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Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: average joe who wrote (19211)	8/11/2002 1:07:52 AM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 21057

At about age forty he suffered the loss of both his sons, and he went into a sort of mental depression and began to look disheveled and to spend more and more time out in the desert. His friends joked that "our Muhammad is becoming a Hanif." "Muhammad suffered from severe mental illness and influences millions. That fact should disturb you..." Sure, I can see how this report would be reason for one to pause...and for a person seeking understanding to make inquiries about it. Its just that I have seen a much broader and richer explanation of this history and the impression is nothing like the disturbing one coached by your author. There are libraries of authenticated historical documents of the period that lend a good and confident impression of the man. I wouldn't even know where to begin but it would help to read a biography written from the other perpective (Islamic). Given that, it is silly to take some out of context parcels of information and paint the picture of a mad man. It would be like taking the scenario of Jesus walking through the temple tipping over tables and snapping a whip at people and suggesting that he was subject to out of control temper tantrums or something. We both know the context of this event and that it represented nothing of the sort. Your author takes advantage of Western ignorance and prejudice to advance his bogus theories. For Example: The author mentions that Mohammad's friends had begun to joke about his behavior. A Hanif, according to your author, was someone who, atypically for the tribal culture; accepted the God of Abraham as the one true monotheistic God, and was less attentive to materialistic appearances. Even if his definition is close to accurate, I find it odd, even suspicious that he would find this type righteous individualism to be anything but admirable. Likewise, the following account which seems very scientific and socialogically accurate on the surface, is not even close to the volumes of authenticated records available from Islamic scholars. " In prehistoric times, a great black meteorite had fallen on the future location of Mecca, and, when people moved in and founded a town there, they built a shrine around the meteorite. There you have the connection between extraterrestrial events and religion very concretely brought out. They were stone worshippers, and it was natural for them to do this. They put the meteorite in a big box, the meteorite being exposed in the southeast corner. The box had inside it the idols of three goddesses. One Meccan tribe was made the guardian of this shrine and there was an annual all-Arabian pilgrimage, which was a major festival, and brought in much money for the people who ran Mecca. The pilgrimage to Mecca, therefore, was an institution which preceded Muhammad. Now let us look at the early career of Muhammad. He was born in Mecca in 570 of a poor family of the tribe that was the guardian of the Kaaba." Educated Muslims would agree with some aspects of this report about the Kaaba except for how it came into existence, its history with the people of the region, its religious significance, and what it represents in Islamic culture. This is so unbelievably false from an Islamic perspective on history that the author would be thrown out of an Islamic school by 2nd graders for being an idiot. I get very disturbed at what I read, see, hear, and experience in this world and it is a constant test to my soul to maintain hope and peace. There are plenty of things which cause me to sit and shake my head. This report is about as disturbing as learning of the different ways Superman can be harmed by kryptonite. Interesting story but based largely on fiction.