ISLAM: The Arab Imperialism
by Anwar Shaikh

Chapter Four
THE PURPOSE OF PROPHETHOOD

As we have seen in the previous chapter, a Prophet is only a warner. He is neither a guardian over people nor can he guide anyone. Even Prophet Muhammad is at the mercy of Allah because it depends upon His will whether He will guide or chastise Muhammad. Yet the Muslims ardently believe that Muhammad is the Greatest Guide (Hadi-e- Azam). This is a strange attitude, to say the least. The Koran declares openly:

"(O, Prophet) verily, you guide not whom you like,
but Allah guides whom He will ...."
(The Story, 28: 56)


Never mind guiding anyone, Muhammad is not empowered even to invoke evil upon others. The Hadith no. 397 (Bokhari: V, page 272-73) clearly states that the Prophet Muhammad used to utter damnation upon Safwan bin Umaiya, Shuail bin Amr and Al-Harith bin Hisham. So the following verse was revealed:
"Not for you (Muhammad)
.....(till the end of verse)
For they are wrong-doers."
(The House of Imran, 3: 128)


Obviously, in the true Koranic tradition, guiding people is no business of a prophet; he is just a warner whose duty it is to tell people what will happen if they do not listen to him.
What does Koran really mean by guidance? See the truth for yourself:

1. "God guides whomsoever He will
to a straight path." (The Cow, 11: 205)
2. "God guides not the people of the unbelievers."
(The Cow, 11: 265)



If the truth is as depicted by these verses, then is it not strange that Allah sends the Koran through a Messenger (Prophet), who warns people that if they do not believe it and act accordingly, Allah will throw them in hell (whose description I have already given). Is not the stated purpose of revelation to lead people to the right path? In fact, Allah is desperate for believers, and sanctions murder and destruction of those, who do not accept Him:
"Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last
Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger
have forbidden - (fight them) - until they pay the
tribute out of hand and have been humiliated."
(Repentance, IX: 25)


Is Allah playing a game with people? Just look at the following:
" .... if Allah had willed, He would have guided men
all together." (Thunder, XIII: 30)


It means that all the misguidance i.e. unbelief, crookery, tyranny, torture, immorality, etc. is a part of God's will. If He is the cause of it, then why does He send Prophets and the "Divine Books?"
Also note the following:

"And whomsoever God leads astray,
no guide has he,
But whomso God guides, none shall lead
him astray; Is not God All-mighty,
All-vengeful?" (The Companies, XXXI:X: 35)


Very candidly it has been stated here that Allah, who guides, also misguides, and He does so to show that He is All-mighty and All-vengeful! What an unworthy concept of Godhead it is!
Again, according to the Koran, all Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, atheists, etc. are unbelievers. Therefore, being misguided, they shall be thrown into hell. As Allah is the cause of their unbelief, the process of guidance and misguidance is just a game for Him; He surely plays it to make fun of humankind.

Since four-fifths of humankind is still non-Muslim, and hence unbelievers, Allah obviously is more active in the field of misguidance than guidance. Look at the following to realise this fact:

"Hast thou (Muhammad) not seen how We (Allah)
sent the Satans against the unbelievers, to prick
them." (Mary, XIX: 85 )


Now one can see clearly that the Koranic concept of guidance is so self-contradictory and confusing that it cannot be acceptable to any rational person; guidance must be straight, easy and impressive. Obviously, the Koran has some other purpose. What is it?
This mystery can be solved by referring to the following verses:

"The unbelievers of the People of the Book (The Old
and New Testaments) and the idolaters shall be in the
Fire of Hell, therein dwelling for ever."
(The Clear Sign, XCVIII: 5)


As we all know, the Jews and Christians claim to be monotheists i.e. they believe in One God, yet the Koran has called them ''unbelievers" and banded them together with the idolaters. Obviously, according to the Koran, belief in Allah alone, counts for nothing. Therefore, in Islam, Muhammad is the central figure and Allah is just a decorative convenience; Allah is portrayed as All-powerful but He does not have authority to treat a person as a believer even though he/she may be a devotee of His. He is obliged to throw him/her into hell unless he/she believes in Muhammad, too! Small wonder that the Muslims assert:
"BA KHUDA DIWANA BASHAD BA MUHAMMAD HOSHIYAR."
(One may be negligent towards God but one must be circumspect (respectful) towards Muhammad!)



