Boreal
Remembering Uzza
If Islam was explained to me in a pub
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ENDNOTES 1/4
A Bad Case of Dogmatic Distress
The governing Liberals have withdrawn a legal effort by the previous Conservative government to persuade Canada’s top court to strike down lower judicial rulings that allowed women to wear the niqab at citizenship ceremonies… The case centred on a lawsuit by Zunera Ishaq, a devout Muslim woman who moved from Pakistan to Ontario in 2008.
Ottawa Citizen, November 16, 2015
[2] Where the adolescent, the child in Allah is most evident is in the Marcel Marceau-like charades He demands from people to whom He has granted a favour; for example, Zachariah to whom He has granted a son.
3:38 Thereupon, Zachariah prayed to his Lord saying: “Lord grant me from Your Bounty fine descendants. Indeed You hear every prayer!”
3:39 Then the angels called him while he was at prayer in the sanctuary, saying: “Allah bids you rejoice in John, confirming a word (Jesus) from Allah, a master, chaste and a Prophet and one of the righteous.”
3:40 He said: “Lord, how will I have a son, seeing I have been overtaken by old age and my wife is barren?” “This is how Allah does whatever He pleases,“ He replied.
3:41 He said; “Lord give me a sign.” Allah said: “Your sign is that you will not speak to anybody for three days, except by signs; and remember your Lord often and give praise evening and morning.”
***
In the Koran, a child's unthinking cruelty becomes a deliberate act of destruction which seems to give the perpetrator a great deal of satisfaction. Even in revelations about the cities He has destroyed, you can hear the boy in Allah talking and exulting in His annihilation of the men, women and children they sheltered.
During a normal day, i.e., morning or afternoon, even in the Prophet’s time, children played, and adults worked, or were busy with more important things, from making love to making war. Yet, it is people at play, children, whom Allah brags about killing in revelation 7:98; and like children might say or do, He schemed to make their obliteration come about.
7:97 Did the people of the cities feel assured that Our punishment would not come upon them at night while they were sleeping?
7:98 Or did the people of the cities feel assured that Our punishment would not come upon them during the day while they were playing?
7:99 Or did they feel secure against Allah’s Scheming?
For none feels secure from Allah’s Scheming save the losing people. An omnipotent, omnipresent god does not need to scheme to get His way, but a child, an adolescent often does.
***
Older men's preference for whom they choose to be intimate with and why can be a sign of their emotional growth. A discussion between Muhammad and a travelling companion may be an indication that his behaviour, even when it came to sexual relationships, was that of an adolescent.
Remember, as you read the following, that Muhammad was in his fifties.
Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah:
I was with the Prophet in a Ghazwa (Military Expedition) and my camel was slow and exhausted. The Prophet came up to me and said, "O Jabir."
I replied, "Yes?"
He said, "What is the matter with you?"
I replied, "My camel is slow and tired, so I am left behind."
So, he got down and poked the camel with his stick and then ordered me to ride. I rode the camel and it became so fast that I had to hold it from going ahead of Allah's Apostle.
He then asked me, “Have you got married?"
I replied in the affirmative.
He asked, "A virgin or a matron?"
I replied, "I married a matron."
The Prophet said, "Why have you not married a virgin, so that you may play with her and she may play with you?"
Jabir replied, "I have sisters (young in age) so I liked to marry a matron who could collect them all and comb their hair and look after them."
Bukhari 34.310
“Muslim protesters march towards the Danish embassy in London” Ottawa Citizen, Saturday February 6, 2006.
We recognize that a free society must have the scope to debate, to criticize, proselytize, insult and even ridicule belief and religious practices in order to ensure that there is full scope – short of violence or inciting violence or other criminal offences - to tackle these issues.
From a plea by an alliance of Muslims, Christians, humanists and secularists urging the British Parliament to reject legislation limiting the rights to criticize religious beliefs and traditions.
48:28 It is He Who sent forth His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may exalt it above every other religion. Allah suffices as Witness.
Blame George W. Bush
[6] From The Places in Between by Rory Stewart, recalling his walk across the breadth of Afghanistan in 2002, from Herat to Kabul. During his journey he will meet a Mullah who will set him straight on the “central message” of the Koran.
5:32 For that reason, We decreed for the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul, not in retaliation for a soul or corruption in the land, is like one who has killed the whole of mankind; and whoever saves a life is like one who saves the lives of all mankind. Our Messengers came to them with the clear proofs; but afterwards many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.
5:33 Indeed, the punishment of those who fight Allah and His Messenger and go around corrupting the land is to be killed, crucified, have their hands and feet cut off on opposite sides, or to be banished from the land. That is a disgrace for them in this life, and in the life to come theirs will be a terrible punishment.
No Scarf, No Service!
FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and (d) freedom of association.
[10] The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins with an affirmation with which a substantial minority (if not a majority) of Canadians would disagree, and on which most historians must choke; that doing God’s work was uppermost on the minds of those who drafted the British North America Act (BNA) of 1867, with the rule of law a close or distant second.
Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law:
Nowhere in the British North America Act of 1867 is God even mentioned. The only possible reference to God, and it’s a tenuous one, is the proclamation that Canada’s government is still subservient to the British monarch, the head of Henry VIII’s church:
The Executive Government and Authority of and over Canada is hereby declared to continue and be vested in the Queen.
The "supremacy of God" in the Canadian Charter is a copycat restatement of the “one nation under God” declaration in the American Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855-1931), a Baptist minister. It originally did not include the phrase “one nation under God.” The good reverend wanted the pledge to apply to everyone, not just those who believed in an all-powerful invisible friend. It was President Eisenhower who, in 1954, convinced Congress to amend the pledge to include “one nation under God.”
[11] At forty-something, the merchant Abū al-Qāsim Muhammad ibn Abd Allāh ibn Abd al-Mutalib ibn Hāshim suffered what we might call a midlife crisis; a midlife crisis that may have been acerbated by a severe sunstroke suffered while helping with renovations of the Ka’ba, and from which he almost 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 after one of these life-threatening traumas 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 spokesperson to deliver the Almighty’s final message for mankind as to how He should be worshipped and how humanity must behave, lest His Anger destroy them all. It was all in a book God had authored which He called the Koran, the most accepting meaning being “to recite,” which He kept close at hand.
43:4 And, indeed, it is in the Mother of the Book, with Us, lofty and wise.
[12] Narrated Aisha:
The wives of the Prophet used to go to Al-Manasi, a vast open place (near Baqia at Medina) to answer the call of nature at night. Umar used to say to the Prophet "Let your wives be veiled," but Allah's Apostle did not do so. One night Sauda bint Zam'a the wife of the Prophet went out at Isha time and she was a tall lady.
Umar addressed her and said, "I have recognized you, O Sauda."
He said so, as he desired eagerly that the verses of Al-Hijab may be revealed. So Allah revealed the verses of "Al-Hijab."
Bukhari 5.148
[13] Narrated Aisha:
Sauda (the wife of the Prophet) went out to answer the call of nature after it was made obligatory (for all the Muslims ladies) to observe the veil. She was a fat huge lady, and everybody who knew her before could recognize her. So Umar bin Al-Khattab saw her and said, "O Sauda! By Allah, you cannot hide yourself from us, so think of a way by which you should not be recognized on going out."
Sauda returned while Allah's Apostle was in my house taking his supper and a bone covered with meat was in his hand. She entered and said, "O Allah's Apostle! I went out to answer the call of nature and Umar said to me so-and-so."
Then Allah inspired him (the Prophet) and when the state of inspiration was over and the bone was still in his hand as he had not put in down, he said (to Sauda), "You (women) have been allowed to go out for your needs."
