by Sujit Das
Intellectual ideas always attract us because we are capable of thinking. But when an idea is the expression of so-called psychic experience which bears fruit in religious beliefs, it represents forces that are beyond logical justifications and moral sanctions. Jung (1933, p. 42) commented, “ They [the forces] are always stronger than man and his brain. Man believes indeed that he moulds these ideas, but in reality, they mould him and make him their unwitting mouthpiece ”. For Muhammad (only for him) his hallucinations were real experiences. When he said that he was divinely commanded to preach in the name of Allah, he was telling the “truth” (only for him). He believed in his cause; his “honesty” in his prophetic claim and divine mission was based on this illusive “truth” which gave him such a strong willpower. This deceitful “sincerity” of Muhammad misled many Arabs to believe in him and to join his creed. This is how Islam started with a falsehood.
A quote from Freud (Strachey & Gay, 1966, p. 104) will help us to understand Muhammad’s sincerity and such misleading truthfulness, “ Doctors have observed cases in which a mental disease has started with a dream and in which a delusion originating in the dream has persisted; Historical figures are reported to have embarked on momentous enterprises in response to dreams ”. If there is any truth in Islam, it is this deceptive truth amidst a vast ocean of falsehood.
When the Qur’anic verse 17.1 was revealed, the falsehood of al-Mi’raj dream-hallucination became sacred. In the history of religions, the lunacy of Muhammad’s night’s journey is one of the most absurd lies ever uttered in the name of religion. Muhammad was a neurotic patient who needed psychoanalytic treatment. A lunatic cannot bring anything real; he can only bring delusion, deception and confusion. These are the gifts of Muhammad to the Muslims.
Muhammad had shown all the symptoms of his lunacy. When a psychoanalyst treats a patient to restore him to health, his first concern is to relieve him of all the symptoms of his illness. Often the patient meets the analyst with a violent and tenacious resistance throughout the process of his treatment. On many occasions, the patient himself does not realize that he is putting up a struggle in the interest of his illness against the person who is helping him. A well-experienced psychoanalyst understands this fact, and he knows that if he falls back, the treatment is destined to fail. A person who came to a dentist because of an unbearable toothache will, nevertheless, try to hold the dentist back when he approaches the sick tooth with a pair of forceps.
Following few words from Freud needs particular attention because next I am going to analyze some Qur’anic verses through its understanding.
The patient’s resistance is of very many sorts, extremely subtle and often hard to detect; and it exhibits protean changes in the forms in which it manifests itself … at one moment, he [the patient] declares that nothing occurs to him, at the next that so many things are crowding in on him that he cannot get hold of anything … he then admits that there is something he really cannot say… he says something has occurred to him, but it concerns another person and not himself. (Strachey & Gay, 1966, pp. 355-6).
Though the early Arabs turned away from Muhammad knowing that he was a lunatic, they were kindhearted and were even ready to pay for medical assistance to cure his lunacy (Haykal, 1976, ch. 5). But instead of listening to them, Muhammad started putting up resistance in the interest of his illness and against those people who wanted to help him. Allah revealed,
When the Unbelievers see thee, they treat thee not except with ridicule. “Is this, (they say), the one who talks of your gods?” and they blaspheme at the mention of (Allah) Most Gracious! (Q: 21.36)
The above verse confirms that Muhammad was hurt by the ridicule which made him upset. This is “extremely subtle and often hard to detect” resistance. As time passed, his struggle in the favor of his illness “exhibited protean changes in the forms in which it manifests itself” and the following verse was revealed,
Behold! We told thee that thy Lord doth encompass mankind round about: We granted the vision which We showed thee, but as a trial for men … We put terror (and warning) into them, but it only increases their inordinate transgression! (Q: 17.60).
Now, let us examine the above verse from a Freudian perspective.
“A trial for men” – Muhammad is projecting his morbid dream-hallucination upon his critics. According to Allah the night journey was a trial whose authenticity depends on the acceptance of the people. Believing in Muhammad’s prophetic claim is something which “ concerns another person and not himself”.
“We put terror (and warning) into them” – Muhammad is putting up strong psychological resistance to uphold his delusion by instilling fear in opponent’s mind, as Freud concluded elsewhere (Riviere et al, 1960, p. 50), “… the need for illness got the upper hand in them over the desire for recovery”.
This “divine” lunatic, who was supposed to be in a chain in an insane asylum, started his “divine” mission with “divine” deception and “divine” dishonesty. He was totally absorbed in himself. As time passed, he introduced the fear factor in his mission. At any cost the show must go on. He struggled hard to protect his delusions through terror and this verse was revealed,
For them is torment in the life of the world, and verily the doom of the Hereafter is more painful, and they have no defender from Allah . (Q: 13.34).
When the reality is reversed or replaced by delusion, it is the hare that shoots the sportsman, elephants climb bamboo trees, a lunatic succeeds as a Prophet and millions of angels bring a ladder for him to ascend the heaven to keep an appointment with God, and God glorifies the Prophet but does not give him the power to perform a single miracle. Seeing is not always believing – this is what every dreamer understands, but if a lunatic in a divine robe cannot, problem begins for everyone.
