The Arabic expression “zat-ul hubuk” means
ingeniously devised paths (orbits). The expression connotes beautifully
designed formations. The scintillating brilliance of the stars that has
enchanted us ever since the beginning of our existence, the incomparable sight
unfolded across the sky has always attracted our attention, overwhelming us.
Numerous poems and prose works describe the charming sensations that the sky
generates in the human breast. The rising and setting of the sun, the phases of
the moon, the sky studded with stars give the picture of a steady state
universe. The universe full of its orbits is not visible to the naked eye.
Stars that move at incredible speeds seem stationary to us. The fact that all
stars and heavenly bodies are in motion was only scientifically established
after the discovery of the telescope and the advance of science. The number of
galaxies in the universe exceeds hundreds of millions, each comprising more
than one hundred million stars, some larger and some smaller than the sun. Our
sun is comparably of middle size. These stars have many planets like the earth
and the planets have their satellites like our moon. All these have come about
after having detached from one single point. All these stars and planets and
satellites have their respective orbits. The omnipotence of God is conspicuous
in His creation. God who originated everything from a single point demonstrated
that the skill involved was not inherent in that point; having generated from
it billions of celestial bodies displayed the endlessness of His power and
facility. Every one of these bodies moves in its own orbit so that the state of
the universe changes every second. This variation takes place by the motion
within the respective orbit of every star, planet and satellite. Every moment
in the universe is a new occurrence: so is every instant of a star, a planet
and a satellite.
ARGUMENT FROM MOTION
The
process of motion has been the subject of study by many thinkers throughout
history. Plato said that the source of motion must have been God and described
the universe as being governed by a Designer who was good and beneficent.
Aristotle inferred that God must be the Prime Mover, that He was the original
source and cause of motion in the universe. Farabi, representative of the
Islamic world, concluded that the Prime Mover was the source of all existence
and that He, the Unmoved Mover, had generated the movement. The Ihvan-› Safa, a
philosophical-religious association of the 10th century, produced encyclopedic
works. This association underlined the motion of the universe, confirmed the
process of creation out of nothing, drawing attention to the order reigning in
the universe and the perpetual movement that proved the existence of God. A
great many Christian thinkers like Thomas Aquinas saw the motion of the
universe as an evidence of a Supreme Being.
The fact that the motion in the universe is not limited to our solar system or to a handful of stars but is spread all over space is a very important point since it is also a proof of the endlessness of the power of God. The attention that the verse draws to the orbits in space is also meaningful. Galaxies move in perpetual motion; their constituent billions of stars float in their respective pathways; the planets trace elliptical orbits around the stars; and the satellites make their rounds about the planets, motion inside motion. If motion had not been devised to be an intrinsic part of matter we could not have sat comfortably in our chairs to watch TV. Nor would the sun, the earth or our very selves exist. All these formations owe their existence to the moving objects. The movement of stars in their orbits, the movement of planets around the stars have rendered our existence possible and our sipping coffee while watching television. The creation of motion in an ingenious and regular order generating chain reactions, and our observation of precise, ordered and perfect movements in galaxies of macrocosm and in atoms of microcosm are flamboyant invitations to conceive God’s power and knowledge. There will certainly be people who will turn a deaf ear to these invitations. Verse 7 of the sura The Dispersing that draws our attention to the orbits is followed by the following verses:
The fact that the motion in the universe is not limited to our solar system or to a handful of stars but is spread all over space is a very important point since it is also a proof of the endlessness of the power of God. The attention that the verse draws to the orbits in space is also meaningful. Galaxies move in perpetual motion; their constituent billions of stars float in their respective pathways; the planets trace elliptical orbits around the stars; and the satellites make their rounds about the planets, motion inside motion. If motion had not been devised to be an intrinsic part of matter we could not have sat comfortably in our chairs to watch TV. Nor would the sun, the earth or our very selves exist. All these formations owe their existence to the moving objects. The movement of stars in their orbits, the movement of planets around the stars have rendered our existence possible and our sipping coffee while watching television. The creation of motion in an ingenious and regular order generating chain reactions, and our observation of precise, ordered and perfect movements in galaxies of macrocosm and in atoms of microcosm are flamboyant invitations to conceive God’s power and knowledge. There will certainly be people who will turn a deaf ear to these invitations. Verse 7 of the sura The Dispersing that draws our attention to the orbits is followed by the following verses:
My departure from Islam, because it
lacks any of the moral elements of the kind mentioned in some of the touching
testimonies published on the Internet. I cannot claim that I wasn't aware of
Mohammed's assassinations of his adversaries, because I read about it and
accepted it as a justifiable action against the enemies of Allah. Neither I can
claim that I wasn't aware of Mohammed's pedophilic marriage to Aysha because I
knew about it and accepted it as a perfectly normal practice during Mohammed's
time.. Without raising an eyebrow, I also read about Mohammed's genocide of the
Jewish tribe of Bani Quryza. I had developed the concept that committing
Islamic genocides against the Jews are no more disturbing to an Arab than
slaughtering a herd of cattle.
