"They have devised a major plot and said, 'Don't give up your gods. Don't give up Wadd, Suwa, and Nasr. They have led many astray.'" While Noah never plotted, Muhammad schemed against his own family for control of a similar list of false gods. Falsely projecting one's faults upon an opponent is an effective and timeless political strategy. It's one Muhammad used to perfection. It is one of the Qur'an's least appealing and most repetitive themes. Fearing god's terror, however, is unique to Islam. Tabari I:354 "Allah sent Noah to them to make them afraid of His awesome power and to warn them of His assault. Noah was to call upon them to act in accordance with the demands given by Allah to His messengers and revealed by Him in the scrolls of Adam, Seth, and Enoch." Like most Islamic Traditions, this one was written to explain the Qur'an, to provide a sense of purpose and place to a book that lacks context, history, and chronology. As we dive into the surah for which this was written, notice the similarity between Muhammad's voice and Allah's. Qur'an 71:1 "Surely We sent Noah to his people, saying: 'Warn your people before there comes upon them a painful punishment.' He said: 'O my people! Surely I am a warner to you that you should fear Him and obey me.'" Why Muhammad had Noah's say such things will become increasingly obvious. But before we leave this opening verse, I'd like to point out one of the many differences between the Qur'an and the Bible. Biblical prophets told us to love and obey Yahweh, not themselves. Islam's prophet ordered Muslims to fear Allah and obey Muhammad. The following verse replicates Muhammad's experience in Mecca down to the smallest nuance. Qur'an 71:3 "He said: 'I have called my people night and day! But my call has only made them flee the more. They put their fingers in their ears and persist, puffed up with pride.'" Qur'an 71:8 "Then I called to them aloud. I spoke to them in public and I spoke to them in secret. I said, 'Ask forgiveness of your Lord. He will send down upon you the cloud, pouring down abundance of rain, and help you with wealth and sons, and make for you gardens, and make for you rivers.'" Holy cloudburst. This is a sadistic joke. The last thing Noah's clan needed was rain. But since this story was being recast for Muhammad's tribe in central Arabia, a place that was desperate for water, the reward must have seemed divine. So to make Noah look like a mini-Muhammad, the victims of the flood were to be rewarded with a deluge. How's that for a twist? Qur'an 71:13 "What is the matter with you that you do not fear Allah? He has created you through various grades. Do you not see how He has created the seven heavens, one above another, and made the moon a light, and made the sun a lamp? ...Allah has made you grow out of the earth as a growth." The harder Muhammad tried to prove Allah was actually god; the less godly Allah actually appeared. In this next verse Allah's words are virtually identical to Muhammad's in an earlier Hadith. It makes you wonder who was speaking for whom. Qur'an 71:21 "Noah said, 'Lord, they have disobeyed me and followed him whose wealth and children have added to him nothing but loss. And they have planned a very great plot. And they say: "By no means leave your gods, nor leave Wadd, Suwa and Nasr."'" We have traversed time and brought Noah into Muhammad's Mecca. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty. The Meccan god.' names were Manat, Al-Lat, and Al-Uzza while their Arabian rivals were Wadd, Suwa, and Nasr. Qur'an 71:24 "They have led astray many. Because of their wrongs they were drowned, then made to enter fire, so they did not find any helpers besides Allah. And Noah said: 'My Lord, leave not one of the unbelievers on the earth. For surely if You leave them they will lead astray Your slaves, and will not beget any but immoral, ungrateful children.'" Saying that Noah asked God to wipe out his people is a sacrilege. Nothing could be further from the truth. But by saying this, the Qur'an has given us a window into the soul of its prophet. It was Muhammad who wanted his clan punished, not Noah. The Meccans mocked Muhammad, so he threatened to slaughter them. And while you will read these words later, directly from Muhammad's lips, for now he's too big a weasel to stand up and accept responsibility. His thoughts have been attributed to another, besmirching a noble man's character. So ask yourself: why would the Qur'an put such ugly words on Noah's lips? What did Muhammad have to gain by deceiving his people? These lies didn't spontaneously combust; there must have been a motive. And if there was a motive, the lie was more than immoral; it became criminal. While the Qur'anic account of Noah is foolish and mean-spirited, these things aren't crimes, nor is making a mistake. Lying is, however, when it's done for material gain. Today we call it fraud. The legal definition is: deceit or trickery designed to garner an unfair or dishonest advantage. Fraud is a knowing departure from truth to purposely mislead others for the sole purpose of unwarranted material gain. That's precisely what is happening here. During this phase of Muhammad's "ministry" in Mecca he wanted his tribe to abandon all the Ka'aba gods except Allah - the idol that had "called" him to be its prophet. In this verse Muhammad went on the attack, saying that the lesser idols needed to go so that his idol, and his idol's messenger, could gain control over the Ka'aba Inc. - the town's religious scam. The power and wealth Muhammad coveted flowed into the pockets of those who controlled Allah's House. So Muhammad was willing to deceive his kin to garner an unfair advantage over them for material gain. Islam's prophet profited by perpetrating a fraud. A crime has been committed. |
