The Rubbish we are fed
There is a program on DhiFM that is broadcast around the ungodly Ramazan hour of 8:30 am everyday that might as well have been titled "The Golden Bullshit". The program is actually titled "Ran Galan", or "Golden Pen" in English.
Apparently the contents of the program - fairytales and myths about various prophets and the prophet Muhammad from Islamic (and Biblical) history - is based on a book by a local author I suspect to be the famous B.A Naseem who, it should be noted, based the book on hadith among other sources.
Let me put it this way: I've never heard such preposterous lies, rubbish and hatred aired on radio, ever! For this sort of nonsense to be digested one has to have had a lobotomy or be on every known hallucinogenic drug - or preferably both at the same time.
The episode describing some of the miracles of the prophet as a child is both nauseating and very amusing in its obvious fabrication. It would've been quite funny and totally amusing if this wasn't supposed to be taken seriously.
First, let me put this clearly and honestly: there is little or no "history" of the prophet Muhammad prior to his visions and subsequent call to be prophet at age 40. So, how it is possible that there is clear history of him as a child is beyond belief. But that's exactly what this kind of program (and the source book) is designed for: to create fairytales and mold the mind into believing rubbish.
In this particular episode the child prophet is traveling from one town to the other and some observers are quoted as saying that they saw a cloud following the caravan directly between the prophet and the sun and thereby keeping him from the scorching heat of the Arabian desert sun. And when they stopped to rest at some oasis the trees bent their branches so that the boy prophet was shaded and therefore protected form the sun.
Clouds and trees that defy nature! Boy who doesn't know to sit under a shade in the first place! All miraculous rubbish!. I suppose under the scorching sun of Arabia these types of things were everyday events because until he was 40 years old, no one seems to have given the prophet or moving clouds and trees much attention.
Then came the best part. It seems one day the prophet was playing with his adopted parent's son outside when two men in white robes (some say it was just Gibreel) appeared from nowhere and kidnapped the child prophet, slit open his chest, took out his heart, removed some black stuff from it, washed the heart in golden water, put it back in and closed him up! Breathtaking stuff, I tell you!
Apparently the black stuff they removed from the heart was the drop of the original sin that every human is born with, thanks to Adam. Notice even back then everything that's bad and offensive is described as black and not as, say, yellow or green? Anyway, devoid of this stuff the child prophet was pure for life. Or was he?
Now, I'd like this black stuff removed from me too but I'd like it to be removed from my brain, where I do all the thinking - sinful or not. No, I do not "think" with my heart and that is a fact that has been proven beyond a molecule of doubt.
So why does it say that the angel removed this stuff from the prophet's heart, you ask? Well, back in those days, the heart was thought to be the seat of all human imagination, thoughts and soul. I suppose the angels were uninformed as to the real location of our mental processes. So with the wrong black stuff removed, the child prophet goes back to daily routines.
Awe-inspiring stuff! Muslim minds are trained to think like little children. Don't ask questions, mom and dad are always right. And if you ask questions you'll end up being spanked because mom and dad don't want you to know certain things. So we are forced to believe any rubbish however illogical and stupid it maybe to us.
What bothers me most is how this kind of bullshit nonsense is readily accepted by even highly educated people. The problem of the heart surgery mentioned above goes against all known scientific facts of today. And yet this is printed in books and broadcast on public radio for general consumption. Are these just fables and tales of Arabia any truer than Jack and beanstalk or sleeping beauty?
Wait, there's more. In another episode describing prophetic signs of judgment day the narrator, quite coolly, talks at considerable length about a hadith explicitly calling for the mass murder of all Jews by Muslims. "Behind me is a Jew hiding", talking trees and rocks reminiscent of Lord of the Rings fantasy will say to the Muslims, "come and kill him". It is said that the end will not come until Muslims will find all the Jews and slaughter them. This is related by al-Bukhari and Moslem! I cringed and felt sick as I heard this call for genocide read out so coolly as if it wasn't a big deal! And mind you, this stuff is on radio and children are listening to these.
It sickens me. One thing is absolutely clear though: we Maldivians do not know our own religion. Not one single bit! The majority of us Maldivians don't even know WTF is al-Bukhari and Moslem. It is just something, not sure what it is, they hear quite often when sheiks and scholars of religious people talk. We are like zombies living in some twisted fantasy. And in a sick way that is probably the reason why we still got our sanity intact and why most of us will not go and blow ourselves up into smithereens.
Thank god our brains are still in one piece where they have always been: inside our skulls and not in our chests.
haha | September 18, 2008 4:08 AM | Reply
hahaha. That is funny.
Having said that, I ask, dude why do you waste your time with this crap? As foolish as religion can be, you and your writings are just as stupid. Same story. Two sides. Write something that is actually useful and "read-worthy". I want my five minutes back.
Gasim Diet E | September 18, 2008 6:29 AM | Reply
I piece of public service. This hate should be stopped. Maybe start out with an E-petition. let us wreak havoc and on there ideologies.
Vadr Maseem | September 18, 2008 8:15 AM | Reply
Good one Simon.