My problem with Islam was mainly
about the Quran which seemed to continuously require external human boasters in
the form of interpretations and reinterpretations and endless justifications
for much of the Quran's inanities. For a person with a free mind and good
knowledge of the Arabic language, it is a fierce struggle with the mind to
accept anything about the Quran; its language, style and contents. The Quran is
only convincing for those whose knowledge in Arabic is nonexistent or poor,
which is the case in the vast majority of Muslims including the Arabs. It is
especially true for those who are conditioned to read it year after year with
only one thing in their minds- to earn hasanat that helps them to avoid hell
fire. For decades, I belonged to the second group, but although my starting
point was the false assumption that the Quran is absolutely correct, as all
Muslims do, I found it increasingly harder to accept all that collection of
nonsense as my knowledge of Arabic developed over the years.
I am afraid that in my case, the
language and logical absurdities of the Quran sent a louder alarm than the
cruelties of Mohammed. I rejected the Quran because I expected from Allah a
much better book!
A Muslim Child
I was brought up in a small village
in southern Syria in the early 1950s. My parents were ordinary farmers with
simple education. Like the rest of the villagers, they performed the prayers
and observed Ramadan fasting, which were more of a social and cultural duties.
Like the rest of the children in the village, I was taught to recite some of
the Quranic verses by heart well before the school age. It is still customary
for the Middle Eastern parents to teach their young children to recite at least
the first sura of the Quran, known as alfatiha. Some parents begin to
work on this from the moment their children start to talk!
That was my first encounter with
Quran but by no means the only one; the Quran was always around me whatever I
did and wherever I went. In the background, there was always that voice of the
Quari who reads the Quran in a distinguished tajweed style that spreads an
atmosphere of gravity and fear. Such recitations seemed to go forever; they
came from the mosque's loud speakers as well as from the radio and other audio
devices. No ceremony or gathering or activity could start, or finish, without
reciting some verses from the Quran. It is not only that I could hear the Quran
all the time, but also I could see it all the time. Wherever I turned my eyes I
could see some verses of the Quran written in special calligraphy and framed on
the walls of every house or every shop, even means of transport were decorated
with Quranic verses.
I attended the village's only
school, which was an ordinary government school that had no particular emphasis
on religious education. In the beginning of every school year, children were
handed the relevant books for that particular year. Those books kept changing
year after year except for one book-the Quran, which we called mushaf. The
Quran was a truly intimidating book to any child; it was so intimidating to me
that I couldn't even express my feelings towards it. Children dare not say
anything negative about the Quran. I even didn't dare to allow any negative
thoughts about it to surface in my mind for the fear of extreme punishment from
Allah. I was taught to respect the book and do the Islamic washing ritual
before even touching it, and never to hold it with my left hand. I was told to
kiss the book immediately after I hold it and touch it with my forehead as a sign
of respect. I was also taught of the special ritual of how to finish reading
from the book. I mustn't stop reading before finishing the verse; even if it
was a long one. After finishing the recitation I had to say in Arabic sadka
allahu alazeem meaning 'Allah told the truth'. Then I was allowed to close the
book respectfully and place it on top of the other books. I wasn't allowed to
place any book on top of the Quran.