I have already discussed that man has been endowed with the Urge of Dominance, which motivates his behaviour to occupy the highest possible position in social and political hierarchies. Our Prime Ministers, Presidents, Kings, Dictators are the realisation of this urge. Their common trait is, that they all want to command, but their authority perishes as soon as they embrace death. However, there is a small band of men, whose Urge of Dominance is the sharpest and the loftiest: they want to command people even after they have become dwellers of graves. Members of this rare group are called "Prophets and Messiahs." They use God for their own ambitions of immortality; supremacy and divinity through an indirect approach; they pretend to be the prophets i.e. servants of God but they wield all the Divine powers in His name, eventually pushing Him into the background.
This is a stunning process. When we analyse it carefully, it appears to be of the Indian origin; pondering over the phenomena of nature such as the sun, the moon, the day, the night, the wind, the rain, the lightning, the fire, etc. the Indian Seers came to realise that there is a power of Divine Origin behind each of these spectacles. That Divine power, they referred to as god or goddess, and started adoring it. These displays of nature i.e. Iightning that could be seen, thunder that could be heard, and wind that could be felt, were the symbols of gods and goddesses, lurking behind these natural pageants. Eventually, the fervour of devotion, led to the shaping of idols, which became symbols of the respective deities. As every idol identified a particular natural phenomenon, it did not represent the totality of Divine Powers, individually. Though devotees were enthusiastic about the greatness of the statues they worshipped, they did not revile the gods of other people owing to their belief that they too, were divine for representing natural forces. This is what created pantheism i.e. the doctrine that identifies God with the universe, leading to the worship of all gods, who collectively stand for the One Ultimate Truth.

There is a clear historical evidence that circa 2000 B.C., the Indian doctrine of polytheism reached the Middle Eastern countries when the Kassites (and later, the Mittanis), who worshipped the Indian gods, conquered these lands. Prophethood seems to be a close variation of the Indian idolatry: an idol is a symbol or visual aid to recognise the divine power or deity concealed behind it. Though an intelligent devotee worships the god-behind-the-statue and not the statue itself, the ordinary worshipper started treating the idol as the final goal, and the divinity that it represented receded into oblivion.

It should be borne in mind that when a person claims to be a Prophet, he apparently projects himself as the shadow, and God as the Reality, but as he possesses an immense dominance-urge, he becomes extremely anxious to reverse the order of priority, that is, people should think of the shadow as the Reality and the Reality as the shadow. This inverse relationship is the real goal of prophethood. And it becomes possible because as in idolatry the idol can be seen but the divinity behind it remains invisible, exactly the same way the Prophet is visible but the God that he represents cannot be seen. Thus the Prophet like an idol secures the status of God, though to maintain appearance, he may protest and call himself a human or servant of God. So forceful is the device of prophethood that it makes the Prophet ascend the dignity of God Himself; the more he denies to be Divine, the less he is believed to be human!

Now, let us examine the purpose of Muhammad's Prophethood in the light of this discussion:

To start with, Muhammad asserted that he did not want to be a prophet. He was so upset by the vision of Gabriel that he tried to commit suicide. It was his wife, Khadija, who convinced him through the agency of her cousin Warqa bin Nofal that he was chosen as the Prophet by Allah. Thus, he started assuring people that he was a servant of God, who had been appointed to convey His message. Consider the following to realise the truth:

1. "And if you are in doubt concerning that We (Allah)
have sent down on our servant, then bring a sura like
it." (The Cow, 11: 20)
2. The Prophet being a mortal, is equally subject to Allah's reward and punishment:

"lf He (Allah) will, He will have mercy on you
(Muhammad), or if He will, He will chastise you."
(The Night Journey, XVII: 55)

3. The Prophet is warned by Allah

"Set not up with Allah
another God, or you
will be cast into Hell, reproached
and condemned." (The Night Journey, XVII: 40)



There is a lot of material in the Koran and hadith to show that the Prophet Muhammad claimed to be a mortal and a humble servant of Allah, chosen to deliver His message. But it was so only when he was weak. As he started gaining strength through his political skills and martial endeavours, he began changing his tone, until he was able to claim himself to be Allah's Superior. Here is the testimony:
1. In the beginning, the entire Koranic emphasis is on obedience to Allah, but with the passage of time, Muhammad finds it convenient to include himself in the Divine dignity:

"Obey God and Messenger (Muhammad)."
(The House of Imran, III: 25)
2. "Obey God and His Messenger: happly so
you will find mercy."
(The House of Imran, III: 125)



Note that now the same Muhammad, who cannot bless or curse, has become the fountain of mercy along with Allah!
As the Prophet becomes politically powerful, he acts as Allah's co-sovereign because from now on whatever Allah does, He includes Muhammad in it:

"It is not for any believer, man or
woman, when God and His Messenger
have decreed a matter, to have the choice
in the affair. Whoever, disobeys
Allah and His Messenger, has gone astray
into clear error."
(The Confederates, XXXIII: 35)


3. Here comes the climax when Muhammad reverses his role completely and, as a result, Allah and His angels become his worshippers. It is quite fantastic:
"Lo! Allah and His angels shower praises
on the Prophet (Muhammad). O ye who believe
also shower praises on him and salute him
with a worthy salutation."
(The Confederates, XXXIII: 56)


It should be noted that the Koranic text uses the words: 1. YASALLUNA and 2. SALLU
The former is the plural form of the verb and the latter is its imperative form. Different translators have translated "yasalluna" as "pray peace to (the Prophet) " or "shower blessings on (the Prophet)." In fact, this is a vain attempt to conceal the intensity of the meaning that this word portrays and, therefore, does not blend in with the general tone of the Koran, which purports to depict Muhammad as a mortal and Messenger.

