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Twenty Three Years Of MOHAMMAD By Ali Dashti

 
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cyrus
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2007 4:36 pm    Post subject: Twenty Three Years Of MOHAMMAD By Ali Dashti Reply with quote

Ali Dashti wrote:
Ali Dashti

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Dashti#Writing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Ali Dashti (Persian: علی دشتی [æˈliː dæʃˈtiː]) (born 1894 - died January 16, 1982) was an Iranian rationalist of the twentieth century, who was greatly influenced by Omar Khayyám.

Dashti was also an Iranian senator.

Contents [hide]
1 Life
2 Writing
3 Demise in prison
4 Bibliography
5 References and notes
6 External links



[edit] Life
Born into a Persian family in Dashtestan, Iran in 1896. Ali Dashti received a traditional religious education. He studied Islamic theology, history, Arabic and Persian grammar, and classical literature in madrasas in Karbala and Najaf (both in Iraq) He returned to Iran in 1918 and lived in Shiraz, Isfahan, and finally in Tehran, where he became involved in politics of the day.

Rather than becoming a cleric, he became a journalist and published a newspaper (Shafaq-e Sorkh) in Tehran from 1922 to 1935. He was a member of Majlis at various times between 1928 and 1946.

Dashti was arrested twice: first in 1920 and then in 1921 after the coup d’e`tat that brought the future Reza Shah to power. His prison memoirs, Prison Days, made him a literary celebrity both at home and abroad.

Dashti’s visit to Russia in 1927 was a decisive point for his later development of skepticism and free thought.

His criticism of allowing the Tudeh party into the cabinet and concessions to the Soviets landed him in prison in 1946. He was appointed a Senator in 1954 until the Islamic revolution in 1979. He was arrested after the revolution and was severely beaten during one of the interrogations. After being released he was not allowed to return to his home. Dashti wrote his thoughts in the book 23 Years which because of censorship could not be published in Iran. It was published anonymously in Lebanon. Ali Dashti gave a copy of Bist o Seh Sal to F.R.C. Bagley in 1975 and requested him to translate and publish it only after his death. Bagley believed this book is valuable because it discusses both values and problems Islam presents to modern Muslims. Bagley says that modern Muslim scholars have not paid much attention to difficulties and for the most part focussed on exposition and apologia.

Ali Dashti wrote Twenty-three Years (the title refers to the prophetic career of Muhammad)which leveled a devastating criticism at 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.

An Iranian newspaper reported his death in 1982. He was tortured to death by the islamic regime


[edit] Writing
In the book, 23 Years, Dashti chooses reason over blind faith:

Belief can blunt human reason and common sense, even in learned scholars. What is needed is more impartial study.

Dashti strongly denied the so-called miracles ascribed to Muhammad and didn’t acknowledge the popular Muslim view that the Koran is the word of God himself. Instead, he favors thorough and skeptical examination of all orthodox belief systems. Dashti points out that the Koran contains nothing new in the sense of ideas not already expressed by others. All the moral precepts of the Koran are self-evident and generally acknowledged.



The stories in it are taken in identical or slightly modified forms from the lore of the Jews and the Christians, whose rabbis and monks Muhammad had met and consulted on his journeys to Syria, and from memories conserved by the descendants of the peoples of Ad and Thamud.

Muhammad reiterated principles which mankind had already conceived in earlier centuries and many places.

"Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster, Socrates, Moses, and Jesus had said similar things..Many of the duties and rites of Islam are continuous practices which the pagan Arabs had adopted from the Jews."


[edit] Demise in prison
Unfortunately, Dashti’s passion and courage to speak his mind put his life in danger . Ali Dashti died in 1984 after spending three years in Khomeini’s prisons, where he was tortured even though he was 83 at that time.

He told a friend before he died:

Had the shah allowed books like this to be published and read by the people, we would never have had an Islamic revolution.


.

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.

Before listing all the assassinations that Muhammad ordered, including on Abu Afak's life, Ali Dashti wrote in "23 years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad" on page 97:

Thus Islam was gradually transformed from a purely spiritual mission into a militant and punitive organization whose progress depended on booty from raids and revenue from the zakat (tax).


[edit] Bibliography
Dashti on Persian Classics:
Naqshi az Hafez (1936), on the poet Hafez (ca. 1319-1390).

Sayri dar Divan-e Shams, on the lyric verse of the poet Mawlavi Jalal od-Din Rumi (1207-1273).

Dar Qalamraw-o Sa'di, on the poet and prose-writer Sa'di (1208?-1292).

Sha'eri dir-ashna (1961), on Khaqani (1121?-1l99), a particularly difficult but interesting poet.

Dami ba Khayyam (1965), on the quatrain-writer and mathematician Omar Khayyam (1048?-1131); translated by Laurence P. Elwell Sutton, In Search of Omar Khayyam, London 1971.

Negahi be-Sa'eb (1974), on the poet Sa'eb (1601-1677).

Kakh-e ebda', andishaha-ye gunagun-e Hafez, on various ideas expressed by Hafez

On Ethics, Theology and Philosophy:
Parda-ye pendar (1974 and twice reprinted), on Sufism (Iranian-Islamic mysticism).

Jabr ya ekhtiyar (anonymous and undated, contents first published in the periodical Vahid in 1971), dialogues with a Sufi about predestination and free will.

Takht-e Pulad (anonymous and undated, contents first published in the periodical Khaterat in 1971-72), dialogues in the historic Takht-e Pulad cemetery of Esfahan with a learned 'alem who sticks to the letter of the Qur'an and the Hadith.

Oqala bar khelaf-e 'aql (1975 and twice reprinted, revised versions of articles first published in the periodicals Yaghma in 1972 and 1973, Vahid in 1973, and Rahnoma-ye Ketab in 1973, with two additional articles), on logical contradictions in arguments used by theologians, particularly Mohammad ol-Ghazzali (1058-1111).

Dar diyar-e Sufiyan (1975), on Sufism, a continuation of Parda-ye pendar.

Bist o Seh Sal بيست و سه سال [Persian transliteration of "twenty-three years"] 23 Years - anonymous and without indication of place and date of publication, but evidently not later than 1974 and according to Ali Dashti's statement printed in Beirut), a study of the prophetic career of Mohammad.

Novels:
Ali Dashti sympathized with the desire of educated Iranian women for freedom to use their brains and express their personalities; but he does not present a very favourable picture of them in his collections of novelettes: Fetna (1943 and 1949), Jadu (1951) and Hendu (1955). His heroines engage in flirtations and intrigues with no apparent motive except cold calculation. Nevertheless these stories are very readable, and they provide a vivid, and no doubt partly accurate, record of the social life of the upper classes and the psychological problems of the educated women in Tehran at the time.

Newspapers:
He succeeded in establishing his own newspaper at Tehran, Shafaq-e Sorkh (Red Dawn), which lasted from 1 March 1922 unti1 18 March 1935. He was its editor until 1 March 1931, when Ma'el Tuyserkani took over.

Political Works Collected Articles:
Awam-e Mahbas (Prison Days) Panjah o Panj (Fifty Five) on major and influential political personalities of Iran

Translations into Persian:
Edmond Demolins's A quoi tient La superiorite des Anglo-Saxons Samuel Smiles's Self-Help translated into Persian from Arabic


[edit] References and notes
This article does not cite any references or sources. (September 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.


[edit] External links
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 PDF download
HTML versions of "23 years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad" in English and
In Persian
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Dashti"



ALI DASHTI wrote:

Twenty Three Years: A Study of the Prophetic Career of Mohammad
by ALI DASHTI
Source:
http://ali-dashti-23-years.tripod.com/index.htm

Translated from the Persian


Contents

Note on the Author

Note on the Translation

Chapter I: MOHAMMAD

His birth

His childhood

The problem of prophethood

His appointment

After his appointment

Chapter II: THE RELIGION OF ISLAM

The setting

Miracles

The miracle of the Qur’an

Mohammad's humanity

Chapter III: POLITICS

The emigration

The change in Mohammad's personality

The establishment of a sound economy

The advance to power

Prophethood and rulership

Women in Islam

Women and the Prophet

Chapter IV: METAPHYSICS

God in the Qur’an

Genies and magic

Cosmogony and chronology

Chapter V: AFTER MOHAMMAD

The succession

The quest for booty

Chapter VI:

Summary

Notes

Index


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:36 pm    Post subject: Re: Twenty Three Years Of MOHAMMAD By Ali Dashti Reply with quote

[quote="cyrus"]
Ali Dashti wrote:
Ali Dashti

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Dashti#Writing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Ali Dashti (Persian: علی دشتی [æˈliː dæʃˈtiː]) (born 1894 - died January 16, 1982) was an Iranian rationalist of the twentieth century, who was greatly influenced by Omar Khayyám.

