<<< Chapter 2

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Anwar Shaikh was a Jihadist turned apostate of Islam and became one of first and prominent critics of Islam of modern times. This is a part of his famous book, 'Islam, The Arab Imperialism'.

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Chapter 3: The Nature Of Prophethood

To understand the nature of prophet hood, one must realize that Polarity is the law of existence. It means that, as physical being of the universe depends upon the balance of negative and positive charges, so does the social fabric, which is composed of contradictory forces. This is the reason that we cannot imagine light without darkness, sweet without bitter and good without bad. Exactly the same way, Prophet hood is the antithesis of free will. For better comprehension of this statement, I ought to explain the concept of free will.

What is free will?

Life commences with free will. It is because stones and stars are lifeless despite their durability and lamination; they simply do not have any desire; nor can they do anything on their own, and therefore, lack the ability to make choices, but the lowest organism like an amoeba has desire and the ability to move as it likes. This is the distinction between an inanimate and animate: this difference i.e. the desire and ability to make choices is life.

Again, until free will emerges, existence is mechanical i.e. fully commanded by the law of nature, but free will reduces authority of the natural law and gives organisms the choice of action, making liberty an integral part of living. In fact, free will is the ambassador of a new force called "morality, " which means acting according to one's own volition without external pressures.

Since making choices or decisions requires consciousness and knowledge, these two elements are also the branches of free will. This is especially true when we realize that consciousness (awareness) is an integral part of life.

Thus, we can say that desire, freedom, morality, consciousness and knowledge are the basic components of free will, which cannot operate successfully unless its constituting elements get a fair chance to display themselves. Since life commences with free will, the goal of life is not servitude of any supernatural power i.e. God through worship or prostration, but purpose of life is self-elevation, as indicated by free will. This is the reason that we abhor dictation, injustice and vicious commands.

Since polarity is the law of nature, the concept of free will, which means moral choice and the liberty to act accordingly, must also have an antithesis. It is Prophet hood, which is the opposite of free will because it seeks to minimize the operation of free will by reducing the scope of human intelligence and the liberty to act accordingly; it uses the bridle of faith to check the human conduct, intellectually, morally and physically. Reason is the light of humanity; this is what exalts man over the rest of beings; prophet hood replaces it with faith, which is a form of twilight, bordering on darkness. Thus, man ceases to be a rational being and begins to believe in fairy tales such as Moses dividing the sea to create a pathway for the escaping Israelites; Jesus had no physical father and Muhammad broke the moon into two sections as a miracle. This is how the basic attitudes of life come to be founded on irrationality under the hypnotizing force of faith.

In view of history and man's psychological ambitions, I believe that humanity is marching towards perfection through self-elevation. Man's ascent from the status of a savage to the modern cultural stage proves this truth. In fact, man is destined to be a part of Divinity. Having explained this thesis in my book "Eternity," I need not go into details here, but must emphasize that Prophet is a person who imposes his own Godhead on innocent people and thus deprives them of their own Divine dignity. Why does he adopt this attitude towards humanity? It is because he is a man of massive ego, which is operated by dominance-urge:

What is Dominance-Urge

To stress the importance of dominance-urge, I may add that, as universe is hierarchical in nature, our social organization is also hierarchical. The concept of hierarchy is easily understood with reference to a pyramid which is broad at its base but becomes narrower as it rises. Likewise, human society is the widest at the base, constituted by the masses, but as social pattern assumes ascending order, at the apex appears one person, usually a man, known as king, dictator, president or prime minister.

What is it that raises a person to the imperial, dictatorial, presidential or prime ministerial dignity? It is the urge of dominance that motivates a person to rise above his fellow-beings, and he seeks distinction by imposing his will on others. This is the act of dominance. Though social order is hierarchical, it differs from the universal hierarchy; the former is based on a personal ambition which grows even stronger as one gathers more power but the latter is impersonal or neutral because it is based on function and not ambition. The sun may be greater, and life-giving, yet it is not superior to the earth because sun's grandeur is functional and thus neutral in character. Social hierarchy, on the contrary, is fuelled by the urge of dominance, which is an expression of a personal ambition seeking superiority over the rest. Though one can divide it into many branches, it is mainly of two types:

a. Secular, and b. Spiritual.

