Muslims worship Muhammad…

[Pazuzu bin Hanbi]

OK, now no muslim would state that they worship Muhammad. They may even believe that they worship Allah alone, but their actions and creedal testimonies put Muhammad in a position that other religions reserve for God. Even Yeshua‘ in the Bible, and ancient Assyrians, as well as other pagan groups, exhorted that we as people imitate God to achieve the Good Life. Yeshua‘, for example, repeatedly states that people should copy God’s sense of mercy, justice, etc. Muslims, however, do their utmost to emulate Muhammad.

A couple of quotes. The first from the excellent contemporary scholarly book called Muslims: Their religious beliefs and practices by Andrew Rippin (don’t let the title fool you — he delves deep into the various elements that have combined to form Islam from its pre–history to the present day and includes current scholarship on Islam, challenging traditionally–accepted views on Islamic ‘history’):

While Muslims may think those who deny the existence of God or who utter blasphemies about Him are misguided, such discussions will not offend in the same manner in which discussions over Muhammad will. Those who insinuate evil of Muhammad or who cast aspersions on him are considered to be insulting Islam. This, upon consideration, is not surprising.

I know this myself, from having grown up in an Islamic community. It means muslims put Muhammad at the centre of Islam, not Allah! And the reactions Rippin notes above made me recall a passage I read in an autobiographical work by Ziauddin Sardar, a well–written and witty, not to mention interesting, book called Desperately Seeking Paradise. In this extract Sardar details his reaction to reading Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses:

Rushdie had plundered everything I hold dear and despoiled the inner sanctum of my identity. Every word was directed at me and I took everything personally. This is how, I remember thinking, it must feel to be raped… The life of the Prophet Muhammad is the source of Muslim identity. Muslims do not merely emulate his character and personality and follow his sayings and actions: it is the Prophet Muhammad who provides them with the ultimate reason for being a Muslim.

I do wonder if he or others would react like this if someone spoke out against Allah as opposed to Muhammad. Presented for your consideration: the reaction of muslims worldwide to the Danish cartoons (nobody lampooned Allah, only Muhammad), and the case of the Teddy Bear Named Muhammad (I recall some sources referring to this as ‘blasphemy’ — surely only a crime against God ranks as blasphemy?).

[carolineislands]

As I said in an earlier post, I almost converted to Islam this past year. Before that I had investigated the religion pretty thoroughly. One of the things that disturbed me even in the early time of my learning about Islam was the obvious worship of the Prophet Muhammed. I observed the sames things you talk about in your post -- that when questioned most Muslims will say that they do NOT worship Muhammed, but only worship Allah, and yet they so obviously DO.

The requirement for becoming a Muslim is to say the Shahada. In text concerning the method to convert to Islam you will find things like this:

“Whoever testifies that there in none worthy of being worshipped but God, Who has no partner, and that Muhammad is His slave and Prophet, and that Jesus is the Slave of God, His Prophet, and His word[1] which He bestowed in Mary and a spirit created from Him; and that Paradise (Heaven) is true, and that the Hellfire is true, God will eventually admit him into Paradise, according to his deeds.”

And yet, in over a year of researching Islam and speaking to Muslims I never heard the Shahada recited as anything other than this:

"There is no God but God and Muhammed is his messenger."

I asked if it was necessary to add the part about Muhammed and they ALWAYS were very emphatic that is was INDEED IMPERATIVE. But why do you say messenger in the singular -- as though he were the only one? I would ask. And I always got pretty much the same response, that he was the LAST and most important prophet of God because he carried the message of the Quran.

On one Muslim forum I asked if Muhammed was infallible. It got many responses, I can tell you. Although he was human, God protected him from sin. He was capable of making mistakes but God protected him from that. So yes, he was perfect.

The sunnah and hadiths are what I believe elevated Muhammed to a godlike status. That is the structure by which all Muslims emulate everything the Prophet ever did or said. A person will actually ask their Imam whether or not to wear a wedding ring and on which finger they are allowed to wear it. How did the Prophet do? There is a certain way to wash yourself before prayers and every motion is dictated just as Muhammed did it. It's amazing the extent a Muslim goes to emulate Muhammed -- not Allah.

That just gave me the creeps. When you listen to the call to prayer, even though it is Arabic you can pick out the words Allah and Muhammed. Everything about him is emulated to the finest detail... even how to wash yourself in the bathroom.

It has been my experience that, even though most Muslims will tell you they do NOT worship Muhammed, their actions prove that they DO. They will tell you that he was the best human being that ever lived. Better than Adam, Moses, Abraham, David and Jesus... better than any of them. And that a Muslim has to emulate him in everything they do, say, or think.

Now, that's worship, don't you think?

[carolineislands]

I have heard so many times that every Muslim believes that God has no partner and yet I never hear one of them mention Allah without mentioning Muhammed right after. And in their teachings, you will hear MUCH more about Muhammed than about Allah.

[Pazuzu bin Hanbi]

I agree with you there completely, Caroline! In fact, if you read through the Qur’an you find plenty of passages where it expresses obeying God as ‘obeying God and His Messenger’. One section — I’ll reference it later when I have some free time to pore through my Qur’an and find it — involves letting God deal with a problem… through his Messenger.

The orthodox view (disputed heavily by the sect known as the “Qur’an–alone”rs) does state that the Shahadah (testimony of faith, equivalent to a Christian creed) needs both parts for completion: declaring that no divinity exists other than Allah, and that he has The Messenger called Muhammad.

I think one of the things that stopped me ever praying fully every day consisted of my bewilderment at the necessity of having to recite something called the ‘Tashahhud’. Instead of reserving prayers for God alone, the ritual and mandatory prayers feature a section where you HAVE TO heap supplications upon Abraham and Muhammad. For this please see this link: http://qss.org/articles/salah/13.html#RTFToC3

The above shows the NECESSITY of reciting these supplications as a part of prayer, the wording of the supplication itself detailed just underneath it, followed by another section called ‘sending prayers on the Prophet’. Again, let me point out that these form a mandatory part of a muslim’s ritual worship of God!

[carolineislands]

I know that no religion is perfect. They have all gone through changes and problems and have had radical maniacs at the helm during large parts of their history. Many atrocities have been done in the name of religion. As I said before, there are many beautiful ideas in Islam and if Islam was practiced as it is purported to be it would be a religion I could believe in (minus the lack of respect for Jesus). But the sad truth is that (as is also often true with Christianity) what it is purported to be is not what's practiced. My advice to anyone considering Islam is to take your time and dig deep. What you will get initially on the surface is not what's underneath.

[Pazuzu bin Hanbi]

Hey, just a quick one for you: why do you say Islam does not respect Jesus? I know that muslims greatly respect and revere Jesus — they simply don’t respect the New Testament version of Jesus. They deny the divinity of Jesus and do not believe he died on a cross — but respect him they do!

Unless you think that only the New Testament has exclusive claims on Yeshua‘?

[carolineislands]

Hey, just a quick one for you: why do you say Islam does not respect Jesus? I know that muslims greatly respect and revere Jesus — they simply don’t respect the New Testament version of Jesus. They deny the divinity of Jesus and do not believe he died on a cross — but respect him they do!

Unless you think that only the New Testament has exclusive claims on Yeshua‘?

I didn't mean to say that Muslims don't respect Jesus at all -- I thought I said a LACK of respect. By that I mean that you hardly ever hear about Jesus except in the list of prophets, whereas you hear about Muhammed almost every time you hear Allah. The other thing that makes me feel a lack of respect of Jesus is the Shahada -- "There is no God but God and Muhammed is his messenger." To me, that denotes a singular messenger. It's not even that he ws the last of the messengers or is one of the messengers -- he is THE messenger.

For me, that gives little regard for the position of Jesus. As so many other things in Islam that turned me cold, it was always told to me by Muslims as one thing, i.e. that Jesus is revered and believed to be the Messiah, etc. but in the practice it was a very different situation. I almost never heard anything about Jesus except for situations where a Muslim was trying to convert a Christian.

That was my experience anyhow.

Thanks for your comment.

Respect!

[Pazuzu bin Hanbi]

The Muslim Jesus. I managed to buy this for very cheap at a charity shop. Not only does it contain interesting stories about Islamic views on Jesus, it paints a picture of the living and breathing traditions which existed in Islam about Jesus, and an extremely insightful and secular introductory article by the editor Tarif Khalidi.

[carolineislands]

existed, as in past tense? Does that mean they are no longer practiced?

You're making me spend too much money on amazon.com! My husband is going to kill me.

[Pazuzu bin Hanbi]

More sort of traditional stories that did the rounds from various sources. You can think of them, fairly accurately in fact, as Ahadith of Jesus!

And hey, why not try and track some of these down at your local library before buying them online???