Don't Make Your Allah a Party to All This Mess
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
31 August
2022
Naseer
Ahmad's ' The Satanic Verses' is a veritable ' apologist's rants.' I've
never come across anyone whose overzealous approach to explaining the
scriptural conundrums of any damn scripture is greater than that of this man.
Karl Popper once said, “If you broach a very sensitive subject. Brace yourself
to face the criticism. “In his overenthusiasm to gloss over Muhammad marrying
his daughter-in-law, Zaynab (wife of his adopted son Zayd) and why adoption is
not religiously and scripturally sanctioned in Islam, he has made himself a
butt of ridicule. By the way, have you read or heard the following lines as Bon
Jovi sang?
“The new improved tomorrow isn't what it used to be
Yesterday keeps coming 'round,
it's just reality
It's the same damn song with a
different melody.... "
I reiterate
the last line, “It’s the same damn song with a different melody. "
Apologists for ages have been trying to define a number of verses in the Quran
which are not just dubious but also make Islam's Allah complicit in them with a
view to justifying Muhammad's own agenda. If you read Spinoza's God (not the
useless Wikipedia or WhatsApp version, but in the original Dutch language), he
averred that he indeed was an impious man- as the Vatican called him the most
impious man on earth- in the sense that he never believed in any Book and
Prophet but had his own concept of god that was independent of scriptures and
their characters. He further stated that the scriptures and their so-called
prophets desecrated not just Christianity but all faiths and defiled the image
of god. I quoted his opinion to drive home the point that what Muhammad did (by
marrying his daughter-in-law) was reprehensible, but by attributing the
'revelation' (33:4; 37- 40) to Allah justifying and extenuating his messenger's
act of indiscretion, aren't Muslims cheapening their Allah?
Muhammad
was a human, a mere mortal at that. And to err is human. Instead of reprimanding
or warning, Allah sent down a self-serving and opportunistic 'revelation',
legalizing Muhammad to pick up his adopted son's wife as his 5th one. In this
way, Allah permitted him to have more than four wives, which is the limit it
set for other men (Quran 4:3). The million-dollar-question is: Was Muhammad an
exception to Allah's law?
Coming back
to the squirming episode of Zaynab getting married to Muhammad, How will you perceive
a man who marries his daughter-in-law? Agreed, it's his choice, who're we to
criticise or condemn it? Accepted, but when it comes to a man Ummah looks up
to, such capers are bound to raise eyebrows. Will any sane Muslim follow this
as a precedent?
Accept the
fact that Muhammad made mistakes, nay Himalayan blunders. Don't make your Allah
a party to all this mess. Spare your god.
-----
A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/allah-mess-satanic-verses/d/127844
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