Puppets of Faith: Theory of Communal Strife (A Critical Appraisal of Islamic faith, Indian polity) by BS Murthy (best pdf reader for ebooks .TXT) 📕

But instead of divining the irony of the Islamic martyrdom that the cartoon highlighted, the umma the world over reacted in a way that validates the Persian adage:

Ba Khuda diwāna basho, / Were it about ‘the God’, rant as thou want,

Ba Muhammad hoshiar. / Weigh thy words if it comes to Muhammad.

And it is this insane obeisance of the cult to Muhammad that enables its ulema to turn Islam into an offensive weapon to defend its Messenger’s manner and protect his honor against any perceived slight, maybe inadvertent though unintended. But then, the Ayatollah only followed the example set by his God’s Messenger, though as an exception, as the following episode on the eve of the battle of Bard illustrates, into a rule.

“At the first half, which was still in the oasis, the Prophet’s cousin Sad of Zahra noticed his fifteen-year-old brother ‘Unary looking troubled and furtive and he asked him what was the matter. “ I am afraid,” said ‘Unary, that the Messenger of God will see me and say I am too young and send me back. And I long to go forth. It might be that God would grant me martyrdom.” As he feared, the Prophet noticed him when he lined up the troops and said he was too young and told him to go home. But ‘Unary wept and the Prophet let him stay and take part in the expedition. “He was so young.” said Sad, “that I had to fasten the straps of his sword-belt for him.”

While those Musalmans nourished on the diet of Meccan ayats could be averse to the suicide missions for they were brought up to believe that it was a sin in Islam, nonetheless their prejudice could come in handy to rouse them to jihad in the cause of Islam with Paradise as the destination. After all, whatever ‘the others’ might say about his conduct, Ayatollah Khomeini had his hadith right, didn’t he? Whatever, it would be interesting to see as to why Allah Ta-‘ala seems to have deserted His faithful, in spite of their undiluted faith in Him.

“And this is a blessed Scripture, which we have revealed, confirming that which (was revealed) before it, that thou mayst warn the Mother of Villages and those around her. Those who believe in the Hereafter believe herein, and they are careful of their worship.”

“And if thy Lord had willed, He verily would have made mankind one nation, yet they cease not differing.”

Thus, while Quran willed that Allah’s Message should be spread in Mecca and its environs, the disciples of Muhammad, against his Will had plundered the lands and ravaged the world in the name of Islam, besides imposing their manners on the converted peoples. But then, why blame them as Allah himself modified his covenant, many a time, and thus, there is no way for the umma to know in which order he changed his mood as his ayats weren’t arranged in chronological order in the Quran. Whatever, in the current glut the Musalmans are in everywhere, they are prone to reminisce about the past glories of the Islamic architecture and science.

Then, if by ‘Islamic’, they mean Arabic, we may note that the umma of Arabia, by and large, including Muhammad, were illiterate and mostly lived in tents for the best part. And the mosque-cum-private quarters that Muhammad built for him and his wives in Medina was not an architectural wonder by any stretch of imagination. Indeed, the so-called Islamic achievements were the contributions of the conquered peoples of those nations with advanced cultures such as Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt that Islam had appropriated for itself. It is another matter that with their socio-religious intolerance, the Muhammadans, in time, had reduced all of them into mediocrity by destroying the indigenous cultures, including, as observed by V. S. Naipaul, the Southeast Asian nations.

Well amidst all this Islamic chaos, the Indian Musalmans have reason to thank their forefathers for their foresight or lethargy, and / or both, in not moving over to Pakistan. But, how to convince the umma that the only way to save Islam for the coming generations is for the current believers to be less believing! It would help the umma to ponder over Sigmund Freud’s observation that ‘when a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live normal and wholesome life’.

As the Islamic straight path, arguably the crookedest one ever on earth, which Muhammad made his gullible believers into believing was drawn for them by Allah Ta’ala the All Knowing, is in reality leading the umma to the precipice, it may be an idea for the Musalmans to take the Freudian Road of Wholesome Life. Surely, the religious environment in the Islamic countries ‘won’t let man live for himself but for his God’, but who is stopping the faithful in the secular nations from embarking upon such a course. It goes without saying that owing to the long-term implications for the umma, the right-thinking Musalmans, though few and far between, might apply themselves to the task of eliminating the jihadi mind-set amongst their young men and women, which requires the cleaning up of the masjid-madrasa mess before it is too late for their faith.

But the falsity of the ‘intellectual’ Musalmans lies in berating the poor moulvis ‘n mullahs, so as to make them the fall guys of Islam without uttering a word against their Messenger or point out an incongruity or two in the Quran itself, the real sources of umma’s plight, though there are enough and more of them live in free-thinking societies of secular nations. It’s thus, even if a handful of Indian Musalmans can show the Quranic aberrations to their fellow folks that could be the new Islamic dawn; but can they be able to do that! And it pays them to realize that it was the reforms from within the Christian, Jewish, and Hindu folds that progressively enabled the followers therein to give up the untenable precepts and practices of their scriptures, or their cultures as the case may be, so as to synch their lives with life ‘here’ to try to achieve its possibilities.

