Rebuttal to Mohammed Fareeduddin Siddique's The Sword of the Intellect Book 1 - The Regret
September 2004 version

Fareed distinguishes between two kinds of regret, regret of people of faith (in Allah) and regret of non-believers. He says with the first kind a believe immediately repents with sincerity, hopes for forgiveness, and does not drag them down in apprehension and depression. In the second type, unbelievers keep saying I wish I had never said/done this, etc.

It's too bad Muslims, at least as Fareed describes them, do not think "I wish I had not done this". True believers, that is Christians, have the characteristics of the first kind of regret, along with saying "I wish I had not done this", but they do not have the apprehension and depression either. God's Holy Book, the Bible distinguishes between what is called "godly sorrow which leads to repentance" and "worldly sorrow which leads only to death". A second key different between Fareed's Muslim regret and a Christians godly regret is that the Muslim can only hope that he is forgiven. A Christian is promised forgiveness in 1 John 1:9, as well as other places.

Fareed says a number of things of which Christians say comparable things. Similar to Fareed, Christians teach that

Unbelievers should be warned that they will have regret for what they did

A person's regret will not save him, any more than Cain's regret saved him, or Esau's regret helped him.

We should invite unbelievers (i.e. Muslims and others) to true repentance and faith in the true God.

Some people can pray and make commitments to God when they are in mortal danger, and when the danger passes then go back on their commitments.

Fareed says that unbelievers (i.e. non-Muslims) will be overwhelmed by grief and regret. While experience shows that obedient Christians do not live a life of regret, unfortunately many atheists die without being overwhelmed by regrets. At least not in this life, though they are in the next.

However, I noticed that the header on every page says, "They will say, 'If only we had really listened and used our intellect, we would not have been Companions of the Blaze." (Noble Qur'an, Surat al-Mul: 10).

Unfortunately, I believe that Fareed and some others have used their intellect to run and hide from the truth, not find it. For example, when a Muslim does not try to intelligently answer how Mohammed visited a mosque which had not been built in Sura 17:1, how Zul Qarnain found that the sun sets in a muddy spring, why five Muslim historians said in Sura 53 (original version not the current one), Mohammed said the intercession of idols was to be hoped for, why he objects to the treatment of women in the Bible (Jesus not touching Mary just prior to his resurrection meant women were impure, etc.), yet he has not said a word about women in Islam being beaten, considered deficient in intelligence, being raped by Muslims warriors, and sex with women captives, is a use of his intellect, but it is not a godly use of his intellect.

On p.6 why does Fareed assume, with no evidence, that people should follow Islam. That would mean following a prophet, and in Muslim theology the only prophet known to have been bewitched by a demon, according to the Sunni hadiths. If Fareed has not read his own hadiths on this, here are the references.

Mohammed at one point was bewitched: "Narrated 'Aisha: Magic was worked on the Prophet so that he began to fancy that he was doing a thing which he was not actually doing. One day he invoked (Allah) for a long period and then said, 'I feel that Allah has inspired me as how to cure myself.'..." Bukhari vol.4 book 54 no.490 p.317. See also vol.4 no.400 p.267, vol.8 no.89 p.56-57, vol.8 no.400 p.266-267. vol.7 no.658-660 p.441-443.

There are more details in this account. Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet continued for such-and-such a period imagining that he has had sexual relation with his wife, and in fact he had not. One day he said, to me, "O 'Aisha! Allah has instructed me regarding a matter about which I had asked Him. There came to me two men, one of them sat near my feet and the other near my head. The one near my feet, asked the one near my head (pointing at me), 'What is wrong with this man?' The latter replied, 'He is under the effect of magic. The first one asked, 'Who has worked magic on him?' The other replied, 'Lubaid bin A'sam." The first one asked, 'What material (did use?).' The other replied, 'The skin of the pollen of a male date tree with a comb and the hair stuck to it, Kept under a stone in the well of Dharwan.'" Then the Prophet went to that well and said, "This is the same well which was shown to me in the dream. The tops of its datepalm trees look like the heads of the devils, and its water looks like the Henna infusion."...'Aisha added, "(The magician) Lubaid bin A'sam was a man from Bani Zuraiq, an ally of the Jews." Bukhari vol.8 book 73 no.89 p.57 See also Bukhari vol.8 book 73 no.400 p.266

Labid bin el-Asam the Jew put Mohammed under a spell. Ibn-i-Majah vol.5 no.3435 p.60-61

Mohammed was bewitched Sahih Muslim vol.3 book 24 no.5428-5429 p.1192-1193; Sahih Muslim vol.2 book 4 no.1888 p.411

I do not regret that I do not follow someone who has been bewitched by a demon, but it is regrettable that Fareed does.

On p.6 Mohammed ordered a boycott of some Muslims who did not want to take part in Jihad. I am sure they regretted that, but if regretting not attacking people and seizing their goods is the regret Fareed promotes, that is far from the regret that Christians promote.

So it is not enough to regret, you have to regret from the wrong things. It is not right to repent Fareed, if you advocate repenting from good, peaceful things and wishing you had attacked people and done evil things.

Christians to not ask people to just regret, but to repent and turn to the Lord.

"Look he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen." Revelation 1:7

"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." Matthew 24:30-31

"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear." Mt 13:40-43

I hope you are not like the people Jesus talked about here. "He who hates me hates my Fahter as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Fahter. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: They hated me without reason." John 15:23-25

Bible verses are from the NIV.

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