In a previous draft of this text I had not placed sufficient emphasis on the misogynist aspect of this specific surah of the Quran.
This is the last of the paragraphs of the soon to be published book 49:49. Subtitled The Emperors Old Rags, prepublished on this website.
§9 ‘Aunt’ Lahab and the ban on adoption
Quickly back to the text of the Quran sec.
In addition to that so-called illeism, there are various Quran passages that are directly related to Muhammad’s personal life. These provide even clearer, and therefore even more painful, illustrations of what we are actually dealing with.
There is a part about an evil uncle. Among people who have seriously studied all kinds of texts by and about Mohammed, there are those who suspect that his paternal uncle may have sexually abused the young Mohammed, who was orphaned at a very young age.
The entire surah 111 is devoted to cursing this uncle named Abd al-Uzza, but who here is nicknamed Abu Lahab: ‘lahab’ therein means something like flame(s), a reference to hell .
111 is one of the most explicit and unambiguous surahs (chapters) of the entire Quran. Its name is: Al-Masad. That can be translated as ‘fibres’ and is taken from verse 5, which is about this uncle’s wife: “On her neck a cord of fibres“. A rope that goes from her neck to the firewood that she has to drag for the fire in which Uncle Lahab is roasted to infinity …
It is not incomprehensible that Mohammed also harbored a grudge against that aunt from an early age: if we are to believe the little boy Mohammed, she had done nothing to protect him from that uncle. Of course, it is completely, utterly impossible to ever determine whether that aunt was aware of her husband’s disgusting behavior and whether or not she had made any effort to protect the poor child. When we consider the spirit of the rest of the Quran, we can assume however that Muhammad’s profound hatred of her was at least partly due to the self-evident misogyny in the tribe he was part of.
The illogical, non chronological order
Although it is at the end of the Quran, Sura 111 is said to have been one of the first to be revealed.
The parts in the Quran that date from before the beginning of the Mohammedan era are called Meccan.
The Mohammedan calendar starts with the year that Mohammed fled from Mecca to Medina. In general, the Meccan surahs and verses are said to be less nasty than the later Medinesian ones.
In none of the well-known editions of the Quran is the content presented in a logical manner: the text parts are not in the order in which they were allegedly revealed.
In Part II I will discuss in some detail both that absurdity and its importance, which can not be overestimated. Particularly because of the link with the bizarre concept of ‘naskh‘. The first chapter of Part II begins with a discussion of this concept, which is crucial for reading the Quran and therefore for assessing the teachings of Muhammad.
If possible even clearer and more absurd than the part about that uncle, are the (Medinesian) passages that deal with Zaïd bin Harithah: cousin, slave, ex-slave, follower, adopted and then de-adopted son of Mohammed.
Mohammed wanted to add Zaïds wife -his own daughter-in-law- to his collection of wives, but apparently did not dare to do so until a Quranic verse told him -just around that time- that adoption in general was a reprehensible practice.
And that so, on closer inspection, that young woman was not his own daughter-in-law after all.
Some of Mohammed’s contemporaries did not see the timing of that Allahist revelation as a coincidence at all. By the way: to note this, those people did not have to be particularly intelligent or suspicious: in verse 33:37 the personal context is literally included! .
A third passage concerns the part of the Quran that deals with adultery; More specifically: adultery of one of Muhammad’s wives.
A text that, even in the 21st century, sometimes leads to women or girls being murdered because they have been raped.
When the very young Aisha, during a camel ride, disappeared from view with a man other than Mohammed, she was accused of adultery.
Muhammad then received the revelation (which can be found in both verse 24:4 and 4:15) that adultery was only proven when there were four witnesses.
The intention of that Quranic verse was most likely to absolve Aisha of adultery. Later, however, this revelation was also used to exonerate men of rape and then to stone the victim as punishment for her adultery. After all, such a woman or girl admits in her report that she ‘had sex with’ another man, or men …
And of course there are never four witnesses to rape, except in the case of gang rape …
Notes:
8) Although it is also claimed that this evil uncle was already called ‘flame’ in his younger years because of his red cheeks and/or hair…
9) Conversely, there are also followers of Mohammed who, in connection with this marriage of Mohammed to his (former) daughter-in-law and the connection with adoption, write that “the Quran agreed with Mohammed in this matter”…