Leslie Hazelton on Islam After the Prophet

8/9/2019 Leslie Hazelton on Islam After the Prophet

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2010

Leslie Hazelton On Islam After The Prophet ..Romancing History, As Desirable !

By: Abu Al Haq

I should be admitting it here..

I am never into reading , not any more. Whether novels , books, or any

kind of huge mailing hitting my mailboxes , whatsoever!!

I seem to lack time and stamina required to sit and read for hours at this

age of mine, in times that I tend to call as "My Worst", "Time & Not

Cash, Is King" to me , this is to describe how busy my schedules are and

how much my desktop gets flooded with delivered articles ,that usually

end up into the "Recycle Bin" , after a very very brief counter measure of

diagonal reading . Hence ,a brief review is what I favor most, accordingly

. For this very reason, I should be thanking my friend Dr. Mohammad-

Hussain Ali, who had forwarded the brief article that I am about to

discuss here , an interview between Kris Puopolo & Leslie Hazelton, for

her book on Islam (After The Prophet).Actually, I should also be

acknowledging all readers of mine that Dr. Mohammad-Hussain Ali is

the first scholar to initiate the Grand Schism probing project , for the

intended objective of amending ,trying to reshape Islamic history way off

from the add-ons and all impurities found here and there, using rationallogic and scientific tools of Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology for

this intended study, and caring for a better understanding of all the

incidents that led to this vast divergence between Muslims all across the

world .His concerns for his country and people in Iraq are better

understood and depicted through his work on this issue, where he is

always there to scratch the minds of his contacts ,bringing them to

disclose their own understanding of all controversial issues, may be

hoping to bridge the gap.


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While replying for the reason that brought her for this foundational

Islamic story, the female author ,Leslie Hazelton attributed it to a

massacre that took place in Karbala, saying that it shocked her . The book

itself was supposed to bear the title of "Karbala". This rings a bell to me,

the " Sobering = Coming Back To Senses " or the "Awakening" term, i.e."Sahwa", as pronounced in Arabic ,to suggest the act of someone

transitioning from the idle, passive mode to a positive and active one,

towards issues that are vital and crucial to his being . The massacres of

Muslims from all sects have been there for the lady and any westerner to

view and get such feed from. I, and quite accidentally, had been viewing

a track on Quiet Tube before editing this one(http://quietube.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqHi50YdAQQ)

, showing Africans massacring some twenty thousands Arab citizens in

a few days time, all in villages of theirs in Zanzibar. The footage which isthe only available evidence to those crimes of 1964, had been shot from a

helicopter of an Italian team. Rwanda crimes seem just a pale shadow of

these, and once viewing those painful shots of people marching to their

own death stand, in a long row, it urges the reasonable spectator to

commit suicide for being a part of this criminal and impotent world,

where mass crimes take place and the real perpetrators flee unpunished

.This is a far more ample size of crime than the alleged massacre of

Alqaeda in Karbala,the one supposedly to cause the author to go

compassionate with it, right to its roots. Even those crimes of the Serbsagainst the Muslims of Bosnia during early nineties of last century, they

should have urged the same author to do her part too, if we were to take

her declared motives to indulge here for certain!! Hence, why this one in

special? And why now and not any earlier ?

Leslie Hazelton credited Khomeini and Moqtada Alsadr in her interview,

as if these are the best Shiite icons to consider while dealing with the

aftermath of the massacre of Alhusain some fourteen centuries ago . The

fact that both of these characters have been the main perpetrators of the

most prominent killings of Iraqis during 1980-1988, and in 2003 till aslate as today itself ( subjecting innocent Iraqis to the most hideous torture

and rape techniques , rating to more than the crimes of the Spanish

Church Inquisition) makes this application very much out of range. They

relate none to Imam Alhusain and Shiite theology does have better titles

to offer, heroes and martyrs who fought their way against tyrant

governors , repeating the martyrdom experience without any fear or

retreat . Moqtada Alsadr is just another Torqamada , a New Era replica

of that Spanish Dracula ! and the anagram thing is almost there between

Moqtada & Torqamada , except for a few letters in excess of it !! To
http://quietube.com/v.php/http:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqHi50YdAQQhttp://quietube.com/v.php/http:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqHi50YdAQQ


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import the images of assassins does not come in any conformity with the

proposed objective of the author.

The first mistake that had been made by Leslie Hazelton while being

interviewed was considering the Umayyads as Sunnies and holding allSunnies accordingly, responsible for the massacre of Al Husain and his

family . The unaware outsider readers, who are expected to have no idea

of any terminology or facts of that conflict , would be bluffed and led to

believe in this framing, that Sunna stand against Shiia . Leslie's very

words ( with four thousand of the Sunni Caliph's troops surrounding

the 72 warriors of Hussein's encampment, along with the women and

children of his family), need be probed with an enlightened mind that is

well aware of each and every Newspeak term ,this is a very sensitive

subject, and it can turn back as a boomerang, yielding an opposite effectcompared to what is expected . The Shiite theology had not been there

while Alhusain was confronting the Umayyads. It was Alawites against

Umayyads, a tribal conflict using religious issues to support each party's

case. Shiite theology had been visualizing by Imam Ja'far Alsadiq, so

many decades later to the martyrdom of Imam Alhusain himself .The

image of the Sunnie & Ja'fari conflict of ideologies and interpretation of

the Islamic Shari'a came later to that incident of Karbala. This is the

typical mistake to be committed by insiders from both sects, not to

mention an outsider, the author herself, who had never been to Islam to

the extent of digesting its historical and theological input and conflicts

that a whole time span of fourteen centuries could not bring to any

reconciliation or compromise. It is all about the difference between

people themselves, and how much does any one of them commit himself

to the right, and be willing to sacrifice himself for his ideals.

