Islam and Superstition-2

Part Two
By: Syed Kamran Mirza
June 10, 2004

(Translated into English from Bengali by Abul Kasem)

[A request to the readers: Those who had already read the Part One of this
series may skip the introductory part of this essay as this section will be
the same for all the remaining parts, although, there might be some slight
changes for Part Two. Needless to say, those readers who did not read Part
One, the Introductory part is a must-read. In the subsequent parts I shall
simply include, in serial numbers more amazing, queer, and cock-and-bull
stories from Islami Books]


INTRODUCTION

We are aware that superstition is a popular belief held by people without
any reason or logic; that is to say, it is an irrational belief system
without any proof practiced by the ignorant mass. This type of superstition
can be of two types, namely; Folklores—that are essentially fanciful,
irrational stories that are accepted by the population as such; so, there is
no problem with such fairy-tales. However, the other type of superstition is
the religious false notion that is firmly rooted in the belief of
supernatural divinity. The morbid fear of unknown, the thought of after-life
and a deep penchant for supernatural power are the main causes for the
growth of such religious mumbo-jumbo. Clearly, this uncontrolled fear for
life after death and its resultant irrational faith in it is the primary
reason for the birth of world religious beliefs. We see the abundant
presence of many such fanciful, irrational ingredients in almost all
religions practiced in to-day’s world—no religion is free from such
ridiculousness, to say the least. For that matter Islam is no exception. In
fact, there are so many superstitions in Islam that one can safely surmise
that the entire edifice of Islam stands firmly on many such mythological
/supernatural narrations.

When one reads the fundamental scriptures of Islam, namely; the Qur’an and
many Ahadith, one is bound to find copious superstitious stories and
practices. The belief in such irrational and illogical stories and tales is
bound to give rise to many fanatical believers and this could be the root
cause of Islamic frenzy among its blind believers.

In Bangladesh, searching every nook and corner of the markets, bookstores,
Islamic libraries, even the foot path (Fatemolla aptly calls these books:
the Moons and the Stars of the foot path) of a city one is sure to find
thousands of such Islami Kitab (Islami Books) that shamelessly promotes such
ignorance and cock-and-bull stories. From among such famous and popular
books, let me name a few. These are: Behester Kunji (The Key to Paradise),
Beheshti Zewar (The Treasures of Paradise), Maqsudul Momeneen (The Destiny
of the Believers), Kissas-ul-Ambia (The Stories of the Prophets) and Neyamul
Qur’an etc. In a Muslim country like Bangladesh, these Islami books are in
such a great demand that the publishers have a tough time meeting this huge
demand even after they have run 30th or 40th edition for each of the above
books.

From among the books cited above, I found it absolutely compelling to delve
in illustrating some of the contents of Kissas-ul-Ambia. This Islami Kitab
is considered to be distinctly different from any other Islami Book—in that,
this book is not about the exhortations of Islami teachings based on the
fanciful ideas of some Mullah. As the title of this book suggests, this book
narrates the stories of many Prophets mentioned in the holy Qur’an and
Ahadith and who were born in the Arabian Peninsula. This means that whatever
is written in this book conforms to the contents of the Qur’an and Ahadith,
and as such they are completely irrefutable. The version of this book that I
am using has been written by an impeccably educated Muslim writer—M.N.M.
Imdadullah (M.A., B.A. Hons. M.A). In look and size this book is quite
similar to the holy Qur’an and as such it commands a great reverence from
the Muslims. As a mark of respect the libraries and the devotees will store
this book at the uppermost shelve of bookshelves, positioning it just by the
side of the Qur’an.

This is also a pricey book—mind you, one translated volume is costlier than
the holy Qur’an!

An examination of this tome will reveal that its content is replete with
superstitious narrations—almost 90% of it, to be precise. Once the
simple-minded, faithful Muslims read/hear such irrational tales, they turn
to be more ardent believers, devoting more time and attention in prayer and
fasting. For the not-so-faithfuls, they will find such incredible,
irrational tales extremely hilarious and will definitely have hearty laugh
reading the book.

