How to decide if a Religion is true

Tough question, isnt it ? Everyone can give you thousands of answers but if you look deep down, nothing can be proved really.

Lets take an example:

Mormonism (The Church of Latter Day Saints) was founded by Joseph Smith, born 1805 in Sharon, Vermont. According to the official story of the LDS Church, in 1820 Smith was visited by God the Father and God the Son, after praying about which church he should join. He was told by Jesus, he should join none of them for they were “all wrong” and all the Christian church’s doctrines “were an abomination” (Joseph Smith – History 19, Pearl of Great Price). This First Vision was followed by several visits from an angel named Moroni who, in 1827, directed Smith to retrieve a set of Golden Plates which had been buried in a hill near Smith’s home in Palmyra, New York. Between 1827-1830, Smith, with the help of a mystical friend, translated the Golden Plates into the LDS scripture, the Book of Mormon. Published in 1830, this was to become the first of many scriptures for the Mormon Church. By this time, Smith had also officially organized the LDS Church and was gaining a following.

Problems with Joseph Smith’s claims:

The main point of interest here, is how Joseph Smith started his new church.

• He claimed to have had a vision (“he was the only one to have had this vision“) that told him to start a new church with himself as the leader. (“How fortunate for Smith“)
• He was told where to find the ‘golden plates’ that contained ‘the scriptures’ (“they just happened to be buried, by an ancient civilization, conveniently near his home in New York“)
• He set out alone and ‘found’ them alone. (“No witnesses but you just got to believe his words“)
• Once found, only he could translate them with the aid of a mystical device that only he was in possession of. (“Very fortunate of him, its like sitting on the hot seat of who wants to be a millionaire“)
• Smith allowed no one else to see the plates and ‘translated’ them in secret from behind a screen. (“Okay, we’ve got the picture“)

Some Questions:

Joseph was most likely to be a fraud and so were Mirza Ghulam Ahmed (who started Ahmadiyya Movement) and Bahaullah (who started Bahai Faith) and Person x and Person y and him and him and the other one and so on. The list will just keep going on. Why ? because they all started religions based on the following reasons which doesnt fit with the logic and reasoning:

• Discrimination: Why would God choose one particular person over others, I mean lets face it, I feel being discreminated. How come Joseph or Bahaullah was a better person compared to many others lived during their time ?
• Racism: Quite similar to the above point. Why Joseph was given a vision and not a person living in a small, dark, old fashioned village in Africa ?
• Vision: You and I have at least few dreams almost every week. What makes the dreams of Joseph a special dream which needs to be seen as a Vision ? Just because he could relate God’s divine words in his dreams ? so what, anyone can have such dreams.
• No evidence: thats the hardest one, what proof we had about his co called Visions, Gold Plates ? but hang on, this raises some more serious questions. What proof Moses gave about his claims that he went up to the hill and met God in person ? What proof he gave that the book he came back with was indeed a Divine book and not something he was busy writing himself on that mountain ?

You really got to be a person with absolutely no brains to believe in anything that Joseph Smith told you. But the question is that if he was wrong / fake / false, what about others in history ?

Statements that became part of Quran

In terms of Islam’s claims regarding Quran being divine, I wonder if anyone has thought about the statements by various people (including Prophet himself) which later became part of the Quran as verses, here is one example:

Muhammad meets Zayd b. ‘Amr and offers him meat that was slaughtered for the idols (Sahih Bukhari, 7.67.407, 5.58.169)
Volume 7, Book 67, Number 407:

Narrated ‘Abdullah:
Allah’s Apostle said that he met Zaid bin ‘Amr b. Nufail at a place near Baldah and this had happened before Allah’s Apostle received the Divine Inspiration. Allah’s Apostle presented a dish of meat (that had been offered to him by the pagans) to Zaid bin ‘Amr, but Zaid refused to eat of it and then said (to the pagans), “I do not eat of what you slaughter on your stone altars (Ansabs) nor do I eat except that on which Allah’s Name has been mentioned on slaughtering.”
Volume 5, Book 58, Number 169:

In above example, as we can see that Zayd b. ‘Amr’s disliking towards the meat slaughtered by Pagan Arabs later on becomes part of the Quran and its now one the most essential part of the Muslim faith, Halal Meat as we know it.

