Maintaining Mosques of Disbelievers with $ Millions and Billions

 Published in June 20, 2017

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

1- The Salafist call (some tines called revival!) adopted and propagated by the KSA and the other Gulf monarchies led them to spend hundreds of $ billions to establish ideological mosques that spread Wahabism as if it were Islam. The Wahabi ideology caused the flourish of trading with religious mottos, sham and ostentatious appearances of piety, and Wahabi affluent men building (small and grand) mosques in all districts, villages, and cities all over the Arab world. Their competitors are those swindlers who collect donations under the pretext of building a new mosque, while urging people to donate to gain a palace in Heaven, as per false Sunnite hadith!     

2- In contrast, millions of people in Egypt live in poor slums in despicable conditions and in the cemeteries and streets. The Egyptian youths have no money to have houses to get married within the exorbitant prices that continue to soar with the passage of time. Sadly, many families are cramming tiny rooms and houses; this leads to incestuous relations. Swindlers who have no conscience offer poorly built houses and apartments for sale, within installments, and get away with the money while leaving such apartments fall on the victims who die as a result, and the survivors would have lost their lifetime money and their family members! They eventually live in the streets and in bidonvilles (i.e., slums where houses made of tin and timber sprout randomly). Thus, such strata of society are among categories who deserve charity as (wayfarers); yet, the sinning affluent ones are disdainfully looking at such poor ones and never help them, while they are protected in their walled palaces, chalets, huge apartments, and touristic spots from attacks of the hungry ones.  

3- It is a calamity that instead of spending $ billions to build houses to provide shelter for such poor ones, such huge sums are being spent to build grand mosques, within Wahabis who are swindlers and steal most of the donation and charity money! This led to the spread of millions of ideological mosques of Wahabism that spread terrorist thought. Even if some of such mosques are 'neutral', they are useless as one can pray anywhere and at home; why not to use such money to house the homeless?! Wahabi mosques help propagate immorality and unethical behavior as well as corruption of every sort and level; they are harmful mosques that spreads quasi-religious myths, narratives, hadiths, laws, and falsehoods ascribed falsely to God's religion, though such lies contradict the Quranic sharia legislations.      

4- People imitate their rulers; tyrants steal wealth of their nations and yet they build grand, lavishly decorated mosques using the ill-gotten money; affluent sinners do the same of course, as they follow the footsteps of their rulers.

4/1: For instance, the Algerian president Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika has been accused of stealing $ millions and his wealth are countless $ billions; yet, he has built the most grand and biggest mosque in Africa, in the Algerian capital, with the total cost of $ 1.5 billion. Was it not better to spend such a sum on the poor citizens in Algeria?!  

4/2: Another example is the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, the fifth largest mosque in the world in terms of its space; it can contain all Emirati citizens! Each of its four minarets is 107 meters long, covered with white alabaster, and this mosque cost 2 billion dirham and 167 million dirham to be built. Its floor entailed to be furnished with carpets that covered the area of 50627 km² with the total cost of 300 million dirhams, with white alabaster covering 82 domes of different sizes, with the biggest of the all as the largest dome in the world, with 83 meters in height and an internal diameter of 32.8 meters. This dome is 1000 tons in weight, with the largest chandelier in the world, with a diameter of 10 meters and 9.8 tons in weight, made of pure gold of 24 carats and Swarovski crystals. The mosque is lavishly decorated with precious stones and gold, besides the finest crystals and ceramic. More than 3 million tourists visit this mosque.    

5- Is maintaining such grand mosques for the sake of worship or as evidence of disbelief? This is our topic within the article you are reading now.

Firstly:

1- God says in the Quran: "It is not for the polytheists to attend God's places of worship while professing their disbelief. These - their works are in vain, and in the Fire they will abide. The only people to attend God's places of worship are those who believe in God and the Last Day, and pray regularly, and practice regular charity, and fear none but God. These are most likely to be guided." (9:17-18).

2- When we ponder 9:17-18, we infer the following points.

2/1: God gives us here a general form of address that makes the verses apply to all eras and locations from the time of Quranic revelation and later eras until the end of days. Thus, the verses do not address Qorayish or Meccan polytheists in particular, but they are addressing all who follow their footsteps. Likewise, this verse does not apply to Qorayish alone: "Do you consider giving water to pilgrims and maintaining the Sacred Mosque the same as believing in God and the Last Day and striving in God's path? They are not equal in God's sight. God does not guide the unjust people." (9:19); but to all those who maintain the Kaaba Sacred Mosque with its buildings and pilgrims yet they insist on spreading falsehoods that turn people away from God's Path: the Quran. thus, 9:19 applies to the Saudi royal family members who have exceeded the Qorayish tribe in disbelief, misguidance, and immorality. 

