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Virgins? What Virgins?: And Other Essays

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I bought <Virgins? What Virgins?> on the strength of one of Warraq's previous books, <Why I Am Not A Muslim>, which I consider to be one of the most informative of the many books about Islam currently circulating. <Virgins>, which is a collection of Warraq's essays and articles previously published elsewhere, did not disappoint. (I had not previously seen any of them).

Warraq (a pseudonym) was born and reared Muslim in India/Pakistan and was sent off at an early age to the UK for education. While there he began to question the faith (or politico-religions system) he was brought up in. Eventually he turned away from it.

Warraq is a very bright fellow who writes masterfully in English. His writing flows like a beautiful, clear brook. If you begin your inquiries into Islam with Warraq's two books above-mentioned, you will be ahead of the pack in your quest for such knowledge, and pleasantly so -- unless you are a committed follower of the Prophet. In that case you might start out as seeing Islam insulted. But if you pay close attention and keep an open mind, you could attain a level of clear thinking approaching that of Warraq.

I am glad that I stumbled upon Warraq's writings. They are among the best. From them I learned much. I keep them as reference works.

"Virgins? What Virgins? and Other Essays" by Ibn Warraq, (April 2010), Prometheus Books, 544 pgs , English. This `anthology' is a collection of 18 of his "previously published works in newspaper and print and Web-based journals" - even for us long-time Ibn Warraq readers these reprints are suitable `collectables' still worthy of perusing. Chapter topics are: (1) On becoming English (growing up as a Muslim in Karachi c. 1950); (2) Apologia Pro Vita Sua; (3) Some aspects of the history of Koranic Criticism; (4) Introduction to "What the Koran Really Says"; (5) The importance of variants: Introduction to "Which Koran?"; (6) Virgins? What Virgins? (a 2002 article regarding the Houri); (7) Islam, the Middle East, and Fascism; (8) Apologists of Totalitarianism: From Communism to Islam; (9) Apostasy, human rights, religion, and belief; (10) Islam on Trial: Reasons for leaving Islam; (11) Reason, not revelation; (12) Honest intellectuals must shed their spiritual turbans: Islam--The Final Taboo; (13) Brother Tariq and the Muslim Hoods; (14) Rock, humanitarian causes, political commitment, and Islam; (15) The Regent's Canal and the trail to the British Raj, Parsis, and Sir Cowasjee Jehangir Readymoney; (16) Why the West is Best: My response to Tariq Ramadan; (17) Democracy in a cartoon (re Danish Muhammad cartoons); (18) Allawi and the `Crises of Islamic Civilization' (book review). There is an extensive, detailed 33-page-long index of topics from all articles. Ibn Warraq is of the Muslim Murtadd sect.

Ibn Warraq is without a doubt the most authoritative scholar and historian of Islam and Muslim society. Born as a Pakistani Muslim, he has distinguished himself in his honest, comprehensive and intellectually disciplined books as well as his insightful critiques and dissection of dissemblers like the late Edward Said. Like other disaffected Muslims who also live under pseudonyms in adopted countries, Warraq eschews ideology as indeed any serious credible critic and public intellectual must do to solidify his or her reputation and credentials. Along with his critique of Said in "Defending the West", this book should form part of the base of anyone's library or research on Islam and the Muslim mind. In a time of mindless extremism that puts ideology before truth, Warraq's books stand out as antidotes to intellectual dishonesty and mendacity.

Virgins? What Virgins? And Other Essays offers a fine gathering of witty, pointed writings gathering Warraq's best works on the Koran and problems inherent in interactions between East and West. From an introductory personal autobiographical piece charting his England upbringing to articles considering political Islam and its promises and threats, this is a 'must' for any collection seeking to understand Muslim beliefs and purpose.

"Ibn Warraq" has been one of my favorite authors ever since the publication of his groundbreaking "Why I am not a Muslim" --- especially with his hilarious chapter "Wine, Pigs, and Homosexuality" which spelled out for the world what Muslims really think about these "taboo" things. To summarize, Muslims from Tangier to Teheran blithely ignore the supposed taboos on wine and homosexuality, but they actually take the prohibition against pork seriously.

I could only nod my head as I read this chapter, because I have spent years living in Tunisia and Iran. In Tunisia, while I was there, the country was almost completely Francophone, so of course the sidewalk cafes sold beer, wine, and other liquors openly. Gay cruising in the evenings was simply a fact of life, with the young men wearing sprigs of jasmine behind their ears. In Iran, getting blind drunk on vodka was a weekend ritual (not to mention toking up on opium), and the gay cruising scene was just as intense.

However, both countries got very serious about pork! Go figure!

The new book contains startling information about the origins of the Koran, especially in the idea that much of the Koran may simply have been imported from Syriac-speaking Christianity. (See Luxenberg's The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran for the details. And note that "Luxenberg" is a pen-name, designed to preserve the author's life. All of this jibes rather well with the Iranian rumor that Muhammad spent the first forty years of his life as a Nestorian monk.)

Another ground-breaking book to consult is The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia--and How It Died

In any case, genuine research into the real origins of the Koran has just begun, and I guess it is not necessary to say that absolutely none of this research is being done in Muslim countries.

