Review of “Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography” by Ali Sina

For those who are familiar with the extremist Islamophobic website called “Faithfreedom International”, the name of its founder Ali Sina (a pseudonym) is synonymous with the bigotry and vile rhetoric often displayed against Muslims and Islam. This was a person who openly advocated for the atomic bomb to be used on Muslim populations and have many times declared that he will “wipe out” Islam within 30 years. Now this relatively unknown figure within academic circles — apart from becoming the self-appointed hero for the cause of Islamophobia, bigotry and the new emerging school of lay-people and pseudo-scholars — has moved beyond the world that he is more accustomed with on the internet. Like his predecessors, such as the infamous Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, Ali Sina is now attempting to make his name within the world of published authors with the publication of his book Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography. Whilst it is true that over the course of years he has gathered a large following of largely misled haters, Ali Sina still has had to resort to self-publishing with a relatively small publishing press where anyone with anything to rant about can publish their own.

The book claims to be a “psychobiography” of the Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, but it is far from being objective and sane in its purported “scholarship”. It claims to refer to the Islamic religious texts (heavily relying on translations and not the original Arabic sources which betrays the author’s lack of command in the language) and then attempts to characterize Muhammad (SAWS) in “modern analytical terms”. Coming from a Shi’ite background in predominantly Shi’ite Iran, it is not clear from the onset as to why Ali Sina favours referencing the Sunni sources such as the hadith collection of Bukhari and Muslim (which is not used by the Shi’a and largely unfamiliar to them) and hardly mentions the Shi’ite sources themselves which talks about the Prophet (SAWS). This leads us to suspect that he may not have the credentials of an Iranian Muslim as he claims to have. Unfortunately, this book does nothing more than to resort to the old underhanded technique of cherry-picking a handful of half-truths, sprinkling them with lies, exaggerations and misrepresentations, and eventually to come up with a twisted mix of politically-motivated propaganda.

While Ali Sina believes that his agenda will liberate Muslims, common sense would tell you that Ali Sina’s book comes nowhere close to it. In fact, he is much more likely to lend credence to the grumblings of right-wing nutjobs who want to stoke fear and hatred. The quality of Ali Sina’s “different” pseudo-scholarship is thus displayed by the revival of a long-abandoned polemic against the historical character of the Prophet of Islam – namely, the issue of epilepsy. Nuanced scholars such as the Swedish academic Tor Andrae and prolific writer Karen Armstrong have long dismissed the idea of epilepsy as nonsense. It seems that Ali Sina believes that such studies regarding the Prophet (SAWS) in historiography should be abandoned and instead we should return to Orientalists such as Margoliouth, Muir and other Christian missionaries who would have us believe that the Prophet (SAWS) was epileptic. Ali Sina consistently maligns the Prophet (SAWS) as delusional – while at the same time ignoring that the coherence, completeness and success of Islam in its 1400 years of history show that it cannot be the product of a madman’s mind, nor of that of an epileptic. Ali Sina then calls him (SAWS) a liar (an all too familiar accusation), conveniently ignoring how much he suffered for twenty years before gaining the upper hand and even then he had lived as a poor man with no luxuries. The inconsistencies of Ali Sina’s accusations against the Prophet (P) are themselves testament to the foolishness of his reasoning.

Ali Sina clearly ignores several facts contained within the Sirah itself; that the Prophet (P) spared the Meccans who had tortured and killed his followers for two decades even after conquering them, that he spared all the hypocrites in Madinah undermining his authority (something the man Sina describes would not tolerate), that he had all too often freed prisoners of war freed for no material gain, that he explicitly forbade harming innocent civilians such as women, children, elderly and monks; that he always honoured his treaties even if they were extremely unfair to him (until the disbelievers broke them), that his stories are filled with instances where he spared men who were out to kill him, that as soon as someone became Muslim, he forgave all their past evils, betrayals and murders. The only people that the Prophet (SAWS) was harsh with were with those who were treacherous and betrayed their pacts to turn on the Muslims in order to destroy them in their weakest moment – which is considered as high treason in times of war. Ali Sina deviously omits the context and interpreted such acts as something that the Prophet (SAWS) habitually does, which is nothing short of deception to his readers.