The Quran, a difficult book to read
It didn't escape my notice that the
Quran was not a reader friendly book and certainly not a child friendly one,
but I attributed that to the greatness of the book! It had no pictures at all
and no titles or paragraphs and not even spaces between its verses or chapters;
just a continuous writing from the beginning to the end. Its verses cannot be
considered full sentences or paragraphs; they are just collections of words. A
sentence may start in a verse and end in another one! If you take away the
numbering of the verses, the whole Quran would look like one very long
paragraph!
As I progressed in school, I became
more talented in reading in Arabic, but I always had problems in reading the
Quran. My consolation was that I was not alone; all the other children had the
same problem. The only chapters I read easily were the ones I already know by
heart or the ones I read before many times. Reading a new chapter was always a
struggle, but, at the time, I never worked out why.
Even today, I still believe the
Quran is not a particularly easy book to read for a first timer. I do not think
it is possible for a person to read a page from the Quran for the first time
without making many mistakes. The only way to read a chapter from the Quran
without making mistakes is actually to read it many times before hand to become
familiar with that chapter. Once you become familiar with a chapter, reading it
becomes more of a reminder of what you already know (or nearly know ) by
heart,.
The Muslim scholars have
deliberately made the Quran a very difficult book to read. The Quran is
deliberately scribed in a way that violates all the writing protocols of the
Arabic language. The Muslim scholars are keen on this bizarre practice to
ensure that the Quarn is well wrapped in a thick and dark coat of mystic
ambiguity, which is the Quran's fiercest defense.
How can anybody read a book where
the standard punctuation marks are not used at all? To confuse the reader even
more, the Quran contains what appear to be scriptural errors in every verse.
These deliberate violations to the Arabic writing protocols are peculiar to the
Quran. As an example the word salat (prayer) is deliberately written like
salowat and the word zakat is written like zakowat. Then every letter in every
word is surrounded by coded pronunciation marks that are special to the Quran,
to describe how that particular letter, in that particular position, should be
pronounced. To add to the confusion, those pronunciation marks often look like
smaller versions of the normal Arabic letters.. Just in case all the above is
not enough to confuse the reader, they add to every word the tajweed marks
because every letter in the Quran has to be pronounced in a special way,
according to its position in the word and sentence, to give a special sound
effect, called tajweed, which is the Quran's musical note, as we may put it.
The Quran, a difficult text to hear
or understand
Hearing and understanding the Quran
were other tortures that my Islamic mind had to put up with. I could listen to
the radio for ten minutes and all the Quari has done was to read only few
verses that he repeated many times with many pauses in between, which only
helps to distract the listener. Reading the interpretations or tafseer books is
a true torture. Some tafseer books, especially the modern ones, are massive in
volumes and interpreting one word can take many pages.
Such excessive writings intimidate
the ordinary readers, which explains why not many people bother to read them,
but also follows an imbedded psychological definition for intellectuality as
perceived by many Arabs. There is a common misconception among many Arabs that
a highly intellectual person is expected to produce highly complex writings.
Many Arabs think it is all right if ordinary people cannot understand the
complex and lengthy writings of the highly intelligent authors. Many Arabs may
become impressed and speak highly of a scholar who writes many pages, or speak
for hours explaining one word in the Quran, even though they did not understand
a word of it! Simplicity, as some Arabs understand it, is only for the simple
people.
Al Mutanabbi (915-965), one of the
most talented Arab poets, reflected on such unusual misconception in one of his
poems. He described his intelligence by claiming that he says what he wants to
say then sleeps well, but the rest of the world spends the night trying to
understand it! Almutanabbi said what some Arabs wanted to hear, and reflected a
common cultural misconception. To be fair to the man, all his poetry is clear
and powerful, but he reminds us with another author who prides himself that he
alone can understand what he writes.
"Q.3:7. …but none knows its
meanings except Allâh…."
The Quran and black magic
The above intensive and continuous
brainwashing process that starts from the moment a child is born to a Muslim
family, results in a state where Muslims are unable to consider the Quran in an
objective way. The Muslims' minds are never free when it comes to anything to
do with the Quran. The fact is that the Quran never looked to Muslims as
normal, never sounded as normal and was never understood as normal.
