Was
the Prophet of Islam infallible as the Messenger of God, or did he
make mistakes as any ordinary mortal?
Zahir
Ebrahim | Project
Humanbeingsfirst.org
Abstract
The
Sunni and Shia Muslims have needlessly argued since the very
inception of Islam over matters that are at times wholly Determinate
in the Holy Qur'an. Sometimes through ignorance of the Qur'anic text,
and at other times by going to the partisan scribes of history based
on their respective socialization biases, the Muslims have managed to
misapprehend the religion of Islam despite its manifest clarity on
its fundamental precepts. Whether or not
the Prophet of Islam was inerrant, or did he make mistakes, is the
most fundamental question concerning Islam for those who believe in
it as a revealed religion of Divine origin. The entire edifice of the
religion of Islam rests on the status and stature of the Prophet of
Islam. Without the Prophet, there is no Islam, there is no Holy
Qur'an, and therefore no religion. Likewise, without belief in the
Messenger as inerrant, how can one believe that the Message claimed
by the Prophet to be a Revelation from God
is error free? As on the question previously examined
in this series, What does the Holy Qur'an say about Ahlul Bayt, on
this issue too, the Muslims have split exactly along partisan and
sectarian lines. This report examines what the Holy Qur'an itself
states with utmost clarity on this subject. At least on this pivotal
question, the Muslims, those who believe in Islam as a revealed
religion, should be self-consistent and acquire a common
understanding based on their singular scripture that is claimed by
both the major sects to be error-free; but idiotically enough, they
are not. This report highlights that absurdity and shows the degree
of influence of socialization bias on the spiritual mind.
This
scribe shall dare to be different compared to all others. Instead of
offering his own high-falutin learned discourse, he shall permit the
Holy Qur'an to speak in its own exposition to establish a
self-consistent criterion for addressing the question posed in the
title of this article. After all, this
blessed month of Ramadan is the birthday of the Holy Qur'an:
Ramadhan
is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur'an, as a
guide to mankind, also
clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment (Between right and
wrong). (Surah Al-Baqara verse fragment 2:185)
|
شَهْرُ
رَمَضَانَ
ٱلَّذِىٓ أُنزِلَ
فِيهِ ٱلْقُرْءَانُ
هُدًى لِّلنَّاسِ
وَبَيِّنَٰتٍ
مِّنَ ٱلْهُدَىٰ
وَٱلْفُرْقَانِ
ۚ
|
Caption
Ramadan, Birthday of the Holy Qur'an. What birthday gift can be given
to it by man?
And
as is customary on birthdays for the living, the Good Book too
deserves a birthday present: its believers rising beyond the mindless
recitation enjoyed in this holy month of fasting in expectation of
lofty rewards after death, attempting to rationally comprehend
its Message for reaping useful rewards right here in this life.
Perhaps this one blessed Ramadan, as its birthday gift, the Book for
the dead can become the Book for the living in the public mind.
The
Holy Qur'an establishes the Principle of Inerrancy
for its own Messenger very clearly and most emphatically in at least
two Surahs:
I
swear by the star when it goes down. (53:1)
|
وَٱلنَّجْمِ
إِذَا هَوَىٰ
|
Your
companion does not err, nor does he go astray; (53:2)
|
مَا
ضَلَّ صَاحِبُكُمْ
وَمَا غَوَىٰ
|
Nor
does he speak out of desire. (53:3)
|
وَمَا
يَنطِقُ عَنِ
ٱلْهَوَىٰٓ
|
It
is naught but revelation that is revealed, (53:4)
|
إِنْ
هُوَ إِلَّا
وَحْىٌ يُوحَىٰ
|
The
Lord of Mighty Power has taught him, (Holy Qur'an, Surah
An-Najm 53:5)
|
عَلَّمَهُۥ
شَدِيدُ ٱلْقُوَىٰ
|
Verily
this is the word of a most honourable Messenger, (81:19)
|
إِنَّهُۥ
لَقَوْلُ رَسُولٍ
