Mr. Raihan's comment to the first installment of this series has been addressed in the comments thread.

Ignorance of the Challenger continues

I regard to Mr. Raihan’s arguments on Apostasy, I have already shown how ignorant he is or how poor his understanding of the Koran is. This installment will address more such shocking ignorance of Mr. Raihan.

Raihan’s ignorance about authorship of the Koran

1.4 billion of Muslims worldwide believe that Koran was created by Allah in heaven before the creation of the universe, as affirmed in the Koran itself:

Q 85:22: Truly, it is the glorious Koran, in the preserver tablet (in heaven)… Q80:12-13 also affirms the same divine nature of the Koran.

However, Mr. Raihan recently claimed that it is Muhammad, who created the Koran – not Allah. I quote Mr. Raihan: “Moreover, it was Muhammad who produced the Qur'an….” (VM post 8980). I hope, Mr. Raihan understands the consequence of such claims.

To an honest and courageous critic, truth matters more than fear of life and Mr. Raihan seems one such person. And he seems to validate this claim with the verses from the Koran itself. Here are two verses that Mr. Raihan produced in support of his claim that Koran was produced by Muhammad (VM Post 8991):

81.19. SHAKIR: Most surely it is the Word of an honored messenger.

69.40. SHAKIR: Most surely, it is the Word brought by an honored Messenger.

It is interesting that some Muslims started agreeing that Koran was produced by a man but still insisting that Muslims must follow this book blindly.

However, Mr. Raihan once again displays his utter lack of understanding of these two verses. This honored/honorable messenger is not Muhammad at all. But in stead, these verses were revealed to counter accusations that Muhammad was producing/composing his so-called revelation himself. I will delve into the details about the background of these verses as outlined in Ibn Hisham’s biography of Muhammad.

These verses were revealed during the first five years of Muhammad’s preaching. Muhammad faced a number of accusations from the Mecca pagans. Amr ibn Hisham (nick named Abu Hukum (father of justice), whom Muslim’s later mocked by giving the name Abu Jahal (father of foolishness), considered Muhammad as a charlatan and termed his messages as invention of a madman [Q81:22]. Some called him bewitched by malicious beings (devil) [Q25:9], other called him a magician [Q37:15] or a soothsayer [Q69:42]. His revelation was labeled as poetic composition by himself [69:41]. Aswad, a cousin of Muhammad’s maternal side, also called him a sorcerer and a madman and was intent on killing him.

In order to counter these accusations Muhammad received a few verses, including the 2 cited by Mr. Raihan. Here the honorable messenger is not Muhammad but Gabriel. In the verse 81:19 – Allah is swearing by all sorts of things to deny that Muhammad’s revelation was not created by a madman or spelled by a malicious being (devil), but recited to him by the honorable messenger, Gabriel from the lord of Creation [Q81:15-29]:

81:15 Oh, but I call to witness the planets,

81:16 The stars which rise and set,

81:17 And the close of night,

81:18 And the breath of morning

81:19 That this is in truth the word of an honoured messenger,

81:20 Mighty, established in the presence of the Lord of the Throne,

81:21 (One) to be obeyed, and trustworthy;

81:22 And your comrade is not mad.

81:23 Surely he beheld Him (Gabriel) on the clear horizon.

81:24 And he is not avid of the Unseen.

81:25 Nor is this the utterance of a devil worthy to be stoned. …

81:29 And ye will not, unless (it be) that Allah willeth, the Lord of Creation.

In Raihan’s cited verse Q 69:40, Allah swears (by the seen and unseen) again to deny a number of allegations including Muhammad being a soothsayer, poet and fabricator and assert again that his message come through the honorable messenger, Gabriel [Q 69:38-48]:

69:38 But nay! I swear by all that ye see

69:39 And all that ye see not

69:40 That it is indeed the speech of an illustrious (honorable) messenger.

69:41 It is not poet's speech - little is it that ye believe!

69:42 Nor diviner's (soothsayer) speech - little is it that ye remember!

69:43 It is a revelation from the Lord of the Worlds.

69:44 And if he had invented false sayings (fabrication) concerning Us,..

This analysis once again proves how hollow Mr. Raihan’s knowledge and understanding of the Koran is! More shocking is Mr. Raihan’s attempt to use the verses of the Koran to justify cases which are exactly opposite to what those verses are meant for. Such an ignorant or deceptive person he is! Another such case of using a verse to justify the exactly opposite meaning is discussed below.
 

Raihan’s ignorance again: “Koran does not promote blind belief”

Mr. Raihan asserts on the basis of one single verse from the Koran that Islam does not encourage blind belief (Does a person needs to believe in everything blindly to be a Muslim?). Here’s what he says”

It is said/believed that a person needs to believe in everything blindly to be a Muslim! I think 99.99% Muslims [including ALL the non-Muslims] do believe in this weird notion! Nobody even knows where the weird notion comes from! But the question is, is it really so? The answer is a big ‘NO’! The fact is that a Muslim does not need to believe in anything blindly [i.e., without any knowledge] including God, Genie, Angel, Satan, etc! Does it sound hilarious? Even more than that? No way! This is the fact! There might be several verses in Qur’an; however, just a single verse in enough to defend the point. This verse is not conditional; that means there is no ‘if’, ‘but’, ‘exception’, etc.

17:36. SHAKIR: And follow not that of which you have not the knowledge; surely the hearing and the sight and the heart, all of these, shall be questioned about that.

