Boreal.ca

Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice

Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice

The Complete Layman’s Guide to the Koran

Chapter 24

Of Prophets, Poets and Children

2:151 Just as We sent forth to you a Messenger (Muhammad the Messenger of Allah) from among you reciting Our Revelations (the Qur’an) to you, purifying you (from polytheism), instructing you in the Book (the Qur’an) and the wisdom, and teaching you what you did not know.

A revelation which could be considered the Prophet’s Mission Statement

It took almost ten years before a significant number of the Prophet’s contemporaries warmed to Allah’s ideas for a new world religious and domestic order. During those difficult years of his ministry God's Messenger was the object of much scorn and derision, including accusations of sorcery and spreading falsehoods.

10:1 Alif – Lam –Ra.

Those are the verses of the sound Book.

10:2 Is it a wonder to the people that We have revealed to one of them (Muhammad): “Warn the people and announce to the believers the good news that they have a sure footing with their Lord?” The unbelievers say: “This indeed is a manifest sorcerer.”

----

18:105 “Those who disbelieve in the Revelations of their Lord and in meeting Him. Their works are in vain and We will not take any account of them on the Day of Resurrection.

18:106 “That is their reward – Hell, on account of their disbelief and their taking my Revelations and my Messengers as objects of scorn.

----

25:41 And when they see you, they only take you for a laughing stock: “Is this the one Allah sent as Messenger?

25:42 “He almost led us away from our gods, had we not stood fast by them.” They will certainly know, when they see the punishment, who is more wayward.

----

34:43 And when Our Signs are recited to them clearly, they say: “This is only a man who wishes to bar you from what your fathers used to worship.” They also say: “This is nothing but a fabricated falsehood”; and the unbelievers say of the Truth when it comes to them: “This is nothing but manifest sorcery.”

46:7 And when Our Clear Signs are recited to them, those who have disbelieved will say to the Truth when it comes to them: “This is manifest sorcery.”

46:8 Or do they say: “He invented it.” Say: “If I have invented it, you have no means of helping me against Allah. He knows best what you are expatiating upon. Let Him suffice as a witness between me and you. He is the All-Forgiving, the All-Merciful.”

The Prophet was not the only one who was mocked. Those who made fun of Allah by perverting His “Most Beautiful Names”, the Ultimate Schemer will surreptitiously lead them, “step by step”, to their destruction.

7:180 And to Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names; so call Him by them and leave those who pervert His Names. They shall be punished for what they used to do.

7:181 And among those We have created is a nation (a nation of believers) that guides by the truth, and by it the nation acts justly.

7:182 And those who deny Our Revelations, We shall lure them step by step to destruction, whence they do not know.

7:183 And I will grant them respite. Surely My Scheme is very effective.

A Prophet’s State of Mind

Some of the Messenger’s contemporaries believed the Prophet Muhammad to be quite mad, prompting Allah, on numerous occasions, to vouch for His Messenger’s sanity.

7:184 Do they not consider that their companion (Muhammad) is not mad. He is only a plain warner.

----

15:6 They say: “O you, to whom the Reminder (the Qur’an) is revealed, you are indeed a madman.

15:7 “Why do you not bring us the angels, if you are truthful?”

Allah’s response was to reveal to His Messenger that He will send the angels “with the Truth” when “they will have no respite”, meaning Judgement Day:

15:8 We do not send the angels down except with the Truth; and then they will have no respite.

-----------------------

In the surah, The Criterion, Allah reveals that those who wanted to see the angels (or Him) before believing, will see them on Judgement Day, but they will be sorry they ever asked, for they will be treated like “criminals”.

25:21 And those who do not hope for Our Encounter, say: “If only the angels were sent down to us, or we were made to see our Lord.” They have grown arrogant within themselves and became most overbearing.

25:22 The Day they see the angels, there is no longer any cause for rejoicing for the criminals; and they (the angels) will say: “A firm prohibition [upon you].”

25:23 And We shall proceed to the work they did and turn it into scattered dust.

