by Sujit Das
The real self allows us to be alone without feeling abandoned. It enables us to manage ourselves when there is no special person in our lives (Masterson, 1990, p. 46). Having a loving and caring wife and several children in the home, no way Muhammad could feel alone. Actually Muhammad’s marriage with Khadija was only a financial security. There was absolutely no emotional attachment. During his frequent visits to the caves, a struggle was going on in his mind. His false self was continuously destroying whatever little humanity was still left in him. The monster which was lurking inside Muhammad was getting prepared to emerge with “clear authority” from Allah to take revenge by punishing the same cruel society which had neglected him.
At last, a timely hallucination caused by his neurosis, which Muhammad interpreted as a heavenly confrontation with the Gabriel, resulted in the final narcissistic explosion. Now he hates to look back to his true self. When the true self was in action, it had accepted and modulated various self-images, and resolved much apparent and temporary confusion. It also integrated various diverse aspects of his life and related them to each other to form a whole life and a whole self. But his true self failed to improve his status, by which he could command respect from others. Now it is time for the false self to transform the childhood fantasies into reality.
3.11: Conclusion
“What the world needs is not dogma, but an attitude of scientific inquiry combined with a belief that the torture of millions is not desirable, whether inflected by Stalin or by a Deity imagined in the likeness of believer”.
Bertrand Russell (1996, p. 165)
Muhammad did not establish Islam to teach the pagans humanity. Spirituality is basically a nonexistent subject in Islam. The only purpose of Islam was to enslave people. Qur’an was the work of this shrewd politician anxious to draw to himself by all possible means the greatest number of adherents. Muhammad’s attitude was like a parliamentary candidate during his electoral campaign. He did not bother about the quality of his supporters, but the number, and to secure their votes he was ready to go any length. As situation demanded, he flattered his target group, promised paradise and threatened them of hellfire. The reason was obvious – he was striving to establish his doctrine not for sake of God, but for the sake of himself.
In religion, Prophet is a person who has been contacted by, or has encountered the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity by delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other humans. In Judaism, a Prophet is a person selected by a God who speaks as His formal representative, and the intention of the message is always to effect a social change to conform to God’s desired standards. The charlatan Prophet of Islam adopted the same style of Judaism to shape his religion but in a twisted form. He had elevated himself instead of elevating the God. To achieve this he had discouraged free will (Allah’s will is the only “freedom”. Islam is based on predestination and fatalism), which is the origin of free thinking, enquiry and social progress, and set a great barrier for the unity of humankind. It imposed complete hegemony of fate on man. It is obvious that his prophethood has nothing to do with a God or a heavenly guidance, but it has everything to do with the manipulations of a malignant Narcissist.
Muhammad was an ambitious politician disguised as a spiritual leader. Though he started as a humble servant of Allah, his prestige and authority were truly unassailable when he got a strong foothold at Medina. This sudden change of his personality did not escape the notice of his contemporaries, “That man aspires to dominate the Arabs” said the Taiyite Chief Zarr Ibn Sadus. Abu Sufyan was to make the same observation, “Prophetism is finished, the empire is beginning” (Trifkovic, 2002, p. 45). They understood Muhammad’s real intention of starting a new sect. They knew that Muhammad conceived his religion solely to satiate his lust for power, sex, and money; there was no way he could qualify as a true Prophet of God. Robert L. Snow (2003, p. 109) wrote,
Practically everyone has seen the cartoon with a character wearing the sandwich sign that proclaims, “The end is near”. While this meant as a joke, throughout history, a large number of people have proclaimed with all seriousness that they have unique knowledge that the end of the world is coming. Through this proclamation, many Prophets of doom have attracted large group of followers who believe that these doom forecasters have some type of special insight, special vision or special relationship with God that gives them inside knowledge about the impending end of the world. Once this belief system is established, the doomsday forecasters then have tremendous control over the lives of the people who believe in them .
