Muhammad designed Islamic prayers and their timings not for spiritual purposes but for ensuring his personal protection and security from likely attacks by his victims.
Muhammad: A Bad Atheist
Muhammad was Atheist! Don’t get shocked! Muhammad was not only an Atheist, but also a bad one. Generally, atheists are good people, who fundamentally believe in equality and liberty for all human beings. They are certainly better than all brands of divisive Theists. But we are also humans, born with the capability of doing good as well as bad, irrespective of whether we are Theists or Atheists. And Muhammad was one of the worst cases among Atheists.
Muhammad case was unique. His ultimate goal was to rule the Arab Peninsula, behind a religious mask, which he did achieve successfully.
He protested against the centuries-old belief of his forefathers. He abused and broke the idols of the Gods, he used to worship in his pre-Islamic Pagan days. Just to condemn and subsequently annihilate the Jews of Medina, he perverted the Jewish doctrine of monotheism by fabricating the story about Azra or Uzair as the son of God (absent in Jewish scripture). He denied the crucifixion of Jesus, the central pillar of Christianity. He condemned the sacred scriptures of the Jews and Christians as fabrications and perversions by them.
Atheists believe in truth, not in in-vogue myths and blind beliefs, and they call for critical inquiry to unravel the mystery of the world as a way of enlightening and freeing ignorant masses from superstitious believes. Whereas Muhammad, instead of enlightening the ignorant masses, created his own cult with a religious mask mixing old myths, superstitions and beliefs. He needed a God to proceed with. Uncreative as he was, he stole the name of one of the old Gods of his forefather, i.e. of Allah, so as to persuade the Pagans towards his cult, when he was in Mecca. After he failed badly in Mecca, he migrated to Medina and started praying towards the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem, so as to persuade Medina's thriving Jewish community to join his cult. But again he failed.
Having failed in Mecca, he had already started terrorizing and plundering the Meccan trade-caravans, which was critical to their livelihood. After his second failure in Medina, Muhammad now decided to terrorize and exterminate the Jews of Medina and capture their wealth.
During this period, he had stolen the names and fetishes from other religions. He created 99 different names of his God in confusion. Among them, Ar-Rahman was the name of a Yemeni idol-God. He copied the vast portions of his ideas from previous scriptures and embedded it in his Quran. He plagiarized the doctrine of paradise (Jannat Al-Firdous) from the Persians.
So, he certainly wasn’t afraid of any God. He cheated his own God, Allah, to fulfill his ambitions and lust, by fabricating verses and stories in His name.
From the above-mentioned facts, one can easily come to a conclusion about Muhammad’s uniqueness. There wasn’t any bit of spirituality in his cult. Every action of his was designed to his own benefit, to attain his goal and satisfy his lusts and desires. Let us put some of his actions on trial for scrutiny.
Devoties or security gaurds?
First, let us ponder over the fact of 5-time daily prayers and the mid-night prayer (Tahajut), and how it helped Muhammad in his career.
Those, who read the hadiths, know that Muhammad had married 15 wives or more, and at the time of his death, he was living with 9 of them in a house, adjacent to his mosque, with a curtain separating his house and the mosque. Muhammad was a coward and always wanted somebody to die for his cause. He and his house were protected by security guards round the clock on a shift basis (Sahih Al-Bukhari 7:734), while he engaged in merry and sexual orgy inside the house, often copulating with all 9 wives on the same night [Bukhari (62:6): "The Prophet used to go round (have sexual relations with) all his wives in one night, and he had nine wives."]
Allah, the most merciful and passionate, it is claimed, loves his creation 70 times more than a mother loves her children. Yet, the merciful Allah ordered His children to line up and salute him 5 times a day at “Muhammad’s mosque” only. When some of his male followers started praying to Allah at a separate houses (mosque) of their own, Muhammad ordered to burn the house, and it was burned down when those men were praying inside (Bukhari Vol 1:617 & 1:626). Praying to Allah from their own house (mosque) makes Allah, alias Muhammad, angry -- because it would not have served Muhammad’s purpose. So, he had made it obligatory for his companions to pray at his mosque annexed to his house.
Muhammad lived in constant fear that the victims of his barbaric crimes might attack him in revenge. So, he wanted to be surrounded by his male followers all the time. That’s why he ordered all his male followers (even if they are blind) to assemble in his mosque-cum-house for each prayer. And he led the prayer to maintain his absolute command over them.
Mosque or terrorist training camp?
The actual purpose of assembling all his followers at his mosque was to ensure his personal security, as well as, to give military training to them for the next raid on the neighboring settlements of Pagans, Jews and Christians, who had refused to accept Muhammad as their king.
Narrated Aisha, “Ethiopians (whom Muhammad has purchased with Khadeeja’s wealth) were playing in the mosque (displaying the skill with spears), I saw the Prophet and the Ethiopians were playing with their spears.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari 1:445).
Modern Muslims! Please pay attention! Besides praying, Muhammad and his companions were playing with “spears” at his mosque.
Muhammad also conducted horse races and spear competitions among his companions cum soldiers. (Bukhari 1:412/ 442 & 443).
Tahajut prayer or nightshift of security gaurds?