-----------------------

34:46 Say: “I only give you one exhortation, that you arise for Allah in couples and singly, then to reflect that there is no madness in your companion (the Prophet). He is merely a warner on the eve of a terrible punishment.”

----

44:13 How can there be for them an admonition, when a manifest Messenger has already come to them?

44:14 But they turned away from him saying: “He is a tutored madman.”

----

52:29 So remind [them]; for you (Muhammad) are not by the Grace of your Lord, a soothsayer or a madman.

Reassuring words, advice and praise for the Prophet, and an ominous warning to those who would question His Messenger’s saneness.

52:48 Bear with your Lord’s Judgement, for you are in Our Thoughts; and proclaim the Praise of Your Lord when you arise;

52:49 And in the night glorify Him, and at the receding of the stars.

----

51:52 Likewise, no Messenger came to those who preceded them but they said: “A sorcerer or a madman.”

51:53 Have they attested to each other concerning him (Muhammad)? No, they are an unjust people.

51:54 So, turn away from them, you are not to blame.

----

68:2 You are not (O Muhammad), by the Grace of your Lord, a madman.

68:3 You will have a wage which is unstinted;

68:4 And you are truly a man of noble character.

They will get what is coming to them.

68:5 You shall see and they shall see,

68:6 Which of you is the demented one.

----

52:45 Leave them, then, till they encounter the Day on which they will be thunderstruck;

52:46 The Day when their cunning will avail them nothing, and they will not be supported.

52:47 And the wrongdoers shall suffer a punishment beyond that.

The Prophet, after he left the cave where he first met the angel Gabriel who told him to “read” the Koran, reported that he saw the angel’s face on the horizon wherever he looked. This only increased the scepticism of his detractors as to his state of mind.

81:22 Your companion is not mad;

81:23 He saw him (Gabriel) upon the luminous horizon.

Others simply thought that their kinsman Muhammad was a writer of rhymes possessed.

37:35 For when it used to be said to them: “There is no god but Allah”, they would wax proud.

37:36 And they would say: “Are we going to forsake our gods for the sake of a poet possessed?”

The Prophet, a man possessed! Allah promises a painful punishment to those who would make such a claim.

37:37 Indeed, he brought the truth and confirmed the other Messengers.

37:38 You shall indeed taste the painful punishment.

37:39 And you shall only be rewarded for what you used to do.

The Prophet, a man on a mission? Definitely! A self-imposed mission? A mission from on-high? A mission from down-low?

The only argument that might be made that the Koran is the Devil’s work is that no god, that I am aware, enjoys inflicting so much pain. But, then again, Allah assures us that His Koran is not the Devil’s work and why.

26:210 And this (the Qur’an) was not brought down by demons.

26:211 They should not and could not.

26:212 For they are barred from hearing.

The demons, however, have been known to counsel impostors.

26:221 Shall I tell you upon whom do the demons descend?

26:222 They descend upon every vicious impostor.

26:223 They listen, but most of them are liars.

What about angels? An angel, for many who listened to the Prophet, would have made a more believable messenger, for whom Allah had a ready response.

17:94 Men are not prevented from believing, once the guidance has come to them, except that they say: “Has Allah sent forth a human messenger?”

17:95 Say [O Muhammad]: “Where there on earth angels strolling in peace, We would have sent down upon them from heaven an angel as a Messenger.”

If the Prophet is who he is says he is, why has Allah, or the knowledge imparted by God not made him a wealthy man?

7:188 Say: “I do not have the power to benefit or harm myself, except as Allah pleases. Had I the knowledge of the Unseen, I would have acquired much good, and misfortune would not have touched me. I am only a warner and a bearer of good news to a people who believe.”

As further evidence that the Koran is His Words, Allah boasts about the fact that it was revealed in “manifest Arabic” to Muhammad by the trusted angel Gabriel no less.

26:192 And this (the Qur’an) is the revelation of the Lord of the Worlds;

26:193 Brought down by the Faithful Spirit (Gabriel),

26:194 Upon your heart, so that you might be one of the warners;

26:195 In manifest Arabic tongue.

