Crucial corrections on Karen Armstrong's Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time)

[Guest guest]

> (p.21) AFTERWARDS HE FOUND IT almost impossible to describe the

> experience that sent him running in anguish down the rocky hillside

> to his wife. It seemed to him that a devastating presence had burst

> into the cave where he was sleeping and gripped him in an

> overpowering embrace,...

> He had this vision during the month of Ramadan, 610 CE. Later

> Muhammad would call it 'layla al-qadr' (the " Night of Destiny " )

> because it had made him the messenger of Allah, the high god of

> Arabia.

>

> Muhammad (Prophet For Our Time)

> Chapter 1, 'Mecca', p. 21-29

> Karen Armstrong

>

 

Three crucial corrections are necessary here:

 

i) Prophet Muhammad was meditating, not sleeping in the cave. This

fact must be established as daily meditation is absolutely required

for those wishing to take part in the present Al-Qiyamah.

 

" In the historical context, it is well known that the Prophet

Muhammad received his initial revelation in a cave on Mt. Hira where

he used to retire for meditation. It was in the solitude of this

place that he was blessed with the first auditions which forced him

to go into the world and preach what he had learned: the constant

change between the khalwa, the lonely place of meditation in the dark

cave, undisturbed in his concentration upon God, and the jilwa, the

need and duty to promulgate the Divine word that he had heard, was to

remain for the Muslims—a spiritual movement of whose necessity Iqbal

reminds the believers of our time…

 

The Prophet's example of retiring into the cave was imitated by a

number of mystics who lived for long periods in caves. The extremely

narrow cave in which Sharafuddin Maneri of Bihar (d. 1381) spent

several decades of his life is only one of the numerous examples of

this pious custom; Muhammad Ghawth Gwaliorf (d. 1562) also belongs to

the Sufis who, year after year, performed their meditation in a cave,

to emerge in the end filled with an overwhelming spiritual energy.

The experience of the arba'in, chilla, khalwat, forty days'

meditation in a narrow, dark room or a subterranean place, belongs

here as well. The intimacy of the experience of God's proximity in

such a khalwa could lead the pious to address Him in prayer as `On

Cave of them that seek refuge!' " (Deciphering the signs of God: a

phenomenological approach to Islam, Annemarie Schimmel, pages 48-9)

 

Note: i consider this correction crucial for Muslims understanding

that the present Al Qadr (Night of Power Destiny) is rooted in

meditation. Only in meditation can one feel the Winds of Qiyamah

issuing from within themselves, and know for a surety that the body

is daily undergoing a very subtle resurrection. Those surrendering to

His Call are empowered to resurrect themselves, and that is why the

Night of Power is better than a thousand months wherein come down the

angels and the Spirit by Allah's permission, on every errand.

 

 

ii) there was no month of Ramadan in 610 CE as the Quran was still to

be revealed and Islam established;

 

O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed

to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint,- (Fasting)

for a fixed number of days; but if any of you is ill, or on a

journey, the prescribed number (Should be made up) from days later.

For those who can do it (With hardship), is a ransom, the feeding of

one that is indigent. But he that will give more, of his own free

will,- it is better for him. And it is better for you that ye fast,

if ye only knew.

Ramadhan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur'an, as a guide

to mankind, also clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment (Between

right and wrong). So every one of you who is present (at his home)

during that month should spend it in fasting, but if any one is ill,

or on a journey, the prescribed period (Should be made up) by days

later. Allah intends every facility for you; He does not want to put

to difficulties. (He wants you) to complete the prescribed period,

and to glorify Him in that He has guided you; and perchance ye shall

be grateful.

 

Quran 2:183-185

 

Why then do the ulema on one hand claim that Ramadan was practiced,

and with the other contradict and condemn it as jahiliyyah (The Time

of Ignorance)? And who were the inhabitants that these Muslim

scholars claim were enlightened enough to fast:

 

" The desert Arabs loved fighting and plunder, and understood such

motives for war. The higher motives seemed to be beyond them. Like

ignorant men they attributed petty motives or motives of jealousy if

they were kept out of the vulgar circle of fighting for plunder. "

 

Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an, Amana Corporation, 1989, p. 1332.

 

" Before Islam, the tribes of Arabia were notorious for their

corruption and depravity: they buried female infants for the fear of

false shame; they fought with each other over small things; after the

death of their fathers, they took their mothers as their property and

made them their own wives; they kicked the women out of their homes,

when they did not need them, without even a formal divorce; they

dishonored and oppressed women; and no crime was too small for them.

In that society that we call Jahiliya, or society of ignorance, Islam

came as a beacon to lead them out of the darkness to a new future. "

 

Dr. Shahid Athar, Millennium - An Islamic Perspective

(Presented Nov 20, 1995 at the Millennium & Religions Conference in

Chicago by Parliament of Worlds Religion.)

 

 

iii) Muhammad never called it 'layla al-qadr' (the " Night of

Destiny " ).

 

i have no idea where Karen Armstrong got that information from, as

even Muslim scholars have never mentioned that. In fact this is the

first time i am hearing that Prophet Muhammad said so, as over the

years i have never come across any evidence of that.

 

The Ummah has been falsely led to believe that Laylatul Qadr (The

Night of Power) is the night that God first sent down the first

verses of the Qur'an via the Spirit of Revelation Gabriel, to

Muhammad when he was forty years old. This is a centuries-old false

concept that has entered and firmly entrenched itself in the Muslim

mindset. Even Allah's (SWT) confirmation that Ramadan was the month

the Quran was sent down is conveniently forgotten! There is

absolutely no mention of Al Qadr, the Night of Power and Destiny!

 

Muslim scholars are unable to explain the relationship between the

commencement of revelation during Ramadan to the Night of Power i.e.,

how does it actually empower humans? Till today it still remains a

mysterious, unspecific day during Ramadan. They have just assumed the

month of Ramadan and Al Qadr is one and the same, even though logic

and revelation dictates otherwise.

 

You may read the full text at:

 

http://www.al-qiyamah.org/al_qadr_night_of_power.htm