Chapter 3: Muhammad’s Strange Mindset
In religious front, we often hear the phrase “divine experience”. As we have seen in previous chapter, often these divine experiences and visions are delusions or hallucinations, and in reality, they have no meaning. Many so-called Prophets have various degrees of success in deceiving common people but their claims generally die with them. Though Muhammad was one of them, his claim did not die with him. He successfully established a religion which is still going strong and causing much devastation even after fourteen centuries of his death.
Archer (1924, preface) commented, “Muhammad the mystic is a greater figure than we have dreamed”. According to him there may be some pathological elements in Muhammad’s life and the essential thing in Muhammad’s experience was that he was a mystic. He described (1924, summary), “ Muhammad was a mystic in the technical sense, and that, too, not merely in mental attitude, but in habitual practice”. In this chapter, the mysticism of Muhammad is going to be unraveled. To unfold the mystery, we need to examine how the various components of his strange mind had interacted with each other. But before we do so, a basic discussion on psychology is required. I wish to start from the very beginning.
3.1: An Introduction to Freud’s Id, Ego, and Superego Concepts
Before Aristotle, the science of psychology and the philosophy of mind were indistinguishable. However, during the long stretch of time between Aristotle and Immanuel Kant, a new approach to philosophy appeared – a philosophy based on science. As Kant wrote, “ Perceptions without conceptions are blind” (cited Durant, 2006, p. 352). Before Aristotle, the philosophers just pondered about theories and based their theories on observation; but these scientific philosophers wanted to know more about the “biography” of mind, i.e., psychobiography and how it functions. For a long time this new scientific study was in its infancy till the time of Sigmund Freud, who was one of the first men to explore deep into the science and philosophy of the mind, and in doing so revolutionized both philosophy and psychology. From this time science actually started replacing religion.
Freud’s and Jung’s understandings of how the mind works and the structures of the mind replaced the idea of the so
ul and its functions. For Freud, the mind was central to human development and function, and his later theory (during 1920) of its three components – the id, ego and superego shapes who we are and how we act (Stevenson & Haberman, 2004, p. 161). Freud believed that these three components are distinct but they interact with each other closely. They are the parts that make up a person’s personality. We are controlled by these three parts of the mind, and they control our varying levels of consciousness, as well as our desires and worldview. Though some psychologists have questioned the validity of Freud’s theory of the workings of the mind, the theory does remain one of the most influential till today.
The hypothesis of narcissism was first proposed in 1909. Before Freud, some notable psychoanalytic studies were conducted by Havelock Ellis, Paul Nacke and Margaret Mahler. Freud first used the term “narcissistic” in 1910 and thereafter narcissism soon took a central place in his thinking. In 1914 he published a paper exclusively devoted to narcissism called On Narcissism: An Introduction. Though Freud’s initial work served as a basis for the definition of a Narcissist, he only scratched the surface of the narcissistic personality (Wesner, 2007, p. 5). Otto Rank published the first psychoanalytical paper in 1911 specifically concerned with narcissism, linking it to vanity and self-admiration. In 1923, Martin Buber published an essay Ich und Du (I and Thou), in which he pointed out that our narcissism often leads us to relate to others as objects instead of as equals. Later on, various other psychologists including Melanie Klein, Heinz Kohut and Otto Kernberg added more to Freud’s theory.
During the 1970s and after, James F. Masterson further developed Freud’s theory of the three components of the mind. Masterson is internationally renowned for his clinical work, research, and the writings on personality disorder. Masterson used the terms real self (or, true self), false self and superego. In recent years, volumes of material had been written on this subject by established psychologists, e.g., Christopher Lasch’s 1979 best selling book The Culture of Narcissism, Sam Vaknin’s Malignant Self Love: Narcissism Revisited, Sandy Hotchkiss’sWhy It is always about You: The Seven Deadly Sins of Narcissism, and a combined work by Twenge and Campbell by the name The Narcissism Epidemic just to mention a few. In this chapter and subsequent chapters we will do extensive study on these three basic components and compare the findings with that of Muhammad and his Allah as reported in Qur’an, Sunna and Hadith collections.
The true self (id) is not influenced by the external world. The false self (ego) is evolved to deal with the true self, and superego authorizes false self to do so. The false self seeks pleasure and comfort, and tries to avoid things that are unpleasant by analyzing the situation and by deciding whether to proceed with the action or remain idle (Kline, 1972, pp. 126-7). For a person with perfect mental health, the actions (and inactions) and the interactions between real self, false self and superego do not cause any harm either to him or people around him. But when these three components are not in balance, the person suffers from mental disorder.
Muhammad did not have any spiritual power. We have already discredited him by every possible logical manner and showed with clear proof that he was not a messenger of any kind of God. He was perfectly human with all human weaknesses and worldly desires. Did the three components of his mind worked against each other and therefore caused a personality disorder for him? Before we search for an answer, we should study the psychopathology of Muhammad.