KHALIFA: You shall not accept any information, unless you verify it for yourself. I have given you the hearing, the eyesight, and the brain, and you are responsible for using them. 

This verse says that a person doesn’t need to believe in anything blindly if he/she has no knowledge [or not convinced] about it. 

Having said that, even if a person is not convinced that there is a Creator/God of this universe, he/she does not need to believe in Him blindly! Does it sound rational now?

[Note: Khalifa translation must obviously be discarded because it differs too much from the others. I will use Pickthal, Sakir and Yusuf Ali (below).]

Well Mr. Raihan, I wished it sounded rational but not to be. It is not a ‘weird notion’ Mr. Raihan, but the ‘real notion’ of Islam/Koran. It is not that 99.99% Muslims are wrong; it is your own limitation of understanding Koran’s message including this verse as I explain below.

1. First thing, you ignored numerous other verses in which Allah demands blind belief to what he spelt in the Koran. Else, He assures punishments, which are cruel and barbaric of the highest degree. A mortal and fallible human being of the highest grade of irrationality, cruelty and barbarity would not punish other humans like Allah will. And it is an idiotic folly of the highest degree on your part to try to use one vague verse to nullify dozens of other explicit verses that demands unquestioned belief and execution of everything said in the Koran, including killing the idolaters and subduing the people of the book to humiliating submission and extracting Jizya , [2:191-2; 9:29].

2. Secondly, the problem also lies in your ignorance of the meaning of this verse. This verse doesn’t not encourage rationality, free speculation, freedom of thought and freedom of choice. Instead, it encourages exactly the opposite, that is, blind and unquestioned belief in what Allah says in the Koran. Mr. Robert Tarik tried to explain it but you didn’t seem to get simple things and you posted the same message a second time.

I will start with a story from my experience which might make this simple verse understandable to Mr. Challenger.

I was about 16, when one day I was out for an evening walk with my closest friend and classmate in the countryside we used to live in. Discussing various issues, it turned to what happened the previous day. My elder sister, 3 years senior to me, was severely admonished by my parents and elder brother in turns, because she went to her classmate’s house after school and returned a bit late (at dusk, ~7pm). But it was a common things that myself and all my brothers would go out anytime, irrespective of day and night. Sometimes, we would just sleep at friend’s place and come home the next day. It was natural.

Having seeing my sister severely depressed and considering other provisions in Islam like women have to wear veil/burka, they have to share their husbands with up to four co-wives, I asked my friend, “Why is this discrimination against women in Islam?” What he knew is that it is the will of Allah, he knows best and human beings must not question his judgment. One would be thrown into the fire of hell if questions Allah’s commands. Next day, we went to our religious teacher and he gave us the same answer. He even justified his case by narrating a story from Islamic traditions in which a Sahaba (companion of prophet) asked Muhammad, “O Muhammad, Allah created us but who created Allah?..” In the answer Muhammad said, “Satan is around you..”, warning that such question would lead him astray and to hellfire.

As Islamic scholars and biographers of Muhammad note, such skeptical and difficult questions kept coming from both the converts and pagans regarding various silly and contradictory verses and absurd and unjust ruling in his revelations. Some doubted ‘why the almighty Allah, like silly and irrational human beings, need to swear by the olive and fig trees and by the Mount Sinai [Q95:1], by the declining day [Q103:1] and by the stars, the night and the dawn [81:15-18]. They also asked why Allah has to swear by himself [Q 91:5] (I swear by me – sounds silly, isn’t it?). Others rejected that a compassionate and merciful Allah could not be such vindictive and reveal a sura to mention by name that Abu Lahab and his wife will be consigned to hellfire [Sura 111].

In order to admonish and silence such intelligent inquirers, Allah revealed the verse Q17.36, which, Mr. Raihan claims, is meant for encouraging free-thought and freedom of choice in the Koran.

YUSUFALI: And pursue not that of which thou hast no knowledge; for every act of hearing, or of seeing or of (feeling in) the heart will be enquired into (on the Day of Reckoning).

PICKTHAL: (O man), follow not that whereof thou hast no knowledge. Lo! the hearing and the sight and the heart - of each of these it will be asked.

SHAKIR: And follow not that of which you have not the knowledge; surely the hearing and the sight and the heart, all of these, shall be questioned about that.

This verse is simply meant to warn such intelligent skeptics by asserting that they must not pursue/follow (be curious, inquisitive) about what belongs to Allah’s domain of knowledge, which is beyond human comprehension. In the next verse, Allah warns humans against being exultant (question Allah’s commands) and points to the limitation of human beings, which also clear affirms this explanation.

PICKTHAL: And walk not in the earth exultant. Lo! thou canst not rend the earth, nor canst thou stretch to the height of the hills. [Q 017.037]

Thus this verse is not at all for promoting freedom of choice and thoughts but exactly the opposite, that is, Allah demands “blind belief” from human through this verse.

I hope, by now, the readers should realize the kind of ignorant person this Raihan is. He is not only ignorant; he is also incapable of understanding the simplest of things. Yet, he has become synonymous with the title, “Challenger, the great” on the matters ‘he knows and understands so little’. And when knowledgeable people like Abul Kasem, Muhammad Asghar, SA Pintu, Avijit Roy and Robert Tarik et al. try to explain it to him; he would start spelling all kinds of profanities against them.

Continued...