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 Death of a philosopherShort story By B. Dean January 7, 2003 The Iranian Part 4 (last) See Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 The case of God verses Bahram Ankar: Bahram, approach us. I'm the angel who has seen your every move and thought. I hereby open these court proceedings of the heavenly God, according to the laws sent through his prophets. You may call any witnesses in your defence as I may choose any soul for your counter defence. We are not limited by time as you are outside space-time. Bahram: I do not recognise the legitimacy of this court or its jurisdiction. Ankar: You feeble mortal. You dare judge God's judgement and risk eternal damnation? Bahram: If God is omnipotent and has given man free will, why is it that we are slaves on Earth? Ankar: Slaves? Who says that you are slaves? I'm sick and tired of you men always blaming someone else for your actions. You were given everything, and like spoilt little children still whine about how you were born as slaves. You are your own masters, and you will pay or be paid for your actions. Bahram: There is either a destiny or there isn't. If there is then where is man's free will? If there isn't, where is the omnipotent God? Or worse still, what kind of omnipotent God do we have that turned a blind eye on men, a God that created men in a certain way, blackened their hearts, filled them with ignorance so that he would later punish them. That sounds more like a child who plays with insects than a just God. If God were not just then what do I care what he does to me, for my actions would not be worth a penny in the outcome of his judgement. Ankar: The Universe has an order. What good or bad you do, you must be punished or rewarded. Bahram: What is good and bad? As a child I was given the motto "God, king and country" and look what happened. The king was ruined and died with a broken spirit and the men of God destroyed both God and country. What am I left with? Just I. Just me, myself, I. You killed my wife with cancer, my son doesn't talk to me and I had to escape for my life to have the right to think. Here I'm living in a concrete jungle and amongst the wreckage of stolen cars, a prisoner of my nostalgia and Diaspora in the cell of my cold flat and yet it is you who judge, not I. Ankar: Silence mortal! Irrespective of your opinion, you will be judged. So defend yourself or risk eternal hell. Bahram: If it is hell then so be it, it will not be different from the life you gave me, but I guess I shall play your game, as I have no choice. I call upon the soul of Socrates. Socrates! Did they not accuse you and put you to death for "corrupting" the young and "neglecting" the god that the city worshiped? Socrates: Yes they did. Bahram: Did the merciful, and compassionate God -- the one we have today and not the ones in your time -- save you from the hand of these tyrants when you were trying to save men by bringing philosophy from heaven to Earth? Did you not try to bring the erosion of moral values to ethical dimensions by the admonition to "know thyself" and the connotations of moral and humanistic terms? Socrates: Yes I did. Bahram: So why is it that such a God becomes jealous when there are false gods and there is a prophet around but not particularly bothered when the best of men who trry to guide humanity, are punished? I call upon an early Christian who was eaten by lions. Her name is Margaret. Margaret, did you not die for your faith. Margaret: That I did, sir. Bahram: Why? What was it that drove you to such a sacrifice? Margaret: It is my faith, sir. Bahram: So, why Christianity? Why not Judaism. You were a Jew originally, were you not? Margaret: Christ and his message of peace inspired me. Bahram: Would you still feel the same way when I show you the atrocities that were committed in the name of your faith by the church and men such as the crusaders? Would you recognise any prophets that came after Christ and completely skipped over the message of peace within the New Testament, which was a revolutionary book for man's faith and went back to fighting wars and beheading the men of tribes who were called sinners. Would you accept a pope, a father of one of your churches who tolerated the Nazis in killing millions of Jews? Margaret: Who am I to judge men before or after me, sir? My faith guided me in its own time. How can I judge other men? That was the message that Christ gave us. Bahram: You are an honest soul, thank you Margaret. Everyone seems to call God the God of peace but it seems that men who are the glory of his creation are proving him otherwise. I call upon Zechariah. Are you Jewish, Zechariah? Zechariah: Yes sir, I'm. Bahram: What made you not become a Christian in your own time? Zechariah: Sir, when the Romans ruled our land there were many men who called themselves Christ, eventually people gathered around mainly one sage called Jesus, who was said to have done amazing miracles. Bahram: So, how comes you did not follow Jesus. Zechariah: I thought that man's covenant with God that was brought by Moses was complete and besides, the sage's teachings were so revolutionary that to me he seemed like a Jewish heretic. He never talked about a new religion; his followers did that after his death. They called him Son of God and we found that by the teaching of our fathers blasphemes. Bahram: Ah, there is the catch. By the teaching of your fathers. How can we judge men when God keeps changing his plans? Why is it that the messages sent to men are so confusing, one minute you are to show devotion to one faith and the next you are punished for that as your sons were by the Christians, Thank you. By the way, that land that God promised your people, well your decedents are using bulldozers over people to get it back, so God did keep his promise! Ankar: What is it that you want to prove here? Bahram: That the God introduced by the scripture is unstable, unjust and changes his personality with the ego of his messengers. Man should not be judged or live on God's law but mans law. God did not bring unity amongst men but gave them a sword to kill each other I call upon Ibn Hashim. Ibn Hashim, did Mohammad, your prophet order the death of 700 Jewish men of the Bani-Gharizeh tribe who had the crime of not turning to Islam? Ibn Hashim: No sir, he did that because they were sinners and the prophet had a direct order from God to take that action. God had turned their hearts black and they would have remained the enemies of Islam had they lived. Bahram: God had turned their hearts black, but if he had not and if they genuinely had turned to Islam they would be saved. Ibn Hashim: Yes sir they would have but they didn't and we took pleasure in killing these sinners. Bahram: So by the authority of God's prophet, you did mass murder and ethnic cleansing! Did he also order the death of poets who were enraged by such killings? Ibn Hashim: Yes sir, he did, and I recorded it, again we did not question the prophet's actions when we knew that God dictated them. Bahram: Did he not start in his early days when the faith was not established to be extremely tolerant and was it not the case that once he had power he could jolly well do, as he liked? He didn't believe in freedom of choice when he was powerful, did he? Ibn Hashim: No sir. I do not believe that, besides I do not believe men are free. Men must follow the path of God. Bahram: Of course you believe, otherwise you wouldn't be a Muslim, would you? Tell me what did you do with married women once you captured tribes of non-believers? Ibn Hashim: We asked the prophet about that and he said that if they are non-Muslims we could take these women as our own slaves. Bahram: I really like your prophet Ibn Hashim, he gave his militia most of the war booty to keep you boys happy! So much for peace and respecting other faiths. I can see from the acts of his so called Seyed decedents who are destroying my country today that they are true believers and are following in the footsteps of last messenger of God. Well my friend and fellow Muslim, you will be pleased to know that today these inheritors of Mohammad's faith kill poets, writers and the youth in their thousands. I'm sure the prophet would be proud! The funny thing is that the 800 million Muslims do not know about what the prophet did, or refuse to believe his ways because they are either completely brainwashed, or scared or worse: they do not read or understand what has been handed to them. I call upon Ayisha, prophet's wife. Ayisha, how old were you when the prophet took you as a wife? Ayisha: I was six. Bahram: How old was he when he first make love to you? Ayisha: He was forty something. I was nine. Bahram: Can you tell us what happened when Hafseh, prophet's other wife, called you over on that day? Ayisha: Hafseh had gone to see her father with the prophet's permission. She turned up and saw Mohammad with Marieh and she became upset because Mohammad was skipping her turn to make love. She was asked to keep quite but she was so angry that she called me over, knowing that I was Mohammad's favourite and that he cared about what I thought. I was also asked to keep my mouth shut but I couldn't. Then he was sent this message from God that "why is it that you deny yourself the right to choose, you can choose the woman that you so choose and if your wives want to deny you that right then we can arrange for better wives to be given to you and they risk hell fire and damnation if they question you etc. etc.", this message is called Tahrim. Bahram: So that was fairly convenient wasn't it? He had eleven wives and he still could not stay faithful to them, boy what an appetite! A verse would be sent every time there was a personal issue for Mohammad. It didn't matter if it broke every law of a civilized, and just society. It does not matter to this day, does it? God's law is God's law, and if you question his prophets you deserve to die, don't you? Ayisha: He was good to his wives. Why should he deny one woman her right to her instincts if she is a slave? I guess he was being just. Bahram: I'm against anyone being a slave. I'm against old men marrying and having sex with children. If he wanted to help these women he could had given them a sanctuary not turn them into objects of pleasure that he owned. Ayisha: The Arab culture did not allow women to roam free. That is how things were in our time. Bahram: So how is it that his first wife owned property and had rights before Islam came along? If he was so concerned about his wife's rights to have a normal relationship why did he forbid anyone to marry them as part of his last will? Ayisha: You must not judge him as a man of your time. The prophet was acting as a good man according to his own time and place. Bahram: Then why would he declare that all messages including those relating to his own personal life as eternal and unchangeable words of God? Ayisha: I do not know, but I can tell you that he was being true to his faith. Ankar: I call upon Saint Francis of Assisi. Saint Francis, we urge you to tell this man what your faith has done for you and men who follow your order. Saint Francis: I was going to join the Papal forces to fight against the emperor Fredrick II but I had a vision that took me back to Assisi. I had a vision of Christ, and I followed that vision and an order was created to serve mankind and I renounced worldly goods, and family ties and I embraced a life of poverty. Ankar: See what you are missing Bahram. You are missing faith. Faith that has transformed man and brought him closer to the love of God. By this action Saint Francis set an example for so many other faithful to make man's