Nonetheless, such superstitious books are plenty in Bangladesh and, as said
before, one may find them in virtually every household—no joke. These are
the text books—the principal learning sources of Islam for the vast a
majority of the Muslims in Bangladesh. Most of what they believe and
practice in Islam actually emanate from these primary learning tools! Many
Maulanas (Islamic priests) recorded these ‘cock and bull’ stories in the
audio-cassettes which are readily available in Bangladesh to the gullible
Muslims. For some unscrupulous Maulanas this cassette selling is a booming
business that is simply nothing but only to plunder the hard-earned wealth
from poor public. Needless to say, the influence of such books, and the
audio-cassettes have created, among the Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh, a
thriving business for the saints, ascetics and the friars by selling
talisman and by practicing charms.

In the villages, in the suburbs, and even in the metropolitan cities of
Bangladesh numerous Islamic Jalsas (Islamic Preachings) are held almost on a
daily basis. These congregations are attended by thousands of ordinary,
illiterate, half-literate, ill-educated Muslims. The surprising fact is that
many educated, blind believers also attend these gathering and become
engrossed in listening to the exhortations of the Mullahs. The main theme of
such speeches is the narrations of Islamic mythological tales, irrational
and fanciful stories, and colourful anecdotes from Islamic history. The
principal source of such tales, of course, is none other than the incredible
Kissa-ul-Ambia, the implausible Islamic book. The simple-minded village
folks are so much imbued by these cock-and-bull and absurd stories, that in
no time they start believing such stories to be true and many of those
ardent believers even start weeping. As a result of such gullible faith in
irrationality, they soon become victims of fear and completely surrender to
superstition and supernatural forces.

During my childhood, when I attended such gatherings, I used to wonder as to
where from these Mullahs obtained such coaxing stories and narrate them so
eloquently. I used to marvel at the level of their knowledge and
understanding. Now, I have no doubt in my mind that all those incredibly
irrational tales are actually from authentic Islamic books. In this
serialised article I shall quote, verbatim, a few sample passages from those
authentic Islamic books mentioned above. [Please note: these quotes are
exact; nothing is from me, except that my personal views are included inside
parenthesis]:


6. What did Allah create from Muhammad’s (pbuh) perspiration?
Then when Allah glanced at the peacock-shaped Muhammad (pbuh),
Noor-e-Muhammad (Muhammad’s light) felt extremely diffident and his entire
body started to perspire profusely. Henceforth, from the perspiration of his
face Allah created the seat of His throne, the angels, Lauhe Mahfouz (souls
abode), the pen, the Moon, the Sun, the planets, the stars, the sky, the
earth and all the Rasuls (apostles), the Prophets, the Awlia (mendicants),
the devotees and the ever-sacred Ka’ba Sharif (the holy house of Ka’ba).
Then the Almighty created the soil (clay) required for the construction of
all the mosques in the world. Afterwards, Allah said to the peacock-shaped
Noor (light) of Muhammad, “O my dearest comrade, please take a glimpse at
your favourite friends.” The Noor of Muhammad, having glanced at his front,
behind, right and left observed four streaks of extremely brilliant Noor
(light). Those brilliant lights were Hazrat Abu Bakr, Hazrat Umar, Hazrat
Uthman and Hazrat Ali, the four dearest companions of Muhammad. Those four
shinning Noors (lights), along with the Noor-e-Muhammadi, spent
seventy-thousand years praising Allah. Then, from the Noor-e-Muhammadi Allah
created the Ruhs (souls) of all the Prophets. Then the Almighty made all the
Prophets to recite the Kalima (declaration)—La Ilah Illa Allah Muhammadur
Rasul Allah (There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the apostle of
Allah).


7. How the fate of all the creatures was decided from Noor-e-Muhammad:
Then Allah rendered the peacock-shaped Noor-e-Muhammadi into a physical form
and put it inside a lantern made out of a transparent red garnet stone. He
then commanded all the souls held at Lauhe Mahfouz to peek at His dearest
creation (Muhammad). Following Allah’s instruction, except for a few, all
the souls took a look at the form of the last Prophet inside the lantern;
but not all of them could see all the limbs of the last Prophet (Muhammad).
Each of them could glimpse only one part of Muhammad.

