Deception Legalized!?

People commonly accept that deception violates friendship and deteriorates relationships. It is something people generally guard themselves against.  Those who deceive progressively increase in their deception, building relationships characterized by disempowerment: inhibiting others’ abilities and presenting what is false or incomplete truth, as absolute truth.

Have you ever heard of deception or lying being legalized within a community? Believe it or not, it has. It happened in the 7th Century AD in Arabia with the rise of Islam. Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, revealed that his god was the master of deception and accommodated his cunning arts into his leadership for the dominance of Islam. Here is the Quran’s definition of who Allah is

Allah is the best of deceivers (Q.3:54; 8:30).  Allah is swifter in deception (Q.10:21).    

The words that the Quran uses for deceiving others and are commonly used in Arabic are ‘makr’ for deception, ‘kayd’ for guile, ‘khud’a’ for plot. The lexical sources define the terms as to plan and practice deceit, guile, evasion, trick or every kind of cunning art.

Allah, ‘the best of deceivers,’ revealed his guiles proudly in the Quran and even requested a testimony from his followers to recite continually that “there is no god but Allah”. Muhammad instructed his followers to humiliate all those who did not follow the leadership of Allah:

Those who resist Allah and His Apostle will be among those most humiliated. Allah has decreed: "It is I and My apostles who must prevail": For Allah is One full of strength, able to enforce His Will (Q.58:20-21).

Deceivers, by nature, do not reveal their true identity but allure followers with their impressively deceptive words. But how astonishing that Allah, who reveals his advocacy of deception, still receives followers who are willing to place their lives in his hands, humiliating and destroying others for his cause!

The Quran reveals the completeness of Allah’s deception by stating that no one can escape the cunning art of Allah (Q.7:99). His guile is unquestionable, drawing people in little by little, until they are in a trap of which they were completely unaware (Q.7:182-183; 68:45). He also places “wicked ones” in every city to deceive people (Q.6:123), paving the ground for people to commit evil so that Allah will have a reason to destroy them (Q.17:16). Lying, treachery and deception have been intertwined in Islam’s ethics in dealing with infidels (Reliance of the Traveler, p.745) for the progress of Islam.

It seems unthinkable to believe that such a violation to human rights could have been accommodated by Arabians. In actual fact, historical evidence proves that some highly respected Arabians opposed Muhammad’s strange teaching and actions. A highly respected elderly man named Abu Afak expressed his dissatisfaction through a poem in which he criticized Muhammad’s hosting tribe of its allegiance to him. He wrote:

Long have I lived but never have I seen an assembly or collection of people more faithful to their undertaking and their allies when called upon than the sons of Qayla when they assembled, men who overthrew mountains and never submitted, a rider who came to them split them in two (saying) “Permitted”, “Forbidden”, of all sorts of things. Had you believed in glory or kingship you would have followed Tubba (Inb Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, p. 675). 

Muhammad, unable to bear this criticism, sent his devoted followers at night and they stabbed Abu Afak to death in his sleep. This hostile action towards an elderly, respected man outraged the inhabitants of Medina, and as a result, a woman named Asma requested retaliation, as the law of the land necessitated. She wrote:

I despise B. Malik and al-Nabit and Auf and B. al-Khazraj. You obey a stranger who is none of yours, one not of Murad or Madhhij. Do you expect good from him after the killing of your chiefs like a hungry man waiting for a cook's broth? Is there no man of pride who would attack him by surprise and cut off the hopes of those who expect aught from him? (Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, pp. 675-6).

Muhammad sent his messengers at night again and they slaughtered her before her young children.

Deception was counted as a violation against the law and people of Arabia prior to the rise of Islam. Men and women similar to those mentioned above risked and often lost their lives to protect their land from the deception of Islam. Sadly, Islam prevailed. Why? Because, the master of deceivers (Allah) cultivated an indifference that blinded some tribal leaders to the dark reality before them. Islamists put into practice the cunning arts of Allah, gained the favor of some leaders in order to destroy their targeted ones. Their second step was to create division amongst various tribes; turning allies into the enemies of others. This is parallel to what eventuated after the Revolution of 1979 in Iran, what has been happening in the so-called ‘Muslim Spring’ in Egypt, and why there are some non-Muslims are opening the door for Islamists to take root in the West.

What surprises us is not only why many Muslims do not want to break the chain of deception in our contemporary era, but also shocking initiatives from our intellectuals in the western countries who so willingly accommodate Islam. People entered the 21st century with a new hope that that information about truth would be publicly accessible everywhere and corrupt and tyrannical ideologies would therefore disappear and give place to fairness and true freedom. It seems that all this hope was in vain. Now, there are internationally renowned western leaders and academics who are calling Islam a religion of care and peace, while suppressing, undermining and compromising Christian values! Opinions are being established as laws, imposed on the majority irrespective of the calamitous consequences Islam may bring into our societies. These influential individuals within our societies are embracing an ideology whose spiritual master was and continues to be the best of deceivers, whose very nature cannot compare with that of Jesus Christ - the master of justice, holiness, care, peace and love - who believes:

A truthful witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies. … A truthful witness saves lives, but a false witness is deceitful (Proverbs 14:5, 25).

No lie comes from the truth (1John 2:21). God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in men who are truthful (Proverb 12:22).

That’s why Paul, the Apostle of Christ, proclaims:

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16).

We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the Word of God, but by the revelation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God (2 Corinthians 4:2).

The true God does not deceive. And a Godly person also does not deceive, but values the capability, capacity and responsibility of individuals, and creates awareness for conscientious search, evaluation and decision-making that upholds a personal encounter with Christ.

I close with the words of Jesus.

"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." Matthew 9:37, 38 (CEV)