Dashti was also an Iranian senator.

Contents [hide]
1 Life
2 Writing
3 Demise in prison
4 Bibliography
5 References and notes
6 External links



[edit] Life
Born into a Persian family in Dashtestan, Iran in 1896. Ali Dashti received a traditional religious education. He studied Islamic theology, history, Arabic and Persian grammar, and classical literature in madrasas in Karbala and Najaf (both in Iraq) He returned to Iran in 1918 and lived in Shiraz, Isfahan, and finally in Tehran, where he became involved in politics of the day.

Rather than becoming a cleric, he became a journalist and published a newspaper (Shafaq-e Sorkh) in Tehran from 1922 to 1935. He was a member of Majlis at various times between 1928 and 1946.

Dashti was arrested twice: first in 1920 and then in 1921 after the coup d’e`tat that brought the future Reza Shah to power. His prison memoirs, Prison Days, made him a literary celebrity both at home and abroad.

Dashti’s visit to Russia in 1927 was a decisive point for his later development of skepticism and free thought.

His criticism of allowing the Tudeh party into the cabinet and concessions to the Soviets landed him in prison in 1946. He was appointed a Senator in 1954 until the Islamic revolution in 1979. He was arrested after the revolution and was severely beaten during one of the interrogations. After being released he was not allowed to return to his home. Dashti wrote his thoughts in the book 23 Years which because of censorship could not be published in Iran. It was published anonymously in Lebanon. Ali Dashti gave a copy of Bist o Seh Sal to F.R.C. Bagley in 1975 and requested him to translate and publish it only after his death. Bagley believed this book is valuable because it discusses both values and problems Islam presents to modern Muslims. Bagley says that modern Muslim scholars have not paid much attention to difficulties and for the most part focussed on exposition and apologia.

Ali Dashti wrote Twenty-three Years (the title refers to the prophetic career of Muhammad)which leveled a devastating criticism at 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.

An Iranian newspaper reported his death in 1982. He was tortured to death by the islamic regime


[edit] Writing
In the book, 23 Years, Dashti chooses reason over blind faith:

Belief can blunt human reason and common sense, even in learned scholars. What is needed is more impartial study.

Dashti strongly denied the so-called miracles ascribed to Muhammad and didn’t acknowledge the popular Muslim view that the Koran is the word of God himself. Instead, he favors thorough and skeptical examination of all orthodox belief systems. Dashti points out that the Koran contains nothing new in the sense of ideas not already expressed by others. All the moral precepts of the Koran are self-evident and generally acknowledged.



The stories in it are taken in identical or slightly modified forms from the lore of the Jews and the Christians, whose rabbis and monks Muhammad had met and consulted on his journeys to Syria, and from memories conserved by the descendants of the peoples of Ad and Thamud.

Muhammad reiterated principles which mankind had already conceived in earlier centuries and many places.

"Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster, Socrates, Moses, and Jesus had said similar things..Many of the duties and rites of Islam are continuous practices which the pagan Arabs had adopted from the Jews."


[edit] Demise in prison
Unfortunately, Dashti’s passion and courage to speak his mind put his life in danger . Ali Dashti died in 1984 after spending three years in Khomeini’s prisons, where he was tortured even though he was 83 at that time.

He told a friend before he died:

Had the shah allowed books like this to be published and read by the people, we would never have had an Islamic revolution.



I think for two reasons, Shah did not want certain books against islam to be published.
1) He was afraid of the wrath of the religious community.
2) To a certain extend he believed in islam. I think he even went to Mcca.
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Ashavan



Joined: 09 Oct 2007
Posts: 23

PostPosted: Tue May 27, 2008 10:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, he was afraid of the wrath of the religious community. But like always your fears hunt you to your downfall.

If Shah/Reza Shah were as strong as Attatuerk was, we would be not sitting now in the West.

Instead of publishing Khomeinis Tozihol Masaayel book, he had forbidden it and people thought what a great book of wisdom that must have been.


Ali Dashti 23 years is a fantastic book. There is a saying in Persian: "U baa panbe sar mibore". His soft words but hard facts are very refreshing in todays world of harsh confronting. (I admit I belong to the latter of harsh confronting as well, if it comes to arguments with Islamists)

We need to focus and promote such works in Internet.

Does anyone know what happened to Kavehroom.com? It is always closed down, whenever I try...
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