Bukhari 60.318
2:228 Divorced women should keep away from men for three menstrual periods. And it is not lawful for them to conceal that which Allah has created in their wombs, if they truly believe in Allah and the Last Day. Their husbands have the right in the meantime to take them back, should they seek reconciliation; and women have rights equal to what is incumbent upon them according to what is just, although men are one degree above them (what is meant here is that the men have a superior authority). Allah is Mighty, Wise.
A Shirley Temple, Anyone?
Allah has warned us in the Koran, do not befriend the kuffar (a derogatory term for unbelievers), do not align yourself with the kuffar; the verses are so many and so numerous I can’t recite every one of them.
From an exhortation made to students from a British madrassa by Abu Yusuf Riyadh-ul-Haq, an Islamic scholar based in the United Kingdom, not to associate with Christians and Jews. BBC documentary, British Schools, Islamic Rules
76:15 And cup-bearers shall go round them with vessels of silver and goblets of glass,
76:16 Goblets of silver which they measured exactly.
76:17 And they are given therein to drink a cup whose mixture is ginger.
[17] Each level of heaven contains two gardens with much greenery, two gushing springs and in addition to fruit trees such as the drought-tolerant pomegranate, trees ordinarily found in oases, i.e., palm trees.
55:62 And beneath them (the two gardens) are two other gardens.
55:63 So, which of your Lord's Bounties do you both (Jinn and humans) deny?
55:64 Of dark green colour.
55:65 So, which of your Lord's Bounties do you both (Jinn and humans) deny?
55:66 Therein are two gushing springs.
55:67 So, which of your Lord's Bounties do you both (Jinn and humans) deny?
55:68 Therein are fruits, palm trees and pomegranates.
55:69 So, which of your Lord's Bounties do you both (Jinn and humans) deny?
[18] There is a very common ceremony practiced throughout most of the Muslim world called Khatmi-Qur’an. It is the ceremony to recognize and celebrate a child’s first full reading of the Koranic text in Arabic. Most children complete the first full reading of the Qur’an between the age of four and seven. It is the mother's responsibility to get her children to the Khatmi-Qur’an. Mosques around the world have the equivalent of Sunday school classes to assist the mother in getting her children "to master the proper pronunciation and to read the text clearly from the first verse to the last."
2:191 Kill them wherever you find them and drive them out wherever they drove you out. Sedition is worse than slaughter (emphasis mine). Do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight you at it. If they fight you there kill them. Such is the reward for the unbelievers.
Looking at scripture then as a product of the human mind, we have to remember the age in which it was written, the environment and mental climate in which it grew, the vast distance in time and thought and experience that separates it from us. We have to forget the trappings of ritual and religious usage in which it is wrapped and remember the social background in which it expanded. Many of the problems of human life have a permanence and a touch of eternity about them, and hence the abiding interest in these ancient books. But they dealt with other problems also, limited to their particular age, which have no living interest for us now.
From The Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru, written by the first Prime Minister of India while in British custody in Ahmadnagar in 1944.
The Enemy Within
47:15 The likeness of the Garden which the God-fearing have been promised is this: rivers of water not stagnant, rivers of milk whose taste has not changed, rivers of wine delighting its drinkers and rivers of distilled honey. Therein they have every variety of fruit and forgiveness from their Lord too…
83:25 They are given to drink from a sealed wine;
83:26 Whose seal is musk…
16:67 And from the fruits of palms and vines, you get wine and fair provision. Surely, there is in that a sign to a people who understand.
2:219 They ask you about wine and gambling, say: “In both there is great sin and some benefit for people. But the sin is greater than the benefit.” And they ask you about what they should spend, say: “What you can spare.” Thus Allah makes clear to you His Revelations so that you may reflect.
5:90 O believers, wine, gambling, idols and divining arrows are an abomination of the Devil’s doing; so avoid them that perchance you may prosper!
5:91 The Devil only wishes to stir up enmity and hatred among you, through wine and gambling, and keep you away from remembering Allah and from prayer. Will you not desist, then?
[26] Muhammad extended Allah's prohibition of alcoholic beverages to the containers in which it was served, but had second thoughts about prohibiting jars altogether, except perhaps green jars.
Narrated Abdullah bin 'Amr:
When the Prophet forbade the use of certain containers (that were used for preparing alcoholic drinks), somebody said to the Prophet. "But not all the people can find skins." So he allowed them to use clay jars not covered with pitch.
Bukhari 69.497
Narrated Ash-Shaibani:
I heard Abdullah bin Abi Aufa saying, "The Prophet forbade the use of green jars."
I said, "Shall we drink out of white jars?"
He said, "No."
Bukhari 69.501
Johnny: What about the Enlightenment, the philosophical movement of the 18th century that emphasized the use of reason to question accepted doctrines and traditions?
Muhammad: You call enlightened a movement that promoted so many misguided, so-called humanitarian reforms. This wicked Enlightenment philosophy was an invitation to question dogma, something the Prophet Muhammad, the peace and blessings of God be upon him, would have considered blasphemy, an affront to Allah The Lord Of Majesty and Bounty. This shallow philosophical movement, like others that came before and others that would follow, advanced notions that were not that much different than those put forward by these same second-rate Greek philosophers and their wrong-headed notion of human rights.
Johnny: Surely the Renaissance, which marked the end of the Catholic Church’s dominance in Europe, allowing for a flowering, a renaissance of the arts and sciences was a good thing?
Muhammad: The Renaissance, what a foolish mistake. Islam forbids all realistic representations of people or animals. The Prophet, the peace and blessings of God be upon him, said that on the day of Judgment, God will command people to put life into what they have fashioned. They won’t be able to do so and God will have a good laugh before condemning them to an eternity in His Hell for disobeying Him. The Renaissance encouraged all those painters and sculptors to create those graven images expressly forbidden by Allah, The Preventer. They even invented perspective to make those images stand out; adding insult to blasphemy. Need I say more?
Bernard Payeur, The Fractured Nation Interviews, 2010
[28] Dialogue beginning with "You welcome this Islamic population" adapted from a response by an individual who goes by the pseudonym Haïm Ittah to an Ottawa Citizen story about the Nice truck attack which killed 84 people including 10 children.
When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network, a series of semi-autonomous British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology, I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy. By blaming the government for our actions ... [they] did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
Hassan Butt, The Observer, My plea to fellow Muslims: you must renounce terror, July 1, 2007
3:118 O believers, do not take as close friends other than your own people (other than your co-religionists); they will spare no effort to corrupt you and wish to see you suffer. Hatred has already been manifest in what they utter, but what their hearts conceal is greater still. We have made clear Our Signs to you if only you understand.
[31] You can do your own Adhan (Call to Prayer) if necessary, and don’t be afraid of annoying whoever or whatever may be in the vicinity by raising your voice, for you will need a witness on Judgment Day to testify that he, she or it heard you recite the Call to Prayer if you want to claim additional reward points.
Narrated Abdul Rahman:
Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri told my father, "I see you liking sheep and the wilderness. So whenever you are with your sheep or in the wilderness and you want to pronounce Adhan for the prayer raise your voice in doing so, for whoever hears the Adhan, whether a human being, a jinn or any other creature, will be a witness for you on the Day of Resurrection."
Abu Said added, "I heard it (this narration) from Allah's Apostle."
Bukhari 11.583
[32] Narrated 'Ubdaidullah Al-Khaulani:
I heard Uthman bin Affan saying, when people argued too much about his intention to reconstruct the mosque of Allah's Apostle, "You have talked too much. I heard the Prophet saying, 'Whoever built a mosque... Allah would build for him a similar place in Paradise.'"
