Adonis Diaries

Nomad pragmatism versus submission to Allah; (Mar. 30, 2010)

The nomads (or bedwins) in the Arabic peninsula before Islam were highly individualistic, even within their clans.  The idols they came to ask for personal benefits and privileges had to satisfy their desires.  Otherwise, idols were discarded as pure rocks or woods.

The large wood carved idols were very prized by the rich tribes because they were imported and were expensive.

Here you have a nomad from the tribe of Mudar arriving to give sacrifice to a rock idol named Saad (Happiness) around Jedda: he wanted his preferred idol to protect his flock of camels and wanted his stock to fructify.  The camels smelt the blood of sacrificial animals on the rock and got agitated; they fled to the desert.  After gathering his camels the nomad returned alone to his idol and declaimed a poem saying: “We came to Saad to unite me with my camels.  Saad divided and dispersed us. Who is Saad in fact? He is but a stupid rock lost in a sterile desert.”

Another example is told of the famous poet Umru2 Al Qaiss, a leader of a Christian-Jewish sect clan. He came for benediction for his next vengeance raid on a rival clan that assassinated his father. The oracle demanded Al Qaiss to be patient and he got angry and said: “Go suck my father’s dick.  If he were your assassinated father you would have not been consulting me anyway”

Islam of submission to one and all-powerful Allah was hard on pre-Islamic tribes to swallow: they needed control over their idols.

The Prophet Muhammad’s verses, lambasting the arrogance of the Pharaoh of Egypt for refusing Moses message to believing in one God, is memorized and recalled by Moslems when they target dictators “taghia”.  The Pharaoh had retorted: “only senile people and weak in their mind submit to another God but me”

It is interesting how Moslems, especially urban living Moslems, criticized harshly and verbally their “taghia” leaders, but practically submit to them as long as he is in power.

Submission to Allah in Islam is but a continuous and relentless call against arrogance and blatant individualism: Being considered as equal in a society of believers (man/woman, free man/slave, regardless of race and origin) was anathema to nomadic customs and traditions.

The key verse in the Koran is “We created you man and woman; we have constituted you in confederations and tribes so that you get to know one another.”

The quick victories of Moslems in the first century after the death of the Prophet are mainly due to this spirit of equality of believers regardless of race or origins. It swept away caste and clan affiliations and ancient hierarchical privileges in its advance toward Africa and then to Far East Asia.

Equality among believers was the power of Islam until dynasties of Caliphs had to rely on clans, tribes and castes in conquered lands for support to their dictatorship.

The Moslems have this impression that the current Western civilization, especially among the political leaders, doesn’t give a damn about a God, but plainly submit to power and money. The Western leaders acquired this basic knowledge never to admit that they are no believers in one God, but to constantly ask for His benediction before the start of a war or a critical campaign.

Mainstream Moslems tend to agree that Western leaders think like the Pharaoh “Only the weak in the mind (the common people) believe in one God”