a. Whether it be secular or spiritual hierarchy, it is based on the urge of dominance. Secular dominance is represented by gubernatorial grandeur such as the office of a high dignitary of the state, a minister, the king, the president or the prime minister. The purpose of the dominant or the gubernator is always the same - telling people how to live by equating morality with the law. At secular level, the gubernator wants to look public-spirited, that is, someone who lives for public good at the expense of his own happiness. Thus, he imposes his will on people through the agency of law, which he uses to suit his own convenience. For example, to obtain votes, he declares that poverty is the greatest social evil, and thus practices Robinhoodism, that is, he robs the rich to pay the poor for gaining their favor. If he were to alleviate the distress of poverty through the state effort, that is, distribution of wealth, created by the state itself through its own entrepreneurial zeal, it would be laudable. The purpose of this exercise is to seek dominance by manipulating people's votes.

Secular dominance is short-lived, because when a person dies, with him perishes his dominance-urge. However, it may take the dynastic form after him. The father may take measures to enable his son to step into his shoes, perpetuating the family dignity. However, family- dignity owes itself to its founder and thus all the successors rank next to him unless someone has secured greater distinction in his own right.

Dominance-urge is not restricted to any particular class of people. Both the high and low are likely to have the ambition to dominate others. In fact, for being the means of self-elevation, it is a part of the evolutionary process. Thus, it is not evil in itself but becomes so, for acting as the tool of self-promotion at the cost of moral considerations. However, there are occasions when a dominant person may be sincere and public spirited but it is rare and serves as an exception and not the rule.

What is an urge? Think of a motor car in relation to fuel. It may be a great vehicle but it cannot budge an inch without fuel, which serves as its driving force. This is the meaning of "drive" in psychology, the science of behavior. Urge is just another word for drive. An expression of this urge is found in the dominance-hierarchies found in domestic fowl, birds, baboons, bumble bees, crabs, etc. It is well explained by what is called "Peck Order" and is commonly seen among chickens where bird A pecks the weaker bird B and B pecks the still weaker bird C. In a way, what is called aggressive behavior is the manifestation of the urge of dominance. It demonstrates lack of rationality and seeks superiority through a show of brute force. One can call it the expression of the law of jungle based on the aphorism: "might is right." A better example is provided by the "lek behavior" of animals. It can be seen during the mating season in a communal area where the male members fight one another to establish their dominance over their competitors. Through an aggressive behavior, the winner settles his claim of priority to sex, food and water. Thus dominance-urge turns out to be the mania of self- preference, which is realized through demonstration of ferocity. This fact is equally noticeable in the members of much lower species: wasps of the genus Polistes repress the sexual growth of their immediate young through harassment so that instead of producing their own progeny they must stay around as servants to care for the young ones of their parents. Termites are yet another example of this fact; they achieve similar results by chemical secretions which effectively turn their young ones into slaves for looking after their freshly hatched offspring.

The most effective way of securing dominance is by arousing someone's fear. Biologists have provided good examples to this effect. They point to "presenting," an inclination of the female members of the macaque monkeys. The term "presenting" refers to the condition of a sexually receptive female which offers itself to the male for copulation. Such a male is the symbol of brute force, and thus carries an air of superiority. Invitation to seduce is certainly the most submissive behavior which the dominant relishes. This is the main purpose of dominance-urge, which seeks total surrender and humiliation of others through force, feigning and ferocity.

The fact that we find mighty conquerors towering over the palace of history, is owing to the urge of dominance, which prompted them to exploit the human instinct of fear. The magnitude of their conquests has been compatible with the stature of their dominance-urge: Alexander the Great, wanted to build a universal monarchy and Tamburlaine, the Conqueror, declared that, as there was only one God, this earth could accommodate only one king. To accomplish this end, Alexander unleashed terror towards those who resisted his rule, and Tamburlaine devised the policy of building minarets with the decapitated heads of his victims for frightening entire foreign populations into submission.

