Questions That Need Unambiguous Answers
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
9 August
2022
So Long
As the Cult of Muhammad Survives, True Realization of Spirituality Is Not
Possible Among the Muslims
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Have you
ever noticed that Kalma, La Ilaha Illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah,
is arrogantly assertive and egotistical? Its literal English meaning is:
There's no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.
To
recapitulate, 25 prophets are mentioned in the Qur'an, although some believe
there have been 1, 24000. Since it's believed that Ummi (unlettered)
Muhammad got the revelations from 'heaven' and he added or interpolated
nothing, it stands to reason, why an 'omnipotent' and 'omniscient' Allah needed
to proclaim through Muhammad that he alone, and no one else, is
worth-worshipping and Muhammad is his messenger?
If Allah
sent 'prophets' in all eras, in terms of 'gradational betterment', why on earth
did he stop sending new 'prophets'? This shows that the very root of Islam, Kalma
encapsulates the faith in Islam, is megalomaniac and reeks of Hengfenota (Dutch
agnostic Benedict Spinoza's term for a so-called 'divine' proclamation with
suspect elements of human interference).
Day in and
day out, the Muazzin begins his call to prayers by proclaiming, "Ashaddu
Alla Ilaha Illallah Wa Ashaddu Anna Muhammad Ar Rasulullah " (I bear
witness that there's no deity-none truly to be worshipped-but, Allah, and I
bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah: Shahada). This is
absolute spiritual superciliousness and an insult to other faiths and their
gods. If Muhammad is the last messenger, what about religions and their
'founders' or 'prophets' that came after Islam?
How and
where'll you place Bahaullah, the founder of Bahai faith (splintered away from
Shia Islam in Iran), that alienated itself from Muhammad's Islam? Ahmadiyyas
are heretics and no longer in the fold of Islam, then will Muslims call Mirza
Ghulam Ahmad Qadiany a sanctimonious tartuffian? Christianity also called
Muhammad a false prophet, so much so that Italian great Dante Alighieri roasted
Muhammad in eternal hellfire in his classic ' Divine Comedy.'
Why should
Allah or the Semitic 'gods' be pathologically jealous of other gods? Jealousy
is a common human trait. Then, how can it be a divine attribute when Allah
orders destruction of Pagan and polytheistic idols and sanctions the killing of
polytheists in the Quran? Why did Allah's religious concoctions stop with Islam
and Muhammad when just a 500-yr-old Sikhism had not one but ten 'enlightened'
gurus who, according to Sikhs, were no less than any prophet of any era? They
(Sikhs) are right from their perspective, just like Muslims think that they've
the absolute monopoly of truth.
Why didn't
Allah replace Muhammad with Moses and Jesus (Judaism and Christianity) in the
Kalma? Is Christianity or Judaism any way lesser faiths than Islam? Why did
Allah send revelations on 'prophets' belonging to a particular patch of land
and why not in the eastern world?
Lastly, if
the Qur'an is a divine book, wasn't it Muhammad's duty to compile it during his
lifetime? After all, these messages are supposed to be 'revelations' from none
other than Allah! Many Arabs criticised the Quran when it was first created
because they argued that a so-called genuine book from god or Allah would be
revealed as one piece and wouldn't be exasperatingly repetitive.
There
cannot be two views about the Qur'an being ridiculously repetitive, and often
about the most trivial things. Even the yokels of the desert doubted the
veracity of Quranic verses. I asked these discomforting questions when I was
studying religions. No one could give me satisfactory answers. Muslim
'scholars' gave the most evasive, hollow, baffling and misleading explanations.
No wonder, more and more questioning Muslims are leaving Islam and calling
themselves ex-Muslims.
So long as
the cult of Muhammad survives, true realization of spirituality is not possible
among the Muslims. I know, modern Imam Ghazalis and Ibn Arabis will try tooth
and nail to explain these posers, but will nosedive in their futile attempts as
the very foundations of Islam or for that matter, any faith are so dilapidated
and rickety.
They'll
condemn me, but who cares? Truth is forever on the scaffold. To quote Ahmad
Faraz, “Aaj Hum Daar Pe Khainche Gaye Jin Baaton Par/ Kya Ajab Kal Woh
Zamane Ko Nisaabon Mein Milein” (The things I'm being excoriated for
today/Don't be surprised, if you might get to see them tomorrow in the text
books).
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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/questions-unambiguous-answers/d/127674
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