I was sent to India at the age of 9 to study religion and stayed at a small village called Dabheel in Gujrat. This is where Adhaalath Hussain Rasheed etc... went to start their studies.
The first day of my life in Dabheel was so shocking and I am going to write only one incident alone in this blog.
I reached to the so called Jaamia' Thauleemathul Islaamiyya in the evening. Had dinner and hit the sack as fast as I could as we (bunch of Adduan's) traveld a long journey by train from Thiruvananthapuram.
At around 04.00am someone came, woke up all the boys and it looked as if a guard at a jail were waking up all the jail birds. We had 3 beds ( bunker ) and 6 boys in our room. I woke up and didn't know what to do, so I followed my roommates. We all had a bath and went straight to the mosque.
Everyone grabbed a Holy Quran from the mosque and sat on the floor in side the mosque. When I went inside the mosque I thought the boys inside the mosque were portraying a demo to show how a marine engine works. In an engine the piston moves up and down but here humans were shaking their heads up and down. I asked one of the boys why everyone was shaking their head in such a manner and he explained that there are a few reasons, and they are below
1 - When you do this you won't feel sleepy.
2 - When you do this you could memorize much faster.
I asked him what if I don't shake my head and he replied that it is a must. So I obeyed and sat and started shaking my head up and down and started to recite Quran. We were sitting in 10 to twelve long rows, each two rows facing each other. After about 10 minutes I could not keep my eyes on the book so I started to explore the mosque while shaking my head and pretending I was reciting. My lips were acting as If I were busily reciting page by page.
Imagine a kid at the age of nine in a situation like this for the first time in his life. I was so excited and shocked.
When I started to explore my surrounding the first thing I noticed were two elderly boys playing their private parts while reciting Quran. I was so shocked and I am still shocked and could not write anymore......
freethink-mv | September 18, 2008 8:38 AM | Reply
hmm i just cant believe people can believe that seriously
& the funny thing is they mock other religions
maybe its an atheist show being sarcastic o.O
al | September 18, 2008 9:32 AM | Reply
Simon, you are actually thanking "God"? WOW I find that more amusing that anything said prior.
MH | September 18, 2008 10:45 AM | Reply
the doctrine of Ramadan affecting Simon.
subcorpus | September 18, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply
when i saw the title in i thought you were gonna talk about something politics ...
good that it s not ...
bro ... we grew up listening to this ... learning that ...
the siyarath has some good stories too ... if you listen to it ...
i listen to it saying to myself that the moral of the story will be good and help make me a better person ...
Somebodies | September 18, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply
Simon: For you everything is crap or fairy tales! What i feel is you don't even believe in GOD, I have read almost all your writing and have seen your comments on others writings....I just came up with one thing...you act as if you know a lot of things and write bullshit..you try to convince others what you believe in and you simply have no faith in anything!
You said we Maldivians don't know our own religion? Well dude you are wrong! If what you mean is despite all your bullshitting there are still believers of Allah, then you are right!
Vadr Maseem: Well at the age of 9 you should be able to recite from Quran, I wonder why you had to act as if you were reading page by page. And about moving the head up and down, many people do it without even realizing that they are doing it....not only when they read Quran, even when they read other things....and about the elderly boys playing with there private parts,i don't believe you cause you didn't have the guts to say the full story!
Somebodies,
I'm getting tired of people deflecting the point of the original post. People can have faith in different things. I have faith in facts not some fantasy stories that is so far fetched from reality that it deserves an especially awesome kind of blind faith.
If having faith means believing in rubbish as mentioned in this post then by all means stay that way but don't bring your opinion about me to the comments. It doesn't make the rubbish somehow turn into truth. Over the 4 years I've had a lot of those.
The truth is you have nothing to say about what I've written here.
Ismail Rasheed | September 18, 2008 7:55 PM | Reply
The best brains,educated at the best universities around the world just revert to a programmed zombie when they come up against the mullahs. So the lies and deception continue.
I agree that Maldivians don't even know WTF is al-Bukhari and Moslem. If they did, they would shut up and stop reciting the nonsense.
googlePhone | September 18, 2008 9:06 PM | Reply
Why do you even bother, Simon? It's clearly evident you don't believe in certain things that others do. You need to control the urge of proving yourself as a "Know It All" or "Mr. I'm Always Right And All Others Are Wrong." If you cannot respect others' beliefs and freedoms, you can't expect everybody else to give you the same respect.
al | September 18, 2008 9:44 PM | Reply
googlephone,
Simon reserves the right to ridicule whoever and whatever he wants. Be it god, faiths, religions, prophets, everyone and everything that comes to his mind. No one else does.
Hes the "all knowing and all wise" :P
Imported Intelligence | September 18, 2008 10:36 PM | Reply
Let me start by saying that I am a devout muslim. AND that none of the stuff written by simon has changed my mind about the religion.
I do however agree that some of the stories included in the siyarath program are "planted" there to unnecessarily glorify our prophet. The true incidents, alone, are sufficient for me to believe in him being a messenger. We didm't need the added fairy tales.