Perhaps we should not be surprised at his attempts of ad hominem and poisoning of the well; after all, Ali Sina’s methodology is consistent with his use of “weak Hadiths”, saying of the Prophet (SAWS) that are not accepted by Muslims or are seen as weak souces for the religion. Further, this short list of verses from the Holy Qur’an shows Islam in different light and contradicts the conclusions made by Ali Sina:

“There is no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way. Whoever therefore rejects the forces of evil and believes in God, he has taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way, for God is All Hearing and Knowing.”¹

“And so (O Prophet!), exhort them your task is only to exhort; you cannot compel them to believe.” ²

“Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.” ³

The only people who would “love” this book are either psychologically demented — similar to Ali Sina himself — disaffected Muslims who have been hurt in the past and want to blame someone for their problems, or they are extremist Hindus and right-wing Christians who would like nothing better than to rationalize their extremist racism and xenophobic hatred with spurious scholarship. Muhammad on the other hand did not witness any insurrections or attempts on his life at the hands of his own followers. Not even after his death did anyone attempt to assassinate his memory or desecrate his grave. Instead, the Prophet’s (SAWS) example spawned an empire that ruled over the Middle East for one thousand years and witnessed a revival of culture and learning the likes of which was not seen in the West until the Age of Enlightenment.

In summarizing this tiresome work, “Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography” is not a biography at all, much less a “psychobiography”, of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) but a pathetic attempt at character assassination and the rehashing of age-old polemics dating as far as the earliest days of Orientalism. In fact, the author’s methodology is consistent with what that is found on his website and other atheist websites online. It is simply bad history and even worse psychology by a man who can claim to be neither a historian nor a psychologist. He simply repeats the lying polemics of Serge Trikovic, Robert Spencer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and other atheists who have an axe to grind against Islam. When bigots and extremists approach any text, be it the Turner Diaries, the Bible, the Qur’an, Nietzche or the Sirah literature, they cannot be divorced from contextual hermeneutics. The reason why Ali Sina views the Prophet Muhammd (SAWS) in such light is simply a case of trying to find a demon through the nitpicking of isolated incidents. Indeed, if one were to play with such rhetoric, one could find justification for the Holocaust, even within the New Testament as Hitler did.

We have simply come to the conclusion that a brief psycho-analysis of Ali Sina will determine that he is simply a bigoted, disaffected former Muslim who is no doubt working out issues with his painful upbringing at the hands of puritanical parents, cruel Islamic clergyman or perhaps a child-molesting Iranian mullah (or whatever the thorn in his side may be), as in his book he has focused all his rage into painting the most ugly portrait of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) that can ever be conceived by the most insane mind.

1. Qur’an, 2:256
2. Qur’an, 88:21,22; also see Qur’an 24:54
3. Qur’an, 60:8

Never forget what happened to the Babri Mosque.

Sums up what Islam is all about beautifully, to be sure.

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
I saw cc TV footage released by local police today

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
it was scary.. all the events were captured right from the beginning

MENJ says:
these people have no regard for human life

MENJ says:
they are no better than common criminals or thugs

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
true

MENJ says:
if they really want to help Islam

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
I dont like these actions carried on behalf of our religion

MENJ says:
they could do da’wah to the tourists

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
this pretty demaging our pictures

MENJ says:
instead of trying to kill them

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
people call ilsam bad for such acts carried by the name of Islamd

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
this is not very true

MENJ says:
these people do not represent islam, period

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
I am a strong muslim.. and have no other intention or will never ever convert to any other religion. But, I just dont have such strong views to kill people

MENJ says:
neither do i

MENJ says:
i do not see the point…non-Muslims are potential reverts

MENJ says:
we should be converting them to Islam, not killing them

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
you can of course try and spread the religion but there are more pieceful ways

MENJ says:
of course

MENJ says:
its silly if these people think they have something to gain by killing civillians

www.leadingdir.com – List your website today! says:
total madeness

MENJ says:
that sums it up

And most certainly, it does.

Islam—what Muslims believe in
by Staff Sgt. Amy Parr, Air Force Print News

10/09/01 – WASHINGTON—A new word was introduced at the United Nations Summit on Racism in September – “Islamiphobia,” meaning the fear of Islam and Muslims.

This new word represents the fear felt by some who link all people of Islamic faith to the terrorists who hijacked planes and crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

The best way for people to overcome those fears is to be informed, said Chaplain (Capt.) Hamza Al-Mubarak, a Muslim chaplain assigned to the 81st Training Wing, Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.

“Ignorance and hate have already cost us thousands of lives,” he said. “Get the information (about Islam) and pass it on to someone you know.” The Quran does not condone acts of terrorism, he said.

“Islam is a religion of mercy and peace, it does not permit or encourage terrorism,” Al-Mubarak said.

