what the fuck?
my head hurts

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rozaiba:
thanks for the lowdown on al-Razi. cheers.

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anyway, the point was, Muslims back a 1000 years ago weren’t so stuck up and many accepted the possibility that the Koran and Islam could have many flaws. Al-Razi had many opponents but the only ones who were violent against him were those who practiced traditional medecine.

However over the past 1000 years, Koran has become perfect and for all times and all people.

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Muhammad Abu Bakr Zikariya Al-Razi (Rhazis) was probably the greatest of the lot of scholars/scientists/inventors/philosophers. Inventor of alcohol, sulfuric acid amongst other things, he radically altered the way medecine was practiced. His ’Al-Hawi’ was the basis of medecine in Europe for 700 years.

He carried his successful ’pure rationalism’ practiced as a physician to every other aspect of life. His book ’Mahariq-al-Anbiya’ i.e. ’Fraudulent Tricks of the Prophets’’ was an unforgiving criticism of all prophets (and all religions) and was particularly harsh upon Islam, Koran, Prophet Muhammad (mostly cause he lived with the Muslims), and all those ’goat-beards’ who spread the Hadis. He not only called Koran and the Hadis a pack of vile lies, he mocked Koran’s ’self-serving challenge’ to produce a better book. Without rhyme or rhythm and questionable content, Al-Razi ridiculed the Koran’s challenge and made it clear that books of science or medicine were better.

Ibn-e-Sina was more reserved in his criticisms and that is why he, while being a lesser scholar (and despite being an Ismaili), is digested by the Muslims.

You can read up on Al-Razi in MM Sharif’s compilation of Muslim Philosophers Volume 1. The chapter on Al-Razi was written by an Al-Azhar scholar. There is also a rather expensive book on Al-Razi on Amazon (not always available) called ’Freethinkers in Islam’. It takes two of the ’freethinkers’ Al Rawandi and Al-Razi. While the book casts doubt on Al-Rawandi’s intentions (patronage of some wealthy Jews and critics of the reigning caliphs being alterior motives for his criticism of Islam) and so can be dismissed by many as a poser, Al-Razi, who dedicated his life to the poor and remained an avowed egalitarian, was sincere in his beliefs.

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’’folks like Al-Razi (’’greatest Muslim physician’’ as claimed by the Islamic Encyclopedia) and to an extent Ibn Sina were ridiculing the ’ijaz’ (miraculous nature) of the Koran calling it a book of lies composed by fraudsters. Of course after the death of such learned heretics and the intellectual decay of the Muslims, the book began to be touted as ’poetry’, as ’eternal’ and yes, prophetic - something even the koran never claims to being.’’

rozaiba:
Very interesting. I didn’t know that Ibn-e-Sina called Quran, ’’a book of lies’’. That is hardcore, reminded me of a similar thought by Michel Houllebecq.
Although, i don’t see a problem with Maududi claiming the prophetic nature of Quran cos afterall what was stated in those 4 verses did come about which makes it perfectly OK to be described as ’’prophetic’’.

wese, I like this word ’’Ijaz’’, didn’t know it meant miraculous, it’s a beautiful word. I thought it was synonymous to élan or something.

On Mufti Spengler: I think you just read way too much into what he was saying. He just quoted Hafiz poetry and acknowledged its influence on western lit. So, it wasn’t like he painted everything persian as devilish. Not that i agree with everything he has to say. He did make a brilliant point on Sura 30 and movie 300. Good enough.

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Spengler seems to have been hard done by the Persians or something. He’s taken considerable scholastic liberty finding the devil in Persia from Xerxes to Ahmedinejad.

Yeah, let’s call Spengler ’’Maulana Mufti Spengler’’ for his poingnant efforts.

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krap film. sort of like a ’umph’ version of the krap hbo series ’rome’.

