The military strategist named Muhammad

And this was when religion came in to undertake that task. Basically they had to adopt the concept of the Creator and that this Creator is also the maker and bringer of laws. Hence God’s laws would bind humankind to a certain code of conduct and a set of moral laws. And you breach this code of conduct and moral laws at your own peril. The punishment could be penance or banishment, or worse, death.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

If you go around telling people that God spoke to you and that you are His messenger and no one listens to you, you are a lunatic. If you go around telling people that God spoke to you and that you are His messenger and millions listen to you, you are a prophet. Hence your credibility would depend on how many people listen to you. If no one listens to you, you are mad. If many listen to you, you are special.

Now, before you jump on me and accuse me of saying that the Prophets were actually lunatics, hold your horses and read on till the end. Many things that were said and done and which people believed back in the old days would appear crazy by today’s standards. But back in the old days they had different value systems and people of those days did what was considered norm back then. Only by today’s standards would you view all these as sheer lunacy.

The early religions of the hunter-gatherers were mainly animated and the belief in spirits. They believed that everything had a spirit -- trees, hills, rivers, the sun, the moon, animals, etc. Hence, as a sort of ‘insurance’, they prayed to these spirits.

Before they cut the corn they prayed to the corn spirit for permission to cut the corn lest the spirit in that corn got angry and punished them. Before they climbed a tree they prayed to the spirit of the tree lest they anger the spirit in the tree and they fall down and hurt themselves or die. Before they fished they prayed to the spirit of the lake or river lest they anger the spirit and fall into the water and drown. And so on.

Hence the early concept of religion was that of a bad, mischievous, angry, jealous, vengeful, uncompassionate, possessive, etc., spirit that lived in everything that the eye could see. And you had to please, bribe, pacify, etc., this spirit lest it punishes you for being inconsiderate in not seeking permission before doing something. And you did this with prayer and sacrifice (both animal and human -- as well as, for example, burning some corn as sacrifice before eating it).

If you got sick it is because you angered a spirit. If your catch is bad it is because you angered a spirit. Anything bad at all that happens is the revenge of an angry spirit. So you need to appease this spirit.

That was basically what religion was all about in the early days of the hunter-gatherers. There was no concept of morality or of the existence of a Creator. No one worried about morality or contemplated issues such as who created us and why are we here and whatnot. All that came much, much later.

Eventually, people settled down (the evolution from hunter-gatherers to settlers that I was talking about in my earlier articles) and began to live as a community within a community. So now they needed laws to govern the community.

They did not have an elected government or a police force or a set of laws or law courts, etc. So how do they draw up a set of guidelines to govern how people treated each other? How do they enforce peace and ensure security? How are you going to be protected?

Many things that hunter-gatherers did not have to worry about the settlers now needed to address. In the old days you just killed and ate whatever you killed (and sometimes you killed each other and ate them as well). Now there needs to be certain respect shown to each other. For example you can no longer just kill someone and cook him for dinner and take his woman as your mate.

Morality, something that never used to exist, now needed to be clearly defined. What is moral and what is immoral? And to define morality you needed to first define conscience. Your moral compass would need to be defined by what we call conscience. You have to begin drawing the boundary between right and wrong.

But who is going to be the power that determines these new standards? There was no elected government to undertake this task. The community was self-governing. But someone within that community needed to spell out what is right and what is wrong and hence what are the boundaries of morality-immorality.

And this was when religion came in to undertake that task. Basically they had to adopt the concept of the Creator and that this Creator is also the maker and bringer of laws. Hence God’s laws would bind humankind to a certain code of conduct and a set of moral laws. And you breach this code of conduct and moral laws at your own peril. The punishment could be penance or banishment, or worse, death.

So early religions had to be strict. Religion maintained law and order within the community. They maintained the peace and security. They severely punished offenders and transgressors. And that is why religion is all about rules and regulations. It was what kept you safe and alive.

However, to bind people to the dictates of religion you must first bind people to the doctrine of that religion. And that is why religion is steeped in dogma. You must accept and believe that there is a power that created you and that this power can punish and reward you depending on whether you are a good person or bad person. Once you accept that doctrine you can then accept and follow the dictates of that religion. You become good because it is beneficial to be good and you avoid being bad because it is unrewarding to be bad -- the carrot and the stick concept.

Eventually, humankind became more sophisticated as it progressed and primitive religions were no longer acceptable. So the prophets of the new religions had to impress a sceptical population that he was truly the prophet of God.

For example, back in the days of the Pharaoh, magic was what awed the people. The Pharaoh declared that he was god and he had a team of magicians who could turn a stick into a snake to prove it. Moses too was forced to use magic to turn his stick into a snake and which swallowed the snakes of the Pharaoh’s magicians. Even the Pharaoh’s magicians were awed.

Moses also parted the Red Sea to allow his people to escape from Egypt. No one would deny that Moses was legitimate with the powerful magic that he performed.

During the time of Jesus, people were awed by miracles. In fact, magic was by then seen as the devil’s work (you would get put to death for performing magic). So Jesus had to perform all sorts of miracles to prove his legitimacy. (And that is why the miracle of the Resurrection of Jesus is so crucial to Christianity).

During the time of Muhammad, the people were awed by poetry plus of people who had a superb memory and could recite poetry from memory. Poets who could memorise and recite poetry were the superstars of that time and much respected (plus women would swoon and fall in love with them).  

So Muhammad had to recite ‘poetry’, so to speak, as his ‘miracle’. And that is why the verses from the Qur’an are all oral (Qur’an derives from the word recite) and not written (until later) and poetic as well. And the most respected people of that time were those who could memorise and recite the Qur’an. And the Qur’an is read with melody and the end of each verse rhymes with the one before it.

It is said that all Muhammad had to do was to recite verses from the Qur’an and even those who had come to kill him fell down in prostration when they heard the verses. Maybe the Arabs were just suckers for a good poetic verse but whatever it was they were awed when they heard the recitals.

And that, Muslims believe, is the miracle of Muhammad.

Now, another very important point about Arabia of that time, other than being awed by poetry and verses, was that the Arabs were warring desert tribes. They attacked one another, killed one another, robbed one another, kidnapped the other tribes' women and children, and whatnot. It was basically a test of your manhood to raid and fight the other tribes. It was the same culture as the Vikings and many people of that time. It was, in fact, a noble pastime or occupation back in the pre-Crusade era.

One task ahead of Muhammad was to unite these people, an impossible people to unite even up to this present day (as you may all be aware). So how to unite the hundreds of Arab tribes who for centuries had been fighting and killing each other?

The only way would be religion. The Arabs had no respect for anything or anyone except when it comes to religion. They will fight each other and kill each other until they entered the ‘holy land’ of Mekah. Then they will lay down their arms and not harm even a fly. Hence if you can control Mekah you can control the Arabs.

And that, I believe, is why Muhammad needed to conquer Mekah. He would never be able to unite and control the Arabs until he first controlled Mekah. And I believe that was why he needed to invade Mekah with an army of 10,000 a year before he died.

Hence it was a political strategy. First sabotage Mekah’s economy. Then conquer Mekah militarily. Then introduce Islam to Mekah. And then unite the Arabs under the new religion of Mekah.

I would say it was a brilliant strategy -- until after Muhammad died and Islam broke up into many sects and which, again, disunited the Arabs until today.

Muhammad must be weeping seeing this Arab-Muslim disunity from wherever he is currently resting.