Behind this carnage and devastation, lay the personal desire of the perpetrator to be acknowledged as the greatest. This is the reason that Alexander the Great wanted to be considered and worshipped as God. History has recorded that, in November 332 B.C. when Alexander left Praetonium for the oasis Siwa, where stood the oracle of Amon, venerated as the king of gods, he was hailed by the priest as the "Son of Amon." Alexander, who had harbored the dream of divinity for a long time, was rather stunned to be addressed as the Son of God. It was then, he was told that Philip, the king of Macedonia, though married to his mother, Olympias, was not his true father, because his mother's pregnancy had, in fact, been caused by the necromantic touch of Amon, the god of gods, who wanted to secure the birth of a mighty prince to release Egypt from the clutches of the Persians. The insight of the priest, who knew the psychological truth of dominance-urge, worked wonders. Alexander, convinced of his numinous stature, demanded to be acknowledged and worshipped as God throughout his empire. The Egyptians were the first to yield to this demand, followed by the Greeks, Persians and other conquered nations. The cult of dominance-urge is more visible among the Roman Emperors. Of course, they were haughty and powerful but they caught the disease of divinity in Egypt where every Pharaoh was believed to be the incarnation of God. This is what influenced the Roman Senate and it introduced the custom of deification i.e. proclaiming a person as God; the death of each emperor was followed not only by elaborate funeral rites, but also daunting rituals of apotheosis leading to a place in the national pantheon, whose sanctity was as inviolable to the Romans of the past as is their belief in Jesus Christ today.

Why does man want to put on the cloak of divinity? There are two reasons for it. Firstly, the dominance-urge goads the dominance-seeker to project himself as the loftiest being. Since God is believed to be the greatest known image, the dominant wants to be thought of as God directly or indirectly. Secondly, contrary to the psychological mechanism of the dominance-seeker, *ordinary man is equipped with Free Will. Thus it is his nature to live a life based on his own choice, which is not possible without freedom of thought and security of fundamental human rights. Thus man is born to be free. This is something that a dominant person dislikes the same way as a dog hates a cat and a cat hates a rat. It is because if people could maintain their freedom,

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* Of course, a dominant person is also born with a Free Will but he has the mania of coercing other people's Free Will to maximize his authority.
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their freedom, the dominance-seeker would not be able to impose his hegemony on them; dominance simply means maximization of one's own prerogative by the minimization of other people's rights. One way of achieving this end is by sheer brute force such as carnage and destruction of property, but this tact works temporarily only because man's love of freedom persuades him to resist the tyrant. Therefore, the dominant has to use some sophisticated ploys which, despite being vicious, must look virtuous; their power of brainwashing should be as great as that of a burning lamp, whose lure proves so irresistible to the moths that they cremate themselves on it without any external pressure.

This is what prompts a gubernator to exploit man's psychological mechanism, which consists of fear and favor. It is a matter of common observation that whatever man does, he does out of fear or to gain favor. This is especially true with regard to hell and heaven; a person adopts a certain faith because he is afraid of hell, and at the same time wants to go to heaven, which ranks as a favor. This is the notion which appeals more to the emotions and less to reason. Yet fear, as one of the basic elements of personality, is the pivot of morality; it is not only restricting but also the guiding factor in behavior. However, when it becomes irrational it serves as the greatest barrier to reason and thus becomes a source of divergence, deviation and devastation.

Again, fear is the source of both reverence and submission. Therefore, the best way of achieving dominance is through exploitation of fear, which must form a part of one's faith and behavior. This type of fear is like a mellow stream, perennially fed by melting snow which keeps it flowing year after year, whereas the fear engendered by brute force is like the periodical torrential rain, which causes a flood, but disappears after a short while. Thus, secular dominance cannot be held for longer periods by sheer brute force. It must be given a touch of spiritual happiness in such a way that people learn to fear it reverently and obey it without coercion.

b. Members of the gubernatorial class have realized the value of fear and used it masterfully. This fact brings us to the discussion of the second type of dominance (hierarchy) which I termed as "spiritual."