كَرِيمٍ
|
Endued
with Power, with rank before the Lord of the Throne, (81:20)
|
ذِى
قُوَّةٍ عِندَ
ذِى ٱلْعَرْشِ
مَكِينٍ
|
With
authority there, (and) faithful to his trust. (81:21)
|
مُّطَاعٍ
ثَمَّ أَمِينٍ
|
And
(O people!) your companion is not one possessed; (81:22)
|
وَمَا
صَاحِبُكُم
بِمَجْنُونٍ
|
And
without doubt he saw him in the clear horizon. (81:23)
|
وَلَقَدْ
رَءَاهُ بِٱلْأُفُقِ
ٱلْمُبِينِ
|
Neither
doth he withhold grudgingly a knowledge of the Unseen. (81:24)
|
وَمَا
هُوَ عَلَى
ٱلْغَيْبِ
بِضَنِينٍ
|
Nor
is it the word of an evil spirit accursed. (81:25)
|
وَمَا
هُوَ بِقَوْلِ
شَيْطَٰنٍ
رَّجِيمٍ
|
When
whither go ye? (81:26)
|
فَأَيْنَ
تَذْهَبُونَ
|
Verily
this is no less than a Message to (all) the Worlds: (81:27)
|
إِنْ
هُوَ إِلَّا
ذِكْرٌ لِّلْعَٰلَمِينَ
|
(With
profit) to whoever among you wills to go straight: (81:28)
|
لِمَن
شَآءَ مِنكُمْ
أَن يَسْتَقِيمَ
|
But
ye shall not will except as Allah wills,- the Cherisher of the
Worlds. (Holy Qur'an Surah
At-Takwir (81:29)
|
وَمَا
تَشَآءُونَ
إِلَّآ أَن
يَشَآءَ ٱللَّهُ
رَبُّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
|
Caption
The Holy Qur'an establishes the Principle of Inerrancy very clearly
and most categorically for the Prophet of Islam in at least two
notable places in two Surahs. Surah An-Najm verses 53:1-5
unequivocally declaring the Prophet of Islam inerrant,
infallible, and whose speech is naught but revelation that is
revealed! And Surah At-Takwir verses 81:19-29 which similarly
corrects the misconception among the companions of the Prophet about
the utterances of the Messenger of Islam, unequivocally declaring
that the Prophet is invested with special power and rank by Allah,
that his speech are the words of a most honorable Messenger, and that
his words are a Message to (all) the Worlds, to benefit from if they
so choose to do so. Click on verse number to hear its Arabic
recitation in the incomparable voice of the well-known qaari Shaykh
Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary.
The
concept of inerrancy is most clearly, most emphatically, and most
unambiguously, asserted in Surah An-Najm verses 53:1-5, and Surah
At-Takwir verses 81:19-29 (both quoted above). These are very clearly
Determinate verses of
the Holy Qur'an. These are self-sufficient, clear, and without
indirections, allegories, metaphors, and hidden meanings. From the
Qur'anic terminology specified in verse 3:7 of Surah Aal-'Imran,
these are the آيَاتٌ
مُحْكَمَاتٌ
,
the foundational and categorical verses, the heart of the Holy
Qur'an, the أُمُّ
الْكِتَابِ
,
and not the مُتَشَابِهَاتٌ
,
the allegorical and metaphorical verses with hidden meanings. See
this scribe's book,
pg. 120, for the definition of the nomenclature Determinate
and Indeterminate for
categorizing the semantics of the verses of the Holy Qur'an.
Surah
An-Najm verses 53:1-5 clearly preempt the questions: How is the
Messenger communicating the Author's Word unerringly to the people;
How is the Messenger being an unerring Exemplar of the Holy Qur'an;
How can the Messenger's companions know when to believe and obey the
Messenger and when to follow their own opinion on any matter?
Firstly,
verse 33:36 of Surah
Al-Ahzaab has already made it explicitly clear that the
Messenger's decisions have to be abided by at all times. That his
words are not subject to discussion, debate, argumentation, or
questioning, specifically for those who are believers in the religion
of Islam. That if any believer disobeys the
Messenger, they are “on a clearly wrong Path”:
“It
is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman,
when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have
any option about their decision: if any one disobeys
Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path.”
