There is some good news. The surahs are getting shorter. Maududi, our Qur'anic scholar tells us: "In the 90th surah a vast subject has been compressed into a few brief sentences. It is the miracle of the Qur'an that a complete ideology of life which could be explained in a thick volume has been abridged most effectively in brief sentences." Let's jump right in. Enough with pain and punishment. We're about to find the meaning of life. Qur'an 90:1 "Nay! I swear by this city. And you shall be made free from obligation in this city." Islam is the most obligatory "religion" ever concocted. It's the antithesis of being free from obligation. They've got the obligatory prayer, the obligatory hajj, the obligatory tax, and the obligatory surrender to Muhammad and Islamic authority. Islam itself means submission, and submission means that Muslims are obligated to surrender their freedom. What's more, Mecca was a motley collection of mud huts. It was no more a "city" than Muhammad was a "prophet" or Allah was a "god." Qur'an 90:3 "And the mystic ties of parent and child;" This is getting worse, not better. Muhammad did more to destroy family ties than any religious leader in history. He told Muslims that they must love him more than they loved their children. He tore families apart and sent sons off to murder their fathers. But in Islam's defense, another translation renders the verse senseless rather than contradictory: "And by the begetter and that which he begot." Qur'an 90:4 "Verily We have created man in toil and struggle, to be in distress." (Didn't we just read: Qur'an 87:8 "And We will make it easy for you to follow the simple path to the state of ease?" Which one is true?) "Does he think that no one has power over him? He may say boastfully; Wealth have I squandered in abundance!" While many are wealthy, and some have squandered, few have bragged about squandering. So why, if this surah is the secret to life, the great miracle of the Qur'an, are we wasting our time with this? Because big brother is watching: Qur'an 90:7 "Does he think that no one sees him? Have We not given him two eyes, a tongue and two lips, and pointed out the two ways?" Then... "But he has made no haste on the steep path. And what will explain to you the steep path? (It is) freeing a neck (slave)." This pegs the Hypocrite Scale. Muhammad owned slaves. He forced tens of thousands of people into bondage so he could sell them to finance his military conquests. The Qur'an itself even brags about enslaving Jewish women and children. This odd phraseology is further evidence that Islam's prophet contrived this religion to lay claim to what he coveted: the custodianship of the Ka'aba. Qur'an 90:14 "Give food in a day of hunger to the orphan with claims of relationship, an orphan near of kin, the indigent down in the dust." Muhammad was that orphan - the rarest of orphans - one with "claims of relationship" to something valuable. I am amazed that something this transparent hasn't been exposed and discredited. It's so obvious. Muhammad is saying as clearly as words allow: "My family has squandered the wealth I covet. The path to my heaven lies in satisfying my cravings - giving me, the orphan with claims, everything I desire." Forty surahs, one rant: "I'll make my family pay for the way they've treated me." Revenge made a religion. Qur'an 90:17 "Be of those who believe and exhort one another to perseverance and pity. Such are the Companions of the Right Hand." Islam's prophet was always an exception to his own rules. He pitied no man. He attacked his clan's caravans, attacked their city. He attacked the Jews, expelled them from their homes, confiscated their property, tortured them, sold them into slavery. He murdered many in genocidal rage. "Pity." Qur'an 90:19 "But those who reject Our Signs, Proofs, and Verses, they are the unhappy Companions of the Left Hand. Fire will be their awning, vaulting over them." This is the perfect benediction to the magnificent miracle of the Qur'an. The tolerant and peace-loving religion of Islam has just said that all non-Muslims are toast. |