Chapter 30

The Rift Within

Based on the finding of its opinion poll, The India Today (August 26, 2002) had averred that – “In the past six months communalism and Pakistan-sponsored terrorism have grabbed the national headlines. On these issues there is a definite Hindu-Muslim rift. Take the on-again-off-again Ayodhya dispute. On this issue, there seems to be a hardening of stand in favour of building a Ram temple immediately - 43 per cent were in favour six months ago, today it is 47 per cent. Even among Congress voters, 43 per cent want the temple now. Predictably, this is not a solution favoured by Muslims. Equally, support for the temple isn’t as enthusiastic in the South and East as in the North and West.

Likewise, while 70 per cent of Hindus regard Pakistan as an enemy - a rare expression of national unity - only 37 per cent of Muslims do so. Indeed, 49 per cent of Muslims have a rather charitable view of Pakistan as an estranged brother, a friend and a future ally. What complicates matters is that among Muslims who are aware, Mohammed Ali Jinnah is regarded as a hero, along with Mahmud of Ghazni and Aurangzeb. The weight of Hindu opinion treats these historical figures as villains.

These are worrying signs and pointers to the emotional gulf between the majority community and the most significant minority. Nor is this rift a persisting relic. The poll indicates that it is the youth (18 to 24-year-olds) that is more aware and belligerent than their elders. This raw, untapped energy is yet to find focus. A positive outlet may take India to new heights; in the wrong hands, it could plunge the country in civil strife. A divided India can swing either way.”

But, this schism, the product of the Muslim religious expansionist credo that the All Knowing, the All Wise, Allah wished to avert by ordaining in the Quran thus:

“And we never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make (the message) clear for them. The Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Wise.” (4.9)

But the will of Allah was ignored by his faithful and forced his message in Arabic on the peoples of other tongues, thereby creating the conflict of interest that ‘the God’ had foreseen, and seemingly wanted to avoid. So, the penchant of the Indian Musalmans to glorify those as heroes of Islam, who had been inimical to the Hindus or had undermined the Hindustan, is un-Islamic for it was not the will of Allah but the making of those disregarding ‘believers’. So, during the ‘unauthorized’ Muhammadan expansion down the Quranic journey, the Islamic straight, but narrow, path began to lead the umma onto the narrower bylanes of bigotry. Hence, it’s for the Indian Musalmans of the day to ponder over this ayat that made their alien God’s’ intent clear, and try to pave the ‘right path’ in the Indian setting, albeit with the Islamic tar.

Whatever, when the U.S tasted the madness that is the Islamic fundamentalism on 9/11/2001, one Western social scientist wondered what it might take the Jews and the Hindus to live in the Muslim surroundings! Why it is for the Indian Musalmans to think whether that image is fine with them; they might as well ask themselves the valid question - instead of leading a harmonious life in the Indian society, how come they provoke the disinterested, if not docile, Hindu majority into a retaliatory mode?

Well, the Musalmans, obsessed as they are with growing beards and wearing skull-caps so as to accentuate their Islamic identity that is besides wrapping up their female ‘objects’ in unwieldy burkas from public ‘male’ view, don’t seem to care two hoots for what the ‘others’ think about their separatist as well as obscurantist mindset. But they might realize that their emotional attachment to everything Muhammadan makes them fish in the Islamic waters that wouldn’t survive on the lands of reality. Why, their inability to vibe with the cultures in which they live as minorities makes them blind to the beatitude of life out there right ‘here’, and if only they could see beyond their Quranic noses, they would realize that Islam is the only religion where the agenda of the founder and the aspirations of his followers were mutually exclusive.

Though the Muslims take pride in Muhammad, what they fail to see is that he was not all that great as he was made out to be, and contrary to the myths in the umma, he was as fallible as any other man. But the Islamic hitch is that the Musalmans get conditioned to see his frailties as the ideals and he the ideal man worthy of emulation. Thus it can be said that Musalman is a product of a faulty prototype, and it is there for all to see save the consumers in the umma!

In this regard it pays the Indian umma to analyze the phenomenon of Sathya Sai Baba, whom millions of his devotees, the world over, revere as an avatar of God, and experience his ‘presence’ wherever they are; a la affair Musalmans! Lo, that too without a scripture of his own, the swords of his faithful and the lure of the ‘spoils of war’ to spread his creed, the Baba attracts peoples of all faiths in today’s world, with the expectable exception of the Musalmans! Moreover, without any promise of an exclusive ‘thereafter’ to his devotees, he inspires them to indulge in self-less service ‘here’ to the humanity at large. Of course, like Muhammad, he too was reviled and faced calumnies, in spite of it all, and thus, it’s for the Musalmans to review their Messenger’s questionable achievements in the light of Baba’s monumental contributions.

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