(Surah Al-Ahzaab, 33:36
)
|
وَمَا
كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ
وَلَا مُؤْمِنَةٍ
إِذَا قَضَى
ٱللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُۥٓ
أَمْرًا أَن
يَكُونَ لَهُمُ
ٱلْخِيَرَةُ
مِنْ أَمْرِهِمْ
ۗ وَمَن يَعْصِ
ٱللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُۥ
فَقَدْ ضَلَّ
ضَلَٰلًا
مُّبِينًا
|
Caption
Verse 33:36 Surah Al-Ahzaab, the
most shocking admonition to the companions, believing man and woman,
of the Messenger! Why is this admonition even present in the Holy
Qur'an – unless there was a need for it in some circumstance?

That
explicit admonition in verse 33:36 to the companions of the Messenger
(quoted above), and its blanket authority for obedience explicitly
vested in the Messenger by the Author of the Holy Qur'an, is
remarkable. The Author, directly addressing the believing Muslim
contemporaries of the Messenger in that verse, and not the
unbelievers or the hypocrites, unequivocally and explicitly calls
those Believing man and Believing
woman who dispute and disobey the decisions of the Messenger on any
matter, as being “on a clearly wrong Path”! It
leaves no room for discretion and individual opinion or
decision-making on any matter upon which the Prophet of Islam has
spoken!
Secondly,
verses 53:1-5 categorically put to bed the capricious speculation
that the Messenger is only inerrant in some
speech (and acts) and not in others, and therefore people may follow
their own opinions and discretion in the
latter case. The statement is succinctly categorical: “Your
companion does not err, nor does he go astray; Nor does he speak out
of desire. It is naught but revelation that is revealed,”.
If
that absurd proposition were true, it would create a logical
conundrum: How could the Messenger's companions ever know when is the
Messenger errant and when is he inerrant? They'd obviously have to
rely on the Messenger's own word to even know that in the first place
– since there is no third party to adjudicate! But if the
Messenger is capable of making an error, he is also capable of making
an error in that determination as well.
If
the Messenger is not inerrant in every
single matter, every single act, every single speech, every single
thought, then even one errancy is sufficient to put his entire
Messengership in doubt – due to transmission error for
instance. If not infallible, the Messenger
could have made an error in a hundred thousand different ways that
would remain undetectable by the people and they would be misled by
the Messenger masquerading his own fallible opinion for the Author's
infallible Word. The Messenger's own word differentiating what is the
Author's Words vs. his own word could itself be in error if the
Messenger is ever capable of even a single
error. It opens the Pandora's box: Is the
Holy Qur'an error-free from transmission errors of the Author's
Message? For a Muslim who believes in the Holy Qur'an as the word of
God delivered by the Messenger, how can he ever be sure that the
medium, the Messenger, did not make an error delivering the Message
and explaining it to the people?
One
must not forget that it is the Messenger who is ab initio introducing
the Holy Qur'an, and not vice versa. It is the belief of the peoples
in the Messenger's truthfulness upon which the Holy Qur'an itself is
predicated. Unless the Messenger of
the Holy Qur'an is infallible, it puts the words uttered by the
Prophet, who alone designated that the specified words belonged to
the Author of the Holy Qur'an and not to himself, into jeopardy.
If
there is no belief in the Prophet, there is no belief in the Holy
Qur'an! Once that belief is established, only then the Holy Qur'an
has any meaning. And only at that point does the Author of the Holy
Qur'an avers, putting no caveat to His Declaration of the Prophet's
infallibility, and making His Proclamation blanket, unequivocal,
universal, affirming not just the Prophet's Messengership of having
accurately delivered the Author's Message (Surah Al-Maeda 5:3), but
also the Prophet's Exemplarship of having accurately explained the
Message to his companions by way of a living example and for which
complete obedience to him was mandated so that the Author's Message
would not get distorted or questioned (verse 33:36 quoted above).
Surah Al-Maeda 5:3 asserted that the Prophet did his job to
“perfection”, without error:
“This
day have I perfected your religion for you, completed My favour
upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.”
(Surah Al-Maeda verse fragment 5:3)
|
الْيَوْمَ
أَكْمَلْتُ
لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ
وَأَتْمَمْتُ
عَلَيْكُمْ
نِعْمَتِي
وَرَضِيتُ
لَكُمُ الْإِسْلَامَ
دِينًا ۚ
|
Caption
Surah Al-Maeda verse fragment 5:3
asserting that the Prophet of Islam “completed” his
mission as Messenger and Exemplar to “perfection” as
assigned to him by the Author of the Holy Qur'an!
