Demystifying Islam: Conceptual Analysis of Surah Abasa

United Airlines Flight 175 closing in on one of the World Trade Center Twin Towers during 9/11 attacks in New York City. Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda later claimed responsibility. Image courtesy AP.

Islam has always been defined as a religion of peace. At least, that is what most dictionaries state. But this definition has become a bone of great contention owing to the violent crimes of unprecedented magnitude associated with Islamic extremists, who don’t hesitate to cite the Qur’an as their source of inspiration for their despicable acts. And a majority of us take their word hook, line and sinker and thus don’t hesitate to shout down the holy religion of Islam. But just what does the Qur’an offer to its believers? Is it truly a religion of peace or it’s a religion that thrives on sadism?

Islamic view of disease

In the beginning of chapter 80 (Surah Abasa), the prophet ‘frowns and turns away’ when a blind man comes to him and in the process interrupts the prophet. This frowning and turning away could be the prophets’ way of telling the blind man not to interrupt. In no way should this be misconstrued to mean a lack of love for the blind man by the prophet as most people will react in a similar fashion when rudely interrupted. However, the blind man is considered impure but the good news is that there is hope for his healing and redemption by the Almighty Allah.

At this juncture it becomes very important to decode a hidden message in the prophet’s treatment of the blind man. What is truly evident is the fact that in Islam, any form of disability is taken to mean that the sufferer is unclean—which is true in several other religions. In a nutshell, you must have wronged God to be inflicted with disability. Reading keenly through Surah Abasa, there appears to be an effort, though somehow cleverly suppressed, to blame the blind man for his condition. And there is certainly a limited chance of purification or healing, as evidenced by the degree of pessimism exuded by the prophet Mohammed because apparently, it is for Allah to decide whether to heal the blind man or not.

The question of faith

This brings us to the bedrock of any religion—faith. It’s common knowledge that all religions are anchored on some kind of believability. And this is where the aspect of faith quickly comes into play. Without faith, there can never be a religion and this is an indisputable fact. It becomes interesting to note the prophet’s much faith concerning the possibility of the blind man being pardoned for his uncleanliness and consequently healed. This raises the joyous fact that the prophet is merciful just like the Almighty Allah. His much faith is exemplary and a challenge to every Muslim, owing to his position in the faith and the Qur’an.

Literary style

Surah Abasa is also notable for its use of paradoxical statements. For instance, the prophet Mohammed is said to give attention to “. . . he who thinks himself without need.”  Furthermore, the prophet is said to be distracted from anyone who comes to him striving for knowledge while fearing Allah. This is mind-boggling and thus barely makes any sense. But like with any other literary piece of work, the paradox presented in Surah Abasa of the Qur’an calls for a keen reading in order to realize a deeper understanding of the hidden meaning in the text. There is a potential risk of misinterpretation.

The beautiful poetic touch to Surah Abasa cannot go unmentioned. The entire chapter is written in short sentences that carry weighty punch lines with hidden meanings. Take for instance the following lines that appear in quick succession from verses 33-37: ‘But when there comes the deafening blast/ On the day a man will flee from his brother/ And his mother and his father/ And his wife and his children/ For every man, that day, will be a matter adequate for him.’ This makes for an interesting and quick reading.

The fate of man

The Surah Abasa resonates with the message that the fate of man was long decided before his creation. The same can be said of several other religions out there. This chapter offers an interesting analysis of the origin of man as it acknowledges the sperm as the beginning of life. This boldness is outstanding for a religious book considered holy. But soon controversy erupts when it is stated that the creator causes the death of man and “. . . provides a grave for him.” This is unlike the benevolent character a majority of people have of their creator and begs the tricky question: why create something then kill it? Is this not wickedness? But on further retrospect, the message becomes clear—Almighty Allah doesn’t condone sin; he therefore isn’t a liar for what is written is surely what happens to man.

Through chapter 80 of the Qur’an, it becomes clear that like many other religions, Islam also believes in an afterlife. This is evidenced in verse 22 where it states that ‘then when he wills, He will resurrect him.’ An interesting point of concern soon shows up in the same verse 22. Note the use of ‘wills’. It is indisputable that the fate of a Muslim is subject to the will of his creator. It doesn’t matter what you did in your life; the creator could pardon or condemn you anyway. This is a sharp departure from a majority of faiths where one’s deeds in life decide their fate in the afterlife.

The shortcomings of man are laid bare in the Surah Abasa. Man is presented as a weak creation who doesn’t accomplish what his creator commanded him. Again, man is presented as disbelieving and is consequently cursed. The creator is nevertheless merciful for he eases the way for man, his weak creation, before causing his death and providing him with a grave.

Unlike what some people think, Islam is not all about doom and gloom. For instance, in Surah Abasa of the Qur’an, man is highly encouraged to enjoy the pleasures of eating a wide range of food that grows on the soil of the earth for there will come a time when he won’t find any joy in eating. Grazing animals are equally encouraged to join in the feast. We can take this to be the Islamic meaning of life—enjoying simple pleasures such as different kinds of food.

