Dying to Meet Allah
A commentary by Scott Ashley
Good News managing editor
It's been rightly asked of traditional Christianity, if heaven is such
a wonderful place, why is it that so many put off going there for as
long as possible?
A considerable number of Muslims, however, seem to have
no such problem. If recent news reports are any indication, quite a
few of them are more than willing to speed up the process of claiming
a one-way ticket to paradise.
Consider the following news from recent days:
. April 29: A Muslim suicide bomber killed himself and eight U.S. soldiers
in a car-bomb attack south of Baghdad.
. April 26: Jordanian TV aired the confessions of captured Muslim terrorists
who admitted to planning a massive chemical attack on Jordanian government
buildings and intelligence facilities and the U.S. embassy in Amman.
Jordanian security forces reported they had seized trucks loaded with
20 tons of toxic chemicals that could have killed 80,000 and injured
another 160,000 had the attack been successful.
. April 26: A Muslim would-be suicide bomber trying to cross from the
Gaza Strip into Israel was held up by two Palestinian robbers apparently
intent on stealing his explosives, which they wanted to use themselves.
Rather than surrender his deadly prize, he blew himself up, killing all
three.
. April 21: A Muslim suicide bomber driving an explosives-packed car
demolished portions of the headquarters of the Saudi Arabian security
forces in Riyadh, killed at least four people and injured 148. The unofficial
casualty toll is much higher.
. April 19: British police foiled a series of planned coordinated suicide
attacks at a soccer match with the arrest of 10 Muslim plotters and would-be
bombers.
. April 17: A 22-year-old Muslim from Gaza detonated an explosives belt
at an Israel border crossing, killing himself and maiming four Israelis.
Did you notice a pattern here? All the suicide bombers in these reports,
and indeed the vast majority of all suicide bombers we hear about, are Muslims.
Notice also that the largest attacks, the one in Saudi Arabia that worked
and the one in Jordan that didn't, were directed primarily at
other Muslims in attempts to bring down those respective governments—governments
that apparently aren't devoutly Islamic enough to suit the mass murderers
who planned the attacks. (So much for the oft-heard argument that Israel
is the root cause of the violence in the Middle East .)
Certainly there are many peaceful and peace-loving Muslims. But those
aren't the ones who concern the rest of the world. And yes, the Koran,
Islam's holy book, contains many verses extolling peace. But I've also
read enough of it to come across many verses extolling the pleasures
of paradise. And the shortest and surest route to paradise is to die
as a martyr in the cause of jihad—spreading Islam and defeating
the infidels.
What is the Koran's description of paradise? To people accustomed to
a hard life in the desert, it sounds pretty attractive: plenty of fruit
trees (some made of solid gold) covered with apples, dates, grapes and
flowers, providing not only food but lots of shade after a lifetime in
the desert sun. To quench one's thirst, it is a land of springs and rivers
flowing with water, milk, honey, nectar and wine.
But you thought Muslims were forbidden all alcohol, right? Well, the
wine in paradise is different. It's non-intoxicating, so you can drink
all you want with no ill effects. Even better, after you drink it, your
body smells like perfume, because all food and drink in paradise is transformed
into perfume that oozes from one's skin.
Enhancing the food are dishes, goblets and eating utensils of gold and
silver, to be enjoyed while reclining on jeweled couches and fine cushions
and carpets.
And, of course, for the Muslim male, he is promised the virility of
a hundred men and 72 perpetually young, perpetually beautiful virgins,
called houris, whose skin glows like sunlight, to satisfy his
needs.
But Allah is a harsh judge, so there is only one sure way for a Muslim
to enter paradise. That's by dying as a martyr—a shahid—in
spreading Islam.
When you live in a manmade hell on earth, going to paradise to enjoy
such blessings from Allah for all eternity sounds pretty good. So good,
in fact, that many are dying to make the journey.
So long as people are fed a diet of hatred for non-Muslims and promised
wealth and pleasure beyond measure in paradise for giving one's life
in killing them, there will be no shortage of people dying to meet Allah.
For further insights on today's headlines from other sources, checkout Current
World News & Trends. |
