Sunday, June 14, 2009
Suffering through the Koran – Sura 18 named 'The Cave'.
The origins of Mohammed and Islam – a place which was never left.
by Ferdinand III
In Islamic mythology their great leader and inspiration, a man whose ideas would in part clarify those of Hitler, went away to a cave to meditate on metaphysics and the meaning of life. It was in the cave that his faith was affirmed by Allah and it was in the cave that an angel conferred upon the illiterate trader and politician Mohammed, the rather burdensome duty of informing the world about the divine power of this Allah. This myth equates Mohammed with Moses, Christ and John the Baptist – a 'great and good man' cast out from society, desiring only to understand the complex spiritual questions and purpose of life.....a man holy and just, able to converse with angels. It is highly doubtful of course that any of it is more than Muslim myth-making, and another absurd attempt to belittle the other 2 monotheism's, while elevating the pagan Arabism of an illiterate military adventurer.
The Sura's purpose is to describe the time Mohammed spent in the cave and why his time was important there. Apparently he retired to the cave for some time with a few friends or followers, yet the writers of the Koran don't even know how much time he supposedly spent in this cave, “Then We drew (a veil) over their ears, for a number of years, in the Cave, (so that they did not hear); Then We roused them, in order to test which of the two parties was best at calculating the term of years they had tarried !”
Interesting. So the friends of this `great` man Mohammed were covered up by Angels, held for a number of years and then released so they could be tested as to the length of time they spent alone with the wondrous `Prophet`and dear Leader. Did they eat or just sit there stunned, covered by a blanket for some time ? Verse 25 states rather implausibly that the companions of Mohammed were there perhaps for 300 years – a rather long time by most human standards, “So they stayed in their Cave three hundred years, and (some) add nine (more).” Okay right. It matters not anyways since of course only the thing called Allah would know the actual time spent, “Say: 'Allah knows best how long they stayed..”
The Koranic writers are not even sure of who went with their noble messenger and how many there were. This seems odd given that the cave pilgrimage is usually viewed as a turning point in the 'spiritual' life, such as it might have existed, for Mohammed. “Some say they were three, the dog being the fourth among them: (others) say there were five, the dog being the sixth....” Indeed they are very few details in this Sura about the cave experience. There is nothing about what was discussed, what transpired, or even which revelations were passed down to the great Arab prophet, the man chosen by this thing Allah, to lead mankind out of its collective ignorance and misery.
Nothing.
What the Sura spends its time on is the usual and quite repetitive supremacism and demands to believe and submit to this Allah. This Sura is thus, like all the others, an illogical and badly written creation. Its theme is the cave and Mohammed's spiritual turning point. Its arguments are unrelated to that event. So we have yet again, the repeating ad-nauseum of tracts and words already many times expounded and recorded in previous chapters:
Verse 29, “...We have prepared a Fire whose (smoke and flames), like the walls and roof of a tent, will hem them in: if they implore relief they will be granted water like melted brass, that will scald their faces. How dreadful the drink !”
Verse 31, “For them [Muslims of course] will be Gardens of Eternity;....'
Verse 56, “..but the Unbelievers dispute with vain argument, in order therewith to weaken the truth, and they treat My Signs as a jest, as also the fact that they are warned!”
Verse 59, “Such were the populations We destroyed when they committed iniquities; but We fixed an appointed time for their destruction.”
Verse 102, “Verily we shall prepare Hell for the Unbelievers for (their) entertainment.”
Verse 106, “That is their reward, Hell; because they rejected Faith, and took My Signs and My Messengers by way of jest.”
None of these verses or the sentences between after and around them deal with ethics, higher morality or human emancipation. They are full of bile, hate and bigotry – which is standard fare in every chapter in the Koran.
Muslims basking in the glory and temporal glow of Allah's good will, shall of course enter paradise when death appears. The Unbelievers however will either be destroyed or if they survive, upon their deaths they will be tortured for eternity, drinking scalding hot brass and entertained by the evils of a Hellish fate. The message is pretty clear. Jews and Christians are inferiors and will be punished accordingly. Muslims are superior and will be protected and rewarded. Supremacist.
Most of this Sura deals with yet again the thesis that Moses and the Jewish-Christian prophets were actually messengers of this Allah. Given that this Allah had composed the final book of divine rules and guidance and given it to the illiterate Mohammed, the Jews and Christians had obviously deviated from the divine ideal. Therefore, they must be punished with Hell – unless they were to see the light of Mohammed's message and convert to the purity of the way or Sharia Islam. Another justification for hating, killing and torturing the infidel.
To say that the Koran is not the impetus and platform for 1400 years of Islamic racism, violence and universalism, is akin to saying that Mein Kampf was not the repository of Hitler's evil madness. People need to read this book, to understand the deranged and psychotic nature of Islamic fundamentalism. Muslims still living in the cave of darkness as it were. And only Allah knows why.
[Note: This Sura is taken from 'The Holy Quran', translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, reprinted in 1995, Goodword Books. Regarded as one of the best translations from Arabic to English of the Koran.]