Muhammad did not perform any better. He demanded that he had unique knowledge about unseen and unknown, but it was not true. He spied everywhere in search of enemies, as Tabari recorded,
Muhammad sent out spies to obtain intelligence. But they came back with their joints dislocated. When he asked what had happened, they said, ‘We saw white men on black horses. Before we could resist, we were struck as you see us now’ . (Tabari: IX.6)
The Prophet asked, ‘Who will go and spy on the enemy?’ The Messenger stipulated that should he come back, Allah would cause him to enter Paradise . (Tabari: VIII.26).
The Messenger sent Amr to the Quraysh as a spy . (Tabari: VII.146).
Muhammad’s spy brought him word that Ikrimah was coming out with five hundred men. (Tabari: VIII.71).
Abdallah married a woman but could not afford the nuptial gift. He came to the Prophet and asked for his assistance. He said, ‘Go out and spy on the Jusham tribe. ’ (Tabari: VIII.149).
These were the sources of Muhammad’s secret knowledge. After being tipped off by his spies, he used to say, “Allah informed me…”, “the Gabriel informed me…..”, “Two angels of Allah informed me…”, “a tree told me…”, “ I overheard dead bodies talking in the grave”, etc., and the deception went on. His habit of spying and eavesdropping was so nasty that many rumors spread about him. According to these rumors (cited Warraq, 2000, pp. 171-2), he not only saw behind his back but could see by day and by night, and he possessed a physical eye planted at the middle of his back or between his shoulders and his cloths did not prevent the light from passing through. Surprisingly, Muhammad never ran shortage of fools who wanted to be fooled by him, and his tribe of fools multiplied. Anyone who dared to question had been assassinated.
When Muhammad lost in the battle of minds, he won in the battle of swords and deception. Stout (2005, p. 182) observed, “ It would be difficult to refute the observation that people, who are completely unhampered by conscience, sometimes achieve power and wealth, at least for a while. Too many chapters in the human history book, from its first lines to its most contemporary entries, are organized around the stupendous success of military invaders, conquerors, robber barons, and empire builders .”
Human cruelty increases when the malignant Narcissist gains an incredible, almost hypnotic control over a large number of people through brainwashing. Narcissism evolves through power. It manifests itself after the aggressive Narcissist finds a following and creates his mini cult. Wolman (1999, p. 136) wrote, “History is full of chieftains, prophets, saviors, gurus, dictators, and other sociopathic megalomaniacs who managed to obtain support … and incited people to violence ”. Narcissists who are not successful in creating a cult live a reclusive life and their ambitions die with them.
The historical Muhammad is too privileged to be formally evaluated in the fashion a clinical psychologist would like. But given certain of his well-known and highly documented behaviors, it is certain that he would not be found to possess any intervening sense of obligation based on emotional attachment to others. As Stout (2005, pp. 93, 183) concludes,
Insidiously, when such a “savior” abducts the normal population to his purposes, he usually begins with an appeal to them as good people who would like to improve the condition of humanity, and then insists that they can achieve this by following his own aggressive plan .
Brutal conquerors an
d empire builders are usually held in awe by their contemporaries, and during their lifetimes they are often seen as role models for the entire human race .
Once Muhammad converted some foolish people to his cult who were ready to fight and die for him, there was nothing to look back. Wherever Muhammad and his hooligans went, death and destruction followed them. Islam had always relied on the sword. Muhammad’s practice and constant encouragement of bloodshed are unique in the history of religions. Murder, pillage, rape seemed to have impressed the early Muslims with a profound belief in the value of bloodshed as opening the gates of paradise. “Kill, kill the unbelievers wherever you find them” is an injunction both unambiguous and powerful. Slowly Muhammad became a role model and his tribe prospered with hostility and bloodshed as Ayatollah Khomeini commented (cited Trifkovic, 2006, p. 25), “Islam grew with blood”
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Chapter 4: Qur’an: The Thought-Journal of Muhammad
Muhammad claimed that Qur’an was his only miracle in spite of the fact that the Qur’an did not exist in its written form during his lifetime. For Muslims, the Qur’an is so sacred that no devout Muslim would touch it with his left hand. As Guillaume (1978, p. 74) wrote, “[Qur’an is] the holy of holies. It must never rest beneath other books, but always on top of them. One must never drink or smoke when it is being read aloud. And it must be listened to in silence. It is a talisman against disease and disaster ”.
