Lo-tho-tha, Leo-tha, Bil-ha-motha And Bahmouth

Folks the picture above shows a jar full of flies. There will be some of you who will soon be defending these flies, quoting advanced scientific research and so on. Do read on.

I was inspired to write this after someone posted a really funny comment in my Blog.

Recall about three weeks back the Government evacuated Malaysian students from Syria. Among them was a group of nine religious madrasah students who refused to come home. They had some strange reasons for not wanting to return, among which was that some did not have any SPM and if they could not return to Syria, they feared they may not be able to continue their education in Malaysia.

So the commentor said ‘tak payah ada SPM pun, kalau tahu warna dan bunyi dah cukup,  boleh masuk belajar di Syria’ (or words to that effect).  Meaning the Syrian religious madrasah where these people are studying is of very low academic standard. You do not even need an SPM to get in. So long as you can differentiate the colours of the rainbow and know different sounds (the ringing of a bell, the sound of a duck) you qualify to enter the madrasah.

I have said this before, all over the world, since a long, long time - only the dumbest and least qualified fellows become the religious experts. In any Islamic country (or any other country in the world) the cleverest kids become doctors, architects, bankers, lawyers etc. Those who do not qualify for anything better end up in the madrasah.  These are the guys who later become the religious experts and cause havoc in all the madasahs, the religious political parties and the jabatan agamas all over the Islamic world.

Then these half baked, semi literate religious experts insist that they are the only ones who are qualified to talk about religion. I have frequently heard their argument : "If you are sick you go and see a doctor. So if you want to know about religion you go and see the religious expert."

Fuiyyo - in one stroke, the semi literate, half educated village drop out compares himself with a scientifically trained medical doctor. 

In any country only the best and the top percentile among science students are admitted into medical school. Semi literates and those without SPM need not apply. You cannot even become a veterinary doctor.

Then medical doctors undergo five or six years of the most rigorous scientific education. After that (in Malaysia) they have to undergo two years of training as housemen, followed by another five years of working as a medical officer under supervision. Along the way they must also pass a professional examination. That is 12 to 13 years of rigorous scientific training before they can hang up their names as professional doctors. 

In the US you must first have at least a bachelor's degree in a Science subject before a medical school will accept you. This is followed by four years of medical school.  After that there are seven years of supervised residency as an "intern" in a hospital.  Only then, after 15 long years of training, can you be a professional doctor. This is the rigorous requirement for becoming a doctor in most countries in the world.

Then, despite all this time and training, doctors can still  make mistakes. Patients still die or cannot get cured. And being scientists NO medical doctor in the world will claim that they know all the answers about human health.  Science teaches doctors to be humble about their knowledge.  

In stark contrast the semi literate, half educated "religious experts"  who can qualify to enter the madrassah simply because they know "warna dan bunyi" will claim to know more about medical science than the doctors. I am not joking. Please do read on. That is why I put the picture of the jar full of flies up here. Such is their arrogance. They learn to be arrogant.  

Folks, I am talking about the present 21st century as well as the 20th century that we just left behind. 

Now try to imagine hundreds and hundreds of years ago when the general level of knowledge around the entire world was all semi literate and half baked. Our grandfathers and ancestors believed in dragons, sea monsters and that the world was flat. Australia was not "discovered". They believed that if you sailed far enough, you will fall off the edge of the earth. Sickness was caused by evil spirits. That was the general level of human knowledge and understanding. And  it is during that time, from within this semi literate crowd of human beings that the "religious experts" came into being.  

So if you think the "religious experts" of the 20th and 21st centuries are half baked can you imagine the 'religious experts' of say 800 years ago or 1000 years ago? Well if you cannot imagine it, let me show you some examples. 

Before that imagine this scenario. Imagine that a five year old child runs to mom and dad and says "Mommy  there is a whale under our house. On top of this whale there is a huge rock. On top of this rock there is a bull. And our house is sitting on the bull's horns" 

Mom and dad will smile ever so proudly and say, "Wow, our five year old son is so smart. He can imagine the most incredible tales and say it so eloquently".

Fast forward 30 years. The child is now 35 years old. He comes to mom and dad and repeats the same story, with intense conviction. 'Mom and dad, I insist, I insist there is a whale under our house. There is a huge rock on the whale. There is a bull on the rock. And our house is sitting on the bulls horns" 

I think the mother would have become hysterical and cry in horror, 'Our son has become mad. Take him for therapy, take him for counseling, take him to Tanjong Rambutan. Do something pleeeaaase. Save our son'. 

Or imagine another scenario. A five year old runs to mom and dad, opens his mouth and shows them that he is chewing on a house fly. Mom and dad will freak out (or they should). They will wash out the child's mouth and even take him to the clinic to see the doctor.

Fast forward 30 years. The child is 35 years old and he tells mom and dad that if a fly drops into your tea, then you must immerse the fly completely in the tea and then finish drinking it. 

Because, he says,  the fly has disease on one wing and the cure on another wing. Not only that the son says he is going to open a pharmacy where he is going to sell flies as a cure for disease.

Mom and dad should both become hysterical again. 

Ok folks enough dancing around the fire. Here is something from the Tafsir al Qurtubi which is also found in the very famous Tafsir Ibnu Kathir. 