In fact, it is a tool of the secular dominance, and the razzmatazz which goes with it. What makes it spiritual is the tinge of divinity; a person claims the right to rule and demands submission with reverence on the ground that he is the mouthpiece of God, Son of God or the reincarnated God. Thus he projects himself as divine and a cut above other humans. Those people, whose purpose this assertion serves, back the claimant. Once his divinity is established through plausibility and a sustained campaign of fairy tales, including violence, his dominance becomes as attractive to people as that of a burning lamp to the moths. History is riddled with such examples. I may refer to the Egyptian custom which is relevant to the nature of this discussion:

In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh (king) was identified with the sky-god, Horus and the sun-god, variously known as Re, Amon or Aton. This is the reason that a pharaoh was addressed as Re, Aton and Horus. Scholars have remarked that he derived these epithets, not from his associations with the various deities, but because he was considered the incarnation of everything believed to be divine. Thus, he was God-incarnate in his own right. This belief gave birth to an effective royal theology, which led to the doctrine of the god-kingdom spanning two generations; it means that, as long as a pharaoh lived, he ruled as King Horus but after his death, he became Osiris, the king of the dead. Since all Egyptians died like other humans, they showed special reverence to their pharaoh, who also happened to be their ruler in the world-to-come. What a royal trick it was to make people obey their monarch to the point of worshipping him. There also grew the tradition of treating pharaoh as God's image, and it was believed that God addressed him as ^my living image on earth."

This divine cult of the pharaoh was further promoted by festivals which involved sacrifices, eating, drinking, staging plays, sexual contacts, including all sorts of merriment, yet retaining their numinous character! Whereas worshipping the pharaoh formed part of the reverential fear that his divine power generated, the delight of the fair, counted as the favor for fearing the pharaoh. Scholars have discovered that the festive spirit of these happy gatherings became an integral part of the later Hellenistic i.e. Greco- Roman mystery and salvatory religions including Semitic faiths such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

As "the living image of God," pharaoh in his human capacity was also believed to be the servant of God, destined to carry out His work on earth. This is what turned kingship into an institution, which could be termed as divine viceroyalty. It received a special emphasis in the Arabian peninsula. This fact is clearly visible in the history of Mesopotamia. In all its empires such as Sumer, Babylon and Assyria, one finds the prevalence of this doctrine: whether it be a city, country or the state, its head is God, but the ruler acts as His "humble" viceroy whose destiny remains the execution of God's will. However, king's major role was to mediate between God and man.

Moses, as he brought his people out of Egypt, attached special importance to this doctrine. The Jews had suffered tremendous hardships under the rule of pharaoh, who was a (visible) God. Since the Jews could not tolerate the idea of such a God, Moses introduced the concept of an abstract God, who could not be contacted by ordinary folks directly but it remained "possible" to approach Him through the agency of Moses, the Viceroy (of God).

This viceregal cloak of sanctity that man has worn for centuries, has proved a far more effective vehicle of dominance than brute force. Another name for this spiritual viceroy is "Prophet.'' Since God speaks through him and, may be contacted through him only, the prophet's word ranks as God's Word, and over a period of time, his followers begin to worship him instead of God. This fact shows the climax of dominance-urge, which goads man to claim divinity directly or indirectly and be worshipped as God. But in the Semitic tradition, a prophet is the servant of God, who mediates between God and man, and because God reveals Himself through the agency of the Prophet only, he becomes more important than God. It is why, if you do not believe in the Prophet, your belief in God and all your righteous deeds become useless. This is how the prophet begins to rank a cut above God and, though the prophet may call himself God's servant, it is God who, in practice, becomes the prophet's factotum. This is the Semitic tradition and exposes the reality of revelation, which is simply man's spiritual tool of dominance. It depicts the impetuosity and severity of dominance-urge, which tempts a man to claim Godhead through the medium of revelation, simply because he wants to be worshipped, that is, loved and obeyed by mankind.

The difference between secular and spiritual dominance is, that the former perishes when a dominance- seeker, such as a king or dignitary dies, but the latter does not expire with the death of the spiritual dominance-seeker, who commands from his grave by demanding obedience to his laws, and exhibits an astonishing passion to be adored exclusively by declaring that there will be no more prophets after him. This passion for adoration is the essence of worship, which is the worst form of aggression because it requires the worshipper to humiliate himself through a set of self-debasing rituals, aimed at expressing his total surrender.