Bukhari 8.441
[33] Wealth, who has it and what they do with it is very much a pre-occupation, almost an obsession of Allah and His Messenger. Wealth, like children, is a temptation: it’s better in the Hereafter.
8:28 And know that your wealth and your children are a temptation, and with Allah is a great reward.
Just being rich is reason enough for Allah to cause your complete destruction and to take it all away.
28:58 And how many a city We have destroyed that had grown prodigal in its living. There are its dwellings, left uninhabited after they were gone, except for a few. We became the inheritors.
Having the means to fund an extravagant lifestyle does not automatically make you a candidate for “a very painful punishment” if you use some of your good fortune to further Allah’s plan for world domination by, for example, funding mosques and madrassas around the world as the Saudis and Qatarians have done. Do that, and not only will He forgive all your sins and admit you into Paradise but also provide you with a fine dwelling therein, perhaps to go along with Muhammad’s promised mosque in the sky.
61:10 O believers, shall I show you a trade which will deliver you from a very painful punishment?
61:11 Believe in Allah and His Messenger and struggle in the Cause of Allah with your possessions (wealth) and yourselves. That is far better for you, if only you knew.
61:12 He will then forgive your sins and admit you into the Gardens, beneath which rivers flow, and into fine dwellings in the Gardens of Eden. That is the great triumph.
In any event, your wealth and your life were Allah’s all along because of a bargain He made with you, as He explains in a verse called the Salvific Covenant, i.e., do this for me and I will do this for you, save you, give you Paradise.
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.
The promise of Paradise may not have been enough to get some of the wealthier contributors to freely finance Allah’s war against the unbelievers, compelling the Almighty to make, on five separate occasions, a request for money in the form of a loan that ostensibly will be repaid many times over during the lifetime of the lender − from war booty, one has to assume. And, as a bonus, the lender’s sin will be forgiven, meaning Paradise will be within reach.
2:244 Fight for the Cause of Allah and know that Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
2:245 Who is it that will lend Allah a generous loan, so that He might multiply it for him manifold? Allah provides sparingly and generously, and to Him you shall be returned.
----
64:17 If you lend Allah a fair loan, He will multiply it for you and forgive you. Allah is All-Grateful, All-Clement;
Skeptics might argue that Allah’s revelations about the evil of interest on borrowed money may have had something to do with Muhammad wanting to renege on a promise made in haste when funds to finance a war he was waging on Allah’s behalf were in short supply. A modern variation on an old campaign:
I am writing to you on behalf of Canberra Islamic Centre (CIC) Executive Committee in the holy month of Ramadan to seek your financial support and prayer for ongoing Islamic project in our National Capital … Your donation is an investment in the path of Islam that will benefit to the Muslim generations in Canberra/Australia.
As mentioned in the Holy Qur'an (64.17) ‘If you lend Allah a fair loan, He will multiply it for you and forgive you. Allah is All Grateful, All Clement.’
[34] Narrated 'Abdullah bin Umar:
Allah's Apostle said, "The prayer in congregation is twenty seven times superior to the prayer offered by person alone."
Bukhari 11.618
Medina and Mecca attract millions of believers every year, not only for the mandatory once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca, but to get the biggest reward of all for saying your prayer in a crowd of like-minded souls.
Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "One prayer in my Mosque (Medina) is better than one thousand prayers in any other mosque excepting Al-Masjid-AI-Haram (the Grand Mosque of Mecca)."
Bukhari 21.282
In 2012, the Saudis began work on the Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried. When completed it will not only be the largest mosque in the world, but the largest building, capable of accommodating 1.6 million ultimate-reward seekers.
[35] A number of options were considered to announce to the believers that it was again time to pray, before settling on the Adhan, i.e., the Call to Prayer.
Narrated Ibn Umar:
When the Muslims arrived at Medina, they used to assemble for the prayer, and used to guess the time for it. During those days, the practice of Adhan for the prayers had not been introduced yet. Once they discussed this problem regarding the call for prayer. Some people suggested the use of a bell like the Christians, others proposed a trumpet like the horn used by the Jews, but Umar was the first to suggest that a man should call (the people) for the prayer; so Allah's Apostle ordered Bilal to get up and pronounce the Adhan for prayers.
Bukhari 11.578
[36] Islamic scholar Tarek Ramadan understood this only too well when he exhorted believing women to invade the public space dressed in traditional Islamic garbs as a part of a campaign to swamp the West with advertising for the Islamic way of life. It was Tariq Ramadan's mother, Wafa al-Banna, the daughter of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, who instructed her son in the Salafist theology which guides the actions of Islamic State, and which her son would see propagated worldwide, assisted by the non-threatening example of females on parade to conceal the encroachment on the secular of an intolerant brutal ideology.
After centuries of strife, the West has learned to separate religion and politics – to establish the legitimacy of its leaders without referring to divine command. There is little reason to expect the rest of the world – the Islamic world in particular – will follow. We in the West find it incomprehensible that theological ideas still inflame the minds of men, stirring up messianic passions that can leave societies in ruin. We had assumed that this was no longer possible, that human beings had learned to separate religious questions from political ones, that political theology died in 16th-century Europe. We were wrong. It's we who are the fragile exception.
The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics and the Modern West (2007), Mark Lilla, professor of the humanities at Columbia University
[38] Dialogue beginning with "The appeasers and apologists" also adapted from a response by an individual who goes by the pseudonym Haïm Ittah to an Ottawa Citizen story about the Nice truck attack which killed 84 people including 10 children.
8:37 So that Allah might separate the foul from the fair and place the foul, one upon the other, piling them up all together and casting them into Hell. Those are truly the losers.
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.
Revelation 2:62 is said to be abrogated by 3:85:
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.
9:29 Fight those among the People of the Book who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden and do not profess the true religion, till they pay the poll-tax out of hand and submissively.
[42] The “Verse of the Sword”, verse 9:5 is said to supersede all other verses on the subject of war and peace.
9:5 Then, when the Sacred Months (these are the four months during which war was prohibited in pre-Islamic times) are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, take them [as captives], besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every point of observation. If they repent afterwards, perform the prayer and pay the alms then release them. Allah is truly All-Forgiving, Merciful.
As David Cook, author of Understanding Jihad explains: “while its immediate subject (verse 9:5) is the Pagan Arabs—a narrow application sustained by early commentators—later Muslim jurists would use the verse to proclaim a universal jihad against all non-Muslims.”
The First Holy Homicide
[43] Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."
Bukhari 52.177
In a Sahih Muslim authenticated hadith, the trees also are accomplices in the slaughter of the Jews.
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.
Sahih Muslim 41.6985
[44] From SpongeBob SquarePants, a popular children’s cartoon series where the protagonist is a talking sponge. A reminder of Johnny’s impression of Islam as the product of a “child-like mind.” If these anthropomorphising rants, which you also find in abundance in the Koran, are not a result of a latent manifestation of childhood fears and fantasies, then Islam has more in common with animism then it dares admit.
8:67 It is not up to any Prophet to take captives except after too much blood is shed (after the enemy is hard hit and subdued) in the land. You desire the fleeting goods of this world, but Allah desires the Hereafter, and Allah is Mighty, Wise.
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.
A hair-raising saying of Muhammad about privilege and entitlement confirming what Allah revealed about making stolen goods, one definition of booty, lawful for believers and believers only.
Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah:
The Prophet said, "I have been given five things which were not given to any one else before me.
