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The Satanic Verses Revisited


Marion Jenis

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Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” was published in 1988, so it will be unfamiliar to most of my readers. They may recall that the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (decree) for Mr. Rushdie’s death because of the book’s alleged blasphemies against Muhammad’s family. But the Satanic verses themselves predate Mr. Rushdie’s work by 14 centuries, for they are to be found in the Qur’an. We read in Sura an-Najm 53:19-22,

“Have you thought of al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzá 
and Manāt, the third, the other?
These are the exalted cranes 
whose intercession is hoped for.”

Al’lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat were three goddesses who were worshiped in the Kaaba and elsewhere in Arabia before the revelation of the Qur’an. Here they are compared to “exalted” or high-flying cranes. According to the legends of pre-Islamic Arabia cranes were birds with many virtues, and their appearance was thought to be a good omen. But there is another passage where the Qur'an says:

“What! For you the males and for Him the females!
That indeed is an unfair division.”

In other words, if the goddesses are considered to be Allah’s daughters, then He has the inferior portion, for only male children are valuable. Whatever we think of this attitude, we are told that Muhammad did not receive the Satanic verses from Jibril. Instead they were supposedly inspired by Satan when the Prophet experienced a moment of weakness during the persecution that his followers had to endure at the hands of the Quraysh, the leading family in Mecca. Given the intense and unceasing emphasis of the Qur’an upon the oneness of God and His sole authority in heaven we would be very surprised indeed if the “goddess verses” (if I might call them that) were not eventually repudiated.

The three goddesses or “daughters” of Allah do not seem to be evil, disreputable, or repulsive in any way, if one approaches them as though they were deities in an ordinary polytheism. In fact, they very much resemble the triple goddess worshiped by the followers of Wicca---we find in them a maiden, a mother, and a crone or wise woman. Al’Uzza is Venus or the maiden, Al’lat is the Earth or mother, and Manat may be Mercury or Saturn and is the wise woman. If anything in them seems bad or unhealthy to us now it is surely because we have seen them only through the lenses of religious intolerance. During the short period of time when the “goddess verses” were accepted as legitimate peace prevailed in Mecca. But of course, one should not purchase peace at the price of truth. 

It was while I pondered the three goddesses and their fate---to disappear in obscurity---that I realized that the intolerance that seems to many of us to be a villain in this story was not considered a bad thing at the time. When Islam began it was not the monotheistic faith of Abraham that inspired intolerance. The advocates of many gods were staunchly intolerant. In fact, intolerance by another name like “zeal” or even “devotion” was one of the primary virtues of the religious era that began to end in the 17th and 18th centuries in the West, and may end soon in the Muslim world if Islam finally loses its authority in the face of science. But look again---a non-religious new religion called Communism would soon inspire intolerance.

Intolerance was good "back in the day"---it was an infallible sign of devotion. Tolerance only gained the strength to speak out against intolerance because of the unceasing labors of men like Voltaire. Religions and philosophies that did not promise anything more than a release from excessive suffering were the most tolerant, while movements that promised happiness and love were the most intolerant. That is the mystery that the writers on Unexplained Mysteries should attempt to understand.

Below: The three Arabian goddesses seem very respectable in this carving and in all of the others I could find.

3 arabian goddesses.jpg

Edited by Marion Jenis
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1 hour ago, Marion Jenis said:

The advocates of many gods were staunchly intolerant.

 

Where did you pull this crap from?

 

1 hour ago, Marion Jenis said:

 Muslim world if Islam finally loses its authority in the face of science.

It did once because of Mustafa Kemal, founder of modern Turkey said."Science and religion must agree because if they don't that part of religion is nothing but superstition".

 Now Erdogan has forbidden the teaching of evolution in Turkish schools and set everything backwards......

 

Most of your writings is a lot of common knowledge among historians stretched out in long sentences with halfassed theories and they imply everybody who reads them is stupid. Now lets finish your other thread because I want to talk about Kook Hoomi the imaginary white guy who lived in Tibet......or is it Froot Goomi....

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When I said that the advocates of many gods were staunchly intolerant, I was referring only to the situation at Mecca when Muhammad began teaching that there is only one God. Of course you are right to point out that polytheists are usually more tolerant than monotheists.