Research into the origins of the Koran, such as that conducted in Germany by Christoph Luxenberg (pseudonym), have revealed a great number of words in Aramaic and/or Syriac which would indicate that many verses may have had a Christian or Jewish origin. Allah may be indirectly recognizing this fact in the next two revelations where He acknowledges the contribution of the Torah to the Koran and that of Jewish scholars.

26:196 And, it is, indeed, in the Scriptures of the ancients.

26:197 It is not a sign for them that the scholars of the Children of Israel recognized it?

Surah 26, The Poets, is a Meccan surah. Surahs from the Prophet's time in Mecca tend to be conciliatory in tone and intent, as opposed to the Medinan surahs where Allah’s revelations take on a decidedly belligerent aspect as the believers’ wealth, power and influence increases with the plundering of the unbelievers’ caravans passing by the oasis city of Medina where God’s Messenger and his followers have taken refuge after being forced to leave Mecca.

The Meccan portion of the Prophet’s Call was hard on God's Messenger, to say the least. He is mocked and ridicule by people living in luxury while he, God’s favourite human being, is rapidly exhausting his, and his supporting spouse’s wealth in the Cause of Allah.

The difficulty in getting more people to accept his claim that he is God’s Messenger, and that the Message he is delivering is from the Almighty himself, via the angel Gabriel, caused the budding Prophet, on at least once occasion, to doubt his ability to fulfil his mission.

Numerous times, in the Koran, Allah, to shore up His favourite servant’s morale, will explain to him that, if some people refuse to believe and obey him, it has nothing to do with the superbly drafted message and the excellent delivery. The surah Yâ Sîn, the Prophet called the Heart of the Koran.

It was narrated that Anas said: “The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘Everything has a heart and the heart of the Qur’aan is Ya-Seen. Whoever recites Ya-Seen, Allaah will record for him the reward of reading the Qur’aan ten times.’” al-Tirmidhi

In Yâ Sîn Allah reveals that He has placed invisible shackles and barriers so that those who He does not want as believers remain arrogant and blind to His Signs.

36:1 Yâ Sîn (came to be one of the Prophet’s names)

36:2 By the wise Qur’an.

36:3 You are truly one of the Messengers.

36:4 Upon a straight path.

36:5 It is the Revelation of the All-Mighty, the Merciful.

36:6 To warn a people (the Arabs), whose fathers were not warned and so they are heedless.

36:7 The sentence has been passed against most of them, for what they do not believe.

36:8 We have placed shackles upon their necks down to their chins; and so their heads are held high.

36:9 And We placed in front of them a barrier and behind them a barrier and We have covered their eyes so they do not see.

36:10 It is the same whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe.

36:11 You only warn him who follows the Reminder and fears the All Compassionate though unseen. Announce to him, then, the good news of forgiveness and a generous wage.

The Koran is “the Reminder,” (15:6) therefore, the last revelation in this series is Allah recommending to His Messenger to preach, so to speak, to the choir

Allah’s Response to the Mocking of His Greatest Messenger

Allah acknowledges that all the Prophets and Messengers He sent before the Prophet Muhammad were accused of not being right in the head at least once during their lives, and that they were relentlessly mocked in revelations that are meant to reassure His last and greatest Messenger that he is not alone.

For their impertinence, the mockers of the Messengers who preceded Muhammad, and possibly Jesus, were stricken with “that at which they scoffed”, which, in the vernacular of the Lord of the Worlds means the obliteration of the civilization to which they belonged.

6:10 Other Messengers before you were mocked; but those who scoffed at them were stricken with that at which they scoffed.

6:11 Say: “Travel in the land and look what was the fate of those who disbelieved [in the Messengers].”

----

43:6 How many a Prophet have We sent unto the ancients?

43:7 But not a Prophet came to them whom they did not mock.

