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Prophet Muhammad By Anita Rai Here follows a short excerpt of this book: “Islam and terrorism; terrorism and Islam; terrorism in Islam; Islamic terrorism; Islam and terror – have been reverberating across the continents for over five years, spurring debate about a Muslim’s viewpoint on terror and/or terrorism, the objective of Islam, and without saying its Prophet, Muhammad. Modern media’s most usual sphere of interests is certainly not to study and dwell on the religion that appeared on the face of human civilization in 7th century AD in a remote spot of the wild east, Arabia . But following 9/11, 7/7 and other worldwide disturbances, one way or the other connected with militant Islam, modern media suddenly find themselves thrust into an unfamiliar whirlpool, making them very uneasy at most times. The mainstream Muslims, their organizations/institutes, especially the ones in my part of the world, i.e., the ‘West,’ are busy trying to respond to criticisms of Islamic ideologue they perceive as harsh, bigoted and unjust, particularly the concept of Jihad and the personality and actions of their Prophet, Muhammad. They do so with stale arguments, that are tailor made, too convenient, too conventional, and taste like chalk, hoping to get the Muslim conscience on trial, off the hook. Muslims are busy in explaining away all question marks directed at their religion, with dry, too-neat and too-cold theories; with quotes from the Quran they are comfortable with; with little sermons justifying in an Islamic way every precept held under the international microscope – and of course, with ahadith, traditions. They always fall back upon their precious treasure house of hadith to clarify their positions and policies, grievances and grudges. While they cry and clamour that the Islam under international scrutiny is ‘not real Islam,’ they fail to demonstrate ‘Real Islam.’ They have never been able to come up with a foolproof, relevant and enduring blueprint of what they suppose is ‘real Islam’. What I most certainly have noted over the years is, a predominant number of Muslims perceive their relationship with Allah to be one of fear, not love; for some, it might be more of fear, less of love. But the element of fear is very much there. Even when the Prophet himself preached amongst the people and spoke of a God who is Rahaman and Rahim, a God who is merciful, kind, compassionate and just, many of those he preached to, had unfortunately comprehended Allah as a Deity of Fear. To these contemporaries of Muhammad, fear seemed to be the secret to supremacy, as they doggedly worshipped a God who demands fear and vents His wrath on the slightest pretext! Muhammad came to purge those wanting in faith and enthrone in their hearts the One true God, but the pretenders of Islam took this God for one of terror. When their God became a god of terror, ‘their’ prophet automatically was decked out as a ‘prophet of terror,’ an image, a cult, they have created of their own volition and for their vested interests. Thereupon, in their hands, the ‘Message of Peace’ was transformed beyond recognition to a ‘message of terror’. These people themselves had resorted to fear and terror to frighten and terrorise other people. Such dangerous understanding of a fearful Deity and a fearful prophet led to an indefinite stagnation and consequentially more fears and fear related problems in the Islamic psyche. Today the whole world is pointing toward Islam as the breeding ground for terror. What will you say if I tell you that the Prophet of Islam himself was the first victim of terrorists in Islam? How will you react if I tell you that Muhammad was murdered in his own bed by a select few feigning Muslims? Since his assassination, these terrorists and their following have had a field day in Islam. Muslims are afflicted with two terminal cancers – ignorance and complacence. It goes without saying that one breeds the other. The catastrophe is that for the Muslims the nucleus has shifted from Muhammad to Quran alone. They refuse to acknowledge the Custodian, the Carrier, the Bearer, the Receiver, and the Transmitter of the Quran. The Message is overall for them, and the Messenger, they wish to cast out or push into a corner of oblivion. They have been made to forget that Islam vis-à-vis the Quran centres on the Person and Work of Muhammad. The words of Muhammad that ‘Train your children in three things: the love of your Prophet, the love of his Progeny and the recitation of the Quran’ – are lost upon the Muslims…This menacing skidding in the domain of faith, threatens the unity of the ummah and the purity and singularity of their faith is in jeopardy. The ummah has lost its focus. Muhammad is lost upon the Muslims. I have decided to pen this work with this hope that it is high time we begin a genuine appreciation of the life of Muhammad with courage, calm and caution, without hurling accusations at the West and Satan. Muhammad: Uncovering the True Story is precisely an investigative telling of the fantastic wickedness men are quite capable of. It is a personal attempt to gain some refreshing insights into the life of Muhammad. My task is to expose and remove the mask of piety and puritan Islamism from the face of the 1400 year old anti-Muhammad pro-jahiliya campaign. As I say what I say, in this book and all the others I have so far penned and am going to in the future, I must expressly put the minds of the mullahs at rest. I have no intention either to wrest away the power they have over the unconscious ummah or to affect their lucrative profession, lest they fear such a possibility and consider my words threatening. Nevertheless, if my work disturbs their convenient status quo, I’m afraid I’m not going to apologise. What they can never understand is that unlike them I have an obligation to do the right thing. They must
understand that my only intention is only to wipe off the dirt of slander,
blemish and blame that the wickedness of capable and callous men have heaped
upon the true image of the man whose Kalima they recite and who is the
foundation and parameter of their faith, Islam. The grievous wrong done to the
true image of Muhammad has not fallen short even of demonising and dehumanising
him…The friendly foe, the internal foe and the open foe – all are engaged in the
reprehensible task of discrediting a man, the like whom has not walked upon the
earth… I pulled on all my core strengths and my love for this terribly
misunderstood man and invoked him – he whose holy name has been invoked to
justify and glorify the murder of thousands of people by suicide bombing and
other mechanisms of terror. I invoked Muhammad for undeterred courage to
conceive, comprehend, express and convey the truth beneath centuries of covers
and quakes, to those who would care to know |
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