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Atamarie Sir.. xx

I found this Interesting.. So thankyou..

Mo..xx

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7 hours ago, Marion Jenis said:

When I said that the advocates of many gods were staunchly intolerant, I was referring only to the situation at Mecca when Muhammad began teaching that there is only one God. Of course you are right to point out that polytheists are usually more tolerant than monotheists.

and the pagan Romans were intolerant of the Christians not because they were Christians but because they were pushy pains in the butts and the Druids because they were inciting rebellion. Rome was tolerant to all religions as long as you kept it to yourself and didn't start trouble. 

Edited by Piney
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14 hours ago, Marion Jenis said:

Salman Rushdie’s novel “The Satanic Verses” was published in 1988, so it will be unfamiliar to most of my readers. They may recall that the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (decree) for Mr. Rushdie’s death because of the book’s alleged blasphemies against Muhammad’s family. But the Satanic verses themselves predate Mr. Rushdie’s work by 14 centuries, for they are to be found in the Qur’an. We read in Sura an-Najm 53:19-22,

“Have you thought of al-Lāt and al-‘Uzzá 
and Manāt, the third, the other?
These are the exalted cranes 
whose intercession is hoped for.”

Al’lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat were three goddesses who were worshiped in the Kaaba and elsewhere in Arabia before the revelation of the Qur’an. Here they are compared to “exalted” or high-flying cranes. According to the legends of pre-Islamic Arabia cranes were birds with many virtues, and their appearance was thought to be a good omen. But there is another passage where the Qur'an says:

“What! For you the males and for Him the females!
That indeed is an unfair division.”

In other words, if the goddesses are considered to be Allah’s daughters, then He has the inferior portion, for only male children are valuable. Whatever we think of this attitude, we are told that Muhammad did not receive the Satanic verses from Jibril. Instead they were supposedly inspired by Satan when the Prophet experienced a moment of weakness during the persecution that his followers had to endure at the hands of the Quraysh, the leading family in Mecca. Given the intense and unceasing emphasis of the Qur’an upon the oneness of God and His sole authority in heaven we would be very surprised indeed if the “goddess verses” (if I might call them that) were not eventually repudiated.

The three goddesses or “daughters” of Allah do not seem to be evil, disreputable, or repulsive in any way, if one approaches them as though they were deities in an ordinary polytheism. In fact, they very much resemble the triple goddess worshiped by the followers of Wicca---we find in them a maiden, a mother, and a crone or wise woman. Al’Uzza is Venus or the maiden, Al’lat is the Earth or mother, and Manat may be Mercury or Saturn and is the wise woman. If anything in them seems bad or unhealthy to us now it is surely because we have seen them only through the lenses of religious intolerance. During the short period of time when the “goddess verses” were accepted as legitimate peace prevailed in Mecca. But of course, one should not purchase peace at the price of truth. 

It was while I pondered the three goddesses and their fate---to disappear in obscurity---that I realized that the intolerance that seems to many of us to be a villain in this story was not considered a bad thing at the time. When Islam began it was not the monotheistic faith of Abraham that inspired intolerance. The advocates of many gods were staunchly intolerant. In fact, intolerance by another name like “zeal” or even “devotion” was one of the primary virtues of the religious era that began to end in the 17th and 18th centuries in the West, and may end soon in the Muslim world if Islam finally loses its authority in the face of science. But look again---a non-religious new religion called Communism would soon inspire intolerance.

Intolerance was good "back in the day"---it was an infallible sign of devotion. Tolerance only gained the strength to speak out against intolerance because of the unceasing labors of men like Voltaire. Religions and philosophies that did not promise anything more than a release from excessive suffering were the most tolerant, while movements that promised happiness and love were the most intolerant. That is the mystery that the writers on Unexplained Mysteries should attempt to understand.

Below: The three Arabian goddesses seem very respectable in this carving and in all of the others I could find.

3 arabian goddesses.jpg

When Arabs were inventing a religion of their own they used  Jewish apocrypha writings, Coptic Christians stories, pagan traditions, they gave the Nabatean God Allah a wife and daughters then realized he begets not, nor is he begotten but it was already in the canon so invented the “The Satanic Verses”

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