The Surah Abasa talks of a ‘deafening blast’ and great terror that will visit man in its wake. This is certainly Armageddon and serves to tell us that in Islam, there is also a day of great reckoning and judgment just like in some other faiths. On this day, the Qur’an through its chapter 80 describes how family ties will mean nothing as it will be every man for himself. The jubilation of believers and the doom of sinners are well put into context through a vivid description of their facial expressions in verses 38-42: ‘some faces that day will be bright—laughing, rejoicing at good news. And other faces, that day, will have upon them dust. Blackness will cover them. Those are the disbelievers, the wicked ones.’

Other scholars’ commentaries on the Qur'an

In note 4 (Qur’an ref: 26:4), Islamic scholar Muhammad Asad comes out strongly in stating that even though man’s faith is the product of a free will and not compulsion, a “message from the skies” can as well take away the freedom that comes with the free will granted to man by his creator. This suggests the element of force being used as a tool of conversion of any unbeliever to Islam. But a lot of care should be exercised here not to misinterpret the ‘taking away of the free will’. One should be extremely careful to note that it is only ‘a message from the skies’ that can take away the so called free will of man. This means that it is only Allah who can force the conversion of non believers and no one else. The forcing is for the benefit of the non believer since Allah doesn’t want anyone to perish.

Abu’l Ala Mawdudi, another celebrated Muslim scholar, in his analysis of Surah Abasa supports prophet Mohammed’s treatment of the poor blind man with contempt for interrupting his conversation with the ‘big chiefs’, for which Allah expressed displeasure. But it should not be lost that the prophet was also human and prone to some human weakness like anger. In his glowing tribute to the prophet’s actions, Abu’l Ala Mawdudi argues that ‘. . . when a caller to Truth embarks on his mission of conveying his message to the people, he naturally wants the most influential people of society to accept his message so that his task becomes easy, for even if his invitation spreads among the poor and weak people, it cannot make much difference.’

To be honest, the difference between Abu’l Ala Mawdudi and Muhammad Asad’s interpretation of the Qur’an is quite significant. Asad posits that force can be used as a tool of conversion of non believers to Islam. But this privilege is only Allah’s. On the contrary though, Mawdudi argues from a coercion point of view. He believes in talking a non believer into accepting out of their own free will the Islamic faith. The sharp contrast between these two scholars interpretation of the Qur’an is certainly a product of personal opinion and religious conviction. Muhammad Asad comes out as somehow more radicalized than Mawdudi. 

Conclusion

Chapter 80 is a great piece in the Qur’an—a breath of fresh air in the whole chaos that is jumbled up interpretation of the Qur’an and Islam as a religion. It offers us a commendable insight into one of the most controversial religions on earth. Even though in a sneak preview, Surah Abasa quickly glides through the condition of man and his ultimate fate and serves to further heighten the interest in Islam. Furthermore, it helps clear the air about some of the contentious issues surrounding Islam—certainly, there is punishment for the wicked in Islam.

Kenyan Youth Despondency and the Question of Female Nudity

An anonymous woman in a miniskirt. Just how short is too short? Image courtesy fashionbyhe.com

That a group of young people, can for whatever reason, conspire to undress a woman is not only evil but highly reeks of hopelessness and a lack of excitement in the perpetrator’s lives. The creepy allure to humiliate an innocent woman and violate her privacy is something I find completely incomprehensible. Inasmuch as we would like to heap all the blame on the women for their strange choice of dress that barely leaves imagination any chance, the fact that some men think it’s their prerogative to set the dressing standards for ladies casts the entire society in very bad light and brings to question the community’s values.

Me thinks the real issue is not with the dressing; actually, this whole lunacy has all the hallmarks of a corrupted mind that has taken more than its enough share of beatings from a defunct social system. From grinding unemployment to lack of proper role models, the life of an average Kenyan youth has barely nothing to smile about. And so, what we are witnessing now is just a regurgitation of what the society fed its youth—when we think it’s funny to be caught with another man’s wife in some dingy lodging, then we outrightly lose the moral ground on which to stand and guide ‘the lost generation’ that is now disrobing our mothers and sisters in matatu termini in broad daylight while gladly filming and sharing the disgusting clips on phones and the internet.

Unless we identify and listen to the voice of reason amongst us again, then what we are seeing is just but the beginning of the beginning—the end is certainly nowhere near sight. Soon it will be women taking men’s trousers off in our markets. And where will this place our children? They will probably grow to think that dysfunction is normal; in other words, I won’t be shell shocked if people in the foreseeable future resort to walking all naked and showing their you-know-what because we’re a society so much preoccupied with matters erotology!

But there is still room for retribution and redemption. Let’s just reverse our social system back to where it ought to be. Let’s create more jobs than scandals and empower our young men who idle about bus stops preying on curvy women whose only crime is being successful and sophisticated. It’s time we put this negative energy into some good use.

Al-Shabaab Has Stretched its Luck Too Far Now

A past bus attack in Nairobi blamed on Al-Shabaab. Six people died. Image courtesy NationalPost.

