That Islam is a merit/demerit based religion is beyond question. One’s eternal destiny hinges (as far as any human actions can sway the will of Allah) on how well or poorly one obeys the divine commands, now conveniently gathered in what is known as Shari’ah law (in one approved version or another). The goal of Muslims is to stack up as many “merit points” as possible while avoiding the demerits that accrue from disobedience to Allah. At the Day of Judgment Allah will use a pan balance to weigh the totality of one’s good deeds against his bad deeds. Although Allah in his sovereign freedom is not obligated to follow the results, the Muslim hope is that he will have accrued enough good over evil to sway Allah’s judgment toward Paradise rather than hellfire.
One doesn’t need to read much in Islamic literature to see the obsession with reward and punishment based on deeds. Many scholars and hadith traditions weigh in on the specific rewards (in quality and quantity associated with particular good deeds or intentions. For example:
- “The example of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah [i.e., in jihad] is like a seed which grows seven spikes, in each spike is a hundred grains. Allah multiplies His reward for whom He wills, for Allah is vast and knowing” (Sura 2:261)
- “Verily, Allah has recorded good and bad deeds and He made them clear.
Whoever intends to perform a good deed but does not do it, then Allah will record it as a complete good deed. If he intends to do it and does so, then Allah the Exalted will record it as ten good deeds up to seven hundred times as much or even more. If he intends to do a bad deed and does not do it, then Allah will record for him one complete good deed. If he does it then Allah will record for him a single bad deed” (Sahih Bukhari, 6126) - “Whoever reads a letter of the Book of Allah will be credited with a good deed, and a good deed gets tenfold reward. I do not say that Alif-laam-meem is a letter, rather alif is a letter, laam is a letter and meem is a letter” (Tirmidhi, 2910)
- Reading or reciting Surat al-Ikhlas (Sura 112, composed of only 4 verses) gains the reward otherwise associated with reading or reciting 1/3 of the whole Qur’an (Bukhari, 4628)
- According to Muhammad, “Whoever sends blessings upon me once will have Allah send blessings upon him ten times” (Sahih Muslim, 408)
- Even better, according to Sunan Timidhi 2689, “Imran ibn Hussein reported: A man came to the Prophet and he said, ‘Peace be upon you.’ The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘Ten good deeds.’ Then another man came to the Prophet and he said, ‘Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.’ The Prophet said: ‘Twenty good deeds.’ Then another man came to the Prophet and he said, ‘Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.’ The Prophet said: ‘Thirty good deeds.'” (Apparently it really pays out well to heap praises upon Muhammad!)
- “Every [good] deed of the son of Adam is multiplied from ten to seven hundred times. Allah the Exalted says: Except for fasting, for it is done for my sake and I will reward it” (Sahih Muslim 1151). The implication of this is that fasting is in an exalted category all by itself, and earns mountains of blessings from Allah.
- Providing food for one breaking his fast earns you as much reward as that achieved by the one fasting, without detracting from his reward in any way.
- The Prophet said: “Prayer in congregation is superior to praying individually twenty-seven times.” (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim)
- “Allah’s Messenger (Peace be Upon Him) said: ‘Whoever says ‘Subhaanallaahi wa bihamdihi’ [Glorified is Allah and praised is He] one hundred times a day, will have his sins forgiven even if they are like the foam of the sea.'” (al-Bukhari and Muslim)
- Perhaps the “jackpot command” is: “The Prophet said: “Whoever enters a market and says: ‘Laa ilaaha ill Allah waHdahu laa shareeka lah, lahul mulku wa lahul Hamdu yuHyi wa yumeetu wa huwa Hayyun laa yamoot, bi yadihil khayr, wahuwa `alaa kulli shay’in qadeer’ [there is nothing worthy of worship but Allah, He is alone without partner, to Him belongs dominion and praise, he causes life and death and He is the Living and does not die. In His Hand is all the good, and He is over all things competent.] Allah will write for him a million good deeds, erase a million of his bad deeds and raise him a million levels.” (at-Tirmidhi)
There are thousands of such incentives sprinkled throughout Muslim religious texts, and they are taken seriously by the pious Muslim who fears the unquenchable fires of hell and is troubled by the doubts of having done enough good works to qualify for paradise. 