Muslims have been conditioned to
think of the Quran in a mystical environment, which reminds me with the way the
magicians set the seen to perform their tricks. The stage magicians do not do
anything supernatural, but they make the audience believe the do.. They dress
in dark colours and choose a dark background; they distract their audience's
attention by using sound effects and by saying irrelevant words or making
irrelevant movements.
Nowadays, black magic is a thriving
business in the Middle East , as it had always been. Black magicians perform
their tricks by saying some very strange words that do not make any sense. Such
strange sayings have no meaning, even to the black magicians who compose them,
but it is that ambiguity that serves to stun the confused client. Mohammed has
used a lot of these abracadabra-like words in the Quran and the trick seems to
work on Muslims! Many chapters in the Quran begin with a random arrangement of
letters, sometimes even one letter! Indeed, some entire verses are composed of
only few randomly arranged letters!
If any person with sanity receives a
'clear' message that reads H. M. h/she would reject it but Muslims accept it
and consider it a miracle! As a matter of fact, the above two letters make the
first verse of some suras in the Quran like sura 44. The interpretation books
refer to this verse as a miracle! Muslim scholars say that nobody knows the
meaning of the verse except Allah, which raises the question of why send a
message that cannot be understood by the receiver? The irony is that the very
next verse in sura 44 (i.e. 44:2) says "the clear book"! Muslims have
been reading such verses for centuries without making any sense of them, their
only response is to say with amazement: subhan allah!
The use of strange words does not
stop at using random letters; the Quran did actually incorporate strange or
foreign words in a similar fashion to the practice of the black magicians. If
we refer to the interpretations books to find the meanings for words like
ababil(105:3), sijjeel (105:4), ghesleen (69:36) and dozens others we find that
they do not agree to a clear meaning, which indicates that such words had no
clear meanings to the early Arabs. Mohammed probably used them just to make an
impression. The Arab black magicians are known to use foreign or distorted
words or even coin new ones that have no meaning at all other than making an
impression in the minds of their stupid audience.
A high school lesson
I still vividly remember how one day
in the high school, after the teacher spent a long time explaining the
wonderful eloquence of the Quran, one of the pupils asked a question about one
of the verses discussed that day, which was verse 49: 9
" وإنْ
طائفتان من المؤمنين اقتتلوا"
49:9. And if two parties or groups
among the believers fall to fighting, then ….
In the above verse, the Quran uses
the word iktatalu (translated above as fall to fighting) in a place where it
should be iktatala. The question was why? I didn't think the pupil meant to be
critical or had any other intentions more than asking a simple grammar
question. The question surprised me, but surprised the teacher more. The
teacher told the pupil off and warned him that he should be careful and
respectful when it comes to discussing the Quran. It was obvious to me that the
teacher noticed the above error for the first time; he struggled to find an
answer and to demonstrate the non-existent eloquence of the verse. He concluded
that the early Arabs were amazed by the Quran, so who are we to disagree.
Verse 49: 9 have an obvious
grammatical error that cannot be denied or explained. Muslim scholars go round
and round, they twist the rules and change the meanings and go to any length to
tell us that the mistake is not only correct, but also is a miracle! This is
the verse that was the subject of the question: The Quran has many other
grammatical errors, but the one that comes to my mind is in verse 22:19 because
it is very similar error to the one above:
" هذان
خصمان اختصموا"
22:19. These two opponents dispute
with each other ...
In the above verse, the Quran
wrongly uses the word ikhtasamu (translated above as dispute with each other)
in a place where it should be ikhtasama
It didn't matter to me, that day,
how the teacher explained the error, I only wanted to know that there is an
explanation. I satisfied myself with the usual Islamic response that is
designed to deter the mind from thinking too much about these things, which I
still hear from Muslims nowadays. If you bring up the issue to Muslims, you
hear their classic response "Do you think all those great Arabs of the
past did not notice this? Do you think you are the genius of your time? Are you
sure you understand the verse well?"