1. Allah made me victorious by awe, (by His frightening my enemies) for a distance of one month's journey.
2. The earth has been made for me (and for my followers) a place for praying and a thing to perform Tayammum (dry ablution i.e. washing oneself before prayer using sand or dust if no water available), therefore anyone of my followers can pray wherever the time of a prayer is due.
3. The booty has been made Halal (lawful) for me (and my followers) yet it was not lawful for anyone else before me.
4. I have been given the right of intercession (on the Day of Resurrection).
5. Every Prophet used to be sent to his nation only but I have been sent to all mankind."
Bukhari 7.331
[46] Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand."
Bukhari 52.220
[47] Christianity has its Ten Commandments; Islam its Five Pillars, four of which (1 2 4 and 5) are about worshipping Allah. 1. Shahadah, declaring allegiance to God. 2. Salat, daily prayers. 3. Zakat, annual charity. 4. Saum, month-long fasting. 5. Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. Charity (Zakat) is the only one of the Five Pillars of Islam that has nothing, or next to nothing to do with worshipping Allah except, perhaps, in an indirect way, when you give it in furtherance of His Cause.
47:38 There you are; you are called upon to spend freely in Allah’s Cause, but some of you are niggardly. Yet he who is niggardly is only niggardly against himself. Allah is the All-Sufficient and you are the destitute. If you turn back, He will replace you by a people other than you, and they will not be like you at all.
Cynics might argue that Allah instinctively appreciated the strategic value of helping people in need in recruiting for His Cause. An understanding of the persuasive power of giving that was not lost on the Islamists who, during the catastrophic flooding in Pakistan in 2010, disrupted aid from Western Countries while facilitating the distribution of the inadequate contributions from Islamic regimes; or in Somalia where Allah’s militants stopped food shipments from Western nations from reaching famine-ravaged portions of the country.
The Pillars of Islam are mandatory activities which should not be confused with the Pillars of Faith, which are obligatory beliefs. 1) Belief in God; 2) Belief in the Angels; 3) Belief in the revealed Books of the Prophet; 4) Belief in God’s many prophets; 5) Belief in a Last Day; 6) Belief in the divine measurement of human affairs; 7) Belief in a life after death.
One of the first Koranic verses committed to memory, and one of the most repeated during daily prayers is the Verse of the Throne which elaborately expresses the first belief.
2:255 Allah! There is no God but He, the Living, the Everlasting. Neither slumber nor sleep overtakes him. His is what is in the heavens and on the earth. Who shall intercede with Him except with His leave? He knows what is before them (in this world) and what is behind them (in the Hereafter). And they do not comprehend of His Knowledge except what He wills. His Throne encompasses the heavens and the earth, and their preservation does not burden Him. He is the Exalted, the Great.
A believer can declare his or her belief in the Angels, the revealed Books of the Prophets and the Prophets themselves by including in his or her daily prayers the following verse:
2:285 The Messenger (Muhammad) believes in what has been revealed to him by his Lord, and so do the believers too. All believe in Allah, His Angels, His Books and His Messengers. We make no distinction between any of His Messengers. And they (the believers) say: “We hear and obey. Grant us Your Forgiveness, our Lord. And to you is our return.”
He or she can do it again and include belief in Judgment Day, rounding out the seven beliefs which define what it means to be Muslim by repeating revelation 4:136.
4:136 O believers, believe in Allah and His Messenger and in the Book which He revealed to His Messenger, and the Book which He revealed before. Whoever disbelieves in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Prophets and the Last Day has gone far astray.
2:179 In retaliation there is life for you, O people of understanding, that you may be God-fearing.
[49] First, Allah establishes, as a general principal, that killing in retaliation for a killing is allowed during a sacred month; and that killing those who would violate things that are sacred to the believers is justified year-round.
2:194 A sacred month for a sacred month; and retaliation [is allowed] when sacred things [are violated]. Thus, whoever commits aggression against you, retaliate against him in the same way. Fear Allah and know that Allah is with those who fear Him.
Don't let this stop you from spending money and fighting in Allah's Cause, lest you cause your own destruction.
2:195 Spend [money] for the Cause of Allah and do not cast yourselves with your own hands into destruction (do not stop fighting for the Cause of Allah), and be charitable. Surely Allah loves the charitable.
What about killing during the sacred months where there is no apparent provocation or reason, as in the murder of Amr-ben-al Hadra’mi? In a fine piece of hair splitting, Allah both condemns and condones the murder of Amr-ben-al Hadra’mi. In doing so He implicitly, if not explicitly, gives the believers a licence to kill anyone, anywhere, at any time if they honestly believe it will advance the cause of Allah, such as killing those who would “debar people from Allah’s Way,” which could be anyone, even other Muslims. He does not stop there! He reminds the believers who would rather live in peace that fighting “is good for you” and that they should kill anyone at any time, even entire communities, if they fear they will leave Islam, the meaning of “Sedition is worse than murder” in revelation 2:217.
2:216 You are enjoined to fight, though it is something you dislike. For it may well be that you dislike a thing, although it is good for you; or like something although it is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not.
2:217 They ask you about the sacred month: “Is there fighting in it?” Say: “Fighting in it is a great sin; but to debar people from Allah’s Way and to deny Him and the Sacred Mosque, and to drive its people out of it is a greater sin in Allah’s Sight. Sedition is worse than murder.” Nor will they cease to fight you until they make you, if they can, renounce your religion. Those of you who renounce their religion and die, while they are unbelievers, are those whose works come to grief, [both] in this world and in the Hereafter. And they are the people of the Fire, abiding in it forever.
Remember the Alamo
8:12 And when your Lord revealed to the angels: “I am with you; so support those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve; so strike upon the necks and strike every fingertip of theirs.”
[51] In a comparison of believers and criminals, Allah makes the claim that His Koran contains everything that anyone could care to study.
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.
"Any study beside that of the Quran is a distraction, except the Hadith and jurisprudence in the religion. Knowledge is what He narrated to us, and anything other than that is the whispering of the Satan."
Al-Qaeda
[53] On January 7, 2015 gunmen shouting Allahu Akbar! (Arabic for “God is great”) shot dead 12 people at the Paris offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo for satirizing God’s self-proclaimed last and greatest spokesperson, the Prophet Muhammad, and his fanatical followers.
It is both a truism and a cliché that children are the future. Where that future will be shaped is in the classroom.
The public non-denominational school system is both the strength and the Achilles’ heel of our democratic collectives. The strength can be found in schools where children are still taught that the human journey is a journey in the pursuit of knowledge through scientific enquiry and critical thinking. Each generation being responsible for taking that additional step in the direction of the elusive, ultimate truth, which, if ever discovered, would mean the end of the human journey as we know it.
The empirical pursuit of knowledge about our universe and our place in it, a gift from the Greeks of antiquity rediscovered during the Renaissance and the period known as the Enlightenment, is facing a serious challenge from those who believe that this journey ended long ago and that we should now simply worship and wait for the promised reward for our uncritical acceptance of revealed truths, immutable facts communicated to a mortal by a god…
Most, if not all, religions would like nothing better than to transform classrooms into centers of religious indoctrination instead of education. [Government everywhere] appear more and more willing to support faith-based initiatives that seek to eliminate a child’s last refuge from the incessant bombardment of the word of God: the secular school system...
Can democracy, the advancement of science, civilization itself survive too many generations raised to blindly follow instructions from humanity's alleged all-powerful, capricious, invisible friend?
If children are not exposed to and learn to appreciate the values inherent in a secular, democratic society free from religion’s more nefarious influence, what hope is there that our democratic, pluralistic form of government will survive the generations raised on a steady diet of God’s Words?