world a better place. There were others such as mother Teresa who followed the calling of their faith and helped the most destitute and neglected to have hope, peace and love. Ankar: I call upon al Ghazali. You mastered and criticised the post-Aristotelian philosophies of al-Farabi and Avicenna (Ibn Sina) did you not? Al Ghazali: Yes I did. Ankar: In all, you wrote 40 books and explained the doctrines and practices of Islam and showed how these can be made the basis of a profound devotional life, leading to the higher stages of Sufism, or mysticism. Al Ghazali: Yes, and I argued that theology -- the rational, systematic presentation of religious truths -- was inferior to mystical experience. Ankar: Then I would say that, whatever glorious, or savage beginning that Islam had, that you Iranians are to a great extend responsible for putting the bucks in the fizz! Al Ghazali: What is bucks fizz. Ankar: Never mind. You gave a new dimension to Islam did you not? A dimension that would demonstrate to the best of men that this is a door way to salvation. Bahram: Did it matter that it was Islam, al Ghazali? Al Ghazali: It was Islam because God had chosen it to be Islam. Religion is a starting point. The reality that you reach through mystical experience is quite different from mainstream religion. With mystism you sacrifice yourself like a drop of rain that disappears in an ocean. Bahram: So at the end you become nothing. Al Ghazali: You yes, with a "you" you will not find anything but without a "you" you will find everything. This is something that has to be experienced. It is pointless talking about it. Ankar: So Bahram, you think you are so clever. Look, greater men had Islam as their faith, and you dare question it. Bahram: Well Al Ghazali by following your doctrine we did become nothing. We chose your way rather than the scientific path of Ibn Sina and we became nothing. I wonder, how much did you benefit man at the end? I call upon God as my witness. Ankar: I'm sorry you cannot do that. Bahram: I demand it. If I'm accused then I have the right to see my accuser. The voice of God: Bahram, look upon the mirror, the one that the keeper showed you, there you will find me. Bahram: But God, I only see myself in that mirror. The voice of God: That is because you brought yourself in front of that mirror. Bahram, we created men as perfect mammals. Man was free and one day Mother Nature better known as Lucifer gave man the forbidden fruit, the wheat. Man created civilization and could then see the nakedness of his existence. He realised that he was not complete. Man searched for me as birds migrate in every season and as deer cross the river and risk crocodiles or salmon that swims all oceans to go back to its place of birth. Very well Bahram, you shall have what you seek; it will be your blessing and your curse. Bahram: Tell me God, would faith ever have brought me to you, or was this another illusion? The voice of God: Tell me Bahram, is love ever real or is it simply your heart just beating faster and is love nothing more than a mammal's instinct for existence. Are you real or are you a refraction of light through a prism made out of the Earthly flesh of a beast. From this moment Bahram, you are sentenced to live in a Godless Universe. Do not pray to me when your child is sick. Do not pray to me as you die, for all these things are your illusions. All that you have seen, all these creatures, they shall only be a dream. The God that you saw was an unforgiving God and as in your reflection in this mirror you will see a God that you want to see, Good-bye and be gone with my blessing. Go forth and be my patron saint of the agnostics. Back to the dark room Bahram: Hello. Hello! Is there anybody out there? Death: I'm still here, Bahram. Bahram: Why is it that you are still here. You promised me to show your face. Death: Illusion or not I'm always here. Very well, I shall remove my cloak but it will be your own undoing. Bahram: What could be worst than what you offer me death? Death: Sometimes what could be worst than death is to live. To live forever. Bahram: Show your face. I do not fear you. Death: Well so be it. Bahram: This is so unfair! You appear to me as my dead wife and my son when he was a baby. This can only be a dream. It is an illusion. Maryam (Death): No it is not a dream Bahram. Your love is the only thing that has kept you bound to your life. You reach this place and when you have to choose between oblivion and your love, you choose to walk out of that door and relive your pain. I beg of you, for your own peace let me turn off the lights this time and all will be forgotten. Bahram: No I can't. Your love is all that I have left. Why is it that I cannot stay with you forever? Maryam: You are the victim of your own intellect Bahram. Even in a dream you can figure out that this is an illusion, and that I'm only a part of you, so every time we meet you choose to walk out of the door and forget and live a life that would deceive you. You do this to hold on to me. Bahram: Am I really dead? How long for? Maryam: How can I answer you when I'm only a part of you? What you know, I know, what you don't, I don't. What difference does it make anyway, being dead for a few seconds or a million years. There is no space-time here. You are in the land of dreams. Bahram: Very well my darling, a dream or not I want you to know that your love was always real to me, hold me for the last time. Look my son is holding my hand. He has a strong grip, doesn't he? Daddy still love you Peyman, even though you no longer talk to Daddy. Maryam, I'm ready for oblivion. Please turn off the lights. THE END >>> See Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 * Printer friendly Does this article have spelling or other mistakes? Tell me to fix it.
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