And
on that basis of inerrancy alone is full obedience delegated to the
Prophet of Islam at the same precedence level as
the Author demanded for Himself:
“O
ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those
charged with authority among you.
If
ye differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah and His
Messenger, if ye do believe in Allah and the Last Day: That is
best, and most suitable for final determination.” (Surah
an-Nisaa' 4:59)
|
يَا
أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ
آمَنُوا أَطِيعُوا
اللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُوا
الرَّسُولَ
وَأُولِي
الْأَمْرِ
مِنْكُمْ ۖ
فَإِنْ
تَنَازَعْتُمْ
فِي شَيْءٍ
فَرُدُّوهُ
إِلَى اللَّهِ
وَالرَّسُولِ
إِنْ كُنْتُمْ
تُؤْمِنُونَ
بِاللَّهِ
وَالْيَوْمِ
الْآخِرِ ۚ
ذَٰلِكَ خَيْرٌ
وَأَحْسَنُ
تَأْوِيلًا
|
Caption
Verse 4:59 of Surah
an-Nisaa', Verse
of Obedience,
demanding obedience to the Prophet of Islam at the same precedence
level as the Author of the Holy Qur'an!
The
logic implicit in the Verse of Obedience, verse 4:59, is
elegantly simple. Its “AND” conjunction,
وَ
,
to join the three entities to whom obedience is demanded, is at best
a sixth grade grammar composition question. The verse is that
straightforward in its syntactical parsing. All three in that Verse
of Obedience must always agree in order for the verse to not be
falsified! The logic itself is straightforward. If the Prophet can
make an error, then his will can differ from the Will of the Author
of the Holy Qur'an. The Verse of Obedience asserts that that
outcome is impossible, by making obedience to the Prophet of Islam
akin, at the same precedence level, to obedience to the Author of the
Holy Qur'an. The two cannot disagree or there will be a conflict as
both must be obeyed; and if they ever disagree then there is no
divine religion as God and His Messenger can't even agree on the
Message! The same logical reasoning extends to the third entity in
verse 4:59, the “ulul-amar”, who derive its authority
from the authority of the Messenger due to the way the verse is
grammatically structured. The command “obey” is not
repeated again for the “ulul-amar”, but the clause is
concatenated with the previous “obey” of the Messenger
with the “AND” conjunction. If the will of “ulul-amar”
ever differs from that of the Messenger, there is again a conflict as
both are commanded to be obeyed. As per the semantics of the verse
4:59 implied from its straightforward syntax, the latter two cannot
disagree with the Will of the Author of the Holy Qur'an and therefore
the Messenger and the “ulul-amar” must also always agree.
Thus
it follows that if the Author of the Holy Qur'an is Error-Free, there
is no “Oops!” for Him, then so must His Messenger and
“ulul-amar” be just as free from their own “oops”;
they must not be touched by any “rijis” and always
reflect the Will of the Author of the Holy Qur'an in both letter and
spirit throughout their respective mission!
That
semantic property of the Messenger having his own will exactly
reflect the Will of the Author of the Holy Qur'an implicit in the
syntactical composition of verse 4:59, is explicitly confirmed in
Surah An-Najm verses 53:1-5, and Surah At-Takwir verses 81:19-29, by
the Author of the Holy Qur'an! This is complete closure. If the
reader is still unable to grammatically parse an “AND”
conjunctive clause in a sentence in any language correctly, he or she
better return to sixth grade – for that is the level of reading
skills necessary to parse the syntax of the Verse of
Obedience.
It
is only after the trust in the Messenger's veracity and truthfulness
is established among his contemporaries, that the people are invited
to come to the Holy Qur'an. It is only at that point, after the
Messenger has already established his veracity among the peoples,
that the Holy Qur'an subsequently confirms, through the speech of the
Messenger itself and not via some other independent source, that the
Messenger does not even err, always exactly reflecting the Will of
the Author of the Holy Qur'an. To not err in his role as the
Messenger to mankind means that the Messenger is infallible! The
Author of the Holy Qur'an, speaking through the mouth of the
Messenger, explicitly confirms and extends the people's earlier
adjudication of Muhammad's integrity, by first swearing some
unexplainable oath: “I swear by the star when it goes down.”
