The 74th surah is similar to the last two revelations, so let's review it next. Qur'an 74:1 "O you who are covered up in your cloak, arise and deliver your warning! And your Lord do magnify, while keeping your garments free from stain! And uncleanness do shun, nor expect in giving, any worldly gain. And for the sake of your Lord, be patient." Once again our hero is hiding under the covers. Yet his seizing, smiting, and dragging Lord wants him to deliver a warning. That's quite a picture. But so as to pretty it up, the "Lord," ever fascinated with meaningless details, tells Muhammad to dress for success - to keep his clothes clean. And he listened, according to Will Durant. In his Story of Civilization , he says Muhammad "was vain. He gave considerable time to his personal appearance - perfumed his body, painted his eyes, dyed his hair, and wore a ring inscribed 'Muhammad the Messenger of Allah.'" Later Hadiths will confirm each of Durant's charges. Vanity aside, I find that the "don't expect any worldly gain" verse hilarious considering that it followed Allah's promise to make Muhammad rich. We are only a few hundred words into the Qur'an and we have another contradiction. While Muhammad's claims of divine inspiration are disputable, there is no dispute over his wealth. Islam made a profit. The next verse continues a trend that may be the most demented ever conceived in religious genre. Paraphrased: "God hates us and can't wait to introduce us to a hell he has made for our hospitality." While heaven and hell are concepts he borrowed from Judeo-Christianity, Muhammad takes them well beyond Dante's inferno. Qur'an 74:8 "The trumpet shall sound a day of anguish for disbelievers. Leave Me alone to deal with the creature whom I created bare and alone! Leave Me to deal with those I granted wealth and sons." As diabolical as it sounds, this is Islam in a nutshell. We are told that anyone who doesn't believe Muhammad is destined to be punished by his god - up close and personal. The Islamic god's hands-on involvement with anguish is the antithesis of Judeo-Christianity in which hell is defined as separation from God. In Islam, the dark spirit wants to be left alone to supervise the torture. The next time someone suggests that the gods of the Bible and Qur'an are the same, remind them of these verses. There are a thousand deeds that could have been mentioned in this early surah, like love, not committing murder, telling the truth, being faithful in marriage, not coveting what belongs to others, but all we get is what irks the would-be prophet. Qur'an 74:15 "These men are greedy and desire that I should give them even more. By no means! For they have offered stubborn opposition to Our Signs and Our revelations." There have been no signs and Muhammad has yet to share a single revelation. He's still hiding under the covers. So what we are getting here is a peek into the prophet's covetous and tormented soul. He's so insecure, so paranoid, he believes he's going to be rejected. Leaving this delusion, we return to sadistic. "Soon I will visit them with a mountain of calamities, imposing a fearful doom and a distressing punishment." Qur'an 74:19 "For these men thought and plotted; so woe to them! They shall be cursed for their plots." While we have been exposed to a series of plots, this is the first in order of revelation. It is particularly troublesome because Muhammad's spirit is so eager to curse man; he threatens before he teaches. With that, I'd like to propose another theory. There is a reason the Qur'an was assembled out of order. When it's realigned chronologically, its credibility evaporates. Qur'an 74:21 "Again, woe to them; may they be cursed for how they plotted. They looked around, frowned, and scowled with displeasure. Then they turned back and were haughty with pride. They said: 'This is nothing but magical enchantment, derived and narrated from others. This is nothing but the words of a mortal man!'" In this passage, the Qur'an debuts its most repetitive themes. Muhammad and his message would be attacked for a host of reasons including their lack of divine credibility, their satanic or demented tone, and for their obvious plagiarism - stealing the script from prior sources. Those who recognized this, as most did during Muhammad's day, were cursed and doomed to be roasted by Islam's god. The surah continues with this twisted rant: Qur'an 74:26 "Soon will I fling them into the burning Hell Fire! And what will explain what Hell Fire is? It permits nothing to endure, and nothing does it spare! It darkens and changes the color of man, burning the