From Teach Your Children Well, Bernard Payeur, Boreal Books, 2013
[55] Teach Your Children Well Children are our future Teach them well and let them lead the way Greatest Love of All by Whitney Houston Lyrics by Michael Masser and Linda Creed.
26:192 And this (the Qur’an) is the revelation of the Lord of the Worlds;
26:193 Brought down by the Faithful Spirit (Gabriel),
26:194 Upon your heart (Muhammad), so that you might be one of the warners;
26:195 In manifest Arabic tongue.
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.
A Toronto-area school board is cautioning its staff and students to be vigilant after an inflammatory video was found circulating online offering a $1,000 reward for a recording of Muslim students using hate speech in Friday prayers …
In the video, Mr. Johnston claimed that hate speech in the Friday prayers would be in Arabic and would go unchecked by staff supervisors. But the Peel board countered by saying that the sermons are in English.
Reward video latest wrinkle in Peel board’s religious tensions, The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Mar. 31, 2017.
Nowhere is the cluelessness of the people making the decisions pertaining to devotions to Allah during schools hours on school property more evident than in the Peel School Board's response to Mr. Johnston's incendiary challenge, that "the sermons are in English."
33:21 You have had a good example in Allah’s Messenger; surely for him who hopes for Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah often.
[60] Life in jail for son's murder over Koran studies
A mother who beat her seven-year-old son to death when he failed to memorise passages from the Koran has been jailed for life, for a minimum of 17 years. The judge said she had beaten him for three months leading up to his death, adding: "The cause of the beating was your unreasonable view that he wasn't learning passages quickly enough."
BBC January 7, 2013
Home School
23:12 We have created man from an extract of clay;
23:13 Then we placed him as a sperm in a secure place;
23:14 Then we created out of the sperm a clot; then made from the clot a lump of flesh, then made the lump of flesh into bones; and then covered the bones with flesh; then fashioned him into another creation. So Blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators.
23:15 Then after that you will surely die.
23:16 Then on the Day of Resurrection you will surely be raised from the dead.
There is no such stage when bones are formed first and coated with flesh. Remember, Islam is a product of the Dark Ages when much of the scientific discoveries of the Greek and Roman civilizations were temporally lost, including medical knowledge related to conception and gestation, and replaced by superstitions and half-truths.
22:5 O people, if you are in doubt regarding the resurrection, We have indeed created you from dust, then from a sperm, then from a clot, then from a little lump of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed, in order to show you. We deposit in the wombs whatever We please, for an appointed term; then we bring you out as infants, till you attain full strength. Some of you are made to die, and some are returned to the vilest age, so that they may not know, after having acquired some knowledge, anything. And you see the earth barren, but when We send down water upon it, it stirs and swells and produces vegetation of every pleasing variety.
22:6 That is because Allah is the Truth, and He brings the dead to life and He has power over everything.
Allah's "clot" appears to be a mutation of a man's sperm, which He has implanted in a woman's uterus (the "secure place" in verse 23:13), and from which He will fashion a fetus; bones first, sex later.
75:36 Does man think that he shall be left unattended?
75:37 Was he not a drop of sperm released?
75:38 Then, he was a leech; then He created and fashioned (him);
75:39 Making of him a couple, male and female.
75:40 Is not that One Able to quicken the dead?
It’s all about the sperm, i.e., semen.
16:3 He created the heavens and the earth in truth; may He be exalted above what they associate [with Him].
16:4 He created man from a sperm-drop and, behold, he is a professed disputant.
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35:11 Allah created you from dust, then from a sperm, then made you into couples. No female bears or gives birth, save with His knowledge, and no man advances in years or his life-span is diminished, except as ordained in the Book. That indeed is an easy matter for Allah.
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56:57 We have created you, if only you would believe!
56:58 Have you seen the semen you emit?
56:59 Do you create it, or are We the Creators?
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80:17 May man perish! How thankless he is!
80:18 Of what did He create him?
80:19 Of a sperm, He created him and determined him.
80:20 Then He smoothed his path;
80:21 Then He caused him to die and entombed him;
80:22 Then, if He wishes He will raise him from the dead.
80:23 No indeed; he did not fulfil what He commanded him.
If Allah had given women a greater role in procreation, perhaps He would not have been disappointed with the result of His effort.
36:77 Does not man see that We created him from a sperm; and behold he is a manifest trouble-maker?
2:223 Your women are a tillage for you. So get to your tillage whenever you like. Do good for yourselves, fear Allah and know that you shall meet Him. And give good news to the believers.
29:45 Recite what has been revealed to you of the Book and perform the prayer. Prayer surely forbids the foul act and abomination. Allah’s remembrance is greater and Allah knows what you do.
27:54 And Lot, when he said to his people: “Do you commit the foul act, while you perceive?
29:28 And (remember) Lot, when he said to his people: “You are committing the foul act (sodomy) which no one in the whole world ever committed before you.”
[64] Joseph’s story will provide an opportunity for Allah to offer an opinion on rape and why women who complain of being raped are usually lying, and how you can tell using the example of the wife of the Egyptian who bought Joseph. She will attempt to seduce the reluctant Joseph after being told by her husband to make his stay an honourable one.
12:21 And the Egyptian who bought him said to his wife: “Make his stay honourable; perhaps he will profit us or we may take him for a son.” Thus We established Joseph in the land and taught him the interpretation of dreams. Allah has control over His Affairs though most people do not know.
12:22 When he was fully grown, We gave him judgement and knowledge, and thus We reward the beneficent.
12:23 And the woman, in whose house he was, sought to seduce him. She closed the doors firmly and said: “Come.” He said: “Allah forbid. It is my Lord who gave me a good abode. Surely, the wrongdoers do not prosper.”
12:24 Certainly she made for him and he would have made for her if it were not for a sign from his Lord. And that was to divert him from evil and indecency. He was indeed one of Our sincere servants.
A woman can also be expected to lie about a sexual assault, for example, falsely accusing a man of attempted rape when in reality she was the aggressor.
12:25 They raced to the door, and she ripped his shirt from behind. When they met her husband at the door, she said: "What is the penalty of one who intended evil for your wife except imprisonment or severe punishment?”
Exceptionally, Allah, when recounting this encounter, acknowledges that men can, sometimes, be the aggressors and how you can tell.
12:26 He (Joseph) said: “She sought to seduce me.” And a member of her household bore witness: “If his shirt was torn from the front, then she is telling the truth and he is a liar.
12:27 “But if his shirt is torn from behind, then she lies and he is one of the truthful.”
While admitting that men can, on occasion, be forceful in the pursuit of intimacy, Allah makes another generalization about women: that they are skilled in the art of deception.
12:28 When he (the husband) saw that his shirt was torn from behind, he said: “This is part of your guile, you women. Your guile is indeed very great.”
The husband asked Joseph to overlook his wife's attempt at getting him to share an intimate moment and told his spouse to ask forgiveness for her sins.
12:29 “Joseph, overlook this matter; and you, woman, ask forgiveness for your sin. You are indeed one of the sinners.”
3:28 Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends, rather than the believers. Whoever does that has nothing to do with Allah, unless you guard against them fully! Allah warns you to beware of Him (warns you of His anger); and unto Him is the ultimate return!
There is, of course, much that is wise and consoling and beautiful in our religious books. But words of wisdom and consolation and beauty abound in the pages of Shakespeare, Virgil and Homer as well and no one ever murdered strangers by the thousands because of the inspiration he found there. The belief that certain books were written by God (who, for reasons difficult to fathom, made Shakespeare a far better writer than himself) leaves us powerless to address the source of human conflict, past and present.
Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestseller, End of Faith, W. W. Norton, 2004
4:56 Those who have disbelieved Our Signs, We shall surely cast them into the Fire; every time their skins are burnt, We will replace them by other skins, so that they might taste the punishment. Allah indeed is Mighty and Wise!
The Fibre
111 Al-Masad
In the Name of Allah,
the Compassionate, the Merciful
1. Perish the hands of Abu Lahab, and may he perish too;
2. Neither his wealth nor what he has earned will avail him anything.
3. He will roast in a flaming fire,
4. And his wife will be a carrier of fire-wood,
5. She shall have a rope of fibre around her neck.
In the Name of Allah,
the Compassionate, the Merciful
104:1 Woe unto every backbiter and slanderer,
104:2 Who amasses wealth and counts it diligently.
104:3 He thinks that his wealth will make him immortal.
104:4 Not at all; he shall be cast into the Smasher.
104:5 And if only you knew what is the Smasher.
104:6 It is Allah’s kindled Fire,
104:7 Which attains even the hearts.
104:8 Upon them it is closing in;
104:9 On pillars stretch out.
18:29 And say: “The Truth is from your Lord. Whoever wishes, let him believe; and whoever wishes, let him disbelieve.” We have prepared for the wrongdoers a Fire whose canopy encompasses them all. If they call for relief, they will be relieved with water like molten brass which scalds the faces. Wretched is that drink and wretched is the resting-place!
22:19 Here are two adversaries who dispute about their Lord. To the unbelievers, garments of fire shall be cut up and over their heads boiling water shall be poured;
22:20 Whereby whatever is in their bellies and in their skin shall be melted.
22:21 And for them are iron rods (to beat their heads with).
22:22 Every time they want, in their gloom, to get out of it (the Fire), they are brought back into it. [And it is said to them]: “Taste the agony of burning.”
47:15 The likeness of the Garden which the God-fearing have been promised is this: rivers of water not stagnant, rivers of milk whose taste has not changed, rivers of wine delighting its drinkers and rivers of distilled honey. Therein they have every variety of fruit and forgiveness from their Lord too. Are they to be compared with those who dwell in the Fire forever and are given to drink boiling water which will rip up their bowels?
66:6 O believers, guard yourselves and your families against a Fire whose fuel is people and stones; its overseers are harsh, terrible angels who do not disobey what Allah commands, but will do what they are commanded.
[74] "Cruel to Be Kind" by Nick Lowe and Ian Gomm, first released as a single in 1979.
2:24 If you do not do that, and surely you will not, then guard yourself against the Fire whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the unbelievers.
3:10 As to the unbelievers, neither their riches nor their children will avail them anything against Allah; in fact, they shall be the fuel of the Fire.
Other gods whose existence Allah vociferously denies will be joining the unbelievers in Hell to burn and be burnt in return.
21:98 “You and what you worship, besides Allah, are the fuel of Hell, and into it you shall all descend.”
11:105 The day (Judgement Day) it comes, no soul shall speak without His Leave. Some of them shall be wretched, some happy.
11:106 As for the wretched, they shall be in the Fire; they shall have therein groaning and moaning;
52:13 On the Day they will be driven into the Fire of Hell by force.
52:14 “This is the Fire which you used to deny.
52:15 “Is this magic or do you not see?
52:16 “Burn in it. Bear up or do not bear up; it is the same for you. You are only rewarded for what you used to do.”
[78] Hell may be Allah’s pet monster. A monster which will have to be dragged to its assigned position on Judgment Day.
89:21 No; when the earth is demolished completely.
89:22 And your Lord comes, together with the angels, in rows upon rows;
89:23 And Hell is brought forth on that Day. Then man will remember on that Day; but where from will remembrance come to him?
How that will be done according to Muhammad:
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The Hell would he brought on that day (the Day of judgment) with seventy thousand bridles and every bridle would be controlled by seventy thousand angels.
Sahih Muslim 40.6810
How the monster will literally be brought to heel when it’s all over.
Narrated Anas:
The Prophet said, "(The people will be thrown into Hell (Fire) and it will keep on saying, 'Is there any more?' till the Lord of the Worlds puts His Foot over it, whereupon its different sides will come close to each other, and it will say, 'Qad! Qad! (enough! enough!)
By Your 'Izzat (Honor and Power) and YOUR KARAM (Generosity)!' Paradise will remain spacious enough to accommodate more people."
Bukhari 93.481.
Critics Are for Killing
[79] That Muhammad was the apple of Allah’s eye is evident in revelations such as the following where Allah expresses His love for him and where He threatens to do serious damage to anyone who would harm him or cause him distress.
33:56 Allah and His angels bless the Prophet. O believers, bless him and greet him graciously, too.
33:57 Those who cause Allah and His Messenger any injury, Allah has cursed them in this life and the life to come and has prepared for them a demeaning punishment.
Muhammad never knew his father who died before he was born. His mother passed away when he was six or seven years old. When you read the Koran, especially the verses such as the aforementioned, you can’t help thinking that Allah was the type of father a fatherless child might imagine.
33:56 Allah and His angels bless the Prophet. O believers, bless him and greet him graciously, too.
Anas bin Malik said: "The Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) said: "Whoever sends salah upon me once, Allah (Subhanahu-wa-Taala) will send salah upon him tenfold, and will erase ten sins from him, and will raise him ten degrees in status."
Sunan an-Nasa'i 3.1298
3:169 And do not think those who have been killed in the Way of Allah as dead; they are rather living with their Lord, well provided for.
[83] On May 22, 2017, an Islamic terrorist detonated a homemade bomb filled with shrapnel as people were leaving the Manchester Arena following a concert by Ariana Grande, killing twenty-three people, including the attacker, and wounding 139, more than half of them children. The following is from a debate between two Muslim clerics, Dr. Jamal Rifi and Sheikh Mohammad Tawhidi, hosted by Australia’s Channel Seven following Manchester Arena massacre in which the two argue the role religion played in the attack.
Tawhidi on the radicalisation of the Manchester bomber and his generation:
Basically we need to be very realistic when dealing with this matter. You have a twenty-two year old who gets radicalised over two, three sermons in a Friday mosque gathering … this age is an age when someone would expect people to be going out, having fun. But no, we have a large number of youth that are being radicalised. This happens because of the books that we have, the Islamic scriptures that we have; they push the Muslim youth to believe that if you go out there and kill the infidels, that's how you will gain Paradise.
On the massacres being a continuation of a very old war:
For the past one thousand four hundred years we have had a religion of war, that is exactly what we have had, this is not something I am imagining, these are facts. We’ve had many wars. How did Islam spread from Saudi Arabia down to Indonesia and Bosnia, all spread by the sword. We had many wars. For someone to come and say that Islamic scriptures have nothing to do with it, I mean, that’s against the facts, that’s not true. Islamic scriptures are what is pushing these people to behead the infidels. Let me tell you something, the people that are beheading, that mister, the person that killed the young girls in Manchester did so believing he was going to dine with the Prophet Muhammad that very night, that is what the Islamic scriptures tell them.
[84] Narrated Aisha:
Two old ladies from among the Jewish ladies entered upon me and said' "The dead are punished in their graves," but I thought they were telling a lie and did not believe them in the beginning. When they went away and the Prophet entered upon me, I said, "O Allah's Apostle! Two old ladies" and told him the whole story.
He said, "They told the truth; the dead are really punished, to the extent that all the animals hear (the sound resulting from) their punishment."