Quran says:
5:3. Forbidden to you (for food) are carrion and blood and swine flesh, and that which has been dedicated to any other than Allah, and the strangled, and the dead through beating, and the dead through falling from a height, and that which has been killed by (the goring of) horns, and the devoured of wild beasts, except that which you make lawful (by the death stroke), and that which has been immolated to idols.

Who was Zayd ibn Amr:

Good question. There is some history available about Zayd, according to the Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat-e-Rasool (the first book to look into the life of Prophet Muhammad), Zayd was one of the four people who were in search of true Abrahamic Religion. One of them was Warraqa ib Nawfal, the male cousin of Bibi Khadijah (Prophet Muhammad’s first wife). Zayd was an old man when Prophet Muhammad was young and met him, he had travelled quite extensively and remained confused about the true monothiestic religion. He was (possibly) killed by the Quraish Tribe well before Prophet Muhammad introduced Islam to the region.

Zayd had developed a deep hatred towards the Pagan Arabs and their idea of Polythiestic Religion. He also disliked the traditions such as, make round circles of Kabba in order to make the Idol Gods happy, burying alive female children, and eating from the meat that Pagan Arabs used to slaugter in the name of their Idol Gods.

So whats the problem ?

Problem is that Quran is supposed to be the word of God / Allah but in this incident it gives an impression that these words are perhaps used by Zayd Ibn Amr first before it became part of the Quran. How can this happen ? God surely could have come up with some better or at least different words.

But thats only a Hadith:

Yes I know, and I’ve myself been a long term Quranist rejecting the validity of Hadith altogether because essentially Hadith is nothing but the best of a memory recall of someone who lived during Prophet Muhammad’s times. But we also must not forget the typical argument that is followed in the Muslim world that says:

Not everything can be found in Quran, you’ve to consult Hadith and even Fiqah (where Quran and Hadith can not help)

We also must not forget that some of the most essential part of Islamic Rituals are also followed as per the Hadith and Sunnat and they are nowhere found in Quran as such. I’ve no problem accepting the theory that Hadith can not be trusted but then you can not even be selective about the Hadith that whatever Hadith you like will be valid and where it wouldnt make sense you would start questioning about its validity.

By the way treat this post a series of questions not an allegation.

Women

They are beautiful, arent they 🙂

But lets think about them, while they are beautiful and we want their company and like what Urdu poets say about women:

Wajood e zan say hay tasweer e kainat main rang

colours in life are because of the existence of woman

Question is, are they actually humans just the way we Men are ? or is it best to describe them rather just some kind of object to fill in color in life and give us the best possible entertainment (whenever we actually need it).

Its the Ramadan month of 2011 and there is a TV program on air these days on the topic of Women’s rights in Islam. The program is hosted by a famous Pakistani female TV Host “Khushbakht Shujat” on a TV Channel called Hum TV. The topic itself isnt new and this is what I’ve heard as far as I can recall my memory about it that the women were in absolute horrible condition before Islam and then after Prophet Mohammad introduced Islam, it was like a dream come true for women. However whats different this time with this particular TV Program is that they believe that the rights are right there in Islam and its rules / regulations but unfortunately they are not being practiced by the Muslims. The name of Program is “Aye Kaash hum amal karte”, in English it would be “Wish we were practically applying right things”.

Question is that is it actually a bad thing that we are not implementing the Islamic Teaching / Rules about Women or is it actually a good thing for not only women but the whole mankind in general ? think about the following issues:

1. The general acceptance in the Islamic societies nowadays is to have one wife only, I know that the Orthodox regions still marry two or more wives but at least in Urban areas its coming down to the modern interpretations of an ideal family which is a couple with perhaps 2, 3 or 4 children.

