Prophet’s Marriages

The most discussed subject on Religious forums is Prophet Muhammad and his life. Muslims claim that Prophet was the best person ever walked on earth hence he needs to be respected and followed while the Anti Islam group suggests things otherwise. This topic is the most debated one and always attracts a heated debate. What are the issues surrounding Prophet’s life and why the explanations provided by Muslims isn’t helping much ?

Believe it or not, this is the most discussed topic on forums, Muslims don’t seem to have a problem with Prophet having too many wives while the Non Muslims are just not able to digest it. Some of the most common explanations provided are:

He didn’t marry for sexual pleasure: Muslims claim that the marriages were not for sexual pleasure, how can a person who gave his youth to a wife 15 years older than him be sexually motivated for the other women in his life. There are several issues with this claim.

Age Issue: First of all, the story related to Bibi Khadija doesn’t pass the common sense test. Prophet had children as late as when he was 40 years old which makes Bibi Khadija at least 55 years of age. There are no historical evidences to suggest that the women in those days (with extremely poor health standards) were able to conceive and have children at such age, it doesn’t make much sense. My guess is that the story related to Bibi Khadija being older than Prophet sounds a doctored story and could have been made up much later by Muslim Historians.

Wealth: There are also clouds of doubt around the stories related to Bibi Khadija’s wealth and her business empire. Question is what happened to that Empire after her death ? We don’t get any historical references in Islamic History about the wealth she must have left behind her. In fact we do get accounts of extreme Poverty experienced by Prophet during the later years of his life.

Control Freak: It could also have been possible that Bibi Khadija was a powerful woman (provided that the stories related to her age and wealth are actually correct) and she was a controlling person. Prophet Muhammad could not have dared to even think about second marriage during her lifetime.

Not for Sex: There are multiple ahadith which clearly depicts the sexual desires of Prophet Muhammad, one particular hadith even talks about Prophet making rounds to all his wives on a single night. Some of the ahadith narrated by Bibi Ayesha are pretty sexual in orientation and contradicts with the claim that the Prophet had no sexual interest.

Providing Shelter: One more argument that is quite popular is that the Prophet married all these women to provide them shelter as they were War Survivors. This claim is also based on factually incorrect information, not all women were war survivors. And ironically, one wife who was indeed a war survivor was Bibi Safiya but then question is who made her a Widow ? Who was responsible for the killing of her father, whole family and her husband ? It was actually Muslim forces themselves who killed all her family on the same day and she becomes Prophet’s wife by the night.

The argument of Marriages for Political Alliance has a low standard of morality in it

Political Alliance: Quite often it is claimed that the marriage with Bibi Ayesha was necessary to strengthen political ties between two tribes. This argument has a low standard of morality in it, is it moral to use women for political purposes ? And that too as young as 9 years ? Secondly, a Sahih hadith itself suggest things otherwise as Prophet describes how he saw Bibi Ayesha in his dreams and he thought that its God’s wish that he should marry her. Political alliance argument is not supported by any hadith

Slaves and Concubines: It is also reported that besides multiple wives, Prophet also had four concubines. The most notable among those is Bibi Mariya al Qibtiya. It’s important to note that she was not a war survivor but rather sent as a Gift by King of Egypt in response to the invitation to Islam. She later became mother of Prophet’s son without marriage. The above mentioned argument about Prophet not having Sexual Desires is also refuted by the fact that he had Slaves and Concubines with whom he had sexual relationships.

Perhaps all Prophets in history had a darker side

King David’s 300 plus wives and concubines: Some Muslims also like to point out that King David (Prophet Daud in Arabic) had 300+ plus women in his lif. This is a fallacy argument, two wrongs don’t make a right and if there is anything this argument actually shows that perhaps all Prophets in history had some darker side attached to them and can not be judged as Moral according to today’s standards at least.