ASSALAAT is the noun of the said verb and has exactly the same root. Whenever the word assalaat occurs, it means ritualised prayer, which an inferior i.e. a human offers to God. For example, one may refer to Cow, II: 3, 276, or Women, IV: 161. Therefore, it means worship and "yasallunaa is synonymous with yabudun which also signifies glorification of God. Thus the verse XXXIII: 56 means that Allah and His angels worship Muhammad and so must do the Muslims, but with a worthy salutation. This extraordinary emphasis in relation to Muhammad is the source of the general Muslim attitude, which I described earlier as:

"BA KHUDA DIWANA BASHAD BA MUHAMMAD HOSHIYAR"


This is absolutely incredible! In all other religions, it is man who worships God but in Islam, it is God who worships man (Muhammad). Yet the Muslims call themselves monotheists! They are surely the worst idolators on earth.
However, the faithful have found ways of alloting entirely different meaning to the words as suggested by their natural sense, and have, thus, sought refuge behind a mighty wall of self-deception with the help of far-fetched interpretations to prop up their faith, which cannot stand up to the advancing forces of reason. Therefore, they are quick to charge their critics with blasphemy, and are reluctant to accept that Islam is Muhammadanism, and not a monotheistic religion.

Since it is the practice that signifies the value of a principle, I must refer to the following facts to prove the veracity of the meaning of the verse under discussion:

1. Is it not true that praising Muhammad is an integral part of their daily prayers?

2. Haven't the Muslims perfected a form of Muhammad- worship known as "DAROOD?" "MAJLIS-E-DAROOD" which has become a routine affair and is considered the chief source of salvation.

3. All Muslim nations have developed a hymnal form of poetry called "NATIYAKALAAM," exclusively dedicated to the most extravagant adoration of Muhammad.

4. QWAALI is yet another musical mode of worshipping Muhammad. It is highly popular among the SUFIS and their followers.

5. SHAHADA, which is the basic confession for every Muslim, includes the name of Muhammad with that of Allah. In the strict Koranic terminology, it is known as SHIRK i.e. associating someone else with Allah. This is the most dreadful sin because:

"Allah forgives not that anyone should be associated with Him (Allah); less than that He forgives to whomsoever He will. Whoso associate with Allah anything, has gone astray into manifest error." (Women, IV: 115)

The Muslims must realise that the original Koranic principle is:

"Allah is the absolute, Owner of praise."
(The Cow, II: 267)


The Prophet Muhammad achieved this ascendancy over Allah through his doctrine of guidance, which is contained in the Cow, II: 1:
"That is the Book (Koran), wherein is no doubt, a guidance to the righteous, who believe in the Unseen, and perform the prayer, and expend of that We (Allah) have provided: who believe in what has been sent down ( i .e. Koran ) to thee ( Muhammad ) and what has been sent down before thee, and have faith in the Hereafter (the Day of Judgement): those are upon guidance from their Lord; those are the ones who prosper."


In this context the key-word is MUTTAQI, which has been translated as Godfearing, pious, those who are afraid of loss" etc. However, in general, it is accepted to mean "righteous." Thus, the Koran guides the righteous only. It is very strange, indeed, because the righteous person is the one, who is already guided by his own good nature. Again, these verses declare that the righteous are those who believe in the Koran and its mythology such as believing in the Unseen and the Day of Judgement, and also offer prayers etc. without raising any question at all. Thus, the Prophet Muhammad banished reasoning from the kingdom of faith, making fanaticism the foundation of his creed.
Having denounced the rational enquiry into matters concerning faith, it was not difficult for Muhammad to raise himself as the greatest Idol of all times. Just see how he did it. He declared:

"You (the believers) have had a good example in
God's Messenger for whosoever hopes for God and
the Last Day .." (The Confederates, XXXIII: 20)


This is how the Prophet appointed himself as the Model of Behaviour for all his followers, who were required to walk, talk, eat, drink, think, dress and physically look like him. He succeeded in this attempt because he further added through the Koran:
"If you (the believers) obey him (the Prophet
Muhammad) you will be guided." (Light, XXIV: 50)


Again,
1. " ...If you love Allah, and follow me
(Muhammad), God will love you, and forgive
you your sins." (The House of Imran, III: 25)
2. "We (Allah) sent not ever any Messenger, but
that he should be obeyed, by the leave of God."
(Women, IV: 65)



Here one can see how the Prophet Muhammad personalised his authority in the name of God. Thus, the Islamic theory of guidance has simply come to mean following Muhammad blindly: any question or hesitation is tantamount to blasphemy, which leads to hell. Small wonder that Allah has receded into the background, making Muhammad the greatest Idol of all times. If this statement is examined carefully, the truth cannot fail to emerge: it is well known that this earth has several time zones, which differ from one another gradually. It means that every moment there is some Muslim who is praying to Muhammad!
One should remember that the Prophet Muhammad secured this unique Godly position not just through wisdom but as a:

1. Politician, and as a
2. National Imperialist.


Let us examine these fundamental truths in the next two chapters.