an idle one. It would be left to the Abbasids dynasty, which overthrew the Umayyad in 750 or so in another war of succession referred to as the Third Fitna, to come up with a comprehensive system of precedents that would guide and expand on the administration of rule by the Book.

Five Perplexing Pillars - Prayers