3.2: The Psychopathology of Muhammad
In every society and amongst all races, we can find individuals, who because of something in their mental set up or their personal history, find it difficult or even impossible to adjust to the roles which society expects them to perform. In some cases their behavior brings them into violent conflict with their environment. Some of these individuals are very successful in their professional lives but miserable in their family and social lives. They sincerely believe that they are exceptional and hence they are not bound by the norms and rules of the society. This “denial of reality” is such a “feeling” which they cannot even explain, and because of this, they utter words and gestures which are quite outside the normal behavioral patterns of ordinary people. One of the most common features amongst these people is “megalomania”, which is a non-clinical word defined (Fowler, 2010, p. 278) as,
1. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.
2. An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions.
According to traditional Islamic sources Muhammad was a megalomaniac. In Islam only belief in Allah is not enough to enter paradise and Muslims must believe the prophethood of Muhammad also. If Muhammad was only a spokesman of God, why Muslims have to praise Muhammad in their daily prayers? Though in Islam Allah is portrayed as all-powerful, this is in theory only. In practice, Muhammad is the central figure in Islam and Allah is just a piece of decoration. Allah is obliged to throw a person in hell even if he is sincerely devoted to Him but does not believe in Muhammad. So we can see how helpless the God of Islam is. Does such a pathetic God exist? Following quotes show that Muhammad lived in a grandiose fantasy world and was a denier of reality. He reinterpreted reality to fit his fantasies.
Allah’s Apostle said, ‘Whoever obeys me will enter Paradise, and whoever disobeys me will not enter it. ’ (Bukhari: 9.92.384)
Allah’s Apostle said, ‘Whoever obeys me, obeys Allah, and whoever disobeys me, disobeys Allah, and whoever obeys the ruler I appoint, obeys me, and whoever disobeys him, disobeys me. ’ (Bukhari: 9.89.251)
Allah’s Apostle; the Lord of the Muslims, Leader of the Allah Fearing, Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds, the Peerless and Unequalled . (Ishaq: 233)
Allah addressed the believers and said, ‘In Allah’s Apostle you have a fine example for anyone who hopes to be in the place where Allah is. ’ (Ishaq: 467)
I heard Allah’s Apostle saying, ‘He who obeys me, obeys Allah, and he who disobeys me, disobeys Allah ’. (Bukhari: 4.52.203)
Those who speak negatively of Allah and His Apostle shall be cursed . (Q: 33.57)
Though Muhammad placed himself as a humble servant of Allah, we cannot see any humbleness in the above words, and surprisingly, his God tolerated his arrogance. And after a certain period elapsed, Allah became less important than Muhammad and Muhammad emerged as “the living God”. With this appearance, the person of Muhammad stood out above all in front rank and Allah was given a secondary position in His capacity as the auxiliary of the Prophet. Allah is no longer the Supreme Being and now He is inferior to Muhammad. Muhammad wrote in his Qur’an,
Lo! Allah and His angels pray peace to Prophet (Muhammad).O ye who believe also shower praises on him and salute him with a worthy salutation . (Q: 33.56)
… and when they (nonbelievers) come to thee, they salute thee, not as Allah salutes thee, (but in crooked ways) … Enough for them is Hell: In it will they burn, and evil is that destination! (Q: 58.8)
The above two verses are enough to prove that the Allah was a myth and Muhammad was a rude imposter. He not only ridiculed and belittled his God, but at the same time also represented the entire divine system as a big joke. His behavior was a standard megalomaniac behavior. A person who thinks that he is superior to God and thus God salutes him is a denier of reality. Muhammad was so full of himself that he got carried away. Throughout Qur’an, Allah has no authority alone and He is so pitifully helpless without His messenger that if we completely erase the name of Allah from hundreds of verses throughout the Qur’an, and Muslims are asked to believe in, to submit to, and to obey Allah and His Apostle, practically nothing would change.
Before we proceed further, we should understand what the terms “Personality Disorder” and specifically “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” exactly mean. Then we should see how much these characteristics fit into his strange personality profile.
3.3: Understanding “Personality Disorder”
“I believe that the world should rev
olve around me!”
A popular song
Each individual in this world has a unique personality made up of traits that come from both our genetic make up and our life experiences, yet we tend to behave in fairly predictable ways. It is a vital part of what makes us who we are and how we interact with others. However, if a person’s pattern of behavior, mood, social interaction, or impulsiveness causes distress to him, or to other people in his life, he is diagnosed as having a personality disorder. It is the ultimate misidentification. The personality of such a person is too rigid to the point that he is unable to change it in reaction to changing circumstances. He mistakes his habits for his identity. Though the person feels that his behavioral patterns are normal or right, people with personality disorders tend to have a narrow view of the world and find it difficult to participate in social activities. To diagnose a personality disorder, the patient’s problematic behaviors must appear in two or more of the following areas,
1. Perception and interpretation of the self and other people.
2. Intensity and duration of feelings and their appropriateness to