Allah may not have been prepared to obliterate the civilization to which the mockers who mocked and ridiculed His last and greatest Messenger belonged i.e. the Arab civilization. Instead, He goes beyond the call of duty, as might be expected from a super-extraordinary God, to help His last and greatest Messenger respond to the mockers in revelations which include telling His last and greatest Messenger a question to ask to which He will immediately give him the answer.

6:12 Say: “To whom does that which exists in the heavens and on earth belong?” Say: “To Allah. He has prescribed to Himself Mercy. He will certainly gather you on the Day of Resurrection, which is undoubted. Those who lost their souls will not believe.”

No, it’s probably not the Prophet adlibbing when you see revelations in which God’s Messenger is told what to say, usually in response to a question, mixed with revelations which contains no such directive. It may be simply a declaration received at some other time on a matter not necessarily pertinent to the discussion.

6:13 To Him belongs whatever comes to rest in the day and in the night; and He is the All-Hearing, All-Knowing.

Continuing with revelations of both types in response to the Prophet being mocked.

6:14 Say: “Shall I take as guardian anyone other than Allah, Who created the heavens and the earth, and Who feeds and is not fed?” Say: “I have been commanded to be the first to submit and not to be one of the polytheist.”

-----------------------

Since Abraham was the first to submit, and his son Isma`il the first Arab to submit, Allah is probably referring to Muhammad as the first Arab of Mecca to submit in this Meccan surah.

-----------------------

6:15 Say: “Indeed, if I disobey my Lord, I fear the punishment of a Fateful Day (Judgement Day).”

6:16 Whoever is spared on that Day has gained His Mercy, and that is indeed the manifest triumph!

6:17 And if Allah lets you suffer an affliction, no one can lift it except He; and if He accords you any good, He surely has power over everything.

6:18 And He is Sovereign over His servants and He is Wise, Well Acquainted with all things.

6:19 Say: “What has the greatest testimony?” Say: “Allah is Witness between you and me, and He has revealed this Qur’an to me so that I may warn you and whomever it may reach. Do you indeed testify that there are gods besides Allah?” Say: “I do not testify.” Say: “He is indeed One God and I am innocent of the association of idols [with Him].”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whatever happens, We, you and Me, will have the last laugh.

6:20 Those (Jews and Christians) to whom We have given the Book (the Torah and Gospel respectively) know him (the likes him, the Prophet) as they know their own children; but those who have lost their souls will not believe.

6:21 And who is more unjust than he who imputes falsehood to Allah or denies His Revelations? Indeed the unjust shall not prosper.

6:22 And on the Day (Judgement Day) that We shall gather them all together, they say to those who associated other gods [with Allah]. “Where are those whom you allege to have been your associate-gods?”

6:23 Then their only excuse will be simply to say: “By Allah, our Lord, we have not been polytheists.”

6:24 Look [O Muhammad], how they will lie to themselves and how that which they fabricated will fail them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

In revelation 15:13 Allah admits there is nothing He can do about the mocking, for even with the example of the ancient civilization He has destroyed for not taking His Messengers seriously, and even if He showed the mocking unbelievers heaven by opening one of its seven gates, they would think themselves “bewitched” and still not believe. But then again, it’s all part of the plan, revelation 15:12.

15:10 And We have sent forth Messengers before you to the sects of old.

15:11 And no Messenger came to them but they mocked him.

15:12 That is how We instill it into the hearts of the sinners.

15:13 They do not believe in him despite the example of the ancients.

15:14 And if We open for them a gate of heaven, so that they could continue to ascend through it;

15:15 They would simply say: “Our eyes have been covered over, or rather we are a people bewitched.”

It is a tribute to Allah’s imagination and steadfastness in the many justifications He finds for not doing something god-like to help His last and greatest Messenger convince his people that he is who he says he is.

In a surah that has little to do with poets, the name notwithstanding, Allah reminds an “exhausted” Messenger that if He had wanted to, He would have sent the unbelievers a sign that would have caused more than just a permanent cricked neck; and again, that they will get what is coming to them from the Compassionate; “for what they used to mock” in revelation 26:6.