“Killing the weak, infants, women and the elderly, and destroying property are considered serious crimes in Islam,” said H.E. Shaikh Salih bin Muhammad Al-Luheidan, Supreme Judicial Council of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia chairman, in a statement after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Killing innocent people is by itself a grave crime, quite apart from terrorizing and committing crimes against infants and women,” he said. “Such acts do no honor to he who commits them, even if he claims to be a Muslim.”

While some terrorists claim to be Muslim and believe their acts will pave the way for an Islamic revival and a return to the rule of Islam’s glorious law, the majority of Muslims do not feel that way, Al-Mubarak said.

Telling a story told by a Muslim prophet, he said, “Bear in mind what the Prophet Mohommed said. ‘Do not be delighted by the action of anyone until you see how he ends up.’ So, for example, what is the end of a suicide bomber? A leg here and an arm there. How can we be delighted by such an end?

“What really hammers the final nail in the coffin of this act is that it is suicide, something which is clearly forbidden in Islam,” he said. “The messenger of God, Prophet Mohammed said, ‘he who kills himself with anything, God will torment him with that in the fire of hell.’

“Some are under the misconception that by killing oneself for an Islamic cause, one commits an act which deserves paradise,” Al-Mubarak said. “The taking of one life which Allah has given as a trust to the human is a great sin. Likewise, the taking of other lives, which is so often the case, is also forbidden as human life is indeed precious.

“Thus, all types of extremities such as hostage taking, hijacking and planting bombs in public places are clearly forbidden in Islam,” he said.

Al-Mubarak, one of only two Muslim Air Force chaplains, said since the attacks, he has spent countless hours answering questions about Islam and trying to educate people.

“To assume that all Muslims are anti-American is nonsense,” he said. “There are millions of Muslims in our country who are ready and willing to fight in the cause of justice and to preserve the American way of life.

“Many Muslim military members have and are serving honorably in the military today in support of our war effort against terrorism,” he said.

But still, “Islamiphobia” exists. Al-Mubarak said there are many Muslims in the military who choose to place a code of “no religious preference” in their personnel records. He said they do this in part out of fear of reprisals because of their faith.

“Some individuals in the United States want instant justice and will lash out at anyone who looks or dresses like a Muslim or an Arab,” he said. “Some Muslim members have expressed fear of retaliation, not in regards to openly discussing the Islamic faith, but in regards to dress and appearance, such as stereotypical look of a Muslim or resembling someone from the Middle East.

“It is a difficult time,” Al-Mubarak said. “I personally felt ashamed that someone claiming to be a Muslim did this in the name of God. This is not Islam nor the nature of a Muslim. We all feel the sorrow and loss from this tragedy. Being Muslim does not diminish the fact that we are human and understand the frailties of life and realize how many lives were lost and ruined because of one’s ideology and personal and religious belief. Our deepest sympathy goes out to everyone affected by the Sept. 11 tragedy.”

And so we ask our Creator for the heat of this month to purify us and return us to the scorched ground where we stand on the last day. On the day when the heat will raze to the scorched ground all our facade which we build with so much effort, and leave us with only that which is within, blown unto us by The Creator on the day of our creation.

Ramadhan Mubarak to all Muslims, minus the Islam Liberals!

Clerics have been telling Muslims not to attend Christian or Hindu festivals, and some condemn Christians and Jews at Friday prayers. Most Malay women now wear head scarves, not part of their traditional attire. Some schools have started reciting Muslim prayers.

The trend worries many modern Malays.

“The question we are facing is, are we Malay first or Muslim first? Right now most people have become Muslim first,” said Tengku Zafrul Aziz, the chief executive of Tune Money, an investment and insurance company.

(Source)

The first statement about “clerics telling Muslims not to attend festivals” by non-Muslims is so insipid, it does not even warrant a comment.

But the comment by this “Tengku Zafrul Aziz” fella truly takes the cake. He is a person whom I would say “teramatlah bodoh dan teramatlah sesat”. “Modern” or no, this person is a retard who should be sent off to the moon on the next NASA space shuttle with a bunch of monkeys to accompany him. Because I am proud to call myself a Muslim first, above any skin colour or nationality.

Every Muslim are brothers, regardless of race, skin colour or nationality.

Takbir! Allahu Akbar!

A mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars
By Will Dunham 2 hours, 16 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Magnificently sophisticated geometric patterns in medieval Islamic architecture indicate their designers achieved a mathematical breakthrough 500 years earlier than Western scholars, scientists said on Thursday.