Since then I always saw him seeking refuge with Allah from the punishment of the grave in his prayers.
Bukhari 75.377
[85] Muhammad acquired the unlikely moniker Prophet of Mercy after the fall of Mecca when he publically spared the lives of some of his opponents while quietly having those with no protectors assassinated, e.g., poets, female singers and apostates. Other vulnerable human beings for whom the Prophet of Mercy had no compassion were women and girls who committed illegal intercourse, even when the less than self-evident crime resulted in a pregnancy. One of the more wretched decisions of the Prophet of Mercy:
Malik related to me from Yaqub ibn Zayd ibn Talha from his father Zayd ibn Talha that Abdullah ibn Abi Mulayka informed him that a woman came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and informed him that she had committed adultery and was pregnant.
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to her, "Go away until you give birth."
When she had given birth, she came to him.
The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to her, "Go away until you have suckled and weaned the baby."
When she had weaned the baby, she came to him.
He said, "Go and entrust the baby to someone."
She entrusted the baby to someone and then came to him. He gave the order and she was stoned.
Al-Muwatta 41.41.1.5
“Have you slain the daughter of Marwan?” This was the word that was first heard from the Apostle of Allah, may Allah bless him. When Umayr replied that the job had been carried out with success, Muhammad said, “You have helped God and His apostle, O Umayr!” When Umayr asked if he would have to bear any evil consequences, the apostle said, “Two goats won’t butt their heads about her.” Muhammad then praised Umayr in front of all gathered for prayer for his act of murder, and Umayr went back to his people.
Ibn S’ad
He waited for an opportunity until a hot night came, and Abu Afak slept in an open place. Salim b. Umayr knew it, so he placed the sword on his liver and pressed it till it reached his bed. The enemy of Allah screamed and the people, who were his followers rushed him, took him to his house and interred him.
Ibn S’ad
[88] Narrated Jabir bin Abdullah:
Allah's Apostle said, "Who would kill Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf (Ka'b, a poet, who wrote poems lampooning of Allan's Messenger) as he has harmed Allah and His Apostle?"
Muhammad bin Maslama (got up and) said, "I will kill him."
So, Muhammad bin Maslama went to Ka'b and said, "I want a loan of one or two Wasqs of food grains."
Ka'b said, "Mortgage your women to me."
Muhammad bin Maslama said, "How can we mortgage our women, and you are the most handsome among the Arabs?"
He said, "Then mortgage your sons to me."
Muhammad said, "How can we mortgage our sons, as the people will abuse them for being mortgaged for one or two Wasqs of food grains? It is shameful for us. But we will mortgage our arms to you."
So, Muhammad bin Maslama promised him that he would come to him next time.
They (Muhammad bin Maslama and his companions came to him as promised and murdered him. Then they went to the Prophet and told him about it.
Bukhari 45.687
[89] Narrated Al-Bara bin Azib:
Allah's Apostle sent a group of Ansari men to kill Abu-Rafi. One of them set out and entered their (i.e. the enemy’s) fort. That man said, "I hid myself in a stable for their animals. They closed the fort gate. Later they lost a donkey of theirs, so they went out in its search. I, too, went out along with them, pretending to look for it. They found the donkey and entered their fort. And I, too, entered along with them. They closed the gate of the fort at night, and kept its keys in a small window where I could see them.
When those people slept, I took the keys and opened the gate of the fort and came upon Abu Rafi and said, 'O Abu Rafi.' When he replied me, I proceeded towards the voice and hit him. He shouted and I came out to come back, pretending to be a helper. I said, 'O Abu Rafi’, changing the tone of my voice.
He asked me, 'What do you want; woe to your mother?'
I asked him, 'What has happened to you?'
He said, 'I don't know who came to me and hit me.' Then I drove my sword into his belly and pushed it forcibly till it touched the bone. Then I came out, filled with puzzlement and went towards a ladder of theirs in order to get down but I fell down and sprained my foot.
I came to my companions and said, 'I will not leave till I hear the wailing of the women.' So, I did not leave till I heard the women bewailing Abu Rafi, the merchant of Hijaz. Then I got up, feeling no ailment, (and we proceeded) till we came upon the Prophet and informed him."
Bukhari 52.264
[90] Cahill, Mysteries of the Middle Ages, p. 29.
96:3 Read by your Most Generous Lord, 96:4 Who taught by the pen.
The Medium and the Message
11:1 [This is] a Book with Verses which are elaborately formulated and clearly expounded from the Wise, the All-Aware.
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
[94] Narrated Hisham's father:
The people used to send presents to the Prophet on the day of Aisha's turn. Aisha said, "My companions (i.e. the other wives of the Prophet) gathered in the house of Um Salama and said, "0 Um Salama! By Allah, the people choose to send presents on the day of Aisha's turn and we too, love the good (i.e. presents etc.) as Aisha does.
You should tell Allah's Apostle to tell the people to send their presents to him wherever he may be, or wherever his turn may be." Um Salama said that to the Prophet and he turned away from her, and when the Prophet returned to her (i.e. Um Salama), she repeated the same, and the Prophet again turned away, and when she told him the same for the third time, the Prophet said, "O Um Salama! Don't trouble me by harming Aisha, for by Allah, the Divine Inspiration never came to me while I was under the blanket of any woman amongst you except her."
Bukhari 57.119
[95] Narrated Aisha:
Allah's Apostle said to me, "You were shown to me twice (in my dream) before I married you. I saw an angel carrying you in a silken piece of cloth, and I said to him, 'Uncover (her),' and behold, it was you.
I said (to myself), 'If this is from Allah, then it must happen.'
Bukhari 87.140
[96] Narrated Ursa:
The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).
Bukhari 62.88
Aisha’s recollection of her wedding day would suggest that she was not yet a teenager when she joined Muhammad on the matrimonial mat.
My mother came to me while I was being swung on a swing between two branches and got me down. My nurse took over and wiped my face with some water and started leading me. When I was at the door she stopped so I could catch my breath. I was brought in while Muhammad was sitting on a bed in our house. My mother made me sit on his lap. The other men and women got up and left. The Prophet consummated his marriage with me in my house when I was nine years old. Neither a camel nor a sheep was slaughtered on behalf of me.
Tabari IX:131
The fact that her wedding was not celebrated, the meaning of "Neither a camel nor a sheep was slaughtered on behalf of me," may also be an indication that Muhammad was not proud of what he was about to do or that his people did not approve of their 50+ tribesman marrying and having sex with a child.
[97] A hadith about a night visit where Muhammad’s child bride attempted to catch her husband in conversation with Gabriel and was punched in the chest for her efforts. The following is from The Book of Prayers (Kitab Al-Salat) of Sahih Muslim; it begins with a typical introduction with the narrator identifying himself, and if it is hearsay, as most are, who he heard it from, followed by some atypical comments from his audience (no quotation marks were in the original translation and I have chosen not to add any):
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 'A'isha 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 her husband where she observes him doing hand gestures, after which they both return to the house, Aisha rushing ahead and hopping into bed hoping Muhammad 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 'A'isha, 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 swearing it is the truth, and this is when her husband 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 young woman 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 will join her later, and pray for the dead as penance for having spied on her husband.
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
[98] Gabriel’s daytime visits often coincided with situations where Muhammad faced questions that only Allah’s angel messenger could answer, such as on the day rabbi Abdullah bin Salam came calling. Bin Salam was respected member of the Jewish community before he converted to Islam. He became a Muslim after a short meeting with Muhammad where God's spokesperson 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
Archie Loses It!
17:1 Glory be to Him Who caused His servant to travel by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We have blessed, in order to show him some of Our Signs. He is indeed the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.
