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How much more has man invented and attributed to God? How much more of what we are told to do comes from man and not from God? It certainly makes one wonder. NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin
Former Perlis Mufti, Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, was arrested for talking about religion without being in possession of a valid licence. They, in fact, tried the same thing with a man named Muhammad 15 centuries or so ago. Muhammad said he is a messenger of God. The authorities in Mekah at that time said Muhammad is a mad man who is hallucinating and imagines he is receiving messages from God through an angel called Gabriel. But he is mad man who is seeing things and hearing things in his head, said the authorities. Muhammad must have been smoking marijuana if what the Mekah authorities of 15 centuries ago said is true. So they planned to arrest him and Muhammad had to flee for his life in the middle of the night and seek refuge in a small village that was later called Medina. You see, Muhammad did not have a valid licence to speak about religion so they wanted to silence him. Imagine if Muhammad had been silenced, as what the authorities of Mekah then wanted to do. Or imagine if Muhammad had been asked to first apply for a valid licence before he could be allowed to speak and imagine if they had rejected Muhammad’s application. Or imagine if Muhammad had not slipped away in the middle of the night and had gone to Medina where he was free to speak without a valid licence. Muhammad would have never been able to speak and, today, no one would know of this man named Muhammad and, today, we would not be calling him Prophet Muhammad but Muhammad the mad man, as what the people of Mekah called him then. But, no, Muhammad did not kowtow to the authorities in spite of the fact they first tried to bribe him with wealth and then tried to offer him the position of the leader of Mekah and later threatened him with death to get him to stop talking about religion. In fact, Muhammad chose to go into exile while all his supporters abandoned their wealth and followed him to Medina penniless except for the clothes on their back. God did not allow Muhammad to compromise. God told Muhammad to resist. God did not impose the ruling of first having to apply for a valid licence before one can speak about religion. Heck, Muhammad was illiterate, so believe the Muslims. Muhammad never went to school. It is said he could neither read nor write. And, for sure, Muhammad was not a university graduate or had a doctorate to his name. But God told him to speak. God told him to read, read out the words of God. And the first word in the first verse that God is supposed to have revealed to Muhammad through Gabriel is ‘read’, read in the name of God. God did not ask Muhammad for his valid licence. God did not stipulate that Muhammad must first apply for a valid licence before he can be allowed to speak. God just revealed his verses to Muhammad and told Muhammad to go speak to the people. Along the way man invented the need for a licence. It was man and not God who says you first need a licence before you can speak about religion. It is man who is playing God. Man is doing what even God Himself did not do. And man claims he is doing the work of God. How much more has man invented and attributed to God? How much more of what we are told to do comes from man and not from God? It certainly makes one wonder. But Muhammad was not the first to be punished for speaking about religion without first applying for a licence. Jesus, too, was subjected to the same. And so were Moses and Abraham before him. In fact, all through history, almost every Prophet, whether from the Abrahamic faiths or otherwise, have been punished for speaking about religion without a valid licence. And these are Prophets, mind you. What more ‘non-Prophets’ like former Perlis Mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin? Man has invented new rules that did not come from God. God never asked them to do all this. Man invented these rules and claims that these rules came from God. Now do you understand why religion is in such a mess, all religions? Man has hijacked God’s teachings and turned them into what we can classify as ‘organised religion’, which is actually disorganised. But this is not what God taught us. This is what man created. And if Muhammad, Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Buddha, or any one of those people were to come back to earth today they would never recognise these new teachings which man claims are teachings of God.
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