Let's review a few more surahs. Surely we will find something redeeming. The 87th is from the early Meccan period. Imam Maududi explains: "The Prophet was reassured: 'Do not worry: We shall enable you to recite this Word, then you shall not forget it.' Then after a lapse of time, on another occasion, when the Resurrection surah was being revealed, the Prophet involuntarily began to rehearse the words of the Revelation. Thereupon it was said: 'O Prophet do not move your tongue to remember this Revelation hastily. It is for Us to explain its meaning.'" If this sounds repetitious, it's only because it is. No, we have not yet reviewed the 87th surah, but unable to remember what he had said, one surah to the next, Muhammad had an annoying habit of repeating himself. While this peculiar "tongue movement" obsession is covered multiple times, it's a Qur'anic piker compared to Pharaoh and Moses. Their singular encounter was replayed fifty times. Muhammad must have loved plagues. Bukhari:V8B77N616 "Allah's Apostle said, 'Plague is a means of torture which Allah sends upon whom-so-ever He wishes.'" As for forgetfulness, consider this: Bukhari:V6B61N550 "The Prophet said, 'It is a bad thing that some of you say, "I have forgotten such-and-such verse of the Qur'an." For indeed, I have been caused to forget it. So you must keep on reciting the Qur'an because it escapes from the hearts of men faster than a runaway camel.'" Returning to the tongue-lashing of the 87th surah, we find: Qur'an 87:1 "Glorify the Name of your Lord, the Most High, Who creates, then proportions, Who has measured; and then guided." Did you notice the blunder? Muslims are told to glorify the name of their Lord before they know his name. Muslims don't notice this omission because they recite the Qur'an in the order it was assembled, not in the order it was "revealed." By reordering the Qur'an chronologically, a host of serious problems emerge. Allah doesn't become god until late in the game. The lack of guidance is also a problem. You could put the full measure of what the dark spirit has given thus far in a thimble. It's not only insufficient; it's perplexing. Curiously, the Islamic god's guidance has failed to include any of the Ten Commandments - odd in that he claimed to have written the Torah. In fact, his messenger would systematically violate all of them. He placed Allah before Yahweh. He turned a graven image, a Black Stone, into a god. He bowed down, prostrating himself to the former idol. He created a false doctrine. He renounced the Sabbath. He rebuked his father and mother and severed family ties. He committed murder and adultery countless times. Stealing became his passion; he called it booty. He bore false witness and became one of history's most egregious cons. Coveting money, power, and sex drove him to create Islam. Muhammad couldn't have done more violence to the core teaching of the Torah if he had tried. Qur'an 87:4 "Who brings forth herbage, then makes it dried up, dust-colored swarthy stubble? We shall make you read so that you will not forget ..." This transition is as lame as the command. He never learned to read. The Qur'an calls Muhammad "the unlettered prophet." But there is a story behind the duplicity. Our hero wanted it both ways. He wanted the respect only learned and literate men possess. After all, the Qur'an was supposed to be a book. Previous prophets became prophets by actually writing their prophecies. Yet this prophet also wanted to dispel the popular belief that he was a plagiarizer. If he couldn't read, the Hebrew Bible stories suddenly appeared more miraculous than stolen. Only one problem: Muhammad's Qur'anic deviations are dead ringers for the Talmud - Jewish oral tradition. Qur'an 87:7 "... except as He may will: He knows what is hidden." Holy runaway camel! This is stunning from a scriptural perspective. Muhammad is admitting that he forgets some of what he claims god has revealed. Worse, he is proposing that his forgetfulness is god's fault. So how can he be god's last messenger, the truth teller for all time, if he can't remember what was said from one day to the next? Divinely inspired scripture is supposed to be timeless instruction. But once again there was a method behind the madness. Muhammad wanted his revelations to be accepted as godly during a time his contemporaries called them the uninspired rantings of a demon-possessed maniac. To mute his mockers he had to overcome a problem of his own creation. The Meccans knew that real scripture was timeless, not myopic; godly instructions didn't change or contradict themselves. The Meccans knew that Muhammad's scripture didn't meet these criteria. Far too much of it was specific to his personal situation and meaningless beyond it. Worse, it was contradictory and mean spirited. So Muhammad insisted that changes and contradictions were part of god's plan. In the 2nd surah, he took this preposterous notion to the level of comedy. His spirit said: "When We cancel a Message or throw it into oblivion We replace it with a better one." In the Hadith, we discover that this prophet couldn't be trusted: Bukhari:V7B67N427 "The Prophet said, 'If I take an oath and later find something else better than that, then I do what is better and expiate my oath.'" Bukhari:V6B60N8 "Umar said, 'Our best Qur'an reciter is Ubai. And in spite of this, we leave out some of his statements because Allah's Apostle himself said, "Whatever verse or revelation We abrogate or cause to be forgotten We bring a better one."'" This is one of many reasons I have reordered the Qur'an chronologically. If one verse encourages peace and another contradicts it by ordering Muslims to fight, the one that came later cancels the earlier one - casting it into oblivion. (Unfortunately, the Qur'an's most violent surahs are its last surahs.) Qur'an 87:8 "And We will make easy for you the easy way. Therefore do remind in case the reminder profits." I knew it. I'm just glad Muhammad admitted it' "the reminder profits." The wannabe prophet recognized what every tyrant knows: tell a lie often enough and enough people will believe it for you to profit. Qur'an 87:10 "He who fears will mind." This verse proclaims the means behind the madness. Fear serves Islam the same way it serves all totalitarian societies. Fear causes people to mind - to obey. Now you know why Muhammad found it profitable to frighten his tribe with tales of a hateful god, eager to burn them. Now you know why hell's torments were so vividly described. Throughout time, dictators like Muhammad have risen to fame and fortune by deploying the politics of fear and intimidation. While much of the Qur'an has been foolish, fretful, and fanatical, this pearl is not. Fear is essential to any dictatorial regime. It was behind the peace of the Pax Romana; it was the control mechanism behind the Inquisition. Fear is the reason we see blind obedience in every Muslim state. While this jewel was political, not religious, and sinister, not inspirational, we have finally found something meritorious - or at least true - in the Qur'an. Qur'an 87:12 "Who will be flung in to burn in the great Fire (and be made to taste its burning)," Qur'an 87:13 "in which they will then neither die nor live?" The "Lord" must have been distracted because he didn't answer his question. I checked ten translations. All asked the question, none answered it. For a book that claims to be divinely inspired, this is one of a thousand verses that suggests otherwise. Qur'an 87:14 "He indeed shall be successful who purifies himself, and magnifies the Name of his Lord and prays." Although this sounds religious, the transition from flinging folks into the fire isn't Further, "magnifying the name of the Lord" is defined in later surahs as "Allahu Akbar." It's the "Prayer of Fear," designed to terrorize non-Muslims. It means: "Allah is Greatest." What's interesting is that Islam's signature line destroys Islam's credibility. If we all worship the same God, if there is but one God, and if the Qur'an's god is the same spirit who inspired the Bible, as Muslims claim, this equivalence repudiates the notion of superiority. Qur'an 87:18 "Verily, this is in the Books of the earliest Revelation, in the former scrolls and Scriptures, The Books of Abraham and Moses." If the new religion is like the old religion, why does god want, and why does man need, a new religion? If these Scriptures are the same as the old ones then why can't we find any of these Muhammadisms in the original version? And god is supposed to know what he is talking about: there were no "Books of Abraham." |