( وَٱلنَّجْمِ
إِذَا هَوَىٰ
),
and then categorically confirming to the Messenger's contemporaries:
“Your companion does not err, nor does he go astray; Nor
does he speak out of desire. It is naught but revelation that is
revealed”!
Despite
that most clear precept of Islam concerning its noble Messenger
explained in the wholly Determinate verses of the Holy Qur'an,
the early scribes of history imputed errancy to the Prophet of Islam.
They used the verse of the Holy Qur'an which referred to the Prophet
of Islam as “man”, out of context to dignify their
villainy. They employed the logic that if the Prophet was merely a
“man”, he was just like other men – willfully
ignoring explicit statements in the same Good Book as reproduced
above which lend an accurate picture of the status of this most
special man who was categorically affirmed to not be “god”.
But one who is unlike any other man: “Endued with Power,
with rank before the Lord of the Throne,”, whose speech is
no ordinary speech: “Verily this is no less than a Message
to (all) the Worlds.”, and to whom obedience:
أَطِيعُوا
الرَّسُولَ
,
is as compulsory for believers in Islam as obedience to God:
أَطِيعُوا
اللَّهَ .
While it is understandable for non-believers in Islam to not buy into
that immaculate precept of Islam for its Messenger, nor into what the
non-believers see as circular reasoning of the Prophet and the Holy
Qur'an incestuously vouching for each other though the same “mouth”.
But it is unpardonable that this travesty has been parroted by other
Muslim scholars and believers down the ages without reflection. And
it is among the most idiotic of differences between the two major
sects of Islam, the majority Sunni who subscribe to it, and the
minority Shia who vehemently argue precisely the opposite.
The
presentation in this article cleanly separates the chaff from the
wheat and it can surely stand in any fair court of law if such an
argument is presented before it for adjudication. Since this
presentation goes against the ingrained ethos of the Sunnis, they
will surely oppose it. And since it favors the Shia understanding,
suddenly this plebeian will be anointed their “scholar”.
But not for long, as should become obvious to anyone scrutinizing
this scribe's aforementioned book where the asininity in the
socialized ethos of both these fraternal twins has been unmasked with
equal candor. The precision of a surgeon's scalpel is used not for
cutting the jugular, but to increase blood flow to the left-half
brain of the nearly comatose patients living in pious denial.
Unfortunately, this battle for self-consistent understanding is
virtually against human nature. Especially when one is invested
spiritually in dogmas from birth which become instinctual and almost
second nature. Socialization fosters a tendency in the public mind
for both quick rejection and quick acceptance of evidence. A
psychological fact which is aptly captured by atheist philosopher
Bertrand Russell in these incisive words:
“What
a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index to
his desires – desires of which he himself is often
unconscious.
If
a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts [or
worldview], he will scrutinize it closely, and unless [and at
times even when] the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to
believe it.
If,
on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason
for acting in accordance with his instincts [or worldview], he
will accept it even on the slenderest evidence.” ---
Bertrand Russell, Proposed Roads to Freedom, 1919, pg 147
|
Caption
Bertrand Russell on the feebleness and susceptibility of the public
mind. Are you exempt?
The
most shocking example of this sorry fact of imputing errancy to the
Prophet of Islam by believers in Islam in brazen contradiction to the
most categorical statements in the Holy Qur'an, is demonstrated by
some translators and exegeses writers of verses 80:1-12 of Surah
Abasa, including the most respectable modern English translator of
the Holy Qur'an, Abdullah Yusuf Ali.