Some modern-day, educated, liberal, apologist Muslims have conveniently started to deny those Ahadith which are problematic in nature such as the ones mentioned above. This is a major development in the Muslim world as the ahadith and history that Muslims were proud of for centuries has become a source of embarrassment for many and can not be defended anymore now. Secondly, the Selected Rejection of Ahadith also leads to more problem as people take it as double standards followed by Muslims, why are they happy to accept popular historical references painting a nicer picture (such as calling him Ameen and Saadiq) of Prophet Muhammad but not the ones where his actions can not be justified by today’s standards ?

Islamic U-turns

Its interesting how Religious Trends change and in some instances make a complete U-turn.

Now Islamic

The way, Eid MiladunNabi is being celebrated now is a prime example of it. Not too long ago, Birthdays were seen as sort of unIslamic and a Biddah by many in our societies. Though some people have been putting lights on their houses on 12th Rabiulawal but it was seen as a kind of Christian act as they thought it’s somehow related to what they do on XMas.

Diya was always seen as a Hindu Custom and I still remember how we were told to avoid using Diya as it reminds the typical Hindu Rituals such as Diwali.

But here we are today in Pakistan trying to make the world record of maximum number of [Diyas] on the [Birthday] of Islam’s Prophet. After a few decades from today people wouldn’t even believe that there was a time when Muslims considered Birthdays and Diyas unIslamic ..

Eid, Sacrifice and Criticism

Its Eid-ul-Adha time again, you’ll see a lot of Sacrificing during next few days and possibly quite a lot of blood on streets. For some reason this year, there seems to be criticism on this Islamic practice of Sacrifice more than ever. The reply from Muslims have also been quite strong in favor of this practice. In this article, We’ll try to see what the objections are and the strength or weakness of Muslim Response.

Muslim Qurbani

1. In the name of God: I guess, the thing that bothers non-religious communities more than anything else is the nature of this practice. It will be a completely unfair objection from Secularists if they were to criticize on the consumption of Meat as they themselves consume Meat throughout the year, no wonder McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut are the fastest growing Food Chains and majority of the stuff provided in these restaurants is either white meat or Red. One way or another, most of these critics do consume meat themselves, however what seems to be a matter of objection here is the kind of Obligation that Muslims feel towards this Practice.

The practice also reminds people the connection to the Pagan Days where people were illiterate enough to think that their sacrificing will make their God(s) happy which may result in some benefits and blessings

2. Cruelty: I’m aware of the Muslim claims about how gentle is the process of Islamic Slaughter, however what they fail to understand is that the world has a different view on this. The refusal of Muslims to consider adopting much humane ways for slaughtering that may also involve the use of Stun Injections before the animal can be slaughtered has made the non-Muslim world bit upset and label the Muslim Slaughtering method a Cruel.

ABC’s Four Corners did an extensive research in their TV Program that showed the details of how Islamic Slaughtering takes place in Indonesia. There was a huge outcry after this program and Australian Govt decided to stop exporting their Cattle to Indonesia. The Trade Relations only improved after a certain deals were made between the two countries and Indonesia agreed to improve the standards as per the modern day values of Animal Welfare.

A lot of YouTube Clips also adds to this criticism where some large animals such as Camels and Cows are being slaughtered in an inhumane way and people as well as kids are just running around while the animals are screaming and there is blood everywhere. Justifying your Religious Beliefs is one thing but supporting these kind of scenes is another. This surely looks inhumane and the Muslim response to simply ignore the Cruel side of this practice creates more frustration among Critics.

3. Waste of Money: This point has become the most controversial so far, while the world suggests that its a waste of Money to carry out such a large number Slaughtering within the span of a few days time, Muslims have a different point of view on this. They claim that it actually helps the Economy as it creates jobs for a lot of people and drives the business. That claim isn’t wrong entirely but with a few problems:

• The Economic Activity related to the Slaughtering Industry runs strong throughout the year and does not depend on a special yearly event. In fact all it does is to create an imbalance in the way this particular industry set its pricing for the cattle as we’ve witnessed in recent years that the Cattle has become extremely expensive in Muslim Majority countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and etc.
• This imbalance of Pricing then adds a lot of pressure on the Middle Class section of Society where people find themselves in a kind of dilemma as the Society expects them to must do Sacrifice but they are unable to afford it. This again adds to the social injustice where the Rich people are able to show off with bigger and better Cattle to sacrifice in the name of Allah and they look down on those who could not afford to take part in the Islamic Ritual of Sacrifice.
• Clearly, the concentration at the moment in a lot of under-developed Islamic Countries should rather be on setting up the (long term) Economic Policies instead of this activity which appears to be a rather nuisance. Focus should rather be on creating a longer term policy of how this industry can flourish and provide sustainable jobs for a number of people throughout the year instead of one yearly activity where everyone tries to make as much money as possible and then disappears for the remainder period of year
• Its an argument filled with Fallacy that the Ritual helps feeding those poor people who cant afford to eat Meat. Does this mean Islam needs Poor people in order to survive ? What happens in the countries with high GDP such as Qatar and Brunei with a very small population who could be considered poor, do they still need to perform this ritual ? As mentioned earlier, the focus should be rather on empowering these poor people so that the poverty can be eliminated (gradually of course) and not on feeding them once an year.

4. Rigid Interpretation: This is I think the biggest problem associated with the ritual of Sacrifice in Islam. People have adopted a rather rigid interpretation of why this ritual is necessary and there is not much room for debate in terms of any other alternative that one can do please his / her God.

So for example, if it doesn’t make sense to you to waste your 20,000 Pakistani Rupees on sacrificing a goat and you decide to rather bind yourself to donate that (or even in fact more) money to Charity Organizations such as Edhi Foundation or Fatmid Foundation so that these organizations can function interdependently on longer term basis, your will have a really hard time to convince your Family and Social Circe about why are you not doing Sacrifice in the name of Allah. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re even declared a Kafir (Infidel) for this by some lunatic bigots.

5. Walk the Talk: As it happens in many cases, this ritual too has a lot of hypocrisy involved. We like to claim that the Ritual is actually supposed to feed the Poor People but the ground realities show things other wise. Most of Urban Residents in Muslim Countries actually consume this meat for themselves and to distribute among Family and Friends instead of giving it away to poor people. Most of the people will consume extra ordinary amount of Meat during these few days that some of them will be found sick after this craze is over or at least you will find them saying that they don’t want to eat more meat for some time now as they have had enough.

I’ve little or no hope that my Muslim Friends will even read and understand the intentions behind writing this article or if the on-going crticism on this particular Ritual will ever make any sense to them but at the same time I also see a great hope as the Young Educated people of our society are now able to stand up and openly question the wisdom behind such Rituals …

Funeral of Moderate Pakistani Muslims

Its high time that we need to stop looking towards Moderate Pakistani Muslims as a kind of possible solution to end this Increasing Islamization in Pakistan that is actually the epicenter for many other neighbouring countries.

The harsh reality is that Educated Pakistanis are hypocrites and they have always had double standards. The best job they can do is to stay quite when they are supposed to stand up against the Jahalat and try doing something good for their country

Veena Malik is a known person because of her bold photo shoots and some other TV Appearances. She is considered Haram (impure) in Pakistani society and when recently a local TV Channel (funded by Express TV that is itself funded by Western Interests) announced she will host a Program during the holy month of Ramdan … it was way too much for Pakistanis to let it happen in the land of the pure.

I’ve no interest in Veena’s program and to me it wouldnt have made any positive change to the society, however the irony is that the same people who lead this opposition towards Veena’s possible appearance during Ramdan, they had absolutely no problem with Dr. Aamir Liaquat coming back on Geo TV. The person who was exposed badly right on Youtube and the person who uses Religion as a kind of Face Mask … these people had absolutely no issue with him coming back and start preaching them what Islam is and how they should live their lives according to the Islamic practices. But Veena was way too much to ignore, after all she is a woman and she exposes her body.

And who deserves the Oscar here ??? without any contest the award goes to the Educated Moderate Liberal Minded Pakistani Population. The same people who dont even have a courage to stand up and say that if you cant tolerate Veena on TV what makes you overlook Aamir Liaquat ???