THE POETS

26 Ash-Shu’ara’

In the Name of Allah,

the Compassionate, the Merciful

26:1 Tah – Sin -Mim (“The same letters occur at the beginning of Surah 28; the significance of this is not clear” Fakhry)

26:2 Those are the Signs of the Manifest Book.

26:3 Perhaps, you are exhausting yourself, because they will not believe.

26:4 If We will, We would send down on them from heaven a sign, so their necks will stay subjugated thereto.

26:5 No new reminder from the Compassionate ever comes to them but they will turn away from it.

26:6 They have indeed disbelieved; therefore, there will come to them the news of what they used to mock at.

26:7 Have they not considered the earth, how much We have caused to grow therein of every noble pair?

26:8 There is surely in that a sign; but most of them will not believe.

26:9 Your Lord, indeed, is the All-Mighty, the Merciful.

A Foreign Messenger?

In the same surah Allah gives a doubtlessly despondent Messenger who must have told Allah, while in a depressed state, that a foreign Messenger, i.e. a non-Arab with a non-Arabic Koran, might have been a better choice, that, again, it would not have made any difference because as revealed in surah Yâ Sîn, it’s all His doing; adding additional words of comfort, that those He makes oblivious to His Message will get what’s coming to them, e.g. “the painful punishment.”

26:198 Had We sent it down on some foreigner;

26:199 And he had read it to them; they would still not have believed in it.

26:200 Thus We have insinuated it into the hearts of the criminals.

26:201 They will not believe in it until they witness the very painful punishment.

26:202 It will come upon them suddenly, while they are unaware.

26:203 Then, they will say: “Are we given any respite?”

26:204 Do they, then, seek to hasten Our Punishment?

26:205 Do you see, if We were to allow them some enjoyment for some years?

26:206 Then, they are visited by what they were promised.

26:207 What would that whereof they derived enjoyment avail them.

A Foreign Koran?

In surah The Well-Expounded, Allah will repeat the assurance that a foreign Koran would have made no difference.

41:44 Had we made it a foreign Qur’an, they would have said: “If only its verses were well expounded.” What, whether foreign or Arabic, say: “It is for the believers a guidance and a healing; but for those who do not believe, it is a heaviness in their ears, and for them it is a blindness. It is as if, those (unbelievers) were called from a distant place.”

Allah’s Response to the Denunciation of His Greatest Messenger

6:32 The earthly life is nothing but sport and amusement, and the world to come is surely better for those who are God-fearing. Do you not understand?

6:33 We know that what they say grieves you. For they do not deny what you say; but the wrongdoers [continue to] deny Allah’s Revelations.

6:34 Other Messengers were denounced before you, but they put up with the denunciation, and they were injured until Our Help came to them. None can change the Words (His Promises to support His Messengers) of Allah. Tidings have already been imparted about those Messengers.

6:35 And if you find their aversion unbearable, seek, if you can, a hole in the earth or a ladder to the sky in order to bring them a sign. Had Allah pleased, He would surely have led them all to guidance; so do not be one of the ignorant.

6:36 Only those who hear will respond, and the dead will be raised by Allah; and unto Him they shall be returned.

6:37 And they also say: “Why has no sign (miracle) come down to him from His Lord?” Say: “Allah is surely Able to send down a sign, but most of them do not know.”

6:38 There is no animal [crawling] on land or a bird flying with its wings, but are communities like yourselves. We have not left anything out in the Book. Then unto their Lord they shall be gathered.

6:39 And those who deny Our Revelations are deaf and dumb in total darkness. Whoever Allah pleases, He will lead astray; and whoever He pleases, He will lead onto a straight path.

Who you gonna call?

6;40 Say: “Tell me, if Allah’s Punishment overtakes you, or the Hour (Judgement Day) strikes, would you call upon any other than Allah, if you are truthful?”

6:41 Nay, upon Him you will call and if He will lighten that about which you call, if He pleases; and then you will forget what you used to associate with [with Him] (other gods).

