The Sheep and The Vet

Was published in Arabic in August 06, 2006

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

In the mid-1990s, we have been visiting our maternal uncles in a village in Eastern Nile Delta, Egypt, and we have been invited by them to accompany them to attend a funeral ceremony in a nearby village. We were wearing an ordinary djellaba like most villagers among my relatives. On our way, we have been as usual discussing and refuting the so-called Sunna and hadiths and other written quasi-religious heritage notions, as the habit of the cultured people among the countryside people when visited by a relative from Cairo like ourselves. They sought to increase their knowledge by posing their questions to ourselves. We seized the chance of attending the funeral ceremony to take some relief from interminable discussions. We forgot totally that villagers turn funeral ceremonies into interminable gossip and storytelling sessions with oratory skills among loquacious persons vying to get others' attention. Some of such persons were sheikhs, clergymen, and preachers of the village. Most of them are so ignorant as Azharite sheikhs and clergy, but they cover their ignorance with oratory skills that cannot be outsmarted by the similarly ignorant - and sometimes illiterate – audience among the villagers.  Once we took our seats, feigning sorrow in our faces as per villagers' traditions, we saw a smart-looking old man who kept gazing at our faces as if he were finding a good eager audience for himself. He wanted badly to demonstrate his oratory skills to us. He rubbed both his hands together, in a stand-by mood to begin his speech. We felt inside our mind that a disaster is looming ahead, if such ignorant fellow would sermonize to us; we will show him hell, indeed! What we have predicted occurred actually. The old man began to preach in a grave tone about torment of the interred people who suffer eternally in their tombs! He sang the praises of the so-called intercession of Prophet Muhammad in the Day of Resurrection. His long speech made us feel sad and funerary in deed, feeling forced to remain silent, while our relatives looked at us with pity, smiling. Eventually, we felt our patience grew thinner by the minute, and we seized the opportunity of his silence to take his breath. We told him abruptly: "We have listened to you non-stop till the end of your sermon, and now, you have to listen to me until I finish my speech. Otherwise, it would be an affront, as your guest, to feel that you have imposed your words upon us without giving us the chance for discussion". Other audience supported my view, and they all felt that this was a chance for more entertainment, especially listening to a guest whose identity was not known to them. We began to refute logically all the claims of this old man – sheikh – and everybody listened attentively until we have finished the speech. The sheikh felt perplexed and confused. Our vehement refutations have embarrassed him, no doubt. He was at loss for what to say to others. He used to be listened to by others without being contradicted, especially in Friday sermons. He used to vomit his ignorance on a weekly basis, under the lame excuse of the false hadith that prevents others from speech during Friday sermons at mosques. We took the sheikh by surprise; he never felt the need to be ready for any sort of discussions. During our speech, he gazed at us in our ordinary djellaba, wondering about our identity. He asked us about our name and job. We told him: "My name is Dr. Ahmed Subhy Mansour, and my job is a vet who treats cattle!" Our relatives hardly stifled their desire to burst out laughing; they understood the implied meaning in our reply to the sheikh. The sheikh said in a jesting manner: "Then you are the only doctor who rides his customers!" We answered, smiling: "Ride them, oh no. Pardon me, sheikh, matters never reached this level." Our relative burst out laughing while others gazed at them without understanding the intended meaning.

 Before this encounter, we were talking to our relatives about the Quranic figure of speech in which God compares polytheists to cattle because they do not use your minds. Even cattle are excused due to their lack of reasoning brains, whereas polytheists have minds that they do not use. We told our relatives beforehand that if this is the divine description in the Quran for polytheists, we can use the same description to those who insist on adhering to polytheistic creeds and notions and deeds by denying the Quran and sticking to the falsehoods of the so-called Sunna and hadiths. But we will use the word ''sheep'' instead of cattle, buffalos, cows, and donkeys; because sheep are a better euphemism and they are lighter with less dangerous feet.

2- We have told the above story in order to assert that the Quranic comparison of the polytheists to cattle is confirming our image of the religious reformer compared to a vet treating animals. Both the vet and the reformer receive 'bites' and 'blows' from the 'customers'. The only difference is that the vet in a village can ride beasts he heals and can eat their cooked flesh, whereas reformers like me get nothing but headaches and grief. So many people have persecuted and harmed us; others have described and addressed us using bad language and four-lettered words and swearwords, and some have issued fatwas (i.e., the so-called religious edict or view) to spell our blood as an 'apostate'. Our only reply is the Quranic description of them: they are like cattle or sheep. They deserve such a description because of their deeds and demeanor. All that we do as a Muslim reformer and reformist researcher is to judge their deeds, stances, and words using the Quran, and this comparison makes us deduct that they are like cattle indeed.

