Why have they complicated Islam so much?

The Holy Quran's pages have come out of the printing press from Taj Company or something, not out of Paradise Press.

Rabia Ahmed September 11, 2012
If you had a step-by-step guide on how to build a bookshelf, you’d be silly not to use it before cutting your planks or handling your tools.

It would show you the most effective way to wield that saw, use a spirit level and, and hit those nails on the head and not yourself. It would be one of those well thumbed hands-on books, kept in a handy spot for easy reference where you can reach up and pull it down every time you need to check something.

So what’s all this about using the Holy Quran only when you’ve washed, shaved and picked your nose, and then not at certain times of the month when you’re ‘unclean’? If ever there was an instruction booklet, this is it ─ the ultimate DIY book, community bulletin board and hazard warning sign, all rolled into one. So why treat it like an artefact that mustn’t be handled?

I’m really not sure where all this stuff is coming from, except maybe it’s another great Western conspiracy (well, why can’t I join the conspiracy hunt? Everyone else is doing it) led by Zionists and the CIA, a bid to stop people from using the book as much as the book should be used. Ha!

There’s a lady I met who says it's okay to read the divine verses on an iPod screen but not on paper at the aforementioned time of the month. Sweetheart, those pages have come out of the printing press from Taj Company or something, not hot out of Paradise Press. It’s the Being they come from and not the paper or the screen that we worship. But if you disagree, and His verses are untouchable on paper, then so must they be untouchable on screen. Your cells shed everywhere, unfortunately.

Someone must have pointed this out to her because now she wears gloves. Clearly she needs a microscope to view the warp and woof and the holes in between her holy little black gloves, not to mention the germs unseen by the naked eye - excuse the ‘n’ word.

Anyway, the prod that produced this rant was the news on the Daily Mail Online headed: ‘London’s Olympic Park Toilets to turn away from Mecca out of respect for Islamic law’.

Oh, come on! There are actually people out there who subscribe to placing toilets so that the user/seated person/patron/pooper is facing at an angle to the Ka’aba? Believe it or not, there are.

Has it occurred to anyone that given the round earth we live in, we face into space at any given time, and never at anything that is over the hump of the earth between us and an object, a long distance away? This means that if you draw a line between me here and the Ka’aba in Mecca, the line would travel straight over the structure on towards Mars or Neptune or whatever else is out there in the sky. That doesn’t mean we worship Mars or Neptune and neither do we worship the Ka’aba or in any other way ascribe powers to the building. One ‘faces’ it only to enforce the sense of unity among the Ummah.

Poopers, facing this way or that, or anywhere but the Ka’aba, are simply an exercise in absurdity, not an expression of unity, so help me God.
WRITTEN BY:
Rabia Ahmed The author is a freelance writer and translator.
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (72)

Dr Imran Ahmed | 11 years ago | Reply Have some folk forgotten that The Book was not originally written words, none may touch except purified therefore cannot refer to physical touch which was impossible.
Rabia | 11 years ago | Reply @Virkaul: I appreciate your comments. As you say, every system of belief should be routinely questioned by it followers. This is for a better understanding on their part and to weed out anything that does not conform to its principles, or any absurdity that may have crept into its practices. There is much of this nature that has crept into the practice of Islam today. I would like to clarify one point though: you may note that I have said 'the practice of Islam.' Islam in itself is what it was always meant to be. This does not mean it is not an adaptable belief system. it is supremely adaptable, but its principles which form its identity remain the same. If it fails to adapt today, this is the fault of its followers, and certainly of its clergy which is in the main (with many exceptions) uneducated. The existence of a clergy is not a requirement of Islam, although the clergy must not be confused with those who are learned in religion. I mean a clergy as is understood as for example in Christianity, where it is a formalised institution consisting of persons who act as intermediaries between individuals and God. Islam considers this completely unnecessary, since neither intermediaries nor elaborate ritual (which justifies the clergy in most places) is prescribed in the religion. Each person is in constant and direct communication with God at any time of his/her existence, even outside the compulsory prayers, which are mandatory on every Muslim five times a day. I would therefore amend the phrase: 'Islam has still not reached the stage...' to 'the followers of Islam have still not reached the stage...'
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