Revelation is the most effective tool of securing this purpose because the revelationist (Prophet) declares that he has no axe to grind in it; he claims to do what he is told by God, and being His servant, has no choice but to obey!

The truth is exactly the opposite. It is the prophet who wants to be adored. God is just a euphemism for the Prophet. Revelation is the device to achieve this aim.

What is revelation?

It is also known as the Divine guidance, but in fact, it is the stunning web of hypocrisy that the human mind could weave. Without doubt, it is the greatest insult to God:

I need not repeat all those arguments here that I have advanced in my books "Eternity" and "Faith And Deception" to expose the hollow nature of revelation. It is just a political tradition of the Middle East, which enables a secular ruler to rule in the name of God. Such a God is nothing but a clever myth, which enables the Prophet to declare God as the real Master and himself as His humble servant. Thus, he can give his own commands the supernatural aura to fool and snool people for imposing his dictatorship on them. This indirect type of government enables him to do what he likes in the name of God because all his actions count as the Divine Will; he claims that he has no choice but to act accordingly. Thus, whatever may happen to his subjects, he remains blameless.

 

What a device this revelation is! Even Machiavelli looks a toddler in the Middle Eastern school of politics.

The cornerstone of this political stratagem known as Prophet hood is, that God as an act of mercy sends guidance to people so that they can avoid hell to qualify for paradise. Another point to note is that certain souls were appointed as the Prophets even before creation:

"And when God took compact with the Prophets That I have given you of Book and Wisdom, then there shall come to you a Messenger confirming what is with you - you shall believe in him and you shall help him; do you agree?" He said "And do you take My load on you on that condition?" They said, "We do agree." God said "Bear witness so, and I shall be with you among the witnesses. Then whosoever turns back after that - they are the ungodly. What do they desire another religion than God's ....." (The House of Imran III: 75)

In a nutshell, these verses mean that Allah called a conference of the souls of Prophets ( before creation ) and took a binding promise from them that they would declare Muhammad as the greatest and the Last Prophet and must tell their followers to convert to his religion, which is the true religion of God. Allah stresses here that all Prophets have been given the same principles of guidance as contained in the Book of Guidance i.e. the Koran.

It is just a Muhammadan approach for gaining converts. How could there be a conference of the Prophets before creation? As I explained earlier, according to the Koran, Muhammad himself was unaware of the Truth and knew nothing of the Koran until he was forty years old; it is then, he was "made a Prophet through the agency of Gabriel, who brought him the revelation." Under these circumstances, how could Allah have declared Muhammad as the greatest and the Last Prophet when even four decades after his birth he was not a Prophet as yet? Perhaps, the wiser interpretation of these verses is that Muhammad was never a Prophet because, as it is obvious from the quotation, he was not invited to participate in the pre-creation conference, which all the other "Prophets" attended.

The pivot of Muhammad's prophet hood is the Koran, which claims to be the source of guidance to mankind, but this Koranic enunciation does not hold good at all.

''Say (Muhammad): O disbelievers...To you your religion and to me my religion." (The Unbelievers, CIX: 5)

Here it is made quite clear that Muhammad was not sent by Allah with a Definite Mission because, according to these verses, the non-Muslims are welcome to their religion, whereas Muhammad and his devotees shall follow their own faith. Thus, at the time of declaring his prophet hood, Muhammad had neither any Divine Code of Guidance nor any design of preaching the "Truth." These things were necessitated by the circumstances as he proceeded with his career. See for yourself:

1. "Thou (Muhammad) art not responsible for guiding them (non-Muslims) but God guides whomsoever He will." (The Cow, II: 275)

"Thou (Muhammad) art only a warner, and God is the guardian over everything." (Hood, II: 15)

"Your Lord knows you (Muhammad) very well; if He will, He will have mercy on you, or, if He will, He will chastise you; We (Allah) sent thee not to be a guardian over them." (The Night Journey, XVII: 55)