skin! It shrivels and scorches men." Yeouch! Muhammad's spirit is getting a little hot under the collar. Sure there's a hell, but this Satan wannabe is way too into the details. And as for stubborn opposition to "Our signs and Our revelations" - he's kidding right? Opposition to what? Blood clots, reading, reciting, being nice to orphans? And what signs? There haven't been any. No miracles, no prophecies, not even any new material. So why the temper tantrum? This surah jumps back and forth, as does much of the Qur'an, from first person singular to plural, so the problem might be schizophrenia. "I" and "Our" are routinely used in reference to Muhammad's demonic spirit. While this duplicity is irritating, there must be more to this. Islam is only beginning; Muhammad has just been called, and he has yet to preach. His god remains unnamed. So why visit creation with a mountain of calamities, impose a fearful doom, fling men into fires that darken the skin, scorching and shriveling? And what's up with god being bothered by people plotting against him? That's like me taking on the American military with a peashooter. The Qur'an's mean-spirited outbursts make no sense in the context of a religious prophet. But if Khadija was the inspiration behind Muhammad, it's another story - the story of a scheming profiteer "belittling the competition." The Merchants of Mecca chafed at the preposterous allegations of the self-appointed prophet, because they controlled the religious scam and didn't appreciate his claim to their property. For those who have an appetite for hell talk, be of good cheer. The Lord provides: Qur'an 74:31 "We have appointed nineteen angels to be the wardens of the Hell Fire. We made a stumbling-block for those who disbelieve and We have fixed their number as a trial for unbelievers in order that the people of the Book may arrive with certainty, and that no doubts may be left for the people of the Book, those in whose hearts is a disease." According to the dark spirit of Islam, angels are hell's wardens, and he uses them as stumbling blocks to foil mankind. And while that's demented, it pales in comparison to the claims that the people of the Book - Christians and Jews - are diseased and that they will arrive in hell with confirmed reservations. During radio interviews, I am routinely called a bigot when I expose Islam. Yet I never speak unkindly of Muslims, only of the doctrine that drives so many to murder and mayhem. It's Islam that's "unkind." The Qur'an isn't debating scripture, doctrines, or even deeds; it's condemning human beings. As such, the Islamic god is a hateful, intolerant racist - a bigot. The 31st verse of the 74th surah continues with this line: "And for those to whom the Scripture Book has been given, and the believers, there should be no doubt. The unbelievers may say, 'What does the Lord intend by this.' The Lord will lead astray whomever He pleases, and He will guide whomever He pleases: and none can know the armies of your Lord except He, and this is no other than a warning to mankind." This is confusing. Who should be without doubt - Muslims or Infidels? The Qur'an wouldn't be a book for decades. The Hebrew Bible had been a book for nearly two millennia. The Gospels promise heaven to those who accept the Messiah as their Savior - no doubt. The Qur'an only promises paradise to murderers - martyrs, in their parlance. All other Muslims remain in doubt until their scales are weighed. And as for god being pleased to lead folks astray and having an army - "what does the Lord intend by this?" The lack of clarity may be intentional. Muhammad's deity admitted that he toys with people. God playing with men's souls is embarrassing. Creating stumbling blocks and leading folks astray is demonic. Swearing by the Moon (capital "M") is incriminating. It reveals Ar-Rahman's and Allah's origins. Qur'an 74:32 "No, truly: I swear by the Moon as a witness, and by the darkness of night as it wanes." Loving the "darkness of night" suggests that the spirit of Islam is Lucifer. He is called the "Morning Star," and his abode is hell. "And by the dawn as it is unveiled, surely Hell is one of the greatest signs and gravest misfortunes, a warning to men." The gravest misfortune - hell - was created expressly for him. With a deceiving and demonic spirit at the helm of the world's fastest growing religion, no wonder we're in such a mess today. The surah winds down with this: "To any of you that chooses to press forward or lag behind, know that every soul will be held in pledge for its deeds except the Companions of the Right Hand. They will be in Gardens