3- a Muslim reformist thinker's mission in guiding the misguided and the deviant ones is similar to the mission of the vet. No one can blame us for citing and quoting the Muhammadans' tomes and volumes and books, nor for refuting the Muhammadans' notions and proving them as contradictory to the Quranic verses. We ought to feel thankful to the Muhammadans; they are proving the forever miraculous predictions of the Quran, though they claim that they believe in the Quran. It is a bad habit among the Muhammadans; they declare their faith publicly in a deceitful manner or to imitate the rest of people around them without stopping to reflect and reconsider their stances, views, and practices. They never question and reevaluate their inherited creeds, tenets, and notions by comparing them to the Quranic verses to determine if such inherited notions are right or wrong. Some of such hypocrites used to exist as well in the time of Prophet Muhammad: "Among the people are those who say, "We believe in God and in the Last Day," but they are not believers. They seek to deceive God and those who believe, but they deceive none but themselves, though they are not aware. In their hearts is sickness, and God has increased their sickness…" (2:8-10). Thus, among the miraculous features of the Quran is the fact that is is a divine criteria that weighs and exposes the conditions of creeds and demeanors, however covert under so many mottos and                  terminologies. Any devout Muslim who cares for being religious ought to question all spread notions about Islam. A believer ought to filter out of his/her brain any notions that contradict the Quran by returning to it as the sole scripture of Islam, if he/she is a true believer. If a believer pushed the Quran aside and felt the urge to stick to Salafist/ Wahabi / Sunnite notions of the ancestors and the forefathers and to ignore the Quran, this so-called ''believer'' is a polytheist; in any case, everyone has freedom of choice.

4- Real and true believers should believe in the Quran alone and rectify their faith notions; i.e., one should believe solely and exclusively in the Quranic discourse/message without any other writings: "…Which message, besides this, will they believe in?" (7:185). True believers ought to discard any other discourses; i.e., the so-called Sunna and hadiths, because they contradict the Quran. The propagators of such falsehoods are the real enemies of the message of the Quran. A real reformer/thinker ought to strive to prove that these falsehoods (i.e., the Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi notions and literature) are not part of real Islam and that they tarnish the image of Prophet Muhammad. God has not revealed the books of the Sunnites, Shiites, and Sufis. However, polytheists in their faiths and creeds disregard the above-mentioned Quranic verse and focus their endeavor to defend their gods: the deified imams past and present who spent their lives in defying the Quranic message and ascribing falsehoods to God and to Prophet Muhammad. In so doing, polytheistic Muhammadans deny the Quranic truths and cannot refute Quranists' views who quote the Quran to refute falsehoods of the Muhammadans. That is why Quranists get nothing from the Muhammadans but verbal abuse, curses, death threats, and sometimes ascribing falsehoods to Quranists. The Muhammadans cannot refute or argue with Quranists; instead, they leave intellectual discussions and resort to satirizing the Quranists, especially ourselves, though they do not know us personally. This mirrors what the Qorayish tribe used to do when it turned its praise of Muhammad before the divine revelation into persecution, curses, and verbal abuse. This was not because they hated him personally; rather, their hatred and animosity were directed toward the Quran. They used to deny the Quranic message. "And when Our clear revelations are recited to them, those who do not hope to meet Us say, "Bring a Quran other than this, or change it." Say, "It is not for me to change it of my own accord. I only follow what is revealed to me. I fear, if I disobeyed my Lord, the torment of a terrible Day."" (10:15). We discern from this verse that Muhammad used to follow the Quran steadfastly and staunchly so as to avoid eternal torment in the Afterlife.ط² طµط« ظٹظ‡ط³ط¤ط«ظ‰c he quran ated him personally; rather, thier lly.ad uran.out islam.of creeds and   The Sunnite books authors have made the wish of the Qorayish tribe come true; they fabricated the false notion of the Quranic verses being replaced by hadiths! That occurred because they could not distort the Quranic verses themselves, which God protects intact until the end of days. The polytheists have managed to distort the meanings of the verses using the so-called hadiths. The Quran reiterates the fact that Muhammad followed nothing but the Quran; he could not add or delete any of its verses. Muhammad used to fear God's punishment if he would disobey God. This meaning comes thrice in the Quranic text; this refutes the myth of intercession of Muhammad on behalf of believers condemned to Hell in the Afterlife. The following two verses assert our view: "Say, "Had God willed, I would not have recited it to you, and He would not have made it known to you. I have lived among you for a lifetime before it. Do you not understand?"" (10:16-17). Such sense of these verses has been repeated in other verses as well. Salafists and Wahabis ought to contemplate 7:185, "…Which message, besides this, will they believe in?" to see clearly that the same question applies to them. Polytheists in the time of Prophet Muhammad used to desire to attack those who read the Quran "And when Our Clear Verses are recited to them, you will recognize disgust on the faces of those who disbelieve. They nearly assault those who recite to them Our Verses" (22:72). This is the Quranic criteria to make us recognize polytheists in our lives; their animosity toward the Quran makes them readily attack and resort to aggression. Their faces are filled with hatred and disgust: "Those who disbelieve almost stab you with their glances when they hear the message…" (68:51). This miraculous Quranic description we used to witness when we used to preach in Cairo mosques in Egypt or in some of our forums to discuss Quranism and refute the Sunnite notions and hadiths. The hateful looks were not directed at our person; this was not personal. Their antagonism was directed to the Quranic message when found to contradict the so-called hadiths. They could not declare such enmity in public; instead, they channel it toward our person in the shape of verbal abuse and threats.