It is a bit comforting to know that Allah has his finger on the scales, so to speak, multiplying one’s good deeds while counting bad deeds only as single events. However, in works-righteousness salvation systems, one never has ultimate assurance of making the grade, and adherents often remain plagued with fears of eternal punishment.
For this reason, the month of Ramadan is all the more important to Muslims, for according to Muhammad, Allah takes the “normal” rewards associated with meritorious actions at other times of the year and multiplies them 70-fold if they are done during Ramadan. This increased incentive leads to extra attention to the mandatory prayers as well as voluntary evening prayers in the mosque, to hearing and reciting the Qur’an, to giving mandatory alms and then some, and of course to an increase of jihad attacks against the infidel world (the greatest act of devotion in Allah’s eyes). Muslims hope that their devotion during this month will wipe out all their sins and accrue new heights of heavenly reward for their future.
And yet, there remains a nagging uncertainty that they have pleased Allah sufficiently; left with no assurance of their positive stature with him, many try to show him their devotion in extreme ways — giving up their wealth, giving up their lives by “killing and being killed in the way of Allah” (see Sura 9:111, where Allah assures the jihadi of paradise in exchange for the jihadi’s promise to “go out in a blaze of glory for Islam”), or sacrificing whatever else is most precious to them in life.
This mindset helps explain the horrific actions of one Indian Muslim man early last Friday morning. Nawab Ali Qureshi, a 26 year-old husband and father in Jodhpur, India, had retired to bed with his wife and two young daughters before rising shortly after midnight, waking his four-year old daughter Rizwana and taking her downstairs to the courtyard where he recited some verses from the Qur’an and then slit her throat. 
Leaving her to bleed out, he then went upstairs to sleep again before waking to eat his pre-fast meal of the day. His wife, Shabana, awoke around 3 am and went downstairs, presumably to begin preparing her husband’s suhoor meal before the day’s fasting would begin, and she came upon her daughter’s lifeless body. When she frantically roused her husband, he played dumb, suggesting that perhaps the cat had dragged her downstairs and clawed her throat open. Shabana called the police and filed a criminal report, after which the authorities quickly suspected the father as the perpetrator.
When Qureshi confessed, he explained that his fear of the wrath of Allah led him to seek divine appeasement by sacrificing that which was most precious to him: “I had to offer my most prized possession to Allah,” he told police. “I am a devout Muslim and love my daughter more than my life.” But Allah is a hard master to satisfy. Qureshi thought that if he offered the jewel of his life, his young and innocent daughter, that would demonstrate to Allah his ultimate devotion and submission.
Now, to be fair, Islam does not condone child sacrifice — in fact, Muhammad was instrumental in stamping out female infanticide on the Arabian peninsula. And yet, the taking of life is not an unusual thing within Islam — honor killings, death to apostates, the beheading of infidels, the lionization of martyrdom all contribute to the notion that human life in and of itself is not highly valued.
When you mix that with a legalistic approach to seeking God’s approval, one which drives you to extreme efforts to demonstrate your devotion, and you add to that mix some mental imbalance, you end up with a Nawab Ali Qureshi, who does the unthinkable, barbarically slaughtering his daughter in a quest to appease the Allah of Islam.
There is no question that at some level Qureshi knew his actions were wrong. His kills his daughter at night, as everyone else is asleep. When confronted with his daughter’s corpse, he blames a cat. When he finally confesses, he explains that to appease Allah this “sacrificial offering” was necessary. Later on, he adds that he felt as if Satan had overtaken him in the act of murder.
So, which is it? Was his “sacrificial offering” prompted by Allah’s demands, or by Satan’s machinations? How could Qureshi confuse the inner promptings so grievously, unable to tell the difference between Allah and the devil? Well, as it turns out, he is no better than his prophet, Muhammad, who at least once mistook the whisperings of Satan for the voice of Allah as mediated through the angel Jibril. If Islam’s prophet could be so easily fooled, who can blame one of his frail followers?
