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Aditi Chaturvedi
Vedic Past of Pre-Islamic Arabia - Part 3
The Hindus of Arabia lived in a land where their forefathers
had lived and prospered for ages past. They were proud inheritors
of the ancient Vedic culture and religion. Mecca was a city whose
commerce was expanding greatly and whose power and prestige were
well established. Meccans were content, prosperous and devoted to
the religion of their ancestors. The Kaaba temple drew thousands
of devotees from around the world. Trade and barter flourished
greatly, due to the immense number of visitors who came to Mecca
on pilgrimage. The members of the Qurayshi tribe to which Muhammad
belonged, were the priests who performed the rites and rituals for
these pilgrims, thereby deriving their very livelihood from the
Vedic gods of the Kaaba. It is no wonder that the majority of them
later rejected Muhammad's new religion and paid for it with their
lives. In any case the Meccans were exceedingly devoted to their
gods and very satisfied with the state of their lives. They were
not at all on the lookout for a new cult or savior who could
rescue them from a miserable state or lead them into a promised
land. They had rejected Monotheism wholeheartedly during the short
lived Jewish regime in Yemen and their Vedic gods had protected
them very well against the Abyssinian Invasion. They were
skeptical and amused by prophets foaming at the mouth and
dismissed them as magicians or just plain lunatics. They did not
want to hear any so called "revelations" or so called
heavenly "messengers". In short the Arabs were noble,
content people, who felt spiritually enriched and
materialistically satisfied. It is only in such successful
societies that the qualities of tolerance, equality of the sexes,
independence, love of free thinking, and cultural enrichment can
exist.
When Muhammad first started preaching his "new"
religion the Meccans tolerated it as they had tolerated many such
propounders of "new" religions before. However they were
startled out of their tolerance when the small band of Islamists
started to publicly ridicule the Vedic heritage of the Meccans and
threatened to break down the idols, which were the pride of Mecca.
At first they proceeded in a calm manner to Muhammad's uncle Abu
Talib and told him that his nephew had "cursed our gods,
insulted our religion, mocked our way of life and accused our
revered forefathers of error. We request you to restrain
him."
It should be pointed out that the Meccans NEVER said Muhammad
could not preach his religion, all they asked was that in the true
spirit of tolerance, he ought to respect their way of life and
religion, just as they were willing to let him uphold his.
Figure 1.
But Muhammad continued insulting the Vedic heritage of the
Meccans. He considered his epileptic fits as periods of divine
revelation and his bitter invectives against the Vedic religion
grew stronger. The Arabs of Mecca were now convinced that Muhammad
was a lunatic who deserved only pity. This charge stung Muhammad
to such an extent that he retorted bitterly "By him who holds
my life in his hand, I bring you slaughter". and came up with
revelations such as:
"And they will see which one of you is demented.
Therefore obey not your rejectors who would have you compromise;
Neither obey you each feeble oath-monger,detractor, spreader of
slander, hinderer of the good, an aggressor, malefactor, greedy
therewithal, intrusive. We shall brand him on the nose!"
(Quran 68:5-6, 68:8-13).
The Meccans were now stunned and convinced that such virulence
and hatred could only come from one who is possessed by an evil
spirit. They sent Utba B. Rabia one of their chiefs to Muhammad.
Utba kindly explained to him that " If this ghost which comes
to you is such that you cannot get rid of him, we will find a
physician for you and exhaust our means in getting you cured, for
often a spirit takes possession of a man until he can be cured of
it." Muhammad reacted violently and warned the Meccans to
leave him alone. The patience of the Arabs had come to an end,
they decided it was time to fight back.
In the spirit of their Vedic culture , they invited Muhammad to
an open debate. It was soon obvious from the debates that Muhammad
could not present arguments in a logical manner. He would lose his
temper and resort to violent and insulting answers to the
questioners. Soon after he claimed a divine revelation that
instructed him not to participate in open debate, to evade
questions, and if questioned by unbelievers to retire! (Quran
6:68-70)
Now the Meccans were amused that a man like Muhammad who was
distinguished neither by birth or education should go around
proclaiming himself to be a prophet. When he started producing
revelations about Moses and Jesus having performed miracles, they
asked Muhammad to do the same. Unlike Moses and Jesus however,
Muhammad could not produce a single miracle. Instead he came up
with a revelation that the Meccans were not likely to believe in a
miracle even if it were shown to them!
Now the Meccans were convinced about the falsity of Muhammad's
claims. Their faith in their Vedic deities was absolutely
unshaken. Moreover they were enraged by the fact that Muhammad had
taken their principal god Allah (Durga) and made her into the
jealous deity of his new religion. They met him and said:
"Muhammad either you will stop cursing our gods or
we will curse this Allah of yours."
Muhammad then threw a challenge to the Meccans to produce
revelations such as his. The challenge was accepted by Al Nadr B.
Harith, a Meccan chief who said
"I can tell better stories than him...In what
respect is Muhammad a better story teller?"
Al Nadr proceeded to tell several stories in verses, which were
even better than the verses of the Quran. Muhammad was enraged and
never forgave Al Nadr for this defeat. Later on Muhammad had Al
Nadr brutally executed.
Muhammad had started preaching about how Judgement would come
and bring destruction to the Non-believers. The Meccans however
were not cowed down by mere threats. They challenged Muhammad to
hurry up and bring down the Doom upon them. They said:
"You have disputed with us and multiplied
disputation with us. Now bring down upon us that wherewith you
threaten us, if you are truthful O Allah! If this indeed be the
Truth from you, rain down stones on us or bring us some painful
Doom...Our Lord! Hasten us for our fate before the Day of
Reckoning...When will it come to port? When will the promise be
fulfilled if you are truthful? When is the Day of Judgement?.."
