23 Years

Infobox Book
name = Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad


image_caption =
author = Ali Dashti; Translated by F.R.C. Bagley, F. R. Bagley
cover_artist =
country =
language = Translated into English
subject =
genre =
publisher = Mazda Pub
release_date = Republished in 1994
media_type =
pages = 228 pages
isbn = ISBN 1568590296

"23 years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad" [http://books.google.com/books?id=OAsEAAAACAAJ] is a book by Iranian scholar and thinker Ali Dashti.

In this book, Dashti criticized some of Muslims’ cherished beliefs. The book was written in 1937 but was published anonymously, probably in 1974, in Beirut, since the Shah’s regime forbade the publication of criticism of religion between 1971 and 1977.

After the Iranian Revolution of 1979, Dashti authorized its publication by underground opposition groups. The book may well have sold over half a million copies in pirated editions between 1980 and 1986.

Thesis

Dashti strongly denied the so-called miracles ascribed to Muhammad and didn’t acknowledge the popular Muslim view that the Qu'ran is the word of God himself.

:Scholars and researchers actually have at their disposal more information about him than about any of the great men of history before him. Yet we still lack an objective and rationally acceptable book presenting a portrait of him unclouded by preconceptions, suppositions, and fanaticisms; or if such a book has been written, I have not seen it.Moslems, as well as others, have disregarded the historical facts. They have continually striven to turn this man into an imaginary superhuman being, a sort of God in human clothes, and have generally ignored the ample evidence of his humanity. They have been ready to set aside the law of cause and effect, which governs real life, and to present their fantasies as miracles.

In the book Ali Dashti argues for a thorough and skeptical examination of all orthodox belief systems. Dashti points out that the Qu'ran contains nothing new in the sense of ideas not already expressed by others. All the moral precepts of the Qu'ran are self-evident and generally acknowledged.

:About Mohammad’s life up to 610, when he reached the age of forty, nothing of any importance is recorded. In the accounts of the period, and even in the biographies of the Prophet, there are no reports of anything remarkable or out of the ordinary. Yet by the end of the 3rd/9th century the great historian and Qur’an-commentator Tabari in his exegesis of verse 21 of sura 2 (ol-Baqara), could insert an unsubstantiated statement about the Prophet’s birth which shows how prone the people were in those days to create and repeat impossible myths, and how even a historian could not stick to history.

Response

Dashti’s courage to speak against most of his countrymen's beliefs put his life in danger. In 1984, Ali Dashti was murdered at the age of 83 by Islamic fanatics after spending three years in Ruhollah Khomeini’s prisons, where he was tortured publishing his writings. The tragic fate of Dashti has striking similarities to that of the Greek philosopher, Socrates, who was forced to drink lethal poison to death for having spoken his mind.

References

External links

* [http://www.kavehsara.com/pdf/23years_ali_dashti.pdf Dashti's book "23 years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad" in Persian] Free online edition
* 23 years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad in English [http://www.the-absent-truth.org/books/twentythreeyears.pdf PDF download]

* HTML versions of "23 years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad" [http://ali-dashti-23-years.tripod.com/ in English] and [http://ali-dashti-23-years.tripod.com/23-y-p.htm In Persian]

* "Twenty Three Years" English version, PDF and Word [http://www.scribd.com/doc/65476/Ali-Dashtis-23-Years-A-Study-of-the-prophetic-career-of-Muhammad]