Here one can clearly see that Muhammad has nothing to do with guidance. In fact, these verses show Muhammad as an ordinary person, who himself is at the mercy of Allah for guidance. This was his attitude when he was weak and politically a non-entity: then he preached:

"No compulsion is there in religion." (The Cow, II: 255)

But when he became powerful, he declared in the name of Allah:

"The true religion with God is Islam." (The House of Imran, III: 15)

Then came further messages:

"Whoso desires another religion than Islam, it shall not be accepted of him; in the next world he shall be among the losers." (The House of Imran, III: 75)

Since Islam is the only acceptable religion to Allah, He declares:

"It is He (Allah) who has sent His Messenger (Muhammad) with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may uplift it above every religion." (Victory, XLVIII: 25)

Now, as Islam is declared the only True religion, it has to be lifted above all religions. Therefore, those who do not embrace it, stand condemned by the Almighty Allah:

"Surely the worst of beasts in God's sight are the unbelievers." (The Spoils, VIII: 57)

Even one's parents come within this category if they are not Muslims:

"O believers, do not treat your fathers and mothers as your friends, if they prefer unbelief to belief; whomsoever of you takes them for friends, they are evil-doers." ( Repentance, IX: 20 )

Since parents are the fountain of love and mercy for their children, the religion that preaches hatred for them on the ground of belief is not the source of guidance but misguidance. This is further proven by the fact that now Allah changes His attitude altogether and declares the revolutionary principle of JEHAD for forced conversion of the non-Muslims:

"God has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of paradise; they fight in the way of God; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding on God..." ( Repentance, IX: 110 )

A Muslim is God's soldier, whose life has been bought by Allah in return for paradise. Jehad means killing and robbing non-Muslims if they do not accept Islam when invited to do so. Jehad is considered the best principle of Guidance: prayers, charity, morality, service to the Muslim community, etc. are far inferior forms of guidance. It is the highest symbol of surrender to God (Eman) because a Mujahid ( God's soldier ) feels no qualms in carrying out Allah's commands even when they involve murder, rape, robbery, injustice, or usurpation of human rights and people's sovereignty.

Following Allah's guidance leads to Paradise, the ultimate goal of a Muslim's dreams. This is the main tool of the Islamic propaganda for attracting converts. Without this charm, hardly anyone will pay attention to this "religion." Since calling people to paradise is the mainstay of Prophet hood, the reality of paradise, also exposes the nature of Prophet hood. Thus, one is eagerly inclined to know what paradise is:

Paradise is the largest and the sweetest carrot that was ever dangled before the Arabs. Just compare the description of paradise with the burning sands of Arabia, without water, trees, pastures, rivers and gardens. Worse still, Arabia did not have plentiful women, and this is what made the Arabs hanker after the feminine gender. Look at the following verses from the Koran which point to the sexual appeal of Islam:

"...... for them (the Muslims) is reserved a definite provision, fruit and a great honor in the Gardens of Bliss reclining upon couches arranged face to face, a cup from a fountain being passed round to them, white, a pleasure to the drinkers ..... and with them wide-eyed maidens flexing their glances as if they were slightly concealed pearls." (The Rangers: 40-45)

Whereas the Chinese prefer flat-chested women, the Arabs are fond of rising bosoms. So, the Koran declares:

"Surely for the God-fearing awaits a place of security, gardens and vineyards and maidens with swelling bosoms." (The Tidings: LXXVIII: 30)

The attraction of paradise is made more impelling when wine is made a part of paradisiacal living:

"Surely the pious shall be in bliss, upon couches gazing: You find in their faces the shining bliss as they are offered to drink of wine sealed, whose seal is musk ... and whose mixture is Tasnim, a fountain at which to drink those brought nigh." (The Stinters: LXXXIII: 20-25)

For better illustration of the point under discussion, I may refer to Hadith Tirmzi, volume two (p. 35-40) which gives details of houris, the ever-young virgins of paradise:

1. A houri is a most beautiful young woman with a transparent body. The narrow of her bones is visible like the interior lines of pearls and rubies. She looks like red wine in a white glass.

2. She is of white colour, and free from the routine physical disabilities of an ordinary woman such as menstruation, menopause, urinal and offal discharge, child-bearing, and the related pollution.

