The Farce of the Facts Necessarily Known of Religion

Was published in Arabic in October 22, 2015

Translated by Ahmed Fathy

He said to me: You are always accused of denying the facts necessarily known of religion.

I said to him: And pray tell me what the facts necessarily known of religion are exactly.

He said: I actually do not know; I just hear that phrase so often!

I said: There is no known agreed-upon list to enumerate the so-called facts necessarily known of religion.

He said: How come that there is no 'known' list of the 'known' facts?!

I said: Such phrases are just among the countless falsehoods, fabrications, and lies of Salafism/Wahabism. Such a lie is hard to remove and dispel from their minds. They spread and propagate phrases whose meaning they do not know quite well and then accuse others of denying them!

He said: Is this phrase found in the Quranic Text?

I said: Absolutely not.

He said: Then it is found in tomes/volumes of imams, scholars, and clergy of ancient times.

I said: Even if it is so, this is a human fabrication, not part of God's religion in the Quran.

He said: Where can we find such a phrase in these tomes/volumes?

I said: Such a phrase has never been used or known during the times of the so-called companions of Prophet Muhammad, the Umayyads, Abbasids, and even the Mamelukes. It has been a fairly recent phrase coined in the Ottoman times of intellectual rigidity and stagnation in order to defend traditions against any sort of reform, rejection, and reinterpretation. This phrase has been like a sword brandished to intimidate any innovator/reformer, by accusing him of ''denying the facts necessarily known of religion''.

He said: By the way, what is the [precise meaning of that phrase?

I said: Clearly, it refers to tenets and dogmas fabricated and insisted upon by clergy to be acknowledged by all believers by force and mental terrorism similar to the Inquisition.

He said: They should have taught us such dogmas in school curricula so as not to confuse or ignore these dogmas.

I said: That is quite impossible.

He said: Why?

I said: Because this entails agreeing upon one unified list with a number of items. Clergy of human-made creeds can never come to any sort of agreement.

He said: Why cannot they hold a worldwide conference or council to agree upon the components of such a list?

I said: In that case, this is considered a human sharia/legislation, never ordained by God; and as per their Salafi/Wahabi tenets, this is a novelty frowned upon that leads to misguidance and finally to the bus…I mean finally to Hell!

He said: Cannot they create such a list using the Quranic verses?

I said: Such clergy do not lack financial sponsorship, organizations, centers, bodies, communities…etc. what they lack actually is critical thinking, innovation, creativity, and the will of reformation. They compete only in ignorance, subservience, and service of any tyrant rulers. So many 'Islamic' conferences they held and failed to reach any conclusions. Do you remember the Gulf War? Sunnite conferences and councils have been held to sanction the KSA stance to enlist the help of the USA against Saddam Hussein. Later on, Sunnite conferences and councils under the auspices of Saddam Hussein have been held to denounce and condemn the USA interference in that matter.

He said: Could you imagine the items of such a list of the dogmas of creed?

I said: God says in the Quran: "Say, "O People of the Book, come to terms common between us and you: that we worship none but God, and that we associate nothing with Him, and that none of us takes others as deities besides God." And if they turn away, say, "Bear witness that we have submitted." "(3:64). Hence, the very first known tenet, pillar, or dogma is that there is no deity except God/Allah and that we should not worship a thing or a mortal beside Him.

He said: You forgot to add the phrase ''known necessarily''.

I said: I dropped such a notion on purpose. It signifies coercion and compulsion in matters of religion. This is rejected by the Quran.

He said: In Yathreb in times of Prophet Muhammad, all people knew that there is no deity except God/Allah. They adhered to that notion, I suppose.

I said: No, most of them were peaceful and weak in demeanor, but they were polytheists in terms of faith: they worshipped idols, tombs, and holy shrines. God tells us (and them) in the Quran: "…So stay away from the abomination of idols, and stay away from perjury."(22:30). Yet, they refused to obey this divine command. Again, God says in the Quran: "O you who believe! Intoxicants, gambling, idolatry, shrines, and divination are abominations of Satan's doing. Avoid them, so that you may prosper. Satan wants to provoke strife and hatred among you through intoxicants and gambling, and to prevent you from the remembrance of God, and from prayer. Will you not desist? "(5:90-91), and this indicates that they did not stop worshipping stones/shrines.

He said: This asserts that there is not coercion and compulsion in matters of faith in the state/country of Islam, right?

I said: 'Islamic' state is a one for all peaceful citizens on equal footing, with complete and full liberty in religion and political engagement, and justice for all without discrimination. Punishments are for guarding the rights of citizens. As for the right of God to be worshipped alone without partners of mortal and inanimate deities/idols, this is to be judged in the Final Day of Judgment. Not by men here in this life.

He said: This should be known to all believers.

I said: Yet, this is rejected forcefully by the mortal gods/imams/clergy of the Sunnite, Shiite, Sufi, Salafi, and Wahabi creeds of the Muhammadans.

He said: Do you mean to tell me they reject a Quranic fact?!

I said: In 1998, the former Ibn Khaldoun Center, in Cairo, in which we have worked for years, adopted a project to reform education in schools of Egypt. Part of that project was to reform the books of religious teachings in all curricula of primary, preparatory, and secondary stages of education. We undertook this mission. We proposed alternative curricula to explain without convolutions the basic notions in the Quran. Chief among them not to differentiate among prophets of God in accordance to the Quranic verse: "The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, as did the believers. They all have believed in God, and His angels, and His scriptures, and His messengers: "We make no distinction between any of His messengers." And they say, "We hear and we obey. We ask for Your forgiveness, our Lord. To you is the destiny." "(2:285). Another notion is the ten commandments of the Quran we find in the verses (6:151-153).

He said: That is great!

I said: We have been rewarded by attacks, slander, swearwords, and accusations.

He said: What did they accuse you of?

I said: We have been accused of denying what is necessarily known of religion!

He said: Really?!

I said: That has been published in Egyptian newspapers at the time.

He said: What did that mean?!

I said: Simply speaking, they prefer the dogmas of their earthly, human-made creeds even if they are against the Quran. They coerce people to accept such dogmas by force of law. Their necessarily known facts are, in fact, so vague, unlimited, and hazy.

He said: But justice entails they are to define these dogmas to be limited and actually known by all as long as they force them by law and intimidation.

I said: On the contrary, they keep the matters vague, hazy, and without boundaries in order to punish anyone who dares to question their authority and power.

He said: Then there is no certain list; it may be changed, prolonged, or even shortened at will!

I said: Exactly. If you live in a Shiite country and deny the deification/worship of Al-Hussein, his parents, and progeny, and refuse to curse Abou Bakr, Omar, and Aisha, then you will be persecuted and accused of denying necessarily known facts of religion. If you live in a Sunnite/Salafi/Wahabi country and deny the deification/worship of Abou Bakr, Omar, Aisha, Al-Bokhary, Ibn Hanbal, Al-Shafei…etc., then you will be persecuted and accused of denying necessarily known facts of religion. If you live in the KSA and criticized the body of men of inquisition and watching over citizens, then you will be persecuted and accused of denying necessarily known facts of religion, but if you criticize the Saudi king, you will not be accused of anything at all; you will summarily be killed at once.