A liberal Muslim
As a university student, I was a
fairly open minded Muslim, as I preferred to describe myself. The only prayers
I used to perform were the Friday prayers but that was an acceptable average
for university students those days. By the time I started my university
education I had already discovered many areas in Islam that I didn't feel
comfortable with. My response was to reject most of the ahadith and commit
myself only to the Quran. I considered myself to be a true logical Muslim who
is truly convinced of Islam and not just inherited it, a claim that I regularly
hear from Muslims nowadays.
Deep in my mind, I realized that
Mohammed's sira (life story) and his ahadith were too embarrassing to accept or
justify. Therefore, to maintain my allegiance to Islam I had to reject them, or
most of them, and build my own beliefs around the Quran. This may look bizarre
because the Quran is just as bad as ahadith. The reality was that the Quran is
an easy ride for a person with good command of Arabic. Its ambiguity and
contradictions cater for all tastes, you just say what you want and you can
find some words in the Quran that you can use to justify your case. I simply
picked what I wanted and explained as I wanted and then turned a blind eye to the
rest. That was the reality of my feelings that I managed to suppress all my
Islamic years because my Islamic mind couldn't face it.
I practiced islam in a very liberal
way, I neglected many of my Islamic duties, sometimes sinned and justified all
that from carefully selected verses from the Quran. I decorated the wall of my
room with a calligraphy poster of a Quranic verse, which I selected carefully
and kept for years. It was verse 39: 53, which used to be one of my favorites
because it is one of the few verses that project Allah as a kind and forgiving
god.
39: 53. Say: 'O my slaves who have
transgressed against themselves despair not of the Mercy of Allâh…'
I had a reputation among my friends
to be a fan of the classic Arabic and to have special sensitivity to language
mistakes in formal writings or readings. I must have read the above verse
thousands of times without ever noticing its obvious error! The verse contains
an outrageous language and logical mistake.
Allah is supposed to be talking to Mohammed
and asking him to tell Muslims (Allah's slaves) not to despair, but the
existing wording implies that Muslims are Mohammed's slaves! The above verse
should start like this: 'Say: O Allah's slaves….'
I still find difficult to explain
how I read the above verse days and nights for many years without ever noticing
such an evident mistake, which I only noticed when I read the Quran with a
critical mind some years later. But I am not alone; in fact I never came across
an Arab Muslim who noticed the error, although they all would try hard to
justify it. It is sad that Muslims are never free when it comes to anything to
do with the Quran. Muslims are continuously subjected to an intensive
indoctrination process that leaves them with impaired senses and dysfunctional
minds. Muslims, under the influence of Islam, are incapable of reading the
Quran in an objective way.
I was amazed by the number of
blunders, of all kinds, that started to appear as I started to read the Quran
in an objective way. Removing the divine halo that surrounds the Quran reveals
a very different book that doesn't require any interoperations to understand
because all its mysteries are solved by one word- nonsense.
The above verse is not a one off
error; actually the Quran is full with them. It is a common practice in the
Quran for Allah to suddenly move from the third person to the first person or
vice versa with no reason at all. In verse 6:99, such a poor usage of language
implies that Allah talks about a different god who sends down rain from the sky
while He is responsible for the vegetations:
6:99. It is HE who sends down water
from the sky, and with it WE bring forth vegetation of all kinds…
But my favorite example of the
Quran's lack of clarity is verse 6: 151, which is a list of the forbidden
things that Muslims must avoid. The verse, in theory, should be one of the
easiest verses to compose; it is just a matter of listing things one after the
other, which the Quran failed miserably to do:
6: 151. Say: "Come, I will
recite what your Lord has prohibited you from: Join not anything in worship
with Him; be good and dutiful to your parents; kill not your children because
of poverty - We provide sustenance for you and for them; come not near to
Al-Fawâhish whether committed openly or secretly, and kill not anyone whom
Allâh has forbidden, except for a just cause….
The above verse lists the forbidden
things that all Muslims must avoid. The verse lists being good and dutiful to
parents as one of those sins. Muslim scholars say that 'being good to parents'
is not part of the list and we also sincerely hope it not. But why did Allah
insert it in that position of the verse then rely on human commonsense to
figure out that it is not part of that list? Is there a good writing style in
the above verse? Would such writing be acceptable from any writer, past or
present? And my story with the Quran continues.. ( based Upon The Confession Of
Many Muslims)
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