God's helpdesk, unfortunately, is not open 24 by 7

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Aug 5, 2012 at 21:39

Dear Dr Pipes,

our own DNM is his perpetually humorous style dug a hole in Daisy Khan's politically correct position on polygamy. DNM correctly points out that when Daisy Khan asks a man to write in the contract that there will be no polygamy in his marriage, she is effectively over-ruling Allah and Mohammad who allowed polygamy when the circumstances demanded as such.

DNM's humorous interjection however brings out a very important philosophical argument against all those who say that any religious book is the 'last word of God'. You see, dear readers, if it is subject to interpretation, it can be over-ruled and thus challenges the supremacy of God. But if it is not subject to interpretation then, often times, it is not implementable (more and more Muslim women do not want to share their husbands with another woman, afterall). So, either the guy overrules Allah by signing the contract prohibiting polygamy or the gal overrules Allah by wishing that he does not indulge in polygamy.

What we humans should realize that no matter how much we wish, God's advice is not available to us 24x7. And so anything that we attribute to God --and thus everything that is a matter of belief-- should be stated with utmost humility. The stubbornness and in-your-face attitude that we often see in religious fundamentalists (a lot of whom are muslims) completely objectionable.

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