The claims are no doubt fascinating, but once we attempt to make an objective study of this book, we can find many “holes” in this supposed to be holy book.
4.1: The Authenticity of the Qur’an and the Authority and Responsibility
of Allah
“ While man must recognize his limitations, he must also become aware of the power in himself – the power to make use of his own reason and see the truth ”.
Eric Fromm (quote modified by the present Author)
Andrew Rippin, a leading expert on Qur’anic studies, lamented (1991, p. ix), “ I have often encountered individuals who come to the study of Islam with a background in the historical study of the Hebrew Bible or early Christianity, and who express surprise at the lack of critical thought that appears in introductory textbooks of Islam ”. Jeffery (1937, p. 1) wrote, “Critical investigation of the text of the Qur’an is a study which is still in its infancy”. Muslims will never allow a critical investigation of their book. In fact they cannot tolerate any criticism of Qur’an, no matter how small. As Mingana (cited Warraq, 1998, p. 80) concluded, “The most important question in the study of the Qur’an is its unchallengeable authority”. They begin with the Qur’an while pretending to conclude with it. Their logic is simple – Qur’an is from Allah because Muhammad said so, and Muhammad was the messenger of Allah because Qur’an says so. Both Allah and Muhammad demanded blind trust.
Put blind faith first, and then study the Qur’an … (Sunaan Ibn Majah: 1.61)
Believe Muhammad blindly and he blesses you seven times … (Tirmidhi: 1688, 1689)
A Muslim can live his whole life without considering an alternative view. But this is a circular reasoning, not a proof. What we need is; at least one concrete evidence, not logical fallacy.
The idea of revelation is the idea of something which is being shown – more strictly unveiled or unfolded. In Qur’anic revelations; Allah gave some instructions to the Muslims. He had also shown what He likes and what He expects from us. But unfortunately, Allah did not do that by showing us what it is like to be God. He only made Himself known through the chosen messenger Muhammad, even though the media Allah adopted was unusual one. But where is the “divine” verification for “divine” revelations? On this particular point the God of Islam failed miserably.
Why God wants us to accept a claim at random? Blind faith can be accepted up to certain extent but somewhere we should draw the line and must seek justification after that. It is for Allah to choose Muhammad as his last Prophet and there could be no question about it, only if we had sufficient evidence to believe in Muhammad’s claim. Clifford (1897, p. 186) commented, “ [In religious belief] it is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence”. We know that Muhammad was insane; therefore, we need some external proof. Without evidence, neither Islam nor Muhammad has any stand.
In Allah’s revelation, the mystery is more at the origin than at the substance of the communication, because these revelations are not revelations “of” Allah, but revelations “from” Allah. These revelations had revealed nothing about Allah. Only for this reason, the skeptics find Allah’s revelations very difficult to accept, and these revelations drastically upset our logical way of thinking. We have to suppress our rational faculty to believe the genuineness of these revelations. As Lewis (1961, p. 228) argued, “ How do we know that the words which purport to tell us this are genuinely the words of God? What is the warrant for divine disclosure? What assurance do we have that it is God and not man who is speaking, or if it is in the first place the word of a man, what enables us to say that God speaks to us through him? How does a word become ‘the word of God’? ”
Where is Allah’s guarantee for His book, Qur’an? Can any divine disclosure be beyond any question and criticism as stated in the verses 5.101, 5.102? This would be like asking “Why should I believe the truth?” If something is true then we obviously believe it after confirming the facts by physical verifications or by reasons. There are likewise questions to ask about Qur’anic revelations. Why should I believe the Qur’anic revelations, unless I am sure that they are true? As Lewis (1961, p. 231) commented, “ There are two sides to revelation. It involves man as well as God and I do not see what a revelation could be like that does not involve the use of the faculties with which we are endowed as human beings .”