2/2: God tells us in the Quran about the real, Islamic concept of maintaining mosques: NOT by lavish decorations and interior/exterior design and décor, but by real monotheistic faith and the belief only in God, and in the Last Day, while performing all acts of worship within piety and the fear of the Lord God, so that we would be among the guided ones.   

Secondly: pondering 9:17 only, we infer the following points:

"It is not for the polytheists to attend God's places of worship while professing their disbelief. These - their works are in vain, and in the Fire they will abide." (9:17).

1- The term ''disbelievers" is synonymous with ''polytheists''; disbelief is exactly polytheism (in Arabic: Kufr and Shirk, respectively). Polytheists are the ones with disbelief, transgression, and aggression as well as distracting people away from God's Path as they trade using religion to gain money, as we infer from the Quranic Chapter 9: "A declaration of immunity from God and His messenger to the polytheists with whom you had made a treaty.  So travel the land for four months, and know that you cannot escape God, and that God will disgrace the disbelievers.   And a proclamation from God and His messenger to the people on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage, that God has disowned the polytheists, and so did His messenger. If you repent, it will be better for you. But if you turn away, know that you cannot escape God. And announce to those who disbelieve a painful punishment. " (9:1-3); "They traded away God's verses for a cheap price, so they barred others from His Path. How evil is what they did....These are the transgressors." (9:9-10).   

2- Indeed, the verse 9:17 sheds light on a fact ignored by the Muhammadans; the Qorayish tribe had its mosques for worship, but they were harmful mosques because of the following points.

2/1: The Qorayish disbelievers in their polytheistic rituals and acts of worship used to worship, alongside with God/Allah, saints/allies, deities/idols, and mausoleums; Muhammad was sent by God to correct distortions that were introduced by Arabs to the religion of Abraham, so that religion, faith, and worship are devoted only to God. Muhammad declared this fact to them and they were about to attack him physically: "The places of worship are for God. So do not call, besides God, upon anyone else. And when the servant of God got up calling on Him, they almost fell on him in a mass. Say, "I pray only to my Lord, and I never associate anyone with Him."" (72:18-20).   

2/2: the Qorayish tribesmen in their polytheism in terms of violent behavior and aggressive demeanor used to coerce people in all religious matters and affairs; they used to prevent early believers in Mecca from entering mosques: "Who is more unjust than him who forbids the remembrance of God's name in places of worship, and contributes to their ruin? These ought not to enter them except in fear. For them is disgrace in this world, and for them is a terrible punishment in the Hereafter." (2:114). 

2/3: Within such compulsion in religion, the Meccan polytheists drove early believers from their homes and possessions and even fought them with their troops as they attacked Yathreb, where the early Muslims settled. God gave the Yathreb dwellers the permission to engage into self-defense fighting to impose religious freedom and to protect all types of houses of worship; see 22:40. The mosques of the polytheists were harmful ones that were never based on piety and faith in their hearts, but on too much decorations using ill-gotten money and using them to spread falsehoods and injustices.   

2/4: We have written before many times about how Arabs (esp. Qorayish) used to perform prayers overtly, and impiously without avoiding sins, within the same timings and manners traditionally known from the religion of Abraham, and this is why their prayers were mere meaningless movements; see 23:1-11, 11:114, 19:59-60, 8:35, and 29:45. The conflict between Qorayish and Muhammad was centered in Mecca at first on acts of worship; he used to preach them to dedicate their prayers and all acts of worship only to God, while they insisted on dedicating them to saints/allies, deities, and mausoleums as if they drew them nearer to God; see 96:9-19, 39:2-3, 39:11-15, and 39:64.    

2/5: Thus, Muhammadans of today are very much like the Qorayish tribe in terms of disbelief and tyranny as well as harmful mosques that preach deification and sanctification of mortals and items, within injustices and fake/sham piety and the focus merely on ostentations and appearances of religiosity. 

3- Pondering the phrase "...while professing their disbelief..." (9:17), we infer the following points.

