Mohammad was just a man and the Quran is Not Science.
1400 Years ago in Medina was a man named Mohammad. He was born to an average mother, and father. He grew up illiterate, and claimed to have talked to god. No one can refute this since he was alone during this time. Perhaps he had listened to the tales from men traveling through, certainly only he knows, but no one speaks from the grave.
He had many wives, his youngest and last being the Aisha. This has caused an uproar in the West, though honestly it is not the first time a man would marry a child too young, or the last. That brings me to my point. Mohammad was just a man. I know that those who follow the Quran and the Hadith never want to be caught speaking bad of their prophet, but face it he was not perfect. In fact some of the things he did, like have a woman's family killed so he could marry her, were kind of horrible.
http://www.answering-islam.org/Responses/Osama/zawadi_safiyyah.htm
His wanting a young bride so she could remember his words, were less than charming, and his giving the men permission to beat their wives in any sense of the word was wrong. After all if god made us equal then no one should be beating anyone. You make sense of that your self. I will put it this way, I have never seen anything in nature be as cruel as to beat their mate, only humans behave so cruelly. Sure animals have eaten each other, and some do while mating, but having a conscious should make us the better species, not the lesser.
Mohammad did not have a clue about science. Male testicles are never up where the kidneys go, we are not formed like a blood clot ever. There is no possible way that we were made from sperm and mud. In fact that would not mix even with magic. The mud would kill the sperm, just like air kills sperm. It is not a burden for a woman to have a child, nor is pain. It is an unfortunate biological part of bearing offspring.
Mohammad did not know the size of space, he did not know how the stars, moon, or sun got into place, or the rotation of the planet. He was not a physicist, he was not like Galileo. He did not study this planet, and everything he knew came from his life. I am sorry to say but men who have made great discoveries have been educated about the world around them at least, Mohammad was not. His life was spent in marriages, war, and the spoils of war.
The best thing you can say about Mohammad was that he was a man, and for that we can forgive his errors, we can look at his history and see it for what it was. We can say he did things wrong, and not be blaspheming. We can talk about his deeds, what he did and did not do without insulting, but looking to understand. For me he was not a prophet, he was just a man, and as a man it is easier to accept his flaws for all they were. So while Islam can see him as a prophet, I refuse to see him as more than a weak and very mortal, uneducated, and possibly troubled man.
In reality he was just a man, just as you have claimed, but the truth is that he never claimed to have talked to God my friend. I guess that makes you a liar, or just a man who doesn't know the truth, of that you can be sure of.
ReplyDeleteThe Surahs of the Noble Qur'an can help you to understand, but you've gotta' open your mind, get your head out of the sand, and read between the lines.
It's all about the different mindsets of man, and what it takes to find your peace of mind. Knowledge is the key to understanding reality, and responsibility for all that you think, & everything you do - is what it takes to set you free.
One takes place within the mind, and your actions take place in time. We are merely finite beings with nothing but time on our hands, while God is the Divine Reality that transcends both space & time. I know my reason for being here, and thank ALLAH for giving me life.
I'm not here to save your butt, but I do know what the truth is. If you imagine a world at peace before you find your peace of mind, you'll never find what you're looking for when all is said & done.
VJC, it is ironic indeed that you talk about knowledge and understanding, then talk about the Qu'ran.
DeleteIf I want to understand the world, I will read books of science. If I want to understand the human mind, I can read about the brain or I can look into art and literature.
The Qu'ran has no place in learning about the world except as a means to learn what some people believe. It is not true, any more than "Cannery Row" is true.
Allah did not give you life. Nor did any other god. You are an animal living on this planet, the same as any other.
You have no idea what the truth is, because you are busy feeding yourself lies.
Susanne,
DeleteDont argue with religious minds. They would not change if you explain the best arguments too. I spent some years in vain. leave those alone, let them vanish.
Alphonse de LaMartaine in 'Historie de la Turquie,' Paris, 1854.
ReplyDelete"Never has a man set for himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime aim, since this aim was superhuman; to subvert superstitions which had been imposed between man and his Creator, to render God unto man and man unto God; to restore the rational and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured gods of idolatry, then existing. Never has a man undertaken a work so far beyond human power with so feeble means, for he (Muhammad) had in the conception as well as in the execution of such a great design, no other instrument than himself and no other aid except a handful of men living in a corner of the desert. Finally, never has a man accomplished such a huge and lasting revolution in the world, because in less than two centuries after its appearance, Islam, in faith and in arms, reigned over the whole of Arabia, and conquered, in God's name, Persia Khorasan, Transoxania, Western India, Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, all the known continent of Northern Africa, numerous islands of the Mediterranean Sea, Spain, and part of Gaul.
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad? The most famous men created arms, laws, and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples, dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and the souls.
"On the basis of a Book, every letter which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blend together peoples of every tongue and race. He has left the indelible characteristic of this Muslim nationality the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One and Immaterial God. This avenging patriotism against the profanation of Heaven formed the virtue of the followers of Muhammad; the conquest of one-third the earth to the dogma was his miracle; or rather it was not the miracle of man but that of reason.
"The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of the fabulous theogonies, was in itself such a miracle that upon it's utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations, his heroic revelings against the superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years in Mecca, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow countrymen... This dogma was twofold the unity of God and the immateriality of God: the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words.
"Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs.... The founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?"
@ Anonymous: Well, Jesus and Gautama "Buddha' Siddhartha were no slouches in this regard, and they also preached peace and understanding. Unfortunately, in the perversity of mixing nationalism, power, and greed with religion, we ended up with despots justifying wars in the name of the founders of their respective religions, which is why religion should never be allowed to influence a goverment. It's too tempting for the sort of people who covet power to say God/Yahweh/Jehovah/Allah told them to start a war. As John Adams once alluded, religion may have had its place at one time in civilizing a brutal, chaotic world, but that time has past. Now it exists only to perpetuate itself and its ritualistic dogma. If you want to worship a god, why do you need a church, mosque or temple to do it in? Why do you need rituals? And why should 'laws' written generations ago and likely distorted in translation be used to influence the lives of others who don't agree with you?
ReplyDeleteBTW, Rachel, very good and thought-provoking blog you have here. I may be a flawed man, but I'm lucky enough to have known some exceptional women who have patiently taught me what depredations women go through in this country, and smart enough to know that any group that's singled out for subjugation, be it women or those of a different skin shade or religion or no religion, it will eventually end up at my doorstep, as the famous Martin Niemoller "First they came for..." quote illustrates. It's the history of the world -- the predators who seek power over us never rest and we can never rest opposing them.
Why you accuse sweet and innocent Mohammad? Allah in Quran is such an ass with those childish science ;)
ReplyDelete