As for the relation to the koran:

’’After this no one could have any doubt about the truth of the prophecy of the Quran’’

Interesting Maududi would write that - 1350 years after the advent of Islam. Whereas, within three hundred years of the compilation of the koran, folks like Al-Razi (’’greatest Muslim physician’’ as claimed by the Islamic Encyclopedia) and to an extent Ibn Sina were ridiculing the ’ijaz’ (miraculous nature) of the Koran calling it a book of lies composed by fraudsters. Of course after the death of such learned heretics and the intellectual decay of the Muslims, the book began to be touted as ’poetry’, as ’eternal’ and yes, prophetic - something even the koran never claims to being.

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300 is actually Quranic.! Movie takes the same line in relishing the defeat and humiliation of persians like Quran does in the following verses when it predicted persians’ humiliation and eventual defeat at the hands of arabs:

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YUSUFALI: The Roman Empire has been defeated-

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YUSUFALI: In a land close by; but they, (even) after (this) defeat of theirs, will soon be victorious-
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YUSUFALI: Within a few years. With Allah is the Decision, in the past and in the Future: on that Day shall the Believers rejoice-
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YUSUFALI: With the help of Allah. He helps whom He will, and He is exalted in might, most merciful.


from Molana Maududi’s Introduction:
’’...In 628 A. D. in an internal revolt, Khusrau Parvez was imprisoned and 18 of his sons were executed in front of him and a few days later he himself died in the prison. This was the year when the peace treaty of Hudaibiya was concluded, which the Quran has termed as ’’the supreme victory’’, and in this very year Khusrau’s son, Qubad II, gave up all the occupied Roman territories, restored the True Cross and made peace with Byzantium. In 628 A. D., the Emperor himself went to Jerusalem to install the ’’Holy Cross’’ in its place, and in the same year the Holy Prophet entered Makkah for the first time after the Hijrah to perform the ’Umra-tul-Qada’.

After this no one could have any doubt about the truth of the prophecy of the Quran, with the result that most of the Arab polytheists accepted Islam. The heirs of Ubayy bin Khalaf lost their bet and had to give a hundred camels to Hadrat Abu Bakr Siddiq. ...’’


Spengler should be granted a title of Mufti or something...

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Sucked monkey’s ass.

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Stupid bad movie.Wish I had gone for ’’wind that shakes the barley’’

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this is so fucking beautiful Minhaj
fucking beautiful
’’I guess the ancient greeks are to the west what early arab muslims are to Pakistanis. Perfect, powerful and favored by God.’’
Bravo myman.

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yea.. or jewish 20-somethings out-of-college, always, planning a trip to israel.
’’Wanting’’ just seems tenuous to me... anyways, writer, i am sorry about being so anal about one line in your review. On with 300 and your review.

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I think the proper analogy for the Pakistanis dreaming of Arabia will be that of components of the West dreaming of folks like say the Popes or the wandering disciples of Jesus and perhaps the Francis of Assicis or St. Augustines.

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your definition of ’’western human’’ is way, way too broad. infact, ’’pakistani muslim’’ is not on the same order of magnitude as ’’Western human’’ but still is also a broad category.

’’I guess the ancient greeks are to the west what early arab muslims are to Pakistanis. Perfect, powerful and favored by God.’’

glib and self-serving analogy.

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I think the west also contains people. What they think and how they percieve history, the movies they watch is part of daily life, and western civilization. The West portrays the Greeks and this includes the SPartans!, as saviors and originators of western civilization. This feeling of gratitude over whelms the western human and he is quick to over look disturbing qualities such as slavery, homosexuality chauvanism etc. The most recent example is the movie 300. Its not just a graphic novel, its eating up the box office. Similarly the Pakistani is over whelmed by affection for the early Arab Muslims because they gave us Islam, and over looks parts he would find disturbing. What the western human and the Pakistani human holds in common is this attitude of wanting to see all that they like in those they consider as their originators.

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’’twice as stupid as apocalypto’’...

-A.O. Scott
New York Times

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