72:19 And that when the Servant of Allah (the Prophet Muhammad) got up calling on Him, they almost set upon him in throngs.
51:56 I have not created the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.
51:57 I do not desire provision from them, and I do not want them to feed Me.
34:12 And We subjected the wind to Solomon, blowing in the morning the space of a month and in the evening the space of a month; and We smelted for him the fount of brass. Of the jinn some worked before him, by the Leave of his Lord, and whoever of them swerved from Our Command, We shall make him taste the punishment of the blazing Fire.
34:13 To fashion for him whatever he wished of palaces, statues, basins like water-troughs and immovable cooking-pots. “Work thankfully, O David’s House; for few of My servants are truly thankful.”
72:1 Say (Muhammad): “It was revealed to me that a company of jinn listened; then they said: ‘We have indeed heard a wonderful Qur’an;
72:2 ‘“It guides to rectitude; so we believed in it, and we shall never associate anyone with our Lord;
The Koran is not clear, but the verses heard by these jinn, judging by their response, was probably about Allah denouncing those who would say he had consorted with a female or ever had a son, i.e., Jesus.
72:3 ‘“And that He, may our Lord’s majesty be exalted, has not taken a consort or a son;
The jinn who happened upon Muhammad reciting verses from the Koran now considered themselves Muslims; they now thought it foolish to have been disrespectful or to have believed that Allah would reveal anything but the truth.
72:4 ‘“And that our fools used to speak impertinently of Allah;
72:5 ‘“And that we thought that neither mankind nor the jinn will impute to Allah any falsehood;
Allah may have told Muhammad to say what he already knew.
Narrated Abdur-Rahman:
I asked Masruq, "Who informed the Prophet about the Jinns at the night when they heard the Qur'an?" He said, "Your father Abdullah informed me that a tree informed the Prophet about them."
Bukhari 58.199
72:6 ‘“And that some individual humans used to seek refuge with some men of the jinn, and so they increased them in perversion;
The jinn, like Muhammad, once thought that Allah could not raise the dead.
72:7 ‘“And that they thought, as you thought, that Allah will not raise anybody from the dead;
37:158 And they alleged a kinship between Him and the jinn, whereas the jinn know very well that they will be summoned.
37:159 May Allah be exalted above their allegation. 37:160 Except for Allah’s sincere servants.
37:161 Surely, neither you nor what you worship, 37:162 Against Him can ever turn anyone;
37:163 Except he who will be roasting in Hell.
6:128 And on the Day when He shall gather them all together [saying]: “O, company of jinn, you have misled a great many men.” Their supporters among men will say: “Lord, we have profited much from each other and we have attained the term that you assigned for us.” Then He will say: “The Fire is your resting-place, abiding therein forever, except as Allah wills. Your Lord is truly Wise, All-Knowing.”
6:129 And thus We cause some of the evildoers to dominate the others, because of what they used to do (the evil they committed).
6:130 O company of jinn and men, did there not come Messengers from among yourselves to you, reciting to you My Revelations and warning of seeing this Day of yours? They will say: “We bear witness against ourselves?” They were deluded by the earthly life and will bear witness against themselves that they were unbelievers.
6:131 That is because your Lord would not destroy cities on account of their people’s wrongdoing without warning them (by sending a Messenger to them).
Orderly processing of sinners, jinn and men, will be the order of the Day.
6:132 And to all are assigned ranks according to what they have done; and your Lord is not unaware of what they do.
15:26 And We have created man from potter’s clay, moulded out of slime.
15:27 And the jinn We created before that from blazing fire.
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55:15 And He created the jinn from tongues of fire.
And intentional murder shall be punished according to talion law; where the murderer’s intention is not clear and the victim is killed using a club or a stone, it will cost the perpetrator one hundred camels as blood money. Whoever demands more is a man from the time of ignorance.
From a translation of the Muhammad’s last sermon by Islamic scholar and author Dr. Muhammad Hamidullah’s [1908-2002]
2:178 O believers, retaliation for the slain is prescribed for you; a free [man] for a free [man], a slave for a slave and a female for a female. But if he is pardoned by his brother (the aggrieved), usage should be followed (capital punishment would be replaced by blood-money) and he should pay him (the aggrieved) liberally and kindly. This is remission and mercy from your Lord. He who transgresses after that will have a painful punishment.
72:8 ‘“And that we reached out to heaven, but we found it fill with mighty guards and comets;
72:9 ‘“And that we used to sit around it eavesdropping; but whoever listens now will find a comet in wait for him;
72:18 And that mosques are Allah’s; so do not call, besides Allah, upon anyone else;
72:19 And that when the Servant of Allah (the Prophet Muhammad) got up calling on Him, they almost set upon him in throngs.
[112] Heaven is help up by invisible pillars anchored on a flat Earth.
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].
31:11 This is Allah’s Creation; so show Me what those apart from Him have created. Indeed, the wrongdoers are in manifest error.
Knowing this, Allah's revelation that He keeps the sky from falling makes sense.
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.
Heaven and Earth are made of the same materials, which would explain the need for pillars to stop it 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?
21:31 And We set up in the earth immovable mountains lest it should shake with them; and We created therein wide roads, that perchance they may be guided.
21:32 And We made the sky a well-guarded canopy; and they still turn away from its signs.
[113] The Earth is flat with a solid level roof.
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.
79:31 From it, He brought out its water and its pasture.
79:32 And the mountains, He established firmly,
79:33 As a source of enjoyment for you and your cattle.
The Earth may be 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.
The idea of a flat Earth appears to have originated with a well-travelled 6th century Christian monk by the name of Cosmas who 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; that pagans such as Aristotle who postulated that the Earth was a sphere were wrong.
Pythagoras (c. 580 – 500 B.C.) was the first to identify the earth as a sphere followed by Aristotle and later Hipparchus. Until Cosmas came along “Aristotle’s spherical theory of the globe had been the cornerstone of classical geography …
Aristotle determined that the earth must be a sphere; after an eclipse he had pointed out that only an orb could throw a circular shadow on the moon.”
William Manchester, A World Lit Only By Fire, The Medieval Mind and The Renaissance, Little Brown and Company, 1992
It was not until Magellan’s expedition circled the globe that the flat Earth theory was finally wholly discredited – in most of the Christian world, at any rate.
Before he became a Prophet at the age of forty, Muhammad accompanied or led trading caravans as far north as Damascus. He was twelve when he accompanied his uncle on a business trip to Syria. On the way there, the caravan passed by a Christian monastery near present day Basra where a Christian monk named Bahira began instructing the future Prophet on Christian theology and belief. It may have been Bahira who first introduced Muhammad to Cosmas’ flat Earth theory. The biggest difference between what Cosmas advanced, and what Allah revealed is, in his Koran the sun sets in a sea of mud at one end of flat Earth and it is this disappearing act which gives rise to the night. Cosmas wrote that it was a somewhat diminutive sun disappearing behind a high mountain it circled which caused darkness to fall.
[114] Dhul-Qarnayn, in the Koran, “is believed to be Alexander the Great” writes Fakhry. Alexander walked a flat Earth to where the sun set in a sea of mud where he found “wrongdoers,” a euphemism in the Koran for unbelievers, whom he will torture then kill, the meaning of “then he will be returned over to his Lord” revelation 18:87, to be tortured some more.
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.
113:1 Say: “I seek refuge with the Lord of the Daybreak,
113:2 “From the evil of what He has created,
113:3 “And the evil of the darkness when it gathers,
113:4 “And the evil of those who blow into knotted reeds (witches or sorceresses),