The title essay, by the way, puts an enormous question-mark under the idea that Islamic martyrs are going to have a wild time with 72 virgins. The word "virgins" has probably been mis-translated by generations of ignorant mullahs, and actually refers to "grapes" or "raisins."

An invaluable contribution by one of our literary heroes.

So many people talk about Islam have no basic knowledge of Islam. It takes nearly a life time to understand Islam as a scholar, and a strong understanding of Arabic is a must. The Author does not seem to know Arabic Well.

Such weak works find favor with people preaching opposing religions that find it easier to attack other faiths than to spread their own faith on its merit.

Islam is one of the simplest monotheistic beliefs. One God, no need to divide or try to explain a complex nature of God entities.
Islam is against racism, the Quran is clear on that.
Islam is pro-free trade.
Islam concedes that people are not created equal, but that through justice the are all equivalent and that no religious knowledge, race, power or anything else should stand in the way of pure justice. Islam is pro-capitalism as long as it is does not break the rules.
Islam is pro environment, pro-animal rights ( it is told that you can go to hell by mistreating animals, and to heaven by even providing a drink to a thirsty animal ).

Not only the author is one of the ignorant Muslims who did not study Islam in depth from a decent Islamic school, but also he doesn't know the Arabic language of the Quran. It is typical for someone who is raised by an unloving/abusive father, who is only a Muslim by name, but because he does the rituals, the son thought that his father represents Islam. It is like a so called Christian boy sees his father go to Church every Sunday, but he lives a life of indecency, so the son thinks that his father represents Christianity and puts the blame on such a religion for making him indecent.
If the author dealt with the retarded closed-minded ignorant extremists who forbade him from things that is commonsense and allowed in Islam, then he will think that all the religious Muslims are the same, and Islam is the thing to blame! Add to this, him reading all the bad history of the egotistical Muslims/kings, add to this his frustration with the religious restraints that everyone's ego likes to break to indulge in gratifying its desires, even at the expense of harming others or not being responsible, and the guilt that one feels when he does wrong, especially when he doesn't know how to get rid of his bad habits, and doesn't know how much God is Merciful and forgiving for those who feel sorry for what they have done, then you have the perfect ingredients to make such a person at least an enemy to Islam if not an enemy to all the heavenly messages or even an atheist.

The Author:
1. Needs to study Islam in depth and ask the spiritual scholars of Islam to be able to understand the story behind all the verses about "fighting" and use the verses of the Quran in the right context. Doing so will make him understand that Islam ( Not ignorant egotistical Muslims) doesn't fight people just because they are different, but because of either fighting the religion of Islam, driving people out of their homes unjustly, or supporting those who do that. God is asking us to be kind and just to all people, including the idol worshipers, as long as they are not involved in what's mentioned here (Quran 60:8).
2. Needs to understand that God, The Most Wise, Who Knows our weaknesses, so He sent us a system that teaches us how to train ourselves and overcome our weaknesses, by applying such tools that requires a little discomfort at the beginning, so that we may become free from the enslaving ugly addictive traits of our egos, and enjoy life for a long time and in both lives.
3. Needs to understand that God, The Most Wise, Who Knows the nature of the Human ego, that ego never does anything good for free. So for the retarded people who are not intelligent enough to see that doing good is a necessity for our survival and happiness in this life, and since that may involve some sacrifice of comfort and resistance of the lower desires to keep our evils away from others, For this reason God/Allah has to motivate them to do such sacrifices and resist their lusts by replacing them with more comfort and more pleasures in Paradise "The Virgins".
4. Needs to know that if someone does a sin, that doesn't mean that it is the end of his salvation! It means he has a weakness that he needs to admit, to ask for forgiveness, so God The Forgiver may manifest His forgiveness as A Forgiver, seek help from God to help him, work on purifying and disciplining his ego, right his wrong, be grateful for improving himself, and become compassionate toward other sinners by excusing their weaknesses and helping them to grow better as he did himself.
5. Needs to know that the standard of what is right and what is wrong is not what the corrupted nature and minds of people dictates, but it is what the Wise Creator prescribes. When it comes to what people decide is right or wrong which contradicts the Divine Guidance, At least one should keep asking the question of "why? What's wrong with that?" And asks again the same questions for whatever answers he gets, which by the end he will find the base of the corrupted way of thinking is nothing but an illusion or wrong assumption that has no-sense.
6. Needs to know that the Quran is much much greater than the nonsense that he ever saw in his life from Muslims and Media; it is a mind boggling thing, especially the numerical miracles of the Quran. Unfortunately, to see it and believe it, one has to know the Arabic language. For those who are interested check this link [...]
7. Needs to ask himself: "What if my mind is not good enough in estimating things, and I'm wrong?", I'm not saying that he will go to Hell, but he could be accountable for not making enough effort to ask, study and investigate properly as he would do for his personal interests, then he would be accountable and getting the "Bad Karma" of all the misguidance he caused to those who don't know and those of weak minds. What if this criticism is driven by his rebellious ego and the motive to gain fame and money by making this book?!
Finally, Islam is a religion of commonsense, and guides people to the most efficient and realistic solutions that are applicable. It is based on the foundation of "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure" and "Doing the lesser evil if it can't be avoided at all."