While
no explicit reference to the Prophet of Islam is made in these verses
of Surah Abasa quoted below, and indeed in the entire Surah, some
Sunni translators drawing upon the earliest existent tafsirs
(exegeses) dating back to the Abbasside dynastic empire, have added
the word (Prophet) in parenthesis to indicate their opinion that it
is the Prophet of Islam who is being chastised by Allah for the
mistake of turning away from the blind man. Other translators have
wisely avoided this gratuitous pitfall, including Pickthall and
Shakir, who accurately use the masculine pronoun “He” as
specified in the verse:
(The
Prophet) frowned and turned away, 80:1
|
عَبَسَ
وَتَوَلَّىٰ
|
Because
there came to him the blind man (interrupting). 80:2
|
أَنْ
جَاءَهُ الْأَعْمَىٰ
|
But
what could tell thee but that perchance he might grow (in
spiritual understanding)?- 80:3
|
وَمَا
يُدْرِيكَ
لَعَلَّهُ
يَزَّكَّىٰ
|
Or
that he might receive admonition, and the teaching might profit
him? 80:4
|
أَوْ
يَذَّكَّرُ
فَتَنْفَعَهُ
الذِّكْرَىٰ
|
As
to one who regards Himself as self-sufficient, 80:5
|
أَمَّا
مَنِ اسْتَغْنَىٰ
|
To
him dost thou attend; 80:6
|
فَأَنْتَ
لَهُ تَصَدَّىٰ
|
Though
it is no blame to thee if he grow not (in spiritual
understanding). 80:7
|
وَمَا
عَلَيْكَ أَلَّا
يَزَّكَّىٰ
|
But
as to him who came to thee striving earnestly, 80:8
|
وَأَمَّا
مَنْ جَاءَكَ
يَسْعَىٰ
|
And
with fear (in his heart), 80:9
|
وَهُوَ
يَخْشَىٰ
|
Of
him wast thou unmindful. 80:10
|
فَأَنْتَ
عَنْهُ تَلَهَّىٰ
|
By
no means (should it be so)! For it is indeed a Message of
instruction: 80:11
|
كَلَّا
إِنَّهَا
تَذْكِرَةٌ
|
Therefore
let whoso will, keep it in remembrance. 80:12
(Surah Abasa 80:1-12, translation by Yusufali) |
فَمَنْ
شَاءَ ذَكَرَهُ
|
Caption
Verses 80:1-12 of Surah Abasa, Yusuf Ali's translation. The verses in
Arabic make no explicit reference to the Prophet of Islam. Verse 80:1
uses a pronoun, and the subsequent verses rapidly switch pronouns so
that without its local context, it is impossible to know which
persons are being referenced! These are Indeterminate verses –
ripe for cognitive infiltration by the vulgar scribes of history
either shilling for empire, or socialized into their own narrow
dogmas, but in either case, wittingly or unwittingly, misleading
generations of Muslims downstream! Source:
http://tanzil.net/trans/
The
un-stated motivation of the early scribes and exegeses writers being
to argue that the Prophet made mistakes and therefore was not
inerrant, and therefore anyone could succeed the Prophet of Islam as
the temporal ruler of the nascent but rapidly expanding Muslim empire
after the Prophet's demise. That wicked legacy has been blindly
mimicked by subsequent scholars without reflection upon what the Holy
Qur'an is itself stating most plainly on that subject of inerrancy!
This is shocking mistreatment of the Prophet of Islam by Muslim
scribes shilling for the ruling interests who had become caliphs and
rulers by making recourse to the “ulul-amar” clause of
verse 4:59 despite the most clear exposition of the Principle of
Inerrancy being the co-requisite for succeeding the Prophet of Islam.
This is examined in great depth in this scribe's book. To patronize
the Muslim rulers, the House Nigger Muslim pulpit evidently
had no compunction even belittling their own noble Prophet!
How
much more explicit should the verses of the Holy Qur'an be on this
wholly Determinate question?
But
no – the socialized mobs, the reverent Muslims throughout the
past fourteen and half centuries of Islam, both laity and gentry,
pope and sheep, rather go by what is written by the hand of man in
their socialized cultural memory than by the Author of the Holy
Qur'an whom they proclaim and believe to be their Inerrant Creator!
The Creator is falsified, His Messenger maligned, but not the
socialized dogma in which the spiritual mind is anchored from birth.
This
unpardonable mistreatment concerning the stature of the Prophet of
Islam has now become the permanent ethos of the majority Sunni sect
and remains a point of major contention with the minority Shia sect.
Each pulpit casts aspersions about the asininity of the other,
seeking out every crack and lacuna it can harvest to marginalize its
fraternal twin. While it makes little difference to the daily grind
of the laity's existence on earth today whether or not their Prophet
of Islam was inerrant, the fact that the question enables harvesting
of cracks and fault-lines among Muslims to build empires and
police-states makes it an important question to put to bed once and
for all!
Tyranny
is easily inflicted upon Muslims by making recourse to theological
arguments such as the one falsely extracted from the Verse of
Obedience, verse 4:59: “O ye who believe! Obey Allah,
and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you.”