A few hours ago, militiamen whose strike eerily mirrors Al-Shabaab’s signature attacks, gunned down 28 innocent travelers on a Nairobi bound bus from Mandera town in North Eastern Kenya. In what is bound to spark tearful memories of the Westgate Mall attack, it is reported that those who died were unable to recite some Qur’an verses as demanded by the attackers. 

In a country where freedom of worship is enshrined in the constitution, this Al-Shabaab joke has now gone too far and must be stopped. It absolutely flies in the face of reason to kill another person just because they don’t subscribe to your school of thought. What’s even more insulting is the fact that these were innocent Kenyans who have not offended the Somali group in any known way.

Al-Shabaab is a terrorist organization that uses religion as a façade to quench its demonic thirst for human blood. Who told you there is a heavenly reward for murderers? With an inexplicable agenda that indiscriminately targets innocent civilians, Al-Shabaab has ultimately proved itself a cowardly organization that is desperate for cheap attention. 

The Kenyan government must now move and act. Corrupt government officials who make our borders porous to these criminals must face the sack and be jailed. Tribalism within the echelon of Kenyan intelligence service must be arrested with immediate effect. Police reforms must be instituted and actualized or tomorrow might never come for some of us as Al-Shabaab holds the country at ransom.

As we mourn and soul-search, I hope that someone gets arrested, charged and convicted; at least this once. As for the Interior Ministry’s CS, kindly spare us your rigmarole this time around—Mr. President, we need to see real heads rolling.

Adolf Hitler: The Testament of Evil?

A visibly agitated Hitler giving one of his infamous speeches. Image courtesy germanartgallery.eu

He left the darkest marks of any human being on the recent history of the modern world. Besides that, he left the ugliest scars that run much deeper than acceptable in millions of lives today. Now dead and gone, Adolf Hitler remains the solid testament to the reality that given chance, man can be worse than the devil.

It is common opinion that you cannot separate Adolf Hitler from the second world war—a war that literally brought the world to its knees. An aggressive and over-zealous militant ruler, Hitler wanted to restore German dominance in Europe, lost in Germany’s humiliating defeat in WW1.  This could only be attained by violating the treaty of Versailles that had among other things, reduced Germany’s size by one eighth and its population by 6.5 million people. Since Hitler wanted to bring all German speaking people under one umbrella of a greater Germany, he saw the need to assert German hegemony over smaller and weaker states. And so, it was against this background that Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. 

Buoyed by the ease with which he took over Poland, in the same month of September, Hitler made a move on Belgium, an invasion that led to the outbreak of the WW11 as Britain and France joined in to defend Belgium and Italy joined Germany’s side. By far the most costly war in terms of human life, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the material cost of WW11 far transcends that of the rest of history’s wars put together!

But it is certainly the holocaust that secured Hitler a legacy of contempt and bore out his disturbing capacity for evil. Initially a failed artist from the Austro-Hungarian Empire before joining the army and eventually rising through the ranks to rule Germany, Hitler was a gifted orator who easily talked his way into the hearts and minds of the German people barely out of the greatest depression crisis. 

An acclaimed raptor of emotions, Hitler brainwashed his audience into believing that the Jews were the sole cause of the German’s economic woes. This is how Hitler successfully turned a personal vendetta against Jews into a national issue and made it regrettable to be a Jew in Germany, back then. A majority of the citizenry won over and even praising him as their ‘saviour’, Hitler was soon in all his pride and glory opening up concentration camps where 6 million Jews were rounded up and gassed to death. But not every German agreed with Hitler’s vision of a pure German race. It’s on record that there were several unsuccessful attempts made on Hitler’s life in a bid to stop him, when it occurred to the military elite that a selfish lunatic had usurped all powers that be and was steering Germany to complete ruin.

But then again, just like every cloud has a silver lining, so did Hitler have a side of him that wasn’t all that gloom after all. Apparently, Hitler had a deep passion for the automobile that ultimately led to the birth of the ubiquitous classic Volkswagen Beetle car. Although the British are much credited with making this funny little car known to the world during their West Germany occupation after WW11, Hitler arguably long envisioned motorizing the masses before he went all berserk. And in Ferdinand Porsche, he found the stroke of engineering genius that gave the world the beetle—a car so simple yet solid that would soon outperform Ford’s Model T and become the first car ever to sell twenty million units.

Hitler inspecting a convertable Volkswagen Beetle car. Volkswagen would later experience marketing headaches once real mass production began after WW11 and under British watch due to the car's undeniable ties to the late Nazi Germany dictator. Image courtesy germanartgallery.eu

Whether some people are born evil or the world makes them evil is open to conjecture. But whatever made Hitler so evil—a man who found great relish in human pain and suffering is for anyone’s guess. Some people suggest that the answers are in the pages of Mein Kampf (My Struggle)—a book Hitler wrote in the 1920s advocating for the rearmament and reunion of all German-speaking people into a greater Germany.

His was politics of deception and extermination; a totalitarian ruler who rode on a dubious wave of ethnicity, tyranny and a cult of personality that should never be emulated anywhere again in the world. To most people, he remains a despicable figure of history—a man who absolutely wasted his talents.