A Response to the Previous Article Titled: (My Father Is My Problem!) from the Father who Writes (I Am Not the Problem, I Am the Victim!)
Published in May 10, 2018
Translated by: Ahmed Fathy
Introduction:
We are very much astonished and bewildered as we have received an email message from the father whose son, the journalist, has written about in his message we have tackled in our previous article (in English) titled "My Father Is My Problem!". The message of the father is filled with many surprises. As we have mentioned in the previous article, we take the questions/messages we receive at the face-value while assuming that people are telling us the truth, and we have mentioned that we sometimes analyze the words of the messages we read in search for any lies, contradictions, and illogicality; in fact, we found none within the message of the son, the journalist, and we have offered our reply as per what he has written in his message. The message of his father apparently contains facts and events which are not known to the son; we have to believe the message of the father and to take it at the face-value in a similar manner; he seems to be logical (like the logicality of the journalist son), but the difference is that the father says he mentions facts never known before to the son and he justifies his behavior as a father, as he felt very sad and shocked because of the negative comments (in Arabic) written by some of our dear fellow Quranists under the previous article (the one in Arabic). In fact, this father has requested that we publish the entirety of his message as he defends himself; this is his right, for sure; yet, of course, we have removed from the message the names of the people involved and few pieces of personal information about the son and the father, to protect their privacy. We publish his message below, followed by our reply, and we feel very sorry for having to do this; in fact, we cannot think of the real reason for feeling sorry about having to publish this message.
Firstly: the message we have received from the father:
(... Dear Sir, ... I've read your last article titled "My Father Is My Problem!", and I read the comments below it; I feel so much hurt indeed; I'm the intended "father" in this message of the journalist! I'm unjustly wronged and insulted though I'm not the problem, I'm the victim here! I write this message to you to clarify matters to you and to readers and then to pose a question to you. For years, I have concealed the unhappy truth and I suffered untold Calvary and no one knows about my mental anguish and life of torment and patience. This journalist is accusing me of being his problem; he's written things about me without knowing any facts at all about my life; besides, he wrongs me because he has not mentioned in his message that I worked very hard within the business whose money is taken illegally and unrightfully by this journalist and his three sisters. When he reads my message here to you, he will know the real facts of the case never known to him before; his insolence and lies drives me now to announce the unhappy truth concealed for years by me; readers will know that no one has the right to curse me, for I'm the one who has suffered in silence. During my youth, after the death of my parents, I was responsible for my younger brother; I worked hard while studying at the university to support him and spend on him and on myself; before I graduated from the Faculty of Arts, I became a poet, a freelance journalist, and a literary critic and I earned more money by holding forums at the university and the branches of the Ministry of Culture (at our Governorate) to discuss literary criticism, Arabic poetry, and comparative literature. My ardent wish was to be a brilliant famous journalist, poet, and critic; yet, I forsook such a dream; upon graduation, I accepted a job at the UAE, which never suited my talents, so that I earn money to build my house and care for my younger brother who was dependent on me financially as he had obtained (with difficulty) an intermediate diploma and had a longer term within the obligatory military service. We felt happy to care for my younger brother, who was the only relation and family I had at the time. I built a spacious two-story house in our native village; I gave my brother the apartment in the 2nd floor and I lived in the 1st ground floor. I made him legally as my partner in the business (a workshop) though he had no money of his own at all at the time, and he managed everything in the business as I trusted him while I worked in the UAE. Years later, I took a leave to get married in our native village; I chose a young woman who was 15 years younger than I am; at first, my brother advised me not to marry her because she had a love affair with a young man; this ruined her reputation in our native village. Yet, I told my brother that no one is 100% guiltless, as many male youths have their own past of sins and love affairs which in many cases included committing fornication. In the first two months of the marriage, I was so happy and in love with my wife; before I returned to the UAE, my father-in-law asked for a loan to buy a stretch of land and I managed to get the loan to him from a bank and asked my brother to settle this bank-loan installments from my own profits within our business. I visited our native village only twice a year. Within the first four years of my marriage, my wife gave birth to a son and I was overjoyed, and then, she gave birth to three daughters. I felt that no one on earth was happier than I am. In the UAE, I was faithful to my wife whom I loved very much and I never betrayed her despite my high sexual drive and my being deprived of sex; I typically masturbated instead of having sexual affairs with women or having sex with prostitutes. Because I felt ashamed of myself as I masturbated like a teenager (and I had to be a respectable father of four children), I decided to donate my sperm for a medical center inside the UAE on a regular basis to help in scientific research and earn some more money for my family; on a weekly basis, I masturbated to donate my sperm to the people at the medical center who gave me 100 US$ and a meal every time I donate my sperm. Yet, at one time, the medical center refused to accept my sperm donation anymore; the doctors there assured me that I'm sterile; my ejaculation contains dead spermatozoa! This means that I cannot be a father at all! I felt so shocked and I was mad with fury! This means that my wife was not faithful to me! She certainly had a lover! This means that the four children are not my biological children! I underwent some medical tests in other locations inside the UAE and Egypt; all doctors asserted that it is quite impossible for me to have children! At first, I never suspected that my brother had a love affair with my wife; yet, I felt that he is surely the culprit! He is the one who took care of my wife and her children during my absence in the UAE and he lives in the 2nd floor inside the same house with my wife who lived in the 1st ground floor! He is responsible for my wife; how come that she'd taken a lover without his knowing anything about it! He should have noticed