The Messenger's Fate if He Lied

69:38 No; I swear by what you see;

69:39 And what you do not see. 69:40 It is the speech of a noble Messenger;

69:41 And it is not the speech of a poet. How little do you believe!

69:42 Nor the speech of a soothsayer; how little do you remember.

69:43 It is the revelations from the Lord of the Worlds.

69:44 Had he (Muhammad) imputed to us falsely some statements;

69:45 We would have seized him by the right arm; 69:46 Then cut off his great artery.

69:47 None of you would have restrained us from him.

69:48 Surely, it (the Qur’an) is a reminder for the God-fearing.

69:49 And We know that some of you will denounce it as lies.

69:50 And it is surely a source of grief for the unbelievers;

69:51 And it is surely the certain truth.

69:52 So, glorify the Name of your Lord, the Sublime.

The Prophet may not only have saved himself by telling the Truth and not changing what Allah revealed, but also the Arabs, who had they not eventually believed might have suffered the fate of other civilizations who had the audacity to deny Allah’s clear proofs.

10:13 And We have destroyed generations before you, when they did wrong and their Messengers brought them the clear proofs, but they would not believe. Thus We reward the wicked sinners.

10:14 Then We made you successors on earth after them, to see how you would behave.

10:15 And if Our revelations are clearly recited to them, those who do not hope to meet Us say: “Bring a Qur’an other than this one or alter it.” Say: “It not for me to alter it of my own accord. I only follow what is revealed to me. Indeed, I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the punishment of a Fateful Day (Judgement Day).”

10:16 Say: “If Allah had willed, I would not have recited it to you, and He would not have told you about it. I have dwelt in your midst a lifetime before it. Do you not understand?” 

If You Can’t Believe God ...

If you can’t believe Allah who are you going to believe?

If the Koran is the Word of God, any god, then is it possible that it is the word of a god with a sense of humour.

4:82 Do they not, then, ponder over the Qur’an? Had it been from someone other than Allah, they would have found in it many inconsistencies.

If this is the case, we should appreciate that Allah has a funny bone, have a good laugh, and move on.

Another indication I found that the Koran might be Allah having a bit of fun at humanity’s expense is something that he said. If you go back to the very beginning of Pain, Pleasure and Prejudice you get this wonderful quote from Allah praising His skill as a poet.

11:1 Alif – Lam – Ra.

[This is] a Book with Verses which are elaborately formulated and clearly expounded from the Wise, the All-Aware.

And His Messenger had nothing to do with it, for He had not taught him poetry, an art for which, according to Allah, he was not suited.

36:69 We did not teach him (the Prophet) poetry, nor did it become him. It is only a Reminder and a Manifest Qur’an;

36:70 So as to warn those who are alive and the word may be fulfilled against the unbelievers.

Then in surah 26, The Poets, Allah gives us this warning about poets.

26:224 And as to the poets, the perverse follow them.

26:225 Do you not see that they wander aimlessly in every glen?

26:226 And that they say what they do not do?

Mind you, the apostle Mathew of New Testament fame said almost the same thing, and for Christians it is not a laughing matter.

“beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (7:15)

It may also have been no laughing matter for Allah, and simply have been His way of getting back at the poets of pre-Islamic Arabia who mocked His Messenger and whose pointed verses, it was said, distressed and severely wounded the Prophet. As evidence He follows his warning about perverse poets with a verse that would indicate that not all poets are perverse.

26:227 Except for those who believe and do the righteous deeds, mention Allah frequently, and are victorious after they were wronged. Surely, the wrongdoers shall know what outcome is ultimately theirs.

The Prophet’s way of dealing with the poets who mocked him was to have them killed, as he did most of his more vocal critics. Al-Nadr b. al-Harith, he had beheaded in front of him. The poetess Asma bint Marwan he had assassinated for writing poems deriding “the Prophet of Mercy”; another was the Jewish poet Abu Afak, and so on.

If the Koran is not Allah having a little fun at humanity’s expense, then maybe it is instructions from God meant for the time in which His Messenger lived. This would explain the many revelations that are only meant to benefit His Messenger.