Here is an enumeration of who witnessed which part of Noor-e-Muhammad. Those
who saw the Head, became the Kings and Emperors in Duniya (like Alexander,
the Great, Genghis Khan, Hitler, President Bush…etc. must had witnessed the
entire head of Muhammad!). Those souls who saw the forehead became just
judges; those who witnessed eyebrows became the painters; those who saw the
two eyes became Hafez-e-Qur’an (Qur’an memorisers, like Razakar Saidee of
Bangladesh; Al-Qaeda, Talibans…etc must had witnessed the two eyes); those
who saw the two cheeks became scholars and donors; those who saw the pupils
of the eyes, some of them became merchants of perfumes, some of them became
physicians; those who saw the teeth developed patience; those who saw the
face became powerful, valiant fighters; those who saw the tongue became the
emissaries of the Kings and Emperors; those who saw the vocal cord became
the Muezzins (criers of prayer call) or speakers; those who saw the neck
became merchants; those who saw both the arms became swordsmen or
musketeers; those who saw only the right hand became the executioners; those
who saw the knee became ardent Namajees (worshippers). Even after this, some
souls could not view much of Noor-e-Muhammadi; they became the Jews and
Christians. Finally, those who did not at all want to see Noor-e-Muhammad
became Kafirs and Mushreks (infidels).


8. How Allah made water and the seven metals:
The Almighty Allah, by His own miraculous power created a pip out of Yakut
(an extremely precious stone), and when He threw his glorious look at it,
the Yakut pip, out of extreme fear, melted and turned into water. Then Allah
commanded the wind on all the four sides to create a raging storm and to
form lather on water. Having duly complied with Allah’s command, the wind
created enormous foams in water. Then those foams collided with each other
and created fire; and from this fire evolved smoke. Then Allah divided that
smoke into seven parts. The first part remained as the original water; the
second part became copper, the third part became iron, the fourth silver,
the fifth gold the sixth precious stones and the seventh Yakut (in this
cock-and-bull-story, there are plenty of Islamic science for those who have
the intelligence to comprehend!).


9. How Allah made the seven heavens:
In the beginning, Allah, through his divine power created, from water, the
first heaven; the second heaven, He created it from copper; the third from
iron, the fourth from silver; the fifth from gold; the sixth from precious
stones and the seventh from the Yakut stone. The distance from one heaven to
another is a journey of five hundred years, and the thickness of each of
these heavens is also a distance of five hundred years journey. (Shouldn’t
our astronauts venture into the fifth heaven, mine it and bring back the
resource? Shouldn’t this should be enough for us? I wonder).


10. How Allah created our earth:
Almighty Allah, through the lather generated from the glorified water,
created a fistful of red clay lump and, at first, put that at the site of
Ka’ba. Then, as per the command of Allah Gabriel, Michael, Israfil and
Azrail, the four archangels held the four sides of that lump of clay and
started to pull it in four directions with a great force. As a result, that
lump of clay became a vast tract of land, and that is how our present earth
was created. (I wonder if the red clay of Jaydebpur, a place in Bangladesh
also emanated from the red clay of Allah, the greatest scientist!)


11. On what does our enormous flat earth stand firm?
According to some Sahih Hadith (authentic tradition), Hazrat Abdullah Muslem
asked Muhammad (pbuh): “Ya Rasul Allah! Please tell us, on what does this
vast earth is standing?” Muhammad replied: “Allah has placed this
seven-layered, huge earth on the horn of a cow. This cow has four thousand
such horns, and the distance from one horn to another is a journey of five
hundred years. This gigantic cow is standing on the back of a giant fish.
This fish is floating on glutinous water; the depth of this water is the
distance of a journey of forty years. The glutinous water is resting on
floating air. This air or atmosphere is resting on darkness. The darkness
rests upon the Hell and that Hell is placed on a massive stone. This massive
stone is resting on the head of an enormous Farishta (angel); the Farishta
is standing on wind and the wind is resting on the empty world of Allah’s
Kudrat (glory). (I wonder if our dearest Prophet smoked a few puff of
marijuana or ganja before he could invent such a complicated explanation on
the structure of the earth system).



References:
Kissas-ul-Ambia
The Holy Qur’an; translated in Bengali by Maulana Muhiuddin Khan and
published from Saudi Arabia
Maksudul Momeneen
Beheshti Zewar


To be continued

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