something suspicious and chose not to tell me! He may be the father of the children as he may be the lover of my wife! I decided to make sure myself and to check the matter; I returned unexpectedly to my native village without telling anyone beforehand. When I opened the door with my keys, I saw my wife, my brother, and the four children eating dinner together like any 'happy' family! The fear and fright that appeared on the faces of my wife and my brother made me quite sure that they are lovers; if this was an innocent dinner, why did they felt annoyed and frightened by my sudden return?! The children hurried towards me to greet and embrace me, but I shooed them away like pieces of filth! They are not my children and I am not their father! My wife gave a start and her fear grew as I screamed at her to confess and tell me the name of her lover who is the biological father of these children. I threatened her that if she did not confess, I will slaughter her children before her eyes! She and my younger brother embraced the children very hard while weeping! The children were weeping out of fear! I realized this very instant that my brother is the biological father of these four children! This is a proof which is clear enough! When I screamed at my brother while asking him if he was the father of such children, he fell silent. I kept beating him and her so hard in fury and they never defended themselves; the children ran to their rooms and my wife and my brother were beaten alternatingly by me, and again, they never defended themselves! My fury was never spent until I screamed in pain and struck my head against the wall until blood gushed from my head! In the very next day, I talked to my wife and my brother: I told them (in the presence of the children) that they have to choose either to get killed by me, along with the children, and then I will burn the house and commit suicide or that I will divorce this unfaithful woman and drive her and my brother out of the village forever, along with the children. The children kept weeping while embracing my brother and my unfaithful wife. I felt that the children are innocent and guiltless; I felt that if I killed the wife, the brother, and the children, and then myself, I will certainly enter into Hell in the Hereafter. I told the unfaithful woman and the sinful brother that they have to leave the village forever, along with the children, and I will never scandalize them. They agreed to leave. In the same day, I kept weeping inside my room, alone. I felt slightly relieved; I felt that driving them out of the village will scandalize me! The rural people of our village will know the truth about my being cuckolded! I felt that I'd rather die than to make people of our village know the unhappy truth; this scandal will kill me for sure! I stopped their getting out of my house; I proposed another solution that will preserve my dignity and spare me any scandal: I will keep my wife, provided that she'd never leave the house; I will never have sex with her until she dies (or until my death); the brother will leave the house forever; he must buy my share of the workshop so that we would never be partners again. He will never make me see his ugly face again. He readily moved out and did as I told him. I continued living inside the house with the woman and her four children and I quit my UAE job. Almost on a daily basis, I beat and insulted her and the children, for any reason or sometimes without any reason, because I sought revenge and so that the bitterness inside my would lessen. I spent most of my time inside a café, eating my meals and smoking hashish; I felt relieved as long as I never saw her and her children; I formed many friendships inside the café and recited poetry and told jokes to them and we'd laugh! I was no longer tidy since my shock, and I grew fatter! I never entered the house except to go to the bathroom or to sleep; I even washed my own clothes every week; this woman was never allowed to touch my things or to enter into my bed-room. I never ate from the meals she prepared. I pitied myself as I look at the old photos of mine! I'm no longer the handsome, elegant, eloquent poet; betrayal has destroyed my life and my wrecked soul. When the father of my wife died, she gave me the stretch of land because her father never paid its price to me. I retrieved my financial right this way and she assumed that she should please me somehow. God has avenged me later on: the sinful brother got a heart disease; the unfaithful wife died of hepatitis and she suffered fearful pains in her last months; I felt schadenfreude because of her pains; her screams were music to my ears. I waited eagerly for the death of my sinful brother to inherit the workshop and his wealth. Yet, the journalist conspired with his biological father (my brother) and got all the money within legal, registered contracts! I never knew this until my sinful brother died; when the journalist came along to lay his hands on the workshop, I prevented him, and he verbally abused me and insulted me before the employees! This is why I beat him severely! I sold my spacious house and I got married to a widow who has three small children; I feel very happy with her and I love her so much; I have returned to my habit of reading poetry and literature in books and via the internet; I stay with my wife in our new apartment and I never go the café now. I've come across your great Quranism website and I've read your entire archive of writings. I felt furious by the message of the insolent journalist who considers me as a source of disgrace and shame! He does not know that he is the son of fornication! I never know his phone-number abroad and I never called him at all! He is an inveterate liar! I never asked him for any money; I never need any money; I have enough money since I sold my spacious two-story house and the stretch of land I told you about. It is me who feels disgraced by such a son of fornication; I never told the people at our native village about the unhappy truth because I've decided to avoid scandals in my old age. This is my side of the story, and as a Quranist man like you, I swear by God that I'm telling you the whole truth, Dr. Mansour. I enjoy feelings of schadenfreude now as I imagine the face of the cursed journalist as he reads this. He is the son of fornication; he is a disgrace! As for my question, shall I allow this whore's son and his sisters to carry my name still?! Shall I scandalize them and expose them cruelly or not?! What is the view of Islam about this matter? These four children of fornication will never inherit me because I have written my possessions and money to my wife and her three young children. Like you, I never believe in hadiths; yet, the Sunnites have this hadith: (the born child is ascribed to the bed-chamber of the married couple and the adulterers are to be stoned) ... This is against Islam, right? ... What is your advice to me? I never slept yesterday when I read the words of the cursed journalist ... You have to publish my message here that contain the whole truth; I have the right to defend myself; the lies of the whore's son, the journalist, have nothing to do with me! ... Thank you ...).