Unlike Simon, I am however, as a believer and as a uni educated person, willing to accept that science is not absolute. If you'd spend a bit of time studying science itself, you'd find that science itself has, on several occasions changed its own past beliefs, which prior to such "new evidence" being presented was taken to be "absolute proof". I would, even if you'd call me as a lobectomised human, believe in Quranic stories of prophets life and event. The Hadith books are something different; not of divine origin and as such likely to have fallacies.
It is not Islam that is wrong. It is the bastardisation of it by the many fanatics of ages ago and of today too.
The "lonumedhu kafurutholhi" stories you describe are challenged by many an islamic scholar even today. It doesn't change the truth behind the religion itself.
We'd die to see the day the truth shall be revealed! Good luck on that day.
Simon | September 19, 2008 2:20 AM | Reply
googlephone,
I bother because it matters to me. Of course, I write what I write with the conviction that I am right. But then I have been proven wrong in many instances and in those cases I have admitted to being wrong.
I respect your right to believe in any nonsence you want but I do not have to respect those beliefs. If for instance it is your belief to make blood sacrifices to the moon every month do I have to respect that belief? No. Obvioustly not.
Al,
I'm telling you about factual inacuracies aired on radio to be taken very seriously. THe heart as center of thought etc. These are ridiculous and stupid stories with no truth in them. And yet for once you have not tried to think with that heart of yours and instead you're pulling a jab at me. I know, I know, It's easier. But at least use your god given heart to think.
Imported Intelligence,
Bravo, devout Muslim! You should get a medal for having read the translations of Quran and the ahadith.
I am not trying to change people's beliefs about their religion. Whenever I point out fallacies and factual errors and express my opinion people act like they got rocks in their skulls and their brains just fell to their chest. I do expect that but then I also expect some constructive criticisms.
And, science is not a "belief" system.
Islamic scholars challenge these fantasy stories? Where?
name | September 19, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply
good post.
and your retorts are always fun to read :D
athena | September 20, 2008 3:40 AM | Reply
This is a great post. Sometimes I feel like you are a person after my own heart. I simply don't have your talent for writing - wish I did.
I agree, we should take these stories as they are - Bullshit! they don't need to glorify the prophet by exergerrations or filthy lies. AND they should stop the hate mongering.
When I was growing up, I was alawys told that, Jews were bad, never to trust them, and if muslims could then they should kill them. Such Hatred! Such hatred should not be spread about a people or a race of people. And especially not on National Radio.
Is it anywonder why things are the way they are today?
And yeah, religion is still taboo, and people don't know what to think, and how to respond to posts like yours, anything that challenges that status quo, have people attacking you, or going in a nonsensical direction, like many of the people who posted a comment here.
I guess to put my 2 cents - you can be a good Maldivian, and heck even a good muslim, without resorting to listening to these fabrications.
Good on you Simon, someone needs to say it and you did.
ibbe | September 20, 2008 2:10 PM | Reply
Well said simon i totally agree with you.
let me point out a very funny thing that i have noticed in those syrath....you all have heard the stories where prophets friends were treated sooo inhumanly for converting to muslim in makaaaa...
"those bad bad bad kafaarun"......oook now what happened after Muhammad got power.ohh well who ever arent or doesn't wanna stay as Muslim got beheaded..great that's very kind // haha is this a joke
i do believe in a god...a creator
but not in these stupid fictitious stories...
yaamyn | September 20, 2008 7:20 PM | Reply
Good One. And well said!
saleem | September 21, 2008 1:42 AM | Reply
Its just like believing in ranamari and fulhi digu handi story.
hghgf | September 21, 2008 9:34 PM | Reply
Thank god our brains are still in ....
U THANKING GOD! i thought you are an atheist?
what are you and who are you and where do you come from and for what?
Shihab | September 23, 2008 5:21 AM | Reply
Interesting reading! I believe in respect, and not ridicule!
Islam is my religion. But that doesn't mean anything any Arab writes is Islam. The only authentic Islamic heritage is the Quran. Everything else is corrupted in varying degrees, by virtue of the fact that those who transferred the stories were "proud" of their ancestry, and they also belonged to one of two factions who fought a bitter and one of the bloodiest of wars in human history, to have the power to rule - after Prophet Muhammadh (PBUH) died.
I would have said the same things Simon has pointed out here in a different way. But that wouldn't be Simon. I believe that the blogsphere allows us all to express our opinions - and that need to be respected.
Shihab,
Respect calls for genocide? Don't be ridiculous man. This is the problem. When insults to human intelligence, call for genocide and other crackpot talk is part of religion then that somehow deserves respect? Tell me why.
"I would have said the same things Simon has pointed out here in a different way."
Come now, Shihab. You know you wouldn't be able to without making it completely vague.
n4mia | October 4, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply
QUOTE [Imported Intelligence]:
It is not Islam that is wrong. It is the bastardisation of it by the many fanatics of ages ago and of today too.
WARNING!: ISLAMIC APOLOGIST AT 12 o'clock.
WARNING!: ISLAMIC APOLOGIST AT 12 o'clock.
WARNING!: ISLAMIC APOLOGIST AT 12 o'clock.