By the 15th century, decorative tile patterns on these masterpieces of Islamic architecture reached such complexity that a small number boasted what seem to be “quasicrystalline” designs, Harvard University’s Peter Lu and Princeton University’s Paul Steinhardt wrote in the journal Science.

Only in the 1970s did British mathematician and cosmologist Roger Penrose become the first to describe these geometric designs in the West. Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry.

“Oh, it’s absolutely stunning,” Lu said in an interview. “They made tilings that reflect mathematics that were so sophisticated that we didn’t figure it out until the last 20 or 30 years.”

Lu and Steinhardt in particular cite designs on the Darb-i Imam shrine in Isfahan, Iran, built in 1453.

Islamic tradition has frowned upon pictorial representations in artwork. Mosques and other grand buildings erected by Islamic architects throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and elsewhere often are wrapped in rich, intricate tile designs setting out elaborate geometric patterns.

The walls of many medieval Islamic structures display sumptuous geometric star-and-polygon patterns. The research indicated that by 1200 an important breakthrough had occurred in Islamic mathematics and design, as illustrated by these geometric designs.

“You can go through and see the evolution of increasing geometric sophistication. So they start out with simple patterns, and they get more complex” over time, Lu added.

ISLAMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

While Europe was mired in the Dark Ages, Islamic culture flourished beginning in the 7th century, with achievements over numerous centuries in mathematics, medicine, engineering, ceramics, art, textiles, architecture and other areas.

Lu said the new revelations suggest Islamic culture was even more advanced than previously thought.

While traveling in Uzbekistan, Lu said, he noticed a 16th century Islamic building with decagonal motif tiling, arousing his curiosity as to the existence of quasicrystalline Islamic tilings.

The sophistication of the patterns used in Islamic architecture has intrigued scholars worldwide.

Emil Makovicky of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark in the 1990s noticed the relationship between these designs and a form of quasicrystalline designs. Makovicky was interested in particular in an 1197 tomb in Maragha, Iran.

Joshua Socolar, a Duke university physicist, said it is unclear whether the medieval Islamic artisans fully understood the mathematical properties of the patterns they were making.

“It leads you to wonder whether they kind of got lucky,” Socolar said in an interview. “But the fact remains that the patterns are tantalizingly close to having the structure that Penrose discovered in the mid-70s.”

“And it will be a lot of fun if somebody turns up bigger tilings that sort of make a more convincing case that they understood even more of the geometry than the present examples show,” Socolar said.

The full transcript of the show can be viewed here. In this particular debate, Wafa Sultan mentions that, and I quote the translation from SiPM:

Kita tidak pernah lihat seorang Yahudipun meletupkan dirinya didepan sebuah restoran Jerman. Kita belom lagi lihat seorang Yahudi yang memusnahkankan gereja. Kita belom lagi lihat orang Yahudi yang memprotes dengan membunuh orang.

(Translation: We have not seen a Jew blowing himself up in front of a German restaurant. We have yet to see a Jew destroying a church. We have yet to see a Jew protest by killing people.)

Obviously Wafa Sultan (and in effect, SiPM bloggers as well, since by reproducing this quote, they agree to this statement by the apostate Wafa Sultan) have not heard of the person Baruch Goldstein. Baruch Goldstein was an American-Israeli physician who perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, killing 29 Arab attendants of the Ibrahimi Mosque (within the Cave of the Patriarchs) and wounding another 150 in a shooting attack.

So what was that again about “yet to see a Jew massacring anyone”?

Thus, the claim of Wafa Sultan is invalidated…yet again. I would not even bother dealing with the rest of the diatribe as they are factually incorrect, sometimes to the point of exaggeration.

Anyway, it is clear that the people behind SiPM are not only Liberals…they are also heretics and kaafir harbi as well. These are the type of people which Islam exhorts to take up arms against, hunt them down and capture them, and to lock them up in the deepest dungeon and throw away the key.

The story of “The Night Journey” as we see in the Noble Qur’ân is epitomised in the first verse of the Sûrah Isra’ (Chapter 17 — The Journey by Night):

“Glorified be Allah Who enabled His slave [Muhammad], for a journey by night from Masjid al-Haram [in Makkah] to Masjid al-Aqsa [in Jerusalem], the neighborhood whereof We blessed, in order that We might show him(Muhammad) of our Ayat [proofs, evidences, signs etc.]. Verily, He is the All-Hearer ,the All-Seer.”