Lewis (1961, p. 265) wrote, “ It is in ethics that God comes nearest to us, and the link between ethics and religions is therefore very close. The voice of God is above all the voice of consciences. It is a Divine refinement of the working of conscience ”. There are several highly offensive verses in Qur’an, which promote hate, call for violence and murder, allow deception, curse the nonbelievers and prescribe severe punishment for them. These verses are highly unethical and if, “it is in ethics that God comes nearest to us”, is true; then Islam is not that right path which can lead a person to the real God. As Gandhi (1961, p. 10) wrote, “ One cannot reach truth by untruthfulness”. Being guided by those absurd revelations, Muslims cannot reach the ultimate truth, i.e., the God.
Right reason is the rule of true faith, and we have no problem to believe in a religion so far as we see it agreeable to reason and no further. As Abelard (1836, p. 15) wrote, “ The first key to wisdom is assiduous and frequent questioning… for by doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry, we arrive at the truth… The faith should be founded in human reason and not in the contrary. ”
“Revelation is not above reason”, Caird (1956, p. 356) observed, “ Revelation, which is a necessary presupposition of religion, is often understood to fall outside science or philosophy.” Truth cannot be contrary to truth and reason, and since the study of philosophy does not merely to find out what others have thought, but what the truth of the matter is, truth cannot be contrary to philosophy also. Hence logically, there should be no disagreement between true revelation and philosophy. It is wrong to say that a proposition is false in philosophy and true in faith. Does the Qur’anic teaching conform to any other school of philosophical thought throughout the recorded history of humankind? Philosophy recognizes two ways in which humans may come to know whatever there is to be known – one way through experience (stressed by empiricism), and the other is through reasoning (Hick, 1993, p. 68). Aristotle, Socrates and Plato – the three great philosophers of the world did not claim to speak in the name of the revelation but with the authority of reason and their concern with man’s happiness. Buddha was a great teacher. He did not speak in the name of a supernatural power but in the name of reason.
He called upon every man to make use of his own reason to see the truth (Fromm, 1978, p. 38). These great teachers did not bring down any revelation, yet they had contributed much in the growth of the civilization. But Allah’s guidance and instructions through the Qur’anic revelations had contributed nothing positive; human civilization would do much better if there were no Qur’an.
Some very early Muslim scholars openly acknowledged that the arrangements and the syntax of the Qur’an are not miraculous, and work of equal or greater value could be produced by other God-fearing people. Dasti concluded that Qur’an was not the word of God, since it contains many instances, which confuse the identities of two speakers – Allah and Muhammad. Dasti also noted more than one hundred Qur’anic aberrations from the normal rules (Warraq, 1995, p. 5). A belief must be shown to be sound in itself as well as in some consequences of holding it, as Sina (2008, p. iii) lamented, “ After reading the Qur’an, I was in shock. I was shocked to see the violence, hate, inaccuracies, scientific errors, mathematical mistakes, logical absurdities, grammatical solecisms and dubious ethical pronouncements in the book of God .”
Under the (mis)guidance of the Qur’anic revelations and sunna, Muslims live in a ghostly world of fearful piety, surrounded by devils, jinns crossing themselves a hundred times a day, imploring the intercession of Muhammad for afterlife, prostrating five compulsory prayers, awed by miracles performed by Muhammad, trembling over Allah’s fury and selling everything to perform Hajj. A non-Arab Muslim family is a poor imitation of an Arab family within the principled confines of Islam.
Is there any scholar who can sincerely clarify the doubts raised on the Qur’anic revelations in this chapter? Let it be an open challenge to all of them. I am sure that the challenge would remain unanswered. If unanswered, then let this be an eye-opener to common Muslim folks. One point is very clear. Since, the authenticity of Qur’anic revelations is still remained unproven even after 1400 years of its reception; Qur’an has no authority to control Muslims’ lives, not even for a single moment from cradle to grave and life thereafter, if any. An authority must produce its credentials and Qur’an has none. And, since there is no assurance regarding authenticity and authority of the Qur’an, it is safe to conclude that Allah has no responsibility for the welfare of the Muslims, or simply He does not exist.