On Criticizing Religion
Why I think the freedom to criticize religion is a right we should fight for.
Hadith
Is the Saheeh Hadith Canon reliable? Is it truly possible that the words of Muhammad were memorized from generation to generation and passed intact? Is it possible that the exact words were remembered between the time that Prophet Muhammad died until the point the first hadith narrators started recording them? Early Muslims were hesitant to write down the sayings of Muhammad because he forbade them to do so. How long was it between the time he actually said it and it was recorded? How do we know that the people who said it were not mistaken, reliable and so on? Scholars came up with an approach to try to distinguish who was truthful and had a good memory and actually met who they said they did and so on. But is there really any guarantee? If someone that was “truthful” decided to lie, would we ever know if Muhammad really said it or not?
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Adoption and Zainab
In order to marry Zainab, Muhammad abolished adoption and all the goodness that came from it. Adopted children were now seen as strangers living in the home with no rights to take the family name or inherit as a regular child would. As well, the rules of marahim (blood relation) made it difficult to be alone with this child. The end result is that Muslims hardly ever adopt kids. Allah wanted to ensure that everyone knows that they can marry their adopted-son’s ex-wife so he made Muhammad marry Zainab (or maybe Muhammad liked her)!
Muhammad, Allah’s Favorite Prophet
Muhammad receives many special blessings being Allah’s chosen prophet. Listen to what type of benefits he gets being the chosen one.
A scripture better than Allah’s (reflections)
My friend asked me: Say, “Then bring a scripture from Allah which is more guiding than either of them that I may follow it, if you should be truthful.” (Quran 28:49) Got anything better?