of Delight." The first part of this verse is standard mainstream religion, at least non-Christian religion: man will be judged by his deeds. The second part is senseless, desperate - even contradictory. Having collected fewer than a handful of followers, Muhammad was willing to offer a free pass to paradise to anyone who was willing to be one of his companions. But at what cost? The rest of the Qur'an is unambiguous. Islam is a religion of works, one in which Muslims are judged based upon the comparative weight of the good and bad things they have done during their life. This verse expressly contradicts that doctrine when it says that the Right-Handed Companions aren't accountable. Both cannot be true, which makes one a lie. In that salvation is at stake, this contradiction is catastrophic. Qur'an 74:40 "They will question each other and ask the guilty, 'What led you into burning Hell Fire.' They will say: 'We were not of those who prayed or fulfilled our devotional obligations; nor were we of those who fed the wretched. We used to wade in vain disputes. We used to deny the Day of Judgment, until death overtook us.'" The conversation between those in the "Gardens of Delight" and the inmates of the "burning Hell Fire" is told so that Muhammad's Lord can squeeze in a little "religion" in the midst of his tirade on retribution. With Islam, devotion is an obligation, not an expression of love. Further, men have been condemned for not doing something that has not yet been specified. But showing that he is a master of the obvious, the Lord adds prayer to his list of good things. There are now five "do's. in the Qur'an. Unspecified prayer and ritual have been added to orphan happiness, wretched beggar support, and cleanliness. And on the "don't do" list we have vain disputes. The surah culminates with these bizarre verses: Qur'an 74:48 "No intercession of any intercessors will avail them." Whoever collected these surahs wants us to know that there is no savior. Christ was just kidding about that salvation thing on the cross. However, by saying this, they injured their prophet's credibility, for he claimed to be an intercessor. Qur'an 74:49 "What is the matter with them that they turn away from admonition as if they were freighted asses!" Asses indeed. Twenty-six centuries earlier, Yahweh told us that Ishmael's offspring, a heritage Muslims claim, "would be wild asses of men." Qur'an 74:52 "Each one of them wants to be given scrolls of revelation spread out! No! By no means! They fear not the hereafter. Nay, this is an admonishment. Let them keep it in remembrance! But they will not heed unless the Lord wants them to. He is the fountain of fear. He is the fount of mercy." Stop the presses; clang the bell. That's flat out amazing. Five revelations into Islam and the Lord has just contradicted himself a third time. And this, like the others, is at the core of Muhammad's mission. Didn't the Islamic god teach the use of the pen so that he could teach man what they did not know? Didn't he give scrolls to every Adam, Abraham, and Jesus? Now he says that when men ask for scrolls of revelation they will be told, "No! By no means! No scrolls for you." Mecca, we have a problem. Oh, and I almost forgot. What do you think about a "god" who says, "He is the fountain of fear. He is the fount of mercy." Beyond the schizophrenic duplicity, imagine spending eternity with a deity that calls himself the fountain of fear. For those who may be troubled by the Biblical references to fear, fear not. The root of both the Hebrew and Greek words used for "fear" mean "revere" when used in the context of our relationship with Yahweh.
Now about that fourth day - I think it is out of order, literally demoted, for a reason. Throughout creation, Yahweh is precise, naming everything. But on the fourth day he does not name the sun, moon, or stars. They are called the greater and lesser lights, signs for the seasons, days, and years. I believe that he didn't name them and that he positioned them after the creation of vegetation for two reasons. Every religion except Judeo-Christianity turned the sun, moon, and stars into gods. And that includes Islam: Allah was a moon god. Qur'an 74:32 proclaims: "I say the truth and call the moon to witness." Yahweh, in contrast, wanted us to know that life was more important than things, and that things - even big bright shiny things - were not God. And more revealing still, the fourth "day" was a "sign" foretelling the "season" of the Messiah's arrival. He is symbolized by the greater light and came to us in the fourth millennia of Yahweh's calendar. |