5- It is not our intention to accuse the Muhammadans of being apostates or nonbelievers. We describe demeanors, mentalities, and stances as polytheistic not persons or names. Mentalities change and are changeable any time. All of us have the chance to reconsider and repent and redirect our paths to follow the Quranic guidance. This hope leads us to warn and remind others. Mentalities and creeds are the fields of our research; we compare them to the Quran as the sole criteria in order to warn and remind others, not for the sake of abusing others verbally. A vet never abuses the patients verbally. A medical doctor never abuses the patients verbally; rather, cases are diagnosed, and medicaments are administered.

6- The term ''sick'' comes in the Quran in two different senses: one that indicates physical sickness, like in the following examples: "And when I get sick, He heals me" (28:80) "There is no blame on the blind, nor any blame on the lame, nor any blame on the sick," (24:61), and one that indicates the sickness of the heart; i.e., polytheism and/or insistence on committing sins, or both. For example, this verse describes hypocrites who feign being believers in the Quran in the time of Muhammad: "In their hearts is sickness, and God has increased their sickness." (2:10) and "O wives of the Prophet! You are not like any other women, if you observe piety. So do not speak too softly, lest the sick at heart harbor any greed, but speak in an appropriate manner." (33:32). Let us focus on sickness of the heart: polytheism. Patients of such ailment or sickness are not cooperative with their doctor. Religious thought is strong; however wrong it might be, it controls one's soul and mind. In such a case, one might feel that his creed is absolute right and other views that differ from traditional dogmas and ancients notions are definitely wrong despite any proofs. Hearts controlled by polytheism prefer sticking to notions of their forefathers and time-honored traditions and deified imams and scholars to the Quranic text. Such people attack Quranists because we cite and quote their 'holy' tomes and volumes to refute them and prove their ideas to be illogical. If such type of people send us death threats, this proves them to be quite insane. They are patients who stick to their ailment vehemently and with emotional force, because they take pride in it. They defend falsehoods sanctified with the passage of centuries. In such a case, we see the miraculous predictions of the Quran applying to them: "What of him whose evil deed was made attractive to him, and so he regards it as good?" (35:8), "It is they whom God has sealed their hearts, and their hearing, and their sight. It is they who are the heedless." (16:108). Hence, the polytheistic Muhammadans have chosen falsehoods that stand as dams between them and the Quranic truth: they reject the Quran: "A scripture whose verses are detailed, a Quran in Arabic for people who know. Bringing good news, and giving warnings. But most of them turn away, so they do not listen. And they say, "Our hearts are screened from what you call us to, and in our ears is deafness, and between us and you is a barrier. So do what you want, and so will we."" (41:3-5). Hence, the Quran is of no use to those who seek to undermine it by demanding the Quranists to extract from the Quran how to pray or such and such details found in the so-called hadiths, etc. Sickness of the heart here has created insurmountable barrier between the patient and the light of the Quran. When Quranists preach using quotations from the Quranic verses, Muhammadans ignore such verses as if they do not see them. "And if you call them to guidance, they will not hear. And you see them looking at you, yet they do not see." (7:198). Accordingly, the devilish Sunnite/Shiite/Sufi creeds never allow the mind to contemplate and reflect upon Quranic verses properly. "Or do you assume that most of them hear or understand? They are just like cattle, but even more errant in their way." (25:44).