3. She is a woman characterized by modesty and flexing glances; she never looks at any man except her husband, and feels grateful for being his wife.

4. A houri is a young woman, free from odium and animosity. Besides, she knows the meaning of love and has the ability to put it into practice.

5. A houri is an immortal woman, who does not age. She speaks softly and does not raise her voice at her man; she is always reconciled with him. Having been brought up in luxury, she is a luxury herself.

6. A houri is a girl of tender age, having large rising breasts which are round, and not inclined to dangle. Houris dwell in palaces of splendid surroundings.

Now add to this description of houris, what Mishkat, volume three says on pages 83-97:

7. If a houri looks down from her abode in heaven onto the earth, the whole distance shall be filled with light and fragrance.....

8. A houri's face is more radiant than a mirror, and one can see one's image in her cheek. The marrow of her shins is visible to the eyes.

9. Every man who enters paradise shall be given seventy-two houris; no matter at what age he had died, when he enters paradise, he will become a thirty-year-old and he will not age any further.

10. Tirmzi, volume 2 states on page 138: A man in paradise shall be given virility equal to that of one hundred men.

It should be noted that men who are so potent, shall not be inclined to do anything except love-making. This is the reason, that according to Islam, sexual gratification is the ultimate goal of life. This is the true Islamic idea of salvation.

To what has been said above, I may add a bit more about the surroundings of paradise to depict its appeal to the faithful:

Paradise is constructed in such a way that every brick of gold is followed by a brick of silver; instead of mud or cement, saffron is used to hold them together; even its pebbles are diamonds and rubies. He who enters paradise, shall be free from grief: he will live there forever, remain eternally young and will never die.

Paradise is generously dotted with streams of milk, honey and wine; its climate is neither cold nor hot but just nice. The inhabitants of paradise shall be given winged horses created out of rubies which will take the rider wherever he wishes.

The inhabitants shall live in palaces and pavilions constructed from the most precious and beautiful diamonds, and every man shall have eighty thousand servants to serve him!

One is inclined to think that the above description of paradise is quite tempting to invite people to Islam. With a view to sharpening the appeal of his message, the Prophet used the device of contradistinction to compare heaven with hell for arousing human instincts of pain and pleasure to secure submission of ordinary man. It cannot be a Divine approach because the God who is so desperate for gaining devotees by such sadistic ploys, lacks the dignity behoving His lofty station. It is a human weakness to be adored and worshipped, and its fountain lies in man's inherent weakness and imperfection, which seek redress through other people's submission, surrender and supplication. This is the pivot of dominance urge, which is satisfied by pleas, petitions and prayers of the vanquished and subordinates to convince the dominant of his greatness, glitter and grandeur, which is really not there because man is mortal and intrinsically so vulnerable that he can be humbled any time by disease, death or disaster. It is just vanity, and a form of make-believe, for any man to pretend to be God or live as such through the memory of one's fellow-beings. The true God is too great to concern himself with the prayers or curses of man.

Having painted the lustiest-picture of paradise, the Prophet proceeds to delineate the sketch of hell:

We are told in the Spider, XXIX: 65 that Gehanna or hell is the place for unbelievers i.e. those who do not acknowledge the divine Duality of Allah and Muhammad. Hell is the most tormenting and terrible place (Salvation, XXV: 65). Why? See for yourself:

''The dweller of Gehenna is given to drink oozing pus, the which he gulps, and can scarce swallow, and death comes upon him from every side, yet he cannot die; and still beyond him is a harsh chastisement." (Abraham, XIV: 20) "Surely those who disbelieve in Our signs - We (Allah) shall certainly roast them at a Fire; as often as their skins are wholly burned, We shall give them in exchange other skins, that they may taste the punishment.

And those that believe ..We shall admit them to gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein dwelling forever and ever, therein for them shall be spouses purified." (Women, IV: 55-60)

The Koran tells us about the normal food and drink of the unbelievers (Rangers, XXXVII: 60): there is a gigantic tree called Ez-Zakkoum, which sprouts in "the root of Hell:" its spathes are like the heads of satans; the dwellers of hell eat it and are given a brew of boiling water to drink.