For Muhammad, the damage was minimal. All he had to do was eat some crow, ignore the mocking of his detractors, and concoct a new divine revelation announcing that all true prophets in the past had been tricked by Satan, but that Allah had always set the record straight and preserved his true revelation.
But for Qureshi and the world around him, the damage is irretrievable. His daughter has been robbed of life; his family has been shattered; the albatross around his neck will never be removed. All because he sought to show his allegiance to a severe and pitiless god for whom the death of an innocent four-year old is just one more corpse added to the string of millions dating back fourteen hundred years.
May the true God of love have mercy on little Rizwana, now beyond the shadow of death. And may He, who is also God of justice, bring to an end the death cult which has terrorized so many.
the personal blog of Mateen Elass 
“Now, to be fair, Islam does not condone child sacrifice — in fact, Muhammad was instrumental in stamping out female infanticide on the Arabian peninsula.”
FALSE!
Child murder IS Islamic per Islamic Shari’a Law based on such doctrine as Qur’an 18:65-81.
Also, the idea of mass infanticide of girls in pre-Islamic Arabia is a MYTH. Females were largely honored by pre-Islamic Arabs such that they even had female prophets. Remember, the first woman used by Muhammad was his 15-year-older wife Khadijah who was a successful businesswoman. When Islam came, down came the status of females in Arabia.
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Ryan, thank you for your input, but what you have said does not refute my words with regard to child sacrifice. A sacrifice is something offered to God with the intent of pleasing Him. In the OT, the Ammonite cult of Molech intentionally offered child sacrifices before their idol in hopes of being blessed as a result. The passage you cited from the Qur’an is not a “doctrine” but a story of a supposed encounter between Moses and Khidr, a mysterious figure with supernatural knowledge, When he kills a boy in an unprovoked manner, Moses complains that he has done a deplorable thing. Khidr later explains to Moses (vv 80-81) that the boy was an unbeliever and his parents were believers, and in coming years he would have caused them great grief with his rebellion and disbelief, so Allah was sparing them those experiences and would give them a more noble son in his place. This qualifies as capital punishment, or perhaps even murder, but clearly not as child sacrifice.
If you have some pertinent citations from Shari’a law, please cite them for me and I will respond to them. Reference to the ruling that children are under their parents’ authority in all things is not sufficient, for although this is used to justify honor killings to expunge shame brought on the family by the victim, it has nothing to do with child sacrifice as an act of worship or appeasement.
As for Khadija, you are certainly right about her but she was the exception that proves the rule. Her stature as a wealthy businesswoman was remarkable news among the people of the day, and was due in part to her having been widowed twice and receiving hefty estates from her deceased husbands.
The question of female infanticide in pre-Islamic Arabia is debated by scholars, but there is no question there are references to it in fiqh material that post-date Muhammad, and there are passages in the Qur’an and Sira which hint at its practice in the culture of the day.
My statement was intended to pre-empt Muslim objections about unfairness in my presentation so that they would not be able to dismiss my main point by claiming I was overly biased.
If you still believe I conceded too much, please present more convincing evidence. I am open to correction.
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Thank you for your reply. You are correct that in the strict definition of child sacrifice, such a practice does not exist in Islamic doctrine. My statement on child sacrifice is in the broader sense, that Muslims have precedent to sacrifice their children based on Islamic doctrine.