If the Koran is none of the above then we are left with three choices: 1) the Koran is word for word the unchanging instructions from God on how humanity should behave and how He should be worshipped until He decides to bring an end to His Creation 2) it is the work of a determined, driven man who let his imagination and prejudices get the better of him or 3) what Nehru says it is:

… if people believe in the factual content of these [religious] stories, the whole thing [becomes] absurd and ridiculous. But as soon as one ceased believing in them, they appeared in a new light, a new beauty, a wonderful flowering of a richly endowed imagination, full of human lessons. No one believes now in the stories of Greek gods and goddesses and so, without any difficulty, we admire them as they become part of our mental heritage. But if we had to believe in them, what a burden it would be, and how, oppressed by this weight of belief, we would often miss their beauty”

Looking at scripture then as a product of the human mind, we have to remember the age in which it was written, the environment and mental climate in which it grew, the vast distance in time and thought and experience that separates it from us. We have to forget the trappings of ritual and religious usage in which it is wrapped, and remember the social background in which it expanded. Many of the problems of human life have a permanence and a touch of eternity about them, and hence the abiding interest in these ancient books. But they dealt with other problems also, limited to their particular age, which have no living interest for us now.

Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India

A Child’s Universe

I once described my first impression of Islam as being the creation of a child-like mind, embodying a child’s understanding of how adults should behave, what they should believe, how they should pray as revealed to him by a god who took him into his confidence, who made him his best friend; a child’s certainty in having absolute knowledge of the world around him; a child’s intolerance of others who won’t play the game by his rules.

When I made this statement I had not yet read the Koran from cover to cover, many times over, only books by authors who promised to explain the Koran to the lay reader then, as lamented in the introduction, only provided a small highly selected sample of verses on which they expounded at nausea.

After reading so many verses you may take exception with my comment that the Koran may be the product of a child-like mind. Perhaps, but don’t you just feel the love of a father for his son in the following revelations where Allah blesses His Messenger and issues a stern warning to anyone who would harm him; does it not remind you of a previous god-son relationship?

33:56 Allah and His angels bless the Prophet. O believers, bless him and greet him graciously, too.

33:57 Those who cause Allah and His Messenger any injury, Allah has cursed them in this life and the life to come and has prepared for them a demeaning punishment.

The Prophet Muhammad never knew his father who died before he was born. His mother passed away when he was six or seven years old.

When you read the Koran, especially the revelations where Allah expresses his love for His Messenger and where He threatens to do serious damage to anyone who would harm him, or cause him distress, you can’t help thinking that Allah was also the father Muhammad, as a child, never had. The father that a fatherless child might imagine.

In his last public appearance, a short time before he died, he asked the thousands who had come to hear what would be his last sermon if he had done a good job. The crowd shouted in unison: “We bear witness that you have conveyed the trust and discharged your ministry and looked to our welfare.”

The Prophet then lifted his forefinger towards the sky and then pointing towards the people then to his father in heaven asked Him to bear witness three times: “O Lord: Bear Thou witness unto it”.

Did the Prophet Muhammad, in making the Koran known to mankind, want to please his god the way a child wishes to ingratiate himself to his father, and in return get the love and approbation that comes from being a good son?

Did he imagine the wisdom that his equally imaginary Father wanted his son to transmit? Did he imagine the love of a father he never had? If you believe then the answer is obvious.

The Wrath of an Adolescent?

14:46 And they hatched their plots, and Allah knew their plotting although their plotting was such as to move the mountains.

14:47 Do not think, then, that Allah will break His Promise to His messengers. Allah is truly Mighty and Capable of Retribution.

Allah’s not atypical chest-thumping, brutish display when talking to or about His opponents as is evident in the following verses, most of which are about His confrontation with Pharaoh, is another behavior that is reminiscent of adolescent angst.

His unsubstantiated inner turmoil notwithstanding, Allah is a god you don’t mess with! Pharaoh learnt this the hard way, as did others, over and over again. You believe in His Revelations or He will get you in this world and the next; His vengeance will be merciless, never ending and often original.