But question is that is this what Islam actually teaches us ? Not really, Quran encourages you to have two, three, or four wives (not wasting mine and your time on publishing the actual verses here, there will always be those who will disagree by presenting some kind of other way to interpret those verses but the fact remains that Quran does encourage you for having more than one wife). A lot of people (apolgists) have come up with answers such as:

• The verse says (if you can justify then have more then one wife): yes it does say, question is who came first ? Chicken or Egg ??? how am I suppose to know in advance whether or not I’ll be able to do justice before I’ve actually had a chance to enjoy multiple wives ? And what happens when lets say after a couple of years of having multiple wives, I’m proved to be not able to do justice and all 5 people are not happy with the life ? Do I get a punishment ? even if I get a punishment, is that going to make my 4 wives happy ? what happens to the children I’ve had through those 4 wives (if I’m punished and lets say sent to jail because I wasnt able to do justice with multiple wives
• I heard another justification from a Mullah saying that by permitting having 4 wives, Islam actually made sure that the Men do not commit Zinna (Adultery outside marriage): So we the beasts known as Men actually do not get satisfied with just one woman in our life ? we basically need a different woman lets say to have a different taste ? now the question is what about those men who even dont feel satisfied with 4 women ? Biddu Arabs (Middle Easterns) have got a good solution for this, they divorce the 1st wife when they need 5th woman in their life and this chain keeps going on. Do not blame me for spreading hatred against Arabs, just simply go to places like Saudia, UAE, Kuwait etc and see that yourself.
• Question is that if multiple wives help men control his beast nature, how is having just one husband going to control the crazy sexual desires of a Woman ? or is it just not her nature to be a Sexist Beast ? or does she simply hate sex and this is the last thing on her mind ?
• Has a muslim man ever bothered to just imagine the kind of painful experiences a woman may have gone through when she had to share her husband with another woman. And that too right in the same house (quite often, not necessarily though but still possible) and who knows in the same bed that she had been sleeping with her husband. Just imagine how would you feel if you’ve had to share your lovely wife with another man and you’re simply standing outside the closed room where all this is happening inside ? feels bad isnt it ? what makes that same painful feeling a sort of faith-based lovely feeling of sacrifice when it is applied on women instead ?

Lets now consider the following Hadith from Sahi Bukhari (a book considered by Muslims as one of the most authentic source for Hadith):

Bukhari Book 62 Number 121
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “If a man Invites his wife to sleep with him and she refuses to come to him, then the angels send their curses on her till morning.”

oh oh oh, please tell me its not a Sahi (valid / authentic) hadith, other wise we’ve a serious problem here my friends. Questions are:

1. What about the woman not in mood tonight ? what if she had a bad day today and she just doesnt feel like having sex ?
2. Why refusing to her husband (not only for this thing but for anything in general) is considered a bad thing ? didnt we give them rights in Islam or is it that refusing is not part of rights as such ?
3. What angels have to do with all this ? dont they have a better job to do during nights ? and why angels hate women who has courage to say No ?
4. How are those same angels going to respond to a situation where the woman wants to have sex tonight but the man is tired or not in mood or lets say tonight is the turn of another wife and not her ? are angels going to curse the man instead ?
5. And please for God’s sack, dont tell me that by inviting into bed, this hadith did not mean sex.

My question is that if as the TV Program suggests that we’re not applying the correct islamic rules for women then shouldnt we be rather happy about it ?

I’ve deliberately not touched the other issues with women rights such as Inheritance, being a witness, wearing hijab and etc as I would like to discuss those issues in seperate posts at a later stage.

Here I am

Its been roughly 35+ years since I’ve been wrangling with questions, its not that  people didnt find answers for me, its just that those answers created more questions in return.

The basic idea behind this blog is to raise questions, share concerns and doubts. Like they say

When you start with certainties you end up with doubts

But when you start with doubts you reach to the certainty

I’m surely not on the only one with doubts and burning questions but I may be very few from Muslim world to be able to ask questions, questions that have been kept under the carpet for almost 1 and half century now.

Please dont take offenses and you will always have the option to ignore this blog.

Thanks for your visit.