Don't Make Your Allah a Party to All This Mess

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 31 August 2022 Naseer Ahmad's ' The Satanic Verses' is a veritable ' apologist's rants.' I've never come across anyone whose overzealous approach to explaining the scriptural conundrums of any damn scripture is greater than that of this man. Karl Popper once said, “If you broach a very sensitive subject. Brace yourself to face the criticism. “In his overenthusiasm to gloss over Muhammad marrying his daughter-in-law, Zaynab (wife of his adopted son Zayd) and why adoption is not religiously and scripturally sanctioned in Islam, he has made himself a butt of ridicule. By the way, have you read or heard the following lines as Bon Jovi sang? “The new improved tomorrow isn't what it used to be Yesterday keeps coming 'round, it's just reality It's the same damn song with a different melody.... " I reiterate the last line, “It’s the same damn song with a different melody. " Apologists for ages have been trying to define a number of verses in the Quran which are not just dubious but also make Islam's Allah complicit in them with a view to justifying Muhammad's own agenda. If you read Spinoza's God (not the useless Wikipedia or WhatsApp version, but in the original Dutch language), he averred that he indeed was an impious man- as the Vatican called him the most impious man on earth- in the sense that he never believed in any Book and Prophet but had his own concept of god that was independent of scriptures and their characters. He further stated that the scriptures and their so-called prophets desecrated not just Christianity but all faiths and defiled the image of god. I quoted his opinion to drive home the point that what Muhammad did (by marrying his daughter-in-law) was reprehensible, but by attributing the 'revelation' (33:4; 37- 40) to Allah justifying and extenuating his messenger's act of indiscretion, aren't Muslims cheapening their Allah? Muhammad was a human, a mere mortal at that. And to err is human. Instead of reprimanding or warning, Allah sent down a self-serving and opportunistic 'revelation', legalizing Muhammad to pick up his adopted son's wife as his 5th one. In this way, Allah permitted him to have more than four wives, which is the limit it set for other men (Quran 4:3). The million-dollar-question is: Was Muhammad an exception to Allah's law? Coming back to the squirming episode of Zaynab getting married to Muhammad, How will you perceive a man who marries his daughter-in-law? Agreed, it's his choice, who're we to criticise or condemn it? Accepted, but when it comes to a man Ummah looks up to, such capers are bound to raise eyebrows. Will any sane Muslim follow this as a precedent? Accept the fact that Muhammad made mistakes, nay Himalayan blunders. Don't make your Allah a party to all this mess. Spare your god. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/allah-mess-satanic-verses/d/127844 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism