The Family Feud

Nov. 22, 2006

It all started more than 1,400 years ago...
Imagine an infant born in 569 in old Arabia. Since his father had died a
few months earlier, he was given to a Bedouin foster mother to be raised
as a nomad in the desert. She died when he was six. Passed from one poor
relative to another, young Muhammad began to earn his own living at the
age of eight as a shepherd. By age 10, he journeyed in a camel caravan to
Syria with his uncle. It was the start of his career as a merchant. He
soon became known for his honesty, charisma and kindness.
At the time, Arabia was a desert land of pagans and idolators. No one
knows much about Muhammad’s religious beliefs until he was about 35 years
old, but it’s said that he never worshipped idols. He was reportedly kind
to orphans, the poor and widows in need. Like his grandfather, he spent
the entire month of Ramadan in a cave in the Mountain of Light, fasting,
praying and meditating on the problems of life in Arabia. He shared what
little food he had with people passing by.
At the age of 40, about five years into his yearly retreat, the Archangel
Gabriel visited Muhammad and said that God (Allah) had chosen him to be
his messenger to all mankind. Over the next 23 years, Muhammad received
messages from God through Gabriel which he wrote down in a holy book
called the Qur’an.
Allah told Muhammad to call his religion Islam, which means “submission to
the will of God.” The new religion would have two themes: harmony between
the material world and the soul; and that all believers would be equals
without any regard for class, race or country.
He started preaching secretly at first to friends and members of his own
tribe, and then openly in cities such as Mecca. But even pagans don’t
like others stepping on their beliefs, and Muhammad’s followers were
considered a threat to the status quo. Soon, the followers of the Prophet
were tortured and persecuted -- stretched on burning sands in shackles and
branded with blazing irons. Muhammad advised his followers to flee Mecca
and he moved his act to the city of Medina. But this only made the sheiks
of Mecca angrier.
Among his many adventures, Muhammad had a vision that he was lifted to
heaven for a visit with God. He and Gabriel toured heaven and hell,
visiting the prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus. He returned from this
ascension with a divine gift: a prayer called the “salaat” which offers
communion between the human race and God.
Through all this, Muhammad and his growing band of followers were
terrorized by the rulers of Mecca. Over the course of 10 years, there were
many battles throughout Arabia. Unlike the religions of Jesus or Buddha,
the birth of Islam was marked by the flash of scimitars, charging camels,
rivers of blood and the siege of sandstone castles. Eventually, Muhammad
and his followers triumphed, conquering Mecca, unifying Arabia, and
converting many pagans, Christians and Jews to Islam with a
like-it-or-lump-it offer that few could refuse.
Here’s what the Prophet Muhammad said he believed in, delivered in a
famous sermon to 140,000 of his followers in his hajj, or pilgrimage to
Mecca:
“Belief in One God without images or symbols, equality of all the
Believers without distinction of race or class, the superiority of
individuals being based solely on piety; sanctity of life, property and
honor; abolition of interest, and of vendettas and private justice; better
treatment of women; obligatory inheritance and distribution of the
property of deceased persons among near relatives of both sexes, and
removal of the possibility of the cumulation of wealth in the hands of the
few.”
Muhammad left the earth in 632 at the age of 63, happy in the knowledge
that he had created a progressive, enlightened religion that worshipped
one God. In those medieval times, mixing religion with government
produced a well-organized society out of the chaos of tribal Arabia.
But things quickly fell apart after Muhammad’s death. A group of Muslims
who called themselves Sunnis believed that Muhammad’s rightful successor
was his best friend, Abu Bakr, who was elected to the post by Muslim
leaders. Another group, who called themselves the Shia, believed that the
leadership of Islam belonged to the Prophet’s descendents, beginning with
his cousin and son-in-law Ali.
Those religious differences grew through 1,400 years of doctrinaire
squabbles.
That’s why today, the Sunnis and Shiites of Iraq kidnap and terrorize each
other with death squads. It’s why they use electric drills on their
captives and carve religious slogans on their bodies before dumping them
into the streets to be found by their horrified families. It’s what all
the beheadings and car bombings, rapes, and riots over cartoons are about:
because 1,400 years ago, people couldn’t agree on whether Muhammad’s best
friend should take over the family business or whether his son-in-law
should get the job.
Some religion, huh? Imagine Anglicans murdering Lutherans, or Protestants
massacring Catholics with the same sort of zeal.
Well, come to think of it, that’s just what happened for hundreds of years
back in old Europe. And that’s why our Founding Fathers engraved the
Constitution with the dictum that the new land of America would have
nothing to do with mixing religion and government.
Today, Muslims still memorize the Quar’an, fast during Ramadan, and make a
pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life, just like the Prophet
Muhammad. But it’s also true that they’re still stuck back in the
medieval times of old Arabia with their mix of government and religion,
which wiser heads have since learned is not a good way to go.
This little rundown on the life of the Prophet Muhammad is courtesy of a
writer named Muhammad Hamidullah who jotted these lines in Paris in 1969.
He made the following points about religious leaders such as Muhammad,
Buddha, Jesus and Moses, who tried to reform the world only to see their
good work perverted by their followers:
“Two points are to note,” wrote Hammidullah. “Firstly, these reformers
claimed in general to be the bearers each of a divine mission, and they
left behind them sacred books incorporating codes of life for the guidance
of their peoples. Secondly, there followed fratricidal wars, and massacres
and genocides became the order of the day, causing more or less a complete
loss of these divine messages.”
That sure seems to be true in Iraq.