54:40 We have, indeed, made the Qur’an easy to remember. Is there, then, any one who will remember?

54:41 The warnings also came to Pharaoh’s folk.

Allah’s is a god Who is much given to puerile challenges and boasts about committing the most adult of atrocities.

54:42 They denounced all Our Signs as lies; so We seized them in the manner of One Who is Mighty and Strong.

54:43 Are your unbelievers better than all those; or have you been exonerated in the Scriptures?

54:44 Or do you say: “We are a band which will conquer.”

The partial question “Are your unbelievers better than all those” in revelation 54:43 refers to Noah’s people, the people of ‘Ad and Thamud and the people of Lot (and undoubtedly many other people) whom Allah bragged about obliterating in surah 54 The Moon before beginning His diatribe against Pharaoh and his “folk”.

The “host”, in the following, is Pharaoh’s army.

54:45 The host will certainly be routed and turn their back in flight.

Judgement Day will be particularly painful for these “criminals”.

54:46 No, the Hour shall be their appointment; and the Hour is very grievous and bitter.

54:47 The criminals are indeed in error and blazes;

54:48 The day they will be dragged upon their faces into the Fire: “Taste now the touch of Saqar (another name for Hell).”

A not unexpected boast about creating everything, some of it in the wink of an eye, followed by another somewhat childish challenge from the most powerful god ever, about having taken down opponents as powerful as Pharaoh, and will somebody remind him!

54:49 Indeed, We have created everything in measure.

54:50 Our Command is like one word, like twinkling of an eye.

54:51 We have destroyed your likes; is there anyone who will remember?

In the following revelation Allah may be confusing the book of good and bad deeds which will be given to believers and unbelievers alike on Judgement Day with the Scriptures; or He is still talking about Pharaoh Rameses II, who ruled Egypt during the biblical Exodus; or it is a translation mistake. Revelation 54:53 would indicate, however, that Allah is actually referring to the book of good and bad deeds.

54:52 Everything they have done is recorded in the Scriptures.

54:53 Everything, small or big, is written down.

The believers gathered around My Kingly Omnipotence in Paradise will be the truth that what I have revealed is the truth.

54:54 The God-fearing are, indeed, amid gardens and rivers.

54:55 Upon a seat of truth in the presence of an Omnipotent King.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Even in revelations about the cities He has destroyed you can hear the child in Allah talking.

During a normal day i.e. morning or afternoon, even in the Prophet’s time, children played and adults worked, or were busy with more important things, from making love to making war. Yet, it is people at play that Allah brags about killing, and like children might say or do, He schemed to make their obliteration come about. An omnipotent, omnipresent god does not need to scheme to get His way, but a child often does.

7:97 Did the people of the cities feel assured that Our punishment would not come upon them at night while they were sleeping?

7:98 Or did the people of the cities feel assured that Our punishment would not come upon them during the day while they were playing?

7:99 Or did they feel secure against Allah’s Scheming? For none feels secure from Allah’s Scheming save the losing people.

The earth may not be completely devoid of intelligent life after all the people have returned to Allah. He may repopulate it with more action figures (angels or jinn perhaps?) who, like their human predecessors, will have to play by His Rules if they know what’s good for them.

7:100 It is not clear to those who inherit the earth after its people [are gone] that if We will, We can smite them for their sins and seal their hearts so that they cannot hear.

Allah’s scheming included making the unbelievers still not believe in what they had not believed. Yes, it does not make much sense, except perhaps to a child-like mind.

7:101 Those cities, We relate to you some of their tales; their Messengers came to them with clear signs; but they would not believe in what they had denied earlier. Thus Allah seals the hearts of the unbelievers.

The cities which ran the greatest risk of being annihilated were those which did not have a covenant, an agreement between supplicants and a god, or a covenant that they did not keep.

7:102 And We have not found among most of them any who honours a covenant; but We found most of them evildoers.