‘Umdat al-Salik (Reliance of the Traveller) is the Muslim world’s #1 book of Islamic Shari’a Law. In the section on “justice” (section o1.2, p. 583), this book with the seal of Al-Azhar teaches that among those not subject to retaliation are Muslims who kill their own children and grandchildren. The exact words are:
(4) a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring
Muslims “sacrifice” their children and grandchildren in the name of protecting their “honor” in Islam, such as if the child (usually a female) is perceived as doing something un-Islamic such as a girl refusing to be given in “marriage” to some old Muslim man who has 3 wives. Of course, the slightest act of deviance from Islam can easily qualify a Muslim as a non-Muslim, and:
1) the same book of “justice” says their is no retaliation for a Muslim for killing a non-Muslim
2) apostasy is punishable by death – technically once puberty is reached but then again see above
As for the sacrifice of non-Muslim children, that is also Islamic per Sura 9:111. Combine this aya with Islam’s “golden rule” of Sura 48:29 (along with many other ayat and ahadeeth) and you get Muslims sacrificing non-Muslim children so that the Muslims can go directly to Islamic paradise/Jannah. This is substitutionary sacrifice of non-Muslim children, and of non-Muslims in general. But murdering the children of non-Muslims causes the most grief in non-Muslims, thereby most satisfying the Sura 48:29 mandate to be ruthless to non-Muslims.
Concerning the pre-Islamic position of females, Khadijah is not an exception. I don’t hold that against you since most people only hear about Khadijah. I learned much from Christian Prince and Ali Sina among others on this topic.
In pre-Islamic Arab culture (this is how Muhammad was conceived), the females would have sex with multiple men and then choose who she wants the father to be. Muhammad’s father died 4 years before he was born, and rather then face the simple math that their god Muhammad was born out of wedlock, they try to explain it away that it was a “miracle” that his mom Amina was pregnant with Muhammad for 4 years.
I mentioned there were female prophets, which shows how revered women were among the Arabs.
The Ansari women were dominant over their men. The Ansar were the helpers of Muhammad and his gang in Medina (at that time the half-Jewish city was called Yathrib) went their from Mecca in the hijrah.
Also, look at female leaders who when up against Muhammad such as Umm Qirfa, whom Muhammad had ripped apart with camels.
There are copious examples of women being accepted in positions of power in pre-Islamic Arab culture. Muhammad wiped all out of that out as he forever denigrated females as nothing more than sex objects to be used by Muslim men, especially non-Muslim females including children.
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Ryan, you are son solid ground while you are quoting Umdat as-Salik and the Qur’an concerning Muslim practices. However, as you yourself note, the matters you bring up have nothing to do with child sacrifice (which is the offering of a child’s life in an attempt to appease a deity’s wrath). I completely agree with you (as I mentioned in my first reply) that Muslims have wide warrant within Islam to kill others in the name of Allah, even their own children, but this is seen as an act of punishment (or justice, in their minds), not propitiation.
Regarding pre-Islamic Arabia and the status of women, there is very little historical material since there was very little written material prior to the Qur’an. I’m not sure where Ali Sina and Christian Prince get their data from, but a thorough reading of Ibn Ishaq’s Sira (the earliest extant biography of the prophet) does not support many of the assertions you have made as to the culture of the day. Women having sex with multiple partners and then choosing the father? Muhammad being in gestation four years before Amina gave birth because his father, Abdullah died four years earlier? Ibn Ishaq knows nothing of this. Female prophets roaming the land? Please name one who had any following. Ansari women having the dominant role over their husbands? Hardly. Certainly in any patriarchal culture you will find strong-minded women who stand out, but they stand out precisely because they are an exception to the rule. If women ruled the Arab roost in Medina, how would Muhammad have ever ascended to power with his misogynistic message.? Wouldn’t the dominant women simply have run him out of town when he began filling their husbands’ minds with revolutionary thoughts?
But enough of this — it’s off the subject concerning which you first wrote, and about which I think we can agree — the Indian Muslim who killed his daughter in an attempt to appease Allah was driven by fear born of a legalistic system where one’s salvation is never assured, and he hoped that by offering what was “most precious to him”, he could prove to Allah his full devotion.
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Mateen, the Sira is not the only book of historical material. You may not be aware of other Islamic books. I recommend you obtain a copy of The Deception of Allah by Christian Prince as he digs through Islamic doctrine in Arabic to expose much of what Muslims conceal. Most Islamic books have not been translated from Arabic, and Muslims cover for Islam in even the translated books such as English translations being 2 lines in Ibn Kathir while the corresponding Arabic section is 5 pages.