One significant comment made by the author was ,how gruesome that

curse would sound. 'May your mother be bereaved of you'!!

The made up exclamation she had showed alongside it reveals her totalignorance of the Arab traditions and their terminology. She is not aware

of the richness and exaggeration styles of Arabic language, as if she is

not the yield of a western culture that uses the terms "Shit", "Fuck" and

"Mother Fucker" very explicitly , almost in every topic, and sparing no

class of the society from hearing these hideous and unabashed tackling on

t.v. movie theatres, rap songs, presidential interviews and elections

campaigns debates,etc . She should have been acknowledged of that

Bedouin poet, Ali Bin Aljahm who praised the Abbasid Caliph,

describing him as a dog ,before he was administered for further


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urbanization, to come out later to that with one of the most beautiful

masterpieces of poetry :

The "curse",( as described by her), that she is criticizing is never a

curse .actually it was used even by the slaughtered Husain himself, andalmost every native of that vast peninsula. It is one way of addressing

someone who had been inquiring about something quite familiar and

understood to all , or having been reported to commit a massive fallacy

which requires a stern gesture to let him feel repentant long before any

further elaboration is to ever be started, it is that |Ooooops of today, in a

way or another ."Damnation" is not allowed in Islam, since it means the

eternal deprivation from God's mercy and forgiveness, so there had to be

a substitute for the western "Damn You" !! Another term that she had

been overlooking is how early Muslims ,namely (The Prophet's

Companions=Sahaba) used to express their endearment of him,( Fidaka

Abi Wa Ummi= Both Parents of Mine Are There For Your Own

Safety).I am positively sure that she would consider it very rational of

those people to sacrifice their love for their parents that way, she is trying

to submit that era to her standards of these times, although both terms ,

the one she had been denouncing, and the one brought out here by me, are

no longer used, it was a Newspeak of that revolution of Heaven against

the earthly tyranny and ignorance. It really doesn't fit, how westerners

focus on every little detail in our heritage, yet, overlooking too many

practices in the Far East & elsewhere. Islam is viewed thru its dark sideof events, always!!

Of all those revolutions and uprisings that Shiites have been known for,

Imam Zaid Bin Ali Bin Al Hussain, Al Mukhtar Al Thaqafi, and the rest

of them, against the Umayyad state, none of them appealed to the author

while she jumped to modern times, picking the sickest icons who had

nothing to do with the principles of Al Husain revolution . In stead of

mentioning Ali Shariatmadari and his principles ,Sheikh Mohammad

Husain Fadhlallah of Lebanon , it was Khomeini !! And the most

irrational analogy was that of Muqtada Alsadr, as the author bestows ontohim a gown of a bravery as if an Islamic Che Guevara , which is never

the truth .So once again, this is a further deformation of Al Husain's

revolution, to be further robbed of its descent characters and handed over

to a crook who had been leading all anti-humanity crimes against

Christians, Faili Kurds, and Sunnie Iraqis eventually. If this is all that the

author's work had been about, then I can frankly say it that she had been

strayed away from it, failing to adhere to the real thing then and now too.

Another thing is the way the author had been wondering, " 'How come

Muhammad, the prophet of unity -- one people, one god -- could leavebehind him this terrible, unending, bloody legacy of division between


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Sunnis and Shia? ". If she were any acquainted with the Prophet's quotes,

she should have been acknowledged that the Prophet had warned all

Muslims not to turn back to pagan life as before, once he is dead,

decapitating each other's head " :

" " Whether interpreted as a prophecy, or a warning sign, a command, or an

advice, it still clears any blame off the Prophet's side . The brutality

shown at those times is the least, compared to what had been prevailing

all around the world by then , and those twenty three years of teaching

and preaching while the Prophet was alive, were counteracting a

cumulative lifetimes cycle of inherited pagan and Bedouin styles of living

where arrogance and bullying rule the scene, people almost fighting for

any available source of nutrients and water ,for them and their cattle of

livestock, sparing no life while trying to survive it there thru raids and

fighting .The march had just been started at the time the Prophet was

quitting the stage ,forever, and the change that he had managed to induce

amongst those who abided by his preaching and rules of Quran, have to

be recognized ,same as done with the wrong doing relevant to this issue

and the rest of issues where the statesmen had been exploiting and doing

their own fellow subordinates and average people wrong . People are

destined to change and alter things, whether intentionally, or due to aging

. The things that Prophet Mohammad fought his own folks for, had been

resumed by the Umayyads, and by many of the tribes that had been latelyconverted to Islam by then . It is the eternal fight between faith and

pagan styles of life. Something that all other religions had been going

through, what's the big deal then?

"And most of them believe not in Allah without associating (other as

partners) with Him! " Joseph - 106

" "-106

I wish that the book itself is much better than what Leslie Hazelton hadbeen going through while being interviewed. The fact that Imam

Alhusain had the guts to speak, while others favored to mute ,is a great

act of heroism and sacrifice .it is the same story, almost all the time, and

everywhere. Alhusain is there for black people of Africa, yellow people

of China ,Myanmar and Thailand .He is already there for the Americans

and British people, to wake up and figure out how much wrong had been

done in their name, against all peoples of the world. This is what makes

his sacrifice worth it all, to apply it for the author herself, and her

country, rather than just asking the people reading her novel to shout"Oh My God"!!!

Leslie Hazelton on Islam After the Prophet

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