Muhammad’s usual practice of attacking his so-called enemies was during the dark hours of the night, often the early-morning darkness hour (Khaybar attack). So, he felt insecure during the night hours, lest he becomes the victim of the same tactic from his victims. Muhammad, therefore, conveniently adjusted the timing of 3 prayers (Fajr, Maghrib and Isha) out of 5, to be prayed during the dark hours. Moreover, he intentionally prolonged the praying time of the 5th Isha prayer, so as to retain his followers in the mosque as long as he could. He was very particular about the 1st and the 5th (Fajr and Isha) prayers. He went to such an extent that he commanded his followers not to obey their mothers, if they restrict them to attend the congregational "Isha" prayer with him. (Bukhari Vol. 1, The Chapter of Adhaan, Chapter 29)
And it did not end there. Muhammad went further and ordered his gullible followers to pray mid-night prayers (Tahajut) at their homes. This prayer was performed by his followers in shifts, i.e. one group after another:
Narrated Abu Uthman: I was a guest of Abu Huraira for seven days. Abu Huraira, his wife and his slave used to get up and remain awake for one-third of the night by turn. Each would offer the night prayer and then awaken the other. (Bukhari 7:352).
The purpose, definitely, was to keep his followers, mostly the slaves, awake throughout the night in case of a night-attack by victims by copycatting his own tactic. This prayer was nothing but a defence strategy to ensure Muhammad’s own protection and security. This hadith alone is sufficient to understand the vacuousness of spirituality of Islamic prayers.
Purpose of Itikaaf, Qhiyaam Al-Lail, Tarawih & Lail-Al-Qadr
As mentioned earlier, Muhammad used the cowardly tactic of attacking innocent tribes during night-hours without prior warnings. Actually, those were not wars, but robbery-raids upon innocent people. He did not spare them even during their sacred months. So, Muhammad had to be very vigilant during his proclaimed sacred month, the Ramadan, with the fear of being attacked by his victims. Though he was, as usual, guarded by his guards round the clock, he wanted to have as many guards as possible during the nights of Ramadan. So, he fabricated the theology of ITIKAAF, QHIYAAM AL-LAIL & LAIL-AL-QADR etc. Out of which, his theology of ITIKAAF (Seclusion in a mosque for the purpose of worshipping Allah only) helped him a lot during Ramadan. At first, he began his Itikaaf with his companions, for the first 10 days of Ramadan, and then he extended it to another mid-ten days, and finally to the last ten days of Ramadan also.
Itikaaf for the first 10 days of Ramadan (Bukhari Vol 3:242 & 243)
Itikaaf for the mid ten days of Ramadan (Bukhari Vol 3:244)
Itikaaf for all thirty days of Ramadan (Bukhari Vol 1:777)
Did Muhammad fear Allah?
Muhammad didn’t considered prayers as a spiritual duty for attaining closeness with God. Instead, he designed, changed or prolonged the prayers and its timing according to his personal need.
- In most occasions Muhammad purposely extended the timing of Isha, the 5th prayer, so as to retain his followers around his as long as he could. In many instances, he came out of his house to lead the Isha prayer very late, when his assembled followers had already gotten tired and were sleeping in the mosque. Muhammad often said: “If supper is served and the Iqaama for Isha prayer is proclaimed, start with your supper first” (Bukhari 1:640-642 & 7:373-374). This instruction is exclusively for the Isha prayer only. Whereas, for the Fajr, the early-morning-darkness-time prayer, his instructions were just the opposite, because he wants his protectors to come to his mosque as soon as possible. How could he change the timings of prayers, ordained by Allah?
- When Muhammad had no fear of attack by his enemies on heavily raining and very cold days, he allowed his companions to pray at their homes. (Bukhari 1:590, 605, 635 & 637). (No burning of their houses in this case.)
- Muhammad’s fear of Allah: Once the Iqama is pronounced and the Prophet was talking to a man in a corner of the mosque, and he did not lead the prayer till the people had slept. (Bukhari 1:615-616) (In this way, Muhammad showed his respect toward his Allah. Why should he fear unnecessarily from his own shadow, Allah)
- There was no harm if the muadh-dhin laughed while pronouncing the Adhaan or Iqaama. (Bukhari Vol. 1, The book of Adhaan, Chapter 10). (What is wrong in that? After all it was only a get-together of Muhammad’s soldiers).
- Muhammad forbade his followers to spit in the direction of Qibla during prayers, because they were speaking in private with their Allah and should not spit on their right, as there is an angel standing. However Muhammad allowed spitting on their left or under their left foot. (Bukhari 1:399, 404, 405, 408)
- When Muhammad arrived at Medina, he first stayed in the house of his maternal uncle to protect his life. (Allah didn’t see fit to protect his life).
- He started praying facing toward the direction of the Jewish Temple Bait-Al-maqdis on his own for 17 months, leaving aside Kaaba, the house of Allah. (Bukhari 1:39).
CONCLUSION: There is nothing spiritual in Islamic prayers; instead, they were designed solely to Muhammad’s personal benefits and advantage, primarily as a strategic measure for his personal protection. The 5-time daily prayers or any other Islamic prayers are, thus, meaningless today, because their real purpose, namely ensuring the security and protection of the commander of Muslims, are not at all a factor today. Nonetheless they do serve a somewhat different purpose today, which is safeguarding the hold of the Arab rulers upon their thrones under the shade of Islam. What is written above on prayers is only a fraction of such embarrassing information; there are much more scattered in Islamic sources.
It is high time for my Muslim brethren to critically analyze these Islamic sources, written by Allah alias Muhammad and the very respectable scholars of Islam, and get enlightened, instead of wasting their valuable time in lifelong head-banging.