Nevertheless, there are English references indicating the pre-Islamic status of females. I’m not saying pre-Islamic Arabia was feminist. I am saying whatever female status was destroyed by Muhammad.
Here is a Sunna reference about how the Ansari women had the upper hand over their men:
Narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abbas:
…Then ‘Umar went on relating the narration and said. “I and an Ansari neighbor of mine from Bani Umaiya bin Zaid who used to live in ‘Awali Al-Medina, used to visit the Prophet in turns. He used to go one day, and I another day. When I went I would bring him the news of what had happened that day regarding the instructions and orders and when he went, he used to do the same for me. We, the people of Quraish, used to have authority over women, but when we came to live with the Ansar, we noticed that the Ansari women had the upper hand over their men, so our women started acquiring the habits of the Ansari women. Once I shouted at my wife and she paid me back in my coin and I disliked that she should answer me back. She said, ‘Why do you take it ill that I retort upon you? By Allah, the wives of the Prophet retort upon him, and some of them may not speak with him for the whole day till night.’ What she said scared me and I said to her, ‘Whoever amongst them does so, will be a great loser.’ … So, I entered upon the Prophet and saw him lying on a mat without bedding on it, and the mat had left its mark on the body of the Prophet, and he was leaning on a leather pillow stuffed with palm fibres. I greeted him and while still standing, I said: “Have you divorced your wives?” He raised his eyes to me and replied in the negative. And then while still standing, I said chatting: “Will you heed what I say, O Allah’s Apostle! We, the people of Quraish used to have the upper hand over our women (wives), and when we came to the people whose women had the upper hand over them…” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 43, Number 648)
Muhammad imposed his misogynist “religion” on the Ansar and Arabs as a whole, such that Muhammad’s child bride accurately stated, “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women”.
Narrated ‘Ikrima:
Rifa’a divorced his wife whereupon ‘AbdurRahman bin Az-Zubair Al-Qurazi married her. ‘Aisha said that the lady (came), wearing a green veil (and complained to her (‘Aisha) of her husband and showed her a green spot on her skin caused by beating). It was the habit of ladies to support each other, so when Allah’s Apostle came, ‘Aisha said, “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women. Look! Her skin is greener than her clothes!” When ‘AbdurRahman heard that his wife had gone to the Prophet, he came with his two sons from another wife. She said, “By Allah! I have done no wrong to him but he is impotent and is as useless to me as this,” holding and showing the fringe of her garment, ‘Abdur-Rahman said, “By Allah, O Allah’s Apostle! She has told a lie! I am very strong and can satisfy her but she is disobedient and wants to go back to Rifa’a.” Allah’s Apostle said to her, “If that is your intention, then know that it is unlawful for you to remarry Rifa’a unless ‘Abdur-Rahman has had sexual intercourse with you.” Then the Prophet saw two boys with ‘Abdur-Rahman and asked (him), “Are these your sons?” On that ‘AbdurRahman said, “Yes.” The Prophet said, “You claim what you claim (i.e. that he is impotent)? But by Allah, these boys resemble him as a crow resembles a crow,” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 72, Number 715)
Here is a video by Christian Prince on the topic of Amina’s supposed 4 year pregnancy with Muhammad:
Take care,
Ryan
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Ryan, thank you for the material, and for the reference to Christian Prince. I tried the link you provided but it did not take me to the right video, but after some searching, I found it.
The reason I stick with Ibn Ishaq and Tabari in particular is that I.I. in particular contains the earliest Muslim biographical material on Muhammad. There are many other later sources, but as you know they are filled with interpolations and affected by partisan biases seeking to uphold their particular doctirnes/practices. I.I. is not necessarily pure or true (one can easily see how it is filled with hagiography) but it is not tainted by the later debates of various schools.
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Reblogged this on Sheaholliman's Weblog.
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Hi, I have a question: what Mohammed white skinned as some texts refer him so?
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Yes, a number of Hadith texts refer to him as white-skinned, in contrast to many of his African slaves who were black-skinned.
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