The Meccans threw this challenge again and again. Muhammad had
to wriggle out of the situation somehow. He came up with another
convenient revelation:
"Knowledge thereof is with My Lord, He alone can
manifest it at the proper time...It comes not to you save
unawares...But Allah will not punish them while you (Muhammad)
are with them... For every nation there is an appointed
time...It is (only) then when it has befallen that you will
believe.. And it is in the Scriptures of the men of Old..Is it
not a portent for them that the doctors of the Children of
Israel know it? You (Muhammad) are but the warner sent to
them...So withdraw and await the event" (Quran 50:4 ,
75:3-4, 79:13-14, 56:49-57)
It was obvious that the Prophet had begun contradicting
himself, the paradox was in the verse itself, for how could Allah
tell Muhammad to await the Event of the Day of Judgement when he
had made it clear that it would not happen while Muhammad was
alive!
The knowledgable Meccans had by now realized that Muhammad was
only stealing things that he had learned from the Jews and the
Christians. He was taking Biblical lore and conveniently twisting
it to conform with his own "divine" religion. Moreover
it was obvious that Muhammad was coming up with "holy
verses" whenever the occasion demanded for his convenience.
The incident that confirmed their suspicion was the Satanic Verses
which say:
"Have Ye thought of Al-Lat and Al-Uzza and Manat the
third, the other, these are the Gharaniq whose intercession is
approved."(Quran 53:19-27)
The Satanic Verses of the Quran clearly state that Al-Lat and
Al-Uzza and Manat (Alla = Durga, Oorja = Shakti (life-force) and
Somnath = Shivji) are exalted and their intercession is approved.
The Meccans were overjoyed that Muhammad had finally endorsed the
Vedic deities, but because of the pressure of his followers,
Muhammad had to withdraw the verses.
Figure 2.
Sculptures of Pre-Islamic gods
This was the last straw. The Meccans were now convinced of the
lies perpetuated by Muhammad. Their chieftains said:
"We can surely see your foolishness and we deem
you as a liar, It is all the same to us whether you preach or
not, Our hearts are protected from your words and our ears are
deaf to you, Between us and you there is a veil drawn."
and to their people:
"Heed not this Quran and drown the hearing of
it!"
Muhammad's mission at Mecca had failed. The Arabs with their
fierce love for their Vedic heritage and intelligence had seen
through the "Prophet's machinations and rejected him
whole-heartedly. Thus it was an embittered, furious and vengeful
Muhammad who was forced to flee to Medinah.
It is no secret what the Prophet did after this
"migration" to Medinah. The story has been documented in
detail by his biographers, - surprise raids on trade caravans and
tribal settlements, the use of plunder thus obtained for
recruiting an ever growing army of greedy desperados
assassinations of opponents, expropriation, expulsion and massacre
of the Jews of Medinah, attack and enslavement of the Jews of
Khybar, rape of women and children, sale of these victims after
rape, trickery, trachery and bribery employed to their fullest
extent to grow the numbers of his religion Islam which ironically
was supposed to mean "Peace"! He organised no less than
86 expeditions, 26 of which he led himself.
The motives of the converts to Islam was never in any doubt. As
D.S. Margoliouth states in his book Muhammad and the rise of
Islam
"Of any moralising or demoralising effect that
Muhammad's teaching had upon his followers we cannot say with
precision. When he was at the head of the Robber community, it
is probable that the demoralising influence began to be felt.;
it was then that men who had never broken an oath learnt that
they might evade their obligations, and that men to whom the
blood of their clan had been as their own, began to shed it with
impunity in the "cause of god". And that lying and
treachery in the cause of Islam received divine approval. It was
then too that Moslems became distinguished by the obscenity of
their language. It was then too, that the coveting of goods and
wives possessed by Non-muslims was avowed without discouragement
from the Prophet...."
On another occasion Muhammad was greatly criticised by his
followers when he compromised his principles completely. After
feeling very confident about the consolidation of his position in
Medinah, Muhammad decided the time had come to take Mecca. But he
soon realized that he had miscalculated the timing of his attack
and at the last moment entered into negotiations with the Meccans.
The Treaty of Hudaibiya permitted Muhammad to perform the
pilgrimage to Mecca the following year, but in return he had to
refrain from calling himself the "Prophet" and to
refrain from preaching the formula of Islam. Muhammad agreed to
all the conditions, and broke the Treaty much later. No wonder Dr.
Magoliouth refers that:
"Muhammad's career as tyrant of Medinah is that of a
robber chief, whose political economy consists in securing and
dividing plunder, the distribution of the latter was carried out
on principles which fail to satisfy his follower's sense of
justice. He is himself an unbridled libertine and encourages the
same passion in his followers. For whatever he does he is
prepared to plead the express authorization of the deity
(Allah). It is however impossible to find any doctrine which he
is not prepared to abandon in order to secure a political end.
At different points in his career he abandons the Unity of God
and his claim to the title of Prophet. This is a disagreeable
picture for the founder of a religion and it cannot be pleaded
that it is a picture drawn by an enemy...", this is the
character attributed to Muhammad in the biography by Ibn Ishaq.
In my next article, I will describe the trail of murder, mayhem
and destruction that was effected by the Prophet after he had
recruited enough people in his fold.
Note: Works of P.N. Oak, D.S.
Margoliouth and Sita Ram Goel have been used to compose this
article.
http://www.hinduunity.org
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