This journey is also confirmed in the sahih (authentic) hadith. As such, there is scholarly consensus (ijma) that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) journeyed in body and soul on the night of al-Isra’ from Masjid al-Haram in Makkah to Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem and to the heavens beyond. One does not need a Washington DC cosmetic surgeon to confirm the truth of this miraculous event.

As for its exact date, it is still controversial and no common consent has been reached. However, the majority of jurists is in favour of a date between 16-12 months prior to migration to Madinah. The following is a epitome of the details of that miraculous event narrated on the authority of Ibn Al-Qayyim.

The Messenger of Allâh (peace and blessings be upon him) was carried in body from the Sacred Mosque in Makkah to the Distant Mosque in Jerusalem on a horse called Al-Buraq in the company of Gabriel(Jibraeel-alaiyhis salaam), the archangel. There he alighted, tethered the horse to a ring in the gate of the Mosque and led the Prophets in prayer. After that Gabriel (Jibraeel, alaiyhis salaam) took him to the heavens on the same horse. When they reached the first heaven Gabriel (Jibraeel, alaiyhis salaam) asked the guardian angel to open the door of heaven. It was opened and he saw Adam (peace be upon him), the progenitor of mankind. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saluted him and he welcomed him and expressed his faith in Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)’s Prophethood. He saw the souls of martyrs on his right and those of the wretched on his left.

Gabriel (Jibraeel, alaiyhis salaam) then ascended with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to the second heaven, asked for opening the gate and there he saw and saluted John the Baptist, son of Zachariya (Yahya bin Zakariya, peace be upon him)) and Jesus-Isa(Peace be upon him), son of Mary. They returned the salutation, welcomed him and expressed their faith in his Prophethood. Then they reached the third heaven where they saw Joseph (Yusuf, peace be upon him)) and saluted him. The latter welcomed the Prophet (peace be upon him) and expressed faith in his Prophethood. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in the company of Gabriel (Jibraeel, alaiyhis salaam), then reached the fourth heaven where he met the Prophet Enoch (Idris, peace be upon him) and saluted him. Prophet Enoch (Idris, peace be upon him) returned the salutation and expressed faith in his Prophethood. Then he was carried to the fifth heaven where he met the Prophet Aaron (Harun, peace be upon him) and saluted him. The latter returned the salutation and expressed faith in his Prophethood. In the sixth heaven he met Moses (Musa, peace be upon him) and saluted him. The latter returned the salutation and expressed faith in his Prophethood. Muhammad (peace be upon him) on leaving, saw that Moses (Musa, peace be upon him) began to weep. He asked about the reason. Moses-Musa(Peace be upon him) answered that he was weeping because he witnessed a man sent after him as a Messenger (Muhammad) who was able to lead more of his people to the Paradise than he himself did. Then Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) reached the seventh heaven and met Abraham (Ibrahim, peace be upon him) and saluted him. The latter returned the salutation and expressed faith in his Prophethood. Then he was carried to Sidrat-al-Muntaha (the remotest lote tree) and was shown Al-Bait-al-Ma’mûr [(i.e, The Most-Frequented House) which is like the Ka'bah (Sacred House) encompassed daily by seventy thousand angels, so that the angels who once encompassed it would not have their turn again till the Resurrection]. He was then presented to the Divine Presence and experienced the thrill of witnessing the Divine Glory and Manifestation at the closest possible propinquity. There the Lord revealed unto His servant that which He revealed, and ordained fifty daily prayers for him. On his return, he spoke to Moses (peace be upon him) that his followers had been enjoined to pray fifty times a day. Moses (peace be upon him) addressing the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Your followers cannot perform so many prayers. Go back to your Lord and ask for a remission in number.” The Prophet(Peace and blessings be upon him) turned to Gabriel (Jibraeel, alaiyhis salaam) as if holding counsel with him. Gabriel(Jibraeel-alaiyhis salaam) nodded, “Yes, if you desire,” and ascended wih him to the Presence of Allâh. The All-Mighty Allâh, Glory is to Him, made a reduction of ten prayers. He then descended and reported that to Moses (peace be upon him), who again urged him to request for a further reduction. Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) once more begged his Lord to reduce the number still further. He went again and again in the Presence of Allâh at the suggestion of Moses (Musa, peace be upon him) for reduction in the number of prayers till these were reduced to five only. Moses (Musa, peace be upon him) again asked him to implore for more reduction, but he said: “I feel ashamed now of repeatedly asking my Lord for reduction. I accept and resign to His Will.” When Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) went farther, a Caller was heard saying: “I have imposed My Ordinance and alleviated the burden of My servants.”