Anyone who can acquire political power claims to be the “ulul-amar”
of verse 4:59, “those charged with authority among you”,
with a pious face and demands obedience! It is not just the sins of
antiquity. Look in modernity today – we have from the Royal
Saud family ruling the birthplace of Islam with Jewish jackboots, to
the police-state in the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, to the vilayat-i
faqih in Iran who also piously stretch the Indeterminates
of the Holy Qur'an combining their interpretation with Plato's
“philosopher-king” most imaginatively; in every case
installed by the good graces of Western powers, some to play friends,
others to play perpetual “enemy”. We also have various
modern exponents of “return to caliphate” relishing in
the prospect of enjoying absolute obedience from the Muslim masses,
principal among them being the new House Nigger of empire who
has been artfully groomed for that special purpose of seeding
“revolutionary times” among Muslims, the Barelvi Sunni
Muslim pope du jour, Tahir ul Qadri. See Zahir Ebrahim's open
challenge to this Western anointed pope: Response
to the Fatwa on Terrorism in the Service of Empire
(http://tinyurl.com/Tahir-ul-Qadri-Fatwa-Terrorism).
The
same abstract arguments which are of little concern to the common man
easily become the primemover for extracting servitude from him.
Overturning this significant force majeure for subversion is
the raison d'être of this article and the scribe's book
upon which it is based. Opposition to it is expected from all
quarters of power, and from socialized fools and useful idiots
occupying the pulpit. Suicide bombers surely can't be that far
behind.
When
Determinates of the Holy Qur'an are so easy to subvert, by
idiocy or by narrow self-interests, what of the Indeterminates
of the Holy Qur'an which deliberately leave the door wide open for
both socialized interpretation and narrow self-interests!
Speak
of Western hectoring hegemons hijacking Islam for imperial
mobilization! Pious Muslims beat that subversion to the punch by
a long shot.
Happy
Birthday Holy Qur'an.
This
article is based on the author's book: Hijacking The Holy Qur'an
And Its Religion Islam – Muslims and Imperial Mobilization,
abbreviated to Hijacking Holy Qur'an And Islam
Download
Book PDF URL:
http://sites.google.com/site/humanbeingsfirst/download-pdf/book-hijacking-quran-islam-2nd-edition-2015-zahirebrahim.pdf
Book
PDF Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/Islam-Reader-2015
Book
online URL: http://hijacking-quran.blogspot.com/

All
Articles in the series What does the Holy Qur'an Say
Download
What does the Holy Qur'an Say as a printable pamphlet titled:
Thus Spake Holy Qur'an – On Schisms, Volume I, 1st
Edition, August 2013, Second Printing September 18, 2015
Pamphlet
PDF URL:
https://sites.google.com/site/humanbeingsfirst/download-pdf/pamphlet-thus-spake-holy-quran-vol1-on-schisms-by-zahir-ebrahim.pdf
Credits
Arabic
Qur'an recitation by Shaykh Mahmoud Khalil al-Husary, audio courtesy
of Verse By Verse Quran, acquired 8/13/2011 from
http://www.versebyversequran.com
Arabic
verses courtesy of the open source Qur'an Tanzil Project,
acquired 8/13/2011 from http://tanzil.net/download/
Most
(not all) English translation of Qur'an verses are by Yusuf Ali,
Shakir, and Pickthall, acquired 8/13/2011 from
http://tanzil.net/trans/ (archived Yusufali,
Shakir,
Pickthall).
Short URL:
http://tinyurl.com/Prophethood-in-Holy-Quran
Source URL:
http://islam-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-does-quran-say-about-inerrancy.html
Faith-Politico URL:
http://faith-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-does-quran-say-about-inerrancy.html
Print URL:
http://print-humanbeingsfirst.blogspot.com/2013/08/what-does-quran-say-about-inerrancy.html
First
Published Thursday, August 1, 2013 12:00 am, 22nd Ramadan in
Pakistan, Muslim year 1434, 4781 | Links updated
Friday, September 18, 2015
02:00 am
Links fix November 4, 2016
What
does the Holy Qur'an say about Inerrancy of Prophet Muhammad? By
Zahir Ebrahim August 2013