3/1: Such luxurious, lavishly decorated, and grand mosques of the Muhammadans are harmful mosques indeed specializing in spreading and propagating the Wahabi ideology and diverting people away from God's Path: the Quran. What Muhammadans preach in these mosques and how they built them using ill-gotten money is the evidence/proofs of their professed disbelief. They use such grand mosques to have an appearance of piety before people and to cover up their immorality, promiscuity, and disobedience; they wrongly assume that establishing such grand mosques might be a good deed to erase their sins and atone for their injustices and tyranny. Nothing could be further from the truth in such a weird assumption. Whatever Quranists write and preach, they are rarely heard as they are marginalized and suffer media blackout; however vociferous and outspoken Quranists are, their voices never reach except few people! the Wahab Sunnite Muhammadans have more power, authority, media outlets, greater number of followers, more money, louder voices the drown ours, and more means and control. They use all their might to marginalize Quranists' intellectual endeavors and they repel people away from the Quran (God's Only Path), and this verse applies to them now: "Those who hinder from the path of God, and seek to distort it..." (7:45). In fact, they seek to spread corruption worldwide through their Wahabi ideology; no week passes without bloodshed committed by Wahabi terrorists (e.g., ISIS members) in Africa, Asia, Europe, or the USA. Yet, the Wahabis have more powerful, hugely funded propaganda that adopts hypocritical and double discourse as they present themselves as the ones representing Islam, piety and reform! In fact, they are professing their disbelief as per 9:17, and they will be admitting to it on the Last Day.            

3/2: They will admit to their disbelief on the Day of Judgment, when they carry the burdens on their sins on their backs especially sins of misleading others; see 6:31 and 16:25. Shortly before the enter into Hell for eternity, their body parts will bear witness against them: "The Day when God's enemies are herded into the Fire, forcibly. Until, when they have reached it, their hearing, and their sight, and their skins will testify against them regarding what they used to do.And they will say to their skins, "Why did you testify against us?" They will say, "God, Who made all things speak, made us speak. It is He who created you the first time, and to Him you are returned." You were unable to hide yourselves from your hearing, and your sight, and your skins, to prevent them from testifying against you, and you imagined that God was unaware of much of what you do." (41:19-22); "This is Hell-Fire, which you were promised. Roast in it today, because you persistently disbelieved. On this Day, We will seal their mouths, and their hands will speak to Us, and their feet will testify to everything they had done." (36:63-65).

4- Pondering the phrase: "...These - their works are in vain, and in the Fire they will abide." (9:17), we infer the following points.

4/1: Their deeds that they assume to be good will turn into a source of deep sorrow when they remember them while they are in Hell for eternity: "...Thus God will show them their deeds as deep regrets to them, and they will not come out of the Fire." (2:167).

4/2: Their 'good' deeds will be annulled and nullified by God: "We will proceed to the works they did, and will turn them into scattered dust." (25:23). 

4/3: They will be tortured in Hell-Fire and they will wish – in vain –  to die; their deeds will be scattered and nullified: "Beyond him lies Hell, and he will be given to drink putrid water. He will guzzle it, but he will be hardly able to swallow it. Death will come at him from every direction, but he will not die. And beyond this is relentless suffering. The likeness of those who disbelieve in their Lord: their works are like ashes, in a fierce wind, on a stormy day. They have no control over anything they have earned. That is the utmost misguidance." (14:16-18).

5- Such people are using their wealth to enter into Hell on the Day of Judgment; they use their money to repel people away from God's Path, the Quran, and they will be defeated; if they die as disbelievers without repentance, they are piled up and then thrown into Hell-Fire like sacks of garbage: "Those who disbelieve spend their wealth to repel from God's path. They will spend it, then it will become a source of sorrow for them, and then they will be defeated. Those who disbelieve will be herded into Hell. That God may distinguish the bad from the good, and heap the bad on top of one another, and pile them together, and throw them in Hell. These are the losers." (8:36-37).

6- We can easily imagine Arab tyrants thrown into sacks of garbage that are thrown into Hell-Fire on the Last Day! We can easily imagine the same for all Arab caliphs, sultans, kings, presidents, and princes of all eras as they are piled up like sacks of garbage that are thrown into Hell-Fire!

The Quran: the Best Discourse:

"Do not ever think that God is unaware of what the unjust ones do. He only defers them until a Day when the sights stare. Their necks outstretched, their heads upraised, their gaze unblinking, their hearts void. And warn the humankind of the Day when the punishment will come upon them, and the wicked will say, "Our Lord, defer us for a little while, and we will answer Your call and follow the messengers." Did you not swear before that there will be no passing away for you? And you inhabited the homes of those who wronged themselves, and it became clear to you how We dealt with them, and We cited for you the examples." (14:42-45). As always, God says nothing but the Absolute Truth.