7- The divine Quranic first rule in guidance asserts that the initiative to accept belief or faith comes first from human beings; they are the ones who are to choose the guidance or misguidance themselves. If one wills it, God will guide one, and if one chooses to ignore the Quranic message, God will deviate one. Hence, the barrier between the misguided one and the Quran is formed as a veil around one's mind: "When you read the Quran, We place between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter an invisible barrier. And We drape veils over their hearts, preventing them from understanding it, and heaviness in their ears. And when you mention your Lord alone in the Quran, they turn their backs in aversion." (17:45-46). The underlined phrase is the mote point or the crux of the matter. This is the basic issue that differentiates Quranists and polytheistic Muhammadans. Quranists remember, mention, and glorify God alone with no partners among prophets, imams, clergy, the so-called saints, and the so-called companions of the Prophet Muhammad. Moreover, this worship of God alone can never be materialized except in the Quran alone, not through any other books of any type. That is why when Quranists reject Sunnite, Shiite, and Sufi countless books, the Muhammadans would hate, forsake, and persecute you. This verse applies to them: "Who does greater wrong than he, who, when reminded of his Lord's revelations, turns away from them, and forgets what his hands have put forward? We have placed coverings over their hearts, lest they understand it, and heaviness in their ears. And if you call them to guidance, they will not be guided, ever." (18:57).

8- The only panacea for polytheism of such sick hearts is sticking to the Quran alone while rejecting other books of theology of all types. This panacea, the Quran, would be poison to the mind of those whose barrier of polytheism of Muhammadans' falsehood books is so thick. In other words, when we, Quranists, prove that Quranic verses refute Salafist thought of forefathers, formerly sick patients who accept the Quran would get better soon enough once rejecting all of the Sunnite/Shiite/Sufi falsehoods and fabrications. The barrier would soon dissolve between their minds and hearts and the Quran. As for the other type who prefer forefathers' so-called knowledge to the Quran, their barrier is so thick that the Quranic panacea would increase their disbelief and rejection more than ever.  "…what was revealed to your from your Lord will increase many of them in defiance and blasphemy…" (5:64), "…But what is revealed to you from your Lord will increase many of them in rebellion and disbelief…" (5:68), and "The believers are those whose hearts tremble when God is mentioned, and when His revelations are recited to them, they strengthen them in faith, and upon their Lord they rely." (8:2). The Quran is poison to sick hearts that reject it: "We send down in the Quran healing and mercy for the believers, but it increases the wrongdoers only in loss." (17:82) and "…Say, "For those who believe, it is guidance and healing. But as for those who do not believe: there is heaviness in their ears, and it is blindness for them.…" (41:44). The so-called 'holy' and forefathers whose books and line of thought are sanctified with the passage of centuries were misguided and God has increased their misguidance because of their rejection of the Quranic message. Such forefathers fabricated all Sunna and hadiths and intentionally erroneous interpretations of the Quran. People of other eras, and our era, follow them blindly: "They had found their forefathers astray. And rushed along in their footsteps" (37:68-69). This will be said again by God in the Day of Judgment about those who spent their lives worshipping their forefathers and rejecting the Quran and those who preach it. their rejection of the Quran is evident in their claims that it is supplanted, replaced, and interpreted only by the so-called hadiths ascribed falsely to Muhammad and by fiqh (theology books) of ancient imams! This is sheer illogicality and sickness of the erroneous creeds of the Shiite, Sufi, Wahabi, and Salafist Muhammadans!  

9- It is ironic that this type of people described in the Quran as 'sick' and 'cattle' would like to control nations in the name of Islam. It is a disaster that the terrorist Salafis, Wahabis, and the MB group members of killers would so much like to rule all nations in the name of Islam despite the fact that they are the real mortal enemies of Islam. They never cease to send us verbal abuse and death threats via email messages. How could sheep or cattle possible rule reasonable human beings?! Could any one answer such question?!