The terror, LVI: 50, further adds that after eating of Zakkoum, they drink boiling water, "lapping down like thirsty camels.

Just note the further description of hell:

It is the roaring fire of God lit over the hearts in stretching columns. (The Backbiter, CIV)

The theme of Ez-Zakkoum is further continued in "Smoke, XLIV: 45:" "Behold the Tree of Ez-Zakkoum is the food of the-wicked, like molten copper, bubbling in the belly like the bubbling water .....

".... As for the unbelievers, for them garments of fire shall be cut, and there shall be poured over their heads boiling water Whereby whatsoever is in their abdomens and their skins shall be melted; for them await hooked iron rods; as often as they desire in their anguish to come forth from it, they shall be restored into it .." (The Pilgrimage, XXII: 20)

The Prophet's mastery of contradistinctive description reaches its best when he compares the delights of heaven with the doles of hell consecutively: for example, in the "Tiding, LXXVIII: 20-30," he says:

"Behold, Gehenna (Hell) has become an ambush, for the insolent a resort, There in .... tasting neither coolness nor any drink save boiling water and pus ..... Surely for the God-fearing (believers) awaits a place of security, gardens and vineyards (paradise) and maidens with swelling breasts, like of age, and a cup overflowing .. "

I do not think that there is further need for quoting from the books of hadith to make readers feel the terror of hell.

fascination of paradise shall be incomplete without noting the following Koranic verses:

a. " ...... God has .... provided them radiancy and delight and recompensed them for their patience with a Garden, and silk; therein they shall see neither sun nor bitter cold; near them shall be its shades, and its clusters hung meekly down, and there shall be passed around them vessels of silver, and large drinking cups of crystal, Crystal of silver measure very exactly, And therein they shall be given to drink a cup whose ingredient is ginger; therein a spring whose name is Salsabil Immortal youths shall go about them; when thou seest them, thou supposest them dispersed pearls, when you see them you see the divine happiness and a great kingdom. Upon them shall be clothing of silk and brocade; they are embellished with bracelets of silver, and their Lord shall give them to drink a pure draught. Behold this is a reward for you, and your toiling is thanked." (Man, 10-25)

b. These ever-young boys are again mentioned in (Mount, LII: 20)

"While they hand therein a cup one to another Wherein is no idle talk, no cause of sin, and there go round them youths, their own, as if they were concealed pearls."

From the above it is clear that besides the most beautiful virgins, there are also boys in paradise:

1. They are immortal i.e. do not age at all.

2. They are so beautiful that they look like "dispersed pearls."

3. They wear clothes of silk.

4. They are embellished with silver bracelets,

And

b. Mount, LII: 20 makes it clear that the concept of sin does not apply to the paradisiac life. Therefore, the cause of wrong-doing does not exist there: whatever the paradise-dwellers do is unquestionable!

Whenever the Muslim divines are asked to explain the purpose of boys in paradise, they say that they are servants of the faithful. One wonders why a servant has to be ever- young, beautiful like pearls, dressed in brocades and bracelets.

A servant can surely be old, ugly and poorly dressed. Let the reader come to his/her own conclusion.

How Allah is desperate for believers! He bribes man with the paradisiac luxuries, and if man does not fall for it, He frightens him with the most sadistic torture of hell. Yet, Allah calls Himself Independent, Absolute and Disinterested!

Allah who has created heaven and hell to gain abject submission of man is extremely selfish, and therefore driven by intense desires. The Koran testifies to this fact:

" .... thy Lord accomplishes what He desires." (Hood, XI: 105)

Worship is the worst type of flattery. Allah, whose greatest pleasure is sycophancy and who is driven by desires, cannot be divine. He is simply a myth. The creator of such a wonderful universe cannot be measured in terms of human fantasy, fear and fanaticism.

Since this is the type of God that the concept of Prophet hood proposes, Prophet hood cannot be a fact but a fiction.

As we have seen earlier, Prophet hood is an insult to Godhead. This is what prompts an enquiry into the Purpose of prophet hood and one wants to know what a Prophet really wants.

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>>>>Chapter 4