There cannot be a last book or last prophet (all because of a measly guide dog)

Submitted by Prashant, Dec 8, 2017 at 21:13

Dear Dr Pipes,

When Quran was created, I am sure, there were no guide dogs for the disabled. If there were any guide dogs at that time, most likely, Muhammad or one of his hadiths might have given a guidance about them for his followers to use for all time to come.

Oh this is common sense. So far. But this common sense leads to at least two fundamental theological difficulties. First, can a code ever be written that will be the final word on every issue for all time to come and for all people. As this example proves Quranic injunctions are wrong and incomplete with respect to the guide dogs. And if they are wrong for guide dogs, how can they be right for other dogs? Almost every dog is a guide dog because it provides comfort to its human owner. So Quranic injunctions are wrong for all dogs. And if quranic injuntions can be wrong for all dogs, they can/may be wrong/incomplete for all things. They can be wrong for hijabs, burkas and burkini as well. You see, 1400 years ago women's rights were not so well defined. So burkhas were needed. Now more and more societies around the world are creating laws to protect women. So, hijabs and burkas are not needed now. That is the first theological difficulty that guide dogs lead to: there cannot be a last book from God that is also complete. OK, then what is the second theological difficulty.

The second difficulty is even more profound. You see, we already showed that the code written 1400 years ago is not complete. That means new code needs to be devised almost continuously. Who devises this new code? Perhaps a human of some kind. She could be a professor or a jurist or a politician and, if she very charismatic, she can even call herself a prophet. You see, if someone very charismatic today comes forward today, compiles a few testaments into a single book, has good leadership skills, and markets her book well, she can claim to be a new prophet (pbuh) and last one at that. That is the second fundamental theological difficulty caused by a measly guide dog: since new wisdom is yet to come, there cannot be a last prophet.

Sorry, I have to present this simple argument so pedantically. It is true but not so obvious.

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