A tafseer is a book written by religious experts (nauzubillah - may Allah protect us) to explain the Quran.  If you are a religious student in the madrassah in Syria or elsewhere you cannot graduate unless you have read tafseer Ibnu Kathir, Al Qurtubi etc.  I have actually removed repeating parts, but please read it quickly.  Ok here goes :

Ibn Abu Nujaih stated that Ibrahim Ibn Abu Bakir was informed by Mujahid who said, "It was said that Nun is the great whale who is underneath the seven Earths." Furthermore, Al-Baghawy – may Allah rest his soul - and a group of commentators stated that on the back of this whale there is a great rock whose thickness is greater than the width of the heavens and the earth and above this rock is a bull that has forty thousand horns. On the body of this bull are placed the seven earths and all that they contain, and Allah knows best.

Tafsir al-Qurtubi

Narrated by Abu Thabyan, narrated by Ibn Abbas who said, "The first thing that Allah created was the Pen which wrote all that shall be. Then water vapor began to rise, out of which the heavens were created. Then (Allah) created Nun (the whale) and flattened the earth on its back. When the earth began to lean, it was reinforced with mountains, which are on its surface." Then Ibn Abbas read the verse (Sura 68:1) 'Nun and the Pen.'

Al-Kalbi and Mukatil stated that the name (of the whale) is 'Al-Bahmout.' Al-Rajis said, "Why do I see you all silent and the Lord my God created Al-Bahmout?"  Abu Yakthan and Al-Waqidi stated that the name (of the whale) is 'Leotha'; Whereas Kab stated that its name is 'Lo-tho-tha' or 'Bil-Ha-motha.' 

Here is a picture to give you an idea of Lo-tho-tha, Leo-tha, Bil-ha-motha and/or Bahmouth  carrying the world on its back :

So folks, these were the religious experts of those hundreds of years ago. This is what they believed in. 

Today in the 21st century the more modern religious experts feel stupid when they read silly stories like this. They are terribly embarrased.  So they have come out with an interesting solution. They get clever and say these are all dhaif or weak stories.  And guess what folks - they say that these silly stories are sourced from  jeng ..jeng ..jeng....listen to this ... from the Bible !!!!  Yup. They say these are unreliable Israeliyat stories. Israeliyat means stories taken from the Jewish Biblical traditions. 

Here is another story that the old religious experts have recorded down in their religious books. This one involves zoology and the study of primate behaviour.

Al-Hafiz Ibnu Hajar Al Askalani said in his commentary :

“Al-Isma’ili narrated a longer version of this story with another chain of narrators in which ‘Eesa Bin Hattan narrated from ‘Amr Bin Maimun that he said:

I was in Yemen tending the sheep of my people up upon an elevation. A male monkey came with a female and laid his head on her hand. Then a smaller monkey came and beckoned towards her, so she gently slipped her hand out from under the cheek of the first monkey and followed him. He mated with her while I looked on. Then she returned and gently tried to slip her hand back under the cheek of the first monkey, but he woke up suddenly, smelled her, and cried out.

Then the monkeys gathered round and he began screaming while pointing towards her with his hand. The monkeys went all about and came back with that monkey that I recognized. They dug a pit for the two of them and stoned them both. So I had witnessed stoning being carried out by other than Adam’s descendants. ” [Fath Al-Bari 7/160]

Folks, there are more such stories. This is what the "religious experts" have written down. Monkeys stoning each other for adultery?? (So was the female monkey legally married to the first monkley?) 

And this is found written in the Fath Al Bari by Ibnu Hajar Al Askalani.  Jangan main. For those who are interested please Google Fath Al Bari and Ibnu Hajar Askalani.  Ibnu Hajar Askalani is not any small fry religious expert  ok. Neither is this  monkey story  some Israeliyah bullshit. This is serious stuff by Ibnu Hajar Al Askalani.

Here is the last story for today :

"If a house fly falls in the drink of anyone of you, he should dip it (in the drink), for one of its wings has a disease and the other has the cure for the disease." (Sahih Al-Bukhari: Volume 4, Book 54, Number 537)

Medical science has proven beyond any shadow of doubt that :  "there are many bacteria and parasites that infest the fly, making flies a major factor in spreading many diseases by touching surfaces with their legs or their saliva. After walking on  excrement, flies may carry up to as many as 6 million bacterias on their feet. SO BE WARY OF FOODS THAT HAVE BEEN TOUCHED BY A FLY!" 

Among diseases that are spread by flies are typhoid, leprosy, dysentery, cholera, dysentery, myasis etc. The fly is a mechanical vector where bacteria and parasites stick to the hair on the fly's legs which are then transmitted to foods, humans and animals. That is how a fly spreads disease.

Bacterial scientists have also rejected as totally impossible any idea that one wing of the fly has a disease and the other wing has a cure. So is this an Israeliyah story as well? 

But you will soon see the religious experts start quoting this and that "scientific" research (usually in Al Azhar University, Cairo)  which proves that the fly does carry disease as well as a cure on its wings.  If so, please go and buy yourselves a jar full of flies. 

What does the Quran say? 


Surah 17:36  "Dan janganlah engkau mengikut apa yang engkau tidak mempunyai pengetahuan mengenainya; sesungguhnya pendengaran dan penglihatan serta hati, semua anggota-anggota itu tetap akan ditanya tentang apa yang dilakukannya."

Do not just follow things blindly, things which we do not know how they can come to exist. We have been given the ears, eyes and an otak. All these will be questioned. Did you check, did you listen, did you observe, did you think? Can you show your proofs for the things that you say.

Did the old religious experts  use their brains, their eyes, their ears to check first before they said that  there is a whale and a bull  under the earth? I dont think so. So are they still religious experts?