Secondly: our reply:
1- We feel extremely sad and sorry because of what we have read in this shocking message of this man; it he is truthful, he has suffered a lot and undergone much pain and mental anguish. Yet, we never agree or sympathize with his beating innocent children who are never guilty and are never the culprits here.
2- The silly Sunnite hadith of (the born child is ascribed to the bed-chamber of the married couple and the adulterers are to be stoned) has nothing to do with Islam and it indicates the ignorance of the fabricator of this hadith, for the following reasons.
2/1: There is no penalty of (stoning someone to death) at all in Islamic/Quranic sharia legislations; besides, the Sunnite sharia laws of Satan (taken partially from the Talmud and the distortions of the so-called Old Testament) entail the stoning to death of both adulterers (i.e., male married fornicators) and adulteresses (i.e., female married fornicators) for infidelity, and not the adulterers only as inferred from this silly Sunnite hadith which has nothing to do with Muhammad.
2/2: God says in the Quran: "Call them after their fathers; that is more equitable with God. But if you do not know their fathers, then your brethren in faith and your friends..." (33:5). This verse indicates that in Arabia at the time, fornication or illicit sex was the norm and it was sometimes regarded as an act of worship (within polytheistic, pagan practices of course), as we infer from these verses: "And when they commit sexual indecency, they say, "We found our parents doing this, and God has commanded us to do it." Say, "God does not command indecencies. Are you attributing to God what you do not know?" Say, "My Lord commands justice, and to stand devoted at every place of worship. So call upon Him, and dedicate your faith to Him alone. Just as He originated you, so you will return."" (7:28-29). At the time in Arabia, many types of corrupt marriages were common; the Quran provides corrections regarding the types of women a man cannot marry (see 2:22-24); another corruption was adoption by giving adopted children one's name.
2/3: For instance, as per history, Amr Ibn Al-As was the son of a sex worker (or rather a known whore or a courtesan) in Arabia named Al-Nabigha, and when she delivered this male baby, Amr, she chose the man named Al-As (who was among her many lovers/customers) to be the father of her baby; Ibn Al-As readily agreed to give his name to this baby and to take care of it as his own son. This was acknowledged by people at the time in Arabia, regardless of the fact that no one was sure about the real biological father and regardless of the fact that such a baby was born out of wedlock. No one there at the time seemed to care very much about legal marriages, fornication/adultery, or corrupt types of marriages.
2/4: The verse 33:5 mentions that whether we know the father of the person or not, and whether they have a name of a father or not, these persons are to be treated as brethren in faith and as friends. During the Mameluke Era, as per history, the verse 33:5 was applied to the Mamelukes who were bought as slaves during their childhood and their fathers were never known as they grew up in Egypt; many of them typically adopted any names; e.g., the Mameluke prince so-and-so the son of Abdullah. Within our modern era of scientific advances, the father who sent the above message can resort to the DNA tests to check whether the three sisters and their brother are his biological children or not.
3- If it turns out that they are not his biological children as he is really sterile since his youth and if this is proven beyond a shadow of doubt, this means that the guess (made by the sender of the above message) about the identity of the true biological father of these children may be true. In such a case, this man may choose to announce such a fact or to keep concealing it at his native village as is the case in the previous years; besides, in such a case, he has the right to do whatever he likes with his money and apartment if